Roxie’s eyes watered but her muscles did not tremble or flinch as she put her full weight onto the girl’s back. Each of her movements was strong and true, purpose and necessity guiding her hips as they bore down on the girl’s tiny waist. Roxie’s knees sunk deep into sand along the girl’s sides, and she applied pressure to the back of that small skull with the heels of her hands instead of grabbing with her fingertips, in order to avoid bruising. Roxie vomited the contents of an empty stomach, bile and saliva, into the ocean when the girl stopped struggling, when her whole small body suddenly went as soft and pliant under the water as a handful of hair.

• • •

Once the girl was dead, Roxie acted quickly, knowing that the longer it took her to decide on her next move, the more likely it was she would be seen.

The dead girl floated easily through the water, like an oversized inflatable.

Roxie pulled the girl by her arms, moving smoothly and with the current to avoid bruising, farther out to sea. Farther, farther. They reached a sandbar, the ocean so shallow that Roxie had to roll the girl over the sand instead of pulling her through water. She rolled clumsily, hip bone, shoulder bone, hip bone, shoulder bone, the girl’s head lolling back and forth. Roxie avoided looking at her face. Leo was at her side, splashing happily, thinking this was all great fun.

Out past the sandbar, farther, farther, then swimming with the girl’s neck tucked in her underarm like a dummy, farther, farther, until Roxie could almost not touch ground. She assessed the current. They were past the break, so the girl would likely be carried north a little way, but would remain at this distance from shore until the tide came in around dawn. At that same time, the tide would cover their footsteps in the sand, and any evidence of the struggle. Assuming no one noticed the girl’s disappearance between now and then, it would be very difficult for anyone to assess exactly where she had entered the water.

Roxie left the body and swam to shore with Leo at her side. He shook out his coat, which turned his dark hair instantly to spikes. Roxie ran to the house, shaking violently now, not from cold but from the knowledge of what she had done. The proficiency with which she had performed the murder and pulled the body out to sea had used up every calculated survival instinct and given way to the warm beating human heart of her. She was filled with horror.

Once she reached their house, she pulled Leo in the door, even as he stood waiting outside to be dried with a towel. She yanked him in soaking wet by his red collar, locked the door behind him, and went directly to the bedroom. She removed her wet clothing, threw it into the shower, and got into bed, completely naked, where she began to cry in strange bursts.