Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
It was a clever way to ask about my financial situation. Thankfully, I had an answer for her. “My money’s tied up in my condo—plus I don’t have a residence visa yet. Honestly, we haven’t done all the research, but I’m guessing it’ll be easier for us to buy together as a couple once I’m a permanent resident.”
“Right.” Ackerson put her hands on her hips, pushing back the sides of her jacket. “You still have family in the States?”
“My parents, and one elder brother and his family.” Though to call us siblings was a gross overreach; that implied we’d grown up together—simply having occupied the same house as minors didn’t count. “My father’s helping me list my condo for sale. It’s in an excellent area, but I don’t want to sell low and quick—Diya agrees we should wait for a good offer.”
Blowing out a breath, Ackerson looked straight at me, our eyes locked. “Be honest, Tavish. Do you think one of the family could’ve done this?”
“Absolutely not.” I sliced out a hand. “If you’d seen them together, you’d never ask that. They’re tight…were tight.” I swallowed. “Shumi is Diya’s best friend. Bobby and Shumi used to come over every weekend for family dinners and barbecues, and Diya spent at least twenty minutes every day just hanging out with her parents after they got home from work. They enjoyed each other.”
I’d found it all a bit too much, but I was also aware that my family dynamic wasn’t exactly a healthy one. And if it made Diya happy, I wasn’t about to stand in her way. “It was overwhelming for me,” I decided to admit, because one look at the profile of the Advani clan and Ackerson would know the truth anyway. “My family is the opposite. We all do our own thing.”
“All that togetherness must’ve made you nuts.”
“They weren’t obnoxious about it.” No forced invitations, no expectation that I’d come down to hang out each time Diya did. “And it was by the lake—when I needed a breather, I just went for a walk along the edge, or out on the jetty.”
I leaned my head back against the wall, staring up at the darkness beyond the atrium’s glass roof for a moment. “And I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about Diya—she went out with her girlfriends, too. Dinners, chick-flick dates, brunches, that kind of thing.”
I’d met three of her girlfriends at the engagement party. I only remembered the name of one—Carolyn something—and had been struck by the fact that I knew less than nothing about her and the two others; Diya didn’t tend to talk about them except to mention their names when she was planning to meet one or all three.
In my head, I’d filed them under the more-casual-friend category.
“Did Shumi Prasad often accompany your wife on these outings? You did say they were best friends.”
I frowned, flipped through the pages of memory. “I never thought about it, but no, she didn’t, especially not if it was at night. She’s devoted to Bobby.” I’d never once seen her go against him, even in the most playful argument. “Maybe she’s a bit more traditional in her thinking? The wife staying home with her husband kind of thing?”
I shrugged, because honestly, I was guessing. I hadn’t spent that much one-on-one time with the other woman. “She and Diya did things alone together, though—coffees, getting their nails done.” Perhaps Shumi found that acceptable because Diya was Bobby’s sister, and thus Shumi wasn’t stepping out on her commitment to Bobby and their marriage by spending time with her.
Ackerson’s expression shifted subtly, more tension to her jawline, more darkness in her eyes. “You have any other ideas of who we should be looking at? Given the stabbings, the likely accelerant-enhanced fire, and multiple victims in the bright light of day, it’s highly unlikely to be a random intruder.”
“Overkill,” I said, my throat dry. “That’s the word they use on the TV cop shows.”
“Yes, unfortunately that’s the correct description. Because while, at present, we have no way of knowing how the other victims died, we can extrapolate from what we know of Diya’s and Shumi’s wounds.”
…no way of knowing how the other victims died…
My stomach lurched, my mind creating horrific images of what the cops might find of my in-laws. Rajesh and Sarita had both been fit and toned—though Rajesh had started to develop a small belly despite his daily vigorous swims, and Sarita had been muttering about how the sari looked on her taut runner’s frame.
“I think I’ve put on some weight around the hips,” she’d said to Diya in my hearing. “I’ll have to change my running route, add in a few more hills.”
The fire had consumed that troublesome flesh, their bones the only pieces of them that remained.
Swallowing, I said, “From what I saw of how people came up to them when we were out in public together, my in-laws were trusted and good doctors.” One woman had cried in the ice-cream aisle of the supermarket while hugging my mother-in-law.