Flashes on the Water
Previously: Charlie Dagonet tells the team how he got home from the party.
Jeannie considered Charlie and knew his story, his fear, was authentic. Something or someone had disrupted his diligent control and consistency, which Jeannie now knew was his tether to himself and his sobriety. It all made sense: the espressos yesterday, the water polo, the music — every motion, every task was managed to fill the hours with controlled activity so he could control himself.
The idea of it all made her exhausted. Her tiredness melted over her like a wave, and she was suddenly grateful that this was their last interview, even if it was one of the most informative of the day. Jeannie knew she only had another hour or so of attentiveness in her before she’d start to tune out with fatigue.
“Okay Charlie.” She began again, “can you tell me about Alexa? How well did you know her.” Jeannie saw his eyes cloud slightly.
“We were friends. We had a class together.” He offered quietly. “Do - do you — “ he paused, starting at the tabletop, “Can you tell me what happened to her?” He raised his eyes to Jeannie and Mark. Jeannie didn’t know what to say, or if anything could be said. She looked at Mark.
“What I say right now is unofficial since we still don’t know - her postmortem will happen tomorrow.” Charlie flinched slightly when Mark said postmortem, but nodded, eyes full of an unspoken hurt. “We don’t know all of it yet, but it looks like she drowned. In El Polin Spring.” Charlie’s face contorted slightly and he shook his head.
“That - that’s impossible.”
“It’s not, but why do you say that?” Mark countered.
“Because —” Charlie scoffed slightly with disbelief, “because she was one of the best swimmers I’ve ever seen.” He met Mark’s look again, face full of confusion. Jeannie glanced at Mark and then began again.
“When did you see her swim, Charlie?” Charlie inhaled deeply and rolled his lips together. He was silent for a long moment, his face blank as he remembered.
“At Tahoe - that party. I’m sure you’ve heard about it.”
“Do you know what happened?” Charlie nodded shortly.
“I mean,” he huffed a sigh, “I saw the bedroom in the morning, and who was in it, and I drew my own conclusions.” Jeannie blinked, considering how to proceed.
“Okay, let’s go back - did you meet Alexa at the party?”
“Sort of? She was there, I was there. I saw her with Seb — Seb was, sort of clingy in a way I’d never seen before. He didn’t bother to introduce her, but Carolina told me who she was. Carolina and I - we dated in freshman year, and stayed in touch when I was at Aiglon. We ended up talking all night that night. I mean, talking, making out…” He shrugged a little, “it was nice.” Charlie leaned back in his chair. “In the morning, Carolina got up to do her yoga - I was going to join her, actually, but she was going in the bathroom and saw Alexa out the window. It was still sort of dark outside, and Carolina thought it was sort of odd, but went on into the bathroom. I got up, looked out the window, and Alexa was going into the water and something about it just chilled me.” Charlie’s brows knitted and he looked up at Jeannie. “Something, something about it was just off - I can’t tell you what, but my hair stood up. I saw her dive in and the next thing I know I’m pulling my shorts on and running out there. I dove in after her, but she’s, “ he paused, swallowing, “she was fast - so fast.” Charlie corrected himself and paused again. “I caught up to her finally, but she was way out past the boueys. I pulled up next to her and she saw me under water and was shocked - we both stopped. I could hardly breathe. She yelled at me, wanted to know why I was following her, and I said that it was dangerous — that it was just about sunrise and the boats would be out with water-skiers any minute, and that they wouldn’t be able to see her. They wouldn’t even be looking that far out from shore.” He paused for a long moment, squinting at the tabletop. “She seemed upset, and it was ridiculous — both of us just treading water out there, every minute I was convinced some idiot with a CrisCraft would barrel down on us. She’s listening to me tell her that we had to go back in, and she just said “I don’t want to go back in that house.” I could tell something was very wrong - I think she even started to cry a little. I said we didn’t have to go in the house, but that she wasn’t going to make it all the way to Nevada.” Jeannie felt herself smile slightly at this. “That seemed to wake her up a little. She got this like, determined glint in her eye when I said it. She said “I’ll bet you I could make it.” And I - I had to smile. I knew how she felt, just pure grit, wanting to show up everyone.” Charlie shook his head slightly. “The sun was up, it was bright - like the flashes on the water - it was blinding, you know? So I, I said we really needed to go back to shore.” Charlie smiled wistfully. “And I’ll never forget it, she just said “Okay” and took off like a shot. I caught up to her near shore - the boats were starting to go out so we went slow. We went up the ladder at the end of the Hartman’s dock and sat on the end for a while - the sun was out, so we warmed up a little.” Charlie breathed deeply, his handsome face bent. “We just sat there. She told me a high-level version of what had happened with Seb the night before — she was horrified. She said she wanted to go home, so I said I’d be happy to take her home. And a few minutes later we went inside, and rallied Carolina and got ready to go.”
