CHAPTER TEN Not Awkward at All

WHEN PRIYA AND DEANNA RESPONDED, we all decided via group text that we could use a break from the casino. George found a cute café on a side street a short walk to the north, in the opposite direction of the bigger casinos. We decided to meet up there a few hours later.

It did feel good to get away from the Soar for the first time in nearly two days. It was nice to see the sky, to feel the sun on our faces, even if that sun was unbearably hot. It made me realize how the casinos were these little self-contained worlds, with restaurants and entertainment and everything you could possibly need. They were designed not to be left, but it felt good to leave.

I hoped Veronica, wherever she was, could feel the sun on her face too.

Deanna was waiting at a table when we arrived. She looked stressed out, with heavy bags under her eyes. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, which was unusual for her. Her hair was pulled into a messy topknot, and she wore jogging shorts with an oversize Homer Simpson tank top. She was sipping a huge iced coffee.

“Hey,” she said when we sat down to join her. “I hope it’s okay I ordered ahead. I needed the caffeine.”

George leaned in to give her a hug. “No worries,” she said. “How have you been holding up?”

Deanna gave a short laugh that sounded more like a sob at the end. “Not great?” she said. “I mean, I haven’t been sleeping. I just keep thinking about what happened to Veronica. Who could have taken her.”

“ ‘Taken,’ ” I repeated, pulling over a menu. “So you don’t think she left on her own?”

Deanna’s eyes flashed to me, looking slightly annoyed. I could see the redness around them now. “I don’t,” she said. “I mean, I know she changed out of her gown or whatever Xavier says. But I know my sister, and I know she loves that man. Besides, there’s no way she would have disappeared without telling me. I don’t know what was going on with her, but I just don’t believe…”

She was looking behind me, and her voice trailed off. I turned around to see what she was looking at and spotted Priya, who had just entered, wearing a pretty orange sundress and carrying a shopping bag. She pushed her sunglasses back on her head and ran over to us.

“Hey, guys,” she said, shooting a tentative look at Deanna, who just stared at her. “Sorry I’m late. I’ve been stress-shopping.”

“Stress-shopping?” Deanna asked incredulously. “Is that a thing?”

Priya shrugged and sat down in the one remaining chair. “Just, you know, like all of you, I guess, I feel kind of restless and rattled. We’re supposed to fly home tomorrow, and I don’t want to, but the kids have school and we have work and I don’t know what to do here, really. I don’t know what to do with myself. I wish I knew where Veronica was, and I want to help, but I don’t know how. So I went to the mall in the Gully Ranch casino and spent way too much money on cute kids’ clothes.”

Deanna’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything.

“Obviously, neither one of you have heard from her since the wedding, right?” I asked.

Deanna shook her head. Priya said no and quickly began scanning the menu.

The table seemed to be filled with a weird, awkward tension. Deanna kept looking at Priya like she was vaguely disgusted, but Priya didn’t seem to notice. She looked at the menu for a few minutes, then asked if we were all ready to order. The waitress came over, and we all ordered food except for Deanna, who said she’d stick with the iced coffee.

“I don’t have much of an appetite lately,” she said as the waitress walked away, shooting a pointed glance at Priya. “You know, since my sister was kidnapped.”

Priya looked up at her in surprise, her mouth in a neat, pink-rimmed O. “Kidnapped?” she asked. “I mean, I understand we don’t know where she is, and that’s a concern. But she had that disguise stashed in the restroom, and she got into the elevator herself. Isn’t it more likely she finally came to her senses?”

Now Deanna’s mouth dropped open.

“What do you mean, Priya?” Bess asked quickly. “Did Veronica tell you something before the wedding that makes you think that?”

“Yeah, I guess…,” George added awkwardly, “I guess we’re hoping the two of you can fill us in on how Veronica was feeling right before the wedding. We know what she said—or didn’t say—to us, but Bess and I are just her little cousins. You’re her sister and her best friend. You two know her better than anybody.”

Deanna and Priya looked at each other, as though each was silently daring the other to go first. Finally Priya shifted in her seat and spoke up. “I met her at the hospital,” she said. “I asked my husband to drop me off on his way back to the Soar. I think it’s fair to say she was shaken?” She seemed to be asking Deanna.

