Thunder Island

by Meryl Sawyer

  The sheriff’s deputies had turned the maids away this morning. Even if Tyler hadn’t spent the night in his bed, he must have showered and gone to the bathroom since the room had last been cleaned.

  He inspected the shower thoroughly and couldn’t find a single hair. Mentally crossing his fingers, he checked the toilet.

  Nothing.

  Then he spotted a wiry hair just under the rim. “Son of a bitch,” he said out loud. Using the tweezers, he bagged it.

  Jennifer was waiting for him in her room. “What took you so long? I had time to get a hair sample from Plotzy’s room. I’m running it right now.”

  “It was hard to get anything on Tyler.”

  The machine whirred and spit out an inch of tape: Sample does not match.

  “Okay, I never thought it was Plotzy,” Kyle told her.

  “Let’s run Tyler next. I’ve got a funny feeling about this case. Something’s bothering me, but I’m not quite sure what it is.” He used the tweezers to remove the hair from the plastic bag.

  “Yuck! Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

  “It’s a pubic hair and I’m damn lucky to have found it.” He carefully placed it on the slide she was holding in front of him.

  He put his arm around her as they waited. In the distance, they heard the wail of a police siren. Her whole body went stock still. The sound moved closer and closer.

  Hugging her to his side, he said, “It’ll be okay. I’ll do whatever it takes to clear you.”

  She gazed up at him with diamond-bright eyes. “How can I thank you?”

  Let me love you the way you deserve to be loved. Forget the past. Give us a chance.

  “The siren stopped,” she cried. “They’re not coming to Thunder Island.”

  The machine purred and out came another small piece of paper. Kyle grabbed it and tipped it so he could read it.

  “Sample does not match.”

  The spark of hope extinguished, something churned in the pit of his stomach. He did not like the way this was going. Too much was at stake.

  “That leaves Chuck.” She sounded as depressed as he felt. “He doesn’t have a motive.”

  “That we know about.” This time he prepared the slide for her while she removed a small piece of toilet paper from a plastic bag. “What’s that?”

  “Chuck must have cut himself shaving. You said blood was best. I have a hair sample, too, if you—”

  “No. Blood is better. Clamp down on the center of the sample. I’ll use my tweezers to pull away the extra paper. That way it’ll fit onto the slide.”

  As he removed the excess paper, he said, “You know, even if this sample comes up negative, there are several possible explanations. I was relying on how hyper Thelma Mae was about cleanliness. It’s possible the hair I found came from a previous guest, and the maid missed it when she cleaned the toilet. It didn’t appear as if Tyler spent much time in the room. His bed hadn’t been slept in.”

  “Really? Where was he last night when Chad was murdered?”

  “Damned if I know.”

  He put the sample into the machine. “Then there’s always the possibility that an outsider killed Chad. Then the DNA will never match.”

  She nodded slowly, her eyes on the machine. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know she was silently praying. He put his arm around her, and they waited, seconds ticking by like hours as the machine analyzed the DNA. At last the tape rolled out of the machine.

  He had trouble bringing himself to read it.

  Looking down, he saw: Sample matches.

  Chapter 34

  Jennifer spun around to Kyle, not believing the reading he’d gotten from the DNA Field Test. “Are you sure Chuck’s blood sample matches the one of the person who broke the wineglass? That’s hard to believe.”

  Kyle stared down at the printout. “The computer doesn’t lie.”

  “What could be his motive?”

  “Hey, the sleaze-master was marrying Chuck’s sister. Maybe he was pissed off enough to kill the guy.”

  “It’s possible,” she said, slowly accepting the machine’s verdict. “Whatever the reason, we can’t prove anything, can we?”

  Kyle hesitated a moment too long, then replied, “In court, we could duplicate these results—”

  “In court? That would mean I’d rot in jail for months, maybe—”

  “Jenny, Jenny.” He put both hands on her shoulders and leveled his intense green eyes on hers. “I have an idea. Chuck and Lisa are staying next door. I’m going over there and talk to them.”

