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e should get this over with,” I said tersely.
Joaquin nodded and got back to the business at hand. He and the other pallbearers—Liam, Kevin, and Fisher among them—lifted Nadia’s casket by its plain silver handles and ever so carefully lowered it into the ground, falling to their knees as they gritted their teeth under the strain. When the wood finally hit the dirt floor of the ditch, Lauren let out a choking sob and buried her face in Bea’s jacket. Then they lowered Cori’s casket into the ground as well, and the mayor stepped up to the top of the graves.
“Today we lay to rest two good friends. Let us never forget what their lives meant to us. What their deaths mean to us.”
She crouched down, picked up a glob of muddy dirt, and threw it atop Nadia’s casket, then did the same for Cori’s. The rest of the Lifers formed a jagged, circuitous line, and each of them followed suit, littering the wood with mud. As I edged forward, I glanced across at the visitors and was startled by a few hostile stares, a few suspicious glances, some furtive whispers. They were talking about us. Talking as if they suspected us of something. But what? We were simply laying two people to rest.
When it was finally my turn, I set aside my unease and scooped up a small chunk of mud. I looked down at a dark brown knot in the lid of Nadia’s casket and let the dirt drop and plop from my fingers to cover it.
“Good-bye, Nadia.”
I stepped to the next casket.
“I’m so sorry, Cori. I wish I had stopped him. I’m so sorry.”
I dropped the mud on her casket, tears coursing silently down my face. Then there was nothing left to do but move on.
Joaquin was waiting for me a few feet away, a black umbrella overhead. “Do you want to get something to eat?”
“No,” I replied, kicking at a white rock. “I just want to go home.” Though what I thought was waiting for me there, other than loneliness and silence, I had no idea.
He put his hand gently on the small of my back, and we moved away from the crowd. We’d barely made it five steps when the sight of the twins stopped me cold. While most of the visitors were keeping a respectful distance from the proceedings, staying near the point where the hill dropped off toward town, the Tse twins were much closer. They’d chosen a spot in the middle of the field, just yards behind the mourners, standing beneath the cover of a wide black umbrella. Their clear eyes stared directly at me, directly through me, making my insides curdle. Sebastian was rolling a coin across the back of his hand from finger to finger, a trick I’d never been able to pull off myself.
“I still can’t believe he’s your charge,” Joaquin said under his breath. “How did you not know?”
“I’m as confused as you are,” I said. Normally we knew who our charges were the moment they arrived on the island—knew everything about them once we saw them. Then, when they were the next in line to be ushered, we would find out about their deaths, the better to help them resolve their issues. “Maybe it was because they arrived on the ferry? Everything was such a mess that day.”
“Maybe,” Joaquin mused, narrowing his eyes at them. “Is it just me or does it seem like when it comes to the Tses, nothing’s quite what it should be?”
“It’s not just you,” I replied.
Just then, Sebastian turned slightly, and I saw that the coin he was toying with wasn’t silver, but gold—one of the Lifers’ ushering coins.
“Joaquin!” I exclaimed, gripping his arm.
His face paled when he saw the coin. Before he could stop me, I’d taken off after the twins, grabbing Sebastian’s arm.
“Get off me!” Sebastian snapped, shrugging off my hand.
My teeth clenched. “Where did you get that?”
“It’s none of your business, is it?” he replied, quickly pocketing the coin. “Unless you want to try explaining what it is.”
He and his sister eyed me and Joaquin shrewdly, their light eyes glinting with malice. I pressed my lips together tightly.
“We didn’t think so,” Selma said.
Then they turned as one and walked away, their steps perfectly matched.
“What the hell is going on?” Joaquin asked as a stiff wind off the ocean blew my hair across my eyes.
“Pete said he was working with someone. We just assumed it was a Lifer, but what if it’s not?” I turned to face him. “What if one of the visitors has something to do with this?”
“But, Rory, it can’t be them,” Joaquin said. “They didn’t get here until the ferry sank. Aaron, Jennifer, your dad…they’d been ushered already.”
“Unless they didn’t get here that day,” I replied, my pulse racing. “What if they’ve been here all along?”
Joaquin shook his head. “What?”
