Page 86 of The Bridesmaid
Fitzwilliam hesitates. ‘She might not have meant it literally. Six feet under is a general expression.’
‘I know but …’ I’m staring at the soil. ‘This is a working site. You couldn’t conceal anything here without risking it being destroyed or discovered. And Simone couldn’t have known we’d have seen the inside of Silky’s room, with the pictures of the open grave. I think we might have put two and two together and made five.’
Fitzwilliam considers this. ‘If Simone wasn’t referring to here, then where?’
‘I don’t know.’ Defeat rolls through me. ‘But I feel like Ishouldknow. Somewhere underground, I guess.’ My mind mentally maps the island. Then it hits me. ‘The panic room where Adrianna was held. That’s underground, right?’
‘Right,’ he’s nodding fast. ‘It was built to be kind of a bunker.’
‘Sepulcrum,’ I say, ‘is Latin for burial place, or tomb. And the panic room would be practical, right? Easy for Simone to get to unseen, but not the kind of place that people go rooting around in either. Let’s get back and take a look.’
There’s a flush of excitement on Fitzwilliam’s face, which is kind of cute. I push the thought away.
As we reverse our steps I notice something. Further back in the jungle, and partially obscured by leafy trees, is another building, unlike the others.
‘Look,’ I say. ‘The bell tower we saw from the ocean.’
The stone edifice is stocky, and colonial in proportions, like a small fortress. Low down and thick-walled, with square turrets on either side of a large arched doorway. A heavy black bell hangs atthe top of the turret, and a round-edged cross-shape has been cut in relief out of the thick stone frontage.
‘It looks like an old church,’ I say. ‘The first Kensingtons must have built it.’
A strange feeling washes over me, looking at the bell tower.
‘Trinity,’ I murmur. ‘Holy Trinity. Looks like we found the old schoolhouse.’
Chapter Sixty-night
PETRA
We’re all due at Adrianna’s bachelorette party but Holly and Georgia have vanished. Which gives me a perfect opportunity to search Holly’s cabana for the birthday invitation I saw her find in the hot springs. As I slip inside, my cell rings. I check the display and my stomach does a flip.
It’s Max.
‘Hey,’ I answer, upbeat. ‘You get the pictures?’
‘Petra,’ he replies, his clipped English accent reminding me horribly of my former headmistress. ‘What the hell? Did you put the wrong attachment? You sent me a bunch of junk.’
‘You didn’t like the pictures?’ I pretend to be shocked. ‘What about the close-up with Georgia? You could twist that one to look like they were fighting or something.’
‘Don’t tell me how to do my fucking job!’ The rage in his voice actually makes me take a step back. ‘You sent me a load of puff. And what the fuck was the picture edited crap with Adrianna kissing some dark-haired stud? Did you really think you could get it past me? A child of eight could see it had been spliced together with a picture editor.’
‘I—’
‘Itoldyou,’ he interrupts. ‘I need something good.Titanhas a million-dollar ad revenue because we break celebrity stories, not because we publish pretty girls in wedding dresses. You’re supposed to send me pictures to sell magazines. Not something that’s going to put me in court. Otherwise, you know what I have to do.’
‘Wait,’ I tell him. ‘You didn’t let me finish. I’m in Holly Stone’s cabana right now. Looking for the old birthday invitation Simone set up to shoot forWrongfully Accused.’
My eyes land on Holly’s battered skull-motif suitcase pushed partially under the bed. I kneel and flip the lid.
Golden foiling flashes. The birthday invitation to Adrianna’s twenty-first birthday is right on top. I let out a breath, hardly able to believe it.
‘I found it,’ I tell him. ‘I got the birthday invite Simone hid in the cave.’ I’m staring. I remember this. The game of Truth or Dare Adrianna played to try and reveal who’d sent it.
He pauses. ‘You did?’
‘Uh huh. It’s got writing on it,’ I add. ‘Six feet under. I guess this is another one of Simone’s puzzles. You watch the show, right?’
‘Of course I watch the show.’ He thinks for a moment. ‘Sepulcrum,’ he says. ‘It’s marked on publicity material. Sepulcrum means tomb. AKA six feet under.’
