Page 123 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

My eyes go wide. I’d forgotten about that. I am bad at this.

“That’s ridiculous,” Allison says. “I didn’t steal your purse. I do have the same bag. I can show it to you if you like. And you would’ve recognized me.”

“We’ve only met a few times…”

“Connor would’ve recognized me.”

“I’m not sure…” Harper stares at her, like she’s trying to remember back. “If you were wearing sunglasses and a wig and a hat… It all happened very quickly.”

“Where would I have put those?”

“In your bag. My bag. It’s big.”

“And the clothes I was wearing?”

“Maybe you had another layer on and you ditched it.”

“What am I, Houdini?”

“No,” Connor says, “you’re just very motivated.”

“Motivated by what?”

“Revenge, obviously.”

“I already got my revenge. It’s right there in our divorce settlement.”

“Exactly.” Connor taps where he wrote the “$$.” “This is about money.”

“What do you mean, Connor?” Oliver asks. “Did she invest in crypto?”

“Crypto?” Allison says. “That was real? Your newsletter wasn’t hacked?”

“You knew about the newsletter?” I ask. “Did everyone?”

Everyone but Oliver nods slowly.

“Harper, did you unsubscribe me?”

“Of course. You never look at that email address anyway.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“I—”

“Um,” Connor says. “Excuse me? We’re in the middle of something here.”

“We were talking about the money,” Emily says. “Please go on. This is all fascinating.”

“Taking notes for your next novel?” I ask.

“You’re the one who uses real-life situations.”

“And you’ll just wait until it’s published, then crib it.”

“Honestly?”

“Sorry, Connor,” I say. “Go ahead.”

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