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31
Then
CHLOE,” I SCREAMED, STARING DOWN THE RAVINE AT HER BODY.“Chloe.”
I took one step closer to the edge and then crumpled onto a clump of wet, dead leaves, as if someone had whacked me hard in the backs of my knees. “No,” I wailed. “No, no, no.”
An arm was suddenly around my shoulders, and I realized Dan was crouched beside me.
“Skyler, I’m so sorry... Please, let me help you up.”
“We have to get down there,” I begged. I couldn’t see how, though. The far side of the ravine sloped gradually in places, but this side had a nearly sheer drop to the bottom, and there was no apparent way to descend. With Dan holding my hand, I scrambled back up to a standing position.
“There’s nothing we can do now,” Dan said. “We need to wait for the police.” He grasped my elbow harder and pulled me away from the edge. “Don’t look down there again, okay?”
But I did look, and this time I retched, so hard it felt like my insides were trying to free themselves.
“Jamie, why don’t I stay with Skyler,” he said. “You go get the police.”
I glanced at Jamie. She looked wild-eyed, like she’d heard the rumbling of an avalanche above us.
“Okay,” she said, and after a backward glance at the ravine, she took off down the path, her arms flailing as she ran.
As soon as we were alone, I felt a sob building in me, making my body shake. “Oh god,” I said to Dan. “Are yousure? Are you sure there’s nothing we can do?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said. “It looks like her neck might have been broken.”
I looked at him questioningly, my eyes blinded by tears.
“I’m in my second year of med school,” he said by way of explanation, and I nearly howled with laughter. He thought that made him some kind of expert? But when he wrapped his arm around my shoulder again, I leaned into it, grateful for his kindness.
“I need to call my parents,” I said. “God, they’re going todie. This will ruin their entire lives.”
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do, okay? Anything at all.”
I closed my eyes, overwhelmed, barely able to catch a breath. How had Chloe ended up at the bottom of a ravine with only half her clothes on? She’d clearly come down the path with someone. Chloe might be a risk-taker but she didn’t like being in the dark alone. Had it been the guy who loaned her the sweater—the sweater that was now nowhere in sight?
I retched again as the story finished in my mind. He must have assaulted her, ripping off her top, and when she’d tried to fight him off, he’d killed her and shoved her body over the side of the ledge.
If only Jamie’s friend hadn’t told me she left with a couple, if only I’d ended up talking to Dan that night and found out she’d gone outside. Then I would never have left the premises. I wouldhave kept searching for Chloe, eventually learned about the gazebo in the woods, called 911. Maybe she was still alive at that time. Maybe I could have saved her life.
I was crying even harder now, with snot bubbling from my nose. I knew I needed to get control because I couldn’t call my mother in that state. Nothing I said or did would make anything better for her, but at least I could break the news without sounding hysterical and making it all about me.
Voices suddenly came from down the path. Footfalls, too, and the sound of twigs snapping. In unison, Dan and I turned our heads in that direction. Jamie was walking toward us, along with two cops in uniform. A few yards away, she came to a full stop and indicated the ravine with one hand. The cops halted, and I watched as their eyes found Chloe and they each winced at the sight. As the younger cop pulled a flashlight from his belt and trained it down the ravine, obviously for a better look, the older one closed the gap to me and Dan and introduced himself. He seemed to know already that I was the sister, but he asked me to confirm my name, and he wanted Dan’s, too. He told us that we needed to return with him to the house immediately. His partner would remain and protect the scene until additional police arrived.
“What about anambulance?” I pleaded. Maybe Dan had it all wrong? “What if she’s only unconscious?”
“Yes, we’ve called one,” he said. “But I’m very sorry to tell you. It doesn’t appear that your sister’s alive.”
His words seemed to fly over my head, like they were meant for someone else, and I felt myself go strangely numb. Jamie threw her arms around me and squeezed tight.
“Oh, Skyler,” she said. I could feel her tears on my face. “I’m so sorry.”
“Please, everyone,” the cop said. “You need to leave now so wecan clear and secure the scene.” He walked back to his partner, said a few words under his breath, and then rejoined us.
The next minutes were a blur. The four of us headed back to the yard, Dan holding my hand, and my legs moving only thanks to some unknown force. At one point on the path, the cop hung back a little, speaking into a walkie-talkie, but his voice was too low to be overheard.
Once we reached the yard, the cop told Dan and Jamie to take seats by the pool with Rob, who was now sitting there looking shell-shocked, but the officer ushered me into the pool house.
