She came out of the room, obviously distraught, and Viv and I tried to comfort her, but it was no use. I wondered if I had responded to my first dead body with this much upset. I thought back to my first few days in London where I had the misfortune of finding one of our clients murdered, wearing only the hat that Viv had made for her. Yeah, I was definitely as upset as Sunny, but unlike Sunny, I hadn’t known the victim very well.

“Do you think Sunny will be all right?” I asked Viv, who was sitting on my left.

We were sharing a table with some of the May cousins down from Yorkshire. They were not a particularly chatty group, and after the initial introductions, they ignored the three of us, which was fine with me, as I wasn’t feeling very social at the moment.

“I don’t know,” Viv said. “She doesn’t seem to have a rapport with the other girls. She didn’t go to university with Piper and she’s not a childhood friend. Honestly, I can’t figure out why Piper put her in the wedding.”

I followed her gaze to the table where the bridesmaids sat. Sunny did look ostracized from the group. I wondered if that was Trisha’s doing. Maybe she was still mad about the dress and punishing Sunny by turning the others against her. When everyone found out what was happening and that Sunny had stumbled upon Dooney’s body in the library, I imagined their curiosity would get the better of them and they’d be more inclusive with her. People could be peculiar like that.

Detective Inspector Stewart entered the dining room. Sirus and Davina Portis weren’t with him but Matthew and Rita May were, as was Piper. Their faces were somber. I had no idea what to expect, and put down my fork and picked up my coffee cup. The delicate china felt fragile in my fingers. I took a restorative sip. It helped a little.

There was a microphone at the head table. Obviously, speeches had been planned. I wondered what Dooney would have said tonight and on his wedding day to the guests who had come from far away to attend this monster wedding. We were just the VIPs, who got to spend the weekend here. Andre had told me that the expected attendance on the day of the wedding was over four hundred.

Detective Inspector Stewart picked up the microphone. One of the castle employees paused beside him and helped him turn it on. I expected the microphone to squeal with feedback like it always does in the movies when someone is about to make a critical speech, but it didn’t.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I’m Detective Inspector Stewart.”