Page 26 of To All the Men I’ve Killed Before

‘Oh. Okay,’ I say and she squeals again.

‘This is going to be great. Wait. What’s that smell?’ She wrinkles her nose and her eyes land on my Chloé sliders.

Oh no. No, no, no.

I slip one off and inspect the bottom.

Yep.

Dog shit.

Perfect.

Just perfect.

15

Agnes and Lauren’s guesthouse, West Hollywood, Los Angeles

Just before 8pm, Antoinette and I leave the villa and walk across the garden to the guesthouse. I’m still feeling super uneasy about having two strangers in such close proximity.

Antoinette picks up on my fears.

‘Just look at it this way, Kits,’ she says quietly as we walk, ‘isn’t it better to make friends with them? Like keep your friends close and potential witnesses to murder closer?’

I sigh. She’s got a point.

‘Yes,’ I say reluctantly, ‘but that doesn’t mean we can get too friendly with them. I don’t want them just dropping into the main house unannounced. We’ve still got our friend in the cellar.’

Antoinette bumps her hip into mine. ‘Okay, no house calls. But apart from that, you should loosen up a bit. You might even have a good time.’

I roll my eyes at her. ‘We’re not here for a good time,’ I say. ‘We’re here to kill Aidan Ward.’

‘And the WeHo Ripper. That’s exactly my idea of a good time,’ she says. ‘And anyway, we need to find them both first. And I don’t think having two locals as our new besties is the worst thing. It’s not like we’ve had much luck on our own.’

I sigh again. ‘Don’t remind me. I feel so useless.’

Antoinette squeezes my arm. ‘We’ll find him,’ she says. ‘We made a promise and we will find him.’

‘I just hope we do it quickly,’ I say. ‘I need to be back in London putting my life back together.’ Although, as I say it, I realise that it’s not quite as true as it was. I was desperate to get home so I could win Charlie back. There seems very little chance of that happening now.

‘We’ll find him,’ she says again. ‘And we’ll start first thing. But for now let’s go and have some nice food and see what these girls can tell us about LA.’ She gives me another squeeze and I feel a rush of affection for her.

We pick up our pace again and continue our walk to the guesthouse. Agnes opens the door for us and a waft of cooking meat makes my stomach churn.

‘Wow,’ Antoinette says. ‘It smells great.’

‘Lauren is a super whizz in the kitchen,’ Agnes says. ‘Which is just as well as I am useless and would live off DoorDash otherwise. She’s made you a roast cauliflower or something, Kitty. I swear, she’s a genius.’

‘That’s lovely,’ I say, surprisingly touched by the gesture. Antoinette gives me a look that says see.

We walk through to the kitchen. Lauren and Agnes have gone all out for us. The table has been dressed beautifully and the chicken is sat in the middle, all golden and glowing. My stomach growls in protest.

‘Ah, here are the guests of honour,’ Lauren’s disembodied voice says from somewhere behind the island. She stands up and is holding a tray of perfect-looking roast potatoes. ‘Right on time! And Kitty, don’t worry, everything apart from the chicken has been cooked in veggie oil. And I’ve made you a special vegan gravy too.’ She smiles and carries the potatoes over to the table. ‘Almost had a heart attack that the potatoes weren’t going to be ready on time and the chicken was going to dry out. But it all came together in the end.’

‘She’ll make someone a wonderful wife one day,’ Agnes says.

‘Sit down,’ Lauren instructs us. ‘Pour yourself some wine. I didn’t know what y’all like so I just brought one of everything in.’