Page 173 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

“What the hell?” Allison says. “Doeseveryonewant to talk to Fred tonight?”

She reaches for the door and swings it open.

Shawna’s standing there. Pale as a ghost and wet to the bone.

She takes a step into the room, then falls to the floor.

“Shawna!” Harper rushes to her, turning her over. There’s a bloodstain blooming on her chest and she’s gasping for breath. “Someone call for help!”

“There isn’t anyone,” Allison reminds her.

“Shawna, what happened? Who did this to you?”

“I...” Shawna gasps out. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Just tell us.”

Shawna’s eyes pool with tears. “I...was...”

“Yes?”

“Doing...what...I...was...told...” Her head slumps to the side and the light goes out in her eyes, and there’s no escaping it.

Shawna is dead.103

100In for a penny, in for a pound. But why, though? You could just put the penny in, couldn’t you?

101Oh, I see. It’s about people without money. So if you owe a penny you might as well owe a pound. And apparently a synonym is “hanged for a sheep.” Um,what?

102I’m going to stop pointing out the origins of these kinds of expressions, but the English language truly is fascinating.

103Yes, a murder victimdidjust give a clue with her last words. Deal with it. I told you the chapter titles were rhetorical questions.

CHAPTER 28

Are You Near the End When the Third Murder Happens?

Harper is curled around Shawna’s body, and it’s in this moment that it occurs to me that there are so many secrets surrounding us that I don’t know how I’ll ever make it out of them.

I had no idea of the extent of Harper’s relationship with Shawna, which is evident to everyone as pain streaks her face like tears.

But everyone here is hiding something.

Like Fred.

Like David, and how he really feels about Tyler and Fred and Emma.

Like Emma, and the true nature of her relationship with Tyler.

They’re all woven together, but I can’t figure out the pattern. There are other tensions, too, other threads I haven’t figured out yet. Some connective tissue that brings all these disparate events and people together.

It’s not just the movie—which seems to me to be theoccasionof the crime rather than the purpose—but something deeper, something more sinister. Something that might make it seem okay to dispose of people like tissue paper.

“What did she say?” David asks. “After she said she was sorry?”

“Something about doing what she was told,” Oliver says. He’s standing behind Harper, looking ready to step in if necessary, just like he always is, but there’s nothing anyone can do for Shawna anymore other than close her eyes and cover her with a sheet.

“Is she a Nazi?” Allison says.

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