JULY 10

DAKOTA

Kayaking was Syd's idea. He'd claimed it would be good for our souls, but all I was feeling at present was tremendous back pain.

"Keep up, loser!" Syd shouted from over his shoulder, grinning deviously.

"I will throw my paddle at your head," I threatened, struggling to paddle against the current. Waves lapped against the bow of the kayak, and sloshed into the cockpit. My poor vintage Levis.

We continued to paddle along the jagged cliffside, returning to our launching point at Cape Blue's cove. The last time we were there was on May 16th, and everyone on Friday Island knew how that night ended. The cove was a source of dark energy, a place no longer frequented by locals. While the headlines would eventually go away, the island's memories of what happened there wouldn't. 

As much as I wanted to stay away from this place, I was eager to move on. I needed to start letting go of what happened here and how it left a stain on Apex. Being at war with myself over where my loyalties should lie was too draining and ultimately did more harm than good. I was willing to take a page out of Allix's book and give the whole self-forgiveness thing a shot.

"Brenna should be on her way," Syd informed me when we returned, lugging his yellow kayak up the beachfront. The plan was for the three of us to stop by the party that Pacific King was hosting for its 50th anniversary. "She said she had an emergency meeting."

I threw him a skeptical look. "It's not for Apex."

"She's a busy person. Busier than you, at least."

Syd's jab was lame, and we both knew it. We laughed for what felt like the first time since our senior year of high school. Too much had changed since then.

We were about to start the trek up the overgrown cliffside trail when Syd's phone rang. Natasha Bedingfield's Pocketful of Sunshine was his ringtone, and had been since the eighth grade.

"That's probably Brenna now," Syd said, rummaging through his backpack.

"Answer it before my ears bleed," I replied, and clapped Syd on the back. "She's got you wrapped around her finger."

Syd finally located his phone, holding it up like baby Simba from The Lion King. However, when he checked the screen, a pensive expression spread across his face.

"Nicki," he greeted. "What's up, dude?"

With the conversation underway, I busied myself with packing up my 35mm film camera. I'd always admired the vintage quality and briefly forced Syd to be my muse while kayaking.

Syd tapped me on the shoulder, extending his phone. "Nicki says he needs to talk to you."

"Now?" I arched an eyebrow. 

"Just take the damn phone."

Grimacing, I put the call on speaker. "Nicki."

"Pay attention," Nicki instructed, intensity threading through his words. "We don't have much time."

The explanation was brief yet concise.

Maud believed that Albert, Mr. Nakamura's best friend and employee, killed the orca. She'd been working alongside a young paparazzo, and they'd planned to confront Albert tonight at the party. But when Maud didn't show up, Nicki found Allix and told her what Maud had told him.

"Allix says Maud told her that the guy was at Providence Point when you three went to get the photos of the Black Swan," Nicki said, and I could hear Allix's voice in the background.

Seemingly connecting the dots, Syd yanked the phone out of my hand and pulled up a photo. It was one that I'd seen before; it was of a young guy leaning against the front bumper of a red Chevy pickup truck.

Syd groaned. "I saw that car the other day when I was getting the mail. How the hell didn't I recognize it?"

Nicki cleared his throat through the speaker, bringing our attention back to him. "Allix remembered that Maud shared her location with her in high school. When we followed it, we ended up at an abandoned lot with a boathouse and fishing boat. Maud isn't here, but there's blood in the boathouse. We're about to go check out the fishing boat."

I swallowed hard. "Have you called the police?"

"Allix wants to wait until we check out the boat."

"We'll find her," Syd blurted out. "She's Maud Hamilton. She's going to be okay."

I wanted to believe that. I needed to, even. Our romantic relationship was water under the bridge, but I still had faith in Maud. She was still the girl who submitted my film, believing in me when I didn't. 

"Yeah, we'll find her," Nicki echoed, though his voice lacked conviction.

After a quick exchange of tense goodbyes, the call ended. A shiver vibrated down my spine.

"I'm going to call Brenna," Syd muttered, cradling his phone in his hands. "Tell her what's going on."

Movement on the trail attracted my attention. Despite standing at least twenty-yards away, I identified a familiar face in the soft evening shadows.

"Tell her yourself."

