daughter.’ My eyes were fixed on the filigree of fine lines extending from her eyes to her hairline. How dare she grow old when Niki would be stalled at twenty-one forever. She was aware of me studying her and didn’t seem to mind it one bit.
I forced my attention back to why I had come here. ‘Do you know who killed Karen?’
‘No. Do you?’ she shot back.
It would be public knowledge soon enough but I wasn’t going to be the one to break the news of Justin’s arrest. I forced myself to breathe slowly. If I was going to get anything out of this woman, I had to play it way more softly than this. Before I could come up with my next question she spoke.
‘How’s Sean?’ she asked, going back to first moves, making it clear whose terms this conversation was on. Vex had had dealings with Sean.
I answered honestly. ‘I don’t know.’
She smiled at that. We were both quiet for some time, while she decided what, if anything, she would tell me.
‘You know that Karen turned Christian,’ she said, and glanced around the room. ‘A lot of them do that in here. There’s all sort of benefits.’ She studied one of the guards for a long time before continuing. ‘But with Karen it was the real deal. She went straight; got off the drugs, stayed out of trouble …’ she said, counting off Karen’s achievements on her fingers. Her nails were nibbled to the quick. ‘Believe me, it’s not so easy in here.’
‘When was this?’
‘As soon as she got here. Years ago now. Before my time,’ she said, batting my question away with a swipe of the hand. ‘She was totally infected with the God bug by the time we roomed together.’
If this was true, it was unlikely Karen’s conversion had been a cynical pretence to win back her mother’s approval. Vex read my thoughts.
‘It was real alright. I should know. I had to put up with the endless bloody praying.’
‘Is that how she and Manny met?’
‘Yeah. He visits Christian prisoners. He’s been doing that for years. Well,’ she added slyly, ‘since he got out himself.’
‘What did he serve time for?’
Vex leaned back, arms folded over her breasts. ‘Maybe I should be charging you for this.’
I was about to get up and walk out but she started up again before I had the chance to.
‘Not long after we roomed together she wrote to her mother, asking for her forgiveness. Christians are big on the whole forgiveness thing.’ She couldn’t resist a coy look at look. ‘Me, not so much.’ She was baiting me, but I ignored it. It was just as well Vex wasn’t big on forgiveness. I would never forgive her for killing Niki. Not in this life, or any other. ‘So,’ she continued, relishing the power the role of storyteller gave her, ‘her mum came in to see her and they made up. All was forgiven. Mother and daughter reunited. Alleluia. Then the mum up and died and Karen suddenly has all this money. It was news to her that the mother even had any money. They’d had nothing to do with each other for years. Since before Karen killed the kid, I think. But Karen wasn’t into the money, anyway. She was going to give it up. Her and Manny were going off to live in a Christian commune. What a waste.’
‘You didn’t try for some of that unwanted money yourself?’
‘Sure I did.’ She smiled at me, one corner of her mouth sliding up. ‘I came straight out and asked her for it. Who wouldn’t? She didn’t want it! All I ended up with was a fee for giving her your contact details.’ She laughed out loud at that. ‘There’s a word for that, isn’t there? Irony? Something like that?’
I ignored the gibe. ‘Did Karen get into fights? While she was in here, I mean.’
She gave me a deep look before answering. ‘I didn’t tell anyone about her coming into money. It would have put real heat on me and I didn’t need that kind of shit. All sorts of people would be working me to get my hands on it for—’ again she looked across the room and studied the guard for a long time but the guard appeared to be paying her no attention, ‘—for other people,’ she concluded. ‘But there were rumours about the money. And Karen got the occasional rough-up to see what would shake down, but no more than anyone