“Does anyone ever go there?” Lindsey asked.
“No, the structure is too dangerous to wander around, and because of the deaths, no one has been eager to buy it and rebuild.”
“That’s a shame,” Lindsey said. “It’s a lovely spot.”
“You should have seen it in the day,” Sully said. “Mrs. Ruby planted climbing roses, and they all but took over the island. Mary and I used to pretend it was enchanted.”
“Why did you tell us this?” Beth asked. “I mean, I’ve lived here for ten years and no one has told me that story.”
“Well, you two are the town librarians; if anyone should know the true history of the Ruby house, it’s you two,” he said. “Who knows—maybe you’ll solve the mystery.”
“I think that’s Chief Daniels’s job,” Beth said.
“But thanks for telling the truth,” Lindsey said. She was glad he trusted them enough to tell them the real story, but still, she felt better when the island was behind them. Maybe it was an overactive imagination on her part, but she could swear she felt malevolence pulsing off of the island and pushing against the waves that splashed against its shores.
They were silent as Sully navigated a few more islands, slowing down as he approached one that was small in size and had only one house on it. Sully cut the engine and coasted up against the wooden dock that floated out from the island. One of the pilings was carved into the shape of a seagull, thus the name Gull Island, Lindsey presumed. Rick’s boat was there, signifying that he was home.
Beth handed Lindsey her portfolio and hopped onto the edge of the boat. She nimbly jumped onto the dock, taking the boat’s rope with her. She swiftly tied the boat up and reached out a hand to take her artwork back from Lindsey.
Lindsey scrambled over the side and caught the edge of the boat with her hand as the dock bobbed and weaved beneath her feet. She steadied herself and took a few steps forward, relieved when she kept her balance.
“Are you ready?” she asked Beth.
“I want to face him alone.”
“But I thought you wanted backup, in case you felt the urge to put a hurt on him,” Lindsey said.
“I want him to talk to me. I want him to explain this.” Beth held up the page of the catalog. “And I don’t think he’ll talk in front of an audience.”
“You’re sure?”
Beth grimaced, but she looked determined. She gave Lindsey a nod and turned toward the stairs, which led from the dock up the short hill to a deck above.
“I guess we wait,” Lindsey said.
Sully stepped out of the boat with two bottles of water in his hands. He gave one to Lindsey and they sat on the bobbing dock with the island to their backs and facing the shoreline they’d left behind.
“Think he’ll tell her the truth?” he asked.
Lindsey took a long pull off of her water bottle and thought about Rick. From what she knew of him, he was the type of person who in his opinion never erred. Even with evidence shoved under his nose, he would be unlikely to admit to any wrongdoing.
“No,” she said. She glanced up and saw Beth striding across the deck above. To get her mind off of the coming confrontation, she said, “Are there a lot of stories about the Thumb Islands that no one else knows?”
Sully glanced at her, and she appreciated the way the sunlight brought out the red in his mahogany curls. His face bore the tanned and weathered skin of a sailor, wrinkled before its time, mostly from squinting she guessed.
“How much time do you have?” he asked. His smile lit up his bright-blue eyes, and Lindsey liked that his good humor was so genuine.
She was getting the feeling that with Sully there were no hidden agendas or dark secrets lurking within. He didn’t seem to feel the need to prove his youth or stamina, not like some other men she could name. He seemed content with his life and himself, and she was surprised to find that it was a very attractive trait in a man.
She opened her mouth to answer when a scream ripped through the comfortable fabric of the day.
Sully was on his feet first, and he pounded down the dock toward the stairs. Lindsey was right behind him, trying to keep her balance as she ran on the wobbly wood. They scrambled up the stairs to the deck above. The door to the small house stood wide open. They raced forward, and Lindsey blinked when they stepped into the sudden darkness.
“Beth?” she cried. She hurried forward and slipped on a piece of drawing paper that was lying on the wooden floor. Sully caught her by the elbow and pulled her upright.
