Page 46 of A Murder is Going Down

‘What does “running diagnostics” mean, do you think?’ I ask, but she laughs.

‘Five minutes,’ she repeats, like I might have missed this crucial detail. ‘Might be sooner.’

I look up at the void. Horror movies have conditioned me to expect something scaly or oozing to drop into the lift. ‘Should we put that back in place?’

‘Let’s wait and see if five minutes is really five minutes this time,’ Marianne says. Clearly, she hasn’t entirely let go of her suspicions. ‘And hurry up with the story. If we really are getting out of here, I want to know who did it first.’

‘Who doyouthink did it?’ I ask, curious.

‘Farnoosh seems dodgy,’ Marianne says. ‘She was the only one at the party who was definitely outside alone at the same time as Felix, so she had the opportunity.’

‘She did,’ I say.

‘I’m right?’

‘I’m not saying anything.’

Then, obviously, I say a whole lot, because she’s right about one thing: I need to get a move on.

Then

In the car, Ben is in a stink, but even Lilia doesn’t seem fussed, because we have bigger things to talk about. ‘You guys didn’t know that Elena and Felix had a fight the evening he died?’ she asks while we’re still clicking in our seatbelts.

‘No,’ Patrick says. ‘We should find out what it was about.’

‘We could ask Elena.’ I hope Patrick knows that byweI meanyou.

‘What fight?’ Ben asks.

‘Although if they did fight, that might make Elena look like a suspect,’ Patrick says.

‘But she’s the one person who couldn’t have done it because she was stuck in a lift the whole time,’ I say.

‘Do you think Sarah and Farnoosh were telling the truth about the fight?’ Lilia asks. ‘You’re taking it for granted that they were telling the truth, but does that really match up with what Sarah said about how sweet Felix and Elena were with each other? Maybe they lied.’

‘Who’s Farnoosh again?’ Ben asks.

‘Why do you say that?’ I ask Lilia, ignoring Ben’s question. I’m too curious to ignore her too.

‘You’re taking it for granted that they were telling the truth. Maybe they lied.’

‘Why would they do that?’

Lilia gives me a look like the time I told her I hadn’t known our history teacher was gay, despite his fondness for letting us watch the filmSome Like It Hotwhen we were supposed to be learning about the Great Emu War.

‘If Sarah and Farnoosh killed Felix and want to frame Elena for it,’ she says.

‘That went real dark real quick,’ I say.

‘I like where your head’s at,’ Patrick says to Lilia (a minor betrayal). ‘But what would be the point? They know Elena was stuck in the lift when Felix died. She’s the only one with an airtight alibi.’

‘Dammit,’ Lilia says.

‘Where am I driving to?’ Ben asks.

Patrick looks at me. ‘We should probably get home. Michael asked me to run through some lines with him andI need to suck up to him if he’s going to let me stay here once school goes back.’

‘Michael’s your older brother, is that right?’ Lilia asks.