Dead Soon Enough: A Juniper Song Mystery by Steph Cha

massive chrome-colored espresso maker, then pressed a button and brought the sleeping beast to life. Its groan displaced the silence in the room.
    “Milk? Sugar?”
    “Black’s fine,” I said. “Thanks.”
    She sat across from me and folded her arms on the table, keeping her back straight.
    “So,” I ventured. “What’s the plan here?”
    “I’m going to come clean, then I will ask her where she went.”
    “Are you sure this isn’t a private conversation?”
    “Are you not a private investigator?” She forced a smile and I saw that this was as close as Rubina ever came to cracking a joke.
    I dropped that line of inquiry. “So I just sit here and what, like, testify when called?”
    “Yes,” she said. “Essentially.”
    I sipped at my coffee. It was unusually good, and it gave me something to do.
    I was almost relieved when the doorbell rang and Rubina sprang up to answer it. I geared myself for an unpleasant scene, making sure there was enough coffee left to fill a few pauses.
    “Where have you been?” Rubina’s voice traveled loudly from doorway to kitchen.
    “I told you,” said Lusig. “I was in Marina del Rey.”
    “What for?”
    “Lunch. It ran long, and then there was terrible traffic.”
    “Who with?”
    “Derek. I don’t think you know him.”
    “Where’d you eat?”
    “We had burgers. What is this?” Lusig’s tone was annoyed now, even righteously petulant. If Rubina didn’t have proof her cousin was lying, Lusig’s tack might have worked. “Why are you interrogating me about my lunch? Lay off.”
    “You missed the appointment. I have a right to know why.”
    “I told you why, and I said I was sorry. Now will you get off my back? I have my own life. I am literally just doing you a favor and that gives you permission to be on my ass all the time?”
    “We had a doctor’s appointment!” Rubina was shouting now. “And thank you, by the way, for reminding me of your favor. As if I wanted to leave this to you. As if there were any chance I wouldn’t be happier carrying my own baby to the doctor.”
    Lusig was silent.
    “Please don’t lie to me,” Rubina said, in a calmer tone of voice. “Where were you?”
    “I was getting lunch with Derek,” she said, enunciating each word.
    “Come here.”
    “Hey, ow!”
    I looked up and saw Rubina march in, dragging Lusig behind her by the wrist.
    “I know you’re lying to me,” she said.
    A strange pallor came into Lusig’s complexion, and I could see it turn into a shade of recognition, an acceptance of defeat. “How?”
    “I didn’t trust you, so I’ve been tracking you.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “I put a GPS device on your car.”
    Lusig’s eyes widened, and she started to say something before breaking into a loud, indignant laugh. “What? Are you serious?”
    “Yes, I’m serious. And I know you were in downtown half an hour ago. You lied to me.”
    But Rubina had given up her advantage. I could see the emotions running across Lusig’s face—if there was any contrition there, it was drowned out by betrayal and fury.
    “You spied on me. That’s crazy.”
    “I was right to spy on you. You’re hiding something from me.”
    “I’m entitled to live my life however I see fit.”
    “You have no right to run around town endangering my baby. Now, tell me. What were you doing?”
    Lusig shook her head in disgust, and she looked at me, registering my presence for the first time. “Who’s this?” she asked with a sneer.
    “She’s my friend. I asked her to be here.”
    “You don’t have friends,” she said coldly. “What is she, some kind of intervention expert? This is bullshit.”
    I winced. My sister had been dead for years, and I’d almost forgotten the tone of open cruelty that entered certain familial disagreements—the abandonment of restraint that results from assured forgiveness, the bitter truths spoken in anger, shot with unerring aim. I recognized it immediately.
    I took a long sip of my