Page 35 of She Doesn't Have a Clue
“Sorry if I caused any issues with you and Jake,” Spencer said. His tone didn’t sound very apologetic, though.
“I bet you’re heartbroken over it,” Kate said. “But that’s not what I’m interested in right now. What I want to know is where you went after the rehearsal dinner. I know you weren’t with Kennedy, and you might have gone looking for me but we both know you didn’t find me. Plus, your brother has already ratted you out about being a no-show for your bro downtime. So where were you?”
Spencer frowned. “Why do you need to know?”
“Why are you acting like you have something to hide?” Kate countered, going on the offensive. “Unless you actually have something to hide?”
Spencer’s gaze roved around the hallway. “I… was… with…”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Spencer, Iseeyou lying. God, you’re bad at this. Where were you?”
Spencer huffed out a petulant sigh. “Fine. It’s just, out of context, it’s going to sound—”
“Spencer!”
“I was with Ian,” he said, glaring. “Until about two in the morning, talking… business.”
“Ian the estate lawyer?” Kate asked in surprise. “Why?”
Spencer’s gaze turned shifty. “Look, I said I know how it’s going to sound—”
“I swear to god, Spencer.”
“The prenup!” he blurted out. He huffed a sigh, like the effort of releasing that secret had robbed him of air. “Ian helped me with the details and I thought he might know a way I could, uhhh… get out of it. You know, legally. Or otherwise.”
She could only be grateful that Jake wasn’t there to hear Spencer’s confession just then, because she was positive the asshole would never let her hear the end of it. He’d visit her on her deathbed only to whisper in her earI told you so.
“Why the hell would you be trying to get out of your prenup?” Kate demanded.
“Not the whole thing,” Spencer muttered. “Just… certain clauses.”
“Whichcertainclauses?” Kate pressed, letting the insultidiotinfuse her tone.
Spencer sighed, going to town on his glasses again. At this rate, they’d be cleaner than a brand-new pair. “After Kennedy convinced the board of trustees to hold the wedding here, Rebecca forced her to add a damages clause to our prenup. She was afraid that letting this many people on the island might cause historically disastrous destruction. Her words, obviously. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, since Ken said of course nobody would go around ripping sconces out of the walls or tearing up hundred-year-old floorboards. But the problem is, the wording is really vague. It said if anything substantially damaging happened this weekend, Ken and I would be on the hook for repairs. The cost of which would be astronomical. You should have seen what the restoration guys charged just to repaint.”
“So, what, you were worried about getting a bill from Rebecca for the storm damage?”
“I wasn’t worriedjustabout the storm,” Spencer hedged.
“Then what?” Kate heaved a disgruntled sigh. “For pete’s sake, was it me? The rehearsal dinner speech? You didn’t really think I would sabotage your wedding over that.”
“You were so upset,” Spencer said. “And I didn’t understand why, at first. You know how I get about public speaking. I was just reading. I wasn’t reallyreading. But then you… you ran out, and I read over the cards again, and I realized what it was. And, Kate, I swear I don’t know how those cards got in my pocket.”
Kate crossed her arms defensively. “So, you thought I might go crazy ex-girlfriend and start smashing up the house because of it? And youjust wanted to be sure you wouldn’t get stuck footing the bill for my emotional trauma–induced property damage?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Spencer said, propping his glasses on his nose and looking at her earnestly. “Kate, when you ran out, it stirred up a lot of feelings for me, too. I wanted to know my options before it was too late to do anything about them.”
Oh, likehellshe was going to let him do something so stupid as act like he had feelings for her now, of all weekends. She already had one nonexistent relationship causing her heartburn. But at least Spencer had an alibi for the previous evening—he was with Ian when Kate found Kennedy’s body. Which meant Kate needed to consider the rest of her suspects.
“Rebecca seemed pissed off about the board of trustees business,” Kate said, switching tactics. “And I’ve heard she can be pretty vindictive when it comes to people crossing her.”
“Ah, I see you’ve made Marcus Sheffield’s acquaintance,” Spencer said. “I wish I could have seen Rebecca’s face when she found out Ken included him on the guest list.”
“Do you think she’d try to retaliate against Kennedy like she did against Marcus?”
Spencer tilted his head to the side. “Retaliate? Rebecca can obviously hold a grudge, and she and Ken have had their disagreements. Ken mostly goes along with whatever Rebecca tells her to do as the future heir, though every once in a while Ken takes a stand and they go around about it. But Ken loves her aunt. And she told me they’d already worked it out. Ken apologized for going behind her back, and Rebecca agreed to let us hold the wedding here.”
Or maybe Kennedy only thought her aunt had accepted her apology, when really she’d been planning her future demise. Same as she’d done to Marcus Sheffield. After all, Rebecca had been conspicuously absent that morning after so happily playing the doting aunt last night. Maybe now that her schemes were coming to fruition, she wasn’t interested in playing the role anymore. Was that why Rebecca had invited Kate? To play the patsy to her scheme to do away with Kennedy?