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to toe with a sheet, and rolled him all the way off the grounds, through the gate, and into the waiting ambulance. The ambulance rolled off without a sound. The siren was pointless now.
    â€œAll right. That’s all for the day. Cameras off every-where,” Veronica finally said. She had her arms wrapped tightly around her body.
    â€œBut Veronica, we had that technical problem yesterday, remember?” one of the production assistants said timidly. “We didn’t get any of the outdoor footage. Don’t we need to make up—”
    â€œI said cameras off everywhere.” Veronica shot the PA a how-dare-you-question-me look.
    â€œI thought . . . You said no matter what,” the PA stammered, then turned away.
    â€œWhat about the contest?” James asked. “Are we doing it tomorrow?”
    â€œNo,” Veronica answered. “I want that pool drained again—now,” she snapped to another PA. “We’ll move on to a different competition.”
    â€œI think I had the most dishes. I’m the only one who got any in a kiddie pool,” Bobby T said.
    â€œThere’s no way that—,” James began.
    â€œWe’ll move on to a different competition tomorrow,” Veronica repeated firmly.
    â€œHow would you describe the color of his face?” Bobby asked Frank. “You were the closest. You were right down in it. Would you say skim milk—you know how it has that bluish tone almost? Or cottage cheese? It doesn’t have to be a food. Just in your own words.”
    He held his hands poised over the keyboard of his laptop. He was trying to get his blog about Leo’s drowning perfect.
    We were all hanging out in the great room. We’d just all ended up in there. It didn’t seem like anybody wanted to be alone. I’d gotten a fire going in the walk-in-size fireplace. It gets kinda cold at night in L.A., but we didn’t really need one. But I’d wanted something to do, and I think people liked it.
    â€œCome on, Frank,” Bobby urged.
    â€œNot everybody finds death so exciting,” Kit snapped. Her face was still wet with tears. She’d been crying off and on for hours. And a lot of the time, she’d been angled toward the cameras. I think she must have forgotten they were off.
    â€œYou’re the blogger. You describe it. You weren’t that far away,” Frank said. I could tell he was annoyed. And Frank doesn’t get annoyed that often.
    â€œI can’t believe he was there the whole time we were in the pool.” Mary shivered. “If we’d found him even a minute earlier . . .”
    â€œIt wouldn’t have made a difference, I’m pretty sure,” I told her. “Frank and I did CPR just in case there was any chance to save him, but it seemed like he’d been gone a while.”
    â€œSo has this made anyone think of taking the fifty thou and leaving?” Olivia asked, looking intently around the room.
    James just snorted without looking up from the video game he was playing over in the corner.
    â€œBecause of the accident?” said Frank slowly.
    It was a pretty weird thing for her to ask.
    â€œWell, it doesn’t seem like Deprivation House is exactly the safest place,” Olivia answered.
    Kit snorted. “It wasn’t at all safe for Katrina Decter. Her husband killed her about ten feet away from where you’re sitting,” she told Olivia.
    â€œOh, wait. This is that house?” Wilson burst out. “My mom’s a Trial TV fanatic. This is the one where the little girl had to testify that her mother tried to kill her father and that’s why he killed her. The jury decided it was self-defense, right?”
    â€œYeah,” Kit agreed. “There wasn’t a ton of evidence proving Katrina attacked her husband. But Anna, their daughter, was a really convincing witness, even though she was so little. She said—”
    â€œWho cares about