Nefarious Doings Read Free Page B

late.
    Lucy sighed. ‘I am
so
glad that I –’
    ‘Don’t even start,’ I replied, taking care to keep my voice low and pleasant. ‘And you should start looking up trains, so you can get back in time.’
    ‘There’s no point. Because I’ve dropped out. When you realise something’s wrong, you should act on it. You always taught us that.’
    ‘Crap,’ I whispered furiously. ‘I never taught you any such thing.’
    ‘YOLO, then. I’m thinking of getting that on a tattoo. It’s my motto.’
    ‘That’s old,’ said Quinn. ‘Like even Zac Efron has that one.’
    ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ I looked from one to the other, fury bubbling at the base of my throat. ‘Yo
what?
’
    ‘YOLO,’ replied Lucy. ‘It stands for You Only Live Once. So you see, when I heard about the breast cancer, you know with Melanie –’
    ‘Melinda,’ said Quinn. ‘That’s who you said before, with the lump.’
    ‘Melinda then. Whatever. So when I –’
    ‘Actually you were right the first time,’ put in Quinn. ‘I was just testing you.’
    Lucy stopped, stared at her sister. ‘You are really starting to piss me off. And boy, you’re lucky it’s me and not one of the others.’
    Quinn nodded. ‘True.’
    ‘So
…’ Lucy swept her gaze back towards me. ‘As I was saying, it’s not really
about
the name, but the message. The suddenness, you know? Like one minute you’re just coasting along with heaps of time, and then the next it’s all taken away.’
    ‘You mean when I throttle you?’
    ‘Against the law,’ said Quinn, as if that alone was stopping me.
    ‘Mum, you’re not
listening
. I hated it down there, and I hated my course too.’
    ‘So you couldn’t sit this
one
exam to get first year under your belt, just in case?’
    ‘Just in case
what?
’ Lucy stuck her chin out. ‘I’m not going to change my mind. And I
am
an adult, you know.’
    ‘Then start acting like one,’ came a husky voice from the bed.
    I snapped my head around. My mother’s eyes were open now, alert, and she had lowered the oxygen mask. But she still looked ill, and very tired. ‘Yen! You’re awake!’
    ‘Bit hard not to be with you lot bickering by my bed.’
    ‘Grandma!’ Lucy pushed forward. ‘I’m so glad I’m here! If I’d still been at uni, I would have been
devastated
. Just
devas
–’
    ‘Oh, put a sock in it.’ I sent her a brief, irritated glare before picking up my mother’s hand, feeling the skin slip. ‘How are you? How are you feeling?’
    ‘Been better.’ She closed her eyes for a second. ‘Couldn’t you have done your hair?’
    ‘Actually, I did.’
    ‘Next time try a brush. Have you seen the house?’
    I opened my mouth to revisit the hair issue, but then changed my mind. The woman could have died. ‘Not yet, we came here first.’ I paused. ‘I’m afraid the police said there was a lot of damage. Do you know what started it?’
    Yen shrugged wearily, then pulled her hand away and tucked it beneath her coverlet. ‘No idea. One minute I was sleeping, and the next smoke alarms were shrieking and Jim Hurley was breaking my window.’
    ‘Lucky he was there.’ In the cubicle next door I could see another elderly woman, sleeping, with her hand being held by a man sitting in an armchair. I turned back. ‘Yen? Ah, this may seem like a really weird question but, last night, were you, um …’
    ‘Alone?’
    I stared. ‘How did you know what I meant? Unless –
you weren’t?
’
    ‘Vomit,’ said Quinn, under her breath.
    ‘Grandma! You’ve got a boyfriend! High five!’ Lucy grinned as she stuck her hand up in the air, just above her grandmother’s recumbent body. Everybody turned to stare at her so she frowned, and then finally followed her statement through to its conclusion. Or his. Her eyes widened as she lowered her hand, taking a step away from the bed.
    ‘Good one, Luce,’ said Quinn. ‘Real sensitive.’
    I looked back down at my mother. ‘But who
was
he?’
    ‘No