Chapter 13

Tuesday, April 9

The sun has barely risen, and despite the cloudless skies, the cool breeze off the water still carries a bite. But Simon, who wears only a T-shirt and board shorts, doesn’t mind. It’s one of his favorite times of day: sitting on his deck and savoring his morning coffee, an oat milk cappuccino. While Victoria Beach is still deserted. Before the lapping of the waves and the crooning of the gulls are drowned out by a cacophony of children, boom boxes, volleyball players, and countless other invaders of his beach.

As Simon leans back and peruses the e-version of Rolling Stone on his tablet, a pop-up notification labeled “The Tribe” appears in the corner of the screen. He immediately taps on the group chat icon and sees two new messages from Salvador.

The first reads: HOLY FUCK!!

The second is a hyperlink.

As soon as Simon clicks it, a web page from some news site that he doesn’t recognize fills his screen. His jaw drops the moment he sees the headline: “Opioid Crisis Activist Dead.”

As Simon reads the story, he experiences more déjà vu than shock. Too often, he has learned of the death of a friend or an acquaintance through a similar type of media report. While the post offers some details about Elaine’s history of addiction, recovery, and activism, including a well-attended march she organized to city hall last year, it lacks any specifics about her death. It says only that Elaine was found in her home and that officials have not yet confirmed a cause of death. But that doesn’t stop the writer from speculating. He even tracked down a friend of hers in the movement who bemoaned her loss and cited her death as a cautionary tale for the ever-present risk of relapse among recovering addicts.

Simon hasn’t even finished reading when his tablet pings with multiple texts from other group members.

Baljit:Elaine died after we saw her? The same day??

Salvador:OMG, SHE MUST HAVE!!

Liisa:Do we know for certain she overdosed?

Baljit:You think it was killer bees?

Salvador:TOO SOON!!

Reese:What else could it have been?

Baljit:What becomes of the group now?

Simon:We carry on, right?

Salvador (finally releasing the caps lock key):We have to! It’s what Elaine would have wanted.

Baljit:Really?? The one who was going to detonate the group from the inside?

Salvador:I meant she’d want us to stay clean.

Baljit:On the plus side, at least her allegations won’t go viral now.

Salvador:JESUS CHRIST, BALJIT!

Baljit:Can’t bring her back from the dead.

Reese:We’ve all thought it, Salvador.

Simon finds himself nodding in agreement. His life would be less complicated and less expensive if his own accuser had gone a similar route.

Reese:JJ? You out there?

Simon realizes that JJ is the only member who hasn’t yet weighed in on the group chat.

JJ:This is fucking awful. I’m devastated. How can we go on?

No new texts appear in the chain for a few seconds, and then another pops up.

Baljit:And then there were six.