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Emily grabbed the phone out of his hand. “If we don’t get it in rice as soon as we can, we might not be able to save it.”
“You’re more worried about my dead phone than a man’s body in our pool,” Patrick said.
“There will be cops and forensics people crawling all over here. They’ll probably make us leave for a few days, maybe more, because it’s a crime scene,” Emily said. “They absolutely will not believe we don’t know who he is or how he got in there.”
“None of that matters,” Patrick said. “There’s a dead man on our property and we need to call the police.”
“All that will matter to them is that it’s our house.” Emily started toward the steps. “I’m putting this in rice.”
“Will you stop with the phone?” Patrick turned to me. “ Give me your phone, Samantha. They need to get here before this storm hits.”
“That’s a good point,” Keith said. “We should get him out of the water. I think I saw a tarp in that tub when we looked at the house.”
“We can’t destroy evidence,” Patrick said.
“I’m not leaving him in the pool,” Keith said. “Especially with this storm.”
I followed Keith to the small shed where the chemicals and other supplies were stored. Keith unlatched the door, stepped inside, and opened the bin. I took the other pole that had been hanging near the net. There was a large ring on one end, used for pulling swimmers at risk to the side of the pool. Keith grabbed the tarp and carried it to the lounge chairs. I went to the side of the pool, keeping my gaze focused on the edge so I wouldn’t see the water, or his body.
I handed the pole to Keith, and he began working to move the man toward the edge. “You need to help me,” he said over his shoulder.
“You shouldn’t be doing this,” Patrick said.
“We have to. It’s not right to leave him there,” I said.
“The police—”
“Stop talking about the police,” Keith said. “We can discuss that later. Right now, we need to get him out.”
Emily returned from inside the house, joining Keith at the side of the pool. By the time they’d maneuvered the body to the edge, and Keith and Emily had walked down the steps into the water to push him up onto the side, and we’d covered him with the tarp, we were soaked. All but Patrick who watched us with an expression of angry disgust on his face.
Exhausted, we sat on the lounge chairs to catch our breath.
“This is so wrong,” Patrick said. “As soon as my phone comes back, I’m calling the cops. If it doesn’t, I’m going—”
“We’re not calling the cops. Like I already told you, I had a front row seat to their bias and stubbornness when I was a kid,” Keith said. “It was a mess. They do not believe you. They start from the assumption that everyone’s a liar.”
“That’s not true,” Patrick said.
“By the time we sort it out, our lives will be ruined.” Emily twisted her hair over her shoulder, wringing water out of the ends. “I get one vacation a year. I have to be back at work in ten days. I can’t afford to be gone indefinitely because someone used our house as a murder venue.”
“And the note makes it a hundred times worse,” Keith said. “Whoever did this is already trying to connect it to us. How will the cops interpret that? Not in a way that puts us in a positive light, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t understand you!” Patrick pounded his fist on his thigh. “Someone give me a phone.”
Keith stood, holding Patrick’s gaze. “Try not to forget that Em and I own sixty percent. The final call is ours. We are not contacting the police. And don’t you dare say a word about this to anyone.”
“What’s your plan?” Patrick asked. “Bury him yourselves?”
“We need to figure that out,” Keith said. “But no cops. At least, not yet. We’ll be questioned for hours, or we’ll be arrested, like Samantha pointed out. Most likely the second.”
As he spoke, there was a crash of thunder, and rain began pouring down on us. We ran up the steps and into the house.
FIVE
SAMANTHA
Inside the house, we went to our rooms to change into dry clothes. Patrick didn’t speak to me, escaping into the bathroom and closing the door. A moment later I heard the shower running. After I’d dressed in jeans and a light sweater, I went downstairs, filled the kettle, and plugged it in. I got out mugs and put three boxes of teabags on a tray. Once the water had boiled, I poured it into a teapot and carried everything to the living room.
