Page 113 of A Murder is Going Down

‘Sarah and Farnoosh overheard you arguing in the kitchen. Obviously they thought it was you and Felix, Elena, but it must have been you and Michael.’

‘Elena was having cold feet,’ Michael said.

‘I wanted to call it all off and ring the police,’ Elena says.

‘But by the time Aunty Sam got there, Felix would already have been dead,’ I say.

‘I didn’t want to go through with the party,’ Elena says. ‘It was too much. Michael convinced me to see it through.’

‘What happened after Felix fell?’ I ask, going back in time again.

‘I followed him down to the water’s edge to make sure,’ Michael says. ‘I thought the fall had killed him. We only learned later that he must have been alive but unconscious and then drowned.’

I think about the wordsto make sureand opt not to ask any follow-ups about whether Felix’s head was already in the water when Michael got there. Best not to know. Best not to think about it.

‘Farnoosh said Felix was cold and stiff when she found him. I should have realised that was suss,’ I say, annoyed with myself.

Patrick, who was there when I spoke to Farnoosh, nods slowly but uncomprehendingly. ‘Suss how, exactly?’

‘The cold bit barely made sense, because Felix hadn’t been out there long enough to get cold, really, even if he was in the water. But the stiffness should have been even more obvious: rigor mortis doesn’t set in for about two hours.’

‘How doyouknow that, Heidi?’ Patrick sort of groans.

‘True crime podcasts, Patrick. And a lot of free time.’

Elena and Michael exchange a look I can’t unpick.

‘Can I ask a question?’ Lilia asks. She’s been quiet but utterly absorbed this whole time. Obviously.

‘Sure,’ Elena says.

‘How did Farnoosh and the others not notice that Felix wasn’t Michael when they found his body?’

‘He had a fair amount of mud and blood on his face,’ Michael says. ‘But also we figured in the moment they wouldn’t really look all that closely. If you’re missing a six foot one blond guy in his twenties wearing a bright yellow Wilco t-shirt and a five foot ten—’

‘Six one!’ Patrick hoots. ‘You’re six foot nothing in shoes and you know it, brother.’

‘And a five foot ten blond guy in his twenties wearing a Wilco t-shirt surfaces, you’d think that they were the same person.’

That stupid Wilco t-shirt. It’s arguably the only bit of physical evidence I have that a crime was committed and what does it prove, really?

If I told the police everything, it wouldn’t just be my word against Michael and Elena’s. They’ve been so sloppy. Flight records will surely show that Michael arrived in Perth before Felix died. Elena’s friends could identify Michael asthe man they knew as Felix. Lilia would probably back me up about everything we’ve heard.

But I also know that the world is a better place without Felix in it.

If I told the police everything, Elena would never let Michael take the blame for this. Her baby would grow up without a mum or a dad, an experience I cannot endorse (zero stars – would not recommend to a friend).

‘Were you having an affair?’ I ask Elena, because it’s one of the few things I still don’t know.

Elena actually laughs, she’s so shocked. ‘No. Why?’

‘That party we had at our house,’ I say, ‘after the funeral. I overheard you on the phone telling someone it wasn’t safe to come. You said that you loved them.’ Maybe I should be more embarrassed about my eavesdropping, but if Elena can talk freely about her role in the murder of her husband, I can admit to a little snooping.

Frown lines appear on Elena’s forehead, like she doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I watch as they straighten out and disappear. ‘That was Michael,’ she says. ‘He was already in Perth, of course, and he wanted to come to support me. But it was ridiculous: he was supposed to be in Melbourne so he couldn’t possibly be implicated. Plus, what if someone from the dinner party had turned up and recognised him?’

‘But only Adam turned up,’ I say, thinking about it. ‘None of the others came over. What was up with that?’

‘I didn’t invite any of them,’ Elena admits. ‘I couldn’t risk it. If they’d seen a photo of Felix, it would have all come out. Adam turned up because he found out about it from a mutual friend.’