Page 50 of The Weekend Getaway

Mia scoffed. “Are you serious? What the hell is going on? Is this some kind of sick joke? People losing their heads?”

“I don’t know?—”

“Well, I do,” Mia said, walking away from Jason, toward the island where Sarah and Chris sat. “You’ve all been drinking or doing drugs or spending too much time in the fucking sun!”

“Grace is dead,” Sarah said, wiping her tear-stained cheeks. “I can prove it.”

Tilting her head, Mia glared at Sarah. “And just how the hell are you going to do that?”

Sarah stood. “I’ll show you. Come with me … “

Minutes later, Mia led the way down the path to the boat dock. For a moment, she felt ridiculous. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, leading three losers, Jason, Chris, and Sarah, down a weather-beaten wood plank road. And just like Dorothy, when she reached her destination, Mia knew all she would find was … nothing. Just smoke and mirrors. Some sort of ridiculous illusion pretending to be real. But she was confident they would not find Grace’s head in a speed boat.

The very idea that she was actually heading to the boat dock to see Sarah’s so-called proof of Grace’s gruesomemurder annoyed Mia. Enraged her, actually. She had other things to worry about. Like Alex. Why had he left his phone? If he didn’t have it, she wouldn’t be able to reach him and she needed to talk to him. She needed to know her next steps. But maybe Alex had a reason for leaving the phone.

And maybe there was a reason for the specks of blood on the back of the phone case, as well.

“What happened to it?” Sarah asked, her voice shrill, panicked.

Mia glanced at her. “What?”

“The speed boat is gone,” Jason said, walking to the edge of the boat dock, followed by Chris.

Where the speedboat would have been moored, there was nothing.

“What happened to the speed boat?” Sarah demanded. “It was right there! Tied next to the dock! And Grace’s head?—”

“Shut up!” Chris grabbed Sarah and shook her. “Shut the fuck up! Grace is not dead!”

“Chris, stop it!” Mia said, grabbing his arm, trying to make him loosen his hold on Sarah. “Leave her alone! Let her go!”

“My wife isn’t dead!” Chris said, pushing Sarah slightly as he pivoted away from her.

“It was right there.“ Sarah walked to the edge of the dock, pointing at the gently lapping aqua water. “The speedboat was right there. And I saw … I know what I saw. I wouldn’t make it up. I wouldn’t?—”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” Jason said. “But I think we need to find Alex and Grace and?—”

Mia said, “Alex took Phil to the mainland?—”

“Phil is doing this,” Chris said, pacing back and forth across the boat dock, his feet shaking the weathered planks. “He said he was going to destroy us …”

“What do you mean?” Mia asked. “Phil and Alex got past their differences?—”

“But did they really?” Chris asked, stopping to stare at Mia. “Were you there when they talked?”

Shaking her head, Mia said, “No, but Alex told me?—”

“Maybe Phil lied to Alex,” Chris said, resuming his pacing. “Maybe Phil tricked Alex into thinking that things were good between them so Alex would let his guard down. So Alex wouldn’t suspect …”

Mia's stomach lurched. “So Alex wouldn’t suspect … what?”

Chris stopped pacing. “I think that Phil lied to Alex about needing to go to the mainland.”

Struggling to ignore the image of Alex’s phone beneath the bed table, Mia said, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Phil lie about needing to leave the island?”

“Maybe so he could get Alex alone,” Jason said, his gaze troubled as he scratched his chin.

Fighting panic, Mia said, “Why would Phil want to get Alex alone?”

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