Such a Perfect Family, page 24
I sat back up so I could look at her. “And?”
“There’s no sign—not a single one—of it being an outsider. The Prasads had external security cameras, and that footage was stored remotely. We got access to it this morning.”
I hadn’t known that—the cameras must’ve been all but invisible. Diya had probably taken them so much for granted that she hadn’t even thought to mention it. “Then you know I wasn’t there when it happened.” It would be the second time in my life that security cameras had saved me from a cell.
“You could’ve still started a slow blaze and left.” She held up a hand before I could explode. “But that’s looking less and less likely.”
Taking out her phone when it buzzed, she glanced at it before putting it away. “I’m not out to ruin an innocent man’s reputation, Tavish, but look at it from my point of view—you’ve now been involved with at least two women who died under suspicious circumstances, and your current wife is in the ICU.”
I turned the full force of my attention on her, smiled in the way that made her the center of my world…and saw her pupils dilate. “See?” I whispered. “I don’t need to kill women for money. If one kicks me loose, there are a million more out there I can seduce with little effort. I’m really good at it—guess Mom gave me something after all.”
You’re the best chameleon I’ve ever met…Do you even know who you are when you aren’t becoming your latest target’s fantasy?
Chapter 56
Private notes: Detective Callum Baxter (LAPD)
Date: Oct 29
Time: 18:07
I tried to warn that young woman, but Advani made damn sure she was never alone where I could get to her. I should’ve tried harder, even if it got me pulled up on a harassment complaint. Now she’s lying in the ICU.
FUCK.
I think Ackerson in New Zealand will get the bastard this time, but I’m still going to close up the last open thread on the Musgrave case. That damn loopy professor who was staying with James Whitby before Virna’s car went off the road finally came out of the Amazon. I’ve set up a call tomorrow morning—Perez is going to sit in, though asshole is more interested in asking her about living in the jungle than believing she can tell us anything probative.
Three likely dead, two in the ICU…it’s my fault. I should’ve stopped Advani in LA.
If only I could figure out how he did it with Jocelyn Wai. How does a man who wasn’t there make a woman fall off a balcony?
Chapter 57
Diya sobbed in my arms. She’d woken screaming for her mother, and in the end, I’d had to tell her that Sarita was gone, as was Rajesh. I wished we could have had more privacy for that terrible moment, but she still needed the attention of the ICU—and the other patients had their own problems, weren’t concerned about us.
“Bobby, too?” she’d asked, teary-eyed, after I’d told her about her parents.
“No one’s heard from him since, but they haven’t found conclusive proof that he was in the house.” At least not that anyone had told me—or had been revealed to the media.
Her tears were unending, her pain so extreme that Chen suggested a mild sedative. As she was hysterical, I had to be the one to make the call.
“It won’t knock her out,” he said when I hesitated. “Just soften the edges. She’ll remember your conversation.”
“I just don’t want her to wake up to unknown horror time after time.”
“She won’t. The sedative I’m suggesting will just give her a therapeutic distance from her emotions.”
Unable to see Diya in such agony, I nodded.
It took five long minutes for it to start to work, but the effects were obvious—Diya’s tears turned softer before stopping, but she wasn’t vacant, as I’d feared. She just seemed a touch slower to react—but her mind was all there. “Is Shumi really alive?” she asked me dully.
“Give me one minute to prove it to you.” I shot Ajay a text asking him to come over.
Diya’s face lit up the instant he appeared in the ICU. “Ajay!”
“Hi, Dee.” His smile was so huge it creased his face. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Shumi?”
“She’s starting to exhibit signs of coming to consciousness, too.” A glance at me, the overhead light sparking off his spectacles. “I didn’t want to interrupt you, but she began to make small sounds a few minutes ago.”
“That’s great news.” I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that I’d convinced Ackerson of my innocence—but Shumi could, if she remembered what had taken place at the Lake Tarawera house and was willing to talk. “You’ll tell us when she comes out of it fully?”
“Absolutely.” He gave Diya a hug made awkward and all the more endearing by the fact that he was attempting to avoid pressing on any of her bandaged wounds. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”
After the younger man left, Diya chewed on her lower lip. “I want to remember what happened, but there’s a fuzziness over everything.”
“Don’t push it.” Walking over to her bed, I sat on one side, my hand holding hers. “I’ll ask the doctor to go over your injuries when you’re ready, but you either were hit on the head or fell against something during the fire.”
Her free hand—trailing an IV line—lifted to the side of her skull, a featherlight touch against the bandage there. But when she spoke, it had nothing to do with her own head injury. “I was thinking about Ani,” she whispered. “I remember that. I was thinking about Ani.”
Her pulse jerked, her breath faster.
“Shh.” Not wanting her to spiral back into the dark, I moved so that I was seated beside her, my arm around her—like Ajay, I was careful of her injuries, but being able to do this, hold her so close, God, fuck, it meant so much. “I’m here, baby. You don’t have to be afraid.”
“I was hurt,” she murmured, leaning into me, “like Ani was hurt. That’s all I can remember thinking.”
