Shannon’s cheeks blushed. “And took in quite a few details.”
“She was standing on the dock while I tidied A Dog’s Cat. She’s hard to ignore.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I think you’re jealous.” Jake winked at her. “Anyway, I didn’t connect the dots until now.”
“What dots?” Debi asked.
Jake ignored her question. Shannon could fill her in about the rock if she wanted to.
“What’s her angle?” Jake asked Lyndon.
“How come you’re so interested?”
“I miss my uncle,” Shannon said. “We’re following his footsteps as a tribute to him.”
Nice improvisation, Jake thought.
“The gossip going was that Nicole was with your uncle when he disappeared. Then she appears months later and says no, says she got off his boat in George Town,” Lyndon said.
“Any idea where we can find her?” Jake asked.
“Not unless she shows up. Like I said, I haven’t seen her this season.”
“None of this makes any sense,” Debi said.
Jake understood Debi didn’t want to face that her husband might have been cheating on her, but the evidence was starting to convince him. He could tell by the storm crossing Shannon’s face, she didn’t like the idea either.
Debi held the painted sign as if someone might steal it at any moment.
“When did he paint this?”
“I think he came through here sometime in January. He didn’t let you know where he was?”
“We hadn’t heard from him in a while,” Shannon said.
Lyndon thought for a moment. “That makes sense. He wouldn’t have been able to email or phone from here. Two of the cell towers were damaged in a storm just after New Year’s. Two months later, the repair crew showed up.”
“Can we access the Internet now?” Shannon asked.
“Not from here, but it’s working at Staniel Cay.”
* * *
Jake strolled along the dock at Compass Cay with a beer in his hand. He could get used to this. Maybe he should think about running a small marina in the Bahamas. How hard could it be?
This place didn’t even offer fuel. The water maker supplied boats with drinking water. The store, if you could call it that, didn’t carry basics like milk or cheese. But the beauty of the island attracted boats of all sizes.
The smallest boat in the marina was a thirty-foot sailboat. The largest, a one-hundred-and-twenty-foot luxury yacht. There were even rumors Johnny Depp came here sometimes from his private island a little farther north.
Located north of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, fishing in the waters surrounding Compass Cay was legal. The snorkeling was said to be world class. Yup. He could definitely see living here full time.
He reached A Dog’s Cat and found Shannon and Debi lying on top of towels on the trampoline.
“Low tide hits in about forty-five minutes. Anyone want to snorkel the cave?”
Shannon shaded her eyes with her hands. Her skin was starting to bronze, and the shell-shocked look she carried when she’d arrived in Florida had been replaced with something more like contentment.
“He who is afraid of sharks is willing to go into the deep blue ocean?”
“You interested or not?”
Shannon rolled off the trampoline, and Jake tried not to ogle her. He jumped on board and opened the forward locker. “I’ll get the gear.”
“What about Peanut?” Debi asked.
“She can hang in the dinghy while we snorkel. We’ll bring a towel to give her some shade.”
Jake lay on the surface and reached deep into the locker. He pulled out three snorkels, masks, and sets of fins, and tossed them on the trampoline.
Ten minutes later, Jake tied the dinghy to a mooring ball just outside the cave’s entrance.
Across the bay, a dinghy rattled along the shore with one man aboard.
“Do you think that’s Darren?” Shannon asked.
With the sun reflecting off the water it was hard to tell. Jake squinted but didn’t get a better view. “Maybe.”
“Is it safe to leave the dinghy here?” Debi asked.
“What can happen?” Jake pulled a set of flippers from the mesh bag and handed them to Shannon. He gave the next set to Debi and kept the last for himself. He sat on the dinghy’s pontoon, dipped his feet in the water, and wet the flippers. He wouldn’t tell the women visions of sharks creeped him out. No way would he admit to being nervous about the sea creatures. Sea creatures with very big teeth. He spat in his mask, rubbed the lens, and pulled the strap around his head.
