“Gigi,” Emma hollers again, moving toward the stern. “Where is she?” Her voice is panicked.
My heart catches in my throat. There’s no sign of Gigi. Above us, the cockpit cover is ripped in two. One of the poles hangs loose from where it had been attached to the top of the bench seats, which are all missing their cushions.
Water comes up to my ankles when I take a step back to make room for Beth and Adam to come on deck.
“Gigi!” I call, turning around. “Emma.” I stretch my arm behind me toward the helm, looking at the mast, which is surprisingly still upright. “Give me the flashlight.”
She places the light in my palm, and I sweep its beam across the foredeck. Miraculously, our dinghy is still secured upside down near thebow. The storm jib is a tangled mess around one of the shrouds. But there’s no sign of Gigi.
I stare at the foredeck beneath the mast where Gigi had argued with Adam before the wave hit us. She must’ve confronted him about whatever she’d found in his room.
Beth and Adam call out her name.
I scan the surrounding waters with the flashlight but see only the dark, rolling swells.
“Check the tethers,” I tell Beth.
She drops to her knees beside me, and I shine my light on her hands as she tries to untangle the mess of lines.
I squat beside her. As Beth separates the ropes, I try to recall where Gigi was when I went below. When Beth’s leg got caught, Gigi was right here at the back of the cockpit. I’m sure of it. I thought she came below after she’d helped Beth free her leg from the tether line.
Keeping my light on Beth’s hands, I glance at the companionway door. It’s only a few feet away. How could she not have made it inside?
A shudder travels down my spine. Was it possible? Is Courtney somehow alive? Here, on this boat?
I shake the thought away and return my gaze to the deck floor. I hold the light still on one of the tether lines, which is pulled taut and extends back toward the helm. “Check that one.”
Beth grips it and pulls. “It’s tight, I can’t pull it.”
“Emma,” I call, shining the flashlight on the deck beside her. “Check the tether line by your feet.”
Hope builds in my chest as Emma lifts the line.
“It’s in the water,” she exclaims, lifting the tether with both hands. She lets out a grunt. “Someone help me pull. It’s heavy!”
Thank God, I think.
Adam rushes past me to Emma’s aid, grabbing the line behind her and pulling it in from the water. Beth comes to my side as I keep the light on the tether as steady as possible while the boat rocks.
“Be careful,” I call out, realizing none of us have tethers on. I turn to Beth. “Get tethers for them. We should all have one on.”
Beth turns and gathers the tethers without a word.
“I see her,” Emma shouts. “Keep pulling.”
I direct the light over the side. The hope that had surfaced in my chest sinks when I spot Gigi bobbing—lifeless—in the water. Her long blond hair swirls around her unmoving form, face down, kept afloat by her inflated life preserver.
Beth clips a tether onto Adam and Emma as they pull Gigi’s tether to the side of the boat. I take Adam’s place, holding tension on the rope, as he leans under the lifeline and drags her onto the deck.
“Roll her onto her back,” I instruct him as Beth clips a tether to my life vest.
“Here.” I tuck the flashlight into my armpit and grab Gigi’s arms. “Help me drag her into the cockpit so she doesn’t roll off the boat.”
Adam lifts Gigi’s feet as I tug her by the arms and pull her inside the cockpit, which feels instantly cramped with Gigi’s long form lying on the floor. I extend the flashlight to Beth, who gasps after shining the light on Gigi while I feel her neck for a pulse.
A deep gash runs across the middle of Gigi’s forehead to her temple, which is swollen to the size of a golf ball.
“She must’ve hit her head,” Emma says as I continue to wait for a pulsation beneath Gigi’s skin.