A quick glance about the room and it was clear that something horrible had happened here. Papers were strewn everywhere. Pictures were smashed and what looked like an awards shelf was barren, with just shards on the floor below it.
“Beth!” Lindsey cried. She was beginning to feel panic surge through her.
A whimper from the back of the house sounded. Sully and Lindsey strode through the main room together toward the back. There was a small kitchenette and a short hallway that led to a bathroom and two bedrooms. A quick glance at the first room, the bedroom, proved it to be empty. In the next room, which was outfitted to be a studio with an easel, a drawing table and a large desk with a computer, they found Beth.
She was standing in the center of the room, with one hand over her mouth and her portfolio hanging limply from the other. Her eyes were huge and fixated on a corner of the room. Lindsey stepped inside and followed her gaze.
Slumped in his desk chair, with the word LIAR written across his forehead, sat Rick Eckman. He wore his usual grubby T-shirt, but this time it was saturated with a deep red stain. Lindsey didn’t have to get any closer to know he was dead.
CHAPTER 9
A hiss escaped Sully as he stepped into the room after Lindsey. He immediately crossed over to Eckman and grabbed his wrist. It came as no surprise when he shook his head. Rick was dead.
“There’s nothing we can do for him,” Sully said. “Let’s go call the police.”
Beth looked like she would balk, but Lindsey took her portfolio out of her hand and led her outside. They waited, leaning against the deck railing while Sully used his cell phone to contact the local authorities.
The sun disappeared behind a fluffy roller of a cloud, and Lindsey felt her skin grow cold. Someone had murdered Rick Eckman. The realization sent shock waves coursing through her. She could feel Beth shivering beside her and knew she must be feeling it even more strongly.
She braced her friend with an arm around her shoulders. Beth leaned into her ever so slightly.
“It’s going to be all right,” she said. They were hollow words, and she knew it, but she had nothing else to offer. Beth nodded.
Sully snapped his phone shut and joined them. “I couldn’t get through to the police station, so Ronnie is calling it in. It’s going to be a while. Would you rather wait down in the boat?”
Lindsey knew she would prefer that, but she left the decision up to Beth. This was her boyfriend, after all.
“I think we should stay here and watch over him,” Beth said. Her voice, normally so light and cheerful, was low as if weighed down by the shock.
Sully and Lindsey nodded at one another. He leaned against the railing beside them, and they listened to the cries of a yellow warbler, obviously irritated to have strangers on his turf, as he made an indignant cheepa-cheepa-cheepa sound at them before taking flight with a flash of his yellow wings. Lindsey wished she could go with him.
The local police force was made up of two men and one woman who were stationed in a small brick building next to the post office on the main road that ran through Briar Creek. They had one boat that patrolled the islands, mostly during the summer months, when the resident and tourist season was at its peak.
The small, navy-blue motor boat was smacking hard against the waves as it raced toward the island. Sully pushed off of the rail where he’d been leaning and jogged down the wooden stairs to the dock below to help them tie up.
Lindsey watched from above as
Chief Daniels lumbered out of the boat, followed by Officer Plewicki. She had only met Daniels once. He was one of the two cops who’d had guns pointed at her face when the library alarm had gone off because she hadn’t known the fifteen-second rule. Thanks, Ms. Cole.
The chief’s uniform was snug around his generous middle, and he had a habit of hitching up his pants by the belt every few minutes, as if he spent his days in a constant tug-of-war with gravity.
Officer Plewicki, on the other hand, was a young and fit female with jet-black hair and a very pretty face. She was at least twenty years younger than Daniels, and although Lindsey didn’t know her well, she was betting she was twenty times smarter, too.
They talked to Sully on the lower dock for a few minutes and then climbed up the stairs toward the house. Plewicki was in the lead, and she hurried up the stairs, leaving her boss and Sully to follow.
