by Mara Webb
The track through the trees lead us up to the top of a hill with a single building. I wouldn’t have described it as a tower so much as a two-story building with a telescope on the roof, but it did seem to have a great view over Green Holt and the surrounding water. I looked around and quickly saw that we were at the highest point on the island.
“Who goes there?” a man shouted from the roof.
“Sadie Alden!” I yelled back. “I’m the peacekeeper, I’ve come to ask you about your sister.” There was a lengthy pause before the voice replied.
“Come up,” he said. I looked back at Miller and then proceeded through the door of the building.
The ground floor was made up of one single, empty room with an ascending staircase. No furniture, no artwork on the walls, but a small kitchenette with an electric kettle. As I climbed up the stairs, I saw that the second floor was identical; bare. This place seemed to only exist so that someone could get onto the roof. The next staircase took us up to a hatch. Miller shoved it upward with his shoulder and we stepped out onto the roof.
The view was astonishing. Turquoise waters surrounded the land below, luscious greenery burst out of the ground all around us and we could even see fish in the shallows. The man that had spoken to us was staring through his telescope intently; it was aimed at one spot on Green Holt.
“I’m Stuart, Natalie’s older brother,” he said without looking at us. “She’s been missing for a very long time, so I would love to know if you have information about what happened to her. I assume that’s why you’re here.”
“It is,” I said. How did you know that?”
“Lucky guess,” he sighed. “Also, my three sons on the beach down there,” he gestured in the direction we’d come from, “they just sent me a text to let me know you were coming.” He smiled and held up a small cell phone.
“We believe she may be connected to a death of a man on Green Holt,” I began.
“You think she killed someone?” he said, lowering the phone and staring at us. He was greying, had stubble on his cheeks that looked a few days old, and his face was gaunt.
“No,” I replied, although I suppose I shouldn’t rule out the possibility. “Did you know that your sister was dating someone from the other island?”
“I… I did, yes,” Stuart nodded. “They were very happy together apparently, she talked to me about him most nights.”
“You weren’t mad?” Miller asked.
“Mad? Why would I be mad?” he chuckled. “Because the guy was from over there?” I nodded. “You been paying too much attention to my children!”
“Yes, they said you threatened to never speak to them again if they dated anyone from Green Holt,” I explained.
“Jeez, I said that when they were in high school so that they would focus on their studies. If they spent their nights trying to flirt with the girls on the neighboring island, then they didn’t have a chance of passing a single exam. They aren’t all that bright, you may have noticed,” he sighed.
“Do you have any ideas about what happened to Natalie?” Miller asked.
“All I know is that she told me she was running away to get married and that she didn’t want me to tell our mom and dad. It was our little secret,” he smiled. “I haven’t told another soul, until right now. I figure there’s not much use lying to the peacekeeper, you probably know when someone is lying, right?”
“Er…yes,” I lied. The ring on my finger began to glow and I didn’t know what it was trying to tell me this time.
“Well, I haven’t ever had a postcard from her, or seen any wedding pictures, but I know she’s happy. I can feel it,” he said. Oh boy.
I pulled out my phone and loaded up the picture. I stepped close enough to show him, trying to read the micro expressions on his face. He pulled the phone out of my hand to get a closer look. “That’s Nat, I know it is. Where did you get this? Who is she with?”
“That is Robert Barton,” I said.
“Her husband?” Stuart said. “Where are they?”
“Robert was found dead in a bunker on Green Holt a few days ago. He had a passport and two tickets to Australia in his pocket. They didn’t make it off the islands,” Miller said.
“Did he have the gold?” Stuart asked.
“What gold?” I said.
“Natalie said that Robert found the treasure, the one that everyone on Green Holt goes crazy for. He actually found it; it was real. I think that’s how he was able to afford their passports actually. I think some of it went missing, but he still had enough to get them off the islands, or at least that was the plan,” Stuart explained.
“Who knew that he had it?” Miller asked.
“Natalie said Robert had told his boss,” Stuart replied. “He was giving in his notice that he wouldn’t need his job much longer. I don’t think he mentioned that he was planning on flying off to Australia.”
“Where did he work?” I said.
“Nat said Robert worked at the big house, he was a cook mostly, but did some other basic repairs around the place. Take a look for yourself,” he said, pointing at the telescope. “I check up on it all the time, just in case I saw something suspicious.”
I looked through the telescope and squinted to see properly through the eyepiece. I gasped as I realized that the house Stuart was looking at was the very one that Effie and I had tried to break into the night before.
“Who’s house is that?” I gasped.
“Old Toothless Pete,” Stuart said. “The guy is a weirdo, but he inherited a pretty penny from his parents. That’s their family manor.”
Could Pete have killed Robert? If he was truly the only one that knew Robert had the treasure, then that would give Pete a motive.
“Do you think Pete could have killed Robert for the treasure?” Miller asked.
“For some rich folk, no amount of wealth is ever enough,” Stuart replied. “I guess it’s possible, but I thought Robert had been living in Australia this whole time… I’ve not had much chance to think about it all yet.”
