42 Suzy
Suzy
Something was off. She could feel it.
Grant and Gemma walked out through the sliders and headed across the patio toward the pool house, and Hazel started to rant. Lily, of all people, tried to calm her down. Magdelena had gone to the kitchen. Daisy and Cole were huddled near the wall, whispering. Moments ticked past.
Suzy looked at the doorway that led down the east side of the house along the patio and pool. Where was Marley? Her heart did a little stutter step.
“I’ll be back in a sec,” she said to Sean.
He nodded absently. Suzy wasn’t even sure if he’d heard her.
While everyone else was occupied, Suzy slowly rose to her feet.
She still felt shaky, but the debilitating trembling had stopped.
She found that she could put one foot in front of the other.
Only once did one of her knees give out as she crossed the room, and she was able to steady herself on the back of a chair.
No one noticed her leaving.
Slowly, Suzy walked down the hall. She couldn’t stop playing the moment Sean had shot Marshall over and over again in her head.
The sight of his arm flying upward of its own volition after the shot.
Marshall dropping like a stone. The blood everywhere.
So much blood. Sean had said his arm hurt from the force of the gun going off, and he kept reaching up to rub it while they were sitting on the couch.
She hoped he was okay. She was still kind of stunned he’d done it.
Was it because of what she’d said last night? That he should man up and protect her? If so, she was kind of touched.
The hallway was ridiculously hot. So much hotter than the great room. Sweat beaded on her upper lip.
Why hadn’t Marley met her in the hall on her way back? Grant had said she was just gathering towels. That took all of ten seconds. Unless something had happened.
Her stomach flooded with searing-hot dread. Up ahead, she could see the closed door of the storage room. Why would the door be closed if Marley was still in there? She wanted to call out for someone. Didn’t want to do this alone. But she couldn’t find her voice.
She saw Trevor’s limp body, his legs splayed. Saw the blood. The bone. The hair.
She saw Juliet falling, the terror in her eyes, the odd angle of her neck on the stone.
And Lincoln. Drowned? Electrocuted? Had he known what was happening? Had he been scared?
Not Marley. Not Marley. Not Marley.
Please, not Marley too.
Suzy stopped in front of the door, steeled herself as best she could, and opened it.
It took her eyes one, two, three blinks to adjust to the darkness within. It wasn’t until the body on the floor came into focus that she started screaming.