Page 128 of To All the Men I’ve Killed Before

I find her in there, her little paws scrabbling furiously at Lauren’s closet door.

‘What’s in there, you little gremlin?’ I say, pulling the closet open.

Lana gives a yelp of delight and launches herself at a half-chewed slipper. I pull it out for her and she snatches it from my hand, carrying it out, her tail wagging frantically with joy.

I almost miss the notebook that dislodged when I reached for the slipper.

Almost.

68

Kitty and Antoinette’s Airbnb, West Hollywood, Los Angeles

Back in the kitchen, Antoinette, Agnes, Lauren and Charlie are waiting for me before they start eating.

Lauren has made another round of lemonade.

She pours me a glass.

‘It’s my own special recipe,’ Lauren says. ‘Cort used to love it.’

‘Thank you,’ I say as I pull out a chair next to Charlie. ‘So I guess the question is, what are we going to do with … you know.’ I gesture towards the cellar.

‘Actually,’ says Charlie. ‘We’ve just been talking about that. And Agnes has an idea.’

Antoinette looks at Agnes and I’m not lying when I say that she absolutely glows. My sister is totally smitten. I wonder if I look like that when I look at Charlie.

‘What’s your idea?’ she asks.

Agnes smiles shyly. ‘Well, you know how my parents still live out in Newport Beach? That I grew up there?’ Antoinette nods. ‘I thought maybe we could swing past and say hi before Kitty and Charlie fly back to London.’

Antoinette looks puzzled. ‘While I would absolutely love to see where you grew up,’ she says, ‘I don’t really understand what that’s got to do with our body problem in the basement.’

Agnes leans in closer. ‘My parents own a yacht,’ she says. ‘And the Pacific gets pretty deep out there. Like seven, eight thousand feet.’

‘Ahhh,’ Antoinette says with a smile. ‘You’re so clever.’ She kisses Agnes on the cheek.

‘So, what do we think about a little day trip?’ Agnes asks.

‘I think that sounds incredible,’ I say.

Agnes claps her hands together. ‘I’ll give my parents a call and let them know we want to take the boat out.’ She turns to myself and my sister and adds, ‘You’ll love Newps. I can’t wait to show you.’

‘I’ll make more lemonade,’ Lauren says.

69

Agnes’s parents’ yacht, Catalina Channel, Offshore from Newport Beach

The sun is beating down on my skin and I stretch out luxuriously on the sun lounger on the upper deck. I’ve got to hand it to Agnes, this is a much better idea than dumping the body parts all around the Hollywood Hills with the hope that the mountain lions find them before the police. I take a deep, happy breath. It’s actually going to be okay. I feel a hand snake up my inner thigh and I open my eyes to see Charlie looking at me, his pupils dilated.

‘I like you in this bikini,’ he says, leaning in for a kiss.

‘Oh really?’

‘Very much. I think I’d like you even better out of it though. Want to disappear below deck for a bit?’

‘Get a room, please!’ Antoinette’s voice drifts over to us, ruining the moment. I sit up and look at my sister, who’s peering over the top of her sunglasses at us. ‘We’re here to do a job, Kitty, it’s not a jolly.’ But there’s a smile on her face. It’s good to see that being held hostage in a basement for three days hasn’t fazed her at all.