I hope this doesn’t make things harder. But she asked me if I had ever spoken to the Sterling Club housekeeper, Marta Koval? I told her I had…and Marta didn’t know anything, but Naomi seemed convinced she had some sort of evidence. Do you know anything about that?
Sorry to bother you. Again, I’m so sorry for your loss. If you ever want to talk, I’m around. You can reach me at 609-555-2639.
Kind regards,
Trevor
Do I call Detective Simmons? Marta? No. Marta has worked for Sterling Club for decades. She never came forward about anything after the ski trip either, so I’d always thought I’d misunderstood her intentions all those years ago when I thought she was trying to help Lila.
Daisy. Daisy would know what to do. And I had to see her in person.
—
“I’m so gladyou decided to come,” Kai says. She’s sprawled on a towel on the sundeck of the boat wearing a white bikini, her bronze skin shimmering with sunscreen.
I smile at her, trying to hide the anxiety eating away at my insides.“Me too.” Trevor’s email had shaken me to my core. I needed to find out what evidence Marta had, and if any of my friends knew aboutit.
“It wouldn’t have been the same without you.”
We boardedXanaduthis morning—Cecily and Theodore’s seventy-foot yacht that they keep docked in the British Virgin Islands. They inherited it from Theodore’s father but hardly used it. Theodore was always busy meeting with clients all over the world, and Cecily seemed to be perfectly content with the freedom to do whatever she pleased.
We’re sailing from Baughers Bay, on the south side of Tortola, to Virgin Gorda Island. I should feel relaxed, surrounded by the pristine turquoise sea, but I don’t.
With a sigh, I gaze out at the water, the sea breeze blowing my hair from my face. I wish Naomi could have seen this place. She’d have dived right off the side of the boat.
“I’m going to get some more champagne,” Kai says, and goes inside the main cabin, leaving Daisy and me alone on the deck. This is my chance.
“I want to show you something. Come here.” I pull Daisy around the corner and show her the email Trevor sent me.
Daisy frowns as she reads it, and then she looks up at me. “Naomi talked to Marta?”
“Yeah, I guess she was in contact with her, and with Trevor, right before she died. I think she was trying to investigate what happened to Lila.”
Daisy frowns. “We should talk to Marta too, then.”
I shake my head. “No way. Marta’s worked for Greystone for decades. She’d go straight to Matthew.”
I hear Kai and Cecily emerge from the cabin. They’re laughing and have turned up the music. They’re out of earshot, and the wind is loud, but they’re just around the corner from where Daisy and I are standing. Daisy lowers her voice. “Look at what he said. Naomi wasconvinced.She must have found something. I’m going to reach out to Marta.”
Kai calls out Daisy’s name, and she turns to go back. I grab her arm. “We can’t.”
“What’s going on here?” Kai asks, appearing behind Daisy withtwo glasses of champagne. She eyes my phone suspiciously, and I turn off the screen.
“Nothing,” I say quickly, forcing a smile. “Just…worrying about the girls.”
Kai tilts her head to one side and studies me. “Okay…” She hands me the second glass.
But as we walk back out to the sundeck, Kai leans in and whispers to me. “I heard you mention your sister…”
I look at her. She looks worried.
“I didn’t know how to tell you, and you had enough to worry about…but it feels wrong not to say something.” She hesitates. “Your sister came to talk to me a couple of months before she died.” Kai looks to the side, then back at me. “She was asking about the ski trip.” Kai hesitates. “I thought I convinced her to drop it, but—I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t.” Her voice trails off.
Cecily appears suddenly behind Kai, holding an empty glass of champagne. “Who else is hungry?”
Feeling lightheaded, I follow Kai and sit down on a towel next to Daisy as Cecily goes back inside. I close my eyes and try to make sense of what Kai’s told me as the noise around me elevates: the dark festival music, the wind, the waves crashing against the side of the boat, the gulls shrieking overhead. Why did Naomi go to Kai? Why didn’t she come to me?
I turn to Kai. “We should tell Detective Simmons.”
