Page 55 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Oliver says. “But why?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“You think it’s Guy, Connor?” I ask. “Is that what you’re saying?”

He looks down the hall. We’re all here but Harper. “It could be any one of you.”

I sigh. “Well, now they’ve been warned. So, if anyone here was thinking of killing Connor, he’s on to you, okay?”

“You think this is a joke?”

“I’ve told you once already about speaking to her that way. I won’t repeat myself again.”

“Oh, Oliver, please. If you cared so much for the way anyone speaks to Eleanor, you wouldn’t be hanging around outside her door. You’d have been inside five minutes ago.”

I put a hand on Oliver’s arm. “Don’t take the bait. It’s not worth it. He’s not worth it.”

“That’s right, sweetheart. I’m not.”

“You should go to bed,” Oliver says slowly to Connor. “We all should.”

Connor leans against the doorjamb and swings his door open wider. Isabella’s sitting up in the bed behind him, a sheet drawn up to her naked shoulders.

“Some of us were already in bed,” Connor says. “Care to join us?”

“Yuck. No.”

Connor’s eyes flash with anger. “You were happy enough to do it before.”

“That’s my cue to leave,” Oliver says.

“No, wait.” I hold on to his arm. “Just stop it, Connor. Go away.”

“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” He looks past me down the hall. “That’s what you all want.”

“What I want is to get to sleep,” Shek says. “Or, rather, back to sleep.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Emily says.

“Have you got someone new in there, Connor?” Allison asks with a laugh in her voice. “Or hasn’t that girl seen through you yet?”

“Took you ten years.”

“And who knows how much longer it would’ve taken me if I didn’t have Eleanor to thank.”

“Catfight,” Guy says.

“Shut up, Guy!”

“So sensitive. I’ll leave you to it, then.” Guy throws back his drink and disappears into his room. His door shuts with a thick thud.

“All right, everyone,” I say. “Show’s over. I’ll see you on the bus tomorrow.”

“We’re not going on one of those coaches, are we?” Emily says. “With the tourists?”

“They’re called the BookFace Ladies, and yes. Didn’t you read the itinerary?”

“Of course I did. It’s why I didn’t show up to the Colosseum.”

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