He slid into the water. Shannon and Debi followed. The three swam toward the cave. The sun was already on the west side of the island, and with the cave opening to the east, there was barely enough light. Piddles barked until they were inside the cave walls. Then Jake couldn’t hear her.
Hundreds of fish swam around them as if expecting food. Fish of all colors and sizes jigged and jagged inside the cave. One bumped into his calf. He jerked away as if a five-inch fish could hurt him. The sound of his own breathing through his snorkel as he floated on the surface lulled him into comfort.
A wave pushed him sideways, and he found himself arm to arm with Shannon. She didn’t move away, so he didn’t either. They swam in unison, the lengths of their bodies touching. What was he? A teenager with a crush?
Shannon tapped his arm and nodded toward the entrance. He guessed she’d had enough and was ready to head back to the dinghy. They swam outside of the cave back to the open ocean.
Jake lifted his head out of the water. He spat his snorkel from his mouth. Where the hell was the dinghy? The mooring balls were all empty. He kicked his feet and propelled his head farther out of the water.
“What do we do?” Shannon asked.
“Peanut,” Debi said.
Made up of fossil coral, the shoreline around the cave was ragged. The sharp formations and steep incline would prevent them from going ashore.
“Look. It’s over there.” Debi pointed halfway across the bay toward Compass Cay.
“You two stay here and hang on to a mooring ball. I’ll swim to it,” Jake said.
“I don’t want to split up. Let’s all swim,” Shannon said.
“We don’t have time to argue. It’s floating farther away.”
“You’re right.” Shannon took off in an overhand crawl, kicking her fins toward the dinghy. Debi followed.
Jake had no choice. He stuck his snorkel back in his mouth and kicked hard.
Shannon reached the dinghy first. Piddles danced on board, barking and whining. Shannon hauled herself over the side, turned and offered a hand to Debi. Piddles jumped on Debi and licked her neck, snuffing and snorting.
Jake pulled himself aboard, plucked his fins off his feet, and ripped his mask off his head. He moved around Shannon to the bow and pulled the line onboard. He examined the line. No damage or frays.
“What happened?” Shannon rested her wet hand on his forearm.
“I guess I didn’t tie this right.” Jake surveyed the horizon, looking for Darren’s dinghy.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Eighteen-Year-Old Boy
Somewhere in Canada
Ten Years Ago
The boy has been waiting for this day for two years. Finally, he’ll get the money he deserves and get out of this place.
He’s applied for the Police Foundations course at Humber College in Toronto. If he gets as much as his sister did, he can afford the tuition. He remembers the day his guardians told his sister how much money she’d get, and he’s been making plans ever since.
Just like every family discussion, they’re all sitting in the living room. They’re such dorks, they probably don’t remember they’re sitting exactly where they sat when they told his sister she’d inherited money from their parents. His guardian has changed her hairstyle four times in the last two years. Even at her age, she likes to be trendy. His sister copi
es each new hair style, striving to be like their guardian. Doesn’t she realize how insulting that is to their mother?
Family meetings are painful. He wants the number, not the lead up conversation. He takes in his lame-o sister. She’s in her red sweater phase. Does she know she’s worn that sweater sixteen days this month? Probably not. She still lives in this house. He can’t call it home. Home was with his parents. The second he has his money, he’s gone. No more guardians. No more living with the favored one.
His guardian takes his sister’s hand and says, “This is going to seem a bit odd.”
Why is she speaking to his sister and not to him? This is his time. The pit of dread appears in his stomach. He’s not going to get as much money. One more time his sister is favored.
His guardian clears her throat. She turns to him. “I’ve made your favorite for dinner, and I got the cake you love.”
The taste of bile rises in his throat. Now he’s really nervous. “I’ve got plans tonight.”
“It’s your eighteenth birthday. I was hoping we could have a family dinner. You’re now a man,” she says.
He’ll say anything to speed up this talk. “That sounds great. But I need to be done by nine. Is that okay?”
