Chapter Text
Eve slipped a bookmark between the pages of the crime novel she was reading and placed her mug of tea on the coffee table before she got up to answer the door. The impatient caller knocked again. Clad in her matching navy joggers and hoodie, Eve padded to the door in her socked feet. She had been enjoying a restful morning in the blissfully quiet house. She opened the door to an anxious looking Suki.
“It was him.” Suki blurted out in lieu of any proper greeting. She pushed her way past Eve and stood waiting in the hall as Eve shut the door and turned to look at her.
“Come in.” Eve said sarcastically. “What was who?” she asked in response to Suki’s words. She took in the womans agitated state and manoeuvred them into the front room. She sat down on the sofa and Suki quickly took a seat at the opposite end.
“I didn’t kill Ranveer. It was Ravi.” The sentence hung in the air as Eve tried to process what Suki was saying.
“I don’t...” She started before Suki jumped in.
“Denise saw the video on my old laptop...When I left, he woke...Ranveer woke up...Ravi hit him again and then...then he...he strangled him...It was him.” Suki explained hurriedly before the dam broke and she started to cry.
Unable to just sit and watch the woman she loved break down. Eve moved across the sofa and took Suki into her arms. She felt Suki melt into the hold, and they sat there like that for a long time. Eve offering comfort, while feeling slight guilt at the fact that she was relishing the feeling of their bodies fitting together so instinctively. When Suki drew back, Eve pulled her hands back into the sleeves of her hoodie and used them to wipe away the tears that stained Suki’s beautiful face. She smothered a half smile as Suki leaned into her touch. Knowing that her ex-lover would need a moment to pull herself together Eve suggested that she go and make a cup of tea. Suki nodded. “Then we can start from the beginning.” Eve said as she reached for her empty cup.
As she stood waiting for the kettle to boil, Eve tried to piece together what Suki had said. Why had Denise had Suki’s laptop? Where had another copy of the video come from? The USB had shown quiet clearly Suki killing that vile man, but now she thought about it, it had come to an abrupt stop immediately afterwards. Had Ravi had something to do with that? Had Nish? What motive had Ravi got for killing his ‘father’ - the man who had brought him up? What about Kheerat? If Ravi was the killer, he had sacrificed his freedom for his reptilian half-brother, not the mother he adored. She poured the hot water over the teabags and added milk to the two mugs. She mashed the teabags with a teaspoon a few times and then removed them from the mugs. She put the milk back in the fridge and then carried the mugs back through into the living room.