Page 40 of The Girls in the Lake
He stormed below deck only to find Marcus with the girl he’d been fawning over all night wedged against the wall. Before he could open his mouth to speak, the girl screamed and a loud crack filled the air. The girl had slapped Marcus hard across the face, and Ethan couldn’t hide the grin that filled his face as the girl rushed past him to go back to her friends. Marcus shrugged, rubbing his cheek and making to follow the girl upstairs.
‘You win some, you lose some. Onwards and upwards,’ he joked as he squeezed past Ethan.
Rolling his eyes, Ethan grabbed as many bottles of champagne as he could fit under his arms and took them above deck to the makeshift bar. He could see the top of Grace’s head in the crowd. Marcus had closed in on her, leaning in close so she could hear him above the noise, so he could touch her arm. Ethan looked down, colour filling his face, concentrating on opening bottles and filling glasses until he was brave enough to look up again. Relief washed over him; Grace had rebuked Marcus and was now chatting to two girls as far away from him as she could get. An argument began between another two girls, one of them the girl who had slapped Marcus. She was loud, much louder than the other. James rushed across to try and separate them, Marcus and Ethan too. Claudia, who had been wailing down the microphone to some god-awful karaoke version of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’, stopped singing and began imploring everyone to calm down. The boat lurched to one side as everyone crowded around to watch the fight unfold. There was a high-pitched scream as the loud girl fell towards the railings, slipped and toppled over into the icy cold waters of the lake.
James bellowed, ‘Stop.’ Ethan rushed to the side of the boat. He couldn’t see the girl in the water. He needed help, but where was Marcus? Grabbing the spotlight, he shone it down into the lake and saw the girl had resurfaced a few feet away and was struggling to keep her head above water. He kicked off his shoes, readying himself to jump into the lake for the second time that week, when the sound of a powerboat revving its engine broke through the darkness. Ethan saw a bright light zooming towards them and before he could even remove his jacket, two men were grabbing hold of the girl and dragging her out of the water and into another boat. Marcus, who had now appeared beside him with James, stared, horrified. Everyone on the boat fell silent as they watched the men throw a blanket around the shivering girl and speed off back towards the shore.
‘Jesus, she could have drowned,’ James whispered to Ethan, finally acknowledging just how dangerous this whole thing could be. Alcohol, teenage girls and a huge lake were definitely not a good mix; for once Ethan actually felt sorry for James and the huge mess this would put him in.
‘Take the boat back, James, we need to make sure she’s okay and get these girls home.’
‘But—’
Ethan hissed, ‘Take the fucking boat in, enough is enough.’
James nodded as he was dragged away by Claudia, who was seething over how that silly bitch had ruined her night and she wasn’t paying James a penny. Marcus grabbed her arm and said something in her ear. Ethan had no idea what he’d said but it shut Claudia up. The boat was eerily quiet now; everyone had sobered up in an instant.
From nowhere, Grace approached Ethan, took hold of his arm, took an eyeliner from her bag and wrote her phone number on the inside of his arm. He nodded at her, and she walked back to the girl who had been arguing and was now sobbing into her hands. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, she began to console her, and Ethan watched in awe. This had turned into a complete disaster, yet it was still the best night of his life up to now.
Forty-Five
Josh and Cal had watched in horror as they’d heard the loud scream followed by a splash. Cal slammed on the throttle and sped the boat over to drag her to safety. She was now sitting shivering wrapped in a foil blanket. Karen was trying to coax her out of her wet clothes.
‘I’m a police sergeant, this is my colleague who is also a policeman, and this is Cal, one of the lake wardens. We’re going to get you to safety now, but you need to get those wet clothes off. They’ll turn the other way. Do you want me to help you?’ She shook her head from side to side. ‘I’ll shield you with the blanket and we’ll wrap you in several layers of foil blankets so you don’t get hypothermia.’
The girl conceded and once she was done Karen sat next to her, wrapping her arms around her to share what body heat she could. Josh and Cal had been rendered speechless. Josh had wondered if he was being ridiculous by asking Cal to take the boat out; now, he was relieved. There was one thing for sure: he would shut down that bloody party boat for good after this. He turned to the girl.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Tamara.’
Josh felt a pang of relief; he was pretty sure Sam’s kid was called Grace.
‘I’m Josh. Can you tell me what happened on the boat?’
She shook her head once more. He didn’t know if she was embarrassed, shocked or scared.
‘Do you feel okay? We’ll call an ambulance and get you checked over.’
‘No, please.’
‘We have to, you went into the water. We need to make sure you’re okay.’
‘I’m fine, apart from my new shoes being ruined and my dress is a wreck,’ she said through chattering teeth.
Karen squeezed her shoulder. ‘I know you are, petal, but it won’t hurt to give you a once-over. If you want, we can drive you to the hospital if you don’t want the fuss of an ambulance. How old are you?’
‘Eighteen. I just want to go home. Please, just get me away from here.’
Minutes later, they were moored to the jetty in the marina. Cal helped Tamara off the boat, and then Karen took her arm and walked her towards the car park.
Cal asked Josh, ‘Now what?’
‘Well I’ll be filing an incident report and letting the licensing committee know what’s happened.’
‘I’ll see if we can get his licence suspended; between the pair of us we should be able to keep that boat from sailing for the foreseeable future.’
‘Good.’ He looked over at the sound of Karen mid-argument with Tamara.
