Chapter 22

22

Riki stared at the camera on her floor, then looked at me. I backstepped toward the door.

"Why do you have this?" I said.

"I don't have this," she said. She appeared genuinely confused as she started to move toward me. I looked for something to defend myself, but there were few options.

I grabbed a bottle of Thousand Island dressing.

"Don't come any closer," I said. "I told Akilah about the tooth. She knows. If anything happens to me, she knows where it is. It's hidden and no one will find it but Akilah."

"Marlowe," Riki said slowly. "I did not kill Dr. Henson. I didn't bring that camera up here. Someone put that in my room, and that is concerning . Sit down and tell me what is going on."

" You tell me what's going on," I shot back. "Because right now you have her camera, and you broke in to take her stuff. With me. You did it with me so I'd be involved..."

I felt a wave of panic coming on. My heart was beating too fast. I was having trouble holding up my Thousand Island dressing.

"Listen," she said, holding up her hand, "if I did something to Dr. Henson, which I didn't, and if I took her camera, which I didn't, do you think I would just leave it there? I'd deep-six that thing so hard the fish couldn't find it. I'd rip up floorboards. I'd cement it into the wall somehow. I would not, under any circumstances, bring it here and leave it on the floor. And if you think I would do that—first, fuck off, and second, hit me with that dressing, I guess. But the fact that the camera is here, on my floor, should tell you I didn't do this. Someone is messing around."

I considered this all for a moment, in my merry-go-round of a brain. The intoxication changed states. I pinged from fascination to fear to a desire to crash into Riki's fuzzy beanbag and sleep and forget about the tooth and the camera. But there was just enough of a background hum of logic and awareness that told me that sleep was not an option. And it was true—if Riki had taken the camera, she likely would have been more slick about it. I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, legs flopped in front of me like a rag doll.

"Okay," I said. "I need to understand something. I need to know what the deal was with you and Chris, because Chris's death has to be connected to Dr. Henson's. Tell me what happened, why you've all been fighting."

Riki played with the makeup brushes in the cup on her sink, considering. Then she sat down on the ground.

"You really think someone here killed Dr. Henson?"

"I don't think she moved her yoga mat, hid a camera in your room, scattered her teeth, and then went on a paddleboarding adventure on the open water."

"Yeah," Riki said, picking at the floor, "when you put it like that..."

I folded my arms, waiting for her to talk. I tried not to become distracted by the way the mirror chimes rotated slowly, moved by an imperceptible air current. I had to steer my brain like I was driving the Smart Car on a rainy day.

"Chris," Riki began, "was one of my first friends, but I always knew that you couldn't turn your back on him completely, you know? He could be the most honest person you ever met. He'd help you whenever you needed him. But then you'd find that he did something like mark your arm with a pen, somewhere you couldn't see, and if it was there the next day, he'd tell everyone you didn't shower. He'd save your life. He'd save the world. But he would take your Doritos and say he didn't. Which is all very minor shit, but it landed different the older we got. That's when he started working his way through the school, through tourists. He wanted to hook up with everyone, and he didn't want anyone to care. I think he thought if he didn't mean to hurt people, then he couldn't have hurt them, because he was such a good guy. Does that make sense?"

I nodded. I understood enough.

"I always thought he wouldn't get involved with our friend group. We were all too close. But I was wrong. He tested the waters by hooking up with April last year. That was just the once, and I think they talked and decided it was a mistake. But then, last summer, he and Liani disappeared together one night, and by the next day, they were a thing. He and Liani were serious. Liani loved him. I mean, she was all in. But I was worried about her because I knew what Chris was like. We all did, but she wanted to believe he wouldn't cheat on her, because she was different.

"One day, when I was at the register at the bookstore, these two tourists came in talking about this guy who worked at the Jet Ski and boat rental place, and from their description, I knew they meant Chris. One of them hooked up with him a few weeks before. I was... so mad. He wasn't just hurting Liani. He was hurting us , as friends. I tried to tell Liani that he was up to stuff, but she didn't want to hear it. I talked to the others about it, and everyone kind of knew as well. But no one was doing anything. So I made a plan."

Having participated in one of Riki's plans, I understood the significance of this. Nothing good was coming.

"One night, when I knew he was working in the rental shop alone, I got dressed up. Skirt. Makeup. You may not believe it, but I clean up pretty good."

"Why would you even need to get dressed up?" I said, maybe with a little too much feeling. She cocked her head but continued with her story.

"When I walked into the shop, I put my phone on a shelf and hit record. And then I started flirting with him. I said I would never tell Liani. I just wanted to, you know, see what I was missing."

I felt myself warming a bit as Riki told this story. There are times for those feelings, and this was not one of them. This was a No Bone Zone. But there's no talking to hormones. And I'd been given drugs .

"It was gross," she said, putting the lid on the steaming pot. "I didn't want to make out with Chris. He was like my brother. But I could see from his expression that it was working. I made sure never to make the first physical move. He stepped over to me, put his hands on my waist, leaned in to kiss me, and then..."

She paused as the house creaked in the wind.

"I backed up and started yelling at him, telling him he was a dirtbag, that I was telling Liani, that it was all over. He called me a stalker, a psycho, stuff like that. I was kind of riding high on emotion, so I turned around and yelled, ‘Good luck with that. I got it all on video.' And I held up my phone. I'd gotten him. Except..." She sagged a bit. "As soon as I got home and watched it, I knew I had a problem. The place I'd set the phone down had some kind of—I don't know what the hell was there, a vent or something, something I'd never paid attention to but turns out is the loudest thing that has ever existed. There was a hum coming through the entire video, so you could only make out one or two words. And because of the weird angle, the video looked like me coming on to Chris, him rejecting me, and then me freaking out. It was a disaster."

