Page 88 of Crew Girl

“These are the empties. I didn’t think they would recycle, so I’m doing it.” He flopped on the sofa. “Everyone hates my party.”

“No! Your party’s fun!”

“Oh, really? So given the choice between a night at Quaid’s bar or a night at my murder mystery…” He held out his hands. The choice was hers.

“I’d… do a murder mystery?”

“Liar.”

“It’s cool. Fun! It’s just… the wrong crowd.” Especially considering what it had led to.

“Great.” Noah threw up his hands in despair. “So now I can’t even read a room!”

“It’s not that, Noah.” Teagan sat down beside him. “It’s just… we’re not puzzle people, are we? The only thing all of us have in common is crew. If we weren’t in a boat together, we probably wouldn’t be friends.”

He leaned his head to the side to look at her. “You suck at pep talks.”

“But that’s what’s cool about teams. You get to meet loads of people with all sorts of different interests. People who wouldn’t be your people… become your people.” She gave his knee a pat. “Just give it time.”

It had taken her some time—and help from Cam—to work this out for herself.

“Thanks, Teagan.”

“You’re welcome. And we all need you today. You’re really good at this mystery stuff. If Perry can’t get into the security footage, we’ll need to figure this out ourselves. Meaning, it’s pretty much down to you.” She pulled him up off the sofa and back to the whiteboard. “Right. Where are we now?”

Noah grinned, back in the game. “So, Quaid and I were stretching outside this morning.” He took their mugshots off the board.

“Perry and Crabby were taking selfies,” Teagan continued, taking their mugshots off as well. Perry had sent them the selfies as proof. She started to take them down when Noah stopped her. “What? Do you see something?”

“It’s more what I don’t see that’s interesting.” He held out his phone.

“Explain.”

“Cam’s alibi was that he was stretching in the erg room before the race. Look. The selfies prove Perry and Crabby were there. But…”

“You can’t see Cam,” Teagan whispered, studying the photos.

“Which means…”

She’d been wrong. Josh might’ve been right. And even if he wasn’t… “Cam lied.”

CAM

Cam had searched the boathouse’s tool storage area about twenty times. Still no luck. Teagan came in, looking about as happy as he was. Miserable, basically.

“No sign of the saw.”

“Okay. Umm… hey.”

Uh-oh. She wasn’t here about the saw.

“You know how you said you were stretching in the erg room earlier? Where Perry and Crabcatcher were taking selfies?”

“Yeah.”

“Umm… they didn’t see you.”

“I was in the corner.”