her grandma, hearing her actually say that she thought her mother's story was made up, was a kind of deceit that Barbara couldn't fathom. Her mother had been alone in all of this. How could Ramani have turned her back on her own daughter? Stood up for a man who admitted to cheating on her with an underage girl?

“Dora's story fell apart, Barbara. She couldn't remember certain things. Her memory was fuzzy and inconsistent about where she went after she supposedly saw Darpan talking to Taylor. First, she told the detectives that she went back to Enzo's. Then she said she went to the backyard and then back to Enzo's.”

“You really think my mom was lying about seeing Taylor with Darpan? She told the police she saw them together before it was even discovered in the autopsy that the two of them were sleeping together.”

Ramani's face grew hard and she seemed to shut down.

 “Aren't you also left-handed?” Barbara threw that last part out, having read that even Ramani had been a suspect for a short while because she was a southpaw, and she wanted her grandmother to feel the sting of the ridiculous accusation, just how her mother must have felt when Ramani accused her of making things up.

“The angle of impact would have had to have come from someone taller than me,” Ramani said calmly.

“Which leaves my dad, and you thought my mom was covering for him.”

Ramani took a sip of her drink. Her silence said everything. Barbara had hoped that Ramani would deny her comment, contradict what she'd read about her grandmother's point of view in American Murder.

“My dad would have never done that,” Barbara hissed. “Never. He would never hit a woman, and he had no reason to attack Taylor.”

“I know it wasn't Darpan,” Ramani said quietly.

Barbara shot up, her sangria sloshing out of her glass and onto the carpet. She looked down, startled at the red spreading into what would be a stain. She set her glass down and said, “I'm going.”

Ramani got up, too, and they eyed each other for a moment. Barbara wondered what she thought her grandmother would tell her when she brought up Taylor. Not this.

“I love you, Barbara,” Ramani said. “But Dora lied about that night. What I want to know is why.”

“Okay. I can't do this with you anymore. Do you hear yourself? This is crazy talk.”

Ramani's hands covered her mouth, old veiny hands, the knuckles large. “Oh, Barbara, don't leave like this. I was so happy to have you come by. Don't let the poison of our past spill into your life.”

Barbara paused, her hand on the door handle. “Right now, it's about my mom. Do you understand? This is about my mom and helping her. I'm not going to let her go down.”

Ramani shook her head and reached out her arms. “No, of course not. Oh, please let me give you a hug.”

“No.” Barbara took a breath. “You want to pick teams? I'm on my mom's team.”

30

Serene - July 1996

The attorney, Jim Roberts, was waiting for them at the Culver City Police Department Investigations Bureau. Clearly, he'd been asleep when Ramani called him. It was near one in the morning. He sipped black coffee from a styrofoam cup, the skin under his eyes puffy and his hair a bit disheveled. The buttons of his shirt strained to contain his bulging stomach. Jim guided Serene, Kanani and Ramani past Bets and her parents and Steve with his parents and sister, waiting to talk with detectives. Enzo was already in a private room, giving his formal statement. The attorney led them to a somewhat private corner of the larger space. He asked similar questions to Detective Greiner, scribbling notes as Serene spoke.

Serene went through the account of her experience, pausing when she got to the part about stepping outside, her mind scrambling to remember the gap in time that happened after she'd seen Taylor with Darpan, but before she went back to Enzo's.

 Jim looked up from his notetaking, waiting. "What happened after you left Enzo's?"

"I walked over to my house and I was going to go in, but I heard talking and it sounded like Taylor, like she was talking to someone and crying."

Jim nodded.

"So I kind of hid."

"Hid where? Where were you exactly?" He held his pen poised over the paper.

"I was standing in front of the steps to our house. On the other side is this grassy space between our house and the neighbor's."

"Enzo's?"

"No. The other neighbor."

"Okay."

"I heard Taylor say, 'everyone hates me.' And then I heard Darpan say, 'everyone doesn't hate you. Come here.' Something like that."

Ramani slowly turned to glare at Serene.

"I wasn't exactly sure where their voices were coming from, but then I saw them. They couldn't see me, or I guess they didn't notice me. There's this hibiscus bush by the front of our house near the steps; I was standing behind it, but I could still see them through the branches."

"This ought to be interesting," Ramani muttered.

Jim gave her a cursory glance before focusing back on Serene.

"Darpan put his arms around Taylor and let her cry on his shoulder, and then he started to kiss her and he told her to relax."

Ramani rolled her eyes.

“Then Taylor said, ‘I just wanted to talk. That's all.’”

"Liar," Ramani hissed. "You're lying. Fucking liar!"

"She's not no liar," Kanani spoke up. "We saw Taylor the other day at your house, and Darpan was there. They were acting some weird."

Jim put his hand up, palm out, a sign for them to stop.

Serene crossed her arms tight. She turned her body away from Ramani.

"What happened after that?" Jim asked.

"She pushed him away."

"And did he hit her?"

"No. He just put his arms up in that way he always does when he's giving in to something. Like, hey, I'm just here for love and peace." Serene rolled her eyes. "After I saw them, it only confirmed what I thought earlier, that something was going on between them. It made me feel

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