Page 30 of A Murder is Going Down

‘She said Heidi is really struggling.’

No. Please, no.Why do bad things happen to (mostly) good people? I clean my room when Aunty Sam asks me. I wash out milk bottles before they go in the recycling. I once gave twenty dollars to a street busker who wasn’t very good after I accidentally made full eye contact with her.

‘Ah,’ Ben says, making a noise like he’s being strangled. The thought cheers me up.

‘Maybe you could go and see her sometime. She might need a friend.’

How is it possible to both love and hate someone at the same time? Ben’s dad is being a sweetheart, but also –please shut up, dude.

‘Sure,’ Ben says, clearly wanting this conversation to end.

‘It would be a real shame if you two didn’t find a way to be friends because you’re no longer a couple.’

‘Uh huh.’

‘Lilia understands, don’t you, love?’

‘Sure,’ Lilia says brightly, as she finally hands over the files she’s been looking for. ‘Here you go, Dr Bryan.’

‘You need to tell Heidi about Europe anyway and it’s better that she hears it from you than sees it on Snapchat,’ Dr Bryan says. (I sense but do not hear Ben groan.) ‘Or however it is you kids communicate these days.’

NowI’mgripping Patrick and he’s covering his mouth like he’s holding back a laugh or a scream. I don’t hear anything more until the front door bangs closed.

‘Jesus,’ Patrick says, rolling out from under the desk and straight into the chair. ‘Shit! Ow!’

I squirm out after him, smoothing down my hair and laying Felix’s file back down on the desk.

Nobody speaks. Then Lilia says, ‘We were going to tell you.’

‘Uh huh,’ I say, eyes on the page.

‘I’m not even sure it will happen.’

‘Uh huh.’

‘It’s just that I got a bunch of flight credits from Switzerland so … it seemed silly not to use them.’

‘Totally,’ I say, in a voice borrowed from someone else, as I focus on pretending to read through my dead brother’s medical records and not cry over the fact that my ex–best friend and ex-boyfriend are clearly planning to recreate the overseas adventure she and I were supposed to be on right now. If they wind up inmySwiss village and everyonethere spontaneously decides it’s fine to speak English to the foreign tourists, I may never recover.

Ben leans over the reception desk. ‘Maybe we should talk about this later?’ he says to me.

‘Maybe when we’re not committing an actual crime?’ Patrick suggests. ‘Now, come on, Heidi, let’s get to the good stuff.’

The good stuff turns out to be underwhelming. There’s no mention of depression or suicidal tendencies, which is good news for Elena’s life insurance claim, but otherwise not particularly helpful. The closest we get to anything near a revelation is a note that Felix was having trouble sleeping six months earlier and had been prescribed some sleeping tablets.

‘If he’d taken the sleeping tablets the night he died, he might have been groggy and slipped on the path,’ Patrick says.

‘But why would he take sleeping tablets before a party?’ I ask.

‘Because he … nope, that’s a good point.’ Patrick doesn’t look happy about it.

‘Plus, if he did, that would have shown up in the autopsy,’ I say.

‘Are we sure it didn’t?’

‘The police would have told us.’

‘Would they?’ Patrick sounds sceptical.