Page 50 of The Engagement Party

“Where are you going?” Cassie was looking at Ruthie, who now stood on the steps.

Ruthie shrugged. “Upstairs.”

“Absolutely not.” Cassie put her mug down with enough force for it to make a cracking sound. “If you try it I will tackle you and drag your ass back down here.”

Sierra looked outside again. The light was closer. She could see the flashlight now and the person holding it. A rush of relief left her light-headed. “It’s the police.”

Timing had not been on their side... until now.

“It’s this guy...” Sierra reached for the card in her pants pocket, but she’d changed clothes. “What was his name?”

Mitch loomed behind her. “The guy from the garage?”

“Yeah.”A police officer. A way off this hellscape of an island.“Thank God.”

Cassie held up both hands, trying to direct the conversation and movements, as usual. “Wait a second. We need to think about this.”

“Not this time.” Sierra fell for that once with Alex. She’d learned her lesson.

She opened the door and could feel the rush of people crowding in behind her.

Cassie reached over, as if to shut the door again. “Sierra, stop.”

Done with all of this, Sierra body-blocked her. “You can all tell the friendly officer your theories and let him figure it out. I’m done.”

“How did he get here?” Ruthie asked.

Sierra opened the screen door and waved. “He had a boat.”

“Blurting things out is too dangerous.” Cassie’s words rushed together. “What about Mitch and Tyler? Their shared past?”

Alex joined in. “You don’t want Mitch to get in trouble.”

The questions and arguments sounded rehearsed, which made them easier for Sierra to ignore. “You two are trying too hard to avoid the police.”

He was close now. Maybe thirty feet away and walking under the pathway lights. Sierra recognized the hair and the face. He wore his uniform and a serious scowl that suggested he was not happy to be there. That made two of them.

“I appreciate the concern about my well-being but that was a valid argument when we had one dead body,” Mitch explained. “Now we have two. I’ll take my chances.”

“Right. We’re doing this.” Sierra stepped onto the porch as a healthy portion of her panic drained away. She’d taken two steps when she heard Ruthie’s voice from her position on the stairs.

“Guys? I don’t see a police boat.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Alex

Alex’s mind raced with a tragic mix of fragmented thoughts and pathetic excuses. He’d spent so many years dreading the knock at the front door, worrying about seeing the blue flashing lights in his driveway and being hauled in for questioning. To invite the police into his world now, after only recently beginning to indulge in the fantasy that he didn’t need to panic every single day, struck him as dangerous. But he couldn’t come up with an alternative or a way to stop the inevitable.

Sierra and Mitch crowded the doorway. Ruthie hadn’t moved off the first step to the second floor. Will blocked Alex’s view to the outside, but he could feel the anxiety buzzing through Cassie. Not the sort of thing anyone who hadn’t spent more than a decade reading her moods would notice, but he did.

The blinding headache kept Alex from moving too fast or stepping into the lead. Just standing up set off a new round of banging against his skull. He grinded his teeth together to force out the truth he needed them to realize. “We’re going to be blamed for all of this.”

Will didn’t look impressed. “You’re safe. You were injured.”

“That’s not going to help.” Because Alex knew better. The killings now would shine a light on the deaths back then.

“If you have nothing to hide you shouldn’t be so worried,” Sierra said.

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