Page 51 of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

“Oh my god, CassieRed!” Sana squeals. “I follow her! She’s not yet at that breakout stage, but she’s getting there, I can tell. I love her TikToks. I can’t believe you got to shoot her! How was it?”

“Fucking amazing.” The words are out before Julia knows it, and Sana cackles. Julia joins in, and before long, she’s taken out her camera and is showing the viewfinder photos to Sana, who oohs and aahs at the images. When Vera tells them that dinner is ready, the two women continue chatting as they make their wayto the dining room, where another one of Vera’s incredible feasts greets them.

Vera points at the various dumpling dishes. “Pork and chive dumplings, crab meat and pork fried dumplings, Szechuan chicken soup dumplings. And here we have sweet-and-sour fish, roast duck, and three-egg spinach.” She beams at Emma, who is already seated in her high chair. “And my sous chef help with everything.”

Emma nods proudly, and Julia bends down to kiss her forehead. “You are amazing,” she tells Emma. As Julia slides into her seat, she pats her belly. “God, Vera, I’ve gained five pounds ever since you moved in.”

“Yes, you are looking much healthier now. Sit, Sana,” Vera orders.

Sana does so, and Vera starts heaping food onto her plate. “That’s too much—” Sana protests, but Vera ignores her until Sana’s plate is heaving with an obscene amount of food. Then Vera turns her attention to Emma, spearing pieces of fish and placing them on Emma’s plate.

“You must eat lots of fish,” Vera says. “Fish is good for your brain. You want to be smart like me, right?”

“I do!” Emma says, spooning the fish into her mouth.

By now, the sight of her daughter eating so many different kinds of foods no longer astounds Julia, but she still marvels at it. The way that Vera has somehow moved Emma so effortlessly away from her usual beige foods. As they eat, Julia gazes fondly at Vera and wonders just how in the world she got so lucky to have the old woman in her house.

Then, of course, she remembers that the only reason Vera is here is because Marshall is dead. Julia is devastated by Marshall’sdeath, of course she is, but a teeny-tiny part of her is grateful that such a tragedy could lead to such a blessing. Sana told Julia that she, Riki, and Oliver spent the morning cleaning out Vera’s teahouse. It’s a reminder that Vera’s stay here is temporary, which makes Julia sad. Hopefully, even after Vera moves back to her house, Julia’s life won’t fall apartagain.

VERA’S NOTEBOOK

SUSPECT:SANA

Sana promise she is not Marshall’s killer. I think she is telling the truth. I have very good nose for sniffing out lies and Sana is terrible liar because she twitches whenever she lies. I must invite her to play mahjong one day. Easy win for me.

Well, that is one suspect out, so we are down to just three! I must say, living with one of my suspects is a bit of conflict of interest, because I start to like Julia very much. So I hope she is not killer, although I do think there is strong chance she is, because just imagine being married to Marshall. Terrible man. I think he is a very bad husband and very bad father. Just look how little Emma barely mention him. Julia says this because Marshall is rarely home, and when he is, he does not like to play with Emma. In fact, he will tell her go to bed, be quiet. Oh, if Marshall is alive I should like to give him a good scolding, that is exactly what he needs.

I get call from Officer Gray today. She is very angry about the break-in! She even call me “irresponsible citizen”! Can you imagine? I tell her that I even go to police station to chase up on the murder investigation, but it seems they don’t want to investigate, so I decided not to bother them with small thing like burglary. Especially when nothing is taken. Hah! She has nothingto say toTHAT. I wish she has come in person to see me so I can see the look on her face when I tell her off. She then say I must close up my shop while they look into it, and I say that’s fine, it’s already close up, they can come and go as they please. Maybe now they will finally do some DNA and fingerprint test, eh? I tell her that and she just sigh and tell me not to leave town. Like I will leave when so many exciting things are happening!

Anyway, I hope the killer is Riki or Oliver. Speaking of which, I am inviting Riki to the beach tomorrow, won’t that be nice? He is a good boy. I will make many buns for him and Sana. They are both good boys, Riki and Oliver. I can tell. Well, aside from being a possible killer. But as they say, everyone is innocent until prove that they are guilty, so for now, there will be delicious buns for all.

TWENTY-SEVEN

RIKI

Riki has never liked Ocean Beach. He knows he’s very biased, but having grown up spending his vacation days on the gorgeous beaches of Bali, Riki considers Ocean Beach a vastly inferior beach. For one thing, the water is always stunningly cold, even in the summer. For another, the... vibes just aren’t right. He realizes this isn’t a very cogent argument, but some places are beachy places. You know it once you arrive at the airport. Like Bali, for example. As soon as you land at the Ngurah Rai Airport, everything around you screams:Beach vacation!The air carries with it the smell of the ocean, clean and fresh, and there are plumerias everywhere and everyone is relaxed. But here in San Francisco, no one is relaxed. Everyone is erging (why can’t they just freaking call it rowing?) and eating acai smoothies out of coconut-shell bowls, but they’re also yelling into their smartphones and checking their Apple Watch every ninety seconds to make sure that they’re getting in their ten thousand steps while negotiatingmultibillion-dollar deals. And on the border of this bustling city, there’s Ocean Beach, the place where these techbros are supposed to go on their downtime. Riki went once, with his colleagues, and never again.

But what Vera wants, Vera gets, and that is why Riki is now at Ocean Beach at six in the morning. It’s Sunday, he should be in bed, but nope, here he is, freezing his ass off and glaring bitterly at the sea as he struggles through the sand toward where Vera is standing.

“Riki!” Vera shouts, waving both arms. “Over here!”

It’s obvious he’s seen her, he’s literally walking toward her, but still Vera calls out. The corner of Riki’s mouth quirks into a smile. Vera is quite possibly the most vexing person he has ever met. But somehow, he can’t not see her as an honorary mother figure in his life. Something about her makes him feel like everything will be okay. Nothing bad can happen with a Vera in your life.

“Ah, good, finally you are here,” Vera says. “You don’t see me waving back there? Why you don’t wave back?”

“I did,” Riki says.

“Hmm.” Vera doesn’t look convinced. “Well, anyway, I am glad you are here, because I have a question to ask you.”

“You asked me to meet you at the beach at six in the morning to ask me a question? What’s wrong with texting?”

“Ah,” Vera says with a cunning smile. “If I text, then there will be permanent record of the texts, and this is sensitive question.”

Riki’s still too baffled to be nervous, but now he’s growing uneasy. “Okay...”

“So I look in Marshall’s computer—”

At this, Riki hears a keening sound in the center of his skull.It’s his brain shrieking,Oh nooooo.Somehow, he manages to not freak the hell out. “How did you get access to his computer?”

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