I forgot the throbbing pain in my foot, ignored the random mishmash of memories my brain was throwing at me. “You heard two car doors shut.”
A firm nod. “Two. Yes. Fast fast. Close, then close.”
That eliminated the theory that my mother had picked up someone along the way; she’d left the Cul-de-Sac with the person who’d killed her. It’d be pushing things far beyond the bounds of probability that she’d left with one person and been killed by a second. No, it had to have been the same person.
My father? The lover with whom she’d taunted my father? Hemi? Brett? An unknown party?
“You didn’t see anything?”
The slightest flicker in her eyes before she shook her head. “No. Rain bad.”
Either she was lying, or she was nervous about something else connected to that night. Covering for Alice? Yet Alice had no reason to have hurt my mother. She’d been happy to tag along with the Nina/Diana duo.
I’d also never seen my mother be mean to Alice.
“I don’t kick puppies and kittens, sweetheart.” Husky laughter drifting up from below my balcony.
I’d been lying in the sun while messaging a school friend who was now a lecturer specializing in chemistry, while my mother and Alice sat below, chatting over a cup of tea.
“You don’t have to hide yourself from me, little Alice.”
“You’re out of my league.” Alice’s soprano tones. “I feel like I’m playing with a shark each time we have drinks.”
My mother had laughed then, unfettered and joyous, and I’d grinned before going back inside my room. At fifteen, I’d had no desire to listen to my mother talking with her neighbor friend. But I’d known her well enough to know the affection in her tone had been real; she’d liked her “little Alice,” had treated her well.
But there was something there.
The thought spun around and around in my head as I headed back into the house, leaving Shanti still talking with Elei. Grabbing my pain meds off the top of the fridge and studiously ignoring the rat poison, I started for my room.
The last thing I expected was for my father to come down the hallway.
“Where’s Shanti?” he asked, but then rolled his eyes. “Gossiping with that old lady, I’m guessing.”
Now that I thought about it, it was unsurprising that he didn’t have a problem with the Elei-Shanti friendship; neither woman had any obvious power. In my father’s mind, Elei, sheltered and apparently confined by her lack of connections in this country, was unlikely to teach Shanti of rebellion. I wasn’t so certain. “Do I look like her keeper?”
Instead of responding to my irritated tone, my father said, “Did you hear about that dog?” Laughter filled the hallway. “Assholes deserved it.”
“Did you do it?”
His nostrils flared. “How the hell you’re even my son, I don’t know.” Swiveling on his foot, he headed back toward his office.
But he hadn’t denied my accusation.
It took serious and painful effort to get up the stairs. But at last I was inside my room with the door firmly shut. Dumping the pill bottle in among the others on the bedside table, I sat down on the bed. I wasn’t going to be moving anywhere else anytime soon.
I peeled off my shirt and chucked it on the floor. Then, teeth gritted, I somehow managed to get off my jeans. When I undid the boot to check what was going on with my foot, I found the appendage red and swollen and generally fucked. Dropping my head in my hands, I just sat there for a long moment, until fatigue began to lick at me.
Despite the temptation to leave it off, I clipped the boot back on.
Then I got on the computer and made my way into the house’s security system. I erased the relevant recording without looking at it. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. This recording would just muddy the waters if it ever surfaced.
After that, I sent an email to Dr. Tawera, requesting an urgent appointment. Exhaustion weighed heavy on me, but no way was I going to be able to sleep with the pain pulsing like a second heartbeat. Unscrewing the bottle from which I’d already taken two pills, I took two more.
I wasn’t being stupid. Four was the maximum dosage, though there was a warning on the bottle not to make that a habit. Washing down the pills with a fresh bottle of water likely put on the bedside table by Shanti, I switched off the lights, and