Yarrow: The Smiley Killer

11:20

"Hey ginge, guess you heard," Olivia opened the door and leaned against the frame of her two bed flat, solemn in her tone. The emanating air from the flat was filled with liquorice scented smoke from the vaping machine she held in her hand. Christine didn't care for the nickname, in fact the reason she still dyed her head red was to show the nickname didn't get to her. She'd been doing it since she was fourteen - Olivia hadn't let it slide yet.

"Olivia," she forced out a smile, "can we chat?"

"Come in," she turned and retreated in to her kitchen, Christine followed the extremely skinny brunette who wore a skin tight dress. One far too uncomfortable to be lounging around indoors all day.

The hallway walls were cluttered with images of friends from school, some Christine occasionally heard from, the majority however had disappeared in to the abyss of time. She took a deep breathe in and smiled, she could smell the hallway hadn't been vacuumed in months and that somewhere was the beginning of a mold infestation.

She turned right into the the living room, it had a kitchen area built in to one of the walls. The coffee table was filled with half drunk wine bottles and half a dozen bottles of premium lager. The television was on day time programming.

"Busy night last night?" She asked glancing towards the glasses.

"Don't give me that Christine, you know full well that they've been there two days and I haven't been bothered to tidy them up. You can't manipulate me like the others, I know your tricks."

"Fair enough, cleaner hasn't been by then?"

"Not since I fired her last week, she folded my dress after it was tumble dried instead of ironing and hanging it up. You know how it is, she had to go."

Christine raised her eyebrows in recognition but not agreement.

"What you up to now?" Christine asked helping herself to a picture frame next to the television. It was of her, Lacey and a girl she had never seen before all smiling with cocktail glasses in their hands. She estimated it had been taken two months ago. In the background standing behind the girls were two blokes, one she recognised from school but never knew his name, he had been two years above them.

"Wine?"

"It's 11:20, I'll have a coffee please," she replied spotting the fancy coffee machine that took pride of place in the kitchen.

"Sure. Well I'm currently freelancing. Fashion blogging mostly. A lot of selfies on instagram of new outfits. A couple designers have sent me clothes for free which has been great. Just wish I didn't get the creepy pervert comments."

"I can imagine," she took the coffee that had been handed to her. She had been watching and was furious that she'd been given instant.

"So I assume you're here for information on Lacey. Doing the super smart snooping she used to be so proud of you for."

That choked up Christine a bit, it was a nice feeling to hear a positive opinion from beyond the grave, "yeah, her Dad said you'd been spending a lot of time together recently."

"I guess so for the last few months. We bumped in to each other on a night out. Got drunk, went back to these two guys flat and well you know..."

"I'm not sure I do?"

She knew, but she never thought Lacey would be that sort of girl, she had always been a daddy's girl. She was so sensible and self-respecting.

"Well next morning we headed home and turns out we were both broke. My mummy and Daddy cut my allowance off so all they pay for is this flat, apparently I'm not responsible or self-sufficient enough to be almost thirty. I mean can you believe that?"

"Yes, carry on."

She glared at her old school peer, "well her dads business hasn't been doing so well for a few years and she wanted to get a mortgage. We decided we'd do a cheap Friday night in each week to save money.

"That means you saw her the night before her murder?"

"Yes, you're not implicating me are you?"

"No of course not," Christine said with absolute sincerity, "is there anything different about her the last few weeks?"

"Not that I can think of."

Christine's eyes lit up, she was lying, she could see it instantly. The glance to the side, subtle, though an unmistakable tell. She'd first seen it when at boarding school Olivia had taken her earrings and said she hadn't despite the fact Christine could see them in her ears. She waited like a teacher does to put a naughty school child on edge.

Olivia smiled, there it was again, the little glance to the left. Conveniently Christine's phone went, it allowed her to make Olivia stew an extra minute. She read it:

Dear Christine,

find attached the images from the other three victims. I've also sent you a map 🗺 of where the bodies were left.

We've also unlocked her phone📱 . There's a few names in here, people it looks like she saw often. don't know if you know them but thought I'd check:

Olivia Fawcett, Teddy 🐻 Jameson, Liam Church⛪️, Penny Pruler and Carl Fontage.

Talk soon,

Doug.

Christine smirked, he was such an old man, adorable in his innocence of technology. She made a mental note to tell him how he should use emojis.

"There have been a couple of guys she's been seeing the last few weeks. A Teddy and a Carl she's been messing around with a bit."

Christine smiled, that was all she needed. She knew Carl, knew him very well. She'd get Doug to pay Teddy a visit too.

"Thanks Olivia, that really helps."

"Do you not want to know the surnames?"

"Nope, already got them."

"How?"

"Don't worry," she lifted her coffee and threw the luke warm remnants down her neck. She stood up and straighten out her bright purple parker coat. "You can tell Carl I'll be coming to see the cheating scum bag later."

She walked out, she didn't need Olivia anymore - the facade was over. She didn't even say bye. She got her phone out the back pocket of her jeans. She replied:

Dougy, it's not an email you doughnut, no need to be so formal. I'll have a look at the photos in a bit. Popping to Condor's Coffee for a latte so will have a look then. Can you get me the addresses of Carl and Teddy please. I'll pay Carl a visit, if you could see Teddy. Also you don't have to press the emojis when they come up in your recommended next word. Don't try to keep up with the youth! Also I'm going to visit Kevin Kline after lunch, can you get me a pass please. Love ya!💕