Chapter 45 Kate

45 KATE

NOW

Kate:

You need to come over here. C is in bits. Antoni’s been found dead.

Darcy:

Antoni?? The guy she slept with??

Kate opens the door a minute later to Darcy, who rushes in.

“The police are out there,” Darcy says, breathless and wide-eyed.

Kate turns to Camilla, who is on the floor of the living room, knees drawn up to her chest, her face tucked between them.

“Oh God,” Darcy says, pressing a hand to her mouth. She moves gently toward Camilla, sitting on the floor next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Camilla turns into her, pressing her head against Darcy’s shoulder.

“They found his body this morning at the Emerald Island Resort,” Kate says with a sigh. “His nephew is distraught.”

“I should have made more of a fuss,” Camilla says weakly, lifting her head. “I should have fucking made them go look for him.”

Darcy looks to Kate for an explanation.

“She says she found blood on the deck beneath the dining area.”

Darcy widens her eyes. “Blood?”

“I doubted myself,” Camilla says bitterly. “It was the anniversary; I was all over the place. But I saw it. Right when Antoni went missing.”

Kate feels the air in the room contract.

“How did he die?” Darcy asks. “Did he drown?”

“There’s a rumor that his throat had been cut.”

They share looks of horror.

“Where are Jade and Rob?” Darcy says. “I didn’t see them in the crowd outside.”

“They were on a scuba trip this morning. I doubt they’re back yet.”

KATE LEAVES CAMILLA AND DARCY in the villa while she goes to find out what she can. The crowd outside has dispersed. She walks to the restaurant, which has just opened for breakfast. Inside, the staff seem harried, some of the managers glancing around as they speak into walkie-talkies. The guests seem unsettled, too; word is spreading, and as she passes through the buffet room she hears snippets of conversation: A body in the lagoon… drowned?… maybe, but…

She pours herself a coffee and sits at a table with a view of the restaurant, close to a group of resort staff who are chatting quietly, their faces drawn. An Irish man at the table next to her makes a phone call.

“Hi, yeah… We’d like to arrange a transfer to another resort as soon as possible, please? Well, a body’s just been pulled out of the lagoon, and someone said he’d been stabbed and frankly that makes snorkeling here a little less appealing. Yeah, I’ll hold….”

Kate feels her body start to shake. There’s a grim familiarity to all of this, to the knowledge that she spent the night sleeping in the same vicinity as a dead body. She fixes her eyes on the cup on the table, pressing her feet down into the sand, counting her breaths. The roses burn bright in her mind.

Outside, the sky is darkening, the glorious mornings of the previous week replaced with a stormy sky and restless sea. Quickly, the drips of rain that pock the sand turn into a deluge. Water slides off the roof in thick ropes, the windows blur, and the sand path dissolves into puddles.

Just as Kate gets up to leave, the resort manager, Nura, steps forward into the center of the restaurant and claps her hands loudly, calling for attention.

“Everyone! Excuse me!” she calls. It’s a few seconds until the tables fall quiet.

“As you all know, one of our guests has sadly met with a tragic event this morning. We’ve been told that the detectives are on their way and will be seeking to speak with guests from both the Sapphire Island Resort and the Emerald Island Resort. All excursions and seaplanes will be canceled, effective immediately, until this is finalized. If you are due to depart in the next forty-eight hours, please come and see me after breakfast in my office. Thank you.”

The crowd erupts in anger and frustration. The Irish man seated next to Kate bangs the table with his fist, and she jumps. Nura is already besieged by guests demanding that they be allowed to catch their flights home, that she tell them what the hell is going on.

Kate turns her head to the window, her eyes searching for the horizon. She remembers running down the stairs of the guesthouse, the sight of the front door at the bottom. Safety.

She thinks again of Jade, of the way she approached Antoni that day in the restaurant. The way she appeared to glance back to check if Rob was watching.