My body goes into a shaking kind of shock, and I’m trying to get my feet to move when a voice screams from the side of the deck, “Stay inside!”
I jump. “Fuck!”
Beau is waving his hands for me to freeze.
Thank Christ, he’s alive.
“Este, get back inside. I’ve got this.”
“Got what?” I look between him and the body. And itisa body. “Who is that? What the fuck is happening? Is that blood?”
We turn back to the red in the pool. Both of us are silenced by the shock. It’s smothering, and for a second, I don’t know if I’m breathing.
“I’m calling the police.” I pull out my phone.
“Just wait,” Beau cautions. “We have to figure out what we’re going to say.”
“What we’re going to say? There’s a goddamn body in our swimming pool, Beau.That’swhat we’re going to say. I’m done moonlighting as a detective. This is…fuck.This is so fucked.”
I punch 911 into my phone and hit call. As it rings, I lock eyes with Beau, an ocean between us. The frenetic pace of my racing heart is the only sound I can hear.
What has he done?
The thud of my heartbeat roars so loud, I can barely hear the ringtone of the call.
I begin to rehearse.My name is Este Walker. I live on Isle of Sicily Road…
“911,” the operator answers. “What’s your emergency?”
Chapter 33
After I tell her there’s a body in my pool, the 911 operator offers to stay on the phone, but something about the way Beau is looking at me tells me to decline. She says the police will be there soon, and I hang up. Then, several minutes pass while I’m clutching the phone to my ear and staring straight ahead.
It’s shock. I’m in shock.
I remember the sensation from the morning Delia came to tell me my parents had died. The feeling of being hollowed out. The way my whole body shivered. The way time suddenly made no sense at all.
But I need to snap out of it, because there’s a dead body in my pool and my husband might be the reason why.
Beau crosses the deck to reach me, but as he makes it to my side, I put up a hand to stop him from coming any closer. The expression on his face tightens, as though I’ve already delivered some kind of unspoken verdict.
“Stop,” I say. “I need a second to think. Or stop shaking. Or throw up—or fuckingsomething.I just need a second.”
A thousand impulses flood my body. I want to rush to Beau’s side. I want to know who it is. I want to run away and never come back.
The space between us seems to stretch as Beau’s eyes flicker to the hand I’ve raised to keep him at bay and then back to my face.
“Este,” he pleads.
But I don’t answer right away, and for a moment, the weight of the silence presses down on us both. My gaze drifts back to the body in the pool.
“What the fuck?” I rasp. “What thefuckhappened?”
Anger—blazing and unwelcome—coils around me. I’m not mad at him. At least, I don’t think I am. But I certainly don’t want to be here—don’t want any of this to be happening.
I drop my hand in defeat, but Beau stays where he is.
“Este,” he starts again. He’s focused now. “We have about two minutes before the police get here, and we need to talk. And you need to know I didn’t do this.”
