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“It’s not Pete,” Krista said, tears coursing down her cheeks as she intercepted Joaquin and me on the boardwalk outside the Thirsty Swan. Dozens of visitors had gathered at the railing, while Dorn, Grantz, and the mayor stood around the body near the shoreline, blocking it from view. The Tse twins were right at the center of the crowd, their eerie blue eyes focused on the beach, their thin lips screwed into scowls. Liam and Lalani stood off to the side, holding paper cups of coffee that they seemed to have forgotten in the tragedy. Ray Wagner leaned into the railing, the toes of his boots squeaking against the boards as he craned his neck for a better look. “It’s…it’s Cori, you guys.” Krista sniffed. “She’s dead.”
“What?” I blurted.
“No,” Joaquin said, the color draining from his face. “No. It can’t be.”
Fisher and Kevin jogged past us down the stairs with a stretcher, their feet sinking into the wet bay-beach sand with every step. Dorn stepped aside to let them through, and for the first time I really saw her. Cori was facedown in the sand, her curly hair matted by the rain, her sweatshirt and jeans pillowing around her in wet folds. Someone in the crowd gasped as Fisher and Dorn rolled her over onto her back. Her face was completely destroyed on one side, the skin torn away to expose the bone. One of her eyes was missing. I turned into Joaquin’s shoulder, squeezing my eyes closed, and he held me tightly.
Cori had always been nice to me. Or tried to be, with Nadia breathing down her neck, hating me as fiercely as she could and trying to get her best friend to do the same. She was so sweet, so meek, so innocent. Why had this happened to her? Why was any of this happening? I had just been with her last night. I had just started to respect her, started to get to know her the tiniest bit. And now she was gone.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Krista said. “Why would Pete do this to her? They were best friends. Them and Nadia…It makes no sense.”
“Do they think it was definitely Pete?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve only overheard a few things,” Krista said, wiping under her nose with the back of her hand. “I didn’t want to go over there.”
“I will,” Joaquin said. His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “We should find out what they know.”
“I’ll come with.” I stepped shakily out of his grasp, pushing my hands into my coat pockets. “Are you gonna be okay?” I asked Krista.
She stared blankly past me. “Do you think he killed her? Do you think he did this because she told you guys where he’d be?”
Joaquin and I exchanged a look. “I hope not. But if he did, that means he’s still out there,” Joaquin said. “That means we can bring him in.”
“Right. And that’s a good thing,” Krista said uncertainly.
“It’s a very good thing,” I said, squeezing her arm. It meant we could still get the answers we needed. It meant we could make him pay for what he’d done. To my family, to Aaron, to Jennifer, to Nadia, and now, possibly, to Cori.
“I guess I’ll go back to work,” Krista said quietly. “Let me know if you find out anything.”
“We will,” Joaquin said.
Someone had laid a white sheet over Cori’s body, and she’d been lifted onto the stretcher. Joaquin and I took the steps down to the beach, and Liam broke away from Lalani to follow us. Fisher gave us a stone-faced nod as he and Kevin hefted the stretcher up the stairs. We joined the mayor, Chief Grantz, and Dorn on the sand. The impression left by Cori’s body had already filled up with water and disappeared. It was as if she’d never been there.
“What the hell happened?” Joaquin asked under his breath.
I cast a wary glance at the onlookers. A few of them were starting to disperse now that the body was gone, meandering off toward the Swan or toward town. The twins kept their position, however, each gripping the guardrail with their right hand. Ray Wagner, much to my disgust, was eagerly following Fisher and Kevin as they carried Cori up the hill.
“We don’t know,” Dorn said, putting his hands on his hips. “She wasn’t attacked like Tristan.”
“But her face…” I said.
“Could be from a fall into the water, or the waves might have knocked her against the rocks.” Dorn shook his head. “She never was the strongest swimmer. It could be a simple drowning.”
“Except for the fact that she’s only the second Lifer ever to perish,” the mayor said, seething.
“Can you check her lungs?” Liam asked.
“What?” the mayor snapped.
Unperturbed, Liam lifted one shoulder. “If there’s a lot of water in her lungs, that means she inhaled it and drowned. If there’s not, that means she was dead before she hit the water. Which would mean…you know…”
Murder, I finished silently.
Dorn and Grantz exchanged an impressed look. “We’ll see what we can do.”
“This is a nightmare. Why is this still happening?” the mayor ranted. She wasn’t wearing an ounce of makeup, and for the first time since we’d met, her hair wasn’t perfectly styled. A few wet pieces clung to her cheek.
“Hold it together, Mayor. We’ll figure it out,” Dorn said. There was an uncertainty in his tone that chilled me. The mayor was the one solid constant we had in this town. If she lost it, then whatever confidence or hope the rest of us had would be obliterated.
