Lou
I stared at the message on my phone, then up at the girls.
“I think we need to get out of here. And preferably go somewhere where no one can find us.”
“I know where we should go,” Constance said. “Follow me.”
Over an hour later, we were in the back of Marielle’s boutique, hidden from sight.
Marielle had closed the shop for the day to visit a friend who’d just had surgery, even though it was a Saturday.
Everyone in Cannes was either going home or getting ready for the closing ceremony anyway.
Constance had come here yesterday to pack up her designer loans, ready to be shipped back straight from the boutique.
With Marnie’s help—whose French was the best of the three of us—Constance made up some excuse about an incorrect label, some dress headed back to Stockholm instead of Copenhagen, and Marielle eventually agreed to let us in.
She came to open the door for us and told us where to leave the keys when we were done.
Now I sat on the tiny wooden stool in the changing room and rested my head over my knees.
This was the message that the three of us had just received.
Hi there!
A little bird told us you attended a very exclusive party last night.
A party that might have gotten out of hand.
You might have seen in our latest post that we’ve heard rumors of a missing necklace, but that’s not all that went missing last night, is it?
We’d love to hear what you have to say. You know where to find us.
Anonymously yours,
DMT
Marnie was pacing the room, going between a cushion with “Embrasse-moi” embroidered on it and a row of candles named after local beaches.
“Before we panic, I’m pretty sure they sent this to everyone who was there last night.”
“Before we panic?” I said. “I think the time to start panicking is way behind us. Remember how you pointed out that most of the people who were there last night have the money to buy the best defense and all the connections to salvage their reputation? Well, they have another advantage, which is that none of them wore this.”
I picked my tote bag off the floor and retrieved the pouch I had tucked inside before heading out this morning. The girls stared as I unzipped it and pulled out the diamond necklace.
“Oh shit!” Marnie said. “Please don’t tell us you stole a multimillion-dollar necklace from Clapard.”
“I didn’t. I stole it from Constance.”
Both girls leaned back in shock.
“What? No!” Constance said. “I’d never seen this necklace before you wore it last night.”
That explained why she hadn’t reacted when she saw me, but I was still confused as hell.
“So it wasn’t one of the pieces Clapard loaned you?”
Constance exhaled. “Clapard didn’t loan me anything.”
“Oh shit,” Marnie said again. “I don’t think I want to know what that means.”
“I gave everything back,” Constance said.
“Clearly not everything,” Marnie said.
I wrapped my face in my hands. “So all the Clapard pieces I wore over the last few days… Now I’m really going to prison, aren’t I? Why did you let me wear them?”
Constance shrugged. “Everyone wears those. They’re a dime a dozen. You could have gotten them anywhere.”
“Yeah, because everyone knows I can afford Clapard. And with my glowing career, luxury jewelers are definitely falling over themselves to lend me multimillion-dollar necklaces.”
“Where did you even find it?” Constance asked.
“Under your bed,” I admitted.
“So you thought you would just wear it in front of, like, a hundred people?”
“It’s so beautiful,” I said, sheepish.
“That’s a great reason.”
“Stop!” Marnie said. “It’s done now. The lying, the stealing, the murdering… All of that is done. Let’s focus on damage control.”
She grabbed her phone and came to kneel in front of both us. She flicked through all the photos I’d posted as we scrutinized them in silence.
“Okay, okay,” she said, between sharp breaths. “In this one, your hair is completely hiding it. You’d never recognize it. And in that one, it’s tucked away under the cape.”
“I should delete these,” I said, already reaching for my phone.
“Don’t do that,” Marnie said. “It will make us all look even more guilty.”
Constance’s lips quivered. “This is all my fault.”
“Yes,” I said, even though it really wasn’t. “But if you go down, I go down with you. I’m the one who wore the freaking necklace in public and I’m not ready to face the consequences. I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I can’t do it.”
Constance exhaled deeply. “Maybe we don’t have to.”