Chapter 8

8

"Well, that moves things along," Van said, tipping his chair onto its back legs and pulling his vape out of his pocket.

I knew immediately this was no joke, because Riki's words had the effect of someone dropping a hissing bomb with a lit fuse on the table. There was a second of paralyzed confusion, then Liani jumped up and left. Tom swore under his breath and went after her. April's mouth twisted up into a strange little bow, like she had swallowed a bunch of bees.

"What's happening?" I asked. I think this was a fair question. In reply, April grabbed me and got me out of the room in a kind of Secret Service hustle.

"Oh god," she said as we made our way through the echoing main hall, under the watchful gaze of the women in the ceiling. "I'm so sorry. God. This isn't your fault."

I hadn't known that anything in this would be my fault, but I allowed myself to be moved along, feeling guilty anyway. As I've said, I'm good at feeling guilty. It's my natural resting state.

April couldn't decide which way to take me, starting first for one of the reception rooms on the first floor, then taking me outside. We saw Liani and Tom moving quickly down the lawn, so April took me around the veranda, opting for an isolated section that wrapped the side of the house.

" I wanted to tell you," she said in a low voice as she sat down on one of the Adirondack chairs. "I thought you should know that something happened. I mean, someone was going to tell you. I told them that. I said that you would find out."

"What is going on?" I asked again.

In reply, April reached into the pocket of her hoodie and got out her phone. She flicked through some photos until she came to one that showed her and a guy with a deep tan.

"Chris," she said. Her voice was thick with suppressed emotion. "Chris Nelson."

I've never been attracted to guys, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for when assessing them, but I think Chris was handsome. He had black hair, prominent, dark brows, deep-brown eyes, and a soft smile. He was posing with a pit bull wearing a dog jacket that read ADOPT ME. I had to assume that Chris was the dead guy Riki had referred to because I couldn't say to April So, this is the dead one, huh?

"It happened seven weeks ago," she went on. "The second of May. Prom. There was a party. It's a tradition. It's a different island every year so that they can't stop it. The whole thing is you stay until dawn and you come back to town for breakfast. It's kind of more important than the prom itself. Every year the school and the cops say they're going to shut it down, but no one does because they all went to it when they were in high school. It's that kind of thing."

April looked to see if I was following, and I nodded.

"There were always six of us," she said. "Me, Chris, Tom, Liani, Van, and Riki. We've known each other since we were—I don't even know. We all grew up basically on the same street. We were always like brothers and sisters when we were little, but that changed. Chris and Liani started dating in junior year. They broke up last fall, in November. That's a whole other story. Then Chris and Van got together around Valentine's Day. So when prom came, Chris went with Van, and the rest of us went single. I mean, except for Riki. She didn't go to the prom itself."

She gave me a little nod as if to say, you know what I mean . And the thing was, I did. I'd only been on this island for four hours and I already knew that no, Riki wasn't going to the prom.

April needed a moment to steady herself before she got to the next part of the story. She rubbed the heels of her hands on her thighs and blinked several times. I braced myself.

"That night," she began, "we all met up at eleven thirty to ride out. Van and Chris went together on one of Chris's family's Jet Skis. Tom, Liani, and I went on one of Tom's family's small boats. I don't know how Riki got out there. She was there when we all arrived. Here..." She scrolled through her phone for another moment and held up a photo. "This was us earlier in the night."

There was Liani in a stunning long red dress with a slit up the leg. She was with Tom, who wore a dark suit. Chris and Van were next to them. Chris was in a black tuxedo. Van wore a gray one, with tails and a top hat. April was in a blue dress with a full skirt. Riki was not in the picture.

"There was so much happening that night," she said. "We were all dancing, taking videos. Pretty much everyone was drunk. At some point, Van and Chris went off to be alone, and then Van was back, all upset, because he and Chris got into a fight. But that happened a lot. Then, as the sun came up, everyone started to get ready to go back for breakfast. Van was supposed to be riding back with Chris on Chris's Jet Ski, but Chris was still off somewhere.

