‘Mum, I’ll be back tomorrow,’ says a voice from the other room.
I step out into the living room and Mum and Dad are with Victoria and someone else I can’t quite see until he steps out from behind her.
‘Molly Raven, this is my son, Shawn. He lives downstairs, you might recognise him from the internet, or . . .’
‘Hi,’ he says, looking me up and down.
His bomber jacket isn’t zipped up.
The T-shirt he’s wearing underneath is the same one in the photo on the wall. The one with the fist and End Chad.
Chapter 9
‘Say hello to the Ravens properly, Shawn,’ says the landlady.
Shawn introduces himself again without making eye-contact. ‘Hi, I’m Shawn.’
I walk up to him. ‘Hi, I’m KT’s twin.’
He looks uncomfortable. Maybe because it’s obvious I’m her twin, or maybe he’s just ill at ease. I’d be ill at ease if my mum treated me like a little kid. He keeps wiping his hands up and down his trousers. This guy looks around my age. Veins popping out of his neck and his hands, but he’s not a bodybuilder type, he’s just ultra-lean. Like a marathon runner, or an actor who has trained long and hard for a shirtless scene.
Shawn does not meet my eyes. When he talks, he focuses on the floor, or the wall or just above my head.
‘Really sucks what happened to your sister.’
Sucks? It more than sucks, Shawn.
‘Did you see anything that day?’ I ask.
His mother looks uncomfortable. ‘Oh, the house was totally empty,’ she says. ‘We only let out this ground-floor apartment. Shawn and I were both out. We’ve explained it all to the police. I wish we had been here to call the authorities.’
Dad says, ‘She’s in heaven now. In a better place.’
The landlady crosses herself and says, ‘I need to take a call. Shawn can you look after the Ravens for ten minutes?’
He looks at her like a teenager who’s been asked to tidy his bedroom.
‘You live downstairs?’ asks Dad.
‘I have the basement studio,’ he says, straightening his back, managing to look at my dad for a second. ‘I run my business down there and I pay market rent,’ he adds. ‘It’s not like I’m living in my mom’s basement.’
Well, it kind of is like that, Shawn.
‘Katie loved this flat,’ says Mum. ‘She used to FaceTime me back in Nottingham – that’s where we’re from – showing me all the original features and the old windows. She was very happy living here.’
‘Shawn. Do you have any idea what might have happened to my sister?’
He doesn’t say anything, he just looks down at his Nikes and shakes his head in an exaggerated movement from side to side.
‘KT have any arguments in here, or out on the street?’ I ask. ‘You know if anyone ever threatened her or yelled at her, anything like that?’
‘No,’ he says, looking at her bed. ‘Nope, zip. I’m sorry.’
I walk slowly to her bed and catch her subtle scent once more and it makes me stop and I lose my breath again.
‘Molly?’ asks Mum. ‘Are you sure you’re all right in here?’
I smile at her gently. ‘Are you OK in here?’
She nods and looks at Dad.
‘If you do think of anyone,’ I say to Shawn, ‘any little detail, can you let Detective Martinez know, please. He’s at the 24th Precinct.’
‘26th Precinct, Moll.’
‘Sure, no problem,’ says Shawn.
The noise of a siren half a street away. Car horns and raised voices.
The landlady returns. ‘That was an enquiry about this actual apartment – you see, we get a lot of demand being so close to the campus. I told them it’s not available right now, but I’ll need to keep them updated. I know it’s a difficult time, but if you’d let me know if you want to keep the place I would be obliged. Katie paid, or rather her sponsorship paid up until the end of next month, but from December first you’ll need to pay rent or else I’ll give it to a new tenant. I hope you don’t think it’s crass of me to talk like this.’
‘We won’t need it,’ says Dad in a defeated voice.
Mum stands up and says, ‘Let us just think about it, would you, Mrs Bagby? It’s all very . . . new, all this. We just need a few days to deal with it all. If that’s OK.’
Victoria nods and says, ‘Sure, take a few days, get back to me when you’ve discussed it.’ She looks at Dad with an expression that says, Let me know as soon as you can. And then she turns to her son and says, ‘Shawn, would you stay with the Ravens and let them out? I need to go meet a business associate downtown.’