Then
‘What Adam thing?’ Patrick asks.
‘What?’
‘You said there was what Haruto saw, Aunty Sam sneaking around, Ben and Felix messaging and the Adam thing. What’s the Adam thing?’
Bugger.
I’ve blurted it out in annoyance, forgetting for a moment that Patrick didn’t know about Adam not recognising Felix in a photo.
‘Is that what I said?’ I ask, stalling.
‘You know you did. I only had one coffee this morning or I would have caught it earlier.’
‘One coffee? I’m worried about you.’
‘My caffeine addiction is not the issue here. What’s the Adam thing?’ Patrick asks.
‘I thought you weren’t interested,’ I say, but I’m still stalling, because of course we all know I’m going to tell him what Lilia found out.
Actually, I’m going to do more than that: I’m going to tell him what I think it means.
I’ve been wanting to confide in Patrick all this time and here I am, having my hand forced.
‘Adam never met Felix,’ I say, slowly, because I’m still trying to think it through. ‘Lilia showed him a photo of Felix and—’
‘When did she even see Adam?’ Patrick asks.
‘She ran into him at a coffee shop,’ I say, which is the truth. Then, under Patrick’s sceptical gaze I add: ‘I think she was stalking him a bit. Anyway, so she showed him a picture of Felix.’
‘Why would she do that?’
‘She was trying to show him a photo of Aunty Sam. Felix also happened to be in the picture.’
‘Why was she showing him a picture of Aunty Sam?’
‘To see if it really was Aunty Sam he saw the night of the party,’ I snap. ‘Stop interrupting, I can’t think.’
‘You’re saying Adam looked at the photo of Aunty Sam and … what? Was it really her he saw that night?’
‘Yes, but that’s not the point.’
‘Your aunt being at Felix’s house the night he died isn’t the point?’
‘No. He recognised Aunty Sam, but he didn’t recognise Felix.’ I wait to see if Patrick gets it.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Adam didn’t know who Felix was,’ I say, as slowly as I can, to make sure he hears every word.
‘And?’
‘Lilia thinks it means that Adam wasn’t there that night at all.’
‘Okay. Shit.’ There’s a wariness in Patrick’s voice I don’t quite understand. He almost sounds scared.
‘Adam didn’t lie,’ I say. ‘He was there that night. It was Felix who wasn’t there.’
‘But he must have been there – he died. Maybe Adam’s got that face blindness thing? You know, the thing Brad Pitt has where he can’t recognise faces.’
‘I hate Brad Pitt,’ I say automatically.
‘Me too,’ Patrick says. ‘Team Angelina.’
We sit down on the couch, cleaning forgotten.
‘Adam met someone that night, but it wasn’t Felix,’ I continue. ‘It’s the only explanation that fits all the facts.’
‘How does that fit any of the facts? If someone was pretending to be Felix, the guests would have noticed.’
‘None of them had ever met him before,’ I say. ‘Remember? Also, I went back to Jade and Haruto’s yesterday to ask them.’
‘What? When did you have time for that?’
‘I told Aunty Sam I was going for a run before dinner.’
Patrick snorts. ‘And she believed you?’
I ignore that.
‘Only Haruto was home, but I showed him a photo of Felix and he didn’t recognise him either.’
‘Elena, though,’ Patrick says. ‘You can’t tell me my sister wouldn’t have recognised her own husband.’
‘I’m not saying that.’ But I stop paying attention to Patrick because my phone is lighting up with notifications from Lilia and Aunty Sam.
‘Shit.’
‘What is it?’
‘I better call Aunty Sam. Something might have happened.’
‘You don’t have another brother who might have died, do you?
’ he says as I stand and walk away from the couch.
I wind up by the pile of boxes, which is enough to remind me why I’m really here.
With my back to Patrick, I prop the phone between my face and shoulder and search through the stack of boxes until I find the one I want, noisily ripping off the tape on the top.
‘What was that?’ Patrick calls.
‘Hi, I missed some calls from you,’ I say into the phone when Aunty Sam answers, waving Patrick away.
‘Heidi. Where are you? Are you still with Patrick?’ she asks.
