Page 62 of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

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“So assuming I wasn’t wrong...” she started slowly.

“You weren’t wrong.”

“And Eleanor wanted us to find this...”

“She did.”

“Why?”

There was a thin strip of light from the hallway, slicing over the face of a man who was looking at her like this was it. Like he was all in. Like he was all in... with her. And it was too much. This feeling that things were about to get good. Because thingsweren’tgood. A man was clinging to life and a woman was missing and if Maggie knew anything, it was thatgooddidn’t last and the best you could hope for wasokay.

Okay was fine.

Okay was bearable.

Okay was a nice, slow ride around a flat, even track—noangst-ridden climbs or terrible falls. A high-free, low-free existence and it was all she wanted.

But she looked up at him. She breathed him in. And the words came again, ricocheting around the narrow space:This is getting good...

And when Ethan said “Do you trust me?” and held out his hand, Maggie didn’t even have to think before she took it.

Police Transcript

Excerpt from the Official Police Interrogation of Margaret Chase and Ethan Wyatt

December 25

Inspector Patel:So you fell into a secret passageway? And you thought that was normal?

Ms. Chase:Of course it’s not normal. None of this is normal! But...

Inspector Patel:But?

Ms. Chase:She’s Eleanor Ashley.

Inspector Patel:And you just followed it?

Mr. Wyatt:What should we have done?

Inspector Patel:You could have told the police.

Mr. Wyatt:You mean Dobson? Ha. No. We weren’t going to tell Inspector Dobson.

Inspector Patel:So you decided to impede an official police investigation instead?

Mr. Wyatt:Yup.

Ms. Chase:How?

Inspector Patel:Pardon me?

Ms. Chase:How did we impede an investigation, exactly?

Inspector Patel:Destruction of evidence? Of property?

Mr. Wyatt:Why do people keep blaming me for fires that could have happened to anyone?

Ms. Chase:Besides, that wasn’t until later.

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