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She walked toward the bar, ignoring him, kind of angry at herself for coming at all. It was hell without a date, and yet she wouldn’t have wanted to bring Alton even if she could. She glanced at Delta who, along with Bailey, was surprisingly talking to Amanda. God, to be a fly on the wall there! Despite being married, the Stahds sure weren’t hanging by each other’s side, so maybe bringing a date to this event wasn’t the end all, be all in any case.
She moved toward Delta and Amanda but was beaten to their confab by Zora, who upon spying the two frenemies together had zeroed in on them.
“. . . with Jimmy Dewars in that car accident,” Amanda was saying in her precise way. “They were high.”
Ellie realized they had migrated to the Memory Table, a virtual shrine to all the classmates who had fallen since high school. Jimmy Dewars and Howie Tuttle had been the friends Amanda was speaking of who’d died in the car accident during their junior year. There was a picture of Jenny Worthers, too, who’d suffered from bone cancer and had succumbed to the disease, and another of Jacob Corley, who’d died in military combat.
And of course, Carmen Proffitt.
Ellie looked long and hard at Carmen’s picture, remembering the somewhat gangly girl who’d carried such a bright torch for Tanner Stahd. Well, they all had, really. Carmen’s had just been so blazing. But Tanner, who spread his love around with abandon, had never shown any interest in Carmen. Ellie suspected Tanner just didn’t want to get involved with her. Let’s face it. Any relationship with Reverend Proffitt’s daughter would have been a problem, not to mention that Carmen’s blatant adoration had bordered on a cult obsession.
“You still think Carmen’s death wasn’t an accident?” Amanda asked Bailey. Was there censure in her tone? Ellie couldn’t tell.
“No, she doesn’t,” said Zora.
“I can speak for myself,” said Bailey.
“Of course, it was an accident,” Delta broke in. “Carmen drowned. They were all reckless and stupid, and Carmen died because of it.” Her eyes drifted toward her husband, and her mouth tightened a bit.
“Coming here brings it all back, doesn’t it?” Bailey said. “Hi, Ellie.”
They had all sort of stepped back from the Memory Table and had somewhat reluctantly allowed Ellie to join their group. Nice of you all. Just like high school.
Bailey answered Amanda, “Carmen saw something that night that she never got to tell me.”
“Well, you’ve said that a few times.” Amanda smiled to take some of the sting out of it.
“Something happened,” Bailey said. “And I think it changed the course of everything.”
“What happened was my husband went under the rope, and all the rest of them followed,” said Delta. At that exact moment, another guffaw went up from the guy group, and Delta’s gaze turned back to them. Ellie didn’t much care for her, but she could sympathize. The guys seemed like they were having a bang-up time in that regressive “guy” way. They were boys still, and Delta was married to the ringleader.
You had your thing for Tanner, too, don’t forget . . .
She slid a glance toward them as well and witnessed McCrae extricating himself from the group, heading back to the bar. She watched as he ordered another.
Amanda said to Bailey, “I saw you talking with Penske.”
Bailey answered, “Yep.”
Ellie’s attention swung back to Bailey at her short comment. She didn’t seem to want to discuss it.
“You were talking about Carmen,” Amanda said. At Bailey’s nod, she added, “And your journal.”
There was laughter hidden in Amanda’s tone. She really can be such a bitch, Ellie thought.
Color crawled up Bailey’s neck at the snide inference. “I wrote down what happened, and I made some suppositions, some theories. Carmen didn’t kill herself. I was helping her out of the water when I fell in.”
“Ever think you just have survivor’s guilt?” Amanda asked.
“Penske was actually interested in my journal,” said Bailey.
Amanda’s look said, Or was pretending . . .
Ellie was tired of listening to them trade shots back and forth. “It was terrible what happened to Carmen, and we all still feel bad.”
Another wave of laughter erupted from the guys’ group, seeming to belie her words.
Zora looked over at them. “I should’ve never married Max.”
