Page 167 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

Mostly, we all need food.

So we say our thank-yous to Pietro, the shopkeeper, who’s now our best friend, and troop out of the store.

Sylvie tells us to andiamo! and we stumble up the stairs. I’ve got my hand on Oliver, holding on tight, because stairs are not safe for me, even when I’m sober.

But I am not sober—no, sir.

And maybe I’m being an idiot. Oh, I definitely am.

But sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind.

Sometimes you have to live that Instagram slogan like it’s meaningful. As if it’s not just a way to get likes. Like it might actually change your life if you follow its edict.

Everyone feels it, I can tell. We’re all connected in a way we haven’t been till now because one of us wants to end some of us.

And that connects people, right?

The murderer and the murderee?

There’s a bond there. Murder is a close emotion. Especially when it’s planned.

It builds and builds until it’s a force that lives inside you.

At least, I assume.

Not like I’d know.

We get to the top and I suck in my breath. It’s even more beautiful up here. A wide, circular piazza with bistro tables and benches where you can sit and stare at the view. Farther in, there’s a medieval castle (the building Sylvie was quoting Google about), its turret reaching up to the sun.

The air feels cleaner, and maybe that’s why my brain clears out, too.

It’s like a swift wind blowing in there, and then the solution thunks into place.

I know who’s trying to kill me.

I know what their motive is.

I know what I’ve missed until now.

But I don’t have any proof.

Normally, I’d end the chapter right now and let you sit with that banger for a while. But I’m not going to do that this time.

Nope.

Here’s what I figured out.

The thing I haven’t spent enough time thinking about is why me and Connor.

Because it’s not about Shek. It never was. He got in the way of someone’s plans, and so he was disposed of like yesterday’s newspaper.

Anyway. Let’s get to the solution, shall we?

Who has a motive to kill both of us? I know I’ve joked that everyone does, but that’s not true. Allison is an old hurt; Oliver, too. I didn’t know Emily before this tour, and killing someone to ensure your book sales seems extreme. The only one with a real double motive is Harper, but there’s no way.

And that’s the problem.

That’s the solution.