Sully cut the engine and glided up to the dock. Their boat bumped alongside the bobbing wooden planks with a gentle nudge, and Charlie hopped out and tied up their boat while Sully secured their belongings. Charlie gave Lindsey a hand to help her climb out, and Robbie followed her. Sully stepped out last, and as a group they headed toward the stairs that scaled a sharp rocky cliff to the island above, where the houses perched overlooking the water.
The Thumb Islands had been a resort location for the very wealthy in the early nineteen hundreds. Much like Newport, Rhode Island, it was a famous spot for wealthy New Yorkers to escape the city back in the day. The original buildings had been primarily Victorians, with arched windows, turrets and wraparound porches. It had been a thriving community. One of the islands had a fancy hotel, another a grocery, and still another had a movie theater and a bowling alley. All of that had changed after the hurricane of ’thirty-eight, when the wind and rain had wiped clean most of the islands, dumping the towering Victorians into the bay.
Since then, the houses were mostly summer cottages. The buildings now were a mixed bag of utilitarian and ostentatious, from islands that were essentially big rocks with one cottage to large hilly multi-acre islands that sported several mansions with all the amenities. Gull Island, like Bell Island, where Sully’s parents lived, was one of the larger and more civilized islands.
The Carstairs’s house was a modern building, one of the few in the archipelago, and it was a nod to midcentury modern design, made primarily of concrete and steel, with loads of angles and floor-to-ceiling windows offering breathtaking views of the bay. Lindsey didn’t often get house envy, but for this one, she definitely felt a twinge.
“Rather posh, isn’t it?” Robbie asked as they reached the upper deck and took in the house before them.
“Posh? Does that mean awesome?” Charlie asked. “Because it totally is.”
“Yes, it does,” Lindsey said. “And it sure is.”
Lindsey wondered whether Chloe was home. She glanced down at the dock and noted that there were two boats in addition to their own. There were other houses on this island, so it was hard to tell whether the boats were Chloe’s or someone else’s, since it was a communal dock.
A path led from the upper deck toward the center of the island. It was lined with red cedar shavings, and they trudged along the path, which turned into a big circle. Individual paths led to each of the houses. It appeared the houses had all been built around the same time, as they were all modern looking, with the same squared-off, concrete-and-steel look.
“How do we know which one belongs to the Carstairs?” Lindsey asked.
“My mom said it’s the one closest to the dock,” Sully said.
He took the shortest route from the circle to the path that led to the house they’d seen from the dock below. Narrow patches of trees separated each house, giving the residents a bit of privacy. Lindsey wondered what would happen if two residents took a dislike to each other. There really was no way to escape a nosy neighbor out here.
They approached the front door. Lindsey glanced at her companions. Chloe had met Sully and Robbie before, but she hadn’t met Charlie. Maybe the man bun was a good thing. It made him seem less threatening.
Lindsey took the lead since she and Chloe had formed a rapport over being the victims of Grady’s interest. She looked for a doorbell but couldn’t find one, so she settled for knocking on the wooden frame, since the door was made mostly of frosted glass. She stepped back while they waited. No one answered. She glanced at Sully, who nodded, before she knocked again. Still there was no answer.
“Do we know what her boat looks like?” Charlie asked. “Was it one of the ones tied up at the dock?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her come in or go out, and I have no idea which slip at the marina belongs to the Carstairs,” Sully said.
“So she might not be here,” Robbie said.
“But there were two boats down there,” Lindsey said. “Somebody has to be on the island.”
She glanced at the other houses. Neither of them showed any signs of life. She tried the door handle. It wasn’t locked. She looked at the group.
“Should we go in?” she asked. “She might be armed and could shoot at us.”
“That would be a ‘no’ vote from me,” Robbie said.
“Ditto,” Charlie echoed.
“I’ll go in,” Sully said.
“I’m coming with you,” Lindsey said.
He looked as if he wanted to argue, but Lindsey lifted her eyebrows and he wisely thought better of it. “Stay behind me.”
“Okay,” she said. She turned to Charlie and Robbie. “Can one of you watch the door and the other the boats? If anyone tries to run, I want someone to see them.”
“I’ll take the boats,” Charlie said.
“Door,” Robbie said.
They left and Sully and Lindsey turned back to the house. Sully pushed the door open, and they stepped inside. Lindsey wasn’t sure whether to call out a greeting or not. Sully glanced at her and put a finger to his lips. He cocked his head, listening. Clearly they were going for the stealth entry.
The door opened up into a foyer. There was a small table with a vase of dried flowers to the right, and the air smelled nicely of lavender and vanilla. As they moved out of the entrance and into the open layout of the house, Lindsey noticed the colors were warm shades of rich brown and pale green. They moved carefully across the dark wooden floor as if expecting it to creak.
Sully paused by the staircase to their right. He glanced over the railing at the kitchen, small dining nook and large living room. There was no one there. Lindsey pulled him close and whispered in his ear, “I’m going to call out a hello. Maybe she was just upstairs and didn’t hear us knock.”
“Sounds good,” he whispered back. He pulled them into the shadows by the wall and nodded.
