The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Maggie believes that the murder attempts were all perpetrated by the same person, but Ethan warns her that she is making lots of assumptions. Maggie instantly thinks that he means that she is wrong, but he immediately reassures her, saying, “We’re not wrong” (191). Maggie is deeply affected by his use of the word “we.” Regarding the gunshots, they agree that the guests with motive didn’t have the opportunity to shoot at Maggie, and those with opportunity lack the motive. They play around with various possibilities, and they reach Maggie’s bedroom, they discover that the room has been ransacked; whoever did it took Eleanor’s notebooks.

Maggie is trying to light a fire in the fireplace when Ethan knocks. She opens the door, and he scolds her for not asking for the password. He reports that Maggie’s room is the only one that was searched. He asks if she read the notebooks, which she did; Eleanor’s new book is all about “a woman who fakes her death and runs away because someone is trying to kill her” (197). Maggie doesn’t know how the story ends, though, because the last notebook was missing from Eleanor’s stack. She is shocked by the care and concern that Ethan now shows her.