I folded my hands behind my neck and tried to calm my racing heart. Part
of me expected Raul to start moving again—to stand up, shake himself off,
and yell at me for disturbing his rest. But there was no mistaking how dead
he was. No living human’s skin was that grey.
What are we going to do with him? I looked behind myself. Ruby had
come up beside me, walking so carefully that I hadn’t heard her footsteps.
She rested her hand on my arm, her eyes shining with both fear and a small,
desperate triumph.
“He can’t hurt us anymore,” she whispered into my ear. “Shreya took care
of him. Just like she did with her own husband.”
A shiver shook me. I swallowed the thick saliva pooling in my mouth.
“We need to get rid of him,” I whispered back. “We can’t… we can’t…”
I lifted my eyes. A woman stared at me: Faye Richmond, Ruby’s
neighbour on her other side. The elderly woman stood by the fence, staring
into Ruby’s yard, her narrow eyes skipping from Raul’s body to us. She made
eye contact, her mouth tightened a fraction, and she turned and walked away.
No. I backtracked away from Raul. Faye was an irritable woman. She
would call the police, and the police would think Ruby and I had killed Raul.
They had no reason not to. He couldn’t have hung himself. Besides, Ruby
had stabbed him with my knife. He would have left blood trails all around my
house and hers. Who wouldn’t suspect us?
“Stay here.” I squeezed Ruby’s arm and jogged down the side of the
house. A bizarre conviction filled me. If I just explain myself and ask very,
very politely, she might not share our secret.
I ran to my house first. The cats were nowhere to be seen, but Raul’s
blood still coated my kitchen floor. He’d left handprints on the walls. There
was no time to clean them. I grabbed a basket and towel and two of the cakes
I’d baked during my cooking frenzy. I bundled them up in the basket and
raced back outside.Faye’s house was a modest but impeccably tidy building. She seemed to
structure her entire life within rigid guidelines; even the flowers bordering the
walkway to her front door had been trimmed to keep them within their
designated space.
I knocked on the door. My heart was in my throat, and my sweaty palms
left wet patches on the basket’s handle. For the first time, it occurred to me
that she might not even open the door. She could be cowering inside, the
phone pressed to her ear, hiding from me like Ruby and I had hidden from
Raul.
But the door opened. Faye stood before me, her eyes severe over her
pinched nose and her grey hair immaculately permed. “Can I help you?”
“Yes.” I hesitated, waiting for any kind of reaction, perhaps a gasp or a
recoil, but Faye only blinked at me. I held out the basket. “I wanted to talk to
you about a very important matter.”
“Very well, come in. Shoes off, please.”
Her house was just as tidy as her person. It made me feel a fraction
embarrassed for how dusty some of my own shelves were. Faye took me to
what was clearly designated as a guest area, and I placed the basket on the
coffee table before taking my seat. She sat opposite, her eyes flicking to the
basket, and I had the distinct impression that it was too untidy to be in her
house.
I knitted my shaking fingers together. “Mrs. Richmond, I want you to
know that Ruby and I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Her severe eyes didn’t leave mine. I felt as if I were explaining my poor
behaviour to an unkind teacher.
“What you saw—I can explain it. We didn’t… I mean—”
She picked a tiny hair off her skirt and flicked it away. “I suppose you’re
referring to the gentleman in your yard.”
I could only nod helplessly. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“It’s none of my business what other people do in their homes, child,” she
said curtly. No one had called me “child” in a very long time. “Just clean up
after yourselves.”
I stared at her, not fully trusting what I’d just heard. That was when I
noticed her eyes. I’d been so focussed on the severe wrinkles around them as
they were narrowed at me that I hadn’t noticed how glassy her pupils were.
Even though she spoke lucidly, it was as though she’d fallen into a trance.
“We will.” I spoke slowly, feeling my way .