Page 52 of The Trip

I do.

“That doesn’t mean Courtney’s alive,” Beth says. “There’s no way after all these years that she could be.”

“Plus, we’ve already searched the entire boat. If Courtneywashere, we would’ve found her,” I say, as much to convince myself as the others. But my words do nothing to stop the goose bumps forming on my arms.

“Someone’s messing with us.” Beth tilts her head to the deck above. “Whoever wrote this note must’ve killed Nojan.” She jerks her wrist free of Gigi’s hold. “And right now, I think it’s you.”

Gigi lowers her voice. “I’m not saying Courtney’s alive. I think Adam killed the captain. He must’ve also written that fake note from Courtney. I didn’t find the notepad I was looking for in his room, but I found something else. His—”

The companionway door flies open, making me jump. I whip around. Adam fills the opening, shining his light on Gigi, who drops the note to her side.

Chapter Twenty-One

Present: Day Five at Sea

I hold my breath, sure Adam can hear my heart pounding against my chest wall.

“We need some help up here,” he says.

A wave crashes against the starboard side, sending a spray of water into the cockpit that spills down the steps. Emma screams from somewhere near the stern.

I exhale as he moves away from the door and disappears from view. Dishes rattle inside the kitchen cabinets as the floor sways over another swell.

I turn to Gigi. “Why do you think it was him? What did you find?”

Adam reappears in the open doorway. “Likenow,” he shouts.

“Okay, we’re coming,” Beth says.

Gigi makes for the steps, tucking the note into her pocket. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Gigi.” After seeing Adam retreat to the helm, I grab her arm before she gets to the top. “If hedidkill the captain, he could be planning to kill us next. Don’t say anything to him now. If we do confront him, we need to do it together.”

The bow pitches down over the side of a swell, lifting the stern enough to knock Gigi off balance. She hits the top of the steps with her knees before crawling forward onto the deck.

I swear under my breath. Beth casts me a look that I can’t quite make out in the dark before we ascend the steps.

What if Gigi’s wrong and Adam didn’t write the note?I try to wrap my head around the possibility that Courtney is still alive. My mind flashes to that day, twenty years ago, when I last saw her in the Olympic Mountains. It’s unfathomable that she could’ve survived.

For Courtney to have written that note, it would have to be her ghost. I don’t believe in ghosts, but the thought still sends a shiver through my body.

I think of Beth’s accusation that Gigi killed Nojan to save her social media presence and how much Gigi stood to lose if this trip was cut short. And how Gigi supposedly found Courtney’s note taped to her bathroom mirror. Gigi probably has old notes from Courtney. Or, at least, old yearbooks that Courtney had signed. With practice, Gigi could’ve mimicked Courtney’s handwriting.

When Beth and I reach the deck, we’re alone in the cockpit. My hair whips violently into my eyes from the screaming wind. Before I look around for the others, I rehook my tether and clasp another to Beth’s life vest.

The light from Beth’s phone sweeps the cockpit, then lands on Emma at the helm.

“Where’s Gigi and Adam?” I ask her.

“What?” she shouts.

I take a few steps toward her and cup my hands over my mouth. “Where’s Adam and Gigi?”

Emma points above me. “Trying to unjam the mainsail,” she calls. “It got bunched up inside the furler, and now it’s stuck.”

I turn around and see Gigi in the light from Adam’s flashlight as they stand on either side of the mast, tugging on the mainsail’s fabric that’s been let out.

“Beth,” Adam yells. “Hold the top button down on the mainsail controls at the front of the cockpit. It’s the small black button on the top left.”