My vision swam and I staggered back from the door a few steps so I could lean against the dining table. I could feel Graham’s eyes on me, so I looked up at him, lifted an index finger, and turned toward the living room so I could take it all in without him scanning my face.

“Oh, god,” I managed to exhale out. “That’s . . . that’s terrible. Her family must be in shock. Jill must be in shock.”

“We were out there the night she went missing. It’s too creepy to think about what else could’ve happened. To any of us! I hope they catch the bastard that did this,” she hissed.

My phone kept chiming in my ear, dicing up Tina’s sentences. “I gotta go, call you back ASAP,” I said and pressed end. I set the phone on the table and clutched my stomach. Bile surged up my throat, and sweat needled my armpits. This was worse than I could’ve ever imagined. I’d thought of Abby dead, many times since Saturday, but had hoped beyond hope she’d still somehow magically reappear, sparkling with life and unharmed.

I certainly never imagined she’d be found, shot dead, on Margot’s land.

A shudder passed through me and I twisted around just enough so I could peer outside. The sky was darkening and Graham was pushing Jack in the swing, Jack’s laughter echoing through the night air, his tangle of golden locks lifting off his forehead with each shove, and I wanted to squeeze myself into this happy frame, shrink the world down so that it was just the three of us. I squinted my eyes, tried to take a mental snapshot of the moment because the dread creeping over me told me that no matter what was coming next, things would never be the same again.

I stared down at my cell as if it were a snake coiled to strike. Three missed calls from Margot. Fuck. I needed a second to process everything Tina had told me before calling her back, but my phone started blaring again and the screen sprang to life, flashing her name.

“Jesus, Sophie,” she started in before I even had the chance to say hello. “Where the hell have you been?”

“On the phone with Tina; she just told me everything, she—” I said, my voice rattled with nerves.

She interrupted me. “It doesn’t matter. Look, I can’t talk long.” It sounded like she was standing outside; I could hear the whoosh of a car zipping past.

“It’s so horrible what’s happened. And on my land, no less,” she added, letting out a jagged sigh. “But listen, what happens next is important. If we stick to our story, no one will find out about Brad or Jamie.” There was a stab to her voice, and I could tell this was no request. It was another threat.

I stood there clasping the phone to my skull, feeling like I was becoming detached from my body, like my mind was floating upward toward the ceiling.

“Sophie,” her voice purred in my ear. I parted my lips to speak but before I could, she said, “Gotta run,” and ended the call.

She didn’t even have to wait for my reply; she knew I was going to stick to the script. I have no other choice. Graham can never find out about Jamie.

A sheen of sweat coated my body. It was nearly pitch-black outside now, and I could just barely make out Graham’s and Jack’s darkened figures at the tire swing. The dining room suddenly felt too bright, like I was onstage under a spotlight. I opened the back door and stepped out.

The platter of snapper rested on the wrought-iron table, and a team of flies was already dive-bombing the fish before I could swat them away.

“Everything okay?” Graham asked. The tire swing creaked and groaned as he waited for my reply.

I shook my head.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Well?”

“It’s Abby. She’s—” I ran my index finger across my throat as if to slit it, and immediately felt like I was playing a character in a television drama. “Talk about it later, okay?” I angled my head toward Jack.

Graham’s hand flew to his mouth and his eyes filled with sadness. “Sorry,” he choked out. “That’s terrible. Yes, fill me in later.”

We took our dinner inside, away from the hungry flies. Jack slung his dirt-crusted bare feet up on the table while he ate; I didn’t stop him. My mind was racing but also a blank.

After a few moments I couldn’t stand to sit still at the table any longer, so I told Graham I needed to be alone for a moment to call Tina back. His lips shone with olive oil and he nodded and said, “Of course.”

