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

Staring at them, I waited for the punchline. But neither of them laughed. “Diana makes the fudge.”

“Yes, and since it’s your favorite, Mrs. Liu’s been making extra just for you. According to her, Calvin not only volunteered to drop off the bags, he added chocolates to the package because”—­she looked down at her notes, then ­quoted—­“ ‘he felt so helpless, and he wanted to do something for Aarav, and Aarav’s always had a sweet tooth.’ ”

She glanced up. “We discovered a doctored bag of fudge in his office at work. We believe he was taking fresh bags, adulterating them with drugs, then swapping them out with the bags Diana prepared for you.”

I’d known that Calvin had dropped off that one bag, but it had meant nothing to me. Calvin did stuff like that for Diana all the time. “Dr. Binchy thought I was doing drugs. Why did you even check the food?”

“Because Dr. Binchy is an excellent physician,” Neri responded. “He took another look at your results in light of Calvin’s arrest, had the hospital run more blood panels, and came to the conclusion that the mix of drugs just didn’t make sense.”

A small smile from Regan. “Honestly? The two of us still thought you were doing some designer drug, but then we interviewed your ­sister—­don’t worry, we were very gentle, and her mother was with her throughout.”

I scowled, lifting my head a little from the bed. “Why would you interview her anyway?”

“Because children notice things, and they remember more than people realize,” Neri said.

“We asked her if she’d seen you eat anything strange,” Regan began, and I got ­it—­they’d wanted to see if Pari had unknowingly spotted me taking drugs. “You know what she said? That you mostly just eat candy and drink Coke, but she took a little of your favorite fudge to school one time and it made her sick, so she didn’t know why you liked it so much.”

I sucked in a breath, remembering that day she’d come home sick from school. “I always told her she could take whatever she wanted from my drawer.” Guilt twisted up my insides. “Is ­she—­”

“No serious effects,” Regan said. “She had only a minor dose.”

“My doctor told me I shouldn’t be having so much sugar,” I said on an exhale. “Guess I should’ve listened.”

No smile on her face, Neri said, “We also found your notebook in your pocket. One page has writing noticeably dissimilar to yours, referring to your father’s ­secretary—­is it possible Dr. Liu had access to it?”

Pain stabbed my head. “I don’t know. The memories are erratic.” Flashes of a glove box, of a hospital, of Diana’s worried face. “Why did Calvin come after me anyway?”

“He’s not talking, so we don’t know.”

Regan leaned forward. “How did you come to suspect him?”

“I didn’t. I thought it was Diana.” I told them how I’d tried to track down Sarah and failed, and of the sudden resurgence of a critical memory: my mother in Diana’s rose garden. “My mother wouldn’t have helped bury Sarah. Not if it was Calvin who killed her. That’s not why Mum died.”

“We currently have no evidence linking Calvin to your mother’s murder, though of course, we’re—­”

I was already thinking about something else, my mind unable to hold on to the present. “You should check up on a doctor he had an affair with who died of a sudden heart attack. She had little kids, so she must’ve been young.”

Both officers stilled.

“Alice probably knows her name.” Laughter bubbled up out of my gut. “You don’t even have to go ­far—­she’s in another ward of this hospital.” I’d seen the label printed on my sheets, realized we were both in the same facility.

The nurse bustled in at that moment to usher Neri and Regan out.

“Is Lily still here?” I asked her after they’d slipped away. The two hadn’t given me much, but right now, I felt oddly disassociated from it all.

“Who, dear?” The thin brunette plumped up my pillows.

My heart started to pound. “My friend. She’s petite, part Thai, with black hair.”

“I haven’t seen anyone like that.” She smiled at me before leaving the room, pulling the curtain shut behind her.

I gripped the sheets in my fists, a scream building inside me.

The curtain moved. “Hey. I went and got you a candy bar.” Lily waggled it in the air. “Your sweet tooth has to be aching.”

I pressed the buzzer and held it.

Lily tilted her head. “What’s the matter?”

The nurse ran back in. “What’s the problem? Are you in pain?” She nudged past Lily. “Excuse me, young lady.” A pause. “Oh, you’re the one he was looking for.” Then she glanced at me, her eyebrows lowered. “What was so urgent that you had to light up the call button?”

Lily made a “you’re in trouble” face at the same time.

I grinned and said, “Can I go for a walk?”

“I don’t see why ­not—­as long as you use your crutches,” the nurse said with a reluctant smile. “Your foot’s had a bit of a rest after that stunt you pulled. Digging a hole, I hear! That’s not how breaks heal, young man.”

Shifting her gimlet gaze to Lily, she said, “Keep an eye on him.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Only after the nurse was gone, and we were walking in the hallway, did Lily say, “What was that?”

“I thought I was hallucinating you. But in my defense, I was poisoned by a maniacal killer.”

When I turned left and began to head down the long and expansive hallway lit naturally by a row of windows, she said, “Where are we going?”

“To visit Alice.” I wanted to see if the cops had told her anything they hadn’t told me.

A buff man with light brown hair and golden skin was loitering outside her room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. “Aarav, hey man.” He held out a fist for a bump. “Crazy shit, huh?”

“Hey, Adrian.” I touched my fist to his. “Cops in there?”

“Yeah. I told them to leave Alice alone,