Lindsey cleared her throat. “Hello? Chloe? It’s Lindsey and Sully. We were just in the area and wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“In the area? Really?” Sully asked, keeping his voice quiet.
Lindsey waved at him to shush. She strained to hear whether there was a response. There was, but it wasn’t Chloe answering them.
She heard a thump and a crash and the sound of footsteps pounding down the hallway, headed in their direction. A door slammed into a wall, and Chloe screamed, “Look out! He has a gun!”
CHAPTER
14
Sully tucked himself over Lindsey and hauled her to the ground. Someone ran down the steps, but instead of going past them and out the front door, they went into the living room. A door banged open, and then it was quiet. Sully and Lindsey popped their heads up.
“Charlie is out there watching the boats,” she said.
“I’m on it.”
“Be careful.”
“You, too.” Sully kissed her quick and then darted across the house, slipping out the door that the person with the gun had just run through. Lindsey thought about going after him but reminded herself that he was ex-navy. He knew what he was doing. She needed to check on Chloe.
She hurried to the stairs and climbed them two at a time. “Chloe? Chloe, are you all right?”
The front door opened when she was halfway up, and she glanced around to see Robbie enter the house.
“Sully sent me in here. Is everything all right?”
“I don’t know,” Lindsey said. “I haven’t found Chloe yet.”
There was a thump on the floor in a room above, and Chloe yelled, “Here. I’m in here! Please hurry!”
Lindsey broke into a run with Robbie right on her heels. She darted down the narrow hall, glancing into bedrooms as she passed. When she reached the large master bedroom, she saw Chloe lying on the floor with her hands bound behind her back and her ankles taped together with duct tape. Her long dark hair was spre
ad out across the floor, and she was gasping for breath as a piece of tape hung off the side of her face.
She was struggling to roll up onto her feet. Lindsey darted forward and hefted her up by one arm. Chloe staggered, and Lindsey helped her sit down on the edge of the bed.
“It’s okay. We’re here,” Lindsey said. She snatched the tape off Chloe’s face.
“Ouch!” Chloe said.
“Sorry.”
Robbie darted into the room, and Chloe started as if she planned to fight him.
“It’s okay,” Lindsey said. “He’s with me.”
Robbie was panting and he waved at Chloe. “Hey there. Remember me? I’m dating the police chief. We spent a lovely evening at the station together.”
“Oh, yeah.” Chloe relaxed. “Sorry.”
“Help me get the tape off of her,” Lindsey said. She moved to work on the tape on Chloe’s wrists while Robbie tried to peel it off her ankles. He fished his keys out of his pocket and gouged a hole in the tape that he then used to rip the tape right off.
Lindsey managed to do the same with the tape on Chloe’s wrists, but while her ankles were protected by the socks she was wearing, there was no protection for the skin of her wrists when Lindsey yanked the tape free, probably taking some arm hair with it.
“Ouch!” Chloe cried again.
“Sorry,” Lindsey said. She gently pushed Chloe’s arms forward, knowing they were probably cramped from being held behind her back for so long. “Are you all right?”
“I’m alive,” Chloe said. “I call that a win.”
“What happened?” Lindsey asked. “Did you see who attacked you?”
“No, it all happened so fast,” Chloe said. “One second I was working on my laptop, and the next I was knocked to the floor. I clunked my head on the way down and must have been knocked out for a bit. I woke up with my hands and feet taped and another strip across my mouth. I managed to work that off by rubbing my face into the carpet.”
Lindsey looked at Chloe’s face. The skin was red and raw on her cheek and jaw. She must have been terrified.
“I heard you call ‘Hello,’ and I knew I had to warn you but also that you were my only hope,” Chloe said. A sob bubbled up, and she put her face in her hands and let the tears fall.
Lindsey sat down beside her and put her arm around her. She rubbed her back and said, “It’s all right. You’re safe. We’re here.”
Chloe leaned against her, welcoming the comfort. Lindsey glanced over her head at Robbie. He was prowling the room, looking at everything, as if hoping Chloe’s attacker had left their business card.
“What do you suppose the attacker wanted?” he asked. “Did it have anything to do with Grady’s murder? Or was it a random break-in?”
“It seems unlikely that it was random,” Lindsey said.
Chloe raised her head and wiped her face with the palms of her hands. She sniffed and then said, “I heard them tapping on my computer.”
“Really?” Robbie said. “Now why would they want to do that?”
Lindsey got up and went over to look at Chloe’s laptop, which was on the small desk in front of the window. She glanced through the sheer curtains and noted the spectacular view of the small yard and bay.
Chloe shrugged. “I was writing a piece about child stars and where they are today—”
Robbie let out a huff of breath, and Chloe frowned. “When you’re a freelance writer, you write what sells. Besides, I’m actually approaching from the angle of people who walked away from the biz and went on to have really happy lives—you know, like the guy who played Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles. I’m trying to gather current pictures of them all.”
Robbie looked chagrined. “I suppose that’s a better angle than most.”
“Thanks for the approval.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “Ouch!” She put her fingers to her right temple. “That hurt.”
“You might have a concussion,” Lindsey said. She pressed the track pad on Chloe’s computer, and the screen lit up. “Robbie, check her eyes and make sure her pupils look normal.”
