Page 52 of Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

Vera nods. She turns slowly to look at Aimes, and Aimes steps back without meaning to. Vera is probably the sharpest tool in the drawer, and she would totally see the awful truth lurking behind Aimes’s eyes. “I think maybe I don’t sleep here tonight,” Vera says.

“Yeah, I think that’s a smart choice. Um, do you have somewhere to stay?” For a horrifying second, Aimes wonders if Vera is about to ask to stay at her place. She gets a flash of her place, the endless mess that dominates all of her space except for her bed and couch.Fake it till you make it, Vera had said to her, and Aimes could sob with the accuracy of the saying.

“I do.” Vera takes out her phone and dials a number. “Julia, something happen to my shop. No, it’s okay. Just, someone vandalize it, and this time, that someone is not me. Yes, I’m okay. But I don’t think I want to stay here tonight. Yes. Thank you. Sorry for bothering you.” She hangs up and slides the phone back in her purse. “Julia will come and pick me up.”

“Okay, good.” Aimes looks up at the vandalized sign once more and then looks sharply away, her gut souring.

“Why you look so upset?” Vera says.

“What? Because your shop was vandalized, that’s why,” Aimes cries. “It’s a really upsetting thing.”

“Yes, quite. But is not your shop, is my shop. So why are you so upset, Aimes?”

Aimes gestures wildly. “I don’t know, because you’re my friend,and it’s really upsetting when bad things happen to my friends? That’s such a weird question to ask, Vera.” But is it? Aimes knows she’s being a lot more upset than called for, but it’s not like she can tell Vera the truth, that she has a horrible suspicion that this was really aimed at her. And because of it, she’s now gaslighting the old woman to throw her off the scent. Oh man, Aimes really is the worst person ever.

“Thank you for being so caring. You are like what they say, you know, the person who can feel what other people feel. The path—pathy—pathetic.”

Aimes laughs, although it comes out more like a sob. “Empath. Not pathetic. Well, I am pathetic. I’m not an empath. I just—I think seeing this being done to your beautiful shop would upset anyone. I’m really sorry that happened to you, Vera.”

“Oh, is okay, it means I am on right track,” Vera says.

Aimes gapes at her. “Vera, you can’t possibly keep looking into Xan’s death.”

“Why not?”

“Oh my god. I can’t—”

Just then, a car turns the corner, heading toward them. “There’s Julia now,” Vera says with a smile, her voice thick with affection.

Julia parks the car, climbs out, and closes the door gently. “Emma’s asleep in her car seat.” She hugs Vera. “Vera, you okay? Oof, have you been drinking?”

“Only whisky,” Vera says.

“Wow, okay, sounds like a good night. Hey, Aimes, right? You okay? Thanks for accompanying Vera tonight.”

“Yeah,” Aimes says weakly.

Then, finally, Julia glances up at the shop and stops smiling. Her jaw scrapes the pavement. “Oh my god, Vera, your teahouse!”

“I say to you, someone vandalize it.”

Julia shakes her head. “I know, I know. I guess I wasn’t—it didn’t really sink in. Oh man, this is bad.” She sighs, then takes both of Vera’s hands in hers. “Vera, I say this with all the love in the world, but what the fuck did you get yourself tangled up in this time?”

Vera at least has the grace to look somewhat ashamed at that, which kind of surprises Aimes, to be honest. But then Vera squares her shoulders and says, “I am solving a mysterious case. A case that looks like it involve the foul play, if this is any indication.”

“You need to tell Selena,” Julia says.

Vera glowers at her. “You know what she’s like, she will nag me to death and make me stop investigating.”

“As she should!” Julia says.

“I will tell her tomorrow.”

“Promise?”

Vera makes a noncommittal noise.

Julia groans out loud. “All right. I know better by now than to ask you to stop whatever it is you’re doing. Wait, how do you know that whoever did this isn’t still watching you right now? What if they follow us back to my house? I don’t want to put Emma in danger.”

---