“Right.” Ivy was thoughtful as she regarded Cara. “Are you a pixie?”
Cara’s laugh was hollow. “I’m just a woman who died.”
“But ... there has to be more than that.” Ivy couldn’t let it go. “How did you die?”
“I was at the back. He let the group go ahead without him, said he needed to check on me. He was waiting for me by that tree up there.” She pointed toward another fallen tree, one that looked much older and was about fifty yards ahead of them. “I didn’t see him. He knocked me out of the water with his paddle and I was under the water before I realized what happened.
“I thought I would be okay, that I would surface and even if I had to swim to shore, that a search party would come looking for me,” she continued in a deadened voice. “I was wrong, though. I never came up. I saw his eyes through the water. He made sure that he held me from the front. He wanted me to know it was him.”
“But why?” Jack prodded. “Why go after you?”
“Because Cara had figured out he was the one responsible for people dying,” Ivy surmised, things clicking into place. “Tyson says he’s been on the river for years, doing this job for years. I’m willing to bet he wasn’t always working for this company, though.”
Cara nodded solemnly. “Two of the women I knew at another company disappeared. One of the families filed a lawsuit and it sank the company. Tyson came over here after that. I didn’t think anything of it at the time but ... after, a good few months after, I started to get suspicious.
“He always paid more attention to the women. He would sit by them around the fire and get passive aggressive with the husbands. He always liked to feel them out, and he never volunteered to take the groups that were made up solely of men. He always left that for Connie and me.”
The name stirred something in Ivy. “Where is Connie? Is she dead?”
Cara nodded. “He killed her that first night. She didn’t show up for her shift — he wasn’t lying about that — but she showed up later. She thought he would cover for her. Technically I’m not listed on the worksheets because I’ve been missing for almost a year.”
Ivy was genuinely baffled. “I don’t get it. How do the other women not know that you’re dead?”
“Because they can’t see me.”
“But ... everybody has seen you with our group,” Jack argued. “How can somebody not see you when you’re very clearly here?”
“I think that has a little something to do with your wife.” Cara was thoughtful as she flicked her eyes to Ivy. “You’re something more than normal.”
“That’s possibly very accurate,” Ivy noted. “I’m still just a woman, though. I’m like you.”
“No, you’re not,” Jack argued, slowly shaking his head. “You’re more, too, and your magic has been growing with each passing month. Just a week ago you used it to hurt a man who was trying to steal a child.”
“Did you save the child?” Cara asked in a plaintive voice.
“She did.” Jack stared hard at the back of Ivy’s head. “You made it so everybody saw Cara. It had never happened before. Tyson could see her, but he likely figured he was being haunted. I wonder what he thought when everybody in our group could suddenly see her.”
“He wasn’t happy.” Cara smiled at the memory. “In fact, he was downright furious. He accused me of doing something. I didn’t, of course. I had no idea what was happening. I considered saying something to the lot of you, warning you, but how was I supposed to explain that I was dead and he killed me?”
“Connie saw you, right?” Ivy pressed. Nate and Vanessa were getting closer and she had to get as much information as she could before Tyson ultimately joined the party. “She saw you and was confused.”
“She did.” Cara sounded more excited now. “How did you know that?”
“Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.” Ivy had pretty much figured it all out now, and it made sense, in a very weird way. “Connie showed up late. Tyson was still grappling with the fact that everybody not only saw you but interacted with you. Connie knew you were supposed to be dead, though. Everybody else was in the dark.”
“Yes.” Cara bobbed her head. “She said something to Tyson.”
“And he freaked out,” Ivy deduced. “He couldn’t understand what was happening and panicked.”
“And he killed Connie to keep her quiet,” Jack supplied. “Her body is probably somewhere in the woods off that campground.”
“It is,” Cara agreed. “He’ll go back to hide her. He didn’t have the time that night, though. He was agitated when you guys discovered the blood.”
