Page 42 of The Getaway

Hazel’s hand covered her mouth. Behind it she said, “I knew it.”

Candice and Trevor exchanged a look as Magdelena’s eyes fluttered closed.

“What? Why?” Juliet blurted.

Suzy gripped the edge of the table with both hands, feeling suddenly like she’d boarded an out-of-control roller coaster. Vienna, the twin who always had a camera on, handed Wintour off to her sister, stood up with her phone, and started filming. Before Suzy could focus long enough to tell her to knock it off, everyone was in an uproar.

“Him! It had to be him!” Grant said, standing up and pointing at Cole. “He’s the only one here who’s not supposed to be here.”

Wintour started barking, and Florence tried to shush her.

Hazel noticed Cole for the first time. “Who the hell is this?”

“I’m Cole.” Cole stood. He was still chewing, one cheek full of food. “Did you say this is your house? It’s really incredible.” Hazel snorted. “Also, I didn’t kill anyone. Who even is Lincoln?”

Hazel let out a sound that was somewhere between a wail of despair and a growl of rage. Tini turned and ran back upstairs. No one made a move to stop her.

“We found Cole lurking by the guesthouse,” Gemma explained. “He got stuck here in the storm and maybe has someone here with him.”

Cole looked indignant. “I don’t—”

“Stop talking,” Grant said. “Just stop.”

“What about Josh? He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth,” Suzy blurted. “And he threatened Lincoln in front of all of us.”

“Real nice, Suzy,” Juliet said. “Can someone pull the knife out of my back?”

“What? We’re all thinking it!” Suzy shot back.

“Everyone, please!” Gemma said, glancing warily at her daughters. “Take a breath. It’s not going to help if we start randomly pointing fingers.”

Juliet rolled her eyes and turned away from Suzy, arms locked across her chest.

“Do you really think someone is going to just confess to this?” Magdelena asked.

It was clear no one did.

“Marshall, let’s back up a few steps,” Grant said. “Why do you think it was . . . that someone . . .” He paused and wiped his palms on his shorts a few times, like the very thought of murder was making them sweat.

Candice was quietly crying, hands over her face, turned toward the wall, while Magdelena rubbed her back and Trevor stood at attention, arms crossed over his chest as he watched the proceedings. There was something about his expression that Suzy found predatory. But she’d felt like something was off with that guy since the moment she laid eyes on him. Could he have done something to Lincoln?

“Yeah, what are you talking about?” Sean asked, meeting Suzy’s gaze. “I thought it was an accident.”

“Marley and I found blood all over the storage room by the pool,” Marshall said. “And someone threw one of the speakers in there all wet.”

“A speaker?” Suzy said. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either. So someone here better start explaining,” Marshall spat, looking around at each of them.

“Marshall, calm down.” Marley reached for his hand from behind. “We don’t know what happened. We don’t even know if that’s Lincoln’s blood. Let’s talk about this rationally.”

“Rationally? What’s rational about any of this? All I know is my perfectly healthy brother, who was totally sober the last time I saw him, by the way, somehow fell in a pool and drowned or . . . I don’t know what. But someone here knows how he got there.”

Everyone looked around at everyone else. If Suzy had to testify at that very moment about what she saw, she would have honestly said that every single one of them looked entirely shocked and confused. Maybe Marshall was wrong. Maybe being trapped here was making all of them paranoid.

She looked at Sean, remembering what he’d said in the pool room. His note had given him a motive to kill Lincoln. So had all the others—the ones she knew about anyway. She didn’t even know if Marshall had gotten one, but if he had, she had to assume it was similar in tone. Here’s something Lincoln did or intends to do that’s going to royally piss you off.

“What about the notes?” she heard herself say. “Who wrote the notes?”