Excerpt

She picked up her towel from the bench. She screamed and jumped back. Out fell a dead fish with beady yellow eyes. A amall mannequin --- no, a Barbie doll --- was roped to it.

It was the same teenage doll that she'd played with as a kid, about a foot high, there was no mistaking it. The Barbie doll was dressed in a black regulation swim team one-piece bathing suit that showed off all her curves. Pinned to the suit was one of the swimming team pins. It featured the logo of the dolphin leaping over a tiny, speckled, cone-shaped seashell only about one inch long.

The Barbie doll had a note pinned to her breast. It said:

SINK OR SWIM, FRANCIE. IT'S ALL UP TO YOU NOW.