She’s satisfied. He can tell by the smile on her face.
“Now to the reason we’re here. You remember your sister received her inheritance on her eighteenth birthday?”
He almost laughs out loud. As if he doesn’t remember everything. He doesn’t think he can keep the snark out of his voice, so he just nods.
His guardian hands him a piece of paper, and he skims it just to get to the number. He drops the paper to the floor. He can’t believe it. Why would his parents do this? “Is this true?”
His guardian looks uncertainly at his sister. “Yes.”
He’s so surprised by the number, his brain changes. Just like the day the cops came to his house, and he heard the words, “Both parents were killed,” it feels like an egg is cracked over his head and slides down his brain. This is the second time in his life he’s felt it. He knows that for sure.
His brain ignites, and he remembers the seconds before the police arrived. This is the first time his memory has taken him earlier than the statement, “Both parents were killed.”
He tiptoes across the carpet and creeps down the stairs, staying close to the wall so the babysitter can’t see him from the hallway. Muffled voices make it sound like more than one person is visiting.
He’s disappointed. Now he won’t be able to brag to his friends about a restricted movie he saw and they didn’t. If she has more than one friend over, they just sit and talk. Boooooring. It’s only when she’s alone with her boyfriend that the bad movies get played. He rolls his eyes at no one. He almost turns and goes back to bed, but then he thinks maybe he’ll see something he can hold against her the next time she babysits. Something that would make her let him stay up past his bedtime.
He reaches the bottom step and sits in the same place as when he snooped on his dad.
“What’s wrong?” the babysitter asks.
The boy hears a tremor in her voice. He pokes his head around the corner, just far enough to see who’s there. He widens his eyes. Two police officers stand in the front hall, both holding their caps underneath their elbows, pressed against their sides. Both look serious. The boy whips his head behind the wall and pinches one of the police cars on his pajamas. He wants them to go away.
“There’s been a car accident,” the female police woman says.
Why is his brain doing this now? Does this mean he’ll remember more? His mother’s smell. His father’s voice. That’s what he wants most. He doesn’t feel like a man. He’s eight years old again. He’s starting to think his brain is hiding something horrible from him, and that’s why it won’t take him earlier on that awful night.
He presses his thumb against his forehead. He stops the video. Just for a few seconds. “It’s three times as much as she got.” He points to his sister. This is the first time he’s been favored over her, and he doesn’t understand.
“That’s wonderful,” his sister says. Like she’s not upset by this. As if she’s happy for him.
“Why?” he asks.
His guardian is looking at his sister when she speaks. “I can’t answer that.”
He’s not sure he believes her. Except maybe she didn’t know what was in the will before his parents died. If that were true, she couldn’t answer.
“You can’t or won’t?”
“I thought you’d be happy.”
“I am. I just don’t understand.” After dinner, he’ll tell them he’s moving out. He already has an apartment lined up in Toronto near Humber College. He’ll let his guardian have one happy dinner, then he’ll drop the hammer.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Shannon
Staniel Cay, Bahamas
Shannon sat on the dinghy tube, held a bag of wilted lettuce in one hand and the straps of Peanut’s harness in the other. Jake steered the dinghy toward Pig Beach on the cay just north of Staniel Cay. Annoyed she hadn’t eaten the lettuce before it had rotted, she’d decided it was better to feed the pigs than to toss the slimy mess overboard.
The day before, they’d sailed from Compass Cay to Big Major Cay and now, A Dog’s Cat bobbed at anchor several hundred meters to the west of them. She and Jake had managed to anchor the boat without bickering about whether the anchor caught or whether they were too close to the next boat. He seemed shaken after the dinghy drifted off the mooring ball. He probably thought it was his fault because he hadn’t tied the knot properly. Nothing bad had come of it, so she didn’t quite get why he was so upset.
