Page 74 of Sunburned

“You can walk away now,” Tyson went on, holding up his hands. “But we have a lot better chance of not getting caught if you’ll help me get rid of the phone and the truck.”

I took a shaky breath as darkness settled over my heart. I knew it would haunt me for years to come, but I saw the accuracy of Tyson’s logic, and I didn’t want to go to jail. “We’ll need a tarp. And something to weigh the body down with when you throw it into the canal.”

Part II

Chapter 24

“Madame?”

I wiped the spittle from my mouth with the edge of the towel wrapped around my waist and turned to see a navy-shirted crew member hovering at the edge of the pool deck, her hands clasped before her.

“Are you okay?” she entreated.

I nodded, my eyes fixed on the Search and Rescue boat, where the divers were loading Tyson’s body into the stern. It was the same every time I went into shock. Shaking morphed into nausea and then back again. You’d think my body would have learned to handle it by now, but no.

Behind me, Allison stared across the water, her arms wound around herself, too absorbed in the scene unfolding at sea to have noticed me vomiting over the railing.

“May I bring you some water?” the girl inquired.

“You don’t have to—I can come,” I said, starting toward her with wobbling legs. There was nothing left to see now, anyway. The other divers had fished Tyson’s body from the sea, hauling him into the boat and removing the oxygen tank from his back so they could lay him onthe deck. My tongue felt like cotton as I tried to formulate words. “Is he…Tyson, is he—dead?”

I knew the answer to the question, but I had to ask.

The poor girl’s eyes welled with tears. “I am sorry, madame. There was nothing they could do.”

I nodded, following her out of the shade of the side deck onto the main deck, where the pool sparkled in the dazzling sun. Over the sound of the chill trance music that still pumped from the speakers at low volume, I could hear Samira keening below on the sugar scoop. Samira, who it struck me had now lost two husbands at the tender age of twenty-five.

“Someone should probably cut the music,” I muttered.

“Yes, I will take care of that,” she said, grabbing a bottle of water from an ice bucket and handing it to me.

The dissonant wail of sirens announced the arrival of the police boat. I watched as it pulled up alongside the Search and Rescue boat, blocking our view of Tyson’s corpse.Moon OneandMoon Twobobbed nearby, a morbid flotilla on a bright Caribbean day.

I sat on a lounger and took a deep breath, focusing on the horizon. The shock combined with the physical exhaustion from the dive and the dregs of my hangover had made me woozy and weak. I could probably stand to eat as well. With all the trauma, I’d forgotten how hungry I was.

The edges of my vision darkened as I stood, and I gripped the back of the lounger, closing my eyes until my head rush subsided.

“This can’t get out.” I opened my eyes to see Cody striding toward me, Jennifer on his heels. “The media can’t find out Tyson’s dead until we’ve decided how we’re going to handle it.”

Dazed, I blinked up at him. “Of course.”

“We’ll need to make an announcement,” Cody said to Allison as she joined us. “I’m having the attorney draft an addendum to the NDAs the crew signed when they were hired. We’ll need to make sure all the divers and the emergency personnel sign them as well. The three De-Sal centers in development could all pull the plug if it gets out.”

“I’ll come up with a statement,” Allison said.

“We can stop the bleed by having a plan in place before we announce,” Cody said. His face crumpled and he choked back a sob before taking a deep breath and resetting his face. “We need to come up with that plan,” he finished.

“I’ll call my publicist,” Allison said. “She’s a friend, and she’ll know what to do. Take a minute to breathe. You’re in shock. We all are.”

Cody reached out to a passing crew member, clearly not hearing Allison. “Excuse me, can you show me how to print?”

“The printer is in the office on the primary level,” the guy said. “This way.”

“I need you to round up the crew,” I heard Cody say as he followed the guy toward the stairwell, Allison trailing behind with a hand on his back, still trying to calm him. “We need to make an announcement.”

I was so queasy, and the sun was so bright. It would take them a minute to print the NDAs, and no one was paying any attention to me. I headed down the stairs to my room.

—