The Lazarus Effect (25 page)

‘That’s so … despicable and sad.’ Chlöe had her hands over her neck. The room had emptied out. Connie had gone back to her shop, and Titus and Joshua had stepped outside to give them privacy to wrap up. ‘They were just two stupid sisters having a typical, stupid, sister argument. When I think of all the crap I’ve said to mine … But was it true?’

‘I doubt it. Carina was already pregnant with Rosie when Sean first developed leukaemia, so she couldn’t have been conceived for spares to save him.’ Vee sipped her juice. ‘They tore into each other and it spiralled out of control. Sean was always
the
most sensitive topic. We really should’ve looked more closely at what was right in front of us instead of chasing our tails. Rosie’s
face
is literally a suicide note. Flip the coin the other way and she could’ve easily been tipped into murder.’

‘Wow. This is
not
how I saw this ending.’ Chlöe massaged her temples. ‘I hate myself for forgetting to mention the conversation about the car to you. After I heard about the hit and run, my brain blanked out. That was so crucial. I’m such an idiot.’

Vee waved her quiet. ‘Ah, bygones. We’ve both had a lot to deal with lately. Now that my car is evidence, maybe you can
make good on your promise of being my driver.’ She chuckled. ‘It’s unreal knowing I’ve been connected to this case all along.’

Once Chlöe had got past the gravity of her oversight and recounted her chat with the rosy-cheeked Isabella, another piece locked into place. Serena had borrowed her roommate’s Toyota Corolla to get rid of Jacqui’s body. Knowing full well it was up for sale and that the trip likely wouldn’t be remembered or linked back to her, she returned the car and hoped for the best. Her prayers bought her two years and a twisted coincidence. The car was sold to a used car dealership, and driven off the lot a year later by Vee. Currently, it was being impounded, to be swept for evidence later. Forensics was no more hopeful about finding DNA in it than they’d been about Carina’s Mercedes. But Vee had a strong feeling there was something to find. Jacqui may have gone out lying down, but she wasn’t going to settle for not getting her final say. A part of her was somewhere in that car and the geeks would find it. Vee felt chilled to her marrow knowing she’d been driving around in a mobile casket for all these months.

‘When I offered Rosie a lift home that day, she looked like she was about to have a stroke. I think she even recognised the plate number. It didn’t make sense at the time.’ Vee remembered the amazement on Rosie’s face, like life had pulled the cruellest prank on her. ‘I thought it was because she was scared of being in my clutches. But she recognised the car, or probably can’t stand any model that looks like it. Must’ve been like reliving her worst nightmare driving in it again.’

‘That’s super
creepy
. Maybe that was your subliminal motivation for the investigation. You had premonitions, or felt these supernatural vibes in your soul …’ Chlöe made an eerie noise and twiddled her fingers under Vee’s nose. ‘Jacqui called out to you from the dead, ‘Veeeee…”

‘Stop it! Don’t joke about shit like that.’

Chlöe dropped her hands. ‘Whoa. Shem man, sorry. Didn’t mean to … but I get why you’re sensitive about it. All this time, the same car … But it’s a crappy coincidence, that’s all. You know that stuff’s not real, right?’

Vee mumbled something and fussed with the bedcovers. Every day without the visions, every day without another crushing attack, was a joyful one. She hoped to heaven it lasted. ‘I hope they find the body. Adele needs that real bad.’

The police were not optimistic they would find Jacqueline’s remains, even after the Fourie sisters had given them broad directions for where they had dumped her. The system of sewage pipes and waterways that drained into the Black River was convoluted, and after twenty-four months the body had surely moved.

‘They all need to move on, though God knows what they’ll be moving on to now.’ Chlöe cocked her head. ‘This’ll be the blow to destroy them forever. Serena and Rosie have screwed up their whole lives. And Carina …’

She and Vee shared a look. The fate of the girls before a criminal court looked bleak. Their mother’s was less certain. It was unlikely Carina would face serious criminal charges, but the impact on her psyche and career would be irreparable.

Once the statements collected from the Fourie sisters revealed that Rosie was indeed the hit-and-run driver, Carina’s motives for taking the fall became crystal clear: she wanted,
needed
, to protect her daughter. Ever since Jacqueline’s disappearance, Rosie had suffered from nightmares, and her monsters had come back to torment her when Vee had started poking around. The morning of the jogging incident marked an escalation. Convinced that Vee pumping her for information about Ian was actually a ruse to expose her, Rosie had taken matters into her own hands and gone after her the same way she’d gone after Jacqui. After the ordeal, Rosie had driven home behind the wheel of her mother’s battered car, witless with fright, and thrown herself into her mother’s arms. She had confessed everything and Carina, who had not played favourites among her children since Sean died, threw herself under the bus to protect the child she had always paid the least attention to.

‘Once Carina knew that Rosie had killed Jacqui, she went ride-or-die for her baby. Accident or not, she wasn’t going to let another one of her children perish because of yet another deeply unfortunate incident connected with Adele. Her mother bear instinct kicked in, but I think it was also the principle of the thing, not to let her daughter go down for Adele’s daughter.’ Vee dusted off the last of the mango. ‘Then you got Serena, who’d been protecting Rosie all along. And even Lucas, who, in his scatterbrained way, was trying to help. I don’t know if ‘destroy’ is the right word to use. The Fouries may be a lot of things, but they’re strong. They’ll cope,’ Vee said. ‘Call me crazy, but the person I feel the most sorry for is Etienne
Matongo. He lost so much in the DRC, only to rebuild it here and lose it all again. He had a home and now he has nothing.’

The deputy chief of security was AWOL. Security camera footage was missing from the WI’s surveillance system, and so were he and his family. Their home had been vacated, packed up hurriedly, and friends and neighbours were suspiciously lacking in helpful leads.

