Chapter 47
CHAPTER 47
MIA
Sarah was sobbing.
Standing just outside the entryway into the kitchen, Mia frowned as Jason consoled Sarah, one arm wrapped around her heaving shoulders as she cried, shaking her head, mumbling incoherently. Confused, Mia glanced at Chris, shuffling around the island, staring at his cell phone, cursing under his breath.
Questions rushed to Mia’s mind but were soon overtaken by memories.
The night she’d been forced to console Sarah. Forced to convince her not to go to the cops after Phil Richart raped her.
“What do you mean?” Sarah had asked Mia, after she’d told Sarah she should make Phil pay for what he’d done to her, emphasizing the word pay, hoping Sarah would understand .
Mia had sighed, momentarily hating Alex for putting her in the position of having to persuade Sarah to go along with his plan. A plan Mia didn’t necessarily agree with. A plan that would allow Sarah access to something she didn’t deserve. Richart money. And for what? Because Phil had raped her?
Mia wasn’t even sure that was true.
Grace had said Sarah was knocked out when she’d left her in the bedroom. So, how could Phil rape Sarah if she was unconscious?
And Sarah had been unconscious.
Mia had made sure of that when she’d added several drops of GHB into the tequila shot she’d encouraged Sarah to drink. The drug had done what Mia wanted it to do. Render Sarah unconscious so she couldn’t sneak off and fool around with Alex again.
“Mia …” Sarah prompted.
Jolted from her thoughts, Mia stared at Sarah.
“How am I supposed to make Phil pay?” Sarah asked.
Mia said, “Alex has a plan.”
Chris hurried toward Mia, sweaty and pale and slightly green, his eyes wild and darting. “Is Grace with you?”
Mia stepped back from him, recoiling from the slightly putrid smell wafting off him. “What? No. Why? I haven’t seen her since?—”
“We need to find her!” Chris said. “She’s missing?—”
“She’s not missing!” Sarah screamed.
Mia jerked away from Chris and walked to Jason, who consoled Sarah. “What is happening?”
Frowning, Jason shook his head. “I don’t know … ”
Mouthing the words, Mia asked, “What’s wrong with Sarah?”
After rubbing Sarah’s back and promising to return, Jason stepped away from her, heading toward a far corner of the kitchen, motioning for Mia to follow him.
Shivering slightly, her apprehension mounting, Mia walked behind him, glancing at Chris, who was now leaning over the island, scrolling furiously on his phone.
“What the hell is going on?” Mia demanded, voice lowered as she stared up at Jason.
Exhaling, Jason dragged a hand down the side of his face. “Sarah said that … Grace is … dead.”
“What?” Mia nearly choked on the word. “Dead? What?—”
“It was hard to get the story out of her,” Jason said, his tone bewildered, weary.
“What did she tell you?” Mia asked, sneaking a glance at Sarah, still sitting at the island, her face blank, eyes haunted, lifeless.
Jason said, “Apparently, she went to the boat dock to look for Grace?—”
“Why would Grace be at the boat dock?”
“I don’t know,” Jason said, shaking his head. “But, when Sarah got there, she saw … “
“What?” Mia hissed, wishing he would just say it. “What did she see?”
Jason whispered, “Grace … her head was in the speedboat.”
“Her head?” Mia scowled. “What the?— ”
“Look, I had the same reaction,” Jason said. “Grace claims she saw Alex’s head?—”
“Which wasn’t true,” Mia snapped, pushing away the worrying thoughts about Alex’s phone, and why he might have left it behind.
“And then Sarah says she saw Grace’s head in the speedboat.”
Mia scoffed. “Are you serious? What the hell is going on? Is this some kind of sick joke? People losing their heads?”
“I don’t know?—”
“Well, I do,” Mia said, walking away from Jason, toward the island where Sarah and Chris sat. “You’ve all been drinking or doing drugs or spending too much time in the fucking sun!”
“Grace is dead,” Sarah said, wiping her tear-stained cheeks. “I can prove it.”
Tilting her head, Mia glared at Sarah. “And just how the hell are you going to do that?”
Sarah stood. “I’ll show you. Come with me … “
Minutes later, Mia led the way down the path to the boat dock. For a moment, she felt ridiculous. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, leading three losers, Jason, Chris, and Sarah, down a weather-beaten wood plank road. And just like Dorothy, when she reached her destination, Mia knew all she would find was … nothing. Just smoke and mirrors. Some sort of ridiculous illusion pretending to be real. But she was confident they would not find Grace’s head in a speed boat.
The very idea that she was actually heading to the boat dock to see Sarah’s so-called proof of Grace’s gruesome murder annoyed Mia. Enraged her, actually. She had other things to worry about. Like Alex. Why had he left his phone? If he didn’t have it, she wouldn’t be able to reach him and she needed to talk to him. She needed to know her next steps. But maybe Alex had a reason for leaving the phone.
And maybe there was a reason for the specks of blood on the back of the phone case, as well.
“What happened to it?” Sarah asked, her voice shrill, panicked.
Mia glanced at her. “What?”
“The speed boat is gone,” Jason said, walking to the edge of the boat dock, followed by Chris.
Where the speedboat would have been moored, there was nothing.
“What happened to the speed boat?” Sarah demanded. “It was right there! Tied next to the dock! And Grace’s head?—”
“Shut up!” Chris grabbed Sarah and shook her. “Shut the fuck up! Grace is not dead!”
“Chris, stop it!” Mia said, grabbing his arm, trying to make him loosen his hold on Sarah. “Leave her alone! Let her go!”
“My wife isn’t dead!” Chris said, pushing Sarah slightly as he pivoted away from her.
“It was right there.“ Sarah walked to the edge of the dock, pointing at the gently lapping aqua water. “The speedboat was right there. And I saw … I know what I saw. I wouldn’t make it up. I wouldn’t?—”
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” Jason said. “But I think we need to find Alex and Grace and?—”
Mia said, “Alex took Phil to the mainland?— ”
“Phil is doing this,” Chris said, pacing back and forth across the boat dock, his feet shaking the weathered planks. “He said he was going to destroy us …”
“What do you mean?” Mia asked. “Phil and Alex got past their differences?—”
“But did they really?” Chris asked, stopping to stare at Mia. “Were you there when they talked?”
Shaking her head, Mia said, “No, but Alex told me?—”
“Maybe Phil lied to Alex,” Chris said, resuming his pacing. “Maybe Phil tricked Alex into thinking that things were good between them so Alex would let his guard down. So Alex wouldn’t suspect …”
Mia's stomach lurched. “So Alex wouldn’t suspect … what?”
Chris stopped pacing. “I think that Phil lied to Alex about needing to go to the mainland.”
Struggling to ignore the image of Alex’s phone beneath the bed table, Mia said, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Phil lie about needing to leave the island?”
“Maybe so he could get Alex alone,” Jason said, his gaze troubled as he scratched his chin.
Fighting panic, Mia said, “Why would Phil want to get Alex alone?”
Chris said, “So he could kill him…”