The current is gentler this time of year, sullen and slow, not the galloping rush after the rains that will gladly slam you against the rocks or pin you to the bottom, but still it’s carrying her along. She strikes out toward the shore. She is a good swimmer, and she has no fear of the water. It will not take her unless she wants it to.
After the water, when she is sitting in a cold room and answering questions, she will remember she wants to breathe; she will keep her secrets and stick to her lies and let her sister drown in her place.
But in the water she is, finally, alive. She breaks the surface. She takes a breath.
51
EMMA
Now
Emma was conscious of movement, of thunderous noise. She couldn’t find the surface. She couldn’t find air. And then there was an arm around her, hauling at her painfully. Of water surging over her face and the scrape of rocks under her. Then she was coughing, JJ’s arms around her, holding her against JJ’s chest as she murmured in her ear.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” she was saying, and Emma blinked awake under a blue sky, in the mud of the riverbank. The bridge was on her right, which seemed wrong. They’d gone into the water upriver of the bridge. Had they been swept that far?
Emma tried to speak and just coughed instead, the taste of river water filling her mouth. She managed to straighten up, pulling away from JJ, and braced herself against the ground with one hand, the other pressed to her abdomen. Her shoulder felt like it had been packed with ground glass.
“Emma?” JJ asked.
“I’m okay,” she managed, more optimism than observed reality. JJ had a nasty gash on her forehead. Her thick hair was plastered in tendrils to her cheeks, hanging soddenly around her shoulders. Emma assumed she didn’t look much better. “You?”
“I’ll live,” JJ said shakily. “Wasn’t sure you would for a minute. You let go.”
“I didn’t want to drag you down with me,” Emma said. “I might have overestimated my memory of high school swim lessons.”
JJ’s teeth chattered. “Emma—” she started.
The river almost hid the crunch of boots on the rocks. JJ twisted, Emma struggling up to her feet as Rick Hadley emerged from the trees. His gun was in his hand, and as JJ stood, he pointed it straight at her. Emma started to put her hands up, only for sudden pain to shoot through her shoulder, lancing down to her fingertips. She let out a strangled scream, and JJ lurched toward her in alarm.
“Stop,” Hadley said, jerking the gun at her. “Tell me where the drive is.”
“You were the one working with Dad,” Emma said, cradling her arm against her body. “Did you kill Kenneth Mahoney when he tried to turn you in?”
Hadley laughed. “Ken didn’t try to turn anyone in. Not at first, at least. First, he tried to blackmail your father. You can guess how far that got him.”
“All the way to the old quarry,” JJ said dryly, and Hadley flinched, just a bit.
“And then Dad called you and told you that one of us knew,” Emma said. “What happened? Did you realize you needed to tidy up your loose ends?”
He gave her a strange look. “I didn’t do anything to your parents. I loved Randolph like a brother. I loved—” He stopped. His throat bobbed, and Emma sucked in a breath.
“You were sleeping with Mom,” Emma said. “You had Logan’s gun.”
“No, I didn’t,” Hadley said.
“You did. You took it from him,” she insisted.
“And I gave it to your mother,” he shot back. “She said she was afraid of Randolph. She needed a gun he didn’t know about. That no one knew about. It was already in the house, Emma. And so was Juliette. Just like she was at the house the day Nathan died. All Nathan told Ellis was that he might have found something that cleared you. Not your sisters, you. You tell me where that drive is, and I’ll back you up. Juliette’s the one who attacked me. Juliette’s the one with the criminal record. Just tell me where it is, and I’ll make sure you don’t have to give birth in a jail cell.”
Their father had told him about the flash drive. Told him that one of them had seen it. And death had come to their house. Hadley had worked so hard to keep the suspicion fixed on Emma. No need to look anywhere else.
Until Nathan found the drive. And foolish, trusting Nathan had called Ellis right up. And, of course, Ellis would tell Hadley—Emma Palmer’s husband found something. He’s coming by in the morning.