He forced himself to breathe. The island helps you, remember? It wants you there. You just have to be smart about this.
“Mac?”
“I’m here,” Mac said quickly, thinking fast. “I can’t cancel plans, sorry. I’ve got a girl who’ll be very disappointed if we break our date.” He smiled back again at Chung Lai, who glared back at him. “But tell me what happened. I’ll be flying right past and can call in anything I see.”
“Some people were snowmobiling on the lake and ran out of gas or something. They’re on the island. The police are involved because some car was found that belongs to a guy who died.”
“Murdered?”
“Yeah, but that’s all solved. I think this guy has a boner for the dead guy’s kid. She’s supposedly one of the ones on the island—”
Mac lost the rest of what the guy said. There would be a third girl. A third! He had never had such a great hunt! Hell, there wasn’t room for a third girl in the cockpit. He would have had to strap her to the bottom of the copter, and then someone would see…but this was like fate, that everything was falling into place. He just needed to keep the cops away, until he could have his fun.
“Mac?”
“Look, I’ll tell you what I see when I fly over,” Mac lied. “I’ll be there just at dusk, but I’ll get a clear view.”
“Good, I’ll tell the cops that. I’m sure that ghost hunter who went out in a boat today can bring them back. She’s the one that called the cops—”
A fourth woman. A FOURTH! “I’ll keep an eye out for her, too. What kind of boat?”
“Thanks. It was a small motorboat. You’ll see her car and trailer onshore if she’s there.”
“Roger that. I’m out.”
“Have a good vacation. Out.”
“Thanks, I will,” Mac said pleasantly, turning his attention to the sky before him.
Barb walked across the granite pad, looking at the new construction in front of her. Who the hell was out here building on Latham’s Landing?
She walked inside the new construction, looking for stored tools or signs of workmen. But aside from the ladders propped against the roof and all the scaffolding, there was nothing, not so much as a discarded coffee cup.
Her skin crawled suddenly, as if something were watching her. Shivering, Barb hurried back outside. To her surprise, the granite pad was not in front of her. Instead, she was in a courtyard.
She must have gotten turned around inside the unfinished building. There had been a lot of doors.
Here the grass was neatly trimmed, if brown and dead. There was a fountain in the center of the courtyard, with a stone seagull bursting out of a spray of water. The water in it was running, clear and sparking in the sunlight.
God, she was so thirsty.
Barb walked up to the fountain, careful of a few loose stones. She dipped her hands in, then drank the crystalline cool water. It was like paradise after the long walk in the hot sun.
Cooper also came up beside her, looking anxiously at the fountain and whining, as if he thought it might bite him. But after a moment, he also relaxed and began to drink deeply of the water.
There was a shifting. The world seemed to roll. Barb grabbed onto the side of the fountain, blinking her eyes to stop the world spinning.
Cooper began barking, but his motions were slow motion, as if the world was slowing down. God, what was wrong with her? Barb shook her head to clear it and nearly fell over.
There was a cracking sound. Barb looked up at the fountain. The seagull was fracturing, as if something was