I pulled the towel out of my pocket and wiped across
the steering wheel, the leather seats, and both internal and external doors. I
took a lot of care to clean any surface I’d touched, though I didn’t think it
would matter much even if they found my fingerprints. I wasn’t a suspect,
and I’d never been convicted for a crime, so I wasn’t in any database to
match. Even if they thought Ruby might be responsible for Raul’s
disappearance, her prints wouldn’t match any from the car. No one would
think to question her neighbour. Why would they?
I left the keys in the ignition and the door open. With luck, someone
would steal the car, further masking the trail. If not, the police might come to
the conclusion that Raul had drowned himself in the ocean. His girlfriend had
left him just weeks before; it wasn’t impossible to think he might be
depressed.
I tucked the towel back into my pocket then bowed my head against wind
and thick, icy raindrops. It would be a long walk back home. But I didn’t
mind; it would give me time to fill my head with thoughts of nothing.
THE STORM BEGAN in earnest shortly after I’d started the walk home. I
tightened my jacket around myself and ducked my head, but it didn’t take
long for the rain to saturate me.
I must have walked for hours, but a comfortable haze had descended over
me. By the time I raised my head and saw I was in my own street, the rain
had settled into a drizzle. I was surprised to get home so soon, even though it
must have been after midnight.
Bed had never felt so good. I didn’t even bother drying myself—I just
threw off the wet clothes and crawled under the blankets. A dreamless sleep
came immediately. Not even the lights switching on in Marwick House
disturbed me.
The rain had cleared by the time I woke the following morning, though
residue still dripped from the roof and the trees. I rose, rubbed the sleep out
of my eyes, and went about the tasks still to be completed that day.
My clothes needed to be thrown out. Not just the ones I’d worn while
digging the grave, but the rain-soaked ones, as well. I bundled them into
garbage bags and carried them to the nearby park. A family played on the
still-wet swings, but they didn’t glance at me as I forced my bags into one of
the large bins. It was just another layer to mask the fact that Raul had ever
been in Ruby’s Ruby’s street.
I felt lighter on the way home. I had no doubt Ruby would have been
doing her own cleaning. The neighbours wouldn’t say a word. If Raul’s
disappearance was ever traced back to Marwick House, the evidence would
be scant. I grinned as I re-entered my home.The following days passed quickly. I watched the news for any mention
of Raul, but his name only appeared once, in a police request for information.
Reading between the lines, I sensed he wasn’t a high-priority case for them.
A missing adult man wouldn’t carry the same weight as a lost child.
I didn’t see much of Ruby. We kept to our own homes, much like the
neighbours around us. Occasionally, we waved to each other over the fence.
But our closeness had ended with Raul’s burial. And I think we were both
grateful for it .
My cats were all missing. Scared off by the house, I guessed. Part of my
mind worried about them, but it was easy to quieten it. I’d loved them once—
adored them, even—but lately, I rarely felt any kind of emotion. The cats
were just another possession. Maybe they would turn up one day. If they
didn’t, I wouldn’t lose sleep over them.
I stopped baking, too. Most days were spent sitting in my living room,
staring at a wall or at the TV, its channel set to static. I found it easier to
soothe my mind like that. The stillness was only disturbed when I needed to
water my garden, hang out laundry, or prepare food. I did my tasks with a
machine-like precision, starting them and finishing them at the same time
each day. Lucky didn’t try to call again. The world was peaceful.
One afternoon, as I made my way from the kitchen to the lounge room, I
caught sight of Ruby through the window. She’d pulled her curtains back and
stood behind the glass, staring blankly at me. I raised a hand. She didn’t
respond. I continued to my favourite chair, turned on the TV to absorb its
static, and relaxed.