like that, he’d probably wait until the Fitzpatricks were away for the day, then chuck a poisoned piece of meat over the fence.”
“It’s kind of scary how you can just say that like it’s no big deal.”
“It’s hypothetical. I do hypotheticals all the time—it’s my job. Writers are professional liars.”
A frozen moment as she stopped, stared at me, before her lips—soft with gloss—twitched. “You had me going there, Aarav.”
I grinned and left it at that . . . and tried not to think about my dirty feet. No way could I have done anything to the dog. First of all, I had a fucking broken foot. I could’ve hardly chased down the huge animal—or run away from the vicious thing. And where exactly would I have obtained poison in the middle of the night? It wasn’t like I’d bought it and stored it away in readiness for the murderous urge to strike.
I’d gone sleepwalking. Weird, but that was it.
“Aarav.”
No mistaking that voice. Unlike Leonid, Anastasia had a thick Russian accent. She was just coming out of the café as we reached it, and—after waving to Lily as Lily slipped inside—leaned forward to kiss me on both cheeks in that way she had. For a second, my mind hitched on the scent of her perfume, before a sudden breeze blew it away.
The wind played through Anastasia’s long and expertly cut blonde-brown tresses. That hair framed a pointed face with slanted green eyes and razor-sharp cheekbones. She could’ve been a catwalk model if not for her diminutive height of five-foot-one.
“I hear the news,” she said, her lips downturned. “About your mother. I am sorry to hear this. You are doing all right, yes?”
The genuine depth of her concern took me by surprise. “Part of me always knew she’d never leave me if she had a choice.”
She nodded firmly and beat a small-fisted hand against her chest. “Da. That is mother love.” A glance in the direction I’d seen Leonid walk off with the stranger and the twins. “I hear this terrible news, and I think—how my babies grow up if I am gone? Leonid is good papa, but he is not mama.”
I didn’t know if she expected an answer to that, so I just gave her a quiet smile.
Her eyes softened. “I know you are sad, Aarav, but it no good to walk around with so less clothes in the cold.”
“What?”
“Last night.” She waved in the direction of my father’s house . . . but it could as easily have been halfway to the Fitzpatricks. “I wake to look after babies. I see you standing there. No shirt. No shoes.” She clicked her tongue. “Your mama would not want this.”
Oddly, for a woman who’d never met my mother, she was right. I could still remember how my mum would wrap my jacket around me when I was younger, how she’d remind me to pack my sweatshirt if I had an after-school thing that might run late.
The memories unfurled at hyperspeed in a brain that seemed to have otherwise slowed down to molasses, it took so long for Anastasia’s meaning to penetrate. When it did, the possible consequences jolted into me. “Veda finds out I was out at night,” I said in a wry tone that was a mask over my skittering pulse, “she’ll probably say I poisoned her dog.”
Anastasia snorted. “Leonid, he message me about this stupid woman.” She held up her phone. “Don’t worry.” A wave of her hand. “I don’t say anything about you walking late. Everyone don’t like those two—they even try to find out things about Leonid from our nanny!” Steam all but came out of her ears. “But Khristina? She Leonid’s cousin—we give her job to help with her nursing school bills. She act dumb with Veda, then tell us.”
A scowl marred her sharp face. “Always, they don’t look after dog. Let it dig all over, eat strange things. Now they blame everyone else.” Leaning in, she kissed me on the cheek again, and for a moment, I was entangled in a waft of perfume so familiar it hurt. “Don’t worry. I say nothing to anyone. But next time you want to night walk, put on more clothes.”
24
After grabbing my coffee from Lily’s, I walked back to the house but couldn’t make myself go inside. I had to do some research, but I could as easily do that while seated on the black sands of Piha. Maybe the salt air would wash away the scent of a