I didn’t push her for more. Not when she was so wounded and barely holding it together. I just held her until she asked to lie back down, then sat with her as she fell into a disturbed sleep.
Every so often, she’d whimper, and it was always the same name.
Ani.
A chill of certainty began to spread through my veins. I’d been wrong about the inciting incident for Bobby’s rage. It hadn’t had anything to do with his upcoming bankruptcy. No, I had the strong feeling that for whatever reason, Diya had confronted him with Ani’s murder, breaking the silence held by the entire family for almost twenty years.
“Ani,” Diya whimpered again. “No! No! No!”
Her eyes snapped open, both hands flying to the sides of her head. “Stop, stop!”
“Baby, wake up.” I cupped her face as one of the monitors began to beep. “You’re in the hospital. Diya.”
Dark, dark eyes stared into mine, her pupils so huge they nearly eclipsed her irises. “The wind chime, Tavi, the wind chime won’t stop.” She sobbed, her hands clutching at my wrists. “Please, please, make it stop! Ani, I’m so sorry! Ani!”
Chapter 58
Jocelyn
“Another loss at the tables?” Jocelyn raised an eyebrow as she put down her empty whiskey tumbler. “Tut-tut, my dear, this losing streak is starting to make you unattractive.” Jocelyn didn’t know why she was being so spiteful to Tavish except that it was a way to crack that armor of easy charm he wore like a shield.
The same things that had drawn her to him—his intelligence and composure—now irritated her, making her feel like she was on the outside looking in.
As she watched, he smiled at her. “You’re in a vicious mood, aren’t you, Joss?” Walking over, he cupped her cheek, kissed her softly on the lips. “I wouldn’t be a loser if you hadn’t dragged me deeper and deeper into the world of high-stakes gambling.”
“So it’s my fault you have no self-control and no skill?”
He stepped back, shook his head. “No. But I don’t think I can play your games tonight.” The curtains closing over his eyes, shutting her out. “I’ll see you tomorrow when you’re in a better mood.”
“Fuck off, then.” She wasn’t about to beg any man to stay. “Get out!”
He was already at the door. Opening it, he stepped out into the hallway before glancing back. “You look beautiful in that gown.”
“Fuck you!” Picking up the glass she’d just put down, she threw it at him.
It smashed against the doorjamb.
He stood there, hands in his pockets, his smile sad in a way that infuriated her. She knew all about Susanne—oh, he never talked about her, but Jocelyn had connections, had heard all about their fucking love story.
But he wouldn’t give her that, give her what he’d given Susanne Winthorpe.
Screaming, she walked over and slammed the door in his face, then kicked off her heels and poured herself another drink.
She was on her fourth one when she walked into the bedroom to find candles burning on the decorative hearth…and a neat row of brightly colored pills on her bedside table. Her mouth watered, her hand already reaching for them before she realized Tavish must’ve put them there.
“I shouldn’t have been such a bitch,” she mumbled to the room as she swallowed one dry and let the drug work its way into her system with unhurried ease.
The hit was intense when it came, made her sway languidly as she danced to inner music while the breeze from the open balcony door swept over her. She really shouldn’t have been so nasty to Tavish. He’d clearly meant for them to party tonight—even though the boy had always previously refused to sample drugs, no matter how much she tried to tempt him into a taste.
Undoing the button at the back of her neck, she let her long black gown fall to her feet, then made her way to the bathroom…to be greeted by countless other candles and a full bubble bath on which floated rose petals as red as blood.
She’d come in here to remove her makeup but now ran her fingers through the bubbles. She could’ve been in that bath with her lover right now if she hadn’t been so vicious to him.
Going back to the room dressed in her panties, she picked up her phone and called Tavish. When he didn’t answer, she sent him a message: Sorry for being a bitch. Thank you for the romance and the chocolates.
That was what she’d always called her little fun-time pills—but they were better than chocolate to her. And she couldn’t resist when they were in front of her, which was why she only bought two at a time. But gorgeous Tavish had given her five, and Jocelyn saw no reason to resist temptation.
Not when she’d fucked up her night so royally.
At least this would make her feel good.
A faraway horn drifted in through the balcony doors as the second dose made its way into her system. She danced again, but she was already getting hot as she always did when she partied. That was all right. It was why she had a balcony. She’d go out there for some fresh air after she’d indulged a little more.
Just one more chocolate, one more hit of happiness.
Chapter 59
Shumi still wasn’t fully conscious by nightfall, her body and mind trapped in a twilight space that was silent purgatory.
Her entire family was camped out in her room, but when I looked across at her mother from the doorway, I glimpsed only a kind of resigned tightness in her expression. Playing a role, being what the world expected of mothers.
“Would you like food, coffee?” I asked them. “Diya’s in a deep sleep so I’m going to head out and hit up a fast-food joint.” My appetite had returned with a vengeance with my wife’s awakening, my entire body suddenly, wildly alive.
To my surprise, Mrs. Kumar got up. “I’ll come with you,” she said. “I need to get away for a while.”
