Wren puts my novel back, and I head to where I’d left my coffee, but the sight of the clue perched on the arm has me pausing. Turning back to the bookshelves, I look at the section of classic crime fiction I had begged for Phin to buy. He always played hard to get when I wanted something, but he’d been so excited to show me rows of Agatha Christie’s entire work and even the novelists that were continuing her stories. She’d had such a successful career until the age of eighty-five; something about the clue just fit. Instinctively, my fingers floated up until they find the book I’m looking for—A Murder is Announced. My favourite Agatha Christie novel. I found Miss Marple endearing and comforting, something about the perceptive spinster always fascinating me. As I pull on the book, I think my heart stops beating and my lungs give way when a crimson envelope falls through the pages, landing onto the carpet.
He hid the secret in my favourite murder mystery. The fucking bastard.
Everything zeros in on that envelope sitting alone on the floor. Crouching, I discard the novel beside me and lift the item thathad been the source of all our problems this weekend. The little red envelope, ruining each guest's curated life with secrets not fit for public knowledge. Ripping into the thing without any hesitation, I grip at the paper inside, expecting it to not be a clue if my secret is the last one to find. I can’t stop my hands from shaking as I look over the words, a manic laughter bubbling out of me and increases in pitch.
I laugh, and I laugh, and I fucking laugh. A hiccup escapes me as a burning stings at the back of my eyes, but nothing can stop the laughter. It’s erratic and unhinged, I feel lightheaded and dizzy, a deep sob tearing through me as I clench at the paper until it’s nothing but a tight, crumpled ball.
At some point, Wren has wrapped his lean body around mine, speaking frantically in my ear but I don’t hear him over the numb buzz. I bet I look like a mad woman, mouth thick with saliva and I tasted salt from fresh tears.
I think my life as I know it is gone. This weekend was my fault. Everything connects into place, the lightbulb so bright it shattered into sharp shards that sliced into me.
The brutal betrayal was right under our nose this entire time.
The person who helped him with the murder mystery party game was behind it all. The murders, the phones, the gate, the fake secrets, the puppeteer behindeverything. I didn’t know why, but I was sure now the threads had connected in my mind, that with a little more time, I could figure it out.
Wren drew my attention to him as his large tattooed palms cradled my cheeks, thumbs wiping under my eyes as the tears fell freely. I had to tell him everything. Despite his white lies, he might be the only one I could trust here.
“I know who’s behind it all,” I croak, swallowing down the bile rising. “I don’t know why, but once we check some things, I’ll be able to work it out.”
“Okay, Love. Whatever you need, tell me what to do. I’ll give you anything, remember.”
Nodding, I let my body completely rely on him to keep me upright and I tell him my secret. “Mrs Wilson did the ultimate dirty. Who wants a Buchanan baby? Not her.That was my secret, but it’s not true.” I rush out because his eyebrows suddenly disappear up into his hairline. “I wasn’t pregnant. After we broke up, I took a test and it was positive. There’s only one person who knew I took the test, but I never told them it was a false positive. I didn’t tell anyone else about it, I was just so fucking relieved I wasn’t going to have a baby with him.”
I pick up the book beside me and run my finger over the author. “A.Claythorne on the house deed stands for Agatha. Aggie for short. If I had a baby girl, it’s the name I’ve always wanted to use. I told him once and he laughed. Said it was such a stupid name. He hated it, but I think I realised way before that point I’d never want kids with him.”
“So this entire party game was what, a means to an end? Show you that he knew what he thought you’d done to his baby?”
I shiver, it feels so wrong to even imagine. “He had the worst temper over little things, imagine how he felt if he thought this was true. That I’d gotten an abortion.”
“Roo, I don’t really care how he felt. The man was a monster, he tried to hurt you when you told him no on Friday. Revealing your secret wouldn’t hold any repercussions like Phin’s, mine, or Merle's. He wanted your friends and family to hate and judge you for it.”
He wanted me to be a monster, just like they’d see he was this weekend. “He wanted to make me an equal.” I breathe, knowing in his fucked-up way, he thought after this weekend we’d only have each other. Two monsters who everyone shunned from their life. Him for blowing theirs up and me for putting myself first, getting rid of our baby. I knew looking down uponterminations was a thing of the past, but the circle kept around his family were blue-blooded, British wealth that had noses so stuck up tradition. I'd fallen into their family as a leftover from a dead mother; someone Phin's Dad had kept around, maybe out of pity. He'd been sent to prison soon after her death, but there I was still, little Robin Osbourne, the add-on faux family member until my Aunts took me in and then shipped me to boarding school.
I was incredibly aware we needed to act before both detectives confined everyone to this room. Unfolding myself from where I curled into Wren's lap, I held him by his broad shoulders. “I need you to go to the pool house and check how many bodies are in there. I'll sneak upstairs and check if Jay has been left in the room. I know where Phin keeps the master key.”
“Are you telling me there’s a master key that anyone could get their hands on?”
I'd chuckle if I didn't feel like my head was going to explode from exhaustion. “It’s hidden. He keeps it in the mouth of that ghastly bear head Merle has up in the office.”
“Yes, because that’s perfectly normal.”
I smile through a cringe, because nothing will be normal again. Not for me. The key hadn't been there when Cardinal looked at the bear, meaning someone had already taken it, probably to plant Wren’s real secret in his room.
“There shouldn’t be any bodies in the pool house. We saw them take his body away. We put you and Phin in the lounge, but they came and cleared the crime scene.”
“You physically saw them?” Because all I remember is seeing flashing lights from a window and someone in a white jumpsuit.
His frown matches my own and slowly he moves back, sitting on his heel. “Well, no. Actually, we didn’t see anyone. Didn’t hear anyone arrive either. Starling got us to keep Lily away from the windows. You’re not suggesting what I think you are?”
“I am. If none of us saw law enforcement move the body and no one has been in the pool house since, he could still be in there.”
“What does that mean, though, Roo? It doesn't make sense.”
I stroke my thumb over his collarbone gently. “I know, that’s why I need you to check. I can explain everything. If there is more than one body, I’m so sorry to ask, but you need to check who the other one is.”
He recoils, but his hands never leave my waist as we both ground each other in what I’m asking of him. “You think there’s another dead body?”
I nod. “I think someone interfered with Corbin being poisoned.”
