Page 182 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

“Marta again, likely, though we have not mapped out all of Isabella’s movements.”

“She wasn’t there at the Colosseum tour…” I remind him about our movements that day. The church, the gelato, the Forum. “I didn’t meet her until dinner that night.”

“We will pull the street camera footage… We will find out what happened.”

“But she’s missing? Marta?”

He makes a notation. “We will find her.”

“Should I be worried?”

“I would keep an eye out, yes.”

I think through the last few days. All those near-death experiences. “Do you think the jellyfish was on purpose?”

“It is hard to know. It is a known risk in that area. We are also looking for the captain of the boat…”

“Maybe they were just trying to torture us?”

“That is possible, yes.”

“But the gunshot,” I say, “that would have been final.”

“Yes. They took a risk given that the police were involved at that point… Perhaps they felt like it was their last chance.”

I shudder. “To kill me and frame Connor for it?”

This had occurred to me earlier. That’s why I thought he had done it. Because that was the plan all along.

“Yes.”

“But Allison saw Isabella?”

“She did. It was a stupid decision not to tell us what she had seen. Your life was almost sacrificed for that.”

“Isabella drugged Guy earlier on and took the gun? And Connor took an Ambien after they…”

“Yes.”

“What about the hotel cameras?”

“Disabled.”

“By her?”

“Sylvie, perhaps. Maybe Marta… We will find all of this out.”

“And the blackmail? Blackmailing Connor? That, too?”

“We do not know everything yet, but we will find out who was behind that as well.”

I’ve run out of questions, so he takes my statement.

I take him through my day, remembering it as I go.

I feel better getting it out, like a poison I’m expelling. He listens and asks good questions and doesn’t act like he’s assuming that I’m making this up to cover some bigger crime.

When I’ve finished, he tells me that he needs to check in on the others, and leaves.