Free Exposure by Kim Askew

could have known the ice was that thin! It wasn’t our fault.”
    â€œI punched him!”
    â€œYou were provoked, damn it!”
    â€œThose things he said about you. What he did to you. I just couldn’t stand there and let the guy get away with it.”
    â€œForget all that — ”
    â€œHow can I, Beth? I’m going to
jail
for this!”
    â€œBut you were only protecting me, Craig — ”
    â€œWhen he grabbed for you … I almost thought he was going to pull you in with him. I … dammit, I actually thought for a second you’d be able to pull him out,” he said, punctuating his words with a groan.
    â€œOf course I tried, but he caught me off balance,” she said. “There was
nothing
I could do — nothing either of us could do. But the only thing that’s important now is that we get our stories straight. If anyone asks, we’ll say we headed upriver toward the turnpike. We weren’t there.
Nobody
was there.”
    â€œThey say he was alive for hours out there, you know….”
    â€œCraig, we both saw him go in the freezing water. He was probably dead in under a minute.”
    â€œBut Chief Towers said he died of exposure. His body was found on
land
,” he said angrily. “What if he
wasn’t
dead? What if we could have done something to save him?” There was a pause before Beth finally responded.
    â€œBut you can’t save Duncan now. You can only hurt yourself.”
    As I listened with my eyes as wide as saucers I was practically in a state of shock. So it was true. Beth wasn’t pregnant. They’d been freaking out that night because they both had something to do with Duncan’s death! Instinct told me to turn on my heels and get out of there as fast as possible. My Converse All-Stars barely made a sound as I started to back away, but just then, Craig rounded the corner. Our eyes locked, and I’m quite certain he could detect the look of sheer horror on my face.
    â€œWhat the hell are
you
doing here?” He glared at me.
    â€œCraig, I’m sorry about Duncan. If you need someone to talk to….” It was the only thing I could think to say without betraying everything I’d just overheard. I was standing far enough down the hall at this point that I hoped he didn’t suspect I’d been eavesdropping. Craig paused and gazed at me intently.
    â€œYou should stay away from me, Skye,” he said, before continuing down the hall. My knees felt shaky and I dropped my messenger bag to the floor, letting my shoulders and head sink along with it.

CHAPTER NINE
Present Fears Are Less Than Horrible Imaginings
    BY WEDNESDAY NIGHT all of the local media outlets were reporting ad nauseum the “official” details of Duncan’s death. It was even briefly mentioned on CNN during a special report on the rise of alcohol consumption among teens. Apparently, although it hadn’t been cited by the police, the prevailing wisdom was that Duncan must have downed one too many before stumbling out into the woods to his death.
    Although I carefully avoided watching television or reading the paper during that time, it was pretty pointless, because that’s all anyone seemed inclined to talk about, including my parents. They wanted to know how much I had to drink that night, how many drinks I thought were “too many,” and all sorts of similarly embarrassing and frankly useless questions. I thought about telling them everything, but somehow the words just wouldn’t come out. Besides, communication in my family wasn’t a strong suit these days. In any case, it was obvious that my mom and dad sensed I was on edge. I couldn’t blame them for speculating, but I wasn’t about to give them the real reason for my anxiety: that I might very well be an accomplice to murder.
    On Friday morning, news crews circled the gym like vultures, awaiting the memorial service scheduled for