Page 36 of A Murder is Going Down

‘You’re an actor.’

‘Just barely,’ Michael says.

‘Modesty doesn’t suit you. I’m amazed your fans aren’t hiding in the garden with a long-lens camera yet,’ Elena says.

Michael offers up an eye roll that’s big enough for the cheap seats. ‘Without you, El, my ego might actually fit through the door.’

‘If it helps, you look like shit,’ Patrick says.

Michael only grins. ‘I’ve been crammed into a plane seat for five hours. What’s your excuse?’

That’s when I notice the small suitcase on which he’sresting his feet, a ripped luggage tag hanging from the handle.

‘Where are you staying?’ Elena asks, before Patrick can reply.

‘Hotel in the city. There are twin beds, so Patrick can stay there too,’ Michael says.

I look at Patrick, to whom this is obviously news. I shouldn’t care, but our investigation is going to be a lot harder if Patrick’s not living here. He looks at me like he’s thinking the same thing.

‘If you think that’s best,’ Patrick says with a look at Aunty Sam to make sure she’s listening. ‘It’s been nice staying here, though.’

Who says Michael is the only actor in this family? Aunty Sam, predictably, leaps at the bait. ‘You’ll stay here, of course,’ she says to Michael. ‘Elena needs her family around her at a time like this.’

‘It’s fine,’ Michael says politely. ‘I’ve made the booking.’

‘I insist,’ Aunty Sam says.

‘Honestly, there’s no need.’

‘We’re all family now.’

Michael shoots Elena a desperate sort of look, but she shakes her head, like there’s no point in fighting it.

‘It might be nice to stay here all together,’ Patrick says, and Michael looks like there’s a knife handle with Patrick’s fingerprints on it sticking out of his back.

‘Then thank you.’ He just about manages to sound gracious and Aunty Sam beams. ‘I’m so sorry about your brother, Heidi,’ Michael says. ‘I should have said that first.’

‘Thanks. Did you ever meet him? Wait, of course you did, at the wedding.’

‘Then, and I saw him when I came back to see El a couple of times since.’ He grins at his sister.

‘Do you come to Perth much?’ I ask. If there was a family reunion, I was never invited.

‘Couple of times since the wedding. Mostly El came to Melbourne.’

‘You know what your brother was like,’ Elena says to me, as though she understands what I’m thinking. ‘He liked to keep his family and my family siloed.’

‘He wouldn’t be happy about this, then,’ I say, trying to make it sound like a joke.

Everyone laughs the exact appropriate amount, which is barely at all.

The landline rings (praise be to the phone gods!) and Aunty Sam gets up to answer it.

‘Thanks for doing the heavy lifting in the sibling department,’ Michael says to Patrick. ‘Not bad for a zygote.’

‘I’m sixteen. In some countries, I could get married,’ Patrick says loftily.

‘Really?’ Michael looks alarmed. ‘Who are you marrying? If you’re back together with that daft redhead who threw out my salami, I’m going to throwyouout.’