A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #2
Good Girl, Bad Blood
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Thirty-Eight
Overview
Pip, Ravi, and Connor conclude Stanley Forbes is Child Brunswick and likely connected to Jamie’s disappearance. Distrusting the police, they devise a plan: impersonate Layla to lure Stanley to the farmhouse and search his house for clues. Pip volunteers as lookout; Ravi and Connor will break in. Stanley confirms the meeting.
Summary
In tense silence, Pip, Ravi, and Connor review the evidence suggesting Stanley Forbes is Child Brunswick: his age matches, he lacks social media, and he sometimes fails to respond to the name “Stanley,” implying a newer identity. They reconstruct the rumor’s path from Howie Bowers to the internet, concluding this is how “Layla” found him.
Ravi reasons that if Layla sent Jamie to confront two suspects, Stanley must have been the man Jamie met at the farmhouse, making Stanley central to Jamie’s disappearance. Pip states that Stanley likely knows what happened to Jamie, possibly caused it.
Rejecting the police after past failures, Pip proposes they impersonate Layla to lure Stanley to the farmhouse that night, then search his house for clues. Ravi suggests they all break in, but Pip insists someone must handle the diversion and lookout; she volunteers so Ravi and Connor—given Ravi’s need for a second chance and Connor’s stake as Jamie’s brother—can search Stanley’s home.
They set the plan: meet at nine, keep the circle to the three of them, and text Stanley from a new SIM. Pip messages, “It’s Layla. Meet me at the farmhouse at 11,” and Stanley replies that he will be there, locking their plan into motion.
Who Appears
- Pip (Pippa Fitz-Amobi)Asserts Stanley is Child Brunswick; distrusts police; devises plan; volunteers as lookout and texts Stanley as “Layla.”
- Ravi SinghSupports the deduction; initially offers to be lookout; agrees to search Stanley’s house as part of his ‘second chance.’
- Connor ReynoldsDesperate to find his brother Jamie; questions the plan; agrees to help search Stanley’s house.
- Stanley ForbesIdentified as Child Brunswick and suspected link to Jamie’s disappearance; lured to the farmhouse by a text from “Layla.”
- Layla MeadCatfish identity; used by Pip to lure Stanley to the farmhouse for the planned break-in.
- Howie BowersMentioned as the friend who spread Stanley’s secret, leading to Layla discovering Child Brunswick.