Page 78 of Saltwater

“I hope you left some in the tank,” he says, “because your uncle said we have to go to that party tonight. On the private island?”

“Gallo Lungo?” I say.

“Yes.”

Gallo Lungo is even smaller than Capri—inaccessible except by private boat or helicopter. Even harder, my uncle knows, to escape.

Werner Leipling Purchases Li Galli Islands for an Undisclosed Sum

The Sun

September9, 2018

Naples—The three LiGalli islands, which form a small, rocky archipelago between Capri and the Sorrentine Peninsula, have been purchased by the billionaire financier Werner Leipling in an off-market sale. The largest and only habitable island, Il Gallo Lungo, was owned for the majority of the twentieth century by dancers, first Léonide Massine and later Rudolf Nureyev.

Originally used as a deterrent against piracy, Il Gallo Lungo has long been off-limits to the public. With only one place to land boats and a perilous set of stairs leading to the main house, it has been a favorite vacation destination for celebrities and politicians.

Il Gallo Lungo includes an amphitheater built for ballet, which Leipling is eager to repurpose, as well as a pool, a main house, two guesthouses, and a large outdoor patio area. The island has hosted numerous writers and artists over the years, among them Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Shirley Hazzard, and Graham Greene, who once remarked of the island: “The place looks idyllic, but might be hell.”

Helen

Now

Death—despite the sun and theheat and the profusion of life that crawls across Capri—is everywhere. Even next to the pool, where Freddy is reading the paper, the deck littered with bodies of bees and spiders and ants that haven’t yet been swept away.

“I have a surprise for you,” Freddy says, setting down the paper.

He seems untouched by the way everything around us is falling apart. Whatever he wanted to say to me in the water is either buried beneath the weight of the events of the last forty-eight hours or made immaterial by Lorna’s death. I envy him this calm. Even while part of me has learned not to trust it.

His eyes flash to my hands, my ears, my chest. He decides his secret is worth sharing. “I’ve made us a shopping appointment with a jeweler,” he says. “I thought it would be a good distraction.”

My heart crashes into my ribs.A jeweler.And also:a distraction.As if a ring or a tennis bracelet or a necklace could help me forget. Even though we’ve never talked about it, it was always assumed Freddy would propose.

“What do you think?” he says. An eyebrow shoots up. “Isn’t it Naomi who always says there’s nothing a good gift can’t fix?”

I want to laugh, but it comes out like I’m being lightly strangled instead. Freddy mistakes it for joy and folds me into his arms, a hand stroking my head.

“I could use a distraction,” I manage.

I say it as much for myself as to him. All the while knowing there is no distraction from the deaths. From my father’s confession. No gift can fix what has happened. No gift will empower me to leave them. Every hour I don’t go to the police makes me more complicit, more suspicious. I know that.Theyknow that.

I didn’t bother to look for my father this morning. I knew he wouldn’t say anything more, wouldn’t even acknowledge the admission. That’s how we are. A quick leak of information and the gag slips back into place.

“Shall we?” He lets go, folds the paper, and looks at me. I’m wearing a swimsuit; it’s damp and smells of chlorine. My hair is still wet.

“Now?” I say.

“Did you have other plans?”

Although something like a plan is beginning to take shape, it doesn’t involve Freddy. So instead I say: “I’ll change.”

It only takes a few minutes to throw on a dress and a sun hat. And even though I expect the drawer to be empty when I pull it out, someone has returned it. My mother’s necklace. As if it was never gone. Its gold surface smeared with dull fingerprints, like it has been fondled. Or maybe I’m the one who hasn’t been able to stop touchingit?

You’re going to wear the scales off.That’s what Lorna said the day it arrived at the office. When I remember this, I see her again: the body, her hair dangling, the net.

I drop the necklace into my bag and meet Freddy downstairs.

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