My pulse hammers in my throat as I run up the staircase, toes pressing against the cold floor. The rest of the yacht is dark andempty; the storm is a constant backdrop, so persistent and familiar by this point that I almost don’t notice it.
The landing at the main level stretches out ahead of me; it’s like I’m looking in the wrong end of a telescope. My hands are sweating and the perspective of everything looks slightly off. I pause on the landing, glancing over at the wide-open space of the living area.
“Oh, no.” My voice is a little punctuation mark in a gap in the storm.
Someone is lying crumpled in the middle of the floor between the kitchen and the couches, easily visible from the staircase.
The lights are off; the only illumination is coming from the backsplash lighting in the kitchen, casting a cool, dim glow on the body.
My feet move on their own, bringing me close enough to see who is lying there: Carl Mumford.
Ashley stands over him, hands clasped against her mouth, eyes wide, magnetized to the body. She’s so fixated, she doesn’t even notice me approach.
“What happened?” I whispered.
Ashley jumps about a foot in the air, looking at me and gasping. “Carl,” she moans. “Oh my God, Carl.”
Only a few feet away now, I get a better look at him. He’s toppled over on his side. His legs are askew, as if he hadn’t had a chance to try to catch himself as he fell. There’s nothing else near him. No blood. No murder weapon. It’s like he just dropped dead. His eyesare glassy and open, staring at the back of the leather couch. His beautiful face is rigid, and his skin is flaky and dry.
“Carl!” Ashley screams again, louder this time. “Carl, wake up!” She drops to her knees beside him and shakes his shoulders.
“Hang on, don’t touch him!” I warn her, crouching down next to her and trying to drag her hands away. Up close, I can see plainly that Carl isn’t breathing, but I have no idea what killed him.
“Get away from me!” She throws my hands off her.
“Ashley,” I croak, as she grabs at Carl again. “Ashley, he’s gone.”
“Shut up!”
“Ashley? Did you… Did something happen?” I’m eyeing Carl’s body, but there are no signs of a broken neck or strangulation. No defensive wounds on his hands. No cuts or scrapes.
She whips around, eyes wet, snot collecting at the base of her nostrils. She looks at me with stiff shoulders and scrunched brows. “I didn’t… I’d never—”
“What happened?” I ask, getting my knees beneath me, hands shaking.
“I found him like this!” she wails. “He was supposed to meet me in my room at two, after Fee fell asleep. He didn’t show up. He was wasted when I went down, so I thought maybe he passed out on one of the couches up here. I came up to check. And I found…I found—”
I don’t want to, but I move closer to her again, shuffling forward on my knees. Ashley and I aren’t friends, but no one should have tosee someone they care about looking like this. And she’s so upset, so genuinely distraught. I don’t think she did this to him. Whatever “this” is.
She still could have destroyed the bridge though, I think.
“I’m sorry, Ashley, but you can’t keep touching him,” I murmur, gently pulling her arms away from Carl. “The police will need to check for evidence.”
“Police?” Ashley yanks away from me, twisting her arms at the same time. Her elbow arches up to my face and before I can jerk back or shield myself, it smashes into my mouth.
“Damn!” I scuttle back again, automatically bringing a hand up to my lips when I taste hot salty liquid; Ashley’s elbow has split my bottom lip.
“Oh, shit, my bad,” Ashley says, eyes wide as she falls back on her butt. “I…”
She bursts into tears next to her ex-boyfriend’s cooling body.
I am frozen, blood dribbling down my lips and pooling on my tongue. I want to spit it out, but I can’t. Having my blood on the floor near a potential crime scene is probably a bad idea. I swallow the liquid instead. It’s metallic and hot.
Panic swirls in my head, consuming me, latching on with hungry teeth until I’m no longer certain I’m awake. Maybe this is all a very fucked-up dream. Another hallucination.
A fire begins to build in my chest, ruthless and blazing, and when the lights flicker on, I can’t help but scream.
Chapter 24
