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“Because it might involve me,” Lisa answered. “Go ahead, Laura.”
“Were you friends with Lily?” Laura asked.
“I wouldn’t say we were friends exactly.”
“She came here,” Ryan quickly volunteered, and Lisa was glad for it. His observation was purely innocent. “Uninvited. It was uncomfortable, like she’d muscled her way in and it was going to take an act of God to get her out of the house.”
“How’d you get rid of her?” Laura asked.
“I had the nanny bring all four kids in to play,” Lisa answered. “There might have been an additional cousin or three, as well, so it was chaotic.”
“Why’d she intrude like that?” Laura asked.
“She was curious about us,” Ryan said. “She was flirting with me in front of Lisa, too, which I hated. I acted appreciative just to get rid of her without pissing her off.”
“She was awful,” Lisa said, her voice a little louder than usual. “She had huge boobs, and she was practically tossing them at Ryan. What he said is a perfect summation of her; she was trying to encroach on my life with Ryan.”
“Why is that, do you think?” Laura asked.
“She was obsessed with our situation as brother and sister, all of that. If that becomes part of the conversation, you know what will happen, don’t you, Laura?” she asked, hysteria in her voice. “Ryan will go to jail. Or I will. Or even Alison.”
“Why Alison?” Laura asked.
“Because she has a child of Ryan’s, too.”
“I think it’s irrelevant,” Laura said, glancing at Ryan. “Look, I’m going to tell you that the chances of you going to jail even if anything came of this are slim. Neither of you have any criminal record.”
“Well, Ryan does, sort of, even though the charges were dropped.”
“Jeez, why do I always end up being the bad guy?” Ryan whined.
“When you play, you pay,” Lisa said. Then to Laura, she added, “Do you know the story of how Alison and Ryan got together? It was at one of my mother’s parties, and alcohol was involved.”
“Don’t tell her that,” Ryan yelled.
Lisa put her finger up to hush him. “Ryan and I weren’t seeing each other, not at the time, anyway. It was sick! But later, we had to be together. And Lily got wind of the relationship last summer and was going to do something. She said she’d already talked to Alan Stone about it.”
“Interesting,” Laura said. “I keep hearing the names Alan Stone and Lily Porter in the same sentence. He’s the detective on the murder investigation. But you know that.”
“I do. As I said, he’s coming here this afternoon.”
“Call Dan, please,” Laura repeated. “Just ask him to be present when Alan is here.”
After a few minutes of small talk, Laura got up to leave.
“If you want to talk, just give me a call,” she said. “I’m waiting for some results from the autopsy that should help clarify some things.”
After Laura left for home, Lisa had to sit for a while to recover from the shock. The sensation that she was floating was so powerful, she had grabbed on to a bar stool to keep from falling over when Laura told them about the bullet.
“You okay, babe?” Ryan asked.
“I’ll live. What would you like for dinner tonight? I think I’ll run to the store.”
“Surprise me,” he said, loading his palette with paint. “I’m inspired.”
“Ha! Laura has that effect on you.”
He leaned over to kiss her. “No, actually it was you. I’m so glad I have you. Laura has the capacity to make a man miserable. I think the term is crotch Nazi.” He laughed when he said it.