I crept to the back of the house, to our bedroom, and gently shut the door. For safe measure, I stepped into the master bathroom and closed that door as well. I lowered the toilet seat and sunk down on top of it, bracing myself. The curtain was drawn back and a chunk of moonlight sliced through the bare window, casting shadows across the bone-white surfaces of the countertop and floors.

“So glad you called back,” Tina said, almost in a whisper.

“I need to know everything.” My voice halted and I caught myself. “I mean, what all do you know?” I asked more softly, hoping I sounded not as forceful, less suspicious, and more sympathetic.

She unloaded the rest to me, and as she spoke, I raked my bare toe along the cold tile floor, giving my body a calm focal point as my brain exploded with everything she spilled.

She got everything from Callie, who heard it all from Margot.

Abby was found. No, her body was discovered by the groundskeeper who tends Margot’s lake house and in-town estate. An older gentleman who’s been with the Banks family for decades. He was cutting the grass on a riding lawn mower at the clearing when he noticed Abby’s body, facedown in a shallow puddle of leaves near the shoreline. He immediately phoned the police.

“Her back; her back was shot clean through,” Tina said, clearly struggling with tears as she spoke. “Cops said it was a shotgun blast.”

I inwardly gasped. A shotgun? How stupid could they be? And on the land no less. But I then reminded myself that I didn’t know everything, that it might not be Margot or Brad at all. Oh, please, I thought, let them not be involved.

“The police are still out there, combing the property. Callie said Margot was seriously freaked out. Especially when the police told her and Jed to head back into town for the time being and not return to the lake for some time. For their own safety.”

I didn’t want to ask if she’d talked to Jill. I couldn’t bring myself to think about Jill’s bottomless grief yet.

“I’m so sad about sweet Abby,” Tina said, “and I feel guilty for thinking this way but I just keep wondering—what if it had been one of us instead? I mean, they don’t even have a suspect yet. It’s just too creepy to think about.”

I thought about telling her everything just then, about Margot and Brad, about Jamie, about the text I saw, but I swallowed my words.

“No, I know what you mean,” I said, only because I had to say something. Tina’s logic was not only selfish (like mine has been lately) but also screwy: According to Brad, he dropped Abby off that night at the foot of her drive. She wasn’t at the lake at the time of her disappearance.

So how had she ended up there?

* * *

—

AFTER GRAHAM TUCKED Jack in for the night, he found me in the kitchen, washing the last of the dishes from dinner, and placed his steady hands on my shoulders.

“Okay, tell me what’s going on.”

I nodded and flicked newly formed tears off my cheek, pried open the fridge. I needed a drink for this.

I pulled out two Shiner Bocks, twisted off the tops, and passed one to Graham. He leaned against the counter, crossing his legs at the ankle.

“She’s dead.” My voice sounded detached, like it belonged to someone else.

I took a long pull of the beer, then folded my arms across my stomach, clutching the cold bottle to my chest.

“That’s fucking awful. Do you know what happened?” Graham’s face looked stricken.

“I don’t know all the details just yet, only what Tina has told me.”

I hesitated telling him about Margot’s land, but there was no point in keeping it a secret; it was going to be splashed all over the news first thing in the morning.

“Her body was found this afternoon. She’d been shot. Blasted by a shotgun. A groundskeeper discovered her body in the woods.”

“Oh, Sophie, I’m so very sorry.” Graham set down his beer, walked over to me, held me in his arms. I felt despicable allowing myself to be consoled like this, so I only allowed it for a quick moment before I released his hold. I slid his arms down to my sides and clasped his hands in mine.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” I kept my eyes trained on the floor and gave his fingers a quick squeeze. “Abby was found on Margot’s land. At the lake. Where I’ve been meeting the girls to shoot.” I flicked my gaze to his.

His hands fell limp in mine; his eyes blazed with obvious fear.

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t, either.”

“Sophie, what the fuck? That’s crazy.” He pulled his hands away from mine, grabbed his beer, sipped it. I couldn’t read his expression; I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me or alarmed about all of our well-being the way Tina had been.