"Brenna." Syd's smile was born out of relief.

I allowed myself one heartbeat of optimism before it sunk in. The horror came first, and then the shock because just like that, things went from bad to worse.

"Holy shit," Syd breathed out before racing to intercept the actress.

My pulse ignited at the sight of the crimson stain on Brenna's white sweater and delicate hands. Shock held me captive for a prolonged moment, but I willed myself to follow Syd. When I stopped in front of her, the slickness of the blood informed me that it was still wet. It was fresh.

Tears streamed down Brenna's cheeks. "You're looking for Zachary Healy. The paparazzo. He hit Maud on the head with an aluminum paddle."

Words failed me as my mind launched into overdrive. Maud was missing in action. Nicki and Allix had found her phone alongside a pool of blood in the boathouse. There was only one plausible explanation for why Brenna possessed this information.

Reality shattered like a glass wall inside my head.

"What?" Syd questioned. "How do you know that? Whose blood is that?"

I stared at Syd, knowing that he was asking the question for the sake of having Brenna spell it out for him. He needed to hear her say it in order for him to believe it.

"Maud's."

Despite having anticipated Brenna's response, the revelation was still enough to make me feel like I'd just been kicked in the gut. Oxygen vacated my lungs in a splintered exhale.

"I was paying Zachary to keep an eye on her," Brenna continued, diving into a tearful confession. "Nothing can be traced back to me because the payments were all in cash." She choked on a mangled sob, her bloody hands shaking. "Everything was fine until today when he said that he only had one more job to do."

"Why?" That was the only word that successfully clawed its way up my throat and out of my mouth.

"I didn't want Maud to ruin Apex," Brenna cried. "I didn't want her to ruin my career! Her reckless, amateur detective work isn't doing anyone any good. Do you know how much hate I'm getting for being associated with a project that could be poaching orcas for publicity? I'm getting death threats!"

A chilling silence settled between us, Brenna's confession lingering in the cool evening air. The roar of the waves and crying seagulls were the only reasons I believed I was still on a remote beach in Northwest Washington and not standing on the burning threshold of hell.

"And now, Maud's blood is on your hands." Sheer hurt and disbelief simmered in Syd's voice.

"Sydney, I'm so sorry," Brenna rasped, her lower lip trembling. "I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. Please, you need to believe me."

Syd's eyes shifted to the cliffside, glassy with emotion. "I can't look at you. I can't even look at you right now."

Brenna suddenly seized me by the shoulders, her nails digging into me like the talons of a predatory bird. "Zachary told me that I wasn't his only client. He told me that I wasn't the only one interested in Maud. I think someone wants her dead."

As a cold gust of wind sliced across the beach, I tried to sever my head from my heart. I needed to think clearly. "You think someone hired a paparazzo as an assassin?"

Whimpering, Brenna released her grip. "It sounds insane. I know you both think I'm insane-"

"I trusted you!" Syd exploded, cutting her off. "I trusted you, and now Maud is hurt or worse. You left her with a psychopath who you paid to stalk her."

Brenna hugged herself, shaking as fresh tears fell from her blue eyes. "What was I supposed to do? I was terrified. I couldn't have known that Maud was going to show up. I didn't even know she knew Zachary! If I did, I would've never-"

"Enough," I ordered, shoving a hand through my hair. "Arguing isn't going to fix anything. We're wasting time that we don't have."

"Nicki and Allix should've called the police by now," Syd muttered after a beat. When his gaze cut to Brenna, his expression crumbled in a way that should've been enough to shake the Earth. "I'm assuming that's something you didn't do."

Brenna pressed her lips into a thin line. Her silence was her answer.

My phone abruptly vibrated loud enough for all of us to hear it, and it was a welcome interruption.

ALLIX MCGOVERN, 7:15 PM: We found something on the boat. On our way to Cape Blue.

I was about to read the text to the others when Brenna gasped, her eyes widening with fresh panic.

"What's that?" she questioned in a breathless whisper. She pointed a red finger towards the sea. "In the water. Do you see it?"

