Page 90 of Sunburned

“Ah!” I cried out. “That really hurts.”

“You hit your head,” she said. “But do not worry, we do not think you have a…” She looked up at Laurent.“Commotion cérébrale?”

“Concussion,” Laurent said, his face dark.

I could see he was angry, his eyes flashing as his glance went to the others, then back to me.

“Wait,” I said, trying to recall. I remembered dinner had been tense. Then I’d left, found cash in Gisèle’s suitcase…and Allison. The envelope. I remembered her storing it in a book and returning it to the shelf. Then…nothing. “How did I fall in the water?”

No one spoke as they exchanged uneasy glances.

“You were pushed,” Laurent finally answered, his voice tense.

My body went cold as I realized the implication of his words.

“We don’t know that,” Allison said diplomatically.

I focused on Allison’s calm countenance. Had she caught mefollowing her and doubled back to push me off the boat? Her dark eyes met mine, ever impenetrable, and I was confident she would have no trouble eliminating me if she thought I was in her way.

“We should call the police,” Laurent insisted.

It seemed this was not the beginning of this argument.

The captain looked from Cody to Samira, unsure who was in control now that Tyson was dead. “What do you want me to do?”

Samira’s face crumpled. “I’m too tired to deal with the police again tonight.”

“None of us want to talk to the police,” Cody agreed. “And we don’t know that she was pushed.”

“If I wasn’t pushed, why is my head bleeding?” I asked.

“You might have hit it on the way down,” Evan chimed in.

“It does appear someone hit her in the head,” Marielle dissented. “And pushed her over.”

“Did anyone check for a weapon on the deck?” Jennifer asked.

“There was nothing,” a crew guy somewhere behind her answered.

I pulled my knees into my chest, suddenly very afraid. One of the people on this boat had tried to kill me. And if not for Cody being in the right place at the right time, they might very well have succeeded.

“Please, take her to the infirmary,”the captain instructed Marielle.

“Can you stand?” Marielle asked me gently.

Evan slipped an arm around my back as I struggled to rise, and Laurent was quickly at my other side, helping me to my feet. My head felt like it had gone through a blender and nausea crested inside me as the edges of my vision darkened. I closed my eyes, trying to steady myself.

“I can carry her,”Laurent said.“Is that okay?”he asked me.

I wanted it to be okay, and while it was far more likely that it had been Allison who had tried to kill me than Laurent, I couldn’t be sure. What if he dropped me now to finish what he’d started?

I shook my head, wincing. “I can walk.”

The crowd parted to allow us through, their faces contorting in sympathy as I passed. Marielle and Justine, who I recognized as thegirl who’d cleaned the dog shit off my foot earlier, trailed behind as Evan and Laurent walked me past the pool and main deck living area and through a door markedCrewat the end of the hall between Allison’s and Cody’s rooms.

On one side of the crew area was the industrial kitchen, on the other was what appeared to be a captain’s office and a small infirmary, with one bed and shelves full of medicines and medical gadgets. Laurent and Evan sat me on the bed, and Marielle waved them out of the room.“Okay,”she said.“I can take it from here.”

But Laurent lingered, casting a worried glance my way. “I can stay,” he said.

---