Free Scarlet Wakefield 01 - Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson Page A

say blankly.
    The policemen exchange glances. I wonder if this is some drug reference I’m not cool enough to get.
    “The lab results haven’t come back yet, but one of our theories is that Dan may have died of an allergic reaction,” the older policeman explains. “Apparently, he always carried something called an EpiPen, so he could inject himself in case he had a possibly fatal reaction to something. That could have been what he was looking for in his pocket. However, it wasn’t on him, and we canvassed the apartment and didn’t turn up anything there either.”
    “What could he have been allergic to?” I ask.
    “That’s the mystery, isn’t it?” says the first policeman. “We’re trying to establish that. Definitive test results will most likely take weeks.”
    Lady Severs clicks her tongue again and gathers her coat around her, a clear sign that she’s ready to leave. “So, to summarize, this unfortunate young man had some sort of allergic reaction, had been foolish enough not to bring his remedy with him, and dropped dead at Scarlett’s feet. I fail to see why she should be involved in this interrogation a moment longer.”
    “Like we said before, my lady, it’s just one of our theories. Once the labs come back, we’ll have real clues as to what happened. Either way, she’ll have to testify at the inquest, I’m afraid,” the older policeman says.
    Lady Severs gasps in dismay.
    “Surely that’s not necessary!” she protests.
    “I’m sorry, my lady. In any case of suspicious death like this, an inquest is mandatory.”
    The older policeman gives me a long dubious stare. He may have given up the notion that I’m a drug dealer, but it’s quite obvious that he’s convinced I’m somehow responsible for Dan’s death.
    I shiver, remembering Plum screaming at me.
    He’s not the only one who thinks that.
    “The publicity!” Lady Severs recoils from me, staring down her nose as if I’m what she would call a “common person” who’s dared to talk back to her. It’s her worst look of all.
    Now that the initial shock of Dan’s collapse and death is draining away, now that I have some sweet milky tea inside me, the terrible truth of the situation is beginning to take hold of me. I’ve lost practically everything that made my life worth living: my old friends, my new acquaintances, my room in Holland Park (because I really doubt Lady Severs will let me go on living there, now that I’ve dragged her down to the Knightsbridge police station in the middle of the night and caused a huge scandal).
    And Dan. I’ve lost anything that might have happened between me and Dan.
    I remember his kiss, and tears come to my eyes.
    It’s not just the policemen who think I might have caused Dan’s death. Plum did, too, and by now so will everyone else. Though I can’t remotely think of anything I could have done that could have hurt Dan, I was the last person to see him alive.
    If the tests and the inquest don’t determine what killed him, every single person who knows about Dan’s death is going to assume that I’m to blame.
    And the worst part is that so will I.
    PART TWO: A.D.
    “It wasn’t your fault.”
    I sit and look at those words for a long time. I want to write more, I really do.
    But I’m scared.
    I pick up my pen and start to scribble over the sentence, canceling it out. Years ago I learnt that to cover up words properly, you write other words on top of them, so that no one can squint and see the letters hiding underneath. So I write over the top. Again and again, till you can’t make out a single letter, just a tangled mass of black ink.
    I put down my pen and stare at the paper. And then I realize that, without meaning to, I’ve used the same sentence that I wanted to conceal. I’ve written the same words over and over again, like those old-fashioned films where the teacher makes a schoolkid keep writing a sentence on a blackboard till the whole surface is filled with white