“Either someone went out of their way to send the tip, or the police just happened to be talking to someone who witnessed the argument. Who could the latter be?”
Amie cast her mind back to all those trips to the grocery store. “There weren’t that many people around,” she said. “But Savannah was pretty loud, and the flower counter is by the entrance. Someone could’ve just walked by and noticed.”
“How do you know that?” Ziya asked.
“I don’t,” Amie said. “It’s just a theory.”
“No, about there not being a lot of people around. You said you weren’t there.”
Amie felt her jaw go slack. If she was ever going to tell Ziya about the time loop, this wasn’t how she wanted to do it. “Uh …” She glanced at David. “He … told me there weren’t. Didn’t you?”
“Right,” David said slowly. “I did tell you that.”
Ziya looked back and forth between them. “I don’t know howyouguys felt about that performance,” she said, eyebrows arched, “but I’ve seen better.”
“Savannah could’ve also mentioned the argument to her husband,” Amie added hurriedly. “The police definitely would have spoken to him.”
“That’s true.” David spread his hands, sitting back on the couch. “Guess there’s nothing else the police can do, unless someone plants evidence against me. Or if they find all the threatening letters I’ve sent to Savannah.”
“You didwhat?” Amie yelled. Ziya’s eyes went round with horror.
“I’mjoking,” David said. “I only wrote them in my head.”
“I bet you could figure out who killed Savannah,” Ziya said as Amie rubbed her temples. “You’ve got the knowledge from—”
She stopped, covering her mouth as David gave her a wide-eyed stare.
Amie narrowed her eyes. “Knowledge from what?”
“You swore,” David said, ignoring Amie.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Ziya replied, her voice muffled by her hand. Despite the apologetic tone of voice, her eyes shone with amusement.
Amie tried to think of what secret David would have from her that Ziya could know about. It only took her a few moments to figure it out.
“You wrote mystery books!” she declared triumphantly, pointing at David.
He covered his face in confirmation.
“Why wouldn’t you want to tell me that?” Amie asked. “I was starting to think you were a bestselling erotica author or something. Not thatthatshould be embarrassing, but—”
“The books are garbage,” David replied flatly. “I didn’t want you reading them.”
“They’re really not,” Ziya said, looking excited to finally be able to talk openly about the topic. “My dad’s obsessed with them. He gave me one to read. That’s how I found out—I recognized David from the author photo.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Amie asked, pouting.
“He made me promise not to!”
“Anyway,” David said loudly, “I willnotbe trying to solve Savannah’s murder, thank you very much. Especially if someone’s trying to make me look guilty. I think it’s best if I stay as far from the situation as I can until it all blows over.”
He stretched his arms out over his head, yawning. After a moment of silence:
“That was my polite way of saying ‘Get out.’ ”
“Feel like there’s something in between yawning and ‘get out,’ ” Amie muttered as Ziya laughed. A cold wave of reality washed over her as the other two said their goodbyes. Just thirty minutes before she’d been trying to convince Ziya to leave, and now that she was faced with it, she …
Well. It didn’t feel good.
