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Jet knocked, just twice.

Bent down to call through the mail slot into the little house.

‘Henry, it’s Jet,’ she shouted. ‘Try not to almost shoot me this time.’

Billy’s breath rattled, sucked through his teeth.

‘Don’t think we should be here,’ he said again, jittery and nervous.

‘If Henry’s our prime suspect for the person who tried to kill you on Halloween, and the person who tried to burn you to death last night to stop you from discovering why he tried to kill you in the first place, what’s to stop him trying a third time? And he has a gun and –’

The door opened and Billy swallowed the rest of it, an actual gulp, as Henry’s face appeared in the crack. The bruise beneath his eye greener than yesterday.

‘Hi,’ Jet said, with a fake smile. ‘Us again.’

Henry stood back, let the door open fully. No gun.

‘They arrested JJ,’ he sniffed, fiddling with his hands. ‘Yesterday. He came back, and they took him away in handcuffs.’

‘I know,’ Jet said.

‘He just wanted to see you,’ Henry said quietly. ‘It wasn’t him, Jet. JJ didn’t do this to you, I promise.’

‘How could you know that?’ Jet pressed him, keeping her voice light so he didn’t realize he was being pressed.

‘I just …’ he trailed off, no answer.

Jet would have to press harder, then, more like a push.

‘Hey, maybe you can invite us in this time?’ She stepped forward, one foot up over the doorstep, crossing the threshold without permission.

‘Um, OK.’ Henry blinked, beckoned them inside. ‘It’s all a bit messed up, from when the police searched it.’

‘What were they searching for?’ Jet followed Henry down the hall, Billy closing the front door behind them.

‘Took the clothes he was wearing on Halloween. Some of his mail too.’

Henry gestured them into the living room, no messier than she remembered it.

Jet sat down in her old spot, on the corner of the faded red couch, Billy slotting in beside her, too close, his hands balled into fists on his knees.

Henry took the armchair. That was where JJ normally sat.

Jet cleared her throat, still raw from the smoke, or maybe from the crying. ‘The police say they have enough to charge JJ,’ she said. ‘When I die, Henry – and I am going to die – that will be a first-degree murder charge. JJ won’t ever get out of prison, if they convict him. You get that, right?’

Henry stared down at his own lap. ‘He didn’t do it.’

‘If that’s true, then you have to help me, Henry. To help JJ.’

He chewed the inside of his cheek. ‘I don’t know how to help you, I don’t –’

‘– I’m going to tell you a few things I’ve learned since yesterday.

’ She leaned forward. ‘Stop me if I go wrong anywhere. You did work for Mason Construction. And I don’t know when it started, but Luke arranged to pay you off the books, probably in cash.

Knowing Luke, he probably sold it to you as a good thing, for both of you. ’

Henry’s nostrils flared, just for a second.

‘And that was fine, you were working on the project over on North Street, in March, signed for some scaffolding rental. And then your accident happened. But you didn’t get stupid drunk and fall off a wall like you told everyone, did you?

Something went wrong at the construction site, and the roof collapsed on top of you.

That’s how you shattered your knee, lost sight in one eye, injured the other. ’

Henry closed his eyes, like he was hiding them, couldn’t trust them not to give him away.

‘But the thing is, if you weren’t an official employee of Mason Construction, it meant you didn’t have access to workers’ comp or health insurance. You haven’t stopped me so far, Henry; am I on the right track?’

He opened his eyes.

‘And that means you would have had to pay the hospital for all of it, all the surgeries, the treatment, the overnight stay. And I can imagine that was an unpleasant surprise. A lot of money. And maybe it was only then that you realized just how much Luke Mason had screwed you over. That would make anyone angry, Henry. Angry enough to want revenge. You still haven’t stopped me. ’

Henry shook his head, wouldn’t look at her. ‘No, I don’t know what you –’

‘– I guess you want your brother to die in prison, Henry?’ Jet’s voice dropped even deeper, sharpening the edges of the words. ‘Thought he was your best bud. That’s cold.’

Henry glanced at the cupboard to his right, then back to his lap, squeezing his own hand, so tight it must have hurt.

His eyes danced from Jet to the ceiling, chest rising, filling, too much, too far, his shoulders rising with it.

He let it all go. His hand. His breath.

‘Luke said it was just temporary,’ he said quietly. ‘While he was sorting something out with the company.’ Henry wiped his nose on his sleeve. ‘He said it was legal. I didn’t really realize what it meant until … until it was too late.’