Neither her husband nor Ajay made any move to stop her, and we were soon driving through the night-shadowed streets of Rotorua. I didn’t know what to say to her, so kept my silence…and as my father had taught me, the silence weighed her down until she had to break it, had to speak.
“You think I’m a bad mother, don’t you?” Words formed into hard little pellets. “I see the judgment on your face.”
I’d been extremely careful in all my interactions with her—and I knew how good I was at hiding what I wanted to hide. “Mrs. Kumar, I don’t know you,” I said with open awkwardness. “I’ve been focused on Diya all this time.”
She was stiff in the passenger seat for a long minute before she seemed to fold in on herself. “I’m sorry.” Words so tired they were near inaudible. “I just…I could never bond with my daughter. That makes me sound awful, but I tried. I just couldn’t.
“It wasn’t about Shumi being a girl and Ajay being a boy like some people whispered. I wanted a little girl, had all these baby dresses already picked out for her, was ready for us to do the mother-daughter things I saw other mothers with girls doing, but when she came…I felt nothing.”
It took effort to see past my own experience of emotional neglect. “Postpartum depression?”
“Yes, I think so, looking back. But I’m not educated like Sarita was—I was a village girl. I didn’t understand that anything was wrong, just thought I was a bad mother. It did get better after a while, but by then, she was four and she knew deep inside that I didn’t love her.”
Her sobs were loud in the car, and even though we’d arrived at the fast-food restaurant, I didn’t go into the drive-through. Pulling into their small parking lot instead, I said, “I’m really sorry.”
This woman wasn’t Audrey, who’d made a conscious choice to neglect me.
“I blame myself,” she said at last, after she could speak again, “about how she got so hung up on Bobby. He paid attention to her when she was little, used to help her if she fell, small things like that. It sounds like nothing, but for a child who knows her mother doesn’t love her…it was everything.”
The waterfall of her words wouldn’t stop.
“She followed that whole family around like a little pet. She’d do anything for them—but at least Rajesh and Sarita and especially Diya were nice to her. I was happy she had a best friend in that house, even if Diya would never see the reality of who her brother was, what he did to Shumi when they were alone.”
Digging out a tissue from her bag, she wiped at her face. “I tried to get her away from Bobby after that girl died at the beach, but it was too late. She had no respect for me and no desire to follow my wishes. Later, when I saw the bruises on her, I told her that people who love you shouldn’t hurt you, and she just laughed in my face and told me I should’ve taught myself that lesson.”
Another bout of tears…followed by a painful silence.
“She’s alive,” I said to her. “You have a chance to be there for her if you really want to be.” I hadn’t forgotten what the nurse had said, about how disconnected Mrs. Kumar seemed when it came to her daughter.
“Yes.” She shoved the tissue back in her bag. “Let’s get the food. I know everyone’s hungry. And Ajay likes the sugary drinks they do, the ones with all the ice cream and chocolate. We have to make sure we order that.”
Chapter 60
Diya
Diya sent off the email to her favorite baked goods supplier—it was an order for a “cupcake cake” for a sixteenth-birthday bash. The birthday girl was the only grandchild in two very loving families, her sweet sixteen looking to be bigger than many a wedding.
Still, the girl didn’t seem spoiled—she’d been fun to work with when it came to selecting cupcake flavors and the style of decoration. But it was a good thing Diya had taken care of all of that before she’d made the impulsive decision to stay on in Los Angeles.
Teenagers might be fine with texting and video calls, but their parents wanted actual meetings with the event planner they’d hired to make their girl’s day “just perfect.”
Having ticked off that task, she scanned down the list to see what else was outstanding.
Her phone buzzed.
She glanced down, unsurprised to see Bobby’s smiling face populating the screen. She’d taken the photo the day of his wedding, happy that he’d now be focusing all his attention on his new bride. Shumi seemed to like the jealous intensity of his attention, and Diya was more than ready for the other woman to have all of it.
But, no, Bobby hadn’t backed off an inch when it came to Diya.
She declined the call as she’d declined multiple others in the past hour.
But of course her neurotically overprotective brother couldn’t let it go. He sent her a text: I’m coming to LA to bring you home.
Face hot, Diya picked up her phone, her fingers flying over the keyboard: Good luck finding me in a city of millions. And don’t try to ask Risha—she thinks I already flew home. She purposefully hadn’t told her friend about the change in plans, not wanting to put her in the middle of this mess. Risha was one of the few true friends she still had, and she couldn’t lose her as she’d lost Kalindra and Rhiannon and Violet.
Don’t be stupid, Dee, Bobby replied. You know I’m only looking out for you. Mum and Dad are worried sick—Mum found your extra meds, knows you’re about to run out. And, Dee, you know what happens when you don’t take your meds.
Diya wanted to scream. I hate you all. You’re my jailors, not my family. I. HATE. YOU!
Chapter 61
“I went to Fiji,” I confessed to Diya at five the next morning, the staff having allowed me to sneak in because Diya was wide-awake when I called the ICU to check on her status. I needed to buy her a phone so she could contact me when she wanted, would do so as soon as the shops opened today.
