“We saw her,” Constance said. “We have to tell someone!”
She was throwing her arms around, getting louder. I scanned the space around us, but it was still as quiet, sounds from the party trickling down as if it were so far away, and not just three levels up.
“Stop it!” Lou said, pressing her fingers to her temples. “Just shut up, okay!”
“We have to think this through,” I said.
“She’s a dangerous woman,” Lou said. I could see the wheels spinning in her head. I wondered if she was coming to the same conclusion I was.
Constance’s head ping-ponged from Lou to me. “She’s a murderer.”
“We can’t save him now,” I said, almost in a whisper.
And then, that perverted little thought:but I could save myself.
Suddenly there was a change in the air, the music turned down, the lights brighter. We looked at each other in horror. The party was over.
It was time to go back to shore.
I turned to the girls and let my gut do the talking, laced with a heavy dose of adrenaline.
“Do you realize what just happened? This could ruin us.”
“Us?” Constance said.
“We just witnessed a…murder.” The word felt like acid on my tongue. “We’rewitnessesto a murder. This will follow us for the rest of our lives.”
Lou nodded gravely. She agreed with me. Or at least that’s how I justified what I said next.
“Our names will be mixed up in this forever. Our careers, poof, gone. We’ll be known as the girls who watched”—I lowered my voice for the last part—“Dorian Fisher die.”
There was more noise from above, a clattering of heels and drunk cackles.
“Imagine all the questions,” I continued, speaking as fast as the words could come. “Why didn’t we step in? What did we really see? What did we do? Whatdidn’twe do?”
“We need to get out there,” Lou said, pointing up to the main deck. “We need to be seen in public. Now.”
“Let’s go,” I agreed.
But Constance wouldn’t move. I grabbed her hand, pulled her to us.
“You won’t bring him back. We need to look out for ourselves.”
I was in shock, but there was a part of me that saw a glimmer of hope amid the darkness. And in that moment, I was glad that Dorian Fisher was dead.
Lou
We smoothed our dresses and checked each other’s hair. It felt like we were three sisters about to go home way past curfew, trying to look thepart of the innocent, armed with a battery of excuses.
Next, we climbed up the stairs slowly, so we could catch our breaths. I went first, peeking ahead at what awaited us on the main deck. It was the end of the party, when nothing mattered anymore. People were either very drunk or totally high. Some of them were slouched on the banquettes, others were teetering away toward the back, getting ready to embark onto one of the small boats that would bring us back to shore.
“We need to disperse,” Marnie whispered in our ears.
Constance looked at me with the eyes of a puppy that just realized it had been left on the side of the road. I didn’t want to be alone either, but Marnie was right.
“It’s better this way,” I told Constance. “Don’t say anything to anyone. You’ll be fine.”
I had no idea where that confidence came from, because I certainly didn’t feel like I would be fine. A big part of me wanted to do exactly what Constance had suggested. We should find anyone who would listen andscream about what we’d just seen. But would they listen?Whowould listen? And whatdidwe see, really? It was dark. We were hiding. Did we even have a good reason for hiding? No, we didn’t. I’d averted my eyes several times, only catching snippets of the… situation. I wouldn’t even let the word enter my mind. And my emotions had been running sky-high. The more time floated away, the less certain I felt of what had happened.
