“I’m not asking you to. Just call me. Anytime. If you see something, if you think you’re in danger, don’t hesitate to call me. I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”
A strange feeling came over her, and it took a moment to figure out what it was. With Isobel there to look after her, even after Helania had gone through her transition, she had always had a protector. Now, Boone seemed to want to step into that tragically vacated role, and the idea that she might have someone to turn to again eased her on deep levels.
“Promise me,” he said. “That you’ll call.”
“I promise,” she heard herself reply. “Is that all? For this interview?”
Rubbing his eyes as if he were tired, Boone seemed to have to refo-cus. “Actually, about the boyfriend. Did you ever hear from him after the death? Did he try to contact her phone, her social media, you or any of her friends?”
“I don’t know about her friends. And I’m assuming he tried her on her phone, but I don’t know where it is.”
“You don’t have her phone?”
“It was lost that night.” When Boone frowned and sat back, she knew exactly where he went in his head. “It was not the boyfriend, I’m telling you. She was thrilled whenever she spoke about him. I’d never seen her so happy, those last couple of months.”
“I believe you. It’s just . . . you don’t know his name, you never met him, and he didn’t show up looking for her after she was gone. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
Helania wanted to argue the point, but the truth was, she had sometimes wondered about the very same things. Yet calling into question Isobel’s true love had seemed disloyal.
“I was not part of her scene.” Helania took a deep breath. “And if he was trying to find her by calling that phone, I would never know, would I.”
“What about the clothes she was wearing? Did any of those get saved?”
“Her friend told me they threw them out because they were ruined.”
“We really need to speak with those two females. What are their names?”
“I don’t know what their given names are. But I can find them on social media. I cannot forget either of their faces.”
“That would be really helpful.”
Helania let herself fall back into the armchair. Closing her eyes was a bad idea. The world got to spinning.
“Are you all right?” Boone asked.
“Just a little woozy.”
“When was the last time you ate?”
Helania forced her lids to open as she started to do that math. When the hours added up—and kept adding—she frowned.
“You need to eat.” Boone reached out and turned off the phone. “And so do I. Let’s take a break and have First Meal together.”
Her knee-jerk reaction was to say no, conclude the meeting, and go back home to change. She could still make it over to Pyre and have plenty of time there before dawn. Except . . . just as all that stick-to-theplan, find-the-killer, keep-your-distance occurred to her, from out of nowhere, she pictured her sister.
Isobel had always worn her hair short and spiky, the red color even louder and brighter that way, untempered with the blond that marked Helania’s far longer waves. And she had had bright blue eyes. Brilliantly blue, like a robin’s egg. And a super-white, ultrawide smile.
Even her coloring had been vivid.
Add to all that her laugh? Isobel had been captivating to people. The few times Helania had gone out and watched on the sidelines as her sister had charmed friends and strangers alike, she had been astounded by the presence of the female. Just like everyone else.
There had been so many times over the last eight months that Helania had regretted the fact that she had been the survivor. Isobel had always been better at living. Why had the recluse been the one to stay on the planet? And to that point, if her sister had been offered a nice meal with a nice male when she was starving? She wouldn’t have said yes. She would have hell-yeah’d that idea—and then made sure that the conversation was even better than the food.
Helania looked into Boone’s eyes. They were . . . beautiful eyes. Thickly lashed. Deeply set.
She thought of the dead body she had found the night before last. If that female had known that she was going to die that evening, if she had had the date of her demise given to her, what