Tags:
Fiction,
General,
Suspense,
Romance,
Thrillers,
Crime,
Mystery Fiction,
Man-Woman Relationships,
Revenge,
Murderers,
Murder,
Romantic Suspense Fiction,
Female friendship,
Accidents
talking, bonding as good friends do. The words were ashes in her mouth but she would rather cut her tongue out than tell their secrets. If someone else did, so be it, but it wouldn‘t be Coby.
But no one did.
And then she told the detective about the guys showing up with alcohol and how they‘d all imbibed. That she would confess because it could have been the reason Lucas died, and she knew Wynona would not be able to keep that secret. She‘d had a few drinks herself, but her father was still the vice principal. The shit was going to hit the fan in more ways than one, so Coby spilled about their drinking with no serious regrets.
She and Clausen were together in the den, the room he chose to conduct interviews so they could have a modicum of privacy. Not everyone wanted to talk to the detective; well, no one did, actually. But they were called in one by one, so Coby related what she knew, keeping the secrets they‘d told around the campfire to herself. She realized even through her grief and fear that Clausen was just doing his duty, gathering the facts. She sensed he didn‘t think there had been foul play, but he needed to talk to them all to fill out an accident report.
Of course, the fact that they were all drinking became a significant factor later on, and there was serious talk from the authorities about going after whoever had supplied the alcohol. Then it was learned the guys had stolen the beer and vodka from their own parents‘ houses, and the horrified dads of the girls heard this and looked shattered. No one knew exactly what to do.
Eventually, the boys‘ parents all heard about what happened and their punishment was meted out in varying degrees of harshness, depending on who those parents were. Jarrod‘s parents were divorced and he lived with his father, who grounded him until January. His older brother, Danner, was away at college, presumably, and Coby didn‘t learn till later what he thought of it, which was that his little brother and his friends were boneheads who should have taken better care of their friend.
Lucas‘s parents were also divorced, each spouse remarried, and they, though heartbroken and miserable, blamed their son as much as anyone for drinking and didn‘t try to go after anyone for retribution.
Coby was up front about her own drinking, but she was quiet about Pass the Candle. She also neglected to mention that Lucas Moore had kissed more than one girl that night. She didn ‘t say that after Rhiannon fell asleep, he moved over to talk to some of the others and found himself kissing Genevieve and Dana, and yes, even Coby herself, later on. She didn‘t point out that drinking alcohol made a convenient excuse for why they wanted and planned to kiss Lucas, even though they knew he was with Rhiannon; that being under the influence was a means to claim they didn‘t know what they were doing later, in case Rhiannon found out.
In the end Lucas Moore‘s death was ruled an accident. It was decided he fell from the edge of an unstable cliff above the ocean, impaired by alcohol consumption, and died of massive trauma to his head. Even when the lab work came back and his blood alcohol level was .00, no one wanted to believe it was anything more. So he hadn‘t been drinking. So what? Then the accomplished surfer/ athlete had simply fallen to his death.
Accidents happen.
―You didn‘t see him after he left your campfire?‖ Detective Clausen asked at the end of Coby‘s questioning.
―No.‖
A lie. She had seen him. Briefly. While fuzzy-headed. Late in the night when she took a stumbling walk to the ocean and stood with her bare feet in the water, numbed by the cold, and Lucas appeared beside her and raised his arms skyward and howled like a wolf. When he turned her way, his mouth a slash of white in the moonlight, she just wanted to crush her mouth on his.
―Isn‘t this great?‖ he‘d said, tossing an arm to encompass the black ocean with its white ruffled
Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan