Page 183 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

She needs help.

Fred isn’t helping her.

That motherfucker.

“You were going to kill me,” Emma says again, popping up, her voice stronger, but her face so pale I think she might faint.

“I...no...”

“Perhaps we should go somewhere private to talk,” Officer Anderson says to Fred.

“You don’t have any evidence,” Fred says, just like aninnocentperson.

Ha ha.

This isn’t a laughing matter, but his response is laughable.

And now Icanhelp Emma.

Because Fred is wrong.

“There is,” I say. “I can prove you were communicating with Simone. That she’s the one you were meeting with.” I pull my phone out and dial the number I can visualize from the texts I’ve read over too many times.

There’s a pause, and then a phone starts to ring. It’s coming from Simone.

“What does that prove?” Fred says as Simone reaches into her pocket and silences it.

“That’s the number on your burner phone. The one you were arranging all those meetings with. Not Shawna.Simone.”

“But Shawna had the phone with that number,” Harper says. “That’s the number I called for Shawna.”

“Simone cloned Shawna’s phone,” I say. “Just like Tyler’s. She probably needed Shawna to be able to communicate with Fred if necessary. And if Emma found Fred’s phone, then it wouldn’t trace back to her.”

I press dial again. Again it rings.

“Will you stop that,” Simone says.

“Take out your phone.”

“No.”

“It doesn’t matter. We all know it’s you.”

“Do we?”

“You’re the only one who could’ve pulled it off. You were in charge of everything. And you were the one scaring Emma with those notes. You wanted them to call off the wedding.”

Simone pauses, her eyes narrowing. Then, “Why would I do that if this is about getting Emma’s money?”

“It was all about money forhim. But you? Look how hard you love. You’re still mad about some stupid boy I slept with in high school. And that must’ve made it all the sweeter, right? The fact that it wasmymovie. Dupingmybest friend.”

“I already told you. This isn’t aboutyou.”

“No, it’s about José and Ken and Shawna. Why did you kill José? Was he going to tell on you? Tell everyone Fred had him set up that potential electrocution at the pools?” I stop, remembering. “Fred told Emma to go there. Remember, Emma? He said you should go and have a soak.”

Emma blinks rapidly. “He did.”

“He called and told you Emma was going there, right, Simone? When he was going to the ferry to meet his parents. That’s why you came to the pools? To, what, supervise?”

---