Chapter 29
As the commotion outside grew louder, Chat took off, bursting out of the cage and down the hall, Augie close behind. They
spilled onto the top of the patio into the cooling night air. Down by the pool, people were running about, tearing at decorations
and pulling chairs from tables, worried voices rising.
“What’s going on?” Augie stopped TC as he rushed by with a phone to his ear.
“It’s that Crawley kid again. He’s missing, like at the start of summer.” He cringed as his phone buzzed. “Mr. Dryer is freaking
out. Mrs. Crawley is absolutely losing her shit.”
Chat tailed TC down the stairs to the pool deck, but Augie couldn’t move. All she could do was watch as the DJ cut the music
and tapped the microphone, telling everyone to please stay calm and that Cooper had last been seen near the duck toss wearing
a white shirt and white pants. The announcement only seemed to incite more panic, because everyone scrambled faster, grabbing
their own kids, rushing away from Mrs. Crawley—who was now in the center of it all, moving in a hurricane of white.
Augie rushed inside to help. She remembered how Cooper had been found hiding in a closet earlier that summer, how Liss had been the one to find him.
Chat hadn’t been watching Cooper. He’d been with her. Augie couldn’t ignore her own budding guilt as she searched. If something
happened to Cooper—she pushed the thought away.
Augie opened every closet she saw, pawing through the library and dining room and ballroom, but found nothing.
“No luck?” she said to Aida as she returned to the kitchen out of breath.
“Danika is straight up losing her mind.”
Augie started to say she was sorry when TC burst through the kitchen door.
“Got him,” he yelled. “Once again, our girl Liss is the Cooper whisperer!” He shook his fists in the air. “He was down in
the parking lot, trying to get something from their car. It’s good. He’s all good. You can call off the troops.”
Augie’s body sank with relief. Aida clasped her hands together.
From there, the staff gathered. Aida gave a pep about salvaging the night and, after chugging Diet Cokes and coffees, everyone
reluctantly returned to their posts outside. Augie stayed put.
“I don’t feel well. I’m sorry, Aida. I just, I can’t.”
“I’m sorry, too, Aug. You do look sort of pale.”
Augie didn’t know how to explain. She didn’t want to lie.
“Tonight is not our night, huh?” Aida sighed. “Mr. Dryer’s giving a speech now and getting the DJ back on track, so if you
could help clean up real quick, you can be first cut. I’m sorry to ask, but it’s a disaster out there, and the sooner we get
this place straightened, the better. Give it twenty or so minutes, okay?”
Augie nodded. Twenty minutes, she repeated to herself.
All she wanted was to get out of there—to go back to her house with Leah and work through everything Chat had told her.
She was glad they’d decided to sleep at her house, too, since her mom was out of town with Peter.
It would be easier to talk without Lyle’s photos hanging all around them.
Augie knew they needed more information, though.
They needed to talk to Chat again. Still, she knew it wouldn’t be tonight; he wouldn’t leave Danika and Cooper’s side.
At least now, she understood why.
When Augie returned outside, she noticed the sky was fully dark, that last shade of blue before black. Cooper must have been
missing longer than she had thought. She took a gulp of night air. Just focus, she told herself as she went to the cocktail tables on the upper patio, adjusting their tablecloths and votives. Twenty minutes.
Augie moved from table to table as the crowd below returned to chatting and drinking, yet as she crouched to the base of the
table closest to the stairs—she froze. She stood up fast. Out in front of her, Mrs. Crawley was clambering up the steps.
She looked even more hysterical than earlier—even more unhinged than Augie had seen her in her closet that night. Lines of
mascara ran down her face; blotches of red colored her cheeks. Her whole body radiated rage.
“You,” Mrs. Crawley hissed, pummeling toward her.
Augie stumbled backward.
“You,” she repeated as she jabbed her finger in the air, still coming closer.
Augie stuttered, so stunned, she barely noticed Chat rushing up the stairs behind Mrs. Crawley, followed by Bill. Augie looked
from side to side, feeling trapped.
“What is your fucking problem? What do you fucking want?” Mrs. Crawley spat, leaning into Augie’s face.
Augie couldn’t move. Around her, the fake flowers and animals and tiki torches all bobbed back and forth in the dark night, making the whole scene feel ridiculous and fake, like they were actors in a play—though Augie’s panic was real.
“All summer”—Mrs. Crawley swallowed dryly—“you’ve been after him.” She threw one hand back toward Chat, who was coming closer.
