Page 136 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

“Eleanor wouldn’t kill someone for money,” Harper says. “She has enough of it to last a lifetime.”

“Does she? That expensive house in Venice Beach?” Guy says. “And her book sales are declining, I hear.”

“That was our parents’ house. And even with the declining sales, we’re fine.”

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Connor says, shaking himself into action. “You did it.”

“I did not.”

“Come on, El. You’ve been angry ever since that night at Bouchercon.”

Oliver’s head snaps up.

Bouchercon, the scene of a different crime.

The place where I killed our relationship.

“You wanted me dead,” Connor continues. “But most of all, you wanted me scared. Maybe you thought I’d be happy to give up my payments if my life was on the line.”

“That’s ridiculous. If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it years ago.”

“That’s everyone’s excuse,” Allison drawls. “I thought you’d be more original.”

Connor stares at me. “You didn’t have the guts then. But you’re different now.”

I want to deny it, but this is one of the first true things that Connor’s said about me in a long time. I do feel different now. I’m just not sure when that change happened.

“Did you blackmail her?” Oliver asks Connor.

“Call it what you will.”

He turns to me. “But why, El?”

“I couldn’t publish the book if I didn’t. It was his name… him.”

“I don’t buy it,” Oliver says. “You could’ve easily changed his name in the book and enough details to keep him out of it. There has to be something more.”

I look at him. The pain on his face is like a punch.

A sucker punch, and I fall for it.

“He was behind the robberies.”

“Eleanor!” Connor warns.

I don’t listen to Connor. I’ve listened to him long enough.

“He planned them. He wasn’t behind the murder, but he planned the robberies with the Giuseppe family. I found out when we were still in Italy, but I didn’t tell the police. He convinced me not to.”

“I don’t get it,” Emily says. “How did that make you vulnerable to blackmail?”

“Because you were an accessory after the fact,” Oliver says.

“Yes.”

“You should stop talking, Eleanor,” Guy says. “Wouldn’t want to incriminate yourself any further.”

“It doesn’t matter, Guy.”

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