Deserving Death by Katherine Howell

squeezed his free hand as they came together.
    Later, lying entwined, their skin cooling, he said, ‘I saw Mum today.’
    ‘How was she?’
    ‘She’s speaking to me at least, though she’s still not happy.’
    Ella dragged the quilt over them. Tomorrow was Callum’s birthday. He’d organised a get-together at his flat in the evening for his friends and invited his mother, Genevieve, too, but she’d refused to attend when she’d heard Ella would be there. Ella had offered not to go but Callum wouldn’t have it. ‘I’m seeing her for dinner on the weekend anyway,’ he’d said. Problem was, it wasn’t just his birthday. It was also the anniversary of his cousin Tim’s murder, and that brought up all sorts of issues, not least of which was Callum’s father, Alistair, serving his third year of twenty for the crime.
    Ella took his hand. ‘I meant what I said. I can stay away.’
    ‘You’re coming,’ he said.
    She saw his gaze move over the ceiling. ‘How are you feeling about it all?’
    ‘It’s my party.’
    ‘I mean about Tim and your dad and everything.’
    ‘Well, let me see.’ He kissed her, then got up and put on her dressing gown. ‘I feel a year older, and I feel like a cup of tea.’
    Ella listened to him fill the kettle and set it on the stove, and waited to see if he was coming back. After a moment the TV went on and she knew he wasn’t. She pulled the quilt up to her chin and lay there. In their nearly ten months together they’d touched on the topic a number of times and more than once it’d ended in an argument. Perhaps she shouldn’t have brought it up, but it was a massive elephant in the room, and she couldn’t help feeling that lately, whether because of his approaching birthday or his mother’s anger or something else, it was growing.
    *
    Carly paced the floor. ‘So you agree that Tessa was acting oddly.’
    ‘Yes, but it could’ve been because of Alicia.’ Linsey was sitting on the end of the bed. She’d patted the quilt twice but Carly’d hardly even glanced over. She could see the veins stand out in Carly’s forearms as she clenched her fists, and the row of little bruises on the inside of her wrist. ‘Come and sit down for a moment.’
    ‘She was edgy,’ Carly said, as if Linsey hadn’t spoken. ‘Really edgy. And the way she left so suddenly? I’m positive it’s about more than just grief.’
    Linsey didn’t say anything about the cool reception Carly had given Tessa, and watched her uneasily. Carly was usually a talker, a crier – she’d spill everything as soon as she felt safe to do so. Today she seemed locked down, shut off. After they’d left the bar, they’d eaten pizza at a tiny place further along King Street and Carly had sat staring past her, chewing in silence, only answering when Linsey actually reached over and touched her hand.
    Now Linsey caught her arm as she strode past. Her muscles were hard. She was so wound up she was practically vibrating.
    ‘Let’s run a bath,’ Linsey said. ‘Have a drink. Relax.’
    ‘Run it if you want. I need to call the detective.’ Carly picked up her mobile.
    Linsey went into the bathroom and turned on the taps, then came back to the doorway. Carly gripped the windowsill with her back to the room as she spoke in a low voice into her phone. Linsey couldn’t catch any words. She wasn’t sure what Carly suspected Tessa of doing exactly, or whether Carly knew herself.
    In the kitchen she poured them each a glass of white wine. Sometimes she pretended that she lived here with Carly, that she didn’t have a flat of her own where she spent hours on the web reading other people’s coming-out stories, where she cried herself to sleep. She keeps me warm.
    She jumped when Carly touched her arm.
    ‘You okay?’ Carly said.
    ‘Sorry. Miles away. How’d it go?’
    ‘I told her. She said she’d look into it. Her.’ Carly dry-washed her face with both hands. ‘I’m exhausted.’
    ‘I’m not