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Luis is next to me, eyes transfixed by the screen.
The medical examiner’s office is yet to determine the cause of death. At this stage it’s not clear whether the police are treating the death as suspicious. Investigators did not release any other information.
My cell rings and I look for my bag, which I find hooked on the back of the chair in the kitchen.
It’s June.
“Hi.”
“I saw the news—”
“I know. It’s awful. We were just watching it as well.”
“—and I’m not comfortable about lying, about whether we were together last night.”
I walk out of the kitchen and through to the backyard. A gust of wind makes me shiver. I sit on a dry patch on the top step. “It’s not really lying, June.”
“Well, it is, actually. We weren’t together. I don’t want to make a big deal of it—”
“Why did you change your mind?”
“I don’t know, Anna. I just don’t feel comfortable with this. If you haven’t done anything…”
I just can’t speak. I sit there, my head shaking like a broken toy. “I haven’t done anything,” I manage to say. “Did the police contact you?”
“Of course not.”
“Okay, so there’s no problem then.”
“But there will be a problem, Anna.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because the cops will want to know where you were last night. They’re going to ask you for an alibi and you—”
“Why would they do that?”
“Oh, come on. Because your husband was having an affair with her! If she was killed—”
“Wow, back up a second. Nobody said she was killed. They think it was an accident, okay? I mean, I should know, I’m the one who spoke to the police earlier.”
She waits a moment. “Look, I’m just not comfortable, that’s all. Wherever you were last night—”
“I told you, I was drinking. I went to a bar. Bars.”
“So you’re covered, then. Just tell them where you went. You don’t need me to lie for you.”
I rub my forehead. I need to think. I’m so tired and my brain isn’t working properly. Luis comes to the door, watches me.
“Can I come over? We could talk…” I ask.
“What, now?”
“Yes, please. Please, June.”
It’s raining again and I left my umbrella at home. By the time I arrive at June’s house, water is dripping down my neck and into the collar of my jacket.
I take off my coat and lay it on the back of a chair while June makes room for me on the sofa by grabbing a pile of magazines and articles and putting them on a table near the window. She disappears and returns with two mugs of something warm and caramel-colored.
