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and dismissed me with a single word in Spanish. I didn’t recognize it, but I was pretty sure it meant “scram,” based on the accompanying hand motion.
    After snapping some photos of the guests downstairs, Brody was free to join me in pacing the corridor outside Dana’s room. What was going on in there? I was dying of curiosity, but the officers had closed the door firmly behind them. Though I tried to peek through the curtains, I didn’t see anything except Officer Ortiz’s scowling face before he came over and pulled them shut.
    â€œWhat do you think is going on in there?” I asked.
    â€œCalm down,” Brody said. “They’re just doing their job.”
    â€œI know, but finding out what happened is my job.”
    â€œOh, come on, this is way outside the wedding planner’s jurisdiction.”
    â€œNo, I’m serious! Mrs. Abernathy has made it clear that dealing with this … situation is my responsibility. And I’m supposed to have us all out of here by four o’clock!”
    Brody checked his watch and made a face. “We’re going to be cutting it close.”
    â€œThat’s what I’m saying! We have to get out of here.”
    â€œI’m sure everything’s going to be fine. They’ll finish up, and then we can be on our way.”
    I tried again to peek, but the curtains were shut tight. What was taking them so long? “Brody, something is seriously messed up here.”
    â€œYeah, you may be right.”
    â€œI mean, a twenty-nine-year-old girl doesn’t ransack her own room, then drop dead from natural causes.”
    We leaned against the stucco wall in silence while I pondered everything that had happened. This couldn’t be a coincidence; none of the other rooms had been touched. My hopes that Dana’s death had been a tragic accident or the inevitable result of some obscure genetic defect had begun to seem fairly improbable—especially now that there were two uniformed officers involved.
    I stood up. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
    Brody’s face brightened a little. “Breakfast?”
    â€œWhat? No, murder.”
    â€œI’d prefer breakfast,” he sighed. “But yeah, this looks pretty bad.”
    â€œThis is terrible! No one’s ever going to hire me again.”
    â€œThat’s not true. No one could possibly think this is your fault.”
    â€œI know, but nobody wants to hire a wedding planner who can’t even keep her wedding party alive.”
    â€œThere’s absolutely nothing you could have done to prevent this. What you can do is what you do best: deal with the family. Does Nicole even know what’s going on?”
    She didn’t. None of them did. Frankly, I’d been avoiding them. As helpless as I felt, Brody was right: I did need to tell them what had happened.
    After letting the officers know where to find me and sending Brody back to my room, I headed for the newlyweds’ suite, where I found Nicole, Vince, and Zoe. The fact that Mrs. Abernathy was off somewhere saying good-bye to the last of her brunch guests settled the butterflies in my stomach at least a little. Nicole and I seldom had a chance to talk without her mom hovering nearby.
    â€œAny news?” Nicole asked. Her eyes were red and puffy, and I could tell she’d been crying. “This is just horrible.”
    â€œNicole, can we sit down for a minute?” I asked. “I need to talk to you about Dana. Can you think of any reason anyone might have gone into her room?”
    â€œWhat do you mean, like she had someone staying with her?” Nicole said. Zoe and Vince exchanged uneasy glances.
    â€œNo, I mean more like breaking and entering.”
    â€œWhat? No! Why?”
    â€œWell, the police are here investigating a break-in. Someone ransacked the place.”
    â€œWhy would they do that?” Zoe asked.
    â€œBeats me,” I said.