Deanna looked a bit defensive, but nodded slowly. “Yeah, I mean, like anyone would be. Extreme sports have risks, even when you know what you’re doing. But you never really get used to close calls like that.”

Priya cleared her throat. “She was relieved and happy Xavier was alive, obviously,” she went on. “But I sensed something else. She seemed… really thrown by it. You know, she couldn’t even stay at the hospital with him, she was so upset. Once she learned he would be okay and he just needed a bone set, she wanted to come back to the casino with me. And when we got here, I tried to get her to talk to me, but she said no. She wanted to be alone.”

George looked pensive. “So what do you think that meant?” she asked Priya. “What was she upset about?”

Priya’s eyes widened. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “I feel like I keep saying the same thing. I think she finally saw him for what he was. That this wasn’t going to change. That if she married him, it would just be a parade of near misses, a string of visits to different hospitals. Until one day maybe he isn’t so lucky.”

Bess frowned. “So you think she left willingly, because her feelings for him changed,” she suggested.

Priya nodded. “I think she finally saw the truth,” she said, looking at Deanna. “So I’m sorry—I’m sorry if I don’t seem stressed out enough, or worried enough. But honestly? I feel happy for Veronica. I think she made the right choice for herself, for the Veronica that I know.”

Deanna coughed. “Well, the Veronica I know called me that night, after you brought her back to the Soar,” she said, pausing to sip her iced coffee. “And her take on things was a little different.”

All eyes jumped to Deanna. Even Priya looked surprised and curious.

“What did Veronica say?” I asked.

Deanna shrugged. “She was freaked out, that’s true—but not because her feelings had changed for Xavier. She was really freaked out for him, really relieved he was okay. But the reaction Priya saw, how upset she was—that wasn’t because of anything Xavier did. It was because his accident could have happened to her.”

Priya stared at her. “Well, of course. That’s what I’m saying. Since she met Xavier, I was always worried about her dying in a bungee jump or skydiving or—whatever! All the risks he took, he convinced her to—”

Deanna held up a finger to stop her. “No, listen to me. I’m not talking about the general risks of extreme sports. This literal accident could have happened to her. Because the suit he used, the one where the parachute failed? It was supposed to be hers.”

“What?” Priya cried, and I think we all jumped a little. We were all stunned, but the rest of us absorbed this in silence. I looked at Bess and George, my heart beating a mile a minute, trying to telegraph with my eyes: Why would they switch suits? This has to play into her running!

Deanna took another sip of her iced coffee and nodded. “Xavier noticed that it didn’t fit her well. He thought it was a little too stretched out in the arms and legs. So he switched with her. And thank God he did, because I’m not sure she would have known to fly into the tree to save herself. She’s still new to all this stuff. He’s the old pro. So while the whole incident was scary, I think it worked out as well as it could have.”

Priya’s mouth had dropped open again, and she waved her arm disbelievingly. “Doesn’t that prove my point, though? She was realizing how much danger Xavier puts her in! She could have died!”

“No,” Deanna said, shaking her head. “Uh-uh. The girl I talked to the night before the wedding was still crazy in love with that man. She was working through some stuff, sure. But there wasn’t one bone in Veronica’s body that didn’t want to marry him,” she insisted. “She would never put him through this. There’s only one reason Veronica would have run out on her wedding, and that’s because someone forced her.”

As the waitress arrived with our food, breaking the tension, a thought occurred to me. We all began eating, and I turned to Deanna.

“What do you know about Arlo?” I asked.

She looked surprised. “Arlo Graham? Xavier’s old friend?”

I nodded. “I spoke to him at the rehearsal dinner. He talked about wanting to go into business with Xavier, but when he got out of prison, Xavier already had the Redd Zone.”

Priya grunted in agreement. “Right, and then there was that strange toast he made. About how you can’t count on Xavier?”

Deanna looked amused, but I pressed on. “Is there any reason he might have wanted to hurt Xavier? Maybe he’s holding on to old grudges?”

She gave me a wry look. “Arlo? He’s a weird guy, but no. I’ve met him before, and he and Xavier always have that kind of energy together—they tease hard. What Arlo said at the rehearsal dinner didn’t ring my alarm bells at all.”

