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“What? I can’t have a stalker?”

“Why was she trying to hurtme?”

“I have no idea.”

“What should we do?” Oliver says as he leans down and picksup the thick piece of wood Cathy was holding. It’s not a bat, but some discarded scrap of construction lumber from God knows where. Oliver hefts it in his hand, then drops it back to the ground, startling us.

“Stay here, I think, until Officer Anderson comes back,” Allison says calmly.

Emma slumps into her chair as Fred drags his chair even closer to her. “I can’t believe Officer Anderson shot at her.”

“Shewastrying to kill me,” David says.

“Let’s not exaggerate,” I say.

“Come now, El,” Allison says. “We all saw it. But where did she come from? Has she been here all along? She must’ve been.”

“To what end?”

“She must be behind everything.”

“Cathy?” I say. “I don’t think she has it in her.”

“You’re the one who got a restraining order against her,” Connor says.

“Yes, but that wasbeforeItaly. We’ve made up since then.”

“You made friends with your stalker?” Simone says.

I ignore her. “I don’t see how she can be behind any of this. She doesn’t know Fred or Emma or Tyler. The wedding was a secret. And what about changing the word to ‘murder’ on the schedule? She couldn’t have been behind that.”

“What if it was a moment of opportunity?” Connor says. “Coming over herewason the shooting schedule. She didn’t have to know it was a real wedding.”

“And what? She decided to try to kill Emma and Fred because...?”

“She’s a stalker, El!” He spins a finger next to his head. “You said so yourself. Her logic isn’t going to be something we understand.”

This stops me because Connor, once again, as much as I hate to admit it, is right.

Cathy’s obsessions and solutions have never made sense. She used to want to make me feel uncomfortable, even though she professes to love me, but now that we’re “friends,” maybe that’s flipped. Maybe she felt the need to protect me against people she perceived as my enemies.

Like David.

But how could she know I don’t like David?

And even this crazy logic doesn’t apply to Emma and Fred.

I doubt she knows anything about Tyler or even who he is.

And how would she have convinced José to work with her? Last time I checked,83Cathy was collecting disability because of a back injury she suffered in a car accident ten years ago.

Not that it looked like she had any problems with her back when she was getting ready to brain David.

But a doctor told me once that they search for one medical issue to explain all of their patient’s symptoms because the chance of them having two issues at once is very small. It’s the same with murder mysteries. There can’t betwoplots at work at once.

You have to find a solution that explainseverything.84

“Something doesn’t make sense,” I say.