Page 54 of The Getaway

“It’s all true, you know. He wouldn’t leave her alone,” Daisy said, striking a defiant pose. “She was never going to get better if he didn’t stop. I came here to make it clear he had to stop.”

There was something about the way she said it that made Marley’s blood run cold. It sounded like a threat.

“Okay, so you told him this, and then what?” Marshall asked.

Daisy blew out a sigh. “He basically told me to screw off and that I’d better be out of here before the sun came up. As if that was even possible.” She gestured toward the glass doors at the back of the room. “And that was pretty much it. He was going outside to put away some speakers around the pool, and I should go find someplace to crash.”

Marley’s breath stopped as the air seemed to get sucked out of the room. Marshall gave her a meaningful look. Speakers. By the pool.

“You’re sure he was alone?” Marshall asked.

Daisy shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I told him not to go out there. It was raining pretty hard at that point, and I was worried he was gonna electrocute himself. But he said the speakers were expensive, and he just got them, and you know how Lincoln thinks he’s invincible.”

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and Juliet covered her mouth with one hand. Daisy blinked, seeming to remember what they were talking about, and straightened up.

“Sorry. I . . . I told him to put on sneakers or boots or something and wear rubber gloves. That’s what everyone does at my events, you know? Just to be safe. If you’re so much as standing in a puddle when you plug something in, you could kill yourself. So.”

Everyone in the room went quiet. The wind howled. Down the hallway, one of the babies was crying.

“So that’s it,” Juliet said finally. Hopefully. “It was an accident. Lincoln electrocuted himself and fell in the pool.”

“No,” Marley and Marshall said at the same time.

“What?” Suzy said, stroking the top of Wintour’s head absently. “That makes sense to me.”

Marley felt like there was something sharp and hard in her throat. She tried to clear it, and her eyes stung. She was sure they all wanted this theory to make sense, but unfortunately, it didn’t.

“If he electrocuted himself with one of the speakers, the speaker would have still been by the pool. Or in the pool with him,” Marshall said. “But it wasn’t. It was in the storage closet with the rest of them.”

“And he was wearing the gloves when I found him,” Hazel put in, stepping back into the room, but hanging back near the door as if she needed to be able to make another quick escape.

“And the blood . . .” Marley said finally.

“So someone had to put the speaker away . . . after Lincoln was electrocuted,” Sean said.

“And he was wearing sneakers too. Like Daisy suggested,” added Sean, “so he probably didn’t do it accidentally.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Suzy waved her hands in front of her face like she was trying to clear a cloud of smoke. “So what we’re saying here is . . . someone purposely electrocuted Lincoln, threw him in the pool, and then put the speaker away?”

“Yeah,” Marshall said, his voice cracking. “I think that’s what we’re saying.”

“But then where does the blood come in?” Marley asked.

“I don’t know,” Marshall said, rubbing his hands over his face. “Maybe they fought first? In the storage room? And then somehow ended up outside?”

“And maybe Trevor saw the fight. Or the murder. Or something, so the murderer silenced him next,” Suzy said.

“Who’s Trevor?” Daisy asked.

“I need air,” Juliet said, heading for the front door. As she went, Gemma suddenly let out a pained yelp. She looked up, hand on her head, and Juliet paused. “Oh! Sorry.” She lifted her wrist. “Your hair got caught in my bracelet.”

“Oh my God, hey, Gem!” Daisy said, brightening at her first glimpse of Gemma. “I didn’t know you were here!”

Marley shook her head. “Gem?” she said, mimicking the way Daisy had said it, the g soft this time. Gem, Gem, Gem . . . Why does that sound familiar? “How do you two know each other?”

Gemma’s face was the color of ripe eggplant as she shakily stood up from the couch.

“What do you mean, how do we know each other?” Daisy asked, confusion etched across her still-smiling face. “She’s Lily’s oldest friend.”