“This is insane.”

“Hang on. You know her pretty well. Better than I do, obviously, but let me ask you this; if Jenn had found out before they got on the yacht, would she have come?”

“I doubt it. Wait, no. Before I put Erica to bed last night, she said she wanted to tell Jenn, and I told her to keep her mouth shut.”

“She hit her head pretty hard and was three sheets to the wind, Alex. You think she could’ve been confused?”

“Maybe? God, it’s so hard to say. I’ve been chasing Jenn for over a year, and she had never really acted like she was that into me. It’s possible that Erica told her, and Jenn didn’t care. It doesn’t feel right, though.”

“It doesn’t?”

“My gut says she didn’t know, and yeah, she would’ve cared. As much as she acted like she wasn’t into me, I could always tell that there was some small part of her that wanted to say yes.”

“Right. Then let’s lock that down. She didn’t know before she got here. How about after that, once we were on board? I don’t ever remember seeing those two off by themselves, and if the truth had come out, and Jenn cared like you think she might’ve, then she should’ve been pissed off, shouldn’t she? Showed some signs? She seemed fine all day yesterday, right up until she went apeshit.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Normal all day.”

“If she didn’t know beforehand, what caused her to blow up?”

“I think she caught me looking at Erica.”

“Right, but who wasn’t?”

“It’s different.”

“Jealousy?”

“I think so. It’s the only thing I can think of. Maybe the only other possibility is that Jenn came in here to apologize, and Erica told her then. Erica wanted to for a long time, but I wouldn’t let her, and then she mentioned it again right before I left her alone.”

“I see.”

“Do we have to do this right here? It’s creeping me out.”

“Yeah, sorry. I guess once a cop, always a cop. You kinda get used to the bodies.”

Alex turned to leave, but Wade grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“One more thing before we go up. Supposing Jenn found out, and it led to this, you act normal around her. Understood? Not a hint, not a word, not a question. We’ll go up, see what’s happening with the others, and then we tell them we called it in.”

“What for?”

“Just to see who it puts on edge. I’m on your side here, yeah? If we can figure out who did this before we report it, your culpability quotient goes way down.”

“Are you sure? Won’t waiting look suspicious?”

“We won’t wait too long. We know there’s a murderer here, and nobody’s going anywhere, not unless they can swim back to shore.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious, Alex. Can you do that? Can you be cool?”

“I have to.”

They heard footsteps hurrying down the hallway and turned to see Chet poking his head through the door. He was out of breath, sweating, with blood dripping down his forehead. “Get up here—I can’t control them anymore.”

“What’s going on?”

“They’re all losing their minds, blaming everybody else. Terri and Sharon were throwing punches and Mark hit me over the head with a coffee mug when I tried to stop them. It’s goddamn chaos, man. We need to do something before they all kill each other.”

Wade downed the last of his whiskey and then followed Alex and Chet out of the room, up the steps, and onto the middle deck.

By the time they reached it, tempers raged and curse words littered the air. It was a strange sight, the mixture of fear and uncertainty on each of their faces, combined with anger and blame. They stood in a wide circle, an arm’s length away from one another, hands and arms out in guarded stances, their eyes flitting back and forth, watching, waiting for something to be thrown or the next attack to come from a flying fist.

Sharon pointed at Terri, finger shaking with fear. “You did it, I know you did.”

Terri bared her teeth. “Screw you, Sharon. Mark and I were in the same room all night.”

“Maybe both of you did it. Maybe that’s why Mark finally got sick of your shit. He said it this morning. He said you went too far, and I know I’m not the only one who heard it.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Mark said. “I only meant that she’d pushed me too far with all her damn nagging.”

Terri slapped his cheek. “That’s for—”

Alex shoved his way into the middle of the circle. “Stop it. Just stop, all of you. We’ve already hailed the Coast Guard. Let’s stay cool until they get here, and we’ll figure it out then,” he lied, hoping to catch a subtle, fearful, telltale reaction from the culprit.

Nothing.

He got nothing.

PART SEVEN

Anxious, wary, and terrified, the remaining eight, minus Wade, stared at Alex in disbelief, stoic statues of incredulity. The moment hung there, a fat, pregnant pause, amazed at his suggestion, floating, floating, until their confusion and panic erupted.

“Stay cool? What do you mean stay cool?”

“Erica is dead, Alex.”

“One of you is a goddamn murderer, and I want off this boat.”

“Alex, take us back, please,” Jenn begged.

Their voices blended into a miasma of curses, questions, and demands.

He couldn’t think clearly. Wade was right. They needed time to consider motives.

We can’t do that, he thought. Coast Guard. Radio the Coast Guard. It’s too dangerous to stay here. They’ll escort us in, maybe take everyone into custody until—no, he said they might hold me responsible. My yacht. A murder on my yacht. Okay, okay…if we can figure out who did it, we can tie them up with the extra mooring line downstairs. It can’t be that hard to figure out who did this, can it? There are only so many choices, just like he said.

“Quiet!” he screamed. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to stay right here, we’re going to wait on the Coast Guard, and we’re going to let them handle this.”

“Seriously?” Karen said. “So, what, we’ll all just stay here, trapped like sardines out in the middle of the ocean, while one of you takes a knife to the rest of us?”

Sharon stepped forward, hand on her chest, brunette ponytail swishing back and forth as she shook her head, saying, “One of us? One of us? How do we know you didn’t do it?”

Karen’s head whipped back as if she’d smelled something disgusting, like putting her nose to a carton of spoiled milk. “Chet and I were in our room all night. Jenn slept on our floor. She knows we didn’t go anywhere, right, Jenn?”

Alex watched Jenn as she opened her mouth, closed it, then admitted, “I guess so, but I was asleep. I mean, I’m not saying you did anything, but I can’t say yes for certain.”

Karen’s hands went up in the air. Chet, still bleeding from the forehead, crossed his arms and turned on her. “Are you kidding me?” he asked.

“I’m not trying to blame you,” Jenn replied. “I’m only saying I didn’t stay up all night watching you. Do I think you could’ve done it? No. Do I think anybody on this boat could’ve done it? No. And for that matter, neither one of you can say that I didn’t get up and leave the room because both of you were snoring like foghorns. Okay? Okay?”

“She’s got a point,” Alex said, though unintentionally planting that seed of doubt about her whereabouts wasn’t the best idea. “Nobody knows where anybody was. Nobody has an alibi except for Wade.”

The others whipped their heads around to face him, skin swishing against nylon windbreakers.

“How’s that?” Mark asked.

Wade eyed Alex, annoyed, but he shook his head and lifted his hands in resignation. “I cheated. I was on the phone until about four in the morning.”

“You’re not supposed to get service out here,” Laura said. “That’s why we came this far out.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. I had a bar. It worked.”

“Well, let’s use your phone, call the cops,” Chet said.