I try to keep my eye on Stu as he slowly steps toward the magnetic rack of knives hanging on the wall behind him.
“What happened?” I ask, tears falling down my face. “I need to know what happened.” My voice is a whisper. “Please.”
Mellie’s crying now, too, and for a second, I think she’s going to deny me the right to know the truth. But she doesn’t. She starts talking.
“We got an alert that the cameras were disabled thanks to your skinny-dipping adventure,” Mellie says. “So, we went to the winter cabin to make sure everything was okay on that old receiver. When we got there, we saw him boat up to meet Ava.”
“But how did you know Heller knew all of this?”
“Mark got a tip that some kid in Roxwood named Heller was digging around about his company.”
“So, you went down to the waterfront?” I ask. “To confront him?”
Mellie starts pacing again, frantic. “I thought it would be so simple. We knew he was driving in that accident, not you. We figured we’d say if you expose us we’ll expose you.”
The truth presses down on me as I remember Mom told Mellie about Frank’s Auto Shop. They knew. They knew and did nothing to help. Not until it could benefit them.
Mellie looks at me, her eyes full of despair. “He loved you. That boy loved you. He told us to go right ahead and rat him out. He was sick of keeping that secret.”
I cover my mouth with my hand.
“How did you...?” I ask. I have to know.
“It’s such a tragedy,” Mellie says, pursing her lips together. “He tried to fight. He did. But we didn’t have a choice. Stu had his fanny pack on him and I... I grabbed the emergency insulin pen. It happened so fast.”
All the air exits my lungs and I feel like I can’t breathe, like my world is on its side. We all know what happens when you give someone insulin who doesn’t need it. Stu would tell us year after year as a warning not to play with his pen. It could put you in a coma no problem. Kill you, too. And it would never show up on a tox screen.
“You... you gave him an insulin shot and dumped him in the lake to make it look like he drowned?”
Stu reaches out to the wall of knives and grabs the wooden handle of a cleaver, turning it over in his palm. “We love you like a daughter, Goldie. Really we do.” His voice quavers as he walks back to Mellie, handing the weapon over to her.
Mellie looks at the steel blade, then up at me, tears streaming down her face. “But we love this camp more.”
I swallow a scream as I brace for impact, expecting her to run toward me, for steel to slice through flesh. But instead, Mellie flees, pulling Stu with her. He stumbles over his own feet and follows Mellie out the swinging doors, into the dining hall. I run after them, but that’s when I hear Mellie slide the knife through the door handles, sealing the kitchen off completely.
I run around to the back of the room, looking for the other exit by the alleyway reserved for deliveries. But that one’s locked, too.
I pace around the room, searching for a way out. But then the panic subsides. What are they going to do? Keep me in here until breakfast?
Beads of sweat begin to form on my brow and my neck grows hot. Nerves, I think. But then my throat grows scratchy and raw.Water. I need water.Smoke begins to fills the kitchen, whisps coming through the cracks in every door.
Suddenly their plan crystallizes. They’re going to burn down the dining hall.
And Meg and I’ll be in here while it goes up in flames.
An accident.
I try to think fast but my mind is hazy and it’s so hard to move. I reach for Meg and pat my hand around her waist until I find what I’m looking for. I grab the walkie from her hip and press the talk button.
“Dining hall’s on fire!” I scream as loud and long as I can. “Help!”
I start to cough and I’m seized by fear. It may have been a minute or an hour since Stu and Mellie left us here, and there’s no way to know. When I reach up to touch the metal panels on the swinging doors, they’re hot. Too hot. I look down and see smoke billowing through the sliver of air in between the dining hall and the kitchen.
I taste banquet steak coming up my throat and soon I can smell the sour stench of bile. The room flips on its side and my vision goes spotty as I stumble to the ground.
“She’s in there!”
Ava’s voice is desperate and loud, close, but too far for me tofeel relief. A window smashes nearby and I try to lift my head to see, but it’s too heavy to move. The door breaks open and I roll over, straining to see what—orwho—is there. Imogen’s sobbing but she wraps me in her arms so tight, and I catch a whiff of blueberry, of Ava.
