Page 76 of My Killer Blind Date

Oh God, here it comes.

‘Pull over,’ I order.

‘What?’ Liam looks at me, then back at the interstate. Cars are whipping along on either side of us. A truck barrels past.

‘I’m going to puke!’ I shout.

Liam merges right, then right again, and barely screeches on to the shoulder before I’m stumbling out of the car and emptying my guts between the car and the cement barrier.

Liam jogs around the car toward me. The wind from passing cars whips my hair.

‘Get away from me!’ I shout over the noise of the interstate, holding up a hand. ‘Don’t touch me!’

‘Sorry, sorry!’ Liam holds up both hands. ‘I’ll give you space. Sorry. Let me at least get you a tissue …’ He rummages in the glove compartment and comes back with a flattened box of tissues, which he holds out cautiously, still keeping his distance. I pull one out and dab my mouth.

‘I didn’t realize you were feeling sick,’ he says.

My eyes feel red, my mouth tastes disgusting, my friend is really and truly dead and I’m stuck in a car with her killer.

‘Let’s go,’ I say. There’s no other safe way home than to get back in. ‘Just get me back to Chicago, Liam. Please.’

*

I get out of Liam’s car at the first exit, ignoring his objections that we’re nowhere near an L station. Grabbing my backpack from the trunk, I hold up a hand to Liam as he comes around to help me.

‘Stay away from me,’ I say, the tension of our confined ride boiling in my skin.

‘Margot – what’s going on?’ He takes another step toward me, and I whip out my stun gun, holding it up in all its hot pink glory.

‘I said stay the fuck away!’

A couple across the street stops their walk to watch us. There’s a man in a Sox hat walking toward us from behind Liam. He stops too. Maybe it’s the fact that I have witnesses present that I let myself explode.

‘You lied to me! You said you didn’t date her, but I found your messages to Zoe, you liar! You flirted with her for weeks, and then you went on a date, and she never came home!’

His face drains of blood. ‘Wait – Margot – I can explain—’

‘Did you kill my friend? Tell me the truth.’

‘Margot, no—’ He holds up his hands.

‘Where were you holding her, all that time?’ I scream.

‘Margot, I swear to God I never met her.’

I can’t take another lie. I want so badly to shove him – to force it out of him. A bizarre flashback to our dance at George’s party bursts in my head—

Arjun, on the dance floor. During the short few seconds when we switched partners, he was talking about setting me up with Liam. His words come tumbling back. It wasn’t entirely altruistic. Anyway, if I’m honest, Liam was the—

Like a puzzle my subconscious already solved but was waiting for me to notice, I complete his sentence in my head, but this time, in the correct way.

If I’m honest, Liam was the one who asked for the date.

It’s obvious now; painfully obvious. They met at Simon’s gallery. Liam had already kidnapped Zoe at that point. Maybe even killed her. He went there to buy her painting as a trophy. He and Arjun got to talking, and I know Arjun – he’s always name-dropping, showing people how connected he is. It would be the most natural thing in the world for him to say, I know the artist’s roommate. And then, Liam might grin, drop a cheeky question like, is she cute? Is she single? Can you set me up? And then Arjun calls George, with a promise of a better blind date for their sad, pathetic friend who needs a pick-me-up—

‘You stalked me,’ I growl. How did I not see this until now?

Liam looks genuinely confused, but I don’t care. He’s already proved he’s a seasoned liar.