A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Pip walks with Cara down the school hallway, and she hopes Cara cannot tell she has hardly been sleeping. She narrates that she wrote her personal essay for her college application and deleted it because “It wasn’t right, it wasn’t her” (269). The pressure of the three-week deadline to find Andie and Sal’s killer is also weighing on her.

Nat da Silva marches up to Pip in the hallway and aggressively complains that she cannot even get hired for her brother’s old janitor job because the school cannot hire violent criminals. When Nat strides off, Pip opens her locker to find a folded piece of paper stating, “This is your final warning, Pippa. Walk away” (270). Although she is unnerved, Pip realizes this means she is on the right track.

Distracted, Pip runs into Mr. Ward as she enters his classroom, and her textbook falls out of her arms, the note gliding to the floor. Mr. Ward asks Pip if she is alright and tells her that if she is being bullied, the worst thing she can do is keep it to herself. She assures him that she is fine.

In Capstone Project Log—Entry 33, Pip writes that Nat da Silva has climbed to the top of her suspects list as she was in the school moments before Pip found the note in her locker and obviously had reason to want Andie dead. Pip sets her sights on finding Andie’s second burner phone, and she decides to try to ask Becca Bell some more questions.

Pip goes to the Fairview Mail office building to hunt down Becca. Becca is surprised to see Pip and tells her she is writing an article about an old farmhouse on Sycamore Road that has been uninhabited for 11 years. She explains that others want the farmhouse converted into a café-bar, but her article is about the place one day becoming a family’s home again.

Pip informs Becca that she has discovered Andie was dealing drugs at calamity parties. Becca refuses to believe this, but Pip presses on with her questions and learns that Becca and Andie’s father, Jason, was close with Daniel da Silva. Jason had even convinced Daniel to apply for his job as a police officer. Becca also tells Pip that Daniel worked on Andie’s case and was one of the first responding officers. Pip realizes that Daniel could have been the first one to access Andie’s room and could thus have taken the burner phone.

In Capstone Project Log—Entry 34, Pip recounts her suspicions about Daniel and decides to go see him in person at an upcoming public meeting held by the Fairview Police Department.

Pip approaches Daniel after the town meeting and asks him whether he knows Max Hastings. He confirms that he does, stating Max’s family was Daniel’s first call-out after he finished training, when Max had crashed his car into a tree by his house. The family needed to file a police report for the insurance. When Pip asks about his involvement with the Bell case, Daniel admits he conducted the primary search of the Bells’ house but then excuses himself.

Ravi meets Pip outside, and she tells him about Daniel filing the police report for Max, wondering aloud if he could have known about the hit-and-run. The two witness Daniel leave the town hall building with Stanley Forbes, the men speaking in a deep, hushed conversation. Daniel and Stanley spot Pip and Ravi and give them a lingering stare.

Pip takes Barney for a late-night walk. She has been trying to work on her personal essay all day but cannot focus on it, caught up in thinking over her list of suspects. She takes Barney on a short path through the woods while attempting to clear her mind of the case and lets him off his leash. She soon loses Barney amid the trees. Panic stricken, she calls for Barney but cannot find him.