The Night in Question Quotes

“You have to be kidding me.” I interrupt, leaning back in my chair. “We just solved another case for you people, and all you can say is don’t do it again? I know it must be embarrassing for you, being shown up by teenagers. Girls, at that,” I add. “But it’s not our fault that you suck at your jobs. Hercule Poirot would”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Please,” she scoffs. “Everyone knows Brooke wouldn’t have died that night if it hadn’t been for you. Interfering at that party, driving a wedge between her and Steve so she took off, alone. Talk about being a bad friend.” I grit”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“That underneath all her cattiness, the bragging she would do about stupid Hollywood events she wormed her way into, her obsession with being an actress, she had a decent heart.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“You know”—she continues as I stab the wedge—“you’re growing up with every privilege in the world, Alice, and it would behoove you to understand that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Your grades at the end of this semester are important, not just for college but to show me and your father that you’re trying. We discussed it, and certain privileges will be taken from you if you don’t pull your GPA up to an acceptable level.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“It means that if you think failing out of school to be a detective is a smart thing to do, you are even more naive than I thought.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“They’re a little flashy. I think I remember my parents kind of joking about them at some point, like they can buy whatever they want, but the one thing they can’t is respect.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“You’re such a pill, Alice,” Lilian says firmly. “If I had the secret to the assault of a child, do you really think I would keep that to myself? That’s abhorrent.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“I see you learned something about negotiation from your father. All right, I respect a person who won’t take the first offer they’re given. Thirty thousand it”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“We’ll do this because we want justice for Rebecca, and to prove your daughter’s innocence, but I won’t take money from someone who thinks I’m less than nothing. You wouldn’t even shake my hand. Why would I accept your money?”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“It’s a horrible weight over me, all the time. Disappointing you. I’m not even a person. I’m just another thing you want to do well. So, I’m sorry I lied. I wanted to kiss a boy. But I did not touch Rebecca Kennedy in that study and I did not tell anyone to write that . . . that note.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“This is going nowhere. I’ll not have my daughter treated this way. Helen, come with me.” “She’s going to be treated much worse on a witness stand,” I say to him. “Or in jail.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Were you and Helen Park dating? She roped you in—a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, a kid willing to go the distance for his richy-rich girlfriend—and you got in too deep? Is that what happened? Is Helen Park the one you passed the note to, to meet you upstairs? Or was that for Rebecca, so you and Helen could attack her and, oh gosh,”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“I thought she could do with a little shaking up,” she says. “Like I said back at home, you two really need to realize that you’re not in a TV show or an Agatha Christie novel. You’re romping around like little teen detectives, but that isn’t your job. Your job is to go to school, graduate, have opportunities. My daughter deserves that.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Your mom is devastated. This is . . . I’m sorry, Iris, but it’s bringing up your dad, and all the times she had to bail him out for something, or call the police on him, and . .”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“All leads will be followed. But you and Alice Ogilvie didn’t do that. Just like before, you went full steam ahead on your own, and now look where you are.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Get it together. It’s just like you, messing up something important to me. I know you’ve gone off the deep end, hanging out with those weirdo stoner kids, but I will not let you bring me down with you. This project might not mean anything to you, but it’s important to me.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Am I—” she starts, but Neil groans. “Mom, god. Can you two do your Agatha Christie thing later, please? We’re trying to concentrate.” “Sorry,” she says to him, and rolls her eyes a little so only I see it. I smile. We’ve known each other for ten minutes, and I already feel like I have more in common with her than with my own mother.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“No, thank you,” she says politely. “I’d rather eat cat turds, followed by broken glass, and topped off with a kerosene cocktail.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Thing. That’s not you. We keep texting you and stuff. To come back to us. Bygones or whatever. You’re turning into a weirdo, to be honest.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“What’s happened to you, Ogilvie? You used to be cool, you know? Then all that Brooke stuff, and, like, I get it, girls betraying each other and all, you had to have your alone time or whatever, and you did do Anderson a solid by proving it wasn’t him but . . . like, who are you now, anyway?”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“So nice that you’ve bedazzled poor Tabitha into doing all your homework for you, Gerber, but it’s time for baby to wake up and face the music,”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Rebecca Kennedy’s family is rich and powerful,” I tell him. “You don’t live like that without having enemies, so there’s going to be an unknown.” “Merde,” Alice murmurs.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“I would know her voice; I’ve been listening to her yell at me for years.” Tears are forming in Helen’s eyes.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“green earth do the two of you think you could do for my daughter that my twelve-hundred-dollar-an-hour lawyer cannot do? I’m absolutely dying to know.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Yeah, well, I thought maybe you’d forgotten, since you decided hanging out with that weird Iris girl was more important than your old friends,”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“Agatha Christie used closed circles a lot—Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None are two of the best-known examples, and—” “So that”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“I’ve spent years pretending their lack of interest in me doesn’t bother me, but I’ve just about reached the end of my rope.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“My mom’s white-blond hair is perfectly coiffed, her makeup tastefully understated, her Jil Sander cashmere turtleneck expensively minimalist. She has that sort of ageless beauty that only good genes, expensive skincare products, and a world-class surgeon can buy.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“This is so Agatha Christie: a secret passage, a hidden staircase, sneaking around in the dark with a storm raging outside. A shiver of pleasure runs through me.”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question

“While I think all that is valid and interesting, I’m a little worried she’s not spending enough time on other things, like school. She hasn’t even started the ancestry project in McAllister’s”
― Liz Lawson, The Night In Question