“So,” Ellie said, once we got back to our room, her face just fizzing with excitement and uncontainable, raw energy.

“So,” I said back, a smile building with more and more momentum on my face until I could feel it stretched from ear to ear. She tucked a stray curl behind her ear and grinned back, “That is some pretty solid evidence. I mean, it all lines up pretty perfectly, doesn't it?”

“I know, d’you - d’you think we might finally be getting somewhere in this case?”

“Oh yes I think so! We definitely are! And you know, if it hadn't been for me, coming with the idea and planning that

whole thing, we never would've found that all out.”

“ Uh huh. All that stuff, the phone call, the timing, how and when he had to leave, the fact he never told Ni where he was going and, that look on his face. It's all so incriminating.”

Our excitement mellowed and was replaced with guilt as we remembered Renuka.

“Poor Renuka,” Ellie began, voicing our concerns, “she must be feeling terrible right now. And that look was super creepy, wasn't it?” I nodded, lips pursed. There was an uncomfortable sort of silence for a minute. And- then that question came back into my head. Painful and sharp, like a persistent migraine that just wouldn't go away. “Ellie,” I said quietly.

“Mm hm,” she said, eyebrows raised slightly.

“D-do you think it was Luke that did it?” She took a deep breath in and sighed. She bit her lip. “I mean, maybe. I don't know, but the evidence definitely points towards it doesn't it. I mean, all that stuff, it can't just be a coincidence, can it?”

By the next morning, we were back to the meeting room, feeling sort of- bereft.

“So...” Conrad said, his mouth hanging slightly open as he waited for one of us to say something, anything. Last night had been a huge breakthrough, everything we had found

seemed to fit perfectly. And although it felt... thrilling, it was tainted by a nerve wracking, frightening and sort of melancholy feeling that we hadn’t been expecting. I mean, this could actually be the culprit, or it couldn’t be. But, what if it was? We knew it had to be someone in the family, and we agreed to deal with it, but- it was so hard. And it was Luke. The person in the group I would say I was least close with but, still, he was Renuka’s first proper, serious boyfriend who she really cared about and they had seemed perfect for eachother. What now? She didn’t deserve a murderer. If that’s what he was. We didn’t know, and it was scary. Really scary.

We all stared at Renuka. Poor Renuka. She scowled, as though she were a small, abandoned kitten that we were trying to sympathise with. I could tell she didn’t like this. “Stop it, I don’t want your stupid pity.” she said, her low,sour voice cracking noticeably as she said ‘pity’. I looked at her. Properly this time. I didn’t just see the defensive kitten. I saw the hurt, the shame, the vulnerability, the anger, the fear. I saw the bloodshot, red raw eyes, the excess makeup poorly covering the huge dark semi circles beneath her eyes, the salty tear trails, the faint crimson blotches all over her nose and cheeks and the still quivering bottom lip. There were no words I could say. So I got up and moved toward her. She flinched, but still I hugged her, tight. It felt stiff and uncomfortable at first, but soon she eased into it and warmed to me. She melted in my arms and I finally felt her, my cousin Renuka. I felt two more sets of arms press against us and join in. I heard her sniff a few times and her breathing get heavier as teardrops fell onto my shoulder. We stayed like that for a few minutes before finally, gently pulling away from her. We sat back in our places, looking down a bit awkwardly until she pulled herself together, wiped away her tears and resumed to the meeting once more. She gave us a small, determined nod to show that we could carry on.

“Well,” Ellie said, “Last night-” she looked over at Renuka, choosing how to phrase her next words, “showed us a lot that we didn’t know before. And answered a lot of questions. But we can’t just take this as gospel. We don’t know the story behind the events we witnessed, we just know one possible one. We need to look into this suspect more before we make any rash decisions. There are still countless scenarios, options and explanations. And lots of other suspects left to look into. We can’t just stop here.” We all nodded, to help make it easier to cope with. As, although we knew that what Ellie was saying was true, something about the information we knew now about Luke felt so simple, so haunting, so real, so true. Like we had found the person, and we needn’t look any further. And that didn’t mean that we were right. It just felt like it.