A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #3
As Good As Dead
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Forty-One
Overview
Pip and Ravi execute the next phase of framing Max at Green Scene. They confirm call logs on Max’s planted phone, manipulate Jason’s postmortem indicators by heating and flipping the body, and meticulously clean the scene. Finally, Pip dons Max’s clothes and leaves tracks while dragging the body to stage the dump.
Summary
Arriving at Green Scene, Pip retrieves Max’s phone from its hiding spot and verifies missed calls from Christopher Epps and Max’s parents, ensuring the device pinged the local tower and placing Max at the future crime scene within the planned time-of-death window.
Pip and Ravi open Jason Bell’s car, assess rigor and lividity, and flip the body so pooled blood will resettle, buying time. Pip then cranks the car heater to raise Jason’s body temperature, balancing heat with rigor and livor progression to suggest a later death.
While the body warms, Ravi vacuums and Pip disinfects every surface she might have touched, carefully avoiding the blood pool and staged hammer. They wipe tools, shelves, door handles, switches, keys, and the office cupboard, removing fingerprints and trace evidence but leaving clear signs of violence to prompt a rapid discovery.
After two hours, they reopen the car, confirm significant heat, and extract Jason. Pip dons Max’s hoodie and trainers, carries Max’s hair, and insists on being the sole mover to create only one set of tracks. She drags the tarp-wrapped body toward the dump site, completing the setup to implicate Max and lock in the manipulated timeline.
Who Appears
- Pip Fitz-AmobiLeads the staging; confirms Max’s call pings, manipulates Jason’s postmortem signs, cleans evidence, and drags the body wearing Max’s clothes.
- Ravi SinghAssists Pip; gathers cleaning supplies, vacuums trace evidence, helps flip and extract the body, and supports the framing plan.
- Jason BellDeceased; his body is heated, flipped, and moved to skew time of death and stage Max’s involvement.
- Max HastingsOffstage target; his phone’s call logs and clothing are used to place him at the scene and leave incriminating tracks.