“I didn’t. I thought it was Diana.” I told them how I’d tried to track down Sarah and failed, and of the sudden resurgence of a critical memory: my mother in Diana’s rose garden. “My mother wouldn’t have helped bury Sarah. Not if it was Calvin who killed her. That’s not why Mum died.”

“We currently have no evidence linking Calvin to your mother’s murder, though of course, we’re—”

I was already thinking about something else, my mind unable to hold on to the present. “You should check up on a doctor he had an affair with who died of a sudden heart attack. She had little kids, so she must’ve been young.”

Both officers stilled.

“Alice probably knows her name.” Laughter bubbled up out of my gut. “You don’t even have to go far—she’s in another ward of this hospital.” I’d seen the label printed on my sheets, realized we were both in the same facility.

The nurse bustled in at that moment to usher Neri and Regan out.

“Is Lily still here?” I asked her after they’d slipped away. The two hadn’t given me much, but right now, I felt oddly disassociated from it all.

“Who, dear?” The thin brunette plumped up my pillows.

My heart started to pound. “My friend. She’s petite, part Thai, with black hair.”

“I haven’t seen anyone like that.” She smiled at me before leaving the room, pulling the curtain shut behind her.

I gripped the sheets in my fists, a scream building inside me.

The curtain moved. “Hey. I went and got you a candy bar.” Lily waggled it in the air. “Your sweet tooth has to be aching.”

I pressed the buzzer and held it.

Lily tilted her head. “What’s the matter?”

The nurse ran back in. “What’s the problem? Are you in pain?” She nudged past Lily. “Excuse me, young lady.” A pause. “Oh, you’re the one he was looking for.” Then she glanced at me, her eyebrows lowered. “What was so urgent that you had to light up the call button?”

Lily made a “you’re in trouble” face at the same time.

I grinned and said, “Can I go for a walk?”

“I don’t see why not—as long as you use your crutches,” the nurse said with a reluctant smile. “Your foot’s had a bit of a rest after that stunt you pulled. Digging a hole, I hear! That’s not how breaks heal, young man.”

Shifting her gimlet gaze to Lily, she said, “Keep an eye on him.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Only after the nurse was gone, and we were walking in the hallway, did Lily say, “What was that?”

“I thought I was hallucinating you. But in my defense, I was poisoned by a maniacal killer.”

When I turned left and began to head down the long and expansive hallway lit naturally by a row of windows, she said, “Where are we going?”

“To visit Alice.” I wanted to see if the cops had told her anything they hadn’t told me.

A buff man with light brown hair and golden skin was loitering outside her room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. “Aarav, hey man.” He held out a fist for a bump. “Crazy shit, huh?”

“Hey, Adrian.” I touched my fist to his. “Cops in there?”

“Yeah. I told them to leave Alice alone, but she said it was cool.” He rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I never would’ve thought it of Calvin, of all people. Burying a body in Diana’s rose garden. Cold, just cold.”

“What’re you doing here?”

A flush of color on his cheeks. “Just wanted to see Alice.”

Deciding I was too tired to beat around the bush, I said, “Adrian, satisfy my curiosity. Where did you get the money for your gym?”

I thought he’d tell me to fuck off, but he shrugged and said, “My nan died and left me her house. She lived in this poxy wooden place that was falling down around her ears—I did what I could to make sure stuff worked, but the place was a dump and she refused to even discuss moving.”

“Yet it let you afford a gym?”

“It was in goddamn Grey Lynn.”

Lily sucked in a breath at the mention of the highly sought-after inner-city suburb that housed the city’s bankers and CEOs and other wealthy residents who needed to be close to the central business district without living in the city itself. No one would’ve cared for the state of the house; developable land in the area was pure gold.

“How much did you get?”

“Two million dollars. I would give it all back if it meant my nan was still alive. She was the only one who ever gave a shit about me.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Our eyes met, and he gave a quiet nod.

63


The hospital finally discharged me two days later.

The first thing I did was give Riki every single photo negative and video I had that would’ve allowed me to blackmail him.

I also apologized and told him I’d deleted any original digital files.

He said, “Would you do it again?”

“Yes. Someone murdered my mother.”

“You know what? You’re an asshole, but yeah, I’d have done it, too, for my mum.”

And I knew we were never ever going to discuss this again.

“Do you think it was you?” Riki asked, an odd ease to him.

Because I knew his secret. Because he didn’t have to hide it. “What?”

“The person who called the cops on Ana and Leo, do you think it was you? Since you were off your head?”