Page 38 of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Oliver, looking more wary than ever before, leans forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees. “What did you say the name of your podcast was again?”

“Oh, it’s...” Oh god, she’s blanking out now, of all times? “Murder or Accident?” Sana’s insides shrivel up with a painful squeak.Murder or Accident?What the hell kind of a name is that?

Julia is nodding with a highly skeptical expression, and Sana can’t blame her. “I’m going to check it out now; it sounds so interesting.”

Oh god. Entire star systems are exploding inside Sana. She needs to come up with an excuse to stop Julia, but she can’t, hermind is a complete blank, she’s not a writer like her mother, who by now would’ve come up with at least five different legit excuses as to why Julia won’t find her nonexistent podcast online. Powerless, Sana watches as Julia takes out her phone and swipes to unlock it. Here it comes, she’s going to be exposed as a complete fraud, and then the suspicion will come, and maybe then they’ll even find out how she’s been following Marshall for weeks.

All these thoughts bubble inside her until they surge out of her with too much urgency. “Wait—”

There’s too much panic in Sana’s voice. She hears it even as she says it, and she catches the surprise in both Oliver’s and Julia’s eyes, but she can’t stop it, it’s too late, she’s going to reveal everything—

And that’s when Julia’s phone rings.

The words that are already halfway out of Sana’s mouth die and she forces herself to sit back down.

“It’s Vera,” Julia says, obviously surprised.

Anxiety leaps up in Sana’s chest once again. She has no idea how to feel about Vera. She likes Vera, despite everything, but she is also terrifying. But everything’s fine, Sana reminds herself, because Vera told everyone that Marshall’s death isn’t murder after all, it’s an allergic reaction to a duck, right? Right. She’s probably calling to ask about Emma or something.

Julia stands up and walks to the far side of the room as she answers the phone. “Hi, Vera, how’s it— Oh, Vera, are you okay?” She glances behind her shoulder, and she looks so worried that Sana’s panic spikes and she wonders if she’s about to throw up right here in Julia’s living room. Her hands are gripping her knees so tightly that they’ve gone numb. “Oh, Vera,” Julia cries. “That’s awful. Have you called the police? Okay, you just sit tight, Vera.We’ll be right over. Yes. I’ll see you in a bit.” By the time Julia hangs up, both Sana and Oliver are on their feet.

“What happened?” Oliver says.

Julia’s face is pale, her eyes wide with fear. “Vera’s shop has been broken into.”

None of them says it, but Sana knows they’re all thinking the same thing: first, Marshall’s death, and now a break-in? What are the chances that the two are unrelated?

TWENTY-ONE

RIKI

Riki knew coming in that something bad had happened to Vera’s teahouse, but seeing the destruction in person is still a big enough shock that for a while, he’s unable to find the right words, if indeed there are right words to be said at such a time.

Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse wasn’t a fancy place to begin with, but it had been neat. Now it looks like someone went through it and methodically broke every jar of tea and herbs, covering the floor with broken glass and tea leaves and dried herbs everywhere, like a horrible trash heap. It looks so awfully wrong that part of Riki wishes he could not be here. But then again, maybe that’s been the problem all along. He’d rather run away from problems than face them. Well, no longer.

Which sounds more impressive than it really is, because honestly, Riki wouldn’t know how to run away from this problem even if he wanted to. Because it’s not just that a teahouse has been broken into. A teahouse where Marshall Chen died just a week ago has been broken into, and now Riki is standing in the middleof a literal mess while Vera strides up and down, flapping her arms and ranting loud enough to be heard above the crunching of broken glass under her shoes.

“Look at this!” she cries for the seventh time.

Riki wonders when the others will arrive. Don’t they know that a strapping young lad like him is no match for the utter force that is Vera Wong in a rage?

“They break everything! How can? They don’t think of how wasteful it is, oh no, they just smash everything!”

Riki can only nod in agreement. He should probably say something, but he has no idea what, and it seems a shame to spoil Vera’s tirade. He could swear she’s enjoying the uninterrupted rant. The little bell above the door tinkles as the door swings open to reveal Sana. Riki could cry with relief at the sight of her, he really could. Also, he can’t help but notice how pretty she looks today. Not that she doesn’t look pretty other days. Gah, even in his own head he’s hopeless at this stuff.

Sana’s eyes light up when she sees him, and Riki can’t help but smile. Then Sana takes in the destruction before her and her mouth drops open in horror, and now Riki feels extremely stupid for smiling in the middle of a little old lady’s robbed store. Of all the highly inappropriate times to be smiling! He wants to apologize and explain that he’s smiling not because he finds anything funny, but because... uh, he thought Sana had smiled at him fir— Nope, never mind, that sounds even worse.

“Oh, Vera,” Sana says, going directly to the old woman and hugging her tight. “Are you okay? Oh, this is terrible!”

Hugs. Why didn’t Riki think of hugging Vera? He watches, dumbly, as Oliver walks in, followed by Julia, who’s carrying little Emma. They all gasp at the mess, then Emma walks over to Veraand grasps Vera’s hand in her tiny one, patting it and saying, “Don’t cry, Grandma. It’ll be okay.” Yep, this is definitely how normal people react at a time like this. Riki himself only stood there gaping like a stunned fish after stammering, “What happened?” as though it wasn’t obvious what had happened.

Vera smiles as she accepts all the hugs being given her way. Then she straightens up and brushes off her pants. “I come down this morning and the shop is like this.” She gestures around the small space. “All my rare teas destroyed, just like that!”

“Did you hear anything?” Riki says.

“Oh no, I always put in earplugs when I sleep because San Francisco so noisy, you know. At night can hear sirens, people shouting, laughing, that kind of thing.”

“You’ve called the cops, right?” Julia says.

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