Jet’s heart kicked up, back in her chest where it belonged.

‘So I’m right, about all of it?’

‘Yeah,’ Henry croaked. ‘It happened at that house, on North Street. Luke drove me to the hospital after.’

‘Why didn’t you tell anyone, Henry?’

‘Because Luke didn’t want me to.’ He glanced at the cupboard again.

‘He said he would pay me, that he would cover all the medical costs as long as I never told anyone. He’s been transferring money to me every month, so I can pay off my debt to the hospital, but it’s not enough, never enough. I told him I needed more. A lot more.’

Jet swallowed. ‘Did JJ know, about all of this?’

‘No. No.’ Leaning hard on that second no.

‘Luke meant it when he said I couldn’t tell anyone.

JJ still believes the drunk-wall story. But he knows I have to pay the hospital back.

He’s been helping me pay it off. I don’t know what I would have done without him.

He’s been taking on more clients, working extra shifts at the gym, just working, all the damn time, for me.

’ Henry’s eyes went back to his lap, to his empty hands.

‘He borrowed money until they wouldn’t let him borrow any more, because we couldn’t pay it back, because it was all going to the hospital, and it still wasn’t enough. ’

‘Jet,’ Billy said, voice vibrating through the back of the couch, turning to her. ‘The loan JJ took out in your name. This is why he did it.’

‘What?’ Henry sniffed.

‘You didn’t know about that?’ Jet asked. ‘It’s part of the police’s case against him. He took out thirty grand in my name. Defaulted on the first monthly repayment. The police think that gives him motive for my murder.’

Henry’s eyes widened.

‘I didn’t know,’ he said, little more than a whisper.

‘I’m sorry, Jet. JJ wouldn’t … he wouldn’t have done anything like that if I hadn’t …

we’re just desperate. Only got worse after that other eye surgery.

And it didn’t work. We need to find another eleven thousand or I’ll go blind, but we can’t – we can’t, we’re out of options.

’ The words chased each other out, moving faster than his darting eyes.

‘Already in so much debt. Can’t pay our rent anymore.

They’re gonna kick us out soon. And now JJ’s been arrested, and I can’t do anything for him.

He took care of me, our whole lives, and I can’t do anything for him.

Don’t have the money to bail him out of jail, if it comes to that.

To pay for a lawyer. It’s all fucked. This is all my fault. ’

He dropped his head into his hands, pressing his fingers into his eyes.

‘It’s not, though, is it?’ Jet said, treading carefully.

Because Henry had talked himself out onto the edge, and he had a gun.

He knew where it was, and they didn’t. ‘It’s Luke’s fault.

He did this to you, put you in this position.

You got injured on his work site. And now he’s the one paying you to keep quiet about it. ’

Henry raised his head a few inches.

Jet kept going.

‘It’s Luke’s fault, Henry, not yours. He did this.’

Henry straightened up, looked at her eye to eye, though neither of them could see too well anymore.

‘Do you hate him, Henry?’ she said. ‘For doing this to you, putting you in this position.’

He didn’t answer.

‘Did you want to do something about it? Punish him?’

Henry sniffed. ‘No, no, it wasn’t about that. I just wanted the money. I don’t want to go blind, Jet. I’m scared. I just wanted the money. That’s why.’

Jet’s gut twisted, bile rising in her throat. Was that a confession? Had she … had she done it? Had she really just solved her own murder?

‘You thought attacking me would make Luke pay up? Did you mean for it to go that far – did you mean for me to die?’

‘Wait.’ Henry’s face darkened. ‘What are you talking about? It wasn’t me, Jet. I didn’t hurt you, I would never –’

‘– Where were you on Halloween, at 10:46 p.m.?’

She stood up.

‘I was here.’

Henry stood up too.

So did Billy, straightening to his full height, shoulders wide.

‘Alone?’ Jet said. ‘You know alone doesn’t count as an alibi, don’t you?’

‘I – I –’ Henry stuttered, shrinking back. ‘I wasn’t alone.’

Jet tilted her head, surprised by that. ‘But you told the police that you were … Who – who was here, Henry? Who was here with you?’

Henry swallowed, taking the name with him.

But Jet didn’t need him to say it. She got there on her own, new pieces clicking into place, filling in the gaps.

‘Luke,’ she said. ‘Was Luke here?’

Henry nodded, barely, the smallest movement up and down.