Phantom [h.s]

Ten

Watch Ria as she takes a few deep breaths, chewing on her lip. She shouldn't be so nervous if she has nothing to hide.

I cross my arms over my chest and wait.

Finally, she shuts her eyes for a moment and opens them, looking at me.

"I did know someone named Harry," she says.

I nod slightly, egging her on. The air outside is cool, and the sky is dark, with stars beginning to show up in the sky. Traces of the sunset remain by the horizon, a faded yellow against the dark blue of the night.

Ria runs a hand through her hair.

"Something happened last summer," she says. "Something bad."

"It had to do with Harry?"

She swallows and nods. "Yeah."

I knew this. Obviously.

"What was it?"

"It's all very vague," she says, her face twisting in recollection. "The last time I saw him was a Friday night in June. At a party."

I raise an eyebrow. "Last time?"

"Harry..." She looks away, her light brown eyes filled with something I can't decipher. Grief? Nostalgia? Sadness?

Guilt?

"Harry what?"

She sighs sadly. "He committed suicide."

I widen my eyes. Suicide? No. She has to be lying..unless Harry is lying to me.

Why would Harry lie to me? Why would he reach out to me for my help if he wasn't murdered? It doesn't make any sense.

Harry isn't lying.

Either Ria is lying, or she was lied to.

"Oh, God," I say, furrowing my brow. "That's...horrible."

She nods. "Yeah. I know."

"Do you know why?"

"Why what?"

"Why he...killed himself."

Ria shakes her head. "No."

She's taking advantage of the fact that I'm new to town. Either that, or she was oblivious to the murder case that was closed a month after Harry's murder. This doesn't add up.