I snickered. “The Yates aren’t religious people.”
“This is just the church people with money go to,” Jay informed her.
We parked and looked around in awe.
“I hope there’s somewhere to sit,” Mom whispered as we flowed with a crowd of people into the church.
The casket was open and as we were guided to the front to walk past it, I was stunned.
Carter looked beautiful. Her long reddish-brown hair was splayed out on a white pillow. Her face was covered in a makeup that gave her pale skin life and her lips were coated in red. Even though her big hazel eyes were closed, she looked like she was peacefully sleeping. It was unbelievable how alive she looked. I couldn’t stop staring at her face. But when I noticed the rest of her, I sucked in a sharp breath.
Carter was dressed in white. The pink and white flowers of the bodice and the white tulle skirt were almost identical to the dress she had on when she died. But as I looked closely, I realized that it was the same dress. It was the exact same dress. In a stark contrast to the image of her dead body that was emailed to the entire school, she looked exactly the way she did when she left for the party.
A chill ran through me.
Seeing her was a surreal experience and I was overcome with emotion. It wasn’t just the funeral that made my eyes water, it was all the nonsense that had gone on over the two weeks since the party. I dabbed at my eyes throughout the service.
Carrie Yates stood at the front of the church with dark sunglasses on and an oversized black hat. “As I said earlier in my eulogy, Carter loved being a cheerleader. She loved it so much that she gave up her position on the swim team.” She stopped and took a breath. “In order to honor Carter and something that she loved so much I would like to ask Carter’s fellow cheerleaders to join me before we head down to the cemetery.”
My stomach plummeted. What is this?
I looked over at Kim who was sitting on the other side of my mother. She looked just as freaked out as I did.
“If you’re a UFIT cheerleader or coach, please make your way through the door leading to the right atrium,” the funeral director announced. “Everyone else…”
As he gave directions on how people were supposed to exit the church, I made my way to the right atrium. After a few minutes, the entire team—except for Olive—stood awkwardly in a beautiful space with huge stained-glass windows, intricately designed columns, and high ceilings. The hellish women on the cheerleading team looked completely misplaced in such a heavenly environment.
“Thank you all for taking a few minutes to speak with me,” Mrs. Yates started. “Please gather around.”
We formed a semicircle around her.
“Carter spent her last night with you,” she continued. “The dress she wore to the party, the dress she was found in, was a special dress. We bought it together on a trip to Paris. It cost a little more than we were planning to spend, but it was worth it. She was a beautiful girl.”
Mrs. Yates paced, eyeing each of us as she moved from one end to the other. “I’m about to bury my little girl and I didn’t feel like I could effectively do that without the answer to a couple of questions.” She paused, pointing at one end of the semicircle. “The last time you saw Carter, what did she say to you?”
“I told her I couldn’t find my drink and she told me that if I put it down, I needed to get another one,” Holly answered first.
“She said she liked the song that was playing,” Caroline replied. “We were dancing.”
Clearing her throat, Dakota whispered, “She gave me advice about a man I was dating.”
“The last time I remember talking to her was at the house when she asked me to check her zipper,” Vivian said.
“I gave Carter the stats on one of the PROs and she said thank you,” Sonya divulged. “It was Matthew Hayes.”
She was checking him out when we first got there, I remembered thoughtfully.
“Carter asked me if I’d seen Dakota,” Lila admitted quietly. “I said no, and she said okay. That was the last thing we said to each other.”
A hush hung over the group.
“Carter asked why no one was hanging out in the basement anymore,” Kim stated. “When I told her, she catcalled.”
A sad smile pulled at my lips as I listened to Kim.
“Carter said she would hold my phone in her clutch since I didn’t have pockets or a bag,” I answered. “Her last words to me were ‘I got you’.”
Each team member answered. When everyone had finished, Mrs. Yates’ lips curved upward. “Thank you. I want to remember her as the beautiful, lively, fun-loving, kind girl that she was. My Carter was full of life. And it’s important for me to know the last things she said so I don’t imagine her last words being words of pain or suffering.”
That gutted me.
I didn’t know why she was having us tell her about our last conversations with Carter, but hearing her reasoning tore me up inside. I felt the stinging behind my eyes and needed to take a deep breath.
“While we’re here, in this beautiful church, I do have a request…” She stopped moving in front of Dakota. “Help me understand what happened to my daughter and how she ended up in the lake.”
No one said anything.
“Did anyone go to the lake besides Carter?”
Again, no one said a word.
“Okay,” Mrs. Yates whispered before turning to Coach Ainsley. “They won’t give me the information I need to bury my daughter in peace so do what you
