THEN #2
‘Farnoosh is a journalist,’ Sarah tells us. She turns to Farnoosh. ‘They want to know about the night Felix died.’
‘What about it?’
‘What happened when you went out to look for him?’
‘I thought he must be having a smoke just outside, but when I went out he wasn’t there,’ Farnoosh says. ‘I went up the path to see if he’d gone for a walk.’
‘Wouldn’t it be kind of a weird time to go for a walk?’ Patrick asks.
‘Kind of. But I wondered if maybe he was still pissed off from the fight,’ Farnoosh says.
‘Fight?’ I say. ‘What fight?’
‘The fight between Felix and Elena.’ Farnoosh looks at our uncomprehending faces, then at Sarah. ‘Didn’t you tell them about that?’
Sarah looks as comfortable as she would if Farnoosh upended the coffee table. ‘This is Felix’s sister and Elena’s brother,’ she says quietly. ‘They don’t need to hear about some meaningless fight that has nothing to do with anything.’
‘It’s okay,’ I say, meaning are you kidding me. ‘Tell us.’
When Sarah doesn’t immediately jump in, Farnoosh tells us instead, looking at her phone the whole time like she’s hoping the call from the dodgy councillor might save her.
‘Sarah and I were the first to arrive that night. We were supposed to be there around seven, but I think we got there at ten to. When we got out of the car, we could hear Felix and Elena arguing inside the house. They weren’t shouting, but they were loud enough that we could hear them. ’
‘What were they arguing about?’ I ask.
‘Felix kept saying something like it’s too late and it’s done,’ Farnoosh says. ‘Elena wanted to do something – that’s the impression I got, but I can’t remember her actual words.’
‘She said it’s my fault,’ Sarah says. ‘I remember that.’
‘It was awkward,’ Farnoosh says. ‘I don’t really know these people and I have to witness them having a full-on domestic?’
‘I went back to the car and slammed the door really hard, so they’d hear us,’ Sarah says. ‘By the time we got to their front door, they seemed completely normal. It was nothing.’ She death-stares Farnoosh. ‘That’s why I didn’t even mention it.’
‘Farnoosh, can we go back to what happened when you went up the path looking for Felix?’ Patrick asks, possibly keen to head off an argument between Sarah and Farnoosh.
‘I walked up to the top of the path. You’ve seen it?
Then you know it’s not far and there was a moon out, so I didn’t even need my phone torch.
It wasn’t until I was coming back down that I noticed a few broken branches close to the path.
When I got closer, I thought I saw something yellow down in the water.
I wasn’t sure if I could get down there without twisting an ankle, so I went back to the house to see if Felix had returned. ’
‘But he hadn’t?’ Patrick asks.
‘Obviously not.’
‘What did you do?’ I ask.
‘When I stuck my head inside, everyone was still trying to get Elena out of the lift. I’d only been gone, what, less than ten minutes.
I grabbed Haruto – I know him best – and asked if he could come with me.
I told him I thought I’d seen something in the water.
It was pretty steep near the water, so it took us a few minutes to get down there – we kept slipping and nearly falling down.
I was wearing my favourite leather jacket and it got, like, sap or some shit on it.
’ Farnoosh looks sadder than she has at any point in this chat about my dead brother.
‘It’s still at the drycleaners,’ she adds.
‘What did you find when you got to the water?’ Patrick asks as though a happy ending is still possible here.
‘Felix was facedown in the water. We tried to pull him out, but his body felt stiff and his clothes were waterlogged.’ Farnoosh looks upset by the memory.
(Am I a bitch for wondering if she’s still thinking about her leather jacket?) ‘We were both covered in mud and other gross shit – sorry, kids. Finally, we got Felix out of the water and rolled him over. He wasn’t breathing and neither of us could find a pulse, so Haruto started CPR while I called an ambulance.
It seemed obvious he was already dead, he was so pale and cold already from the water, but he’d only been gone from the house for, what, twenty minutes or something.
It seemed like there might be a chance.’
Patrick looks at me, maybe wondering if I need a minute. ‘When did the ambulance get there?’ I ask, to prove that I don’t.
