Page 157 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

“Oh, right, but…” I let my thought trail away. Why am I trying to convince Inspector Tucci that it can’t have been Crazy Cathy?

I mean, it probably isn’t her, but it can’t hurt to let her get investigated. Let her see how it feels to have your life under someone else’s microscope.

“Harper can tell you where they’re staying.”

“Excellent. Now, did you hear someone walk by your door?”

“Mr. Forrest’s door,” Lorenzo says.

“Yes, that is what I meant.”

“I’m not sure,” I say. “I was frightened, and Oliver was trying to soothe me.”

Or distract me?

No. Stop it, brain.

Stop it immediately.

“Or the fire door opening and closing?”

I search my memory. There was a click. I thought it was a room door, but it could’ve been the emergency exit.

“Maybe. But what if I’d come out of the room immediately?”

“But you were supposed to be dead.”

“I see what you mean. But what if Harper had come through the adjoining door? Or if Oliver or Allison had come out of their rooms?”

“They took a risk.”

I think it through. “Maybe it wasn’t so risky…”

“How so?”

“Harper had been taking sleeping pills because of her jet lag. Connor also took a pill, he said. And Guy thinks he was drugged…”

“What’s this?”

I explain about Guy saying that someone had spiked his drink last night.

“Hmmm, what about the others?”

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them.”

“Perhaps you should take samples from everyone?” Lorenzo suggests. “For testing?”

“Yes, yes.” Inspector Tucci taps the notepad. “It would’ve been the work of a moment… The shots, leaving the room and going through the door. If you moved swiftly, no one was going to see.”

“And maybe they wore a disguise,” I say. “Something to make it harder to recognize them.”

“Yes, that is possible. We will search the rooms again.”

I look at the layout, imagining the people above. “It could’ve been anyone.”

“Not anyone,” he says. “Not you or Mr. Forrest, as you have said.”

“No,” I say. “Not us.”

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