She blinks, shaking her head. “What?”
“Who have you told? Someone knows we’re onto them, I’ve thought as much already, but I haven’t told anyone but you that I’m actually looking into it. Have you?”
She stares blankly at me, and then her eyes get wide.
“Who, Kara?” I ask. “Someone is making this go away, someone is trying really hard to ensure we don’t find out the truth. I wonder if that someone knows it’s us in particular that is looking into this.”
“I did tell someone, but there’s no way...”
“Who?” I say, my voice almost frantic.
She drops her head and rubs her hands down her face. “Emily.”
No.
It can’t be.
Can it?
“I FEEL LIKE THIS IS a bad idea, is this a bad idea?” Kara pants as she rushes behind me.
“She’s getting a massage right now, it’s our only chance. Come on, it’ll be fine. I just want to look, if she has that phone in her room then I’ll believe we’re on the right path. If she doesn’t then maybe we’re wrong.”
“I just don’t see why or how she’d do something like this. She loved Taj, she loves all of us, she wouldn’t hurt someone. What are we missing here?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” I whisper hiss as we reach the cabins.
I glance around, making sure Emily is definitely not here, and then Kara and I rush into her cabin. Kara leads me right to her room and when we try the door, it’s locked. Confused, I jiggle it again. “Why would it be locked?” I ask. “How did she even lock it?”
“It’s easy,” Kara says, going into the kitchen and coming back with a knife, she sticks the sharp end in the long slit of the door and twists it. “They’re not really security locks, more so privacy locks. They’re easy to undo if need be. Let’s go.”
We push the door open and step inside, glancing around the room. It’s neat, and everything seems in order, so we very carefully start sifting through some of Emily’s things. We find nothing, nothing to indicate anything sinister has gone on between her and Taj. She has her clothes packed neatly, her shoes in a perfect row, nothing seems out of place. We lift things, turn things over, there is nothing in here. No phone. No evidence. Nothing.
So why was it locked?
Frustrated, we rush out of the room and close the door.
“What now?” Kara asks. “If that was Emily’s phone, then she wouldn’t have one. We could just ask to borrow her phone and see what happens?”
“That’s worth a shot, though the chances are she will come up with something if she knows we’re looking into her,” I say, shrugging. “But there must be something around. What about Taj’s stuff? Is it all gone?”
Kara nods. “Yeah, they packed it up and sent it all home with Nathan for his family.”
I exhale, frustrated, running my fingers through my hair. “We’re missing something, I just know it.”
“I feel the same, and I just sense we’re close, it feels like we’re right on top of the answer but it’s not coming to us.”
We both pause, thinking on it for a while.
“Let’s sit down, go over this, talk about it out loud. There must be something,” Kara suggests.
“Yeah, I agree,” I nod. “Let’s take a walk.”
We both put our shoes on and walk down the path that leads to the river, picking up stones and talking as we do. When we reach the beautiful water, it’s calming and it makes everything that much clearer. I sit down, taking my shoes off and putting my feet in the water, Kara does the same.
“The thing that’s getting to me the most, is that I don’t know why Emily would do it. What reason would she have to hurt Taj? They barely knew each other.”
“What if they were having some sort of affair?” I throw out there.
“No way, she’s too old. He would never go for her,” Kara scoffs.
“You don’t know that. Emily is a pretty good-looking woman, we can’t say for certain Taj wouldn’t be into that.”
“There were no signs of it.”
She’s right, there were no signs of it. Nothing to show the two of them had any sort of connection.
We both fall silent.
“Maybe he had something on her and was using it against her. She found out and they got into a squabble,” I suggest.
“It’s possible, but what would Emily be hiding that would make her want to hurt him?”
“Maybe she didn’t mean to, it could have been an accident.”
“But why not just come forward and say something?” Kara goes on. “She could have said it was an accident.”
“Either way, we need to do a bit more digging. Let’s ask her about the phone and go from there. We better go back; it’s going to get dark soon.”
We both stand and turn, coming to a halt when we see Emily standing behind us, gun pointed in our direction. For a minute, it feels like a dream, like there’s just no way this is actually happening. I didn’t hear her approach. How long was she there? I focus on the look on her face, and suddenly, I know it’s not a dream. Not even close. This is happening, and we have just gotten our answer. It’s written in her eyes. It’s written in her stance. It’s written all over the gun she’s pointing at us.