She crossed the deck and tipped her head to study Beth. “How are you doing, Beth?”
“Fine,” Beth said, but her voice quavered with emotion.
Officer Plewicki nodded in understanding and turned to Lindsey. “Ms. Norris, I’m Officer Plewicki. I think we’ve met before.”
“Yes, at the library,” Lindsey said. “You’re a fan of C. J. Box’s books.”
Officer Plewicki smiled at her. “Very observant.”
Chief Daniels joined their group. His breath was sawing in and out of his mouth like a rusty blade through a piece of knotted wood.
“Ladies,” he gasped, trying to catch his breath. “We’re going to check out the house. You stay here.”
With that, he turned around and headed for the open door. Officer Plewicki nodded at them and followed.
Lindsey didn’t generally make snap decisions about people, but she was pretty sure that Chief Daniels was an idiot and that wasn’t just because he’d pulled a gun on her previously.
Sully must have read her expression, because he said, “No, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”
Lindsey turned to face him. “I’ve been getting that impression.”
“He means well,” Sully said. “Thankfully, Briar Creek and the islands don’t generally suffer much crime. The occasional stolen bicycle or barking dog . . .”
“Until now,” Beth said. “Now there’s a murder.”
Lindsey glanced at her friend. She was still sickly pale and wide-eyed. She wondered if Beth was going into shock.
“We don’t know that yet,” Lindsey said. “I mean, it could have been suicide.”
Beth looked at her with a glimmer of possibility that rapidly faded. “Suicide victims don’t usually stab themselves, do they?”
“Uh . . . no,” Lindsey said.
“Did you see a weapon in there?” Beth asked. “Something had to have made that hole in his chest.”
“It was a knife,” Sully said.
Both Lindsey and Beth looked at him.
“I recognize it from my naval training,” he explained. “That wound was a deep lateral slash, definitely made by a knife.”
“Did either of you see a knife in there?” Beth asked. They both shook their heads.
“Maybe the police will find something,” Lindsey said. Neither Sully nor Beth looked like they believed her, which was fine because she didn’t believe it either.
A half hour passed before Chief Daniels and Officer Plewicki rejoined them. They both wore blue gloves and matching grim expressions.
“Well.” The chief glanced around the deck as if uncertain of what to do next. “I guess we need to . . .”
“Seal off the scene,” Officer Plewicki finished for him. “I’ll just go down to the boat and get some crime tape. Do you want me to put a call into the medical examiner and state forensic lab while I’m down there?”
“Uh, yeah,” Chief Daniels said and tugged up his waistband. “Meanwhile I’ll question these folks.”
“Yes, sir,” Officer Plewicki said. She stripped off her gloves as she headed down to the boat to get her supplies.
Chief Daniels studied the three of them. He seemed at a loss for where to start. He frowned and then asked, “Did you touch anything when you were inside?”
“No,” they answered in unison.
“What about the door? Who opened it?” he asked. He seemed to be gaining confidence with each question.
“It was open when I got to it,” Beth said. She swallowed as if her throat was tight and she was trying to loosen it.
“You were the first to enter?” he asked. He stripped off his gloves and stuffed them into his back pocket.
“Yes, I came to talk to him,” Beth said. “I thought he had the door open because it was such a nice day. I called out but he didn’t answer.”
She stopped speaking, and Lindsey could tell she was mentally back at the moment she had crossed the threshold. The shock must have been a soul crusher. Geared up to confront the boyfriend who plagiarized her prized story and instead she found him dead.
Officer Plewicki returned and began to seal off the door with yellow plastic tape that read “Crime Scene Do Not Cross” in bold letters. The sight of it made Lindsey’s stomach whoosh down to her belly. She glanced out at the idyllic day and had to shake her head. A murder here? It seemed improbable, and yet there was a body just feet away from them.
“What did you do next?”
“I knocked on the door frame,” Beth said. “When he still didn’t answer, I went inside. I walked into the studio and there he was.”
