I blink, hoping it’s the punch and I’m drunk, but no—blood. Not from me.
I tear through the coats on the bed. Then I find it. I can’t tell if it’s a man’s or a woman’s coat. It’s black, and it’s covered in blood. The murderer. It has to be the murderer’s. They’re here at the party, and they’ve killed again. With that much blood, it has to be onsomeone’sclothes, right? I just need to survey the guests—the hundreds of guests who are in Gran’s large Victorian house, spilling out into the front yard, on the back deck, out in the back yard with the firepit.
I stand on the back deck, looking out over the crowd in the dim light. Oh, and everyone is wearing some shade of red, so yeah, it’s going to be really easy to see blood smears. I chug my punch. But I have to find the murderer.
“It’s her,” Hollis whispers to me.
I jump out of my skin. “Her who?”
Hollis looks at me like I’m crazy. “The author of all her pain. The traitor herself.”
“What?”
“Maris.” Hollis nods her chin to the elegant woman—the same one I saw at the funeral.
“Wait, that’s Maris? Taylor Grace made her sound like a troll.” I stare at her. She’s talking to Hughes’s granny. “She doesn’t seem crazy.”
“I know, right?” Hollis whispers.
“I want to go talk to her. But—” I chew my lip.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Taylor Grace would freak out.”
“She always said that Maris screwed her out of her business.”
Hollis and I stare.
“I felt so sorry for Taylor Grace,” I admit. “That’s why I covered for her so much on the Jingle Bites Café, because I didn’t want her to think I was screwing her over like Maris.”
“It really makes you question her whole narrative, doesn’t it? It’s just lies on lies on lies with Taylor Grace.” Hollis shakes her head. “She bad-mouthed Maris to everyone, made herself out as a victim.”
“Now she’s doing it to me,” I say bitterly. “I hate that I fell for it.”
“We all fell for it.”
“Oh my god, hey, girls!” Josie grabs me in a hug then hugs Hollis. “Lydia’s here somewhere,” she tells Hollis. “She was asking about you, and I was like, ‘I’m sure Hollis is here. She and Willow are such good friends.’”
“Oh, I have a present for her. I was going to give her…” Hollis heads off into the crowd.
“Sorry I’m late,” Josie says breathlessly.
“I heard the saga.”
“I’ve been so scatterbrained lately. For a second, I thought I was preggo, then nope. I feel like I’ve been bailing on you.”
“Mace was more concerned.”
She wrinkles her nose. “He thinks I’m about to get murdered.”
“We haven’t caught the murderer yet, so he’s right to be worried,” I remind her.
“We?” Josie asks pointedly.
“Er, the police?”
“Or do you mean you and Hughes?” Josie licks her lips.
