Page 63 of The Dysfunctional Family's Guide to Murder

“Bec and Shippy were both with Rob at the beach,” Dad adds, and it’s equal parts alarming and reassuring that his suspicions so closely align to mine. Possibly he’s to blame, and not my diet of horror movies and crime novels, for my slightly disturbing brain. “We’ve only got their word for it that they left him there safe and sound.”

“Why would they hurt Rob, though?” Aunty Vinka asks.

“Maybe he knew something about GG’s death and they thought he was going to go to the cops,” I suggest, feeling emboldened by the one-two combination of Dad’s apology and his effort to include me in the conversation.

“But Shippy hadn’t even met Rob when GG died,” Aunty Vinka says.

“Actually, that’s not true,” I say. “Shippy said he’d met Rob in town before any of this happened. Rob offered to lend him a surfboard.”

“Clever clogs,” Dad says, the way he used to when I was learning my times tables.

“What about the whole missing-half-sibling thing?” Aunty Vinka says. “Do you think we’ll ever get to meet them now?”

Dad gets a look on his face I recognize.

“That’s another thing. Didn’t you say Nick grew up in Yallingup, Vinx?”

Aunty Vinka frowns at the apparent change of subject, but with a sick lurch in my stomach, I have an idea of where Dad is going with this.

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Nicky,” Dad says. “Green eyes. Grew up in the southwest.”

He waits. I wait. Aunty Vinka waits for more of an explanation. Finally, she gets there on her own.

“No,” she says. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“It really didn’t occur to you?”

“There are a lot of people called Ni—” Aunty Vinka starts to say.

“Who have green eyes?”

“I think a lot of people—”

“Andgrew up in the southwest.”

“It’s a big place.”

“It’s not that big.”

“He’sKorean,Andy.”

“So Dad’s fling was with someone from Korea. Where did those eyes come from, anyway?”

Vinka stands up and starts to collect mugs. “Nick is not my brother, Andy, and this conversation is offensive.”

“To you, or Nick, or Korea in general?”

“All three.”

“If it makes you feel better, he would only be a half brother.”

“He’s not even a quarter brother.”

“Uh-huh.” Dad is, at least partly, playing with Aunty Vinka. Certainly, he seems to be enjoying himself. Aunty Vinka is not.

“There are probably dozens of people in Western Australia called Nick with green eyes, who grew up around here and are adopted.”