  She waited for him to add something. When he didn’t, a dark undertow from the past weighed her down. How could she ever have thought she was going to be successful? She might have dreamed of Kesseldorf and a kennel of her own. But fate had been lurking all these years, slowly punishing her for the death of her daughter, but waiting to exact the ultimate revenge.

  She sank down into the chair beside the desk and stared straight ahead at the closed plantation shutters. The slats resembled bars … prison bars, she thought.

  Kyle shook her arm. “Jen, listen to me. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve got a great new piece of equipment. It’s a tiny microphone that can be concealed easily without all the wire and tape the police now have to use.”

  She wondered how this was going to help her.

  “It sends a signal to this transmitter, which records the entire conversation. I’m going to talk to the twins. Lisa must be in on it too. I know I can trip them up, and get them to confess.”

  “Why would they?” She heard her own voice sounding impossibly world-weary and drained of the will to fight.

  He pulled something out of his pack, then lowered himself onto the bed beside her. For a moment there was no sound in the room except the slow whoosh of the ceiling fan. He swept her, weightless, into his arms and held her close.

  The solid thump of his heart against hers should have been reassuring, but it only reminded her of how alone she’d been, and how alone she was going to be. In prison.

  “I’m going to bluff them into thinking Chad tape recorded their conversation the night he was killed. All the while, we’ll be using this guy”—he held up the tiny microphone that looked like a black button—“to record their reaction.”

  “You’re wasting your time,” she said flatly.

  “I’ll tell them the police sent the blood sample to a special FBI lab, and they IDed it as Chuck’s. I’ll say I got the info through my SEAL connections, and the sheriff hasn’t gotten the report yet. That should shake them.”

  She doubted it could work. There was something strange about the twins, and something cold and calculating about Lisa. Even a man as smart as Kyle wasn’t likely to trick them into telling the truth.

  He stood up and took something out of his backpack. “Look, I’ve got to hurry. I want to catch them while they’re still sipping cocktails around the pool at Weller’s. Let me show you how to work this. I want you to listen to the conversation and record every word. All I’ll have will be the hidden microphone. You’ll be the important person using this laser recorder.”

  “Laser recorder?”

  In the palm of his hand, he held a device the size of a paperback book. “It’s voice activated. In the old days, if we wanted to hide a tape, we turned it on and it ran and ran and ran. Imagine the miles of blank tape.”

  Again, he showed her the minuscule microphone in the palm of his hand. “This baby transmits sound to a recorder that can be as far away as half a mile. I’ve put this switch on, so you can listen.”

  “I have a thought,” she said, an idea forming. “Is the recorder portable? Can I take it with me?”

  “Sure. It’s battery operated. Where are you going with it?”

  “While you’re talking to Lisa and Chuck, I’m going to search their rooms. Maybe I can find something that will help us.”

  “Good thinking.”

  He rummaged through his pack, then handed her a wristwatch. �
��In case you find something, we need to be able to communicate. Press here.” He showed her a small tab at the side of the watch. “My Breitling will vibrate. I’ll know you have something to tell me. It may take me a minute to get to a place where I can talk to you, so be patient.”

  “Then what do I do?”

  “Hold the watch up to your ear to listen. Press on this button and keep it down while you talk, just like you would a two-way radio.”

  “Okay. I get it. My watch talks to your watch.” She strapped it on her wrist. Obviously it had been designed for the military. It was so big it hung on her like a bangle bracelet.

  “Like my watch, your watch will vibrate, if I need to talk to you.”

  His steady gaze was riveted on her face. For a long moment, he didn’t say a word. Finally, he spoke and his voice cracked with emotion.

  “I’m going to come through for you, Jenny. This time I’m not going to let you down.”

  “Kyle, don’t—”

  He smothered the words with a quick, searing kiss.

  “Listen to the recorder and buzz me if you find anything important.”

