Big Little Lies(141)

Ed stood with a sudden backward scrape of his chair and left the room without looking back.
Detective-Sergeant Adrian Quinlan: Someone is not telling the truth about what happened on that balcony.

Chapter 79
79.

The policeman looked like a nice young soccer dad, but there was something cool and knowing about his tired green eyes. He was sitting next to Jane’s hospital bed with a pen poised over his yellow notepad.
“Let me get this straight: You were standing on the balcony but you were looking back inside?”
“Yes,” said Jane. “Because of all the noise. People were throwing things.”
“And then you heard Celeste White scream?”
“I think so,” said Jane. “It’s all so confusing. Everything is muddled. Those champagne cocktails.”
“Yes,” sighed the policeman. “Those champagne cocktails. I’ve heard a lot about them.”
“Everyone was very drunk,” said Jane.
“Where were you standing in relation to Perry White?”
“Um, I think sort of off to one side.” The last nurse had said that someone would be taking her for an X-ray soon. Her parents were on their way with Ziggy. She looked at the door of her room and wished for someone, anyone, to come and save her from this conversation.
“And what was your relationship with Perry? Were you friends?”
Jane thought of the moment when he took off his wig and became Saxon Banks. She never got to tell him that he had a son called Ziggy who liked pumpkin. She never got an apology. Was that what she’d come to Pirriwee for? Because she wanted his remorse? She actually thought she’d get his remorse?
She closed her eyes. “We only met for the first time last night. I’d only just been introduced to him.”
“I think you’re lying,” said the policeman. He put down his notepad. Jane flinched at his sudden change of tone. His voice had the implacability, the weight and violence of a swinging hammer. “Are you lying?”

Chapter 80
80.

There’s someone here who wants to see you,” said Celeste’s mother.
Celeste looked up from the couch where she was sitting with the boys on either side of her, watching cartoons. She didn’t want to move from her position. The boys were comforting, warm, heavy weights against her body.
She didn’t know what the children were thinking. They’d cried when she’d told them about their father, but she wondered if they were crying because Perry had promised to take them fishing at the rock pool this morning and now that wasn’t happening. She suspected that right now their little minds were as blank and stunned as hers and that the bright flickering colors of the cartoon characters were the only thing that felt real.
“It’s not another journalist, is it?” she said.
“Her name is Bonnie,” said her mother. “She says she’s one of the school mums and she’d just like to talk to you for a few minutes. She says it’s important. She brought this.” Her mother lifted a casserole dish. “She says it’s a vegetarian lasagna.” Her mother lifted an eyebrow to indicate her opinion of a vegetarian lasagna.
Celeste stood, gently lifting the boys and letting them fall on their sides on the couch. They made little murmurs of protest but didn’t move their eyes from the television.
Bonnie was waiting for her in the living room, standing very still, looking out to the ocean with her long blond plait falling down the center of her yoga-straight back. Celeste stood in the doorway and watched her for a moment. This was the woman responsible for her husband’s death.
Bonnie turned slowly and smiled sadly. “Celeste.”
You couldn’t imagine this placid, luminous-skinned woman screaming, “We see! We f*cking see!” You couldn’t imagine her swearing.
“Thank you for the lasagna,” said Celeste, meaning it. She knew that soon her house would be filled with Perry’s grieving family members.
“Well, that’s the least . . .” An expression of pure anguish momentarily distorted Bonnie’s tranquil face. “The word ‘sorry’ is hardly adequate for my actions, but I needed to come here to say it.”
“It was an accident,” said Celeste faintly. “You didn’t mean for him to fall.”
“Your little boys,” said Bonnie. “How are they . . . ?”
“I don’t think they really understand anything yet,” said Celeste.
“No,” said Bonnie. “They wouldn’t.” She breathed out a long, slow, deliberate breath through her mouth as if she were demonstrating yogic breathing.
“I’m going to the police now,” said Bonnie. “I’m going to make a statement and tell them exactly how it happened. You don’t need to lie for me.”