Marnie
I ran after Constance, reaching her just as she was about to topple overboard.
“Get away from there. Stop it! You have to calm down!”
My words were so cutting, I couldn’t believe they were coming from me.
“We need to save him,” Constance screamed. “We can’t let him go like that.”
I clenched both of her wrists and pulled her arms back to keep her from doing anything stupid.
“He is gone,” I said, getting her firmly back on the boat. “It’s over.”
I’d used a little too much force, and Constance collapsed on top of me. My lungs felt crushed, like there wasn’t enough air in the world.
Odetta Olson hadn’t immediately run away.
She’d watched.
She’d ignored Dorian Fisher’s hopeless pleas.
She’d leaned over, probably to make sure his body had hit the water.
There was no doubt in my mind that he was gone.
That she’d wanted him gone.
Even from a distance, you could feel the determination driving Odetta Olson. She might not have come to this party to kill him. But once she’d started, she hadn’t looked back.
It made my blood turn to ice, but deep down I felt a pinch of respect for her. Of admiration even. This renowned Hollywood figure had been around long enough to know you can only ever count on yourself to get what you want.
The thought formed in my mind, just as I spoke it.
“We need to pretend this never happened.”
Lou had joined us, her whole body still shaking.
“You’re not serious,” Constance said. “We just witnessed…”
She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.
Ben’s words rang in my ears. Unless I drop dead. But he’d forgotten another possibility. He might still be alive, but his half-a-million-dollar deal was now sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
“We weren’t here,” I said, taking tiny, ragged breaths.
Constance glanced at Lou for backup, but Lou was frozen.
“We saw her,” Constance said. “We have to tell someone!”
She was throwing her arms around, getting louder. I scanned the space around us, but it was still as quiet, sounds from the party trickling down as if it were so far away, and not just three levels up.
“Stop it!” Lou said, pressing her fingers to her temples. “Just shut up, okay!”
“We have to think this through,” I said.
“She’s a dangerous woman,” Lou said. I could see the wheels spinning in her head. I wondered if she was coming to the same conclusion I was.
Constance’s head ping-ponged from Lou to me. “She’s a murderer.”
“We can’t save him now,” I said, almost in a whisper.
And then, that perverted little thought: but I could save myself.
Suddenly there was a change in the air, the music turned down, the lights brighter. We looked at each other in horror. The party was over.
It was time to go back to shore.
I turned to the girls and let my gut do the talking, laced with a heavy dose of adrenaline.
“Do you realize what just happened? This could ruin us.”
“Us?” Constance said.
“We just witnessed a…murder.” The word felt like acid on my tongue. “We’re witnesses to a murder. This will follow us for the rest of our lives.”
Lou nodded gravely. She agreed with me. Or at least that’s how I justified what I said next.
“Our names will be mixed up in this forever. Our careers, poof, gone. We’ll be known as the girls who watched”—I lowered my voice for the last part—“Dorian Fisher die.”
There was more noise from above, a clattering of heels and drunk cackles.
“Imagine all the questions,” I continued, speaking as fast as the words could come. “Why didn’t we step in? What did we really see? What did we do? What didn’t we do?”
“We need to get out there,” Lou said, pointing up to the main deck. “We need to be seen in public. Now.”
“Let’s go,” I agreed.
But Constance wouldn’t move. I grabbed her hand, pulled her to us.
“You won’t bring him back. We need to look out for ourselves.”
I was in shock, but there was a part of me that saw a glimmer of hope amid the darkness. And in that moment, I was glad that Dorian Fisher was dead.