He shook his head but it was a rough motion, jerky. “Wake up.”
I sucked in breath, not wanting to answer the question, not wanting Alec to have that information, either answer I could give. But knowing I had to, I nodded.
He nodded his head, that motion was rough and jerky too. “What’d you do after you fed your cat?”
“I did yoga.”
Alec’s brows snapped together and now he was looking at me like I had a screw loose. “You do yoga?”
“Well…yeah.”
He looked away muttering, “Christ.”
I didn’t know what was wrong with yoga but I didn’t ask. I wanted this to be done. In fact, I wanted the day to be done, the year, I wanted it to be a year from now when all this would be faded and a whole lot less real.
“Like I was saying, I did yoga, took a shower and then walked to Meems’.”
“Anyone see you walk to Meems’?” Alec asked.
“What’s this about?” Morrie sounded like he was getting pissed.
“Just let me ask the questions. It’ll be over and we can move on,” Alec answered.
“Jessie,” I cut in, still on a mission to get my story out so this could be over and we could move on. “I walked to her place and then Jessie walked with me to Meems’.”
Jessie Rourke and Mimi VanderWal were my best friends, had been since high school.
“You and Jessie went to Meems’, what next?” Alec asked.
“We hung out at Meems’, had coffee, a muffin, shot the shit, the same as every day,” I answered. And it was the same as every day, although sometimes Jessie didn’t come with and it was just me and my journals, or a book or the paper, and my cup of coffee and muffin at Meems’.
I preferred when Jessie was there. Meems owned the joint and by the time I got there it was a crush so she didn’t have time to gab. She had a plaque that said “reserved” that she put on my table, though everyone knew it was my table and no one ever sat there in the mornings but me. She didn’t need the plaque, one of her kids carved into the table, “Feb’s Spot, sit here and die.” Meems’ kids were a bit wild but they were funny.
“When’d you leave Meems’?” Alec asked.
I shrugged. “Ten o’clock, probably around there. Came straight here.” Coming straight to J&J’s wasn’t far. It was two doors down from Mimi’s Coffee House. “I opened up, started the coffee going and went to the back hall to take out the trash I knew was probably there. It was there. I opened the door, grabbed the bags and—”
I stopped and looked down at the garbage bags beside me. The rest didn’t need to be said.
Alec’s voice came at me. “You see anything else, Feb?”
I took in a breath because I needed it and I thought it was a big one but it felt shallow. My chest felt empty like I could breathe and breathe but there was not enough breath to fill it, never would be again and I looked at him.
“Anything else? Anyone in the alley when you went out?”
Morrie got closer to me, his arm sliding around my shoulders. “Jesus, Colt. What the fuck you sayin’?”
“She’s warm,” Alec answered, his words were clipped, short, bitten off like he didn’t want to say them but he had to and he wanted them out of his mouth as fast as he could do it.
“Warm?” I asked.
I watched his teeth sink into his bottom lip. I knew why he did this. I’d seen him do it a lot in my life. He did it when he was seriously, seriously hacked off.
“The body,” he said. “Angie.”
“What?” Morrie asked.
“She’s still warm,” Alec answered. “She’s not been dead long.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. That empty feeling in my chest started burning. The vomit rolled back up my throat and I had to swallow it down.
“Are you fucking shitting me?” Morrie exploded.
“You see anything, Feb? Hear anything? Any movement? Anything?” Alec pushed. He wanted answers but he was going about it quiet, gentle.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Morrie cursed.
“Morrie, you aren’t helping,” Alec told him.
“Fuck that, Colt. My sister opened the door to a fresh murder scene!” Morrie bellowed. “You’re sayin’ the guy coulda been out there?”
I felt my muscles seize.
Alec either saw it or sensed it and his voice went scary when he said, “Morrie, for fuck’s sake, you aren’t fucking helping.”
Morrie and Alec may have been best friends since kindergarten but they fought, a lot. It was never pretty and it could get physical. It hadn’t happened in a while but, then again, nothing this big had happened in a while.
“I didn’t see anything,” I said quickly and I didn’t. And, at that moment, I was glad I didn’t.