“Neale—somebody—for God’s sake, I can’t find her!”

Chapter 19

“I DON’T BELIEVE IT. I just don’t believe it.” Skip hung up the phone and turned to face them, his expression baffled.

“Are you sure?” Neale asked again. “Are they sure?”

Justin stared at the floor, as if it had hypnotized him.

“They’ve checked and double-checked.” Skip fell with a thump into his chair and took an absentminded sip of coffee. “They say it’s a mess over there; everybody still has a different story about what happened. Most of them still think it was a joke, and they’re mad ’cause it ruined their party.”

Donna squeezed Kelsey’s arm, but they kept quiet.

“Nobody’s missing,” Skip said incredulously. “Nobody’s missing and nobody’s reported anyone missing.”

“It’s a mistake then,” Donna said flatly. “They’ve made a mistake—”

“Oh, Donna, don’t be stupid,” Skip shot back.

“If Kelsey saw someone, then there was someone!”

The silence was electric. Kelsey lifted her face from her hands and looked accusingly at each of the boys in turn.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Now their eyes were on her; only Justin had the grace to look halfway guilty. “I didn’t imagine it. It was as real as any of you. I heard someone scream, and I heard someone fighting for her life.”

Neale’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “How do you know it was a her?”

“Because it sounded like a her!” Kelsey nearly shouted. “I heard her, and I saw her go down! I don’t care what you say!”

“This happened before,” Donna said softly.

Everyone stared at her, reluctantly.

“Come on,” Skip said too quickly, too lightly. “You can’t—”

“It did happen before.” Justin shook his head slowly, staring at some inner memory. “That other lifeguard—Rebecca—the night she drowned, she heard someone drowning, too…only…”

The silence stretched on forever, until Neale suddenly filled it. “Only there wasn’t anybody there. Except Rebecca. Yeah, I’ve heard all that garbage—what are you bringing all that up again for?” But he looked uneasy and shifted his eyes away.

“I saw someone,” Kelsey whispered.

Skip seemed fascinated by an invisible spot on the ceiling. He watched it for quite a long while before he spoke again. “But that was the sheriff that just called back, Kelsey, and he said—”

“She knows what he said, Skip, she’s not deaf!” Donna snapped.

Kelsey jumped up from the couch, flinging away Justin’s arm. He looked slightly stunned, but her pride forced her on out the front door and across the yard to the beach, where the wind and the ocean drowned out her anger. “I hate you!” she screamed, and she raised her fists into the air and shook them at the endless black water. “I hate you! I’ll always hate you!”

Her knees gave out, spilling her onto the sand. “I hate you…I do…” And still the screams came and all the memories, all hurting, all hurting at once, until there was no strength left in her whole body.

Kelsey lay there, limp and exhausted. She didn’t even move when she realized that someone had sat down beside her…that maybe he had been sitting there for a very long time.