I squinted into the fading light, trying to figure out what held her attention. Beyond the grains of sand dancing in little whirlwinds, grey waves sloshed against the jagged rocks in the shallows. I squinted into the fading light, trying to figure out what held her attention. Beyond the grains of sand dancing in little whirlwinds, gray waves sloshed against the jagged rocks in the shallows. But then, I saw it. About 30 yards out, something bobbed up and down  like a buoy.

A body.

Without a second thought, I dropped my phone and took off in a sprint. Seashells crunched beneath my shoes until I reached the frothy shallows, and I dove through the oncoming wave. The weight of the water instantly soaked my clothes, an anchor that threatened to drag me down.

"Dakota!" Syd shouted, concern punctuating the three syllables of my name. "What the hell are you doing?"

I couldn't answer. Fear hijacked my vocal cords, and my muscles burned as I fought against the current. Amidst the undulating waves, the body floated face down like a dead fish.

My heartbeat thundered in my ears as I swam closer, refusing to assume the worst. To assume that it was Maud, the larger than life girl who had turned my world upside down.

And it wasn't.

Blood seeped into the water from a hidden wound as I managed to rotate the body, and a sick sense of relief threatened to swallow me whole. Blood seeped into the water from a hidden wound as I managed to rotate the body, and a sick sense of relief threatened to swallow me whole. Though I had only ever seen this face in a distant and grainy photograph, I still recognized Zachary Healy.

The swim back to shore was nothing short of an emotional and physical marathon. I swallowed an ungodly amount of saltwater, desperately trying to keep the head beside me above the surface. Syd met me in the shallows, helping me drag Zachary through the wet sand, his blood smearing in crimson streaks.

"It's him," Brenna cried out in confirmation. "Oh my God, it's Zachary."

I was speaking to Syd, and Syd only. I couldn't wrap my mind around Brenna's betrayal, and whether her apology was genuine. Whether it amounted to something more than just self-preservation.

Hesitation played on Syd's features before his determination set in. He put a bloodied hand on my shoulder. "I'll see you on the other side of hell. That's a promise, okay?"

I held Syd's dark gaze before nodding. Brenna attempted to catch my eye, but I turned away as all of my surroundings faded away. I didn't hear or see them leave. Raw adrenaline got me through the first few rounds of CPR. Zachary's chest hardly lifted with each and every safety breath I administered. He'd lost a lot of blood, too much blood.

I couldn't keep track of how much time had passed since I started CPR, and I didn't initially process the wailing of the approaching sirens. I only focused on maintaining rhythm, completing the cycles to the best of my ability. I couldn't even process my exhaustion, but I knew it was there and would eventually catch up to me.

When a paramedic placed a hand on my shoulder to take over, I nearly collapsed onto the sand. Every inch of my body ached at an atomic level, and my thoughts scrambled together as they tried to make sense of everything that had just happened.

If Zachary attacked Maud, then who attacked Zachary? Someone was sitting in the director's chair, calling the shots from behind the camera.

The blood coating my hands seemed to be drying far too quickly, but I doubted that washing it away would solve much. I suspected the feeling would always be there, a ghostly reminder of what I had done, what I had been a part of on Friday Island.

It didn't take long for more emergency vehicles to arrive, pulling down the main gravel path that led to the cove, but the sun had sunk low in the sky.  Soon everything would be flashing lights and shadows.

The same deputy who had interviewed me on May 16th at the police department was the first person to approach me at the water's edge.

"You were the one who found the body?" The question was blunt, fully desensitized.

"Yeah," I croaked, my throat burning. "I found him."

"And when was that?"

I wasn't wearing a watch. I also didn't check my phone when I was trying to save a life. The device was still lying in the sand by the path, and I made a mental note to grab it as soon as I could break away from this conversation.

"I don't know. Maybe twenty minutes ago."

"Can you tell me how you knew Zachary?"

The question was in the past tense.

A tidal wave of nausea washed over me, and I tried to blink away the black spots that erupted in my vision.

"I didn't," I shook my head. "I just saw someone out in the water and swam out to help."

"If you know something, I need you to tell me the truth," the deputy requested. "We have reason to believe that the victim is linked to a missing person."

"I don't."

The lie was instinctive.

Failing to adjust to the changes in my environment, whether it was the film industry or on Friday Island, could result in my demise. Survival of the fittest was all that has ever mattered, no matter the cost.

END PART ONE