Lou made a face. “That is not a great story.”
“Maybe we couldn’t believe it was a human…person. We were drunk—okay I said that already, but that helps to explain things—and we weren’t sure what we saw. We didn’treallyunderstand what happened.”
“We watched a man die,” Constance whispered, “and we saw who killed him.”
“That’s not our fault,” I said.
“It mightbecomeour fault if we don’t—”
“Stop.” It was Lou, sounding more serious than ever. “What’s done is done. We need to focus on what happens next. Do we even know if they found him yet?”
I shook my head in panic. “We can’t search anything on the internet. Not on our phones. Promise me you won’t.” The girls nodded. I exhaled. “But if they had found him, the whole town would be talking about it.”
The three of us scanned the market, alert for signs of murder chatter. But there was none, only old people sniffing some cheeses and weighing some melons.
“Anyway,” I continued. “Now we’ve sobered up. We’ve come to our senses.”
“Right,” Lou agreed. “If we go to the police…”
Her face lost its color at this last word.
“We havenothingto worry about,” I said again. “We just need to have the exact same story between the three of us.”
Maybe if I kept repeating it, it would become true.
“You’re going to be a renowned actor,” I said to Lou. “When people find out what happened, the movie is going to gain cult status overnight. You will be catapulted into stardom, along with the rest of the cast. My boss willlovethis.”
I hadn’t realized how true that would be until I said it.Therewas the publicity for the movie. The windfall would be pure gold, and Carmen would be over the moon. I might even get that promotion now. And yes, I knew how terrible it was for me to have these thoughts, but I was high on panic and sleep deprived, and things were a little messy in my head.
I turned to Constance.
“And you will go on to become the stylist all the stars want to work with. This doesn’t have to define us.”
I bobbed my head up and down, denying entry to any more intrusive ideas.
“We can be okay. It’s not like we had a reason to want him dead,” I whispered.
Lou whipped around. “What did you just say?”
“That we don’t have a motive?”
Constance cleared her throat. “Right.”
“Okay, so we’re in agreement.”
Both girls gave the faintest of nods. Lou was staring down at her sandals, and Constance’s face was twisted in anguish.
I’d started this whole thing and had summoned them here. It was on me to spell it all out, even though I was suddenly finding it hard to breathe.
“We’ll go to the police. We’ll explain why it took us so long to come forward. We should go together.” I checked the time on my phone. “The earlier we go the less guilty we look.”
“Yes,” Constance said.
But she didn’t move.
“So we’re going?” I said, my stomach twisting.
“We are,” Lou said.
