Page 39 of A Murder is Going Down

‘You what?’ Aunty Sam asks, looking at me. ‘Heidi?’

‘Patrick took the photos,’ I say, a little disloyally. ‘But you’re the one who told me to go out there to get Elena’s clothes and stuff.’

‘I just didn’t realise the two of you went out there together,’ Aunty Sam says, sounding angrier than the moment deserves.

‘Do you think you might have misplaced the phone?’ Elena asks Patrick.

Patrick shakes his head. ‘I’ve rung it and it’s turned off.’

‘Dead battery?’ Michael says.

Patrick shakes his head again. ‘Someone took it,’ he says. ‘And if that’s not proof that somebody, for whatever reason, doesn’t want me nosing around this whole crime scene, then I don’t know what is.’

‘I don’t know, Patrick. You do lose a lot of things,’ Elena says. ‘Like my iPad.’

‘That was five years ago. Seriously?’

‘YouriPad?’ She goes on.

‘They’re slippery little suckers.’ Patrick sounds defensive.

‘MyiPhone,’ Michael says, joining the pile-on.

‘Actually, I sold that one.’

‘What?’

‘It was after you broke my bike. Got fifty bucks for it on Gumtree.’

Elena leans forward to refill the adults’ glasses with the dregs of the wine, although hers looks untouched. ‘You know,’ she says thoughtfully, ‘from time to time I wonder what it’d be like if we all lived together in the same city again.’ She gestures at her brothers. ‘And now I get a glimpse of what an utter shitshow it would, in fact, be.’

I choose that moment to excuse myself and go to my room.

Now

Marianne rings the man on the intercom again. The conversation is short. She hangs up.

‘So?’

‘He says Hap is still too busy.’

‘Maybe he is?’

But Marianne is shaking her head. ‘No. Hap is a friend, but he’s also this building’s manager, and my publishing company is the single biggest tenant in this building. If this was a legitimate emergency, he would be on that phone right now reassuring me.’ Marianne’s breathing seems more under control than it has been. It’s almost as though having something to be outraged about is calming her down.

‘What does that mean?’ I ask.

‘Something is going on here. Someone is doing this to us.’ Marianne looks at me. ‘Well, maybe just to me. I don’t know. Do you have enemies?’

‘What do you mean,enemies?’

‘You don’t know what the wordenemiesmeans?’

‘I mean, who hasenemies?’

‘When you’re powerful and work in an industry for a long time, you make enemies. You’ll understand when you’re older.’ Her eyelids flicker like she’s going through a list of possible suspects.

‘But if someone is doing this on purpose, the real question is why,’ I point out. ‘They haven’t asked for money. They haven’t asked for anything. Suffocation in a lift is not an efficient way to kill someone.’