Page 106 of Hard Heart

SERAFINA

I came from a good family. Not a horrendously posh family, but my parents had taught me basic etiquette.

Be punctual.

Respect personal space.

Clean up after yourself.

Don’t check your phone mid-conversation.

Let people finish speaking.

Today, my manners came back to bite me in the arse.

I’d turned my phone onto silent, and I hadn’t checked it while an officer questioned me for an hour on every minute detail of my visit to the cemetery, nor when Special Agent Rimer turned up and made me go through the whole statement again.

Which was why I missed four calls from Raelene and a whole slew of messages from Heidi. It wasn’t until I’d walked along the street and climbed into my car that I saw them.

Heidi

OMG! Her body is missing!

Amie’s body.

From the morgue.

When the ME went to do the autopsy, the body bag was empty. It’s on the news.

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

Heidi

They think it happened yesterday afternoon.

I called Raelene. “Did you see the news?”

“We’re watching it in the office.”

“Is it true? Amie Carlson’s body is missing? Heidi messaged me.”

“I’ve never been a violent person, but right now, I want to strangle Jerry Knight with my bare hands.”

“What? Why? I mean, she didn’t steal a body. She couldn’t have. Heidi said it happened yesterday afternoon, and Jerry was in our office with…” With literally everyone else from Blackstone House. On short notice. At the exact time Amie disappeared again. “That conniving bitch… We were her freaking alibi.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think she arranged that on purpose?”

“Absolutely. I think that woman would sell her own mother if it gave her a tactical advantage.”

“Then you’ll have to get in line for the strangling thing because I’m going to kill her first.”

“Technically, I’m your boss, so I believe I get first dibs.”

My phone pinged again, this time with an email, and I checked my inbox. The video. They’d sent me the link, which meant they knew I’d made my statement, which meant those sly witches were watching me. Why had I trusted them? Oh, right, another edict from my mum: Give people grace. Assume good intent, recognise that everyone has off days, and avoid jumping to conclusions.

What horseshit.