I narrow my eyes on him.
"You fucked her, too."
"But I didn't come. They won't find my DNA inside of her."
Brant turns to Cole, staring in shock as our friend draws his line in the sand. "The fuck are you saying?"
"I'm saying I'm out. I don't want any part of any of this. As far as I'm concerned, I left when Alice and Linus did."
"You're going to turn on us like that?" Brant's voice is full of hurt and shock that his oldest friend would turn on him in an effort to spare himself.
"Your dad is a fucking judge. If they find your DNA in her, he can get you off the hook." Cole shakes his head. "And Saint Nick?" He laughs, his voice bitter. "Nobody will believe he had any part in this. You've got everyone fooled. All you have to dois say that she wanted it and everyone will believe you because you're you."
"She did want it." I say, not liking the subtle suggestion that it was wrong. She came for me, let me see her so vulnerable and beautiful as she broke apart under my touch. She wanted it; she's wanted it for years.
"Sure." Cole laughs. "I'm just saying, you two will be fine, whatever happens. But me? I can't be part of this. I don't have anyone to help me get out of this."
Brant opens his mouth to object, but Cole's already turning to go, lifting his hood over his head and tucking it down as he walks back toward the church, leaving us alone to deal with the mess.
"What the fuck?" He grunts, glaring at me. "What do we do? Do we go after him?"
"Let him go." I shake my head. "Right now, we have bigger problems. He's right that your dad could probably pull some strings, but he can't spare you completely. If they find her and check for DNA, that's a bell they can't un-ring. You're already in the system from that misunderstanding with Jenny Tate, remember?"
My DNA isn't on file. There's no reason for it to be on file, which means even if they find it, they won't be able to match it. But I'm the last person her mother knew she was with, and Alice and Peanut will say that she was here with me when they left. It makes me a suspect regardless, and they could subpoena my DNA to try and get a match. I'm not too worried about that part; for years, everyone commented about how much they could tell we were into one another. I don't think anyone would doubt that she wanted me to fuck her. The problem is, there's no way for me to spin a narrative of her wanting Brant, too, and if they find that, it will be pretty obvious that we were involved in her death.
"So, what do we do?" Brant asks, wide-eyed. "Bleach her? Burn her?"
I glance at him from the corner of my eye, unsettled by how quickly his mind went to those suggestions. Bleach isn't a bad idea, but unless we've already got it in the church, that's not an option. Stores are closed, and I can't risk going home and running back out in case someone stumbles upon her body in the meantime. "Fire would draw too much attention. We want to fly under the radar, right? Pretend nothing is wrong, that we know nothing, right?"
"Right." He agrees emphatically. "So what do we do? Just leave her?"
"No. That's too obvious." I run my hand through my hair, trying to survey my options. The best way to prevent them from finding our DNA is to prevent them from finding her. But this wasn't premeditated. I didn't plan to kill her, so I haven't exactly had a chance to figure this out.
"Should I ask Chad?" Brant suggests, pulling out his phone and navigating to the AI chat he uses to search for answers to everything.
"Don't. If you put anything in there, your records could be subpoenaed."
I'd think the son of a well-respected judge would know that himself, but nobody's ever accused Brant of being smart.
"Not to mention, you're killing the environment. I'd rather have clean running water than hear how your robot suggests we hide a body."
"Oh," Brant laughs, stuffing his phone back in his pocket and raising his hands in surrender. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you were a rapist and murderer with fuckingmorals."
"It wasn't rape." I growl, stepping up to him, getting in his face. Brant's a few inches taller than me, wider, too. But he's a big dumb brute. "You saw yourself that she enjoyed it."
"I saw the extra dose Cole poured into her cup before she drank it. I saw her crying, heard her say stop... she didn't tell me that."
I don't bother arguing with him that she couldn't have said stop by that point, since her head was in the fucking snow and her lips were numb.
"Can we not fight over something so fucking stupid? If you want to kill the environment and contribute to the decline of humanity, by all means, do it on your own time. But I don't need you to ask the fucking AI how to hide a body. I know what to do."
Brant stares at me, his anger settling beneath his expectation. "So, tell me."
"The swamp." I tip my head behind me, to the woods where Nikki was so insistent on going. It's not too far from here; Church and Lakes is more than just a cheeky name. Winter turns the place into a frozen paradise, but there are also plenty of marshlands hidden in the trees. We generally ignore them since the trees and brush don't make for a great skating surface when they freeze over in winter.
The gators kind of hinder skating there, too.
"Isn't it frozen over yet?"