“So, you were alone?” Chief Daniels asked. His gaze narrowed on her face.
“For a minute or two,” she said.
Lindsey did not like the way the chief was looking at Beth. His gaze was speculative, as if he was assessing the truth of her statement.
“We were right behind her,” Lindsey said.
The chief turned to look at her. She glanced at Sully with wide eyes.
“It’s true,” he said. “We heard her scream and raced up the stairs. She wasn’t up there more than a minute or two by herself.”
“What have you got there?” Chief Daniels asked.
Beth glanced down at the portfolio in her arms. “My artwork.”
He looked at Officer Plewicki and said, “We’re going to need to take that.”
“But . . .” Beth stammered and clutched the black case closer to her chest.
“It’ll be all right,” Officer Plewicki said. “I’ll take very good care of it. I promise.”
Lindsey stepped close to Beth and put an arm around her shoulders.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Beth said.
Chief Daniels glanced at her. “And what would that be?”
“I didn’t kill him,” she said.
“Now why would I think that?” he asked. His tone was deceptively mild.
Lindsey heard warning bells ring in her head. “I’m sure he doesn’t think that, Beth. That would be ridiculous.” She knew her voice had an edge to it, but she didn’t care.
“Would it?” Chief Daniels asked. He stared hard at Beth. “What was your relationship with the victim?”
“We were a couple,” Beth said. “For almost five years.”
“Were?” Chief Daniels asked.
“Yes, we broke up last night,” she said.
“Who broke up?” he asked. “What I mean is who broke it off?”
Beth’s eyes went wide as if she finally realized that the breakup between her and Rick did not help her at all and that she might as well have a big bulls-eye on her forehead.
“He broke it off,” she said. “But I agreed.”
“And why was that?” The chief looked smug as he pulled up his waistband again, and Lindsey had to bite back the urge to tell him to buy some suspenders.
“It was silly,” she said. “It was just a misunderstanding.”
“After five years, you must have been angry,” Chief Daniels said. He had a glint in his eyes like a fisherman about to hook the big one.
Officer Plewicki had the grace to l
ook down, letting Lindsey know even she didn’t like the way this was going. Abruptly, Sully pushed off of the railing.
“How about we finish this at the station, Chief?” he asked. “Miss Stanley and Miss Norris have had quite a shock; besides I’m sure you need to get ready to greet the state investigators. They won’t be able to find their way out here without an escort.”
Chief Daniels gave Sully an annoyed look. His jowls wobbled as he bit back what he really wanted to say, in favor of a quick nod.
“Fine, but I’ll want to talk to all three of you again,” he said.
“Understood,” Sully agreed. Wasting no time, he cupped both Lindsey’s and Beth’s elbows and led them to the steps.
“One more thing, Miss Stanley,” the chief called after them. “Was this your first visit out here today?”
“Why . . . yes,” Beth stammered.
“How about last night?” he asked, staring at her face. “Did you come out here last night?”
“No,” she said. “The storm was terrible. I was home all night.”
“Alone?” he asked.
“Yes, well, except for my cats,” she said. “But I don’t suppose they count as witnesses.”
“No, I don’t suppose they do,” he said.
Chief Daniels turned away from them and Sully swiftly ushered them to his boat. They pushed off the island less than five minutes later.
As they headed back to the mainland, Beth sat huddled in one of the boat’s chairs, hugging her knees to her chest. Lindsey sensed she was working through what had happened and gave her some time to herself.
She took the empty seat beside Sully and let out a pent-up breath. She had a bad feeling about this whole thing.
Sully must have, too, because he turned to her, and she noted the creases around his eyes were deeper, and he said, “I was wrong.”
“About what?” she asked.
“Chief Daniels,” he said. “He’s going to take the shortest route from point A to point B and completely disregard anything that doesn’t fit into his preconceived notion of what happened.”
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