Page 108 of Death and Do-Overs

Then I saw the murderer.

My heart dropped.

“That’s him.” I pointed. “That’s the guy who killed Nie.”

Mar’s face went white. “That’s Otis, Levi’s best friend.”

CHAPTER 23

MAR

This couldn’t be happening.

Levi had said Otis was the person he cared most about in this world, his best friend. And now Greta was telling me that Otis killed Nie?

Obviously Greta wouldn’t lie to me, but she could be mistaken, right? There was still the possibility that this was all a big misunderstanding.

“How sure are you that Otis killed Nie?” I asked.

“Completely,” Greta said.

Imogen nodded her agreement. “I saw him do it, too.”

Things between me and Levi were already complicated, but if this was really true, it made everything far more complicated.

It felt like the universe was playing a cruel joke.

“You saw him do it?” None of this made any sense. “How?”

“Cameras,” Greta said. “They’re all over Nevermore.”

Cameras to watch the private happenings? What else had they seen? Worry crept up my neck as I thought about the private moments Levi and I had shared out in town.

Greta’s cheeks flushed red.

She knew. Why I thought anything in my life could be private, I had no idea. I shared an existence with other Marnies.One of my friends had literally been in my head before. Nothing was private.

None of that was the most important thing at the moment.

“We can’t be sure of anything when there’s a shapeshifter involved. Bernadette could have pretended to be Otis,” I said.

“I believe her,” Greta said.

“She definitely didn’t do it,” Imogen said.

I needed to see with my own two eyes or there’d always be a seed of hopeful doubt growing in the back of my head.

I caught myself picking at the sleeve of my sweater, nervous energy searching for release. I flexed my fingers and measured my breaths. Slow, steady, calm.

My mind screamed warnings, a cacophony of imagined disasters, desperate cries that clung to the individuality of my lived experience as Mar.

But I had no choice.

There was no escaping what needed to be done.

“I’m ready to rejoin.” I reached for Greta, and found my arm trembling.

She accepted and wrapped her fingers around my palm.

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