Billy’s mouth dropped open. It was the closest his father had ever come to comfort, to outward emotion, and Billy wanted to savor the moment. He was quiet as he watched his dad drive the tender back toward shore and suddenly, he realized he was all alone.
Billy stretched his neck up to the sky, looking for the Big Dipper. He and Ethan learned about the constellations when they were kids, and he liked to think they could chart the sea just by looking up. Not that he ever tried.
But once Billy started thinking about Ethan, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to Trevor. That dumb kid who was screwing Erica in the dunes behind his house. How was that okay? How was that right? Billy wanted to set that kid straight, especially now that there was going to be a baby in the picture.
He reached for his phone and was pleased to see it still had battery. His fingers moved clumsily over the screen, but he got his text out through that disappearing message app they all used.Get your ass to the Sea Witch,he wrote.We need to talk.
Billy tossed his phone back onto the couch. He wasn’t sure if the kid would show, how he’d get here, anyway. But he had to do it. Had to prove to Trevor that he was tough. That Erica would choose him in the end.
Billy closed his eyes, rocked gently with the water. It was so calm here. Now he was having second thoughts. Did he really want to deal with Trevor tonight? He was suddenly so, so tired.
He didn’t know how long he slept, could barely keep track of time, but he was woken up by the sound of water churning, the dipping of paddles as they pushed through water.
“Hello?” Billy called, his voice hoarse. But no one answered. He pushed himself to sit up and swiveled to face the ladder. Damn. The kid came.
Trevor was climbing aboard, just like Billy suspected, but behind him, Billy was surprised to see another face, someone who had betrayed Billy by not telling him the truth. Someone Billy didn’t want to see at all: Ethan.
Frankie
“Yo, Earth to Frankie?” Alex waves his hand in front of my face, wiggling his eyebrows until I blink and focus on him.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“Isaid, how pissed do you think Ethan’s going to be now that Lucy pulled out of the tournament?”
I glance around the bleachers and see Ethan sitting next to Dylan, holding a sno-cone. “Uh, it’s probably fine. Bigger fish to fry.”
“What does that mean?”
“Look. I know you didn’t want to be involved in my little investigation or whatever, but…”
“But what?”
I pause, pursing my lips. “We have this theory that Mr.Godwin did it.”
Alex tenses beside me and leans in. “Frankie, we’ve been through this. It’s not your job to solve a murder.”
“I know,” I say, “but what if he’s dangerous and no one knows?”
Alex stands quickly. “I’m gonna get a hot dog. Do you want anything?”
I snap my attention to Alex, and can’t help but feel like he’shiding something. “You always run away when I ask you stuff like this. Can you just wait a sec?”
“Stop looking, Frankie,” Alex says. “Or someone will get hurt.”
Alex walks away quickly, and as he hurries, the words replay in my mind. The same words written in blocky letters on that piece of paper. The note that was left beside me while I slept in the backyard. I clench my fists by my side. Alex was right behind the hedge that day, right where I left him after we fought in the pool.
What if…
“Frankie!”
I spin around and see Millie rushing up from the boardwalk, her eyes wild as she looks all around her. I get up from my seat and push through the bleachers, stepping over handbags and soda cans until I finally break free into the aisle and bolt down onto the grass.
“Are you okay?” I ask, but Millie barely seems to register my presence. “What did Trevor say? Did he say Erica wrote the note?”Please, I plead.Please let it be Erica.
Millie spins around to me. “We can’t talk here. Come on.” She grabs my hand and pulls me to the parking lot, away from everyone, from the din of the party and the thwacking of tennis balls. When we’re finally alone, she stops and turns to me, her cheeks flushed.
“I think Trevor may have done something to Billy.”
