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‘Yeah.’
‘Why?’
‘Well – ’cause she wan’ed to go, and – she kept goin’ on about it – so I agreed.’
‘Weren’t you worried about what her parents would say?’ asked Robin.
‘A bit,’ said Carrie, ‘but I thought we’d get back before they wuz awake.’
‘Walk us through what happened,’ said Strike. ‘How did you wake yourself up so early? There aren’t clocks at Chapman Farm, are there?’
Cherie looked unhappy that he knew this, and he was reminded of Jordan Reaney’s clear displeasure that Strike had so much information.
‘If you wuz on the vegetable run, they gave you a little clock to wake yourself.’
‘You were sleeping in the children’s dormitory the night before the trip to the beach, right?’
‘Yeah,’ she said uneasily, ‘I wuz on child duty.’
‘And who was going to be looking after the kids, once you’d left on the vegetable run?’
After yet another pause, Carrie said,
‘Well… there’d still be someone there, after I’d gone. There wuz always two grown-ups or teenagers in with the children overnight.’
‘Who was the other person on duty that night?’
‘I… can’ remember.’
‘Are you sure someone else was there, Carrie?’ asked Robin. ‘Emily told me that there were usually two adults in the room, but that that night it was only you.’
‘She’s wrong,’ said Carrie. ‘There wuz always two.’
‘But you can’t remember who the other person was?’ said Strike.
Carrie shook her head.
‘So you were woken up by your alarm clock. Then what happened?’
‘Well, I – I woke Daiyu up, di’n’ I?’
‘Had Jordan Reaney been given an alarm clock, too?’
‘Wha’?’
‘He was supposed to be on the vegetable run, too, wasn’t he?’
Another pause.
‘He overslept.’
‘You wouldn’t have had room for Daiyu if he hadn’t overslept, would you?’
‘I can’ remember all the details now. I jus’ know I woke up Daiyu and we got dressed and went to the van.’
‘Did you have to load vegetables onto the truck?’ asked Strike.
‘No. Everythin’ was already in it. From the night before.’