“That’s Pete’s house?” I repeated. If that was true, then had he been the one that set the lawn on fire outside Honey’s guest house? Was he trying to destroy the crime scene because he was involved in Robert’s murder? He didn’t seem like a killer, but most killers are just regular looking people. Maybe I had it all wrong.
“Hey, what’s that?” Miller asked. He had hold of the telescope and had changed the angle so that it was pointing down towards the crumbled wall between the two islands.
“What’s what?” Stuart asked.
“There’s some strange colored rock underneath the rubble, it looks like… oh boy,” he trialed off.
“Are you planning to clue us in or just keep mumbling to yourself?” I teased.
He beckoned me closer with a hand gesture and I looked through the telescope at the area he was inspecting. In the shallow water where the wall had collapsed it seemed that there was something solid and still, large enough that it had caught Miller’s eye.
“Is this…?” I paused. Stuart was tapping his foot loudly behind us both, clearly frustrated with the stop-start nature of our commentary of events. “Sorry, it just looks like the islands—”
“Are connected?” Stuart said. “Yeah, I know. I found some old journals from a relative that had been involved in building the wall. It was never intended as a barrier to keep us all apart, it was initially to help with the rough waters that used to crash through the channel between Green Holt and Skerry. Over time the islands drifted a little closer together, the waters calmed down and people forgot why the wall was there. The whole feud has been fabricated because word of mouth was the only source of information.”
“They were talking about Churchill over there,” Miller said.
“Oh, I bet they were. I don’t know where that nonsense came from either,” Stuart laughed. “That’s why it’s so ridiculous that Natalie and Robert had to fight so hard to be together. Look down there, Green Holt an
d Skerry are one huge island, only when you are this high up and there’s low tide can you see it. We aren’t two islands at war, we are one island with a common-sense deficiency.”
“I think we need to get everybody up here to see this,” I said. “It might be the only way to put an end to the fighting.”
“Yeah, I think there was some island movement over the past week that cause the wall to fall down. I see it all from up here, but sometimes people are so afraid of the truth that they actively avoid it. I’ve been asking people to come and see for themselves, but they figured I was just a Green Holt spy,” Stuart tutted.
“Well, that’s crazy talk, but I will do what I can to help you out,” I smiled. “Not right now though, I have to go see a pirate about a bribery.”
I turned to walk away, and Miller jogged a few paces to catch up. “Pirate? You think Pete is the blackmailer?” he asked.
“I think Pete is up to something,” I replied. “Robert worked at that big house and the only person that knew he had found the treasure was Pete. That means Pete would have enough of a motive to kill him in order to steal the gold.”
“I don’t know, how come you ended up with that stone?” Miller asked.
“Hey, I don’t have all the answers yet, but I feel sure that once we catch the person blackmailing Jeff that we will be a whole lot closer to the truth,” I said, marching through the palm trees back toward the beach.
“Did you find him?” the three men on the sand shouted. They were standing now, seemingly taking turns with a pair of binoculars to spy on the opposing island.
“Yeah, your dad says that the islands are connected. Your feuding days are coming to an end fellas!” I yelled.
“Oh, he’s always spouting that theory. I love him, but the guys a wack job,” the tall one laughed.
“Well, he’s right! Go see for yourself,” I shouted as I climbed into the boat. Our parting view of Skerry was of three men scrambling up the dirt track up toward the telescope tower on the hill. Once I shared the news that the islands were connected with the folk on Green Holt then hopefully the fighting would end. Not bad for a morning’s work.
17
“What makes you think I want to be involved in this?” Fitz asked.
“You are my familiar, are you not?” I replied. Fitz regarded me with a look of horror on his face as I had done the unimaginable and asked him to be useful.
“Why don’t you have me do something else, like cheerleading the crime-fighting team from a safe distance?” Fitz suggested. “Gooooooooo Miller!” he shouted, jumping up and waving his paws in the air.
“As helpful as that is, I need you to find Greta,” I repeated. This was the third time I’d asked him now. Miller and I had made it back to the main island and rushed to the doctor’s office to find Jeff, Effie, Kate and Brielle. Fitz had been chasing dry leaves in the wind behind the building.
Miller was inside pulling a plan together and I was crouching on the sidewalk talking to a cat. This was not how I expected this week to turn out, but I could hardly be surprised. Among the many things that was currently concerning me, the fact that I hadn’t seen Greta recently was a big one. Her ghost showed up all the time, I spoke to her most days. Where was she now?
I also would have expected to see Robert’s ghost on Green Holt, but I hadn’t seen a single spirit over there. Something about it hadn’t felt right. Anytime I thought about it, the peridot stone gave off a dull glow. I figured the ring was trying to play a game of ‘hotter-colder’ with me, giving me small signals when I was getting closer to a clue.
The wind had picked up a little and more dry leaves started to spiral upward, catching Fitz’s eye and making it hard to keep him on task. Considering that my cat familiar was a shifter, so could also be in a human body, would it be weird to pick him up? I needed him to focus, I wasn’t left with many options. I scooped him up with my hands around his chest, my thumbs hooked under his arms, and looked him in the eye.
His back legs were now dangling five feet off the ground and he looked alarmed to say the least.