  Before she could say another word, he left her room. She slipped the laser recorder into the deep pocket of the ridiculous maternity dress she was wearing. The pillow strapped to her midriff was scratchy and unbearably hot. She unhooked the belt holding it in place and dumped it on the bed.

  Using her flashlight, she ventured up the dark hallway to Chuck’s room. He’d left it unlocked and she tiptoed inside. There wasn’t much of interest in his closet except for a suitcase filled with computer printouts of stock he’d traded on the Internet.

  On the small writing desk found in every room, she discovered a laptop computer and more printouts, these more recent. There might be a clue in them, but she didn’t know enough about stocks or Internet trading to decipher them.

  She glanced down at her own watch and saw nearly half an hour had passed. How was he doing? she wondered. Evidently, he wasn’t talking to Lisa and Chuck because he hadn’t activated the microphone.

  She closed the door to Chuck’s room and hoped she would have better luck with Lisa’s room. Halfway down the hall, a burst of noise made her jump. Kyle had turned on his microphone and the device in her pocket was picking up the transmission.

  There was some background chatter, then Raven’s voice came through. “I don’t know why Lisa can’t let Chuck have a life of his own.”

  Listening, Jennifer walked down the hall and let herself into Lisa’s room.

  “Things will be better after you’re married,” she heard Kyle tell Raven. “Lisa will get used to having you around.”

  Jennifer flashed the light around the room. What a mess! Clothes flung everywhere as if Lisa had tried on a multitude of outfits before deciding which to wear. She opened the closet and found it was so crammed with clothes that it would take her months to search through everything.

  Common sense said anything of importance would be in one of her multitude of purses or in the desk. Fashion magazines were heaped on the desk, but it appeared to be easier to search.

  She half listened to Kyle as he consoled Raven and rifled through the desk. Lisa’s bank account was overdrawn. There were overdue notices from Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. American Express had revoked her card.

  In the bottom drawer, she found an accordion file stuffed with bills and other medical records. She was ferreting through the sheets of reports when the watch dangling on her wrist began to shake. Kyle was trying to reach her. She realized she’d been so absorbed with the file that she hadn’t realized voices were no longer coming from the recorder.

  Turning the confounded watch around, she fumbled with it until she found the correct button. “Kyle?”

  “Yeah, babe. I’m here.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Tension and a shitload of it.” There was a slight pause and she thought the watch had malfunctioned. Then Kyle said, “Sorry about the cussing. I’m frustrated. I can feel something’s going on, but I don’t know what it is.”

  She kept flipping through the file, scanning the medical documents. Lisa had made notes on some of them.

  “Did anyone ask about me?” she wanted to know.

  “Sure. The minute I walked in they asked about you. I said I hadn’t seen you since this morning.”

  She read a questionnaire from the American Cancer Society that Lisa had filled out but never sent in.

  “Did you find anything in Chuck’s room?”

  “Not really,” she replied, quickly reading the form. “He trades a lot of stock. It would take time to go through it all, and we’d need someone with more expertise than I have to figure it out. It appears that Lisa’s broke. She has bills galore and enough overdue notices to paper the Taj Mahal.”

  “Okay, I’m going to get Chuck to take a walk on the beach with me. When I have him alone, I’m going to pull the bit about the secret recorder in Chad’s room, then I’m going to lay the DNA data on him:”

  “Good luck,” she said into the watch. “You be careful.”

  She replaced the questionnaire in the file, then looked at the next paper. Something in her brain clicked. She reread the one page inquiry from the American Cancer Society.

  “O negative,” she said out loud, then read the document more closely. “That’s it!”

  She twirled the watch around, pressed the button, and waited for Kyle to call her. Seconds passed. Nothing. She hit the button again, in case it wasn’t working.

  “Be patient,” she whispered to herself. “He’s probably talking to someone and can’t get away.”

