Free Killer Swell by Jeff Shelby

said, shaking her head.
    â€œThen if you can’t trust me, why would I trust you?”
    â€œBecause I’m telling you to.”
    The fact that she wouldn’t tell me what she knew bothered me more than her attitude. Our relationship had always been rocky, personally and professionally, but we’d always been straight with one another. Our paths had crossed professionally over the last couple of years, and while we weren’t best friends, she’d never asked me to get out of the way.
    â€œThat’s not enough, Liz, and you know it,” I said. “You knew it before you said it.”
    She looked at me for a moment, and I thought maybe she was going to tell me what I was missing. But it passed quickly, replaced by an expression that said she knew better than I did.
    â€œNoah, whatever you’re doing,” she told me, walking by me toward the house, “don’t. Because as good as you think you are, Costilla is better at being bad. Much better.”
    I heard the front door close. One of the seagulls gave up the fight for the bun, flew toward me, and landed on the wall, his beady eyes bearing down on me.
    No one was on my side.

18
    Kate’s service wasn’t that different from other funerals that I’d been to. All Hallows Catholic Church sits atop Mount Soledad, overlooking the La Jolla shoreline, but even the view couldn’t change why we were there. Lots of flowers and crying, and everyone wishing they were someplace else.
    The one exception was that her husband threatened to rip my head off.
    The service had ended, and Carter and I were out in the courtyard next to the church, watching the Criers receive condolences from friends and family. I hadn’t wanted to come. Not that anyone ever wants to attend a funeral, but Kate’s death felt too close. I wasn’t ready to bury her. But I realized that if I was going to figure out what had happened to her, I was going to have to get used to doing things I wasn’t ready to do.
    â€œThey look wrecked,” Carter said, watching Marilyn and Ken nod and shake hands.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œYou gonna talk to them?”
    I shook my head. “Not here. They’ve got enough to deal with today.”
    Carter nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I don’t think Marilyn would care to see me anyway.”
    I thought about that for a moment. “Was the last time you saw her…”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œThe whole I-jump-farther—”
    â€œâ€”if-I’m-naked episode,” Carter confirmed.
    The week before Kate and I broke up, Kate’s older sister, Emily, was home from UCLA with some friends having a party. The UCLA coeds had immediately taken to Carter, and he’d responded in kind. They’d dared him to jump off the roof of the Criers’ house into the pool. He’d claimed he could only do it naked because he jumped farther without any clothes on.
    Unfortunately, Marilyn Crier had walked out onto the patio just in time to see Carter soar over her into her pool. Naked.
    â€œAn unforgettable performance,” I said.
    â€œLegendary,” he said. Then he tilted his head. “Hey. Didn’t you and Emily—”
    â€œShut up,” I said, cutting him off.
    Almost as if she’d heard us, Emily Crier emerged from a group of people near her parents and came toward us.
    â€œNoah,” she said, a tired smile forcing its way onto her face. “It’s good to see you.”
    We hugged briefly, and I was surprised by how little she’d changed. Slightly taller than Kate, she was still model thin. Her blond hair looked yellow in the sunlight, cut slightly above her shoulders. Soft brown eyes. She wore a black sundress with expensive-looking black heels. Put a bikini on her and she could’ve been back cheering for Carter in the pool that night.
    She put a hand on Carter’s arm. “You are still…huge.”
    Normally, he would have had at