“But you saw the bedroom?” Mark asked.
“Yeah. I went up there. The door was closed, so I opened it slightly just to see if Seb was there and awake and to tell him his girlfriend was upset and leaving…and they were all completely passed out. Seb, Jen, and Dash were all in bed, or on it, naked, and Tripp was passed out in the chair in his underwear. That was all I saw, and all I needed to see.” Charlie blinked at Mark. “I closed the door again and went and showered and got my stuff and we were all out of there within the hour. Alexa was already sitting in the car.”
Jeannie inhaled slowly and blew her breath out, giving Mark a look.
“And the ride home?” She ventured.
“The ride home was pretty sedate. It was me and Carolina up front, Alexa and Tally behind. No one wanted to stop, but I pulled into a Starbucks in Truckee and we got on the road. We were back in the city by lunchtime, and dropped Alexa off first. Tally went up to the door with her for some reason, and then I dropped her and Carolina off.”
“When was the next time you saw Alexa?”
“Um - about a week before school started? Maybe mid-August?”
“Where was that?” Charlie chuckled softly.
“Swimming. At the JCC. I usually go to the Olympic Club but they were working on the pool at the downtown club, so I’d been going there. I was in the pool, and it was pretty full - it was a Saturday so there’s a lot of classes and things. So I was in a lane, but then I almost ran into this girl swimming at me, so I move to one side and we split the lane, and she is FAST. She smoked me. I mean, after a few minutes it was just discouraging.” Charlie shook his head, but had a slight smile. “I got out and sat in the hot tub for a while, and I saw her get out eventually — she - she was hard to miss: all legs, and then when she took off her swim cap I saw her curly hair and I knew it was Alexa. So I got out, and showered and changed, and I waited in the lobby for her, hoping I’d see her and say hello.” Charlie shrugged. “She came out about 20 minutes later and I was thinking I was dumb for waiting, but she was nice. A little shy, I think because of Tahoe, I don’t know. I said I was walking home, so she walked with me. When we got to my house she said goodbye, and started walking away, so I asked her why she wasn’t going through he park. She said she didn’t know the way, so I offered to show her.”
“You showed her the trail?”
“Sure - from the playground, just the Ecology Trail. If you keep going it gets you close to her house, or the Main Post eventually.” Charlie shook his head ruefully. “I think she figured out how to go by Lovers’ Lane eventually, but I don’t think she was comfortable with the trails.” he added quietly. “After that, I saw her again on the first day of school, and we started to get to know each other.”
“What class do you have together?”
“It’s this new class, it’s called Myth and Modern Culture. Carolina’s in it too.” Jeannie nodded a little, and ventured a glance at Mark.
“Well, Charlie, I feel like I owe you an apology for yesterday. I misjudged you, and I apologize.” Charlie shrugged in response.
“I guess someone told you something. I’m glad I could clear it up, at least.”
“We’ll probably speak with you again.”
“Yeah,” he whispered. “That’s fine. I’ll help in any way I can.”
Mark ended the recording and sent Charlie over to Raj to pick up his phone. He left with the Headmaster and Steph and Owen came in to join them.
“How’s it going in here?” Steph asked, with her usual smile.
“Good.” Mark said quietly. “I think we’re done for today?” He looked at Jeannie who nodded at him and looked at Paco.
“I don’t know about you all,” she began, “but I could take down a cheeseburger right now.”