An Unwanted Guest

by Shari Lapena

Just being with her in the small car puts Gwen on edge. She hopes she hasn’t made a mistake bringing her up here.

She reminds herself that she’s not in Afghanistan anymore. She’s home, safe, in New York State. Nothing bad can happen to her here.

She wonders with a vague unease how the weekend will unfold, and if anything will be different by the time they return home.

But one person can’t be responsible for another person’s happiness. She is responsible for her own. He can’t make her happy.

She wouldn’t mind escaping into a book. Her own life is far from perfect.

Genetics has been kind to her, and she now has the money to make the most of what she’s been given.

Serving body

“There’s no cell reception up here,” Henry complains. “And no wi-fi. It’s like being buried alive.”

Lawlz probably foreshadowing

He’s still young and impulsive. He has to remember that he’s a server, not a guest. There are boundaries to be observed. Bradley hasn’t always been so good at observing boundaries.

Too annoyi g

In case i forget

She has a nice surprise in store for him that will take his mind off whatever’s bothering him.

Getting it on.

It’s so pleasant here, Lauren thinks, in this enchanting dining room, with the lights low and the wind howling outside, slamming at the windows, like something wanting to get in.

“I love a good murder mystery, don’t you?” she says.

Lawls

She can’t just throw everything aside and do what she wants so that she can be happy. Women don’t get to make fools of themselves like that. Society won’t let them. But men do it all the time.

Facts

“If you’re trying to make a murder look like an accident in a fall down the stairs, far better to push the head into the newel post in the direction of the fall.”

Sus

He and Dana had argued, tension about the impending wedding erupting out of nowhere.

Gwen witnessed a terrible crime. She watched three men rape a young woman. And she did nothing. Nothing at all.

Shd probably saw what happpened to Dana and wont say.. Sus

“He’s the attorney who was arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife.”

GASP

But James couldn’t help noticing that Bradley also seemed shaken by what had happened. He looked tired; there were rings under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept.

?????…

He sees Candice lying on the floor, her scarf pulled tightly around her neck.

Wtf

Filled with dread, she hears the sound of running footsteps stumbling up the darkened stairs.

And suddenly he has a terrible thought. He realizes that if only it had been Beverly who had been strangled, instead of Candice, all his problems would be solved.

Suddenly she can feel him watching, knows that he is behind her, behind that black curtain, a grim reaper reaching out for her.

The first thing he notices is that the bed has been slept in.

He’s learned that people will believe what they want to believe. And it’s truly frightening how easily they’ll believe it.

Matthew fumbles from cold and nerves, clutches the gun and raises it. He fires wildly in the dark.

Gasp

He gets up to stir the fire. He reaches for the poker with his right hand. Oddly, time seems to slow down. He grasps the poker very tight. She’s sitting right there. It would be so easy. There’s no one here to see it. He could run outside after the others, make up some story. . . . He grips the poker tight.

It’s the iron boot scraper from the front porch. Someone picked it up and must have used it to murder Bradley. Who? When? A stranger? Or one of the people who came out here to look for Riley?

He remembers how a couple of years ago Bradley had begun dealing drugs.

She thinks suddenly of that line from Shakespeare—where was it from?—One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

He’s still in the lobby of Mitchell’s Inn, and the murderer has got him too.

Got henry...

“But actually I’ve read one of her books. She wrote a true crime book a few years ago that I quite enjoyed. That’s pretty much all I read.”

“So it’s a woman,” Sorensen says, unable to hide her surprise.

And Lauren, the murderer of the other three, can’t exactly say anything without implicating herself. She can’t say, But I didn’t kill Henry!

Wtffffff