I hiked up the bank to the roadway to walk to my car which I parked about a quarter of a mile away. As I passed Camila's red Toyota Corolla, I realized I forgot to include it in my plan. Fuck! What am I supposed to do with it? Even if I had taken her keys, what would I have done with the car? If I had driven it somewhere to sink it in a body of water or set it on fire, I would still have to find a way back to my car. I'm just going to leave it here. It shouldn't have any evidence pointing to me, but it'll make it easier for anyone searching for her to know where she went missing. Maybe, just maybe, it would flood enough for the vehicle to be carried away to a different location.
On the Monday after ridding myself of the problem, I was eating lunch with Dinah and Ally like normal.
"Have you heard that Camila is missing?" Dinah asked.
"Yes! One of Camila's friends told me and Troy. Have they gotten any new information?" Ally inquired.
"No," Dinah answered. "I had gotten a call from Lauren asking me if I had seen her or knew where she was. I hadn't talked to her for a couple of days before she went missing, and she never told me she was going anywhere."
"Oh, god. Lauren must be worried sick," I added.
"She is. She has already put in a missing person report with the police department." Dinah informed.
"I'm going to have my church pray for Lauren and pray for Camila's return at the next service. This is so scary y'all," said Ally.
"Speaking of Lauren, you two haven't spoken in months," observed Dinah while talking to me. "You were Lauren's only friend."
This change in topic was making me a little uncomfortable. I don't know why Dinah was bringing this up. She knows how Camila felt about me. "Well, as you know, Camila didn't like the idea of Lauren and I being friends."
"Why not?" asked Ally. Ally was unaware about the accusations of Lauren having an affair with me.
A grin formed across Dinah's face because she got the chance to share a juicy piece of gossip. "Camila thought Lauren was sleeping Mani."
"What?" Ally exclaimed.
"Yes, girl. It was crazy. She was over my house crying and everything calling Normani a homewrecker." Dinah described.
I had to interject and make this stop. "Can we not talk about this? It's the past."
"Were you two really... you know?" inquired Ally.
"No! I don't want to talk about this anymore," I asserted.
"Oh, because I could have sworn you were straight," Ally added.
I was glad when that fuckery of a lunch was over. The last thing I wanted was gossip spreading around about Lauren and I having an affair. That would make either one of us or both of us possible suspects in Camila's murder.
Things went normal for another week, at least for me. I didn't hear anything else about Camila until the end of the following week when I received a call from Dinah.
"Hello?"
"Girl, I have some news. They found Camila's car near the Miami River. It was turned over probably because of the flooding from the tropical storm. They think Camila might have gotten caught out there and swept away," Dinah informed me.
"Why would she have been out driving late at night in a tropical storm?"
"No one knows, but Lauren has formed a search party of police officers, firefighters from her dad's station, and Camila's friends. We're all going out tomorrow morning at sunrise to give ourselves as much daylight as possible. I know you and Camila weren't on the best of terms, but we could use another set of eyes," explained Dinah.
