‘—help me? Get him off me! Max! Cut it out!’ But Holly isn’t moving either. Finally, I manage to twist myself from under him, and I scramble to my knees. ‘What the hell?’
But something is wrong. Max’s eyes are open, but vacant.
I take his face in my hands. ‘Max? Are you all right?’
Nothing.
My heart is thumping in my ears. ‘Max? Can you hear me? Did you hit your head?’ But that can’t be. I’m the one who hit my head. I’m the one who broke the fall. He was on top of me.
I look up at Holly as I press down on his chest. ‘I think he’s had a heart attack. We need to call?—’
But I feel it before I see it. The knife Holly was using to cut her apple minutes earlier.
It’s wedged deep in Max’s left side.
7
I stare at Holly, then look down at Max again. ‘Max?’ I say softly.
Nothing.
‘Is he dead?’ Holly asks.
I put my ear close to this mouth. Nothing. Then a sudden gurgling sound that makes me recoil.
‘Oh my God. Max?’ I put my hand on his cheek. ‘We’re getting an ambulance. It’s going to be all right. Holly! Get my phone! Call the ambulance, Holly!’
‘I think he’s dead,’ she says, her eyes still trained on him.
‘What? No! He’s not!’ But when I look at his face again, I notice that something is different.
I put my fingers on his neck, feeling for a pulse.
‘But that can’t be.’ I look down at the knife, still wedged deep inside him. ‘There’s hardly any blood.’ I check his wrist for a pulse. Nothing.
I bend down again, my ear to his lips. Nothing.
I look up at Holly. ‘We have to call an ambulance. If he is dead, then… I mean, they’ll know what to do.’
‘What do you mean if? Heisdead, Kate! Look at him, for Christ’s sake! There is no if!’
‘All right. It’s all right. Don’t panic. We have to call the police.’ I stand, and a wave of vertigo almost knocks me over. I lean back against the table for support.
‘Are you kidding me?’ Holly’s mouth is distorted, like she wants to scream. ‘You can’t call the police? What will happen to me?’
‘Oh, Holly. It was self-defence! We’ll tell them what happened. It will be all right.’
She looks at me like I’m mad, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘And you think they’ll believe that?’
I try to replay the scene in my brain, but it’s a blur. Did Max hit her? I don’t think so. I can’t remember, but he’s never hit Holly before. Although his moods, his temper, it was escalating lately. Was he strangling her? I look at her throat. It doesn’t look bruised. He had his hand on the back of her neck, I remember that. And a fistful of her hair. I remember that too. Is that enough for self-defence?
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I say. ‘We’ll tell them he was attacking you and you had to defend yourself. That’s what we’ll tell them.’
She shakes her head violently. ‘No. We can’t. They won’t believe it. He didn’t have, like, a gun. It’s not like he was about to shoot me. And everybody liked him, remember? They’ll arrest me. They’ll say I murdered him!’ She’s completely hysterical now, her face red.
I take her in my arms and hold her tight. She’s shaking uncontrollably. ‘It’s all right. It’s going to be all right. Listen to me, Holly. I’ll?—’
The doorbell rings.