“Vanessa discovered it,” Ivy said.
“Yes, but she also believed his lies. You guys didn’t believe them. You were suspicious from the start, although I don’t understand why. He usually has no problem snowing people.”
“My wife is a marvel,” Jack said as he rocked the kayak to get Ivy’s attention. “Get out, honey.”
“What?” Ivy flicked her attention back to Jack. “You can’t be serious. Is this really your plan?”
“It is.” He was firm. “I can’t fight him in a kayak. With my feet on solid ground and you safely on the shore, I’ll have the upper hand.”
Ivy debated arguing with him but ultimately agreed. “Okay.” She crawled out of the kayak, making a hissing noise when the cold water started rushing around her. She plunged in up to her chest. “This is the worst. You were right about the tropical destination. From now on, it’s beach or bust.”
Jack snickered as he watched her grab the front of the kayak to steady it. “Can you hold it still while I get out?”
“Yup.” Ivy was determined, and even though she grunted, she managed to hold strong. The water came to below Jack’s chest and even though the current was steady, he knew he’d made the right choice.
“Can you push the kayak to shore?” Jack asked as he gripped his paddle.
“Yes, but—”
“No buts.” He gave her a small shove. “I need to focus on Tyson and I can’t do it if you’re in the water. Once I hit him with the paddle, he’ll be down and out. I’ll secure him and then we’ll figure out how to get the authorities out here. Maybe our phones will work at this location.”
“Not likely,” Cara replied. “This is a dead zone. That’s another reason he likes to think of it as his hunting grounds.”
“How many women?” Ivy asked as she shoved at the kayak. She was nowhere near done — and Jack wouldn’t like her plan to help him — but it was important for her to get the kayak to the shore. It was part of her plan.
“I don’t know.” Cara held out her hands and shrugged. “I just know that at least eighteen women have gone missing on this river in three years. It was enough to have everyone in town talking.”
“Eighteen?” Jack’s eyebrows practically flew off his forehead. “Are you telling me that eighteen women have died out here and nobody has done anything?”
“The cops don’t know that the women have died,” Ivy pointed out. “They just know that the women have gone missing. If they can’t find the bodies, they can’t prove a crime.”
“Right, but ... .” Jack trailed off. “We’ll talk about that later. Cara, I need you to take your kayak into the water up there.” To make sure that the vessel was real, Jack tapped his paddle against it. “How can a ghost operate a kayak?”
“That’s the easy part,” Cara replied. “Everybody just assumes it’s an empty kayak. Tyson explains that it’s a ghost kayak and thrills the guests. He didn’t get to whip out that story this trip ... for obvious reasons. The ghost kayak was being operated by a person, at least as far as anybody knew.”
“Obviously,” Ivy agreed. She shoved hard on the kayak, her mind going a mile a minute. “How did I make it so the others could see you?”
“You’re magic, honey,” Jack called out. “You do things others can only dream of. Somehow you did this.”
“But ... how did I know to do it?”
<
br /> “How do you know to do anything?” Jack held her gaze as she struggled with the kayak. “Stay on that shore.”
She didn’t respond, instead grunting as she shoved the kayak as hard as she could. She was relieved when it caught on the shore and pushed harder. Once she had three quarters of the kayak where she wanted, she tipped it over onto its side.
“What are you doing?” Jack asked, confused.
“Get your head down,” Ivy ordered.
Jack did as he was told, although he was filled to the brim with questions. They fell into silence as voices began to make themselves heard over the water.
“Is something wrong?” Nate called out.
Cara answered without prodding from Ivy. “Jack and Ivy just tipped over,” she replied. “It’s absolutely fine. You have nothing to worry about.”
Ivy waved at the couple by way of proof.
“Where’s Jack?” Nate asked as the tall detective shrunk into the tree branches.
“He’s going to the bathroom,” Ivy replied, keeping her voice even. If the couple looked too hard into the branches, they would see Jack. She had to act natural. It was her only shot. “Once he’s done, we’re heading right back out.”
