“I’ll keep an eye on the weather.” Nojan’s gaze drifts to the salt water dripping down the outside of the kitchen window. “Depending on what the storm does, we may have to alter our course. If it looks safer to turn back at any time or head for the nearest point, I will. But right now, we wait it out. The boat can handle it. Trust me, I’ve seen much worse.”
Emma looks around. “Maybe we should take it to a vote?”
“My vote is the only one that counts on this vessel,” Nojan says, his tone calm but firm. He pivots to face Gigi. “I don’t care what you’re paying me. I will not jeopardize anyone’s safety for your ‘content.’”
I turn to Gigi, confused. “I thought your sponsor was paying for this trip? The yacht-rental company?”
Gigi flicks a glance toward Nojan before meeting my gaze. “They are. That’s what he meant.”
“But I want you all to be prepared. The weather will likely get worse before it gets better,” Nojan adds.
I scan the others’ reactions. Emma closes her eyes and sinks back in her seat. Gigi’s full lips are set in a hard line. Clearly irritated, she clasps her manicured fingers together so tightly her knuckles turn white. Beth looks unfussed, as usual. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her panicked, except for that day on our rafting trip. It strikes me that I’m the only one who has children at home.
“All right.” Nojan turns up the steps. “I need to go help Adam man the boat. I just wanted to warn you.”
“Wait!” Gigi calls. “What’s for dinner? I’m getting hungry.”
Emma slumps forward onto the table. “How can you even be thinking about food right now?”
The captain points to the fridge. “I’m going to need Adam on the deck. Dinner is whatever you want to make. I suggest a sandwich. You don’t want to be chopping anything with the way this ship is rocking.” He turns after opening the door. “Oh.” He raises his voice to a shout over the howling wind. “And stay below until I say otherwise.” His gaze flicks to mine. “I don’t want anyone else falling overboard. Especially in this.”
After the captain returns to the deck and closes the hatch behind him, Emma thrusts the note at Gigi and stands from the table.
“Take your note. I’m going to lie down.”
“It’s notmynote.” Gigi takes the paper from Emma. “I just found it.”
“You want us to believe itmagicallyappeared in your bathroom? Minutes after I confessed to feeling responsible for Courtney’s death? Please. Don’t tell me that’s not what sparked your idea. Although, if you spritzed it with Courtney’s perfume, that was some pretty sick premeditation on your part.”
Gigi’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t—”
“Andif you plan on filming that”—Emma pointed at the note—“which I’m sure you are, I don’t want any part in it.” Emma assesses Beth and me before heading for her stateroom with one hand on her stomach. “Good night, ladies.”
She disappears into her room, leaving Beth and me alone with Gigi, all three of our gazes transfixed on the notepaper in her hand.
“Do you think there’s any way that, you know ...” Sometimes, I still can’t bring myself to say her name. Even after all this time. I exhale. “Courtney wrote that note?”
I lie next to Beth who’s scrolling on her dimly lit phone in the dark of our room. Outside, the storm continues to rage. Rain—and sea spray—pelts against the window hatch above our bed. Beth, Gigi, and I found some cheese and crackers for dinner, but Beth and I barely touched ours. All three of us retired to our rooms as soon as the sun went down.
“You mean that she’s alive?” Beth looks up at me, her face lit by the glow of her phone screen. She cocks her head, eyeing me sympathetically. “Palmer, no. Of course not. Emma’s right, Gigi’s doing this all for publicity. She’s squeezing every drop she can out of Courtney’s disappearance, like she’s always done. But that note was lower than ever, even for Gigi. Can’t say I’m that surprised. Gigi would do anything to increase her social following.”
I roll onto my back and stare at the window hatch overhead. Wrestling to keep my thoughts from running wild and imagining Courtney hiding somewhere on this ship. I shudder, recalling the desperate, haunting entries of the captain’s log on the ship,The Demeter, inDracula, which Beth convinced me to buddy read with her last October. One by one, the captain’s crewmen disappeared while keeping watch in the night until the captain was the only one left, alone on theship with the vampire who murdered his men. When the ship reached a harbor, the captain’s body was found bound to the ship’s wheel.
Beneath us, the hull moaned as the boat swayed.
“Palmer.”
My heart hammers in my chest as I consider for the first time since our high school rafting trip that Courtney might have survived.
“Palmer.” Beth’s voice cuts through the darkness, only inches away from me.
I turn onto my side. “What?”
“I just googled Gigi and found an article posted yesterday. It may not be true, but you know how Gigi’s husband wasn’t at our send-off at the marina and how she was so against us turning around?”
“Yeah?”
Beth lowers her voice a notch. “This article says that Gigi is being sued over allegedly buying more than two million followers. And her social media accounts will likely be taken down.Andher husband Alex is divorcing her. There was no prenup because Gigi believed he was much wealthier than her. But the article stated he’s not really a hotel heir and instead has a criminal record in Europe. According to the piece, he’s pushing to split her net worth and demanding some very hefty spousal support.”