“All right! Okay, I’ll go look,” he protested, squirming wildly against my grasp. “Ghosts only tend to stay away if there is some other big, bad force in the area. Greta was probably just staying away for her own safety.”
“What do you mean? What kind of force?” I asked. I felt as though I had his attention now, so lowered him back onto the sidewalk.
“Ghosts are a fragile thing, in their own way,” Fitz explained. “It’s a very delicate balance to keep the dead among us in a form that can disappear, travel through walls, talk… If something starts to mess with the energy, then ghosts might not be able to appear in an area. If Greta sensed that something weird was going on around Green Holt then she wouldn’t have been able to go over there even if she wanted to.”
“This sounds ominous, Fitz,” I sighed.
“Yeah, ominous is kind of the vibe around here 24/7,” he said. “But hey, the Shell’s Day stuff will be a welcome break from the harrowing reality of life in Hallow Haven. We’re here for a good time, not a long time, baby!” What?
Fitz was already bounding away from the building in the direction of the forest that covered much of the main island. I watched him disappear into the trees, then a swarm of birds race skyward in his wake. It seemed that he was helping, but with a little bird-chasing detour en route.
“Are you ready?” Miller asked, leaning out of the doctor’s office to see what was taking me so long.
“Yeah, I’ll just be a second,” I replied. The ring on my finger was glowing and I could see little bursts of blue lightning across my hands again. This had only been happening when I had been in physical contact with Miller, so I wasn’t sure why it was happening now. I figured I should give myself a minute to take a few breaths before launching into the next phase of our crime-busting mission.
“Okay,” Miller smiled. He stepped back inside, and I clenched both fists to hide my view of the electricity fizzling on my palms.
“Sadie? Are you okay?” I turned to see the source of the concern. It was Ryder. I hadn’t realized how close we were to his hiking store, but he had likely seen Miller and I walking past it on our way to find the rest of our group.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” I answered. It was a lie. The peridot stone was now producing a green light so bright it was casting a shadow behind Ryder’s body. He reached out to grab my hand and I saw the blue lightning surge towards the ring, the energy it was sapping from me was making me feel weak and I staggered backwards.
It was a dizziness I had experienced before. I’d spent many a lazy summer’s day as a teenager waiting in long lines at Kings Dominion in Virginia, the blazing heat beating down on us as we watched the rollercoasters race around the tracks. You could be waiting for up to an hour before it was your turn to ride, so much so that they had a procedure for fainters.
I found this out on a day when the thermometers were reading 110 degrees and I had neglected to pack a water bottle. I passed out and was dragged out of the way by a staff member that couldn’t have been more than three years older than me. Things have probably changed now, but I was given a fast pass for the rest of the day as compensation.
In hindsight, I probably should have just gone home and lay down, but teenagers don’t always make wise choices. I used that fast pass on every ride in the park and then went home with a sunburn that forever changed the skin on my shoulders. As Ryder caught me and lowered me to the ground, I thought about fainting at the park and considered that this was filling me with more adrenaline than any rollercoaster ever could.
“Sadie,” he said again. It was almost a whisper, or was my hearing on the fritz? Muffled voices followed. I felt his hands retreat, he was no longer holding me. My eyes were closed but shadows danced over my eyelids as if I was surrounded by movement. A distinctive growl suggested that Miller was now outside with us.
I hadn’t spent all that much time with him in his werewolf form, but neithe
r had he. It was so new that it was impossible to predict how the creature would react in any given situation. I imagined that coming outside to find your sort-of-girlfriend unconscious in the arms of a romantic rival wasn’t ideal.
I felt arms scoop beneath me again and I was lifted off the ground. I was still feeling too weak to open my eyes but could detect that I was now inside a building as the artificial lights penetrated my eyelids. I was put down onto a horizontal surface and felt hands on my face, jarring me awake.
“I’m fine, I’m okay,” I complained. I started to sit up but felt restrained by an arm pushing me back down. I opened my eyes and saw that it was Brielle.
“Don’t rush,” she urged. “What happened out there?”
“I fainted, it’s not a big deal,” I said, batting her hands away and sitting up.
“What did he do to you?” Miller snarled. He was pacing the small doctor’s examination room with his arms folded. I wasn’t sure if my eyes were still adjusting, or if his stubble looked longer. His eyes were darker though, there was no mistaking that. I wasn’t sure if Miller was currently one hundred percent in his human form.
“Nothing, I just fainted, and he caught me. He’s the reason I didn’t hit my head on the ground, he’s a hero!” I said, lifting up my hands in a faux cheer. It didn’t seem that Miller was on board with singing Ryder’s praises, so I put my hands down. “Where is he now?”
“Gone, I… I asked him to leave,” Miller said.
“Asked? Or threatened?” I replied. Effie and Kate burst into the room before Miller could reply and were followed by a slow-moving Jeff who was shuffling through the doorway.
“Sadie! Are you okay? I heard you swooned into the arms of a dreamboat outside, is that right? Dang, how come you get all the stud action round here?” Kate laughed. “I would give my left arm to fall into the hands of the local eye candy. Maybe I should just start collapsing in random places around town, see who catches me.”