“All right,” he said. He bent over so he was level with Chloe. “Open your eyes wide.” He studied her for a moment. “They look all right, but she should probably see a doctor. Head injuries are a nasty business.”
Lindsey scanned the piece Chloe was working on. The writing was good—short, punchy, irreverent. But then whoever had typed on her laptop had hit return a few times and wrote what looked like a suicide note.
I am filled with guilt for what I’ve done and the pain I’ve caused. I wish I could do it over but I can’t. I am so very sor—
“Chloe, was your attacker typing when I knocked on the front door?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes, when he . . . she . . . I don’t know which,” she said.
“Let’s go with he for the sake of clarity,” Lindsey said. Chloe nodded.
“Okay, when he heard you call hello, he stopped typing. I was trying to roll to the door, but he shoved me down hard and I saw the gun in his hand. I was so scared I kicked at him, but I hit the nightstand and the lamp went over.”
“Which is when you warned us that he was armed,” Lindsey said.
Chloe looked at Lindsey with a wary expression on her face. “What did he write?”
Lindsey read it to her, and Chloe went pale. “I didn’t write that.”
“I know,” Lindsey said.
“Blimey, that’s a suicide note,” Robbie said. He looked horrified.
“My attacker was going to kill me and make it look like a suicide,” Chloe said. She started to shake.
“Let’s get out of here,” Lindsey said. “If they left any evidence behind, I don’t want to contaminate it.”
Chloe looked longingly at her computer, but Lindsey shook her head.
“Fingerprints,” she said.
“If we’re lucky,” Chloe replied. “Ugh, my computer is my baby. I don’t go anywhere without it.”
“Can you walk?” Robbie asked. “You’re not dizzy or anything?”
“No, I’m okay,” Chloe said. “Just a headache.”
“Let’s go,” Lindsey said. “I’m worried about Sully and Charlie.”
Robbie held out his arm, and Chloe took it, looking grateful as she rose to her feet with a wince. They made their way out of the master bedroom and back into the hallway. Lindsey scanned the house as they went, on the off chance that whoever had attacked Chloe returned. She tried not to think about what that would mean for Sully or Charlie. She hadn’t heard any gunshots, so she assumed they were all right.
Once they were downstairs, Lindsey told Robbie to get a bag of ice for Chloe’s head. She wanted to look outside for Sully. Robbie insisted he should do it, but Lindsey ignored him, moving as fast as she could to the side door through which Sully had followed Chloe’s assailant. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
She hurried outside and saw Charlie crouched by the edge of the yard, right where there was a steep drop to the water below.
“Charlie!” she cried as she ran toward him. “What’s going on?”
“It’s all right.” Charlie huffed. “I’ve almost got him.”
Lindsey broke into a run. She stopped beside him and glanced over the side to see Sully dangling from a shoddy piece of frayed plastic boating rope while Charlie dug in his heels, trying to pull him up.
“Ah!” Lindsey gasped. Sully glanced up at her and grinned.
“I’m all right,” he said. He was hanging on to the rope with one hand and clutching a rock with the other. Lindsey felt her heart slam up into her throat. She stepped up beside Charlie and grabbed the rope. They could barely budge it.
“Robbie!” she cried.
In seconds Robbie came running out of the house. He took in the scene at a glance and grabbed the rope, too. Chloe was right b
ehind him, but there was no room to add her to the human chain, and she looked a bit pasty and weak, holding an ice pack to her temple.
“Pull,” Robbie ordered. The three of them braced themselves and heaved, using all their strength. Lindsey could feel the strain in every muscle, and she dug deeper, looking for more power, anything to keep Sully from falling. Inch by inch the rope moved until Sully’s head popped up over the ledge. Robbie dropped the rope and grabbed Sully’s forearm, yanking him up onto the lawn with one mighty heave.
Sully rolled onto the dry lawn as if he was completely out of strength. Lindsey dropped the rope and crawled over to him, hugging him tight. She had never felt so relieved in her life. A glance past him at the drop and she saw the jagged rocks thirty feet below that would have broken him into pieces. She cupped his face and kissed him hard. Then she hit him on the shoulder.
“What happened?” she cried.
“It was my fault,” Charlie said. “This guy came flying out of the back of the house. He was dressed all in black with a hoodie pulled tight around his face with sunglasses on. I knew I had to stop him, so I charged at him. But he had a gun so I dropped back, but he still charged me. Sully tackled the guy around the knees, and he dropped the gun. When Sully went to grab it, the guy shoved him, and Sully slipped right over the ledge.”
Charlie’s eyes were huge, as if he still couldn’t believe what he’d seen.
“Thankfully, I was able to grab an outcropping, and then Charlie found some rope, but unfortunately our bad guy got away. I heard a boat motor fire up while I was hanging around,” Sully said.
Lindsey gave him a weak smile. He wiped his face with his hand, and she noticed his palms were scraped up and bloody.
“Thanks for coming when you did,” Sully said. “I don’t think I could have hung on much longer.”
He glanced around the grass and then looked at Charlie. “The gun’s gone.”
Word to the Wise Page 15
