other maybe in December. But it’s hard for me to say for sure. She was always really social and out most nights with her friends anyway. Again, though, something changed around the holidays last year. She was different. In a good way.”
“Are you close to any of her friends?”
“Not really.” Helania shook her head. “I usually stayed home.”
And didn’t that sound lame to her own ears.
“Do you think any of Isobel’s friends might be willing to talk to me? About the boyfriend?”
“Again, I didn’t spend a lot of time with them, but her social media is still live because I haven’t had the heart to delete her Instagram or Facebook. Some of them have to be on there and I could contact them.”
“That’d be great.”
Boone smiled a little, and the subtle movement made her focus on his lips. He had a really nice mouth, she decided, a full bottom, a peaked top. It looked soft—
“So, Isobel had this boyfriend,” he said, “and as far as you knew, they had a good relationship.”
Okay, she totally and completely needed to stop with the mouth thing. “Yes.”
“And she would meet him at Pyre. Was there anywhere else they would go? Would she stay over at his place?”
“No, not really. Not often, I mean. Mostly she was at our apartment during the days.” Helania looked down at her hands. “I think she felt as though she had to look after me. It was a throwback to when we were younger.”
Back in the era when Helania had been different and at a disadvantage. And Isobel her champion.
“Your sister sounds like a female of worth,” Boone said softly.
“She was the very best person I’ve ever known.”
As she said the words, she realized something. For Isobel to be dead and her to be the one who lived? It seemed like a waste, and that was part of her guilt.
“Tell me about the night she died—”
“Killed,” Helania corrected. “The night she was killed.”
Boone nodded gravely. “Tell me what happened. And as I said, take your time. I don’t care how long you need. I will sit with you until dawn if we have to.”
“It brings it all back, you know.” Abruptly, Helania felt like she couldn’t breathe, and she sat up straight, as if that would give her lungs a little more space to expand into. “It brings back . . . everything.”
While she struggled with her emotions, Boone just sat on the sofa beside her chair, his eyes steady, his body still. And in the end, his calm presence was the only thing that made it possible for her to go on.
Inhaling deeply, she sighed out the words. “It was four in the morning when I found out. But at least I still had time to get to her.”
“At Pyre?”
“No, at the house where they brought her. After she was found at Pyre.” Helania tangled her fingers, knotting them and then forcing them to release. “She had these two friends who she saw all the time. One she met in nursing school. Another was somebody she’d crossed paths with out in the scene. They were the females who went looking for her that night—and one of them found her.”
As Helania teared up, Boone held something out. A handkerchief. And of course it was monogrammed, as befitting his station. She wanted to tell him no-thank-you, but she couldn’t stand the crying. For godsakes, if she couldn’t handle speaking about Isobel’s death without losing it, how in the hell was she going to be strong enough to find the killer?
Accepting what he offered, she put the soft folds to her cheeks. “Thank you.”
“Would you like some water?”
“No, I just want to get through this.” She took another deep breath and backtracked, names and faces jamming in her head, syllables getting twisted in her throat. “That night, Isobel . . . Isobel and her two friends went to Pyre. From what I was told, her friends lost track of her in the crowd at the club. When it was time to go, they couldn’t find her and tried her phone. They told me they even went down to the lower level, but they didn’t see anything or scent anything out of the ordinary. They went home, thinking she’d gone to their place, and they were worried when she wasn’t there.”
“So how did they find her?”
“One of them went back. She broke into each of the storage areas, and that was where . . .” Helania pressed the handkerchief into her