Page 66 of The Getaway

“Why?” Marley asked, looking at Gemma. “What is she doing here?”

“Damned if I know,” Josh answered before Gemma could. “She called me during the party and asked me to come pick her up and bring her back here so she could quote-unquote ‘surprise the girls,’ and I was like, no way. Because I knew you’d kill me,” he said to Hazel. “But then the storm came in, and I got stuck in town, and she put me up. Ask Lily. I had to crash at her place. I’ve been with her since, like, midnight on Friday.”

It was a little odd, Gemma thought, that Josh kept pointing out all the eyewitnesses he had lined up, but it wasn’t like she could blame the man. At this point he seemed to have a tighter alibi than any of them. Josh moved toward the dining table, where there was still an ice bucket, glasses, and a pitcher of water set out. He poured himself a glass and gulped it. Marshall, chest still heaving, gave him space.

“Wait a minute—how did you two even get here?” Suzy asked. “There’s a tree down across the road.”

“Yeah, we saw that,” Josh said, scratching at the back of his neck, glancing warily at Marshall as if he might suddenly explode. “We went around and took the access road. Took freaking forever.”

“Access road? What access road?” Sean said and looked at Hazel. “Did you know about an access road?”

“Of course I know about the access road,” Hazel said, rolling her eyes. “This is my house, remember?”

“A fact that seems to come up a lot,” Gemma said under her breath. Hazel shot her a scathing look, and Gemma’s face burned. She couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud. Hazel seemed about to offer a comeback, but Suzy interrupted her.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” she demanded, standing. “We could have gotten out of here by now!”

“No one is leaving until we find out what happened to Trevor and Lincoln,” Hazel spat.

“And Juliet,” Marley added absently.

“Wait, what? Where’s Juliet?” Josh asked.

Gemma looked around at the rest of them, wondering who would break the news and how.

“She’s dead,” Marshall spat.

Well. That was one way.

“Marshall!” Marley said on a gasp.

“And pretty convenient that you just happened to walk through the front door minutes after we found her,” Marshall continued.

“Marshall, stop,” Hazel ordered.

“What? He could have done it! There’s a staircase that leads from the deck to the patio. He easily could have gone down it and then around the house to the front. It’s the perfect plan.”

“Oh my God, Marshall. Stop talking!” Marley shouted. “Our friend is dead. Josh is her husband. Whatever else any of us thinks, we all know he loves her. So just stop!”

Marshall seemed to realize what he’d just done and how callously he’d done it. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, hands now on his hips. Gemma was so glad the girls hadn’t woken up in the commotion—that they weren’t here for this. Knowing them, they’d passed out with their Beats headphones on, each listening to different music or YouTube videos.

The number of emotions that crossed over Josh’s face were innumerable. Gemma almost couldn’t believe he could handle all of it at once. Shock, disbelief, anger, fear, and back to disbelief. He actually cracked a smile as he put his water glass down.

“This isn’t funny, you guys.”

“I’m so sorry, Josh, but it’s true.” Marley moved toward him. “Juliet, she . . . she fell, and she . . . she’s—”

“Where is she?” Josh asked.

“On the north patio. She fell from the sundeck.” Suzy sounded on the verge of another round of tears as she rubbed her own arm up and down. “She’s out there now.”

Josh tore out of the room, leaving the door open behind him. Lily and Daisy walked back in from the hallway, Lily looking a lot worse for the wear. Gemma stared at her as she fell into the nearest armchair, like her body could no longer carry the weight of what had happened.

Gemma felt sorry for Lily. She did. On some level. But just then, as they all heard Josh’s wail of anguish from outside, all she could think was, You did this, Lily. And I helped.

34

Suzy