Page 58 of A Murder is Going Down

Muscle memory makes me start to reply to the message. Then I stop myself. If Lilia thinks she’s goingto investigate her way back into a friendship with me, she is headed for disappointment and I’m happy to help her get there.

To avoid the temptation of a reply I leave my phone on my bed and go along the hall to Patrick’s room. The door is not quite closed, so I knock once then push it open.

Patrick isn’t napping on the sofa bed as I expect, but standing at the wardrobe with his back to me, so I can’t see what he’s doing. He yelps as I come in.

‘Sorry. I knocked.’ Kind of. ‘Are you packing?’

‘Just tidying up.’ He shoves a shirt onto a hanger and bangs the wardrobe doors closed. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’ve been thinking. We should ask Aunty Sam what she was doing at Felix and Elena’s.’

‘Now?’

‘I’m not going to interrupt her practice. Are you a masochist? But after, maybe?’

Patrick picks up his untouched tea and sits down on the sofa bed, which is currently all sofa, no bed. I perch on the computer chair, so covered in clothes it’s basically an armchair.

‘How do you think she’s going to react to that?’ Patrick asks.

‘I don’t know.’ There’s something in his tone I don’t get. This is supposed to be the moment when Patrick realises I’m as invested as he is in finding out what really happenedto Felix. This scene’s not playing out the way it did in my head. ‘You don’t think it’s a good idea?’

‘You don’t seriously think she could have hurt Felix, do you?’

‘No.’ Mostly. Aunty Sam could never handle the logistics of getting away with murder. She’s not a planner.

‘And even if Adam is right and shewasthere, she left before everyone else arrived. Felix was still alive and well.’

‘I know that.’

‘Then what’s the point?’

‘If she was there, she might have seen something important,’ I say.

‘Like what?’

‘Something we don’t know. Isn’t that what we’re doing?’ Annoyance displaces my disappointment. Patrick was the one who got me into this and now he’s acting likeI’mthe one with an unhealthy obsession with Felix’s death?

‘Whatarewe doing?’ Patrick asks.

‘We’re investigating.’

‘What exactly?’

‘What happened to Felix. What are you even talking about? This was all your idea.’

‘I know and I’m sorry.’

‘What doesthatmean?’

‘It means maybe we should drop it.’ Patrick is avoiding my eyes. That or he’s really into air-conditioning vents.

‘What?’

‘We’ve heard the same story, more or less, from Sarah and Farnoosh and now Adam. Nobody at the party that night even had the chance to kill Felix, except Farnoosh and, like you said, why would she kill a guy she just met?’

‘Oh, so youwerelistening.’

‘I know it’s my fault for starting this.’