I saw her retreat into herself a little as she remembered.

"But it was too late to stop the plan now. I'd done it, and I'd told him I had a video. So instead of my original plan, which was a lot slower and well thought out, now I had to get to Liani before he did. But the video. Oh god, the video. I called April, told her what happened. She was, as you can imagine, completely freaked out. I looked at her face as she watched the video and I could see that things were even worse than I thought. She tried to calm me down. She said, don't show Liani this video, because it would not help my case at all. But since I'd told Chris there was one, it was unlikely he would say anything to Liani either. The best thing to do would be to drop it. Do nothing. Things might be weird with me and Chris now, but we would just have to deal with it. And that plan worked. For a day."

"What happened?" I asked.

"He called my bluff. He told her. It must have been a safe bet that the video was going to look pretty squirrelly—me coming to his work, me hitting on him. Even if he seemed to be receptive, he could explain it away by saying he was shocked or nervous or just trying to be polite and get me out of there or something. Liani confronted me. I tried to explain. I thought we were better friends than that. I thought she'd be mad but we'd talk it out. That is not what happened."

She picked at the ground.

"I stayed away a little, and then a little more. And then when I texted the others, I noticed there were long pauses before they texted me back. Everyone drifted away. Chris and Liani broke up at some point in October, I think. I don't know why for sure, but I think he did it. My guess was that he realized he liked guys more. He was bi, but I think he was really falling for more guys, just, percentage-wise. Van was a surprise, only because things had been complicated when he'd dated in our friend pool. I didn't think he'd go fishing there again. I thought those two were more like brothers, but it was a big romance, prom, all of that. And then he died. So that's the story of me trying to help my friends and being a creepy fuckup and ruining my life."

A quiet came over the room.

"It's not so bad," I said. "I burned a house down ."

"Yeah," she said, taking a breath. "You're probably the only person who has ever fucked up more than I have."

"So you came here to the island anyway?"

"We made the plan for the bookstore to have a shop here last summer," she said, shrugging. "That was my other genius idea. Hang out with my friends and open this extra business here on the island, so we could make some actual money for the bookstore. We've got those Thousand Island dressing dollars coming in. That part worked. And I even thought that if Chris was here, we could fix things. We'd all talk it out. But Chris isn't here. It's easier for all of them to keep being mad at me than it is to deal with the fact that Chris is dead, and he died in a stupid, pointless accident. Except, you're telling me he didn't. And I'm starting to think you have a point. But none of them are murderers. Those are my friends . Or were. I guess part of me always wondered about what happened that night. But no one would kill him. That's not a thing that happens, is it?"

"You've been telling me for days about how Clara killed her brother," I replied.

"Fair point. But I don't know Clara."

"Tell me what happened that night at the party," I said. "Because if someone did what I am pretty sure they did, it started there."

Riki rubbed her hands over her face. I scooted closer so I could see her better, leaving behind my Thousand Island dressing, and also the support of the wall. I had to lie on the floor to listen.

"I skipped prom," she said. "For a lot of reasons. Mostly hating the idea of prom, but also because of everything that was going on. I stayed at the store and did inventory and listened to Carrie on audiobook. Seemed fitting. But I went to the party. Everyone went to the party. My best friends weren't talking to me, but I had other friends."

She said it as if I'd suggested otherwise.

"I got there early with a few others who gave prom a miss. We were happily wasted by the time everyone else arrived and had already eaten the good snacks. Once everyone else got there, things felt weird to me, so I went off on my own with a sleeping bag to keep listening to Carrie until I fell asleep. I woke up to people screaming. Liani pulled Chris out of the water. I saw that much. I think he'd been on the rocks, but he'd washed off and was floating. I went over to her, and she wasn't mad at me anymore. But then Tom and April came over, and I got pushed out."

"No one saw?"

"No one," she said. "We all assumed he fell. He didn't jump. There are rocks there, just under the surface of the water. We know where to jump, and that is not a jumping point."

"This happened at dawn?"

"The sun was up when I opened my eyes," Riki replied. "You're saying that Dr. Henson was out that morning, doing yoga. I mean, she was here at Morning House by then. She came to stay out here in March. She could have been on the balcony that morning."

"How did everyone else get along with Chris? Were there any other problems?"

"Tom tolerated him," she said. "Chris worked for River Rescue, and they were targeting Tom's dad's fishing business. Tom's a true believer when it comes to his dad, but his dad is full of shit. Everyone seems to know this but Tom. I think he knew what I knew—that Chris cheated. That Chris, wonderful Chris, was kind of gross. But not liking someone much and killing them are different."

"What about that argument Van had with Chris that night?"

"Van wouldn't kill someone," she said. "Liani was over it, and April loved the guy. I mean, the trouble is he did have good qualities. He did do good stuff. The guy did spend his weekends saving puppies and trying to keep the river clean. That's all true. But he also was a dirtbag. I hated him the most of anyone, and I didn't kill him."

"So maybe there's something you don't know," I said. "After all, you barely talked to everyone for a year, right?"

"I guess..." She sniffed the air. "Do you smell something?"

Now that she mentioned it, I did. I had been so focused on what she was saying that I had shut off my brain to anything else. But now I was tuned in, and I smelled it clearly.

Smoke.

I've read a lot about fire since my time with the candle. Here's an important thing I learned: if the door is hot, don't open it. I guess I never thought I would encounter a hot door, but when I put my hand against this one, it was like a heater. I opened it just a hairline crack anyway.

"Oh," I said.

My big orange friend was back. Fire. And it was filling the round stairwell.