“Dakota went to the lake,” Holly burst out, pulling at the cross on her necklace. “I’m so sorry, Dakota.”
“I did not!” Dakota hissed. Her face reddened as no one came to her defense.
Holly started crying. “And Vivian knew about it because she said something about them lighting the boat on fire the next day.”
“I did not light the boat on fire,” Vivian defended herself angrily. “That wasn’t me.”
Dakota glared at Vivian.
“So, Dakota and Vivian knew about the fire. But please explain to me how Carter got to the lake…” Mrs. Yates put her hands together as if she were praying. “If anyone knows how Carter got to the lake may the Lord be with you.”
Holly dropped to her knees. “The whole thing was Dakota’s idea of a prank. But everything went wrong. It went horribly wrong. I don’t know how Carter ended up drowning. I don’t know how or even when she could’ve gone out to the lake. She ran out the house right in front of me. I remember seeing her. We went out the front door and she was right there in front of me. She went over to Vivian and I went to Kim’s car. It was full and when I turned around, I didn’t see Carter anymore, but I assumed she got into a different car. That’s everything I know. That’s everything. I’m sorry, God. I should’ve said something sooner.”
“No,” Dakota reacted, shaking her head profusely. “Wait a minute.”
“Vivian, what was the last thing Carter said to you?” Mrs. Yates asked.
“Oh outside? She said—I think she asked me if my car was full,” Vivian answered.
My eyes widened. That’s not what Olive said!
Mrs. Yates stood directly in front of Vivian. “Didn’t you say the last thing Carter said to you was regarding zipping up her dress?” she questioned.
“Yeah, it-it was one of those two things,” Vivian stammered.
“That’s not true,” Kim interjected. “Carter came up to you outside and you two were arguing because Carter felt guilty about the prank on Brooklyn.”
Vivian froze. “No…” She looked around. “That’s not true…”
Dakota’s hair whipped around as she looked between Kim and Vivian. “What? Is that why she tried to get to the boat?” She narrowed her eyes at Vivian. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t tell her to go on the boat. I didn’t even tell her to go to the lake!” Vivian yelled, turning so that she was facing Dakota. “What she did was her own business! I didn’t tell her to do anything!”
“Did you tell her it was on fire?” Dakota asked through clenched teeth. “What did you say for her to go to the lake?”
“The boat was in the middle of the lake! I didn’t tell her to go to the boat that you lit on fire—” Vivian growled.
“A fire that you helped me start,” Dakota countered.
“You’re not going to put this on me. You lit the boat on fire. If she got on that boat, she drowned because the boat was falling apart, not because of anything I said,” Vivian argued.
“Were you so jealous of her that you would tell her to go to the boat?” Dakota gasped. “You knew it was on fire!”
“I’m not jealous,” Vivian snarled. “She was upset because you didn’t tell her the whole story and she felt guilty.” She leaned into Dakota’s face. “So, it’s on you! I didn’t tell her to go on the boat. I told her that Brooklyn was on the boat. It was a joke! And we all knew where Brooklyn was. That was part of the prank! How was I supposed to know that she would actually try to swim out there to get to the boat in the dark?! That wasn’t my fault! She did that, not me!”
“Enough!” Mrs. Yates yelled sharply, causing me to flinch. “Now I need to bury my daughter.” She turned her attention to the room behind her. “Do you have what you need?”
Detective Jane Lynch stepped out of the room. “I have exactly what I need. Thank you.”
…
Chapter Seventeen
My mom and I had been talking nonstop since Jay dropped us off at her hotel. I couldn’t tell her at the burial site, and she didn’t completely understand what I was telling Jay in the car. So as soon as we were in the privacy of her room, I told her almost everything. And after a couple of hours, stuffed with Gino’s takeout, I was finally concluding the story of what had been going on
“Mr. and Mrs. Yates knew that Carter had been on the boat because of the smoke inhalation, but they couldn’t figure out why. Olive and Kim told the police everything they knew. Aiden told the police what he knew. And their stories corroborated mine. But since the cheerleaders were still trying to blame everything on me, Mrs. Yates decided to exploit the weakest links,” I told my mom as I tucked my legs underneath my body on the king-sized bed.
“How?”
“She’s friends with the Chief of Police and recruited Detective Lynch and Coach Ainsley to help her. Apparently Detective Lynch was on campus when we had our meeting on Thursday. They felt like the threat of expulsion would crack the resolve of one of the more academic cheerleaders. And since a couple of cheerleaders are very connected with their faith, Mrs. Yates organized that meeting in the atrium at church to compel Holly and others to tell the truth,” I filled Mom in.
“That’s smart. People tend to not want to lie in church,” she pointed out.
“And it worked. Once Holly cracked, Dakota and Vivian turned on each other. And once Detective Lynch came out, people were spilling their guts to
