Page 39 of Vanished in the Mist
“Well… Jessica, I think she was the least drunk of all of us. She was mad. At us. She kept telling us to leave Tanya alone. She hung back by the fire.”
“But she didn’t physically try to stop any of you, or help Tanya?”
“No.” Her voice was quiet, sad. “Neither did I. I stopped at the edge of the water.”
For the first time since she’d begun her confession, she sounded as if she felt ashamed of what she’d done.
Or what she hadn’t done.
“Peyton,” Dawson said. “This is important. Did all three of the boys—Tristan Cargill, Sam Morton and Jack Neal—did all three of them help pull Tanya into the water?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And what did Tanya do?”
“She…” Peyton squeezed her eyes shut, all her earlier annoyance gone. It was as if she was finally facing the horror of what she and the others had done, and realizing just how awful they’d been.
“What did she do?” Dawson pressed.
“She was crying. She—she cried for her mom, asked them to let her go. She promised she’d never try to…try to be our friend again.” Peyton let out a keening sob and covered her mouth. “Oh, my God. What did we do?”
“We’ll take a break soon,” Dawson said. “Hang in there. Once they got Tanya into the water, what happened next? Did they hold her under? Choke her? Hit her? What exactly did they do?”
She frowned, staring off into the distance as if trying to focus on the memories. “It all happened so fast. They pulled her out, pushed her. Then, she just disappeared.”
Kaden exchanged another searching glance with Shanna. That’s the part all of them were trying to understand.
“When you say pushed her,” Dawson said. “Do you mean they pushed her head under the water?”
“No. No, nothing like that. They were trying to scare her. They reached one of those sharp drop-offs in the lake, about fifteen feet from shore. Then they just…pushed. She fell backward into the water and went under. That’s it.”
“She fell underneath the water and didn’t come back up?”
“Exactly.”
“Did anyone dive in to help her?”
Her chin wobbled. “We couldn’t. We were drunk, high, scared. You know what happens at Mystic Lake. People go in and they don’t come out. The lake took her. I swear we only wanted to scare her. But we killed her. She drowned, and it was our fault.”
She broke down, crying again as she curled up against Shanna.
Shanna fought tears in her own eyes, hating this tug of war with her emotions. She hated what Peyton and her friends had done. But Peyton’s anguish was real. She hated herself in that moment, and she was all alone in her grief and shame. Shanna wrapped her arms around her, whispering soothing words against the top of her head.
“I think it’s time for that break,” Kaden said.
Dawson nodded. “Agreed. I’ve got to get Jack Neal and Sam Morton into custody as quickly as possible before they compare notes and concoct some bogus story to try to cover what they’ve done. Peyton, you were seen at the restaurant when we found Jessica DeWalt. So were Sam and Jack. Until Mr. Rafferty called to tell me you were here, we’d tried to find all three of you and couldn’t. Where did you all go after you left Stella’s?”
Shanna gently helped Peyton to a sitting position and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Where are Sam and Jack?”
“I—I don’t know where they are. I heard about Tristan and called them. We were upset and wanted to get together to talk about it. I couldn’t… I couldn’t get in touch with Jessica.” She wiped the streaming tears from her eyes. “I don’t understand what’s happening around here.”
“Did you meet with them at the restaurant?” Dawson asked. “I just need to know where they are.”
“No. I mean yes. I…saw Mr. Rafferty carrying Jessica and I—I ran and found Sam and Jack. We agreed to meet in the woods behind the public boat ramp. We thought we were cursed, or something. I mean, how could that happen to Tristan and Jessica? It doesn’t make sense, unless it’s the universe getting back at us for being so horrible.”
“You haven’t seen them or heard from them since the boat ramp?”
“No. I heard the police, you, wanted to talk to me, so I—I hid until I thought you’d given up and then came home.”
