“Why didn’t you tell the police?” Ziya asked.
“I was worried there wasn’t enough proof.” Raina wrapped her arms around herself. “If Benny found out I’d talked to the police before they were able to arrest him …” She shuddered.
“What if we get more proof?” Amie asked. “Then would you talk to the police?”
Raina hesitated, then nodded. “I … yeah. I could do that, maybe.”
“Okay.” Amie looked at Ziya. “We need more proof.”
Raina slid off her chair again.
“I need to get back to my friends,” she said reluctantly, fixing her hair. “I’m not really in a party mood anymore.”
“I’m so sorry,” Amie said. “We didn’t mean to ruin your night.”
“No, it’s okay.” Raina rolled back her shoulders. “I’m glad to get it off my chest.”
“Do you want to ditch them and come with us?” Ziya offered. “We’re getting pizza.”
“We are?” Amie asked.
“Uh-huh. You’ve had that ‘I forgot to eat dinner’ look in your eye all evening.”
“That’s nice, thanks,” Raina said. “I really should get back to my friends. You guys take care.”
Amie and Ziya bid her farewell as she crossed the roof to return to the bachelorette party.
“Wow,” Amie said. “That was … a lot.”
“It was.” Ziya hopped off her chair. “But my brain’s on strike until I feed it. Pizza debrief?”
“Pizza debrief.”
“I appreciate you two wanting to update me on your investigation, but I’m not getting involved with this anymore.” After opening the door to allow Amie and Ziya entry, David had already returned tohis work table, where he was attempting to balance a series of ramps on one of his pegboards.
“Aren’t you curious to hear what we learned?” Amie asked as Ziya cleared a space on the kitchen table.
“Absolutely not. I’m avoiding all curiosity on the matter. Trying to learn from the mistakes of the cat.”
“You’re not a cat, you’re a human man.”
“Cats are also afraid of vacuum cleaners,” Ziya pointed out, putting the pizza box down on the table and flipping open the top. “Are you afraid of vacuum cleaners?” She lowered her voice as Amie passed behind her. “Does he evenowna vacuum cleaner?”
“I canhearyou. I own a vacuum.”
“When’s the last time you used it?”
David peered over his shoulder, giving the floor a critical glance. “What year is it again?”
Ziya crossed the apartment with a slice of pizza on a plate and held it near David’s face. “If you come talk to us, you can have pizzaaaa.”
“You brought food intomyapartment,” David grumbled, begrudgingly pushing his chair back and following Ziya to the kitchen. “I should be allowed to eat it wherever I want.”
He took a seat at the table, picking up the slice of pizza as Ziya set the plate down in front of him. “I’ll listen, but I won’t participate.”
Amie and Ziya took turns sharing what they’d learned from Raina. David silently consumed three slices of pizza as they spoke, and only broke his self-imposed “no participation” rule once with a loud “WHAT?” after hearing about the third floor’s lowered rent.
“So we still don’t know who told the police about your argument with Savannah,” Amie said in summary once they’d finished. “But we know Savannah was the one blackmailing Benny. Before, it was just the question of whether Bennythoughtit was Savannah, but now that we know it was, that makes his motive even more solid.”
