Dead Before the Truth Revealed novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Same Water

I did not decide to go in.

I pulled the recorder out of my sleeve and threw it up the slope at Anthony, and I was in the water before it landed.

The cold closed over my head and took the air out of my chest.

It was the same cold, six years older, and for one second my body remembered it and tried to stop.

Then I saw her coat.

It had opened wide with water and was dragging her down by the arms, and she was not swimming at all.

She had thought about jumping. She had not thought about the coat.

I kicked down and got a fistful of cream wool.

"Cam!"

Her eyes were open and terrified, and she grabbed me around the neck and nearly took us both under.

"Let go of my neck," I said into her ear when we broke the surface. "Hold my collar. I'm going to get you to the dock."

She clamped her fist in my sweatshirt, and I swam.

It was twenty yards.

It felt much longer than twenty yards.

Anthony was on his stomach on the planks with his arm out, and he hauled Camille up first by the coat and then by the belt.

Then he took my wrist, my left one, and pulled me out onto the boards beside her.

I lay on my back with the lake running out of my hair and heard her cough up water.

She was alive.

I was surprised how glad I was.

"Call an ambulance," I said. "Edmund's at the house. He's calling."

Red light turned in the trees a few minutes later, and Edmund came down the slope waving a flashlight with one hand and holding his phone with the other.

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