‘It took ages. Like at least twenty minutes, which is so far outside the service’s KPIs that it’s a joke. We didn’t realise at the time that there was a five-car pile-up in Peppie Grove – three Lambos, of course.’
‘Haruto did CPR that whole time while you were waiting?’
‘I took over for a bit when Haruto ran back to the house to tell everyone what was happening.’
‘Why didn’t you just call the others from your phone?’ I ask.
Farnoosh shrugs. ‘I tried Sarah, but it went to voicemail – she said later she was talking to the lift guy. Honestly, I think Haruto wanted to get away from the body, from Felix, for a bit.’
Farnoosh’s phone lights up and so does her face. ‘I’ve got to take this,’ she says, stepping out of the room. ‘Thank you for calling me back, councillor,’ she says in a professionally clipped tone.
‘Was Elena still in the lift this whole time?’ I ask Sarah, trying to put the timeline together and wishing I’d brought a notepad and pen.
‘She got out after Haruto came back,’ Sarah says, picking up the story.
‘We told her there’d been an accident, but we didn’t tell her what Haruto had said, that he thought Felix was dead.
We still thought the paramedics might, you know, bring him back.
Even with her stick Elena couldn’t get down to the water, so she had to wait for the ambulance to get there. ’
Lilia lets out a big sniff and I sincerely hope she’s got hay fever, because if I can hold it together, she bloody well should be able to.
‘Is there anything else you can remember about that night?’ I ask.
Sarah looks like she’s thinking about it.
‘Just that they were very sweet. Felix and Elena, I mean. They were so gentle with each other.’ She smiles at me.
‘I thought you might like to know that, Heidi, since it was their last night together. Long-term relationships can get stale.’ She looks at Patrick and me.
‘You two are way too young to know that.’
‘We’re just friends,’ Patrick says quickly.
‘Oh. Sorry. Is there anything else you want to know?’
Patrick looks at me. There is one thing I very much want to know, but was Elena having an affair is a hard question to get out.
Plus, I’m still trying to conceal my annoyance at the speed of Patrick’s clarification.
(Obviously we’re not a couple, but does Patrick really have to act like he’s prepared to hire a skywriter to declare it to the world?)
‘Was Elena particularly close to anyone at work?’ I ask when neither Patrick nor Lilia says anything.
‘We were all pretty close,’ she says. ‘School environments can be kind of intense, so when you find other teachers you like, you tend to stick together.’
‘She wasn’t closer to any one person in particular?’
‘Haruto maybe?’
‘Not Adam?’
‘Adam?’ Sarah seems surprised. ‘No more than anyone else. They did go on a school camping trip a few weeks before Felix died, I guess.’
I can feel Patrick’s eyes on me.
There’s an awkward little pause where none of us seems to know what to say. Then another one.
‘Thanks for having us today, Sarah,’ Lilia says finally, standing up. ‘We won’t take up any more of your time.’ She always did know the right moment to leave.
‘Talking to you has really helped,’ Patrick says, laying it on a bit thick. ‘Right, Heidi?’
‘Uh, yeah.’ I try to get into my role as traumatised teen in need of catharsis. ‘It’s a relief to know he was surrounded by, uh, friends before he died.’ This is a stretch, but Sarah, who is probably a nicer person than me, seems to buy it.
‘We’d like to talk to everyone who was there that night,’ Patrick says, pulling out his newly acquired secondhand phone. ‘Would you be comfortable passing on their numbers? I don’t want to trouble my sister.’
‘Um. Sure.’
Phone numbers are exchanged and small talk is made before it’s time for us to go.
‘Are we still on for a lesson on Friday?’ Sarah asks Lilia at the door.
‘Sure. Thanks again for having us.’
‘I know what Heidi means to you, Lilia,’ Sarah says, and I examine the tips of my brogues. ‘It was nice to meet you,’ she says to me. ‘I’m so sorry about Felix. He seemed like a sweet guy.’
A sweet guy. The phrase sticks with me as we say our goodbyes and return to the car and a sulky Ben.
Felix was many things. He was confident, arrogant, talented, petty, charismatic, mean and he could choose to be very charming when he wanted to make the effort.
But sweet? That’s the one description of my brother I find impossible to believe.