Page 49 of Carbon

“I let my guard down. Look, until I tell you it’s safe, don’t go anywhere by yourself. Stay with your parents, or one of the staff, or Gregory.”

“But I don’t want Gregory. I want you.”

“I know,mon cœur, and I’m so sorry.”

His eyes shone with tears too.

Sirens sounded minutes later, and I tried to pull myself together as footsteps stormed up the stairs. I’d been wearing a mask my whole life, and I couldn’t let it slip now, not when Ben’s freedom depended on it.

He remained a respectful distance as the police arrived. Mother’s wails came from downstairs as Father tried to placate her. Then silence.

A cop peered out the door. “Lady’s fainted.”

“It’s probably for the best,” one of his colleagues said. “Now, who can tell me what happened here?”

Ben looked him in the eye. “Miss Fordham here found her sister like that a few minutes ago.”

“You were with her?”

“No, I was on the way back to my cottage when I heard her screaming.”

“On your way back from where?”

“The party at the main house.” He waved at his attire. “I... Well, I gatecrashed for the free booze.”

The policeman raised an eyebrow. “And you are?”

“Beau Davies. The caretaker here.”

“I see.” The policeman knelt in front of me, and I didn’t miss the look of disgust as he avoided the pool of vomit. “Can you talk me through what happened, ma’am?”

“Y-y-yes.” I wiped my eyes, took a deep breath, and lied my head off.

When I got to the part about me coming to the pool house to hunt for the diamond earring I’d lost at some point during the day, I saw Ben slip out of the room.

And I cried inside.

14

In the end, the ambulance crew took me to the hospital instead of Angie. Once Ben left, grief overcame me, and I cried until I was sick again, then cried some more. I woke the next morning, drained from nightmares starring Angie’s lifeless eyes and groggy from the pills the doctors had given me, with Mother sedated in the next room and a policeman sitting on a plastic chair in the corner of mine.

I closed my eyes again, but it was too late.

“Miss Fordham? Are you awake?”

Busted. “Yes.” It came out as a croak, and he walked over to the bed.

“Water?”

I sipped on the straw he offered me. “Thank you.”

“Do you feel up to answering a few more questions?”

Wasnoan acceptable answer? “If it’ll help find the person who killed my sister.”

“We’ve had a bit of a breakthrough on that. How well do you know Beau Davies?”

“Beau the caretaker?” I wasn’t sure whether I should admit to knowing his surname.

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