“You’re okay, right?”
“We’re perfectly fine.” Ivy waved the couple forward, briefly revisiting her suspicions regarding Nate. For a moment, she wondered if somehow Nate and Tyson were connected. The way Cara easily ignored Nate told her that wasn’t likely.
The other couples filed through. They were much closer in proximity. Finally, there was only Lily and Bart left. Ivy wasn’t surprised to find Tyson close on their tail. He’d obviously marked them as his targets this go-around. Bart was a jerk who had it coming. Lily, a woman beaten down by circumstances, would be an easy mark.
“What happened?” Tyson asked Cara as they closed the distance. He seemed confused.
“Ivy and Jack tipped over,” Cara replied. She gestured toward the shore where Ivy had been standing only a few seconds before ... and then frowned. “They were right there.”
Tyson jerked his eyes in that direction. “How did they tip over? They’re the best in the kayaks. Even with Jack in the back, he’s too strong to let it tip over.”
“I ... don’t know.” Cara looked genuinely baffled.
“Did something happen to them?” Tyson asked the question with the appropriate amount of concern but there was a gleam in his eyes.
“Actually, we’re right here,” Jack replied as he stepped out from behind the tree and slammed the paddle into Tyson’s chest.
The guide’s eyes went so wide it looked like they might pop out of his skull. Jack hit him with enough force that Tyson was knocked out of the kayak and landed in the water. Before Jack could move on him, Ivy was there. She’d circled around the other side of the tree, and she had the weapon Jack fashioned out of a stick in her hand.
“What are you doing?” Jack demanded.
Ivy ignored him and grabbed the front of Tyson’s shirt as he emerged, pressing the dangerous tip of the weapon against his throat and daring him to make a move. “I’ll kill you,” Ivy warned when he started to sputter.
“What’s going on?” Bart asked from behind them. He and Lily had kept floating and were about to disappear around the bend.
“We’re taking him into custody,” Jack replied as he moved closer to Ivy. “He has a few things to explain.”
“Yeah, like twenty missing women and a dead co-worker,” Ivy growled.
“What are you even talking about?” Tyson snapped. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“She does.” Jack jerked his thumb toward Cara before nudging Ivy’s fingers away from Tyson’s shirt. “Honey, I need you to take two steps to your left and serve as my backup.”
Ivy balked. “Why do I have to be your backup?”
“I’m the cop.”
“Yeah, but ... I’m the witch.”
Jack grinned. “If you let me be the boss for this — I mean, it is my job — I’ll let you be the boss for the rest of our honeymoon.”
It was too appealing of an offer to ignore. “Okay, but I’m going to stab him if he tries to run away.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Tyson complained. “You can’t hold me.”
“Yeah, I think the local authorities are going to have something to say about that,” Jack said. “I’m just going to hold you until they get here.”
“And how are you going to get them out here?” Tyson sneered. “Cell phones don’t work in this part of the river.”
Jack flicked his eyes to Ivy. “My wife is a miracle worker. Something tells me she’s going to figure it out.”
It turned out he was right.
19
Nineteen
“And who would have thought we’d be happy to be back here?”
Jack ushered Ivy into the honeymoon suite at their rustic hotel from the first night shortly before eight o’clock. They were both exhausted, to the point where they agreed it was room service, bath, and then bed for them. Nothing else.
Ivy managed to climb a hill and get one bar of service, which was enough to direct emergency personnel to their location ... with a bit of help from Cara. Tyson was still sputtering and fighting when law enforcement showed up, but there was a dimness in his eyes that told Ivy he’d already conceded defeat.
Explaining exactly why Jack had attacked the tour guide wasn’t easy. Tyson took a last-ditch shot at throwing shade at Jack, but there were too many questions for him to answer and the cops weren’t stupid enough to simply let him walk. In an effort to get to the bottom of things, the locals transported all three of them to the nearby department for questions.
