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“He’s wearing a maintenance uniform...”

Oh, shit.

It can’t be.

Wait for it.

No way, José.63

62It isn’t.

63Come on, youknewI was going to say that, right?

CHAPTER 18

Can You Get Away with Murder by Making It Look Like an Accident?

“Have you called the police?” Oliver asks Mr. Prentice twenty minutes later.

Andre had radioed for him to come while we all stood around in a stressed circle because dead body, and he arrived in a paisley suit and a flop sweat. “I have, but...”

“Everyone left because of the storm?” I say.

“There’s one officer still on the island. She’ll be here as soon as possible. She was attending to something on the other side of the island in Two Harbors. She’ll want to talk to everyone, I assume.”

I glance at Emma. She has her fist in her mouth to keep herself from losing it, a habit she’s kept from childhood. She got a look at the body before I could get down from the tangle of ropes. Fred pulled her away, and Andre covered it with a tarp, then cut us out of our harnesses. But I didn’t get the same consideration as Emma. I had an aerial view, as did Oliver.

It’s definitely José. He’s on his back, in a ropes course harness, with his neck at an odd angle. Like Oliver and I might’ve been if the safety ropes hadn’t arrested our fall.

We’re alive, but José is dead.

Fuck.

“In the meantime,” Mr. Prentice continues, “everyone should return to their rooms and await the arrival of the police officer. She’ll decide how she wants to proceed.” His radio crackles on his hip. “Excuse me.” He walks away with it to his ear.

“Should I start canceling things?” Shawna asks. “I mean, everything is here already, but if there isn’t going to be a wedding, I should let everyone know.”

“We’re going ahead with the wedding,” Fred says with authority. “This has nothing to do with us.”

“How can you say that, Fred?” Emma says. “It’s happening at our wedding. Oliver and Eleanor...they almost died, too.”

“I’m sure it was simply an accident. This ropes course isn’t safe, and we’ll be speaking to an attorney about it as soon as we get back to the mainland.”

“The electrician wasn’t using the ropes course, surely,” Connor says.

Fred blinks slowly. “Well, I don’t know. The police will look into it and that will be that.”

“What do you think, Em?” I ask.

She looks uncertain and I know that look.

Emma is a lot of things—strong and beautiful, a great actress, and kind. But one thing she’s never been good at is standing up for herself in her relationships.

It was something I’d raised to her, back in that conversation we had when I told her that getting married this quickly was too soon—didn’t the fact that she’d had a massive crush on Fred since she was a teenager concern her?

“Why would it?” she’d asked.

“It could set up a bad power dynamic.”