Page 58 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

My heart sinks in empathy for Fred, but her command has the impact Mrs. Winter wanted: We start to disperse back to our seats.

We can’t shake Inspector Tucci, though, as he follows us to our table and pulls a chair up to join us.

“Where shall we begin?” He pulls the bread basket toward him and plucks out a breadstick. “Who would want to kill Mrs. Winter?”

“No one wants to kill Mrs. Winter,” I say.

“Someone else at the table, then?” He looks around, his bald head shining in the overhead lighting. “DoesMr.Winter have any enemies?”

“You know you’re bad at this, right?” Connor says with his trademark sneer.

“What do you mean?”

“If someone is trying to kill someone at that table, it’s not Mr. and Mrs. Winter.”

“You mean it’s Cecilia or Connor?”

“Their names are Emma and Fred,” I say. “And no one’s trying to kill anyone. Mrs. Winter was being melodramatic.”

“That is possible, yes.” Inspector Tucci rubs his chin. “And the cat. Perhaps it ate something it was allergic to. There is a long list of foods cats cannot eat.”

“Yes, but...” I stop.

“Yes, Ms. Dash?”

I glance at Connor. He’s watching me with his mouth in a thin line, and I can feel Oliver’s body tighten in response. “It’s nothing.”

“As I have been saying. All a big overreaction to the momentous events at hand. Not hard to believe with all of these dramatic types around, no?”

“That’s preposterous,” Tyler says. “This whole weekend is—”

“Enough!” I say. “Enough.” I look around the table. “We’reallhere for a nice wedding and some slightly terrifying outdoor activities, and then we’ll take the ferry back on Sunday, and that will be that, all right?”

Ugh, I just heard how that sounded.

But I want to celebrate my best friend’s wedding without also having to try to stop a murder.

Is that too much to ask?50

45Emma’s parents actively tried to persuade Emma from going into show business, but since when has anyone ever listened to their parents about something like that?

46How many times is someone going to ask themselves that question in this book? Just once more, I promise.

47Don’t judge Oliver too harshly here for not recognizing that it wasn’t the real Inspector Tucci. The man playing him isverygood casting, and Oliver spent way less time with Inspector Tucci than I did.

48In case you missed this from context, the real Inspector Tucci investigated the murders in Italy recently and ten years ago.

49For ease of reference, I’m just going to call him Inspector Tucci.

50You know it is, right? I don’t actually need this footnote.

CHAPTER 10

Does Writing a Mystery Mean You Can Investigate a Mystery?

“Where’s Harper?” Oliver asks me as we pick our way over a path toward the maintenance building.

“She’s doing that glass-bottomed boat thing, I think.”

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