Page 34 of The Getaway

“She was wearing a hot-pink sequined jacket,” Suzy said.

“Oh, yeah. No way that was her,” Juliet said, like, End of story.

“Why not?” Marshall asked, clearly intrigued by this possibility. The excitement on his face made Marley’s skin crawl. Like he was excited that Lily might have been here because then he’d have another suspect for his murder theory. “It was a party. She could have been wearing anything.”

“Marshall. Have you even met Lily? She wouldn’t be caught dead in hot pink,” Suzy said and then slapped her hand over her mouth.

For a long moment, everyone held their breath. The rain beat a steady rhythm against the windows and the glass doors. As crass as her words were in this particular moment, Suzy wasn’t wrong. Lily’s entire wardrobe was white, cream, beige, cloud gray, and pale-petal pink. She had once worn a silver lamé gown to a gala, and people had talked about it for months. There were three black dresses and two black suits in her wardrobe for funerals, and that was about it. Even in winter, the woman wore white.

“We should move him to the billiards room,” Sean said finally, his voice startlingly loud in the quiet room.

“What? Why?” Gemma asked.

“It’s on the first floor, and it has its own climate control.” He looked around at their blank faces. “He stores the cigars in there.”

Marshall nodded slowly. “We can lay him down on the couch. It’s big enough.”

“And crank up the AC,” Suzy said, catching on.

Grant took a deep breath and let it out noisily. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Marley turned away as the others went about figuring out the best way to move the body. She stared out the glass sliders at the fronds of the plants around the pool whipping sideways in the wind. This was a nightmare. But there was no way out but through. She found the number for the wellness facility where Lily was staying and hit the call button. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of conversation going on behind her, so she quickly moved into the kitchen to make sure she could hear. Trevor, who had been putting away glasses in the cabinet, quickly skulked away.

“Oak Mountain Wellness and Recovery! This is Beatrice speaking. How may I help you?”

“Would you please connect me to Lily Foster’s room? Please?” she repeated. The patients at Lily’s facility were only allowed to use their phones for previously scheduled video calls, so she would have to do this the old-fashioned way. Marley held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. She pulled out one of the stools at the gigantic kitchen island and sat down heavily, clutching her phone. What was she going to say to Lily? How to even begin? Computer keyboard keys clicked and clacked in the background.

“I’m sorry,” Beatrice said cheerily, “but we don’t have a client here by that name.”

“Yes, you do. Can you please check again?” Marley’s voice was strained. Something crashed outside, and she imagined Beatrice in a sunlit office, completely removed from the disaster all around Marley. It made her feel momentarily better, as if there was a light somewhere at the end of this godforsaken tunnel.

More typing. “Oh, I see. We did have someone here by that name, but she checked out of the facility last week.”

Marley’s fingers gripped the phone tighter. “What are you talking about? I spoke to her two days ago, and she was there.”

“Fraid not,” Beatrice said in her chipper voice. “Says here she checked herself out last Friday and paid her bill in full. Oops. Probably shouldn’t have said that about the payment. That feels like confidential information.” She giggled. “Can you keep that between us?”

This made no sense. When Marley had told Lily they were all going out to the Hamptons this week, she’d been at Oak Mountain. She’d talked about the runny eggs they’d served that morning and how she was going to group after they hung up. There was no way she’d checked out a week ago.

“Hello?” the woman said into the phone. “Are you still there?”

“Yeah. Yes. Sorry. Did Lily leave any forwarding information? Did she say where she was going?”

“No, I don’t see anything. Sometimes when our clients leave the facility, they like to take some time to themselves before transitioning back into their regular lives, if that makes sense.”

“Sure. Yeah. That makes sense,” Marley said. But what she was thinking was that none of this made sense. If Lily had been planning on leaving, why hadn’t she told Marley when they’d talked? Actually, she’d already left when they’d talked. Why hadn’t she said anything? Why had she lied? Did she not want to see Marley? Where was she? Had she gone back to that depressing condo she’d bought after the divorce?

She thought about the woman Suzy had seen in the crowd last night. Could that have possibly been Lily? Yes, they all agreed, she’d never wear a hot-pink sequined jacket, but maybe that was the point. Maybe she’d been using it as a sort of disguise. She would have known that if she wore something flashy, her friends would have never looked twice.

If that woman on the dance floor was Lily, what had she been doing here? Could she have been here earlier in the day and somehow left the notes? Could she have hidden out somewhere until everyone had gone home, then found Lincoln by the pool and—

No. She wasn’t going to go there. Lily was her friend. Her best friend. She couldn’t have done something so unthinkable. She wasn’t at the party; she wasn’t anywhere near the party. She was out there somewhere, on her own and upset. Marley hoped she hadn’t gone on a bender. She hoped she was okay.

“Anything else I can do for you, hon?” Beatrice asked.

“No, thank you.” Marley hung up without saying goodbye. She got up slowly, her knees weak beneath her. Everything felt untethered. Lincoln was dead. Lily was gone. There was a storm raging all around them, and there was nowhere to go. No way to escape.

“Oh, Marley. Hello.” Magdelena had just walked into the room from the far door. She wiped her cheeks with her fingertips. Her eyes were bloodshot, her normally perfect bun sprouting locks of hair on either side. “I was just going to see about breakfast.”