Page 53 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

No point in asking. Simone’s not going to tell me.

I fill my plate and return to the table. Allison and David are across from me, and Oliver and Harper are to my left. Tyler and Simone are next to Allison, which leaves...

“What’s this I hear about someone getting electrocuted?” Connor asks me after he conspicuously sits down in between me and Harper with a full plate of food.41

“What?” Allison asks. “Are you serious?”

“No one got electrocuted,” I say, trying to hide my annoyance at Connor but failing, as I almost always do.

“Only my phone,” Harper adds.

“Sounds melodramatic,” David says with a laugh in his voice. “Like something from a bad movie.”

I bite back saying something about how he should know, and instead tell them what happened, with Simone adding in a detail or two, like the sound that Harper’s phone made when it hit the water, or the scream Emma gave that brought the staff running.

She gets the laughs she’s looking for, and I’m grateful to her, grudgingly, for doing so.

Because listening to her, it sounds scary, but silly, too.

Then again, I left out the threatening notes, the Twitter feed, and the murder that’s going to be served at midnight. But I watch Tyler for a reaction while we’re catching everyone up. He’s listening but seems unconcerned as he methodically cuts through his steak.

Like a surgeon, I can’t help thinking.

Like he doesn’t care that it used to be a living thing.

“Sounds as if you had a close escape,” David says. “Glad I skipped a soak this morning.”

“Seriously,” Allison says. “We talked about it! I didn’t think there’d be time before lunch.”

“How did you know it was there?” I ask. “It wasn’t on the schedule.”

“I researched the property before we came—why?”

“You think someone did it on purpose?” Connor asks.

“Interesting question,” David says.

“I don’t see how it could be targeted at anyone specific,” Simone says. “It wasn’t like they’d know who was going to be there or when.”

“That’s true,” I say. “The decision Emma and I made to gothere was spontaneous. Certainly not enough time to set anything like that up.”

“But if they wanted to disrupt the wedding,” Connor says, “...a dead person in a hot tub might be a good way. It wouldn’t matter who.”

“Why would anyone want to disrupt the wedding?” Allison asks.

Tyler frowns but says nothing. He just reaches for his red wine and takes a large gulp.

“Perhaps someone doesn’t want them to get married,” I say.

“And they’re willing to kill someone to keep it from happening?” Tyler says, looking up and meeting me in the eye.

“I admit it’s a bit of an extreme solution.”

“It was probably an accident,” David says officiously. “As I’m sure we’ll learn. We’re lucky no one got hurt.”

Connor leans closer. “If it had been Fred who was in danger...”

“Are you saying your client is capable of murder?” I say under my breath.

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