  Minutes dragged by, then he finally answered. “Jen, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I figured out who really killed Chad. Sadie didn’t make a mistake. It was Lisa, not her brother.”

  “Jenny, the DNA—”

  “Listen to me! I just read a questionnaire from the American Cancer Society. Lisa had a bone marrow transplant from Chuck. She’s producing his blood now, right?”

  “I guess,” he replied, but he didn’t sound so sure.

  “She was AB positive before chemotherapy for leukemia. It destroyed her blood cells. Then Chuck donated his bone marrow, and her system started producing his blood. She became O negative. Don’t you see? They both have the exact same blood because it’s Chuck’s blood.”

  “Jesus H. Christ! I ask you, what are the chances of something like this?”

  “The test kit came up with a match because it compared blood to blood where the DNA is Chuck’s. If I’d used a hair sample, it wouldn’t have matched.”

  “Jennifer, you’re good, really good.”

  “Trust women’s intuition. I sensed Lisa was lying when she said she was with Chuck the night of the murder. Chad must have told Lisa that he wasn’t going to marry her, and she killed him.”

  She thought a moment, then added, “There’s one other thing. Didn’t Tyler tell you Chuck lost a ton of money day trading?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Lisa seems to be broke. Money could have figured into the murder somehow. Chad might have let Lisa know he was after her money.”

  “I’m going to get Lisa out on the beach alone and see if I can bluff the truth out of her.”

  Suddenly, her throat worked hard, sliding up and down as she tried to speak. “Darling, be careful. Lisa’s killed once with a knife. It’s pretty gutsy for a woman to attack a big man like Chad that way. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Jen. I’ve been in tighter spots. Listen to the recorder. With luck, we’ll crack this case yet.”

  “Bye,” she said with a terrible sense of foreboding.

  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Or cornered.

  She rushed back to her room and searched through Kyle’s backpack for a gun. Criminy! All he had was a smart gun. The Colt wouldn’t respond to her voice.

  Remembering the sharpshooter’s rifle with the scope in the c
loset, she grabbed it.

  From the recorder, she heard Kyle talking to Lisa. He was chatting her up, and saying he needed to talk to her privately.

  Jennifer ran down the stairs, the rifle in one hand. It was nearly dark. The sun had set but its light lingered in the sky. It was tricky to shoot at dusk; the light played tricks on the eyes.

  She rushed out the side door, through the garden and into the pool area, assuring herself that she wasn’t going to have to use the rifle. She just wanted to be nearby should Kyle need her.

  She plunged into the thicket of brambly bushes separating Thunder Island from Weller’s Guest House. As she moved along, she could hear people talking, but she couldn’t see them through the thick growth. From the sound of the conversation, Lisa and Kyle were walking on the beach.

  Jennifer shouldered her way through the brush until she came to the end of the foliage. She hung back just enough to conceal herself, then peered through the branches and saw Kyle with Lisa at the far side of the beach.

  Chapter 35

  Jennifer was too far up the deserted beach to see Lisa and Kyle’s faces, but the tiny bug Kyle put in his pocket transmitted their conversation.

  “I can prove you killed Chad,” Kyle said.

  Jennifer quickly raised the rifle. By looking through its scope she could watch Lisa. Darkness was falling quickly, but there was enough light to see the smug smile on Lisa’s face.

  She lowered the rifle, and listened to Lisa. “I didn’t kill him. I have an alibi, remember?”

  “The blood next to the broken glass is yours.”

  “That’s ridiculous. They haven’t tested the blood.”

  “I tested the blood with a DNA field test kit the military uses. It’s yours. No question about it.”

  “I don’t have to stand here and listen to these wild accusations. You can’t prove a thing.”

  “Yes, I can. Your medical records show you were AB positive until you had the bone marrow transplant. Now you’re O negative like your brother because his bone marrow is now yours and it produces the same blood—his blood.”

  There was a moment of silence. The only sound coming from the hidden microphone was the surf pounding the shore.