Page 115 of Not Quite Dead Yet

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Jet knocked, just twice.

Bent down to call through the mail slot into the little house.

‘Henry, it’s Jet,’ she shouted. ‘Try not to almost shoot me this time.’

Billy’s breath rattled, sucked through his teeth.

‘Don’t think we should be here,’ he said again, jittery and nervous. ‘If Henry’s our prime suspect for the person who tried to kill you on Halloween, and the person who tried to burn you to death last night to stop you from discoveringwhyhe tried to kill you in the first place, what’s to stop him trying a third time? And he has a gun and –’

The door opened and Billy swallowed the rest of it, an actual gulp, as Henry’s face appeared in the crack. The bruise beneath his eye greener than yesterday.

‘Hi,’ Jet said, with a fake smile. ‘Us again.’

Henry stood back, let the door open fully. No gun.

‘They arrested JJ,’ he sniffed, fiddling with his hands. ‘Yesterday. He came back, and they took him away in handcuffs.’

‘I know,’ Jet said.

‘He just wanted to see you,’ Henry said quietly. ‘It wasn’t him, Jet. JJ didn’t do this to you, I promise.’

‘How could you know that?’ Jet pressed him, keeping her voice light so he didn’t realize he was being pressed.

‘I just …’ he trailed off, no answer.

Jet would have to press harder, then, more like a push.

‘Hey, maybe you can invite us in this time?’ She steppedforward, one foot up over the doorstep, crossing the threshold without permission.

‘Um, OK.’ Henry blinked, beckoned them inside. ‘It’s all a bit messed up, from when the police searched it.’

‘What were they searching for?’ Jet followed Henry down the hall, Billy closing the front door behind them.

‘Took the clothes he was wearing on Halloween. Some of his mail too.’

Henry gestured them into the living room, no messier than she remembered it.

Jet sat down in her old spot, on the corner of the faded red couch, Billy slotting in beside her, too close, his hands balled into fists on his knees.

Henry took the armchair. That was where JJ normally sat.

Jet cleared her throat, still raw from the smoke, or maybe from the crying. ‘The police say they have enough to charge JJ,’ she said. ‘When I die, Henry – and Iamgoing to die – that will be a first-degree murder charge. JJ won’t ever get out of prison, if they convict him. You get that, right?’

Henry stared down at his own lap. ‘He didn’t do it.’

‘If that’s true, then you have to help me, Henry. To help JJ.’

He chewed the inside of his cheek. ‘I don’t know how to help you, I don’t –’

‘– I’m going to tell you a few things I’ve learned since yesterday.’ She leaned forward. ‘Stop me if I go wrong anywhere. Youdidwork for Mason Construction. And I don’t know when it started, but Luke arranged to pay you off the books, probably in cash. Knowing Luke, he probably sold it to you as a good thing, for both of you.’

Henry’s nostrils flared, just for a second.

‘And that was fine, you were working on the project over on North Street, in March, signed for some scaffolding rental. And then your accident happened. But you didn’t getstupid drunk and fall off a wall like you told everyone, did you? Something went wrong at the construction site, and the roof collapsed on top of you. That’s how you shattered your knee, lost sight in one eye, injured the other.’

Henry closed his eyes, like he was hiding them, couldn’t trust them not to give him away.

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