Page 55 of Is Anyone Listening?
She shook her head. "It's all fuzzy. I thought my memory would be back by now."
"Nathan found Jessica's diamond ring in the sand near where he'd found her boat. But he didn't report it. He kept it so he could sell it. Finn seemed to think he was trying to impress you in some way by telling you a story that might or might not have been true. But when you mentioned the podcast, he panicked."
"I told them about the podcast. How could I do that? I don't remember that at all."
"Nathan put a sleeping pill into your drink to make you forget.”
Her eyes widened. "He really did that? And he admitted it? I mean, I've been thinking that might have happened, but I also couldn't quite believe it. Where was Finn when that happened?"
"He said he went downstairs to make a call on the satellite phone, which also seems a little convenient."
"That's crazy."
"Nathan suggested that the ring on the beach proved that Jessica got off the boat and made it to safety and faked her own death."
"Or Nathan could have killed her and made up the whole story."
"There's that, too," I admitted. "Although, I hadn't considered that he'd killed her until just this second."
"If he didn't find the ring on the beach, maybe he took it off her hand."
"That's another scenario to consider."
"We need to put all of this on the podcast," Tessa said.
"I'm not sure I can say all that without proof."
"You can be a little vague and leave specific names out of it, but we have to keep feeding our listeners' hunger for more details." She paused. "I wish I could do it with you, but since I can't, why don't we film a super short teaser right here?”
"Here? You want to film from your hospital bed?"
"It's reality, and that sells. Let's do it now before I lose what little energy I have."
"Okay." I pulled out my phone. "How do you want to do it?"
"You start. Tell everyone you're visiting me in the hospital after I allegedly fell down the stairs, but that might not be what happened. I was sent to emergency surgery, and I'm now recovering. Then turn the camera to me. I'll give a wave, and then you put the camera back on yourself and say you'll be posting tonight with more details."
I nodded. "Are you ready?"
"Sure. I look awful, but that's the point. We want raw and real."
I patted my hair down, thinking I didn't have as good a reason as Tessa did for little makeup and windswept hair, but this was what I actually looked like. I started the camera and filmed the video as she'd instructed. We both reviewed it and then decided to post it immediately, as there was no point in waiting.
After I'd done that, I filled her in on what Morgan was doing about the sponsorships and then got to my feet as the nurse said they needed to draw some blood.
"You don't have to stay," Tessa said.
"Are you sure you don't want company? Or can I bring you food or something?"
"I don't feel like eating at all. And I'm probably going to sleep after this. I feel bad that I can't help you more."
"You just concentrate on healing. That's all that matters. We'll talk tomorrow."
"Okay. But…wait."
"What?"
"When you film tonight's podcast, you should say that you may have to move to another, safer location while we continue investigating. And tomorrow morning, you should do just that. I don't know if it's safe for you to stay at the inn."
