The force of the explosion knocked Frances and me to the pier and Sister into the water. Metal and fiberglass whistled by like bullets. Some gut instinct told me to roll over the edge of the pier, that lying there with my hands over my ears and with my butt in the air wasn’t going to go a hell of a long way in contributing to my longevity. Frances credits me with saving her life, but the truth is that she was in my way. I shoved her into the water and went in behind her, which meant that when the second explosion took out the boathouse, we were hanging onto a piling under the pier.

“Sister!” I screamed. “Sister!”

A wall of heat came roaring over us. The world was filled with raining lumber and the smell of molten fiberglass.

Frances grabbed my arm. She was saying something but I couldn’t make it out. The thought flitted through my mind that I might never hear again.

“Sister!” I screamed again.

Frances tugged my arm and pointed. I turned and saw Sister hanging onto the piling behind us.

“Are you okay?” I yelled.

I think she said, “That son of a bitch Berry West!”

The rescue squad came over the bridge for us again. By this time we were on a first-name basis with them. Mary Alice, Frances, and I were okay and were simply taken into Jason Marley’s house for hot showers and aspirin. Eddie was dead; Laura, badly burned, was transported to the burn center in Tallahassee. The policemen miraculouly suffered only minor burns and injuries, and as for Berry, he had disappeared.

It wasn’t until the next day that we found out all the details. And a hectic twenty-four hours it was. The three of us couldn’t hear, so everyone was having to shout at us, as well as us shouting at each other. (Dr. Nachman said he thought it was temporary. Thought?) Mary Alice was furious at me because I had figured out Berry West was the murderer and hadn’t told her.

“It was simple!” I shouted.