Out of the corner of her eye, Augie noticed a crowd now forming around them—the Harrisons, the Fravels. Wyatt and Leah.
“Don’t you dare!” Mrs. Crawley cried, raising her palm to Chat, telling him to stop. “You stay with my children. You do your
job.
“You.” She twisted back to Augie. “You sneak over to my cabin. You sneak over to my house. You put my boys at risk—my family!”
She moved closer with each phrase, until finally, her face was inches from Augie’s. Augie could smell the liquor on her breath,
see the veins of her eyes and the pores of her nose.
“I, I don’t know—” Augie knew the door was nearby, and she imagined sprinting to it, racing inside and down the hall to the
safety of the cage; the keys were still in her pocket.
But suddenly, something inside her snapped.
“You think I’m the one putting your boys at risk?” Augie was so surprised by the ferocity of her voice, it was like hearing someone else.
Mrs. Crawley seemed equally taken aback. She straightened, blinking.
Augie was now the one hunching forward. “You’re the one putting your family at risk. With all your lies, your secrets.” She was gaining momentum now—she enjoyed the panic
on Mrs. Crawley’s face.
“You’re the one sneaking around! With Chat, his uncle. Your, your ex-husband?”
Mrs. Crawley stumbled.
“And you and Trey knew Lyle? What else are you hiding?” As lost as Augie felt, she also felt empowered—like she was reaching into a bag of ammo, firing one emotional bullet after another.
Mrs. Crawley stared at her, swaying like one of the blown-up animals.
“Danika,” Bill said, stepping forward and stretching his arms out like a referee. He looked to his wife, then to Augie, his
face twisting in confusion. “Danika, what is she talking about? What in God’s name is going on?”
Augie used the distraction of Bill as a chance to escape, grateful to spot Leah behind her. Leah reached out, grabbing her
hand, pulling Augie toward her.
Bill and Danika were now in the center of the crowd.
“What did she mean, ‘ex-husband’?” Bill narrowed his eyes; his white shirt billowed in the breeze. “You were never married.”
Before Danika could speak, Wyatt Greene stepped forward, too.
“Danika,” Wyatt interrupted, his voice focused. “Was that true? You knew Lyle?”
It went quiet as a new look of horror fell over Mrs. Crawley, like a sudden shift in weather. She reached to touch her necklace.
The amber pendant. Her eyes filled.
“Please, tell me,” Wyatt said, his tone still measured.
“What the hell is going on?” Bill threw up his hands.
Mrs. Crawley looked to Bill, back to Wyatt.
She heaved in a breath. “Oh, what does it even matter anymore,” she finally cried, leaning back as if howling. She straightened
as her eyes grew wetter, redder. “You two, you’re full of your own secrets, your own lies.” She pointed back and forth between
Bill and Wyatt.
“Danika.” Bill moved toward her quickly. “Stop,” he warned.
“You think I don’t know?” She looked out to the crowd, searching. “My best buddy Josh Mike told me everything . . . everything you’ve been lying about. How you lost all that money. Our houses. How you’ve been fucking Wyatt Greene in Briar Ridge for God knows how long.”
Augie stiffened. Next to her, Leah raised a hand to her mouth.
Bill and Wyatt turned ashen.
And then, out of nowhere, Joshua Mike split the group and started running down the stairs in his flamingo-pink suit.
Mrs. Crawley was the first to call his name. “Oh, don’t you dare leave,” she cried.
“Hey,” Joshua Mike yelled while stumbling down the steps, clearly drunk. “I don’t want any part of this!” He raised his hands
up over his head, taking more unsteady steps down the stairs. “You all leave me out of it! Whatever this is—you are all insane!”
Despite his words, Augie registered an unfamiliar look on his face: fear.
Chat started racing down the stairs, chasing after him. A second later, Bill followed.
Bill moved faster than Augie thought possible—fueled by something unnatural—because he quickly surpassed Chat and grabbed
Joshua Mike’s lapels just as Josh reached for the pool gate.
Joshua Mike tripped, falling to his knees, but Bill didn’t stop there. He dragged Josh Mike back to his feet and whipped him
around.
“How could you tell her? You swore.” His face contorted with anger—grief.
Before Joshua Mike could speak, Bill pulled back his fist and punched him square in the face—once, twice, and then over and
over and over.
Augie couldn’t watch as blood burst to the ground. She turned in to Leah’s hot shoulder, barely looking up until the sounds
of screams and sirens filled the air.