Such a Lovely Family by Aggie Blum Thompson

Author:Aggie Blum Thompson [Thompson, Aggie Blum]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

31

Upstairs in the guest room, or what Ginny called the pink room, Danit gathers her things and places them on the bed. Two days ago, they’d set Malcolm’s playpen next to a single bed in Nate’s old room down the hall, where a Roger Federer poster still hung on the wall, and settled in to the guest room for a weeklong stay. It felt like she was staying in a luxury hotel. Not that she had ever done that. The walls were the palest pink, the color of the inside of a conch shell, and both bedside tables had small bud vases with a single flower, and a carafe of water with matching glass. A wooden four-poster bed with pineapples on each post held a thick white duvet atop a feather bed so high off the ground that when she sat on it, her feet dangled, barely skimming the floor.

Just yesterday, she was worried about how she would fit in, that she might commit some terrible faux pas that would reveal she didn’t grow up in a house with monogrammed hand towels but in a small apartment with peeling linoleum.

What a difference twenty-four hours make. Now all she can think of is the murder that took place under this roof. She digs into the back of the closet where she shoved her duffel bag, but when she pulls it out, there is something stuck to the bottom. She wriggles it free to examine it and realizes it’s a crumpled-up shirt.

The slam of a drawer in the distance startles her, and she pauses, ready to shove the shirt back inside. But no one comes up the stairs. Her heart races as she uncrumples the shirt. She feels guilty, although she’s unsure why. It would be embarrassing and difficult to explain if anyone walked in at that moment. But as she flattens the white shirt, she knows in her gut that she has found something important. It wasn’t there when she’d unpacked her bags and thrown her duffel in the closet two days ago, and it clearly didn’t just fall off the hanger. Someone shoved it in there. Recently.

She turns it over and sucks in her breath. The front is marred by splotches of dark brownish red.

Blood.

Danit looks inside the collar, where someone has stamped Capitol Catering.

Capitol Catering. That was the name of the company that did the food at the party yesterday, she’s sure of it. She reaches for her phone, but once it’s in her hand, she freezes. She can’t call 9-1-1. This is not an emergency. What would she even say? I found a shirt. I think it might have blood on it? No, that was definitely not an emergency. On the other hand, she has to do something. This could very well have something to do with the murder of Nate’s father.

She’ll bring it to Nate. He’ll know what to do. She crumples it back up, shoving it inside a dry-cleaning bag on the floor of the closet, and puts the whole thing in an outside, zippered pocket of her duffel bag.

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