A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Production Log – Entry 25
Overview
Pip analyzes the photographs of Andie’s planner and finds that the failed search for the burner phone still produced valuable evidence. Pip decodes “CP” as the train station car park, strengthening the link between Andie and Howie’s drug dealings on the night Andie disappeared.
The planner also deepens Nat da Silva’s possible motive by hinting that Andie had hurt Nat in three separate ways. Other coded entries and a scribbled-out phone number remain unresolved, leaving Pip with new leads but no definitive breakthrough.
Summary
After the near discovery by Becca at the Bell house, Pip records that the shock has kept Pip awake and left Ravi shaken before work. Although Andie’s burner phone was not hidden under the wardrobe floorboards, Pip decides the break-in may still prove useful because of the photographs of Andie’s planner.
Pip enlarges the planner photos on Pip’s laptop and focuses on the week Andie disappeared. Pip notices Andie’s hostile note, “Fat da Silva 0–3 Andie,” and connects it to Andie posting Nat’s nude video and blackmailing Nat into dropping out of The Crucible. Pip wonders what the third “victory” over Nat was and whether it could explain Nat’s death threat and possible motive.
Pip then decodes an entry from Wednesday 18 April: “CP @ 7:30.” Pip concludes that CP means the train station car park, where Andie met Howie Bowers for a drug handoff. This matches Sal’s record of Howie’s number plate at 7:42 p.m., so Pip infers that Andie used coded planner entries to hide drug meetings while still reminding herself of them during school.
With that code in mind, Pip examines other initials. “IV @ 8” appears three times, but Pip cannot identify whether IV is a place or a person. “HH @ 6” appears more often, and one note says it happened “before Calam,” which leads Pip to suspect HH may mean Howie’s House and that Andie may have picked up drugs before the Calamity Party.
Pip also studies a scribbled-out eleven-digit phone number from March. Pip reasons that Andie may have written it in the planner because Andie did not want it in her main phone and intended to transfer it to the burner phone. Pip narrows the unclear digits to twelve possible numbers and calls them, but the results are disconnected lines, unrelated strangers, or generic voicemails, making this lead a likely dead end for now.
The entry ends with Pip exhausted but still tracking suspects. Pip keeps the generic voicemail numbers as possible leads, while acknowledging that Pip needs sleep and must finish the Cambridge application.
Who Appears
- Pip Fitz-AmobiAnalyzes Andie’s planner photos, decodes possible drug-meeting codes, and pursues a failed phone-number lead.
- Andie BellAbsent victim whose planner reveals coded meetings, cruelty toward Nat, and possible hidden phone contacts.
- Nat da SilvaPossible suspect whose motive deepens through Andie’s gloating note about three apparent humiliations.
- Howie BowersDrug dealer linked to Andie through coded planner entries and Sal’s recorded number plate.
- Ravi SinghStill shaken after the Bell house close call; previously suggested Andie’s entries might be coded.
- Sal SinghHis phone record of Howie’s number plate helps corroborate Pip’s car park code theory.
- Becca BellHer near discovery of Pip and Ravi remains a source of tension after the break-in.
- Secret Older GuyPossible owner of the scribbled-out number Pip tries to reconstruct from Andie’s planner.