A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #3
As Good As Dead
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Thirty-Two
Overview
Pip returns home to clean off blood, conceal incriminating items, and prepare equipment for framing Max while Ravi establishes a CCTV- and witness-backed alibi. She narrowly avoids her family’s suspicion, hides evidence in a bleach solution, and gathers phones, gloves, bags, and duct tape to disable Hastings’ cameras. She departs on schedule pressure to keep the time-of-death ruse intact.
Summary
In Ravi’s car, Pip confirms the plan and sends Ravi to establish an airtight alibi: ATM and traffic cameras, a restaurant with card payments, calls and texts, photos, a pub visit with witnesses, petrol stop, then home. They agree to meet at midnight, and Pip heads inside alone.
Pip stealthily enters her house past her family, rushes upstairs, and showers scalding hot to remove blood and traces. She collects her bloodied clothing, Jason’s burner phone and SIM, the duct tape that bound her, Green Scene gloves, and the cloth she used to wipe herself, submerging them all in a bleach-and-water mixture inside a lined bathroom bin bucket hidden in her wardrobe.
She dresses in dark clothes, conceals facial injuries with makeup, ties up her damaged hair, and repacks her rucksack: beanies, multiple socks, three burner phones, cash, an embossed card from mediation, latex gloves, purse, and car keys. She double-checks the list and prepares to collect more items downstairs.
Downstairs, Pip maintains a cover story to her suspicious parents and brother, then retrieves resealable bags, freezer bags, and a candle lighter. Needing a way to neutralize the Hastings’ new door cameras without permanent damage, she searches the garage and selects a roll of duct tape as the perfect, plausibly temporary solution.
After a brief kitchen exchange with her dad that nearly exposes her garage visit, Pip claims she’s leaving to see a friend. She exits at 8:27 p.m., behind schedule but equipped to proceed with the frame-up and maintain the manipulated time of death.
Who Appears
- Pip Fitz-AmobiCleans herself of blood, hides evidence in bleach, repacks tools, and discreetly leaves to continue framing Max.
- Ravi SinghDeparts to construct an airtight alibi using cameras, receipts, calls, photos, and witnesses; plans to meet Pip at midnight.
- Pip’s mumQuestions Pip’s sudden plans and studies her face, nearly detecting something off.
- Victor (Pip’s dad)Jokes from the sofa and later confronts Pip in the kitchen; almost notices her garage trip.
- Joshua (Josh)At home playing; adds to family normalcy Pip must navigate without arousing suspicion.