Page 58 of Murder on the Upper East Side

Hannah swallowed, throat dry and scratchy. She wished she still had her ginger ale. Or Ethan’s bourbon. ‘I didn’t know. Why?’

‘By the end of junior year, we were constantly at each other’s throats. Madison was drunk on power, and Ethan and I were both over it.’

‘Remind me what all went down?’

Bruno sighed. ‘It wasn’t just the errand boy bullshit you all saw. I nearly failed physics because I was ather place so much, entertaining her when she was feuding with Elle. And she’d purposely exclude Ethan, just to get between us. Then there wasThe Upper Edgestuff. She had us postinghernasty comments, under our accounts. Ethan almost got suspended over someThe Upper Edgedrama – remember that?’

Hannah shook her head. She didn’t, but it sounded just like Madison.

‘Anyway, you can’t quit Madison DuPont. So we fought. A lot. It got ugly.’

Hannah nodded. ‘I remember you guys didn’t seem very happy.’

‘To say the least. One night senior year, we got drunk together and Ethan told me that if it wasn’t for Madison, he thought we would still be together.’ Bruno shrugged. ‘Maybe we would have been, but it’s not like she forced me to cheat. I should have ended things before they got out of hand, but… What can I say, I was sixteen years old. I fucked up a lot of things back then.’

Hannah gave Bruno a quick smile. If he’d ever suspected her of playing a part in their breakup, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

‘And Madison…’ she said, redirecting, ‘do you ever see her? I mean, did you?’

‘Huh-uh. We were at Columbia together, but it’s a big school. I steered clear of her for the three years we were both on campus. Which wasn’t hard. She majored in creative writing, which was kind of random because I don’t remember her, like, writing poetry atPrescott… But anyway, I was in environmental chem. No overlap.’

‘Did she and Ethan keep in touch?’

Bruno grinned. ‘In a manner of speaking.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I mean, you know about Madz DuPont, right?’

She frowned. ‘I don’t… what’s that?’

Bruno grinned wider. ‘Are you not on TikTok? It’s a Madison DuPont parody account, run by our boy Ethan. Like, Perez Hilton, but for Gen Z. Ethan is obsessed with hating Madison.Ob-sessed.And she pretended to be so offended, but she lapped that shit up.’

Ethan’s words from only moments ago rang in her ears.Before tonight I hadn’t given darling Madison a passing thought in years.Clearly, that had been a bald-faced lie.

‘She knew Ethan was behind the account?’

‘Obviously. It’s TikTok – his face was in all the videos. When it came to Madison, no attention was bad attention.’

She frowned. She distinctly remembered Oliver complaining about Madison’s bad attitude when it came to their overlapping followers on their respective influencer accounts. Something told her Madison had cared very much about the kind of attention she got online.

‘Right…’ she said slowly, thinking.

She flashed back to Oliver’s comment, that he’d seen Ethan rubbing elbows with Madison at Winslow’scampaign event. Had they maintained a public friendship, in spite of Madz DuPont? Or had Ethan had a more nefarious reason for attending?

‘I will have to get on TikTok. If we ever get our phones back.’

‘Look.’ Bruno dropped his voice. ‘Ethan’s Madison fixation was borderline unhealthy. But if you’re trying to ask if I think he killed her, that’s insane. No more Madison, no more parody account. He’s crushed, believe me.’

That made sense. To a degree. But stalkers killed the objects of their obsession all the time, didn’t they? Well, maybe not all the time. She had no idea how many incidents of stalker-perpetrated murder occurred each year. But it was definitely a thing, and while there was no evidence Ethan had been stalking Madison, he’d had the same kind of wolfish obsession that drove stalkers over the edge. No wonder he’d blatently lied to Hannah about it. And the fact that he’d approached Madison at Winslow’s event… something felt off about that.

She risked a glance back towards the bar. There – finally – was Bash, engaged in an animated conversation with one of the bartenders.

‘Got it. And, um, good catching up.’

‘Yeah.’ Bruno’s eyes travelled through the dining room, settling on Ethan, who was still stationed at the end of the bar. ‘And Hannah—’

‘Excuse me.’ She stood and hurried away. Probably, he’d intended to warn her off taking anything he’dsaid back to Ethan. But that wasn’t a promise she could make, and besides, she needed to get to Bash while he was still…