Page 33 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

Train to Rome; free night in Rome

Day 11 (July 11)—

Private transfer to airport; flight to LA

It’s July 3, so we’re already on Day 3, but what the hell does “all parties” mean?

I scroll down, and there it is, buried at the bottom.

ATTENDEES

Eleanor DashHarper DashConnor SmithOliver ForrestAllison SmithGuy CharlesAbishek BothaEmily Ma

Oy. That’s quite a list.

Oliver and Allison I know. And given that it’s a tenth-anniversary tour for When in Rome and the whole “extended universe” theme they’ve been pushing the last couple of years,45 it shouldn’t be any surprise that Guy Charles is here either. He was Connor’s business partner before I came along, but Connor’s notoriety after When in Rome was published killed their business. It’s hard to be a private detective when you’re famous.

“So what’s a Guy to do?” Guy had asked me more than once.

Well, this guy—he always tapped himself in the chest at this point—was going to write about it.

The Guy Behind the Man in Rome was about his years with Connor doing the “real” detective work while Connor took the bows. Mostly, I think he just bashed information out of people. In the superhero version of the Vacation Mysteries, Guy is the Hulk.46

Maybe he’s the one trying to kill Connor?

Hmmm. I’ll have to chew on that for a bit.

Next up is Abishek Botha. He goes by the name Shek (pronounced “Shake,” like the ice-cream-based drink, though he isn’t sweet). He’s another mystery author, but he doesn’t have anything to do with the Vacation Mysteries series. We have the same publisher, though, and he did get into some shady deal over a screenplay with Connor a few years back that I never got the details of. I thought I’d heard that he was retiring, but I don’t pay that much attention to the Publishers Lunch gossip mill.47

Me, Harper, Oliver, Allison, Guy, and Abishek. If I was making a suspect list for who might want to kill Connor, it would probably look something like this.

That leaves only the last name on the list. How does she fit in?

“Who’s Emily Ma?” I ask Harper as I motion to the waiter to bring me another spritz. The first one went down too easily.

Harper tips her sunglasses down. She’s wearing a white one-piece that has one strap on her left shoulder. As per usual, she turned multiple heads when we walked onto the pool deck. I, on the other hand, am doing a good impression of Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus with my large straw hat and shapeless beach coverup.

“Come on,” Harper says, “you’ve heard of her.”