I took that in, but I wasn’t sure I was convinced. I couldn’t forget the odd vibe I’d gotten from Arlo. Even though there hadn’t been any texts on Veronica’s phone, she had spoken to somebody from the elevator. Maybe they’d planned it in person. Could he have done something to Veronica?

The rest of the meeting passed awkwardly, but blessedly quickly. I was eager to get back to our room and talk with Bess and George about what we’d learned. Maybe even make some lists, go through some suspects. Both Priya and Deanna made good cases, but Deanna’s conviction that the night before the wedding, Veronica wanted to marry Xavier was making an impression on me.

Had I accepted too easily that she had left willingly? Could someone have coerced her into changing and getting into the elevator, then met her on the restaurant floor to force her to go—somewhere? If not Arlo, someone else?

We thanked Priya and Deanna and hustled back to the Soar. I think Bess, George, and I had all made a silent agreement not to talk about it until we were alone, but once we got back to our room and shut the door behind us, we all erupted at once.

“What if Deanna is right and someone—” I began just as George cried, “I think maybe Veronica got scared, scared enough to—” and Bess said simply, “Guys, I’m really worried. I’m worried that Xavier tried to kill her.”

That shut George and me up pretty quickly.

“What?” George asked. “You’ve been, like, Team Xavier this whole time.”

Bess nodded, her eyes wide. “That’s because I know how much Veronica loved him. But people love the wrong person all the time. Just because someone loves you doesn’t make you innocent. And I just keep flashing back to a combination of Priya saying something changed in Veronica at the hospital—and Deanna saying that Veronica knew it could have been her. She knew he changed the suits.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “If Xavier tampered with the suit, why would he have changed them and taken the damaged one?”

Bess shook her head and shrugged. “Maybe in the end, he couldn’t do it? And he thought he knew enough about BASE jumping to survive the fall? Maybe he maneuvered into a tree on purpose.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“But maybe Veronica was afraid he might not get cold feet the next time,” Bess added.

I dropped my purse on Bess and George’s bed and stared at her. I had been looking in the complete opposite direction, at guests who might have conspired with Veronica to convince her to leave. But Bess’s theory, although wonky, wasn’t completely unbelievable. I’d spent enough time with Xavier by now to feel that he did really care about Veronica. Still, what if he had some other motive to want her dead? What if the most obvious suspect was the right one? “If she thought he’d tried to kill her, that would definitely explain running away at the wedding,” I said.

“And not telling anyone,” George added. “If she was scared of what he might do.”

“Oh, poor Veronica,” Bess moaned, sitting down on her bed. “But… why would he do it? He seems to really care about her!”

“Unless he’s an incredible actor,” George pointed out. “Which is possible. Sociopaths can be very charming.”

“We know about his debt,” I reminded them. “So I guess the question is… is there a way he could get money from Veronica’s death?”

We were all quiet as we thought that through.

“Not really,” George said finally. “Not as her fiancé, anyway. If they were married, he could have taken out a life insurance policy on her. Then if she died, he, her next of kin, would get a big payout.”

“And all his problems would be solved,” I said, nodding. It wasn’t an uncommon crime, if those true crime news documentaries that aired on the weekends were to be believed. And as horrible as it was to think that Xavier might look at killing his bride as a moneymaking opportunity, I could at least see the logic of it. But it still didn’t make sense. “They weren’t married yet. And I just can’t get past the idea that if this theory is true, he took the suit with the disabled parachute on purpose. He would know he was putting his life in danger,” I said. “Would anyone take that big of a risk, even for someone they love?”

BANG BANG BANG!

We all jumped about a foot in the air as a startlingly loud sound filled the room. It took me a minute to realize someone was knocking on our door—really hard.

With a nervous glance at me and Bess, George stood up to open it. Bess and I got up to follow her.

“Oh, hey.” It was Xavier. Or rather, it was Xavier with two police officers and a trio of security guards fanned out behind him. One of them was Flora, the head of the whole security department. What’s going on? “Did I scare you? I’m sorry. It’s just—”

Flora stepped forward. “Come with me,” she said brusquely. “It’s regarding Veronica’s disappearance. I’m afraid we’ve found something disturbing.”