‘We’re at Elena’s,’ I say, surprised at her tone. ‘We’re waiting for the truck to pick up the boxes that are going to the op shop.’
‘You’re okay?’
‘Yeah. Why?’ I say, lifting out a stack of t-shirts from the box in front of me.
‘Did you just open that?’ Patrick asks, suddenly behind me.
‘You didn’t answer your phone,’ Aunty Sam says.
Aunty Sam’s not in character. Something is going on with her and I don’t know what. Nor do I know how to ask. Before I can ask anything, though, my hands find what they’ve been looking for and I grab the t-shirt. The band name WILCO looks back at me. Flushed with triumph, I hug it to my chest.
Beside me Patrick raises his eyebrows.
Aunty Sam starts speaking again without me having to say a word. ‘There’s something I should have told you,’ she says. ‘I was at Felix’s house the night he died.’
‘You told me that already,’ I point out.
‘I saw something.’
‘What?’
‘I saw someone,’ Aunty Sam clarifies.
Patrick reaches out a hand to try and take the t-shirt from me, curious, but I shake my head and hug it tighter. He looks irritated, then goes back to the vacuuming, so I have to cover one ear to hear Aunty Sam clearly.
‘What did you see? I mean who did you see?’ I ask Aunty Sam.
‘I saw Elena and … someone inside the house. I thought it was Felix, at first.’
‘Wasn’t it?’
But I’m sure I know what she’s going to say.
I got there first.
Because there must be a good reason why Adam and Haruto didn’t recognise Felix in the photos.
The only explanation I can think of is that someone else was here pretending to be Felix.
Elena would have had to be in on it, and there’s only one person I can think of who is close enough to her to do something on this scale.
Michael.
Who I watched tap in the alarm code to Felix and Elena’s house and rush to the bathroom, despite having supposedly never been here before.
‘He was dressed like Felix. Wearing his clothes, I mean,’ Aunty Sam says.
Michael.
An actor who would be more capable than anyone else of adopting a disguise and pulling it off.
‘I only got a glimpse, but when I got closer, I realised it wasn’t Felix at all,’ Aunty Sam continues.
Michael.
Who was with me at the house when we found that I’m sorry note, which was surely supposed to add credibility to the idea that Felix might have killed himself. I don’t know for sure that Michael was staying at the hotel where that stationery came from, but I’d be willing to bet on it.
Michael.
Who accidentally destroyed both that note and the weird golden thread that I never really got a chance to look at closely. Plus Patrick mentioned he’d been dyeing his hair, which could mean that he …
‘It was Patrick,’ Aunty Sam says.
‘Patrick?’ I say. Or maybe I yelp. Possibly even shriek it. Because Patrick cannot be the person who was here that night, posing as my brother. Michael is the only person who makes sense.
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re only mentioning this now?’
‘When I saw him there that night, I thought he must have come for a visit. Then the next morning, Felix was dead and I didn’t really think anything about it.’
‘Did you ask Patrick about it?’
‘No. I couldn’t imagine Patrick laying a finger on Felix. It’s ridiculous. But when he claimed to have only flown into town for the funeral, and Elena didn’t say anything about seeing him that night … I wondered. I even tried to look through his phone, to see if there were any, you know, clues.’
‘Aunty Sam, did you steal Patrick’s phone?’ I ask.
‘I couldn’t even get past the passcode. What year was he born anyway? I panicked and put it in the junk drawer, I’m sure it’s still there.’
I don’t even know where to start with any of this.
‘I’ve tried to keep you two from spending too much time together,’ Aunty Sam says.
‘And I’ve hardly let Elena out of my sight.
I know I’m being over-protective and that’s not what I’m about, but I think you should come home.
Patrick and Michael are flying back to Melbourne tonight, and I’d feel better if you stayed at home until then. ’
There’s silence on the other end of the phone as Aunty Sam waits for me to reply. Fair enough. Unfortunately, I’m a little distracted by the silence on my side of the call and the sudden realisation that the hum of the vacuum has stopped. I turn around to see Patrick is behind me once again.