Chlöe looked floored. ‘How can you say that? He’s implicated in a murder enquiry and he did a runner. Serena’s refusing to implicate him in anything they did, so who knows how involved he was? If you ask me, he’s as guilty as they are.’

‘It’s not that simple, Chlöe. He struck me as a kind man who got sucked into this bullshit and put himself at risk to help those girls. We won’t ever know now, but that’s how I feel.’

‘Hhmmph, whatever you say. All I know is, we now have an article to write and it is going to
slay
. The madness has begun.’

Vee groaned and pulled the covers up to her chest. ‘Finegeh, no shop talk, please, ibekyu. I need one more week of rest.’

Chlöe rose. ‘I’ll take the hint. Should I call your boyfriends back in on my way out or …’

‘Okay, get out.’

Chlöe raised her hands in surrender. ‘Hey, no judgement. I knew you were a dark horse. Just make sure I get all the deets afterwards.’ She leaned down and hugged Vee, then straightened up and cleared her throat. ‘And um, thanks for everything, especially being there for me and taking all the hard knocks. It’s really been a great opportunity–’

‘Oh, shut up with the opportunity speech. Stop worrying. Portia owes me, owes
us
, in a big way, and this time I plan to milk it. You’re not going anywhere if I can help it.’

Chlöe’s face was sunrise as she sashayed out, already placing an excited call as she slipped out the door.

‘You look exhausted.’ Joshua came in, dragged the unoccupied chair as close to the bed as it could go without crushing his knees, and sat. He leaned on her, arms crossed on her hip, chin resting on his forearms.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’ Or something close to that,’ she said. ‘Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War.
That advice you gave me.’ He raised his eyebrows in a ‘not bad’ salute. ‘You look worried.’ She caressed his head, letting his hair wind around her fingers.

His eyebrows went a notch higher.
Should I be?

‘I said a lot of things. Before. About how friends should always be cool with each other because of how valuable friendships are and blah blah blah. Then we went and … you know … we misbehaved in a way that was the opposite of cool …’

‘Graphic misbehaviour.’

‘Yes. And now …’ She huffed. ‘It sounds ideal, but this kinda thing rarely works out. Rule number one, don’t screw your friends or screw them over. If–’

‘Hey. Whoa.’ He straightened up. ‘I get it. I’m the one who had a build-up to this. We don’t have to draw each other a map. It’ll be okay.’

‘So … Then …’
Do
not
be the one to ask what are we,
Vee warned herself. She waited.

He rooted through his jacket pocket. ‘Here.’

She jiggled the set of keys in her palm. ‘You’ve lost your Americanness. It has to be a whole rigmarole before you hand over keys to your place to a woman. I’m ashamed you’re this easy.’

‘Pipe down. It’s to somewhere you can be invisible for a while and relax, without worrying about people beating down your door for favours and interviews.’

‘Peace and quiet. Sounds awful.’ She beamed. ‘Can I have visitors?’

‘Whomever you please. Unrestricted access.’ A little tightness pulled at the corner of his eyes, but he kept his tone light.

She was slipping under when he left. She battled with her slumping eyelids, trying to keep them open as Titus went through the same motions, adjusting the chair so he could sit comfortably with his legs stretched out. Vee rested her eyes for a second. She felt like a fading icon that half the world was coming to pay their last respects to.

‘How’re you feeling?’

‘Exhausted.’ She plastered on the last smile she could manage for the day. ‘Alive and grateful.’

‘Glad to hear it.’ Titus stroked her hair, then took his hand away quickly, collecting himself. He averted his eyes to the wall, then turned back to her, taking both her hands in his. She kept breathing and waited. ‘I don’t know what more to say here. When we talked on your birthday … okay, we didn’t talk, we had an argument and I deserved everything you said to me. It doesn’t change how I feel about us.’

‘I can’t think or feel much of anything right now, Ti. I just want to put all this behind me and get back on my feet. Let me get back on my feet.’

‘Yeah, of course. I know. I’m sorry.’ He nodded vigorously. He looked up at last, spearing her with a stare of liquid hazel. ‘I don’t mean to sound selfish but …’

‘You were never selfish,’ she conceded in all fairness. ‘Not until … And I too, shouldn’t have been … well. It was what it was.’

‘Yeah.’ He darted his eyes around, closed them briefly as if overcoming some internal war, and met her eyes again. ‘All I’m asking is for you to think about us, if there’s still the possibility of an us. I have no right to ask or even hope more than that, but if there’s a chance …’

Vee felt a subtle shift in the fickle lay of the land beneath her ribcage. This was too much for one day. A yawn tried to disfigure her face; that too she fought and lost. ‘Titus. I don’t know anything now, and I won’t lie to you. But I need to process.’ She gave his arm a brief caress. ‘Just don’t ask me to give him up. I won’t give him up, Ti. That’s off the table.’

‘I fucked up but he’s my boy, Vee, Jesus …’ Titus’s voice was husky, snagging on his pride, his hurt.

‘That’s on you. You two can … settle or not settle it however y’all choose.’

He gulped and turned back to the window, his jaw muscles flexing so vigorously she expected to hear his teeth crumbling. Guilt took eager stabs all around her ribcage. It wasn’t fun or
comfortable watching him leveraged so easily off a long-held position of confidence.

At last, Titus relented with a brusque nod. ‘Okay. I’m right here. Take your time.’ He leant over her and brushed his lips over hers. Familiar strands of warmth nudged away the guilt and curled around her belly.

Vee brushed back and sank into the pillow, her eyelids pulling down the shutters over consciousness. Time was good. She needed a lot of it. Ten rice bags full and a dash on top.