They tell him that Rebecca, a member of Holly’s group of friends, is not as innocent as she seems. Moran first talks to Joanne and her group. Outside, Moran realizes that the girls under investigation have been sent outside to stretch their legs before bed. Moran is shocked when Conway orders him off the case, telling him to go and walk the grounds while she finishes alone. Moran and Conway are already wary of each other because it is the first time they have worked together. In an attempt to derail the investigation, Mackey privately discourages both Moran and Conway from trusting one another. Holly claims to have thrown the phone away because she was trying to protect Selena. This time her father, Frank Mackey, is brought in to witness the interview. Moran and Conway find the phone in that bin and call Holly for more questioning. The investigation seems to focus on Holly, the daughter of another detective, when another student claims to have seen Holly disposing of Selena’s secret phone in the lost and found bin. Selena believed she had broken the loyalty she and her friends enjoyed and feared she would be punished.Īs Moran and Conway uncover the secret relationships between the students, they also learn that Chris had given his girlfriends special phones they could use to text him. Because Selena and her friends had made a pact not to have boyfriends until they were in college, Selena broke off the relationship. Joanne dated Chris in secret at one point. Holly, Julia, Rebecca, and Selena are a group of best friends in competition with Joanne, Gemma, Orla, and Alison. Moran and Conway encounter a web of rumors, lies, and blackmail when they begin questioning the eight girls - Holly, Julia Harte, Rebecca “Becca” O’Mara, Selena Wynne, Joanne Heffernan, Gemma Harding, Orla Burgess, and Alison Muldoon - who had access to the notice board when the card appeared.

As Moran and Antoinette Conway, a detective who originally worked the case, the quickly realize that in the world of teen girls, nothing is as it seems. Chris had been killed a year prior, his body found on the grounds of St. The card bears the words “I know who killed him” (10) and a picture of Chris Harper, a boy from Colm’s a neighboring boys school. Holly gives Moran a card she claims she found on a notice board at school. Kilda’s school, brings him a fresh clue in a cold case murder. In The Secret Place by Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad, Book 5), Detective Stephen Moran sees a shot at a promotion when Holly Mackey, a student from St. The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: French, Tana.