Page 158 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

“It’s a promotional sticker forAmalfi Made Me Do It.”

“Your next book?”

“I gave it to her.” Harper puts up a hand. “Don’t say. Don’t.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“I can feel your thoughts. I had a box of them, and she asked for one, okay?” She picks up her drink and finishes it. “She said she was a fan.”

“Maybe she is.”

“No, she used me. For her sick plan.”

There’s nothing to say to that, so instead, I ask Officer Anderson if she found anything on the phone.

“It’s locked. With a real password this time.”

“I guess the techs will get into it.”

“Hopefully.”

“And what about this third one?” I point to the other phone, a larger Samsung device. “Have you seen that before, Harper?”

“No.”

“Is it locked, too?”

“Yes.” Officer Anderson picks it up as the screen flashes with an incoming text.

“What’s it say?”

She tilts it toward me. It’s a message from someone named Jim Post.Tyler, why aren’t you answering your—and the rest of the message is cut off.

“That’s a text to Tyler,” I ask. “Why would Shawna be receiving texts to Tyler?”

“It must be his phone,” Harper says, slurring her words a bit.

“No,” Officer Anderson says. “His phone was confiscated when he was arrested.”

“Cloned phone?” Harper says.

“Shawna cloned Tyler’s phone?” I say. “That would explain the texts to José.”

Officer Anderson flips the phone over slowly in her hand. “That’s pretty sophisticated.”

“Not really. I learned how to do it when I was doing research for one of El’s books. Remember, El? It was child’s play. Like, people believedConnorcould do it, so...”

I stifle a snort. The alcohol’s getting to me, too.

“So, Shawna cloned Tyler’s phone and has Fred’s burner...Looking pretty bad for her,” I say.

“I agree,” Officer Anderson says. “Plus, there’s this.” She pulls another evidence bag out of her satchel and places it on the bar. It’s a copy of theWhen in Romescript with a white cover.

“It’s normal that she’d have a copy of the script, isn’t it?”

“Sure, but this one’s got a bunch of words cut out.”

“She cut the words for her note to Emma from the script ofWhen in Rome? Jesus. That’s not subtle.”

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