convince me he was bisexual and had just fallen for a female partner this time around. Even if I’d believed that, the simple truth that he was attracted to men at all would destroy his relationship with his mother.
Tia’s love came with conditions attached, too.
“What the fuck do you care? It’s my life.” He stabbed a finger into his chest. “What dirty little job do you want me to do? Newspapers say you’re a millionaire—you can afford to hire thugs for low-life shit. Or did you gamble it all away like my bastard father?”
I noted the information he’d inadvertently revealed. “What did my mother ask you to do?”
“Ask?” A laugh that was all broken edges. “You’re a writer—use the right word. She blackmailed me.”
“To do what?”
Dark eyes locked on me, a slight smile lighting his face. “You want to know, you drop this blackmail shit.”
“That’s not how it works. And that camera records audio, too. The facts won’t magically disappear if I do.”
The rage that twisted his face was a deadly thing and I knew I was on the verge of pushing him beyond his limits. “You won’t always be around cameras.” A quiet threat as he moved out of range of the security system.
It was too late. “I’ll always have this recording, as well as the photos I took when I was a teenager. I disappear, the police check my safety-deposit box and the photos eventually leak. The end.”
When his shoulders slumped, I felt like the worst kind of slime. Empathy was hardly my strong suit, but I’d never before sunk this low. Bones, I reminded myself. My mother is nothing but bones. And Riki had hated her with every ounce of his being.
“She wanted me to beat up Cora,” Riki whispered so quietly that I had to step closer to hear him. “For the first thing.” He dropped his head. “She said she’d tell me later when other stuff came up.” His eyes were shiny when he looked up. “What the fuck, Aarav? I liked her, and she did that to me, turned me into her pet thug.”
Nausea twisted my stomach. I couldn’t turn that around, couldn’t make my mother into a better person. “Why? Why did she want you to beat up Cora?”
“I have no fucking idea. She said, ‘Don’t worry your pretty head about it. Just hurt her without doing major permanent damage—but make sure you shatter her left hand. And don’t get caught.’ So I put on dark clothing, pulled on a balaclava, and crossed all my moral lines.”
Cora’s hand had never quite healed right.
“My mother sent her flowers on behalf of the family,” Riki whispered. “She was incensed—what kind of man beats on a defenseless woman, she kept saying.” He sat down on the grass, his arms on his knees and tears in his voice. “Who do you want me to hurt?”
“You had a ton of motive to kill my mother.”
A bark of laughter, his cheeks wet when he lifted his head. “You know why this is like a fucking nightmare on repeat? She had video, too, something she said would come out if anything happened to her.” His eyes narrowed. “Never did though, so maybe I should kill you and take my chances.”
I thought quickly. “She hid it in my stuff. I already knew you were gay, and you were my friend, so I didn’t see the point in doing anything with the information.”
“Guess we’re not friends now.” His face was without expression. “Does it feel good to have another man’s balls in your hand, where you can twist and twist?”
“All I care about is finding out who killed my mother.” Unable to stay upright any longer, I moved over to the air-conditioning unit and sat down on top, hoping it’d hold my weight. It did. “Where was your father the night my mother disappeared?”
“I might hate him, but I won’t let you destroy him because you’re on some fucked-up vengeance trip.”
“I don’t want a scapegoat. I want the person who murdered her.”
“Then look elsewhere. Dad was at a function at SkyCity that night, together with Mum. Something to do with the Mahi Awards.”
The awards were an annual celebration of Māori achievement widely covered by the media. Kahu had been nominated more than once, so I knew the awards also had a website, complete with a public archive of photos from previous events. Hemi’s alibi would be easy enough to confirm.
As I sat there in the cold, I asked myself if the information