Tamsin: Mack, I’m so sorry about this morning at the gym. I was out of line. Let’s meet up for dinner tonight? There’s something you need to hear. I know exactly why Brittany was killed and I have a feeling I know who did it. You are never going to believe this.
I read it twice whileJasper reads over my shoulder.
“When did you get this?” he asks, and his voice has that dark quality that means he’s three steps ahead.
“About three hours before she was killed.”
Jasper sighs. “And you didn’t mention this because...?”
“Because it makes me look guilty. Again.” Mackenzie’s voice rises, and a couple of people nearby glance over. “She wanted to meet me, and then she turned up dead.”
Huxley crosses his arms. “Which is exactly why you should have told them immediately.”
Jasper takes Mackenzie’s phone and photographs the text with his own. He studies the timestamp, reads it again, and I can see the wheels turning.
“Forensics has Tamsin’s phone,” he says. “They haven’t released it to me yet.”
“She knew who killed Brittany,” I say. “Or thought she did.”
“And whoever she was about to tattle on got to her first,” I say.
The parade music swells—someone’s float with a terrible rendition of the national anthem played on what sounds like a kazoo orchestra. Kids are running into the street to grab candy someone is throwing. The whole scene is aggressively cheerful while we’re standing here discussing premeditated murder.
“I need to call the lab,” Jasper says. “See if there are other texts that might lead to the killer.”
He steps away with his phone to his ear, weaving through the crowd toward a quieter spot.
Which leaves me holding Ella, standing with Huxley and Mackenzie, while the biggest clue yet sits in a text message from a dead woman.
Everyone looks worried,Fish mewls.Why does this feel like a disaster?
Should we be worried?Biscuit Gravy asks.
With Bizzy’s talent for finding the dead? Always assume yes,Fish advises.
I shoot her a wry look because of it.
Mom and Georgie appear through the crowd like patriotic apparitions—Mom in a red sundress with white polka dots, Georgie in star-spangled sunglasses and a blue kaftan dotted with red and silver rhinestones. They’re both holding snow cones in red, white, and blue and a funnel cake in the other hand.
“There you are!” Mom dumps her food into Huxley’s hands and reaches for Ella immediately. “We’ve been looking everywhere! Come to Grammy, sweet girl. Let Mommy have a break.”
Ella goes happily, and my arms feel lighter and strangely empty all at once.
Georgie is eating a blue snow cone and getting it all over her lips and teeth. “The parade is awesomesauce! Did you see the firefighters on the ladder truck? Spectacular abs.”
Mom laughs. “Georgie, they were wearing full gear.”
“Were they? Well, they had spectacular energy.”
Huxley checks his phone. “Gwyneth and Dad have Mack. I’m going to go find them.”
He disappears into the crowd, and Mackenzie immediately plants herself next to me with the determination of a barnacle.
“I’m not leaving your side,” she announceslike a threat.
I blink at her. “What?”
“You’re not going to pull another Grim Reaper impression without me as a witness. This isn’t cute anymore, Bizzy.”
