Chapter 41 Camilla

41 CAMILLA

NOW

It’s evening; tonight’s excursion is a private boat trip for her, Darcy, and Kate to the sandbank in the middle of the ocean, which Camilla had prearranged before they’d even arrived. There, a rug will be laid out on the sand, a metal frame garnished with fairy lights surrounding them. Champagne on ice.

Kate had assumed they would cancel, asking if they should instead consider Darcy’s offer of a transfer elsewhere, even just to Emerald Island. But Camilla said no. She wants to stay put until Antoni is found so she can keep an eye on Salvador. He seemed so much younger when she saw him before, so vulnerable in the face of a worrying situation.

“Come on, Camilla,” Darcy calls from the boat, and Camilla gives one last look at the sand path behind her.

She can’t shake the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Her head throbs and a hot lump in her throat won’t go away. God, it’s so hard to think straight. How can she, knowing what she knows?

In the end, they had agreed to use this excursion to talk, away from Jade. Adrian’s bombshell requires careful discussion; where better to do this than a tiny bar of sand in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the boat and crew several hundred feet offshore, and well away from Rob Marlowe himself?

The boat ride affords them a view of the sun setting over the ocean, a golden, liquid light, blush and apricot clouds clustered against the cerulean backdrop of sky. It’s dark by the time they reach the sandbank, a silvery slice in the midst of warm navy sea, a canopy of bright stars glittering overhead.

The crew tell them to wait in the boat while they set up, laying out a large round rug, then three plump pillows for the women to sit on, before stringing up the lights.

They wait until the crew have retreated to the boat before taking their seats at the small table set with gilded champagne glasses and a small tray of petit fours.

“Shall we?” Darcy says, stepping onto the blanket and lowering herself onto one of the pillows. She looks tense, her jaw tight. Yes, Camilla thinks, they should have canceled tonight’s excursion. It all feels wrong. And yet, they’re here now. Resigned, she lifts a bottle of champagne, surreptitiously checking the bottom before pouring Kate and Darcy a glass.

No one drinks it.

The warm breeze settles across them like a blanket, the night sky thrumming with stars. It should be blissful, a moment to contemplate the beauty of the ocean. But instead, they think only about the dangers inside the dark.

“All right,” Camilla says after a few moments. “What do we do about Jade?”

“Oh, it’s time for business, is it?” Kate says, sitting upright.

“I think we need to discuss it,” Camilla says. “Bit of a plot twist, wouldn’t you say?”

“Indeed,” Kate says. “A plot twist within a plot twist.”

“Darcy?” Camilla says, noticing that she’s fidgeting with the cushion, something bothering her.

“I’d like to know which of you told Jacob about Adrian,” Darcy says after a moment.

Camilla stares at her, certain she’s misheard. She looks from Darcy to Kate, then back to Darcy. “I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?”

“One of you told Jacob about Adrian,” Darcy says. “I’d like to know who. Or maybe it was both of you?” There’s a sharpness to her tone that cuts through the air, transforming the mood.

“You think me or Kate told Jacob about Adrian Clifton,” Camilla repeats.

“Yes,” Darcy says. “It’s the only way he could have found out about him.”

Camilla looks at Kate, who flicks her eyes at her quickly before returning her gaze to Darcy.

“Darcy, love,” Kate says, gently. “I know this is all very stressful, but this is not the time to fling random accusations.”

“I want the truth,” Darcy says with a light laugh, turning to Kate. “And it seems that despite our pact to be completely honest, some of us are keeping secrets. Like you, Kate.”

Kate looks astonished. “Me?”

Camilla watches Kate carefully, feeling her heart begin to race.

“I had a separate mobile phone that I used when I spoke to Adrian in case Jacob or one of the boys happened to check my personal phone,” Darcy continues. “You know about it, don’t you?”

Kate looks flustered. “I don’t know what you’re…”

“Did you give that number to Jacob?” Darcy presses.

Kate blinks furiously. She looks to Camilla for support. “Jacob gave that number to me ,” she protests.

“So you spoke to him?” Darcy asks, shocked.

“Well, no, I—”

“And what did you tell him?”

“If you’ll allow me to explain,” Kate says, “I can tell you exactly what I said, and to whom.”

“All right.”

“But first,” Kate says, straightening, “I have a few questions of my own. Seeing as tonight’s turned into an interrogation.”

Camilla rolls her eyes. “It’s not an interrogation….”

“What I’d also like to know,” Darcy interjects, looking at Kate, then Camilla, “is whether Jade is someone we can trust. For all we know, she’s putting on an act to protect her hubby.”

Camilla picks up her glass and sips, her eyes on Kate. “I think you know the answer to that.”

“Do I?” Kate asks.

Camilla shrugs. “You and Jade seem to be pretty friendly.”

“Come on,” Kate says reasonably. “You know you can trust me.”

“But I don’t,” Camilla says simply. “It seems none of us can trust each other. Our friendship is based on an unspeakable tragedy, for crying out loud. We barely know each other.”

“Of course we do…,” Darcy counters, but Camilla shakes her head. She feels tears prick her eyes at the thought of how confusing and bitter this trip has become. Will they still be on speaking terms by the time they return home? She doesn’t believe so.

And yet, so much more is at stake.

“We know each other’s grief,” Camilla says, her chest tightening. “But we don’t know each other. And none of us should trust the others. Not with this information. The stakes are too high. When it comes down to it, we have to look out for ourselves.”

“Well, then,” Kate says, in a brittle, hurt tone. “Let’s focus on the task at hand, shall we? The sooner we talk to Rob Marlowe, the sooner we can all get away from each other and get on with our lives.”

Darcy shrugs. “OK, then. I guess neither of you wants to admit to telling Jacob about Adrian.”

“I think neither of us did tell him about Adrian,” Kate snaps, and Darcy smiles, not believing her.

Camilla sighs. Now that she’s had time to think properly, she has new concerns of her own. It’s all so complicated, so crazy. How can they really expect to get Rob to tell them anything at all? Even if he were to blurt out that he killed all those people, as if he ever would, they would still have to tell the police, and then trust that the police would act on it. The old Camilla—the one who hadn’t experienced the justice system quite so thoroughly—would have believed that of course the police would leap to find out the truth, that if she went to them for help, she’d get it.

But she has learned that people get away with the most egregious crimes. In fact, the more brazen, the higher the chance they’ll get off through some ridiculous technicality, a loophole, or via the kind of luck that should befall the good people of the world.

Instead, that kind of luck seems to gravitate to bastards like Rob Marlowe.

“I’m just going to say it,” Camilla says. “I’ll never forgive myself if we leave this island without at least trying to confront him.”

“Despite the risk?” Kate asks. “Despite the likelihood of him attacking one of us, or all of us?”

“We have Jade, remember?” Camilla says. “Perhaps she can persuade him to do things that we can’t.”

“We’re putting Jade’s life at risk,” Kate says gravely. “That’s what we’re doing here.”

“Her life is already at risk,” Darcy says. “Domestic violence doesn’t stop at a bruise.”

“Well, if she manages to help us, he might get locked up,” Camilla says. “She’ll be safe as houses then.”

“I don’t think it works as simply as that,” Kate says.

Darcy shrugs too. “It’s something, isn’t it?”

Camilla glances at Kate. The anger that has been brewing between them shifts to resentment. She has been wondering all day why Kate is so reluctant to confront Rob, after all she has been through. And now, she thinks she knows.

It has nothing to do with fear or grief, and she seems so very protective of Jade, a relative stranger.

She watches Kate quietly, wondering if the second killer hasn’t been in front of her all this time.