Cara left on her kayak to check on the other members of their group soon after Jack took down Tyson — which she said was necessary so her presence wouldn’t have to be explained to those responding to Ivy’s call — and then wished them well, adding that Tyson’s apprehension meant she could finally rest.
Ivy had no doubt the ghost didn’t make it all the way down the river. At some point, someone would come across her kayak and return it to the company. The ghost was as close to at peace as she could get, though, and she already looked to be diminishing when she said goodbye.
The locals landed at the lunch rendezvous location and collected everybody else. Bart was bellowing at the top of his lungs when he was led into the station. Jack and Ivy didn’t have a chance to shore up their stories regarding Cara, but it ended up being a moot point. The detective questioning the couple asked about the young woman in question after the others had mentioned her — he was roughly the same age — and said he knew her. He’d assumed she was dead because she’d disappeared a year before. The fact that everybody in the group swore up and down that they’d seen her had the detective baffled.
Jack insisted they had no idea where she’d gone — they couldn’t very well tell the detective they’d been talking to a ghost — and when everybody else shared the same story, the detective said he would look into matters. Tyson maintained his innocence, claiming there’d been no crime, right up until the moment when searchers had returned with news. They’d found Connie’s body, stabbed and stashed in the woods. The knife matching her wounds was on Tyson’s person when he was taken into custody. That was enough to hold him ... and launch a search for the other missing women.
Tyson called for a lawyer thirty seconds later and didn’t say a single word in the aftermath. Ultimately, the detective cut Ivy and Jack loose. After a call to Brian asking about Jack’s service record, the detective decided Jack had just cause for doing what he did. Nobody was going to question an officer with Jack’s record, at least under these circumstances.
Ivy took the time to bid farewell to Carter and Damien and then she and Jack gladly accepted a ride back to the hotel. Her feet hurt. Her stomach was empty. She wanted a bath and her husband ... and maybe a glass of wine. Above all, though, her mind was busy.
“The one good thing t
his room has is a jacuzzi tub,” Jack reminded her as he appeared in the doorway between the bathroom and bedroom. “It’s big enough for two. I’ve already poured the wine.”
Ivy looked up from the end of the bed where she sat. “A bath sounds good.”
“Okay.” He moved in front of her and pushed her matted hair away from her face. “I’ve already got the tub filling. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking that I love you.”
He smiled. “I know that. You weren’t thinking that just now, though.”
“You don’t know.” She turned sullen. “I could’ve been thinking that.”
“You were thinking about Cara. I know because I’ve been thinking about her, too.” Jack sat on the bed next to Ivy, his lips curving when she leaned her head against his shoulder. “I think we should talk about it.”
“What is there to say?” Ivy’s voice was soft. “She’s dead.”
“She was dead the whole time, honey. I’ve gone through my mind a million times and I can’t remember her interacting with anyone that day we did the meet-and-greet. We talked to her. In hindsight, she seemed surprised. We didn’t see her again until lunch, and by then she was interacting with everybody in the group as if she belonged there.”
“I’ve done a lot of thinking, too,” Ivy admitted. “I keep trying to remember if Tyson acted weird about her. The truth is, he barely interacted with her. He was much more interested in Bart and Lily.”
“And you.”
“You think he wanted to kill me, don’t you?”
He nodded. “I think he wanted to kill us both. Unfortunately for him, we’re too hard to separate. He knew he couldn’t make it happen. Bart and Lily are another story. Bart is full of himself and doesn’t care about his wife. He would’ve been happy if she didn’t return from the trip.”
“Do you think he knew what Tyson was?”
Jack hesitated and then held out his hands. “I don’t know. I’ve been having the same thoughts you’ve obviously been struggling with, though. Maybe Tyson was offing specific women at the behest of husbands. He clearly liked killing. Why not add a little money to the mix?”
Wicked Honeymoon (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 19) Page 19