12.
Detective-Sergeant Adrian Quinlan: We’re looking at all angles, all possible motives.
Samantha: So we’re, like, seriously using the word . . . “murder”?
Four Months Before the Trivia Night
I want to have a playdate with Ziggy,” announced Chloe one warm summer night early in the new year.
“All right,” said Madeline. Her eyes were on her older daughter. Abigail had taken an age cutting up her steak into tiny precise squares, and now she was pushing the little squares back and forth, as if she were arranging them into some sort of complicated mosaic. She hadn’t put a single piece in her mouth.
Ed said quietly to Madeline, “Wasn’t Ziggy the one who . . . you know?” He put his hands to his throat and made his eyes bulge.
“What are you doing, Daddy?” Chloe giggled fondly. “Daft Daddy.”
“You should have a playdate with Skye.” Abigail put down her fork and spoke to Chloe. “She’s very excited about being in the same class as you.”
“That’s nice, isn’t it?” said Madeline in the strained, sugary tone she knew she used whenever her ex-husband’s daughter came up in conversation. “Isn’t that nice.”
Ed spluttered on his wine, and Madeline gave him a dark look.
“Skye is sort of like my sister, isn’t she, Mummy?” said Chloe now. Unlike her mother, she’d been thrilled to learn she was going to be in the same kindergarten class as Skye, and she’d asked this question about forty thousand times.
“No, Skye is Abigail’s half sister,” said Madeline with saint-like patience.
“But I’m Abigail’s sister too!” said Chloe. “So that means Skye and I must be sisters! We could be twins, like Josh and Max!”
“Speaking of which, have you seen Celeste since they got back from Canada?” asked Ed. “Those photos Perry put on Facebook were amazing. We should have a white Christmas one day. When we win the lottery.”
“Brrrr,” said Madeline. “They looked cold.”
“I’d be an awesome snowboarder,” said Fred dreamily.
Madeline shuddered. Fred was her little adrenaline junkie. If something could be climbed he climbed it. She could no longer bear to watch him skateboard. At just seven, he flipped and spun and hurled his skinny body through the air like a kid twice his age. Whenever she saw those cool, laid-back dudes interviewed on TV about their latest BASE-jumping/rock-climbing/how-can-we-do-our-best-to-kill-ourselves adventure, she thought, There’s Fred. He even looked the part with his scruffy, too-long surfer-boy hair.
“You need a haircut,” she said.
Fred wrinkled his freckled nose in disgust. “I don’t!”
“I’ll call Ziggy’s mum,” said Madeline to Chloe, “and arrange a playdate.”
She’d actually been meaning to call Jane since before Christmas, but work had gotten busy, and they’d been away up the coast in between Christmas and New Year’s. Poor Jane didn’t know anyone in the area, and she’d seemed so devastated that day after that awful incident at orientation.
“Madeline, are you sure that’s a good idea?” said Ed quietly. “He sounds like he might be a bit rough.”
“Well, we don’t know for sure,” said Madeline.
“But you said Amabella Klein pointed him out in a lineup.”
“Innocent people have been picked out of police lineups before,” said Madeline to Ed.
“If that kid lays a finger on Chloe—” began Ed.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” said Madeline. “Chloe can look after herself!” She looked at Abigail’s plate. “Why aren’t you eating?”
“We like Renata and Geoff,” said Ed. “So if their daughter says this kid, this Ziggy, hurt her, then we should be supportive. What sort of a name is Ziggy, anyway?”
“We don’t like Renata and Geoff that much,” said Madeline. “Abigail, eat!”
“Don’t we?” said Ed. “I thought I liked Geoff.”
“You tolerate him,” said Madeline. “He’s the bird-watcher, Ed, not the golfer.”
“Is he?” Ed looked disappointed. “Are you sure?”
“You’re thinking of Gareth Hajek.”
“Am I?” Ed frowned.
“Yep,” said Madeline. “Chloe, stop waving your fork around. Fred nearly lost an eye just then. Are you sick, Abigail? Is that why you’re not eating?”
Abigail laid down her knife and fork. “I think I’m going vegan,” she said grandly.
Bonnie was a vegan.
“Over my dead body you are,” said Madeline.
Or over somebody’s dead body, anyway.
Thea: You know that Madeline has a fourteen-year-old daughter, Abigail, from her previous marriage? I feel so sorry for children from broken homes, don’t you? I’m just so glad I can offer my children a stable environment. I’m sure Madeline and Bonnie were fighting about Abigail at the trivia night.
Harper: I actually heard Madeline say, “I’m going to kill someone before the night is out.” I assumed it was something to do with Bonnie. Not that I’m pointing fingers, of course.
Bonnie: Yes, Abigail is my stepdaughter, and it’s absolutely true that Abigail had a few, well, issues, just typical teenage girl issues, but Madeline and I were working together as a team to help her. Can you smell lemon myrtle? I’m trying this new incense for the first time. It’s good for stress. Take a deep breath. That’s it. You look like you need a little stress relief, if you don’t mind my saying.