“Yes.”
“And Fred owes him money?”
“Yes, but that was from before Emma and Fred got together.”
Harper shakes her head, then turns back to the path. Her hair’s up in a tight bun, and she’s wearing a jungle-print sheer kaftan over her bathing suit. She looks elegantly perfect as always, and if she weren’t my sister and my favorite person in the world besides Emma, I’d probably hate her.35
“Do you think someone wants to kill her?”
I shudder with a sense of déjà vu. I’ve been asked this question before, and the answer turned out to be yes.
But the problem when you do what I do for a living is that you’re always seeing murder around every corner.
It doesn’t mean it’s there.
But it’s notnotthere either.
“I think we need to take the threats seriously until proven otherwise.”
“Good idea.” Harper stops to read a sign. It’s two white hands—one pointing toward theTENNIS COURTSand one toward theSERENITY POOLS. “And someone’s also threatening her on Twitter?”
“Yeah,” I say as I pull up next to her. “Give me your phone and we can look together.”
She gives me her bestWho, me?look. “What makes you think I have my phone?”
I put my hands on my hips, resisting the urge to bend over and breathe upside down like I used to do in gym class. “Did I just meet you yesterday?”
“Okay, fine.” She pulls it out of her pocket and hands it to me.
I go to the handle Emma told me about and read the posts. I flick through to the oldest, which was the same week we got the green light for the film.
@Emmaswooden Emma Wood has been cast in When in Rome. What a waste. The fandom deserves better!
@Emmaswooden Who’d she sleep with to get this job? @AnonPLZ you must know!
@Emmaswooden I bet it’s Tyler Houston. That guy’s a creeper of the first order.
@Emmaswooden Rachel Brosnahan deserved that part, but she would never!
@Emmaswooden Seems like Emma Wood is up to her old tricks on set. Sleeping her way right to the bottom.
@Emmaswooden Fred Winter can do better! Our Connor deserves a *real* Cecilia.
@Emmaswooden I wouldn’t marry him if I were you. You’ll regret it.
And on and on. None of the tweets are particularly vicious given what Emma normally has to put up with online. But she’s right, there’s something insidery about them. Something targeted.
“If it wasn’t for the other things, I’d say these were lucky guesses,” Harper says. “But with the other notes...”
“Why would anyone announce that there’s going to be a murder, though?”
“To instill fear. Like that Agatha Christie book.”
“A Murder Is Announced.”
“What happened in that one, again?” Harper asks.
“Someone publishes an ad in the local paper saying a murder will take place at a certain time and location, and then it does. Miss Marple is staying in the town for a spa treatment and she gets involved in solving the case.”