Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: 2023’s Most Original Murder Mystery by Benjamin Stevenson

Author:Benjamin Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Mystery & Detective, Crime, Fiction, Suspense, Thrillers, General
ISBN: 9781760144678
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2022-03-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

The rear of the truck had one of those rippled roller doors that slid into the roof. An empty coffee cup sat on the lip. The key turned easily. I spun the handle ninety degrees. It felt like a big moment, so I paused, looking at the three others who were crowded around. Erin was wringing her hands, anxious to know if this would be enough to win me over, and perhaps for me to tell her what Michael hadn’t. Sofia had adopted a smug pout, looking forward to Michael’s secrets being exposed. Crawford looked impatient. He’d tried in his best, most authoritative voice to demand we head directly to the guesthouse, but I’d figured that he wouldn’t try to stop us with any passion. I’d been right: on being rebuffed, he’d tagged along to make sure we didn’t do anything else stupid. Me? I was preparing to be disappointed. Like I’d told Michael, nothing short of a spaceship would blow me away.

I lifted the door a couple of inches. First observation: it didn’t explode. (I know that sounds crazy, but a lot of scenarios had run through my head, and the whole thing being rigged to blow was, I’m ashamed to admit, one of the least outlandish ones.) I didn’t open it so slowly for suspense: the door was iced in its joints. It took a great heave to open it enough to see even a small slit of the darkness behind it. My gloveless hands felt seared by the icy metal. I went to give it another heave, when a hand on my arm stopped me.

‘Maybe this is just for you,’ Erin said. ‘At first.’

Erin clearly knew something about what was in there. She’d helped Michael dig it up, after all. She thought it was money, or valuables at least, which, based on it needing to be transported by truck, meant there was a lot of it. Michael told me to only trust you. Michael had said the same thing to me directly, that I was the only one he trusted by virtue of me testifying against him. He’d allowed himself to be sequestered in a putrid sock drawer just to give me the keys in private. Sofia and Crawford weren’t supposed to tag along. Erin was right.

‘I need a minute to see for myself.’ I raised my voice above the wind. ‘Um . . . it might not be safe.’

I knew this was thin. Sofia rolled her eyes. I wondered whether she was more annoyed at being excluded or because each time I took Erin or Michael’s side she imagined she was getting further away from a chunk of the money. It occurred to me that it might have been why she’d interrupted us in the maintenance shed when she did: it was conveniently just after Erin and I had found our common ground and started to talk like a team. I expected more resistance from Crawford, for any number of reasons (chain of evidence, witnesses, any semblance of competent police work), but it seemed he’d given up trying to be a cop entirely.

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