She balanced beside Jake, her leg lightly touching his, and she felt his heat. She shifted an inch toward the bow. All she had to do was think about The Loser hurting her by cheating, and whatever she felt for Jake evaporated. No matter how attractive Jake was, she would not, and she meant it, would not fall for him. He kept too many secrets. One minute he looked at her as if she was ice-cream with a cherry on top and the next as if she was an ice-cube. He hadn’t been open about his past. There was something he was hiding. So trust was not an option.
Debi pointed to a beach on Big Major Cay. “There’s a pig.”
The feral pig ran from the shade on an almond tree to the shoreline and into the water. One pig was black. Another pink. A smaller one was blond with brown patches. The long snouts reminded Shannon of anteaters, just fatter and shorter.
“There must be at least ten of them.” Shannon tightened her grip on Peanut. “Do they swim?”
Jake throttled down and slowed the dinghy. “Sure looks that way. The pigs must be expecting food.”
Four of the pigs entered the water and swam toward the dinghy with their rounded nostrils in the air.
“Can they drink salt water?” Debi asked.
“I don’t think so,” Shannon said. “I read there are three fresh water springs on this island. That must be where they get water.”
Peanut wrestled free from Shannon’s grasp and jumped on the front dinghy tube, slipping toward the water.
Shannon had never seen Debi move so fast. Her aunt jumped to the bow and grabbed Peanut just as her head submerged.
“Maybe we should have left her on the boat.”
“You want me to turn around?” Jake asked.
Debi connected Peanut’s leash to her harness. “No. I’ll hold her while Shannon feeds the pigs.”
The details of the sandy bottom shone through to the surface of the flat water, including starfish, shells, and sand drifts. Shannon ran her hand over the dinghy rubber.
“I’ve been thinking we should paint a name on the dinghy.”
“We could name her Tender To A Dog’s Cat,” Debi suggested.
Jake circled closer to a pig, which was now in water up to its pink belly. “Bad idea. If we have the dinghy ashore, it’s like announcing the boat’s empty and an easy target to rob.”
“A
lways the cop,” Shannon said. “Not everyone steals.”
“No, but some people do, and I see no reason to make it easy for them.”
Shannon put her hand on Debi’s shoulder. “How about Waterfall?”
Debi gave her full dimple smile. “In memory of Bobby. I love it.”
Shannon cleared her throat. “I’d love to take credit for that thought, but I was thinking if someone sees the name on the dinghy who knew Uncle Bobby, they might talk to us.”
“That’s actually a good idea,” Jake said.
“Gee thanks. I do have one once in a while.”
Jake pointed behind her back. “The pig is getting close. You ready with the lettuce you didn’t get around to eating?”
Shannon stuck out her tongue. “Drive farther up. It probably can’t eat while it’s swimming.”
They reached a depth of two feet, and the pig rushed the dinghy. Before they reacted, the pig placed its front hoofs on the bow, pressing the top close to the water.
Peanut barked frantically.
“Shit, it has tusks,” Shannon said. “Move away from it.”
Jake put the engine in reverse.
The pig’s hoofs slid off the rubber as Jake drove into deeper water. Debi grabbed the lettuce from Shannon and tossed it in the direction of the pig.
Jake motored farther off shore. “Okay. That was a bad idea.”
Debi studied her hand.
Shannon grabbed Debi’s hand. “You’re bleeding. It bit you?”
“It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry so much.”
“It is something to worry about,” Jake said. “That could get infected.”
“We need to get connected to the Internet and check out how to treat it,” Shannon said.
Debi watched blood drip off her hand and into the ocean. “You’re addicted to Google. We could do it the old fashioned way and check the first aid book.”
“It’s not going to explain how to treat a wild pig bite.”
They reached A Dog’s Cat, and Jake went straight to the medical kit. On his way by he grabbed a bottle of anti-bacterial soap and handed it to Debi. “Wash your hands. Make the water as hot as you can stand it. Shannon, log on and see what antibiotic we should use.”
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