Quiet in Her Bones Singh, Nalini (the top 100 crime novels of all time .txt) 📖

but she said it was cool.” He rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I never would’ve thought it of Calvin, of all people. Burying a body in Diana’s rose garden. Cold, just cold.”

“What’re you doing here?”

A flush of color on his cheeks. “Just wanted to see Alice.”

Deciding I was too tired to beat around the bush, I said, “Adrian, satisfy my curiosity. Where did you get the money for your gym?”

I thought he’d tell me to fuck off, but he shrugged and said, “My nan died and left me her house. She lived in this poxy wooden place that was falling down around her ­ears—­I did what I could to make sure stuff worked, but the place was a dump and she refused to even discuss moving.”

“Yet it let you afford a gym?”

“It was in goddamn Grey Lynn.”

Lily sucked in a breath at the mention of the highly ­sought-­after ­inner-­city suburb that housed the city’s bankers and CEOs and other wealthy residents who needed to be close to the central business district without living in the city itself. No one would’ve cared for the state of the house; developable land in the area was pure gold.

“How much did you get?”

“Two million dollars. I would give it all back if it meant my nan was still alive. She was the only one who ever gave a shit about me.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Our eyes met, and he gave a quiet nod.

63

The hospital finally discharged me two days later.

The first thing I did was give Riki every single photo negative and video I had that would’ve allowed me to blackmail him.

I also apologized and told him I’d deleted any original digital files.

He said, “Would you do it again?”

“Yes. Someone murdered my mother.”

“You know what? You’re an asshole, but yeah, I’d have done it, too, for my mum.”

And I knew we were never ever going to discuss this again.

“Do you think it was you?” Riki asked, an odd ease to him.

Because I knew his secret. Because he didn’t have to hide it. “What?”

“The person who called the cops on Ana and Leo, do you think it was you? Since you were off your head?”

“I don’t even know. What happened?”

“Apparently, someone reported them anonymously for aiding in the abduction of a young woman. Turned out Leo’s cousin was just going on a road trip with her university buddies, and they decided to leave real late at night to avoid the traffic.”

“Well, if it was me, that probably looked very weird.”

Riki laughed, but it held a sharp edge. “What about Brett and ­Veda’s dog?”

“I don’t hurt animals.” It was all the answer I had, and it was the only answer I could accept.

Leaving Riki to destroy what I’d given him, I went to my father’s house to pack up my stuff. I found him sitting in his study, halfway to drunk, a photo of my mother on his desk. “Part of me kept hoping she’d crawl back.” Tears rolled down his face. “I loved her, that bitch. She’s still the most incredible woman I’ve ever known.”

I walked away without replying, shutting the door on the past.

EPILOGUE

FOUR MONTHS LATER

I sat on a large rock on a mountain in Udaipur, my mother’s ashes scattered to the winds. Beside me was the woman who’d become my friend, the two of us entwined by our broken pieces.

“Did you read the article this morning?” Lily asked from beside me. “About Calvin?”

“Yes.” All those years I’d known his family had died in a car ­accident—­I’d never thought to check the details. Who would? After all, how many car accidents were caused by a suicidal father driving his family off a bridge and into a massive dam?

Calvin should’ve been in that car, but he’d been running late.

So he’d been left behind.

But Lily was interested in the lead point of the article. “Guess he never thought anyone would dig up his former lover. Or that the chemicals would still be in Dr. Mehr’s liver. Yay for accidental mummification.”

“Yes.” Part of me had noted the mummification thing for use in a future book, while the rest of me had felt only a sense of quiet satisfaction that a woman I’d never known had been given justice.

So had my mother.

It turned out the police had been sitting on two pieces of evidence they’d never ­revealed—­the tip of a knife blade embedded in one of my mother’s ribs and, critically, foreign DNA found on a broken ­watch-­strap once drenched in my mother’s blood.

I’d learned that under the right conditions, DNA could easily survive a decade. They’d found ancient DNA thousands of years old in caves, and my mother’s car had essentially become a cave. Despite the cracked windows, the position of the strap hidden under the seat meant the elements had never reached it.

It had lain, cool and protected, as the seasons changed and the years passed.

It was such an odd place to find it that I knew my mother had done it on purpose. In her last moments of life, she’d found the will to finger her murderer.

But it had meant nothing until the police had a suspect.

Calvin had never been on their radar.

“Constable Neri called me this morning,” I said to Lily. “While you were in the shower.”

We’d told my grandmother that we were going for a walk, would return soon. She wouldn’t worry if we took longer. She’d have forgotten us within minutes. The cruel disease that had taken her mind had given her this one ­gift—­she was always happy to hear that her Nina was on the way to the village, that she’d arrive soon.

“What did she say?” Lily leaned forward, the short, sharp cut of her hair still a shock.

I’d thought it’d remind me of Paige, but it didn’t. They were two different women, each a unique presence.

“Calvin admitted everything a few hours ago, after Diana confronted him. He said he was protecting her. He hit on Sarah but she was horrified and planned to tell