Van said that Chris could just stay on the island for all he cared and he would ride with us on the boat. So we were packing up, and I was going to go look for Chris, but then someone started screaming. Then lots of people were screaming, saying Chris was in the water..."

April seemed to drift away from the veranda where we sat. She was remembering, and she tucked her knees into her chest and hugged them.

"We all ran to where the screaming was coming from," April said. "I can still see him there, in the water..."

She shook her head and closed her eyes, willing the image away.

"Liani tore off—she ran so fast. She got down to one of the shore points. She didn't even take off her dress, she just pulled it up to her waist and jumped in. I can always see her, swimming in that dress. She flipped him over and pulled him to the shore and started CPR, but it was too late."

Liani, swimming in a prom dress to pull her ex-boyfriend from the water. It was all so extreme. So intense.

"When Van saw him—I remember he just started laughing like crazy. He couldn't stop. He was actually hysterical. We had to stop him from jumping in the water too. He started saying he was going to swim to shore. I grabbed him. Tom grabbed him. We had to hold him down."

"What happened?" I said. "Did Chris fall?"

"I think so. No one knows. Everyone was at least a little drunk. I think Chris was a lot drunk. I don't know if he jumped in to swim and didn't think about the rocks, or if he was close to the edge and he lost his balance. It just happened. But he hit his head and drowned."

April put her phone into the pocket of her fleece.

"We talked about whether we should tell you. Liani made the case that we shouldn't, and she had maybe the worst trauma, aside from Van. Van... you noticed he's a little high? He's been like that since it happened. He's self-medicating all the time. It wasn't his fault."

I hadn't suggested it was, but April was just talking at this point.

"Chris was the one who set this all up for us. Chris was big into organizing things and working for charities. Chris was the best. He used to work at an animal shelter. And he was a big part of River Rescue, which is an environmental group that protects the river. He was one of those people who went to community meetings and made speeches about stuff. When this island went up for sale, and the town got it for the summer for tourism, Chris made the pitch that the guides should come from our high school. He actually went to all these meetings about educational grants. He helped set up the whole thing where the town would hire the six of us, and Dr. Henson would have to teach us for a semester, and we would get school credit for it and then get summer jobs. That's what he was like. He was going to go to Princeton . Anyway, all we want to do is be with each other, and we are, you know? We're here. And it's a job. And we have to do it for Chris."

I nodded. I had one more question, but I wasn't sure whether to ask: Hey, what the hell is the deal with Riki? Sometimes if you want to know something, you have to ask around the question.

"Riki lives here too?" I said. "She's not in the playhouse."

"She stays here, in the house," April replied. "Riki tends to operate by a different set of rules than the rest of us."

She slid the charm on her necklace back and forth, ticktock, ticktock.

"You saw there's some tension," she said.

"Hard to miss."

"Yeah..." April rubbed her right hand down the side of her face. "Riki's kind of the reason Chris and Liani broke up last fall. It was... bad. I'm surprised she decided to go through with it—to take the class with us and come here. But that's Riki. She's going to do what's she's going to do."

She held up her hands, indicating that these things were out of her control.

"You know," she said, "sometimes I think, at least it happened in May. If it had been in April, I would never be able to say my name without thinking about him. But I always think about him anyway. I should get back and check on Van. Are you okay?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. You've been through a lot this summer, right? And this was a lot."

She reached out her hand and put it softly on my elbow. I have to admit a light flutter—I'm not immune to the charms of a cute redheaded girl. But that wasn't where my head was at, or my heart. This was all too grave, too much.

"I'm fine," I said.

"Oh. Good. Okay."

She stood, lingered an uncertain moment, then nodded and left. I stayed on the veranda for a moment, watching an orange-and-black butterfly meander past on a soft current of breeze.

Chris had entered the chat. Chris, the dead guy.