Page 102 of A Murder is Going Down

‘How does that fitanyof the facts? If someone was pretending to be Felix, the guests would have noticed.’

‘None of them had ever met him before,’ I say. ‘Remember? Also, I went back to Jade and Haruto’s yesterday to ask them.’

‘What? When did you have time for that?’

‘I told Aunty Sam I was going for a run before dinner.’

Patrick snorts. ‘And she believed you?’

I ignore that.

‘Only Haruto was home, but I showed him a photo of Felix and he didn’t recognise him either.’

‘Elena, though,’ Patrick says. ‘You can’t tell me my sister wouldn’t have recognised her own husband.’

‘I’m not saying that.’ But I stop paying attention to Patrick because my phone is lighting up with notifications from Lilia and Aunty Sam.

‘Shit.’

‘What is it?’

‘I better call Aunty Sam. Something might have happened.’

‘You don’t have another brother who might have died, do you?’ he says as I stand and walk away from the couch. I wind up by the pile of boxes, which is enough to remind me why I’m really here. With my back to Patrick, I prop the phone between my face and shoulder and search through the stack of boxes until I find the one I want, noisily ripping off the tape on the top.

‘What was that?’ Patrick calls.

‘Hi, I missed some calls from you,’ I say into the phone when Aunty Sam answers, waving Patrick away.

‘Heidi. Where are you? Are you still with Patrick?’ she asks.

‘We’re at Elena’s,’ I say, surprised at her tone. ‘We’re waiting for the truck to pick up the boxes that are going to the op shop.’

‘You’re okay?’

‘Yeah. Why?’ I say, lifting out a stack of t-shirts from the box in front of me.

‘Did you just open that?’ Patrick asks, suddenly behind me.

‘You didn’t answer your phone,’ Aunty Sam says.

Aunty Sam’s not in character. Something is going on with her and I don’t know what. Nor do I know how to ask. Before I can ask anything, though, my hands find what they’ve been looking for and I grab the t-shirt. The band nameWILCOlooks back at me. Flushed with triumph, I hug it to my chest.

Beside me Patrick raises his eyebrows.

Aunty Sam starts speaking again without me having to say a word. ‘There’s something I should have told you,’ she says. ‘I was at Felix’s house the night he died.’

‘You told me that already,’ I point out.

‘I saw something.’

‘What?’

‘I saw someone,’ Aunty Sam clarifies.

Patrick reaches out a hand to try and take the t-shirt from me, curious, but I shake my head and hug it tighter. He looks irritated, then goes back to the vacuuming, so I have to cover one ear to hear Aunty Sam clearly.

‘What did you see? I meanwhodid you see?’ I ask Aunty Sam.