Page 66 of A Murder is Going Down

‘I think he wanted some fresh air,’ Jade says. ‘But I can’t remember if I heard him say that or someone else told me later. Witness testimony is notoriously unreliable, you know.’

‘Jade is a lawyer,’ Haruto says.

‘Commercial property,’ Jade says quickly, as though she’s scared I’m about to ask her to get me off a shoplifting charge.

‘Did anyone else go outside with Felix?’ I ask.

The pair look at each other.

‘I was upstairs in the bathroom then,’ Haruto says.In the bathroombeing code forsnogging my secret boyfriend, apparently.

‘And I don’t remember, but I don’t think so,’ Jade says. ‘It was pretty chaotic soon after because Elena got stuck in the lift.’

‘What happened then?’

‘Farnoosh went out to look for Felix,’ Haruto says. ‘I’m handy with electronics, so I thought I might be able to help with the lift. But Sarah got the lift tech on the phone, so I left her to it. Then Farnoosh came in and asked me to go outside with her. She’d seen something in the water.’

The rest of the story is a similar version of what we’ve heard from Adam and Sarah, with a few personalised tweaks, like how Haruto knew one of the paramedics and that Elena had smashed a wine glass in her hurry to get to the door to let them in.

When the story is done, Jade stands up.

‘Is there anything else you need to know?’ she asks.

There is, but it’s not something I can ask in front of her, so I just shake my head.

‘Nothing comes to mind,’ I lie.

‘I need to dash to the bathroom,’ she says. ‘Then I’m afraid I do have to get into the office. But, please, take your time with your tea and biscuits.’

We wait until her footsteps have become inaudible. Patrick and I pretend to sip our tea, Lilia munches on a Tim Tam and Haruto has an expression like he knows what’s coming.

‘You said you went upstairs that night to use the bathroom,’ I say.

‘That’s right,’ Haruto says.

‘Why wouldn’t you use the bathroom on the ground floor?’

‘It was occupied,’ he says easily. What a great liar.

‘Thereisn’ta bathroom upstairs,’ I say. This is a total lie – of course there’s a bloody bathroom upstairs. Elena is in a wheelchair. But Haruto falls for it.

Is it bad that I’m having fun?

‘Uh,’ is the best Haruto can come up with. Maybe forget what I said before about him being a great liar, because this is embarrassing.

‘Haruto,’ Patrick says gently, giving me a look that says I might have gone a bit too far (too far forPatrick?). ‘Adam told us about you and him. We know you were together upstairs.’

Haruto’s face instantly relaxes.

‘That makes things easy,’ he says. ‘Jade doesn’t know. Of course.’

‘It’s okay,’ Patrick says, still uncharacteristically gentle.

‘But why are you asking about that?’

I give him a closed-lipped smile. ‘Like I said on the phone, I guess I’m searching for closure.’

Haruto gives me a look that makes me think he’s not such an amiable buffoon. ‘Adam told me he’d spoken to you,’ he says. ‘I don’t know why I tried to lie. Habit, maybe. He thinks you guys are looking into how Felix died. But the police have said it was an accident, right?’