It was hard not to agree with her. “Right. The same three girls who attended a party where they stood out like dad sneakers at fashion week.”
Marnie grimaced.
“What?” I said.
It seemed unimaginable that things could still get worse.
“We weren’treallysupposed to be on the yacht,” Marnie said.
Lou froze. Last night’s mascara was smeared under her eyes and she looked like she’d been punched in both eyes with perfect symmetry.
“I don’t really want to ask, but I feel like I have to,” I said.
Marnie sighed. “Ben was going to be there, with Dorian Fisher. I couldn’t let it happen. And remember, I thought both of you could help me get to him.”
“But we were on the guest list,” Lou said, sounding terrified. “The bouncer checked. She looked at our IDs. I didn’t dream that part.”
“We were on the guest list she held in her hands,” Marnie said, carefully. “The guest list that my boss asked me to print out and deliver to the yacht manager.”
“Let me guess: You didn’t just print it,” I said.
“Guest lists are a fluid thing,” Marnie conceded. “You often have to make last-minute adjustments.”
Lou and I exchanged a look.
“Just for shits and giggles,” Lou said. “How many people would know that you were the last person to, um, fiddle with that stupid list slash piece of evidence that will most certainly take us down?”
Marnie made a face. “More than zero.”
I wanted to throw myself onto the floor and let my head crash against the concrete tiles. We were all supposed to go home first thing tomorrow, but the police would never let us leave the country now.
“I can’t keep spinning around in circles,” I said. “I’m going to get us something to eat.”
“I’ll come with you,” Lou said. “I’m starving.”
I shook my head. “You should stay here. Try to rest. We need to be sharp.”
“I feel like we’re in the witness protection program or something,” Lou said. She sounded delirious. “Like we have to lock ourselves in a safe house until the bad guys are apprehended or something.”
“You’re holding a piece of jewelry that the whole city is looking for by now.We’rethe bad guys.”
Marnie let out a yawn. She looked like she could barely stand anymore.
“That’s a very sexist phrase anyway. Remember who did the really bad thing, here?”
Silence settled between us. We had no idea what had happened to Odetta Olson.
Marnie pulled a few decorative cushions from a shelf and arranged them on the floor as a makeshift bed. By the time I walked out, both girls were lying down, eyes already closed.
I’d come to the boutique enough times to have noticed the supermarket around the corner. It was less than a ten-minute walk, but I felt like I was going in slow motion, my legs moving through wet tar as my brain went in overdrive.
There was a camera in the top left corner by the door, and I couldn’t help but look straight into it.
So instead of going to the police to report the murder you witnessed early this morning, you went shopping?I imagined a faceless police officer ask me in a cold, dark room.Is a pack of chips more important to you than a man’s life, Miss Griffin?
But whatever I was feeling—despite all the worries pecking at my brain like angry birds—there was one small thing that brought me relief. Odetta Olson must be feeling a million times worse. For all we knew she might be in police custody; maybe they wouldn’t need our help at all. She might have already confessed. Whatever we were facing was nothing compared to what awaited her. But what if I was wrong about that? She was a very wealthy, famous woman who must have lawyers on speed dial. And then there was the rage I’d witnessed in her, the determination to do what she did. She was a woman on a mission. There was no stopping her.
I roamed the aisles, filling my cart at random—bananas, five different types of chocolate cookies, individual portions of cheese, and small bottles of orange juice. I walked through the entire store, browsing stationery, books, cleaning products, like I had nowhere else in the world to be. In the toy aisle, a young mother spoke on her phone while her toddler wason the floor, pulling Lego boxes off the shelves.
