Page 171 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

That’s where I need to go.

“I’m going to climb,” I say to Oliver.

“In this heat?”

“It’s not so bad.”

He fans himself with his napkin. “Speak for yourself.”

“I am.”

“Ha ha. But seriously, El. You want me to join you?”

“No, it’s… I need a moment to think.”

He frowns. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“I have my wits about me.”

“It’s not your wits I’m worried about.”

“I know.” I reach across the table and kiss him on the cheek. “I’ll be okay. No one’s going to hurt me here.”

“You know that’s not true.”

He’s right. Isolating myself from the group is a bad idea. But I want to do it anyway because I have that feeling like I’m sure you get sometimes, too. When something’s on the tip of your brain and it’s going to come to you at two in the morning. Or a dream that feels so real when it’s happening, but whose details you can’t remember an hour after you wake up.

That.

And I know from experience that if I don’t give it the time and space to emerge, then it will fade forever, leaving only the memory of having the answer but not the answer itself.211, 212

All this to say, I need to get up in that tower before I forget the solution to this case.

“I… How about this? Why don’t you keep an eye on Connor?”

His brows knit together. “Do you think…?”

“I… I don’t know, but yes, maybe.”

“I’ll kill him myself.”

“No one needs to be killed. I just need to think it through for a minute, and then we’ll go to Inspector Tucci, all right?”

“Okay.”

“Walk me to the entrance.”

We leave the table and walk through the piazza. The ground is uneven, made up of cobblestones, and the light feels magical, clear, and slightly breezy, with high paintbrush trees providing a canopy.

“Be careful,” he says.

“Just watch him,” I say. “It’ll be all right.”

He scans the crowd ahead of us and finds Connor entering the flower garden. He’s alone, and I wonder for a moment where Isabella is. Maybe she’s finally wised up and left him.

“I’ll be over there with him,” Oliver says. “But if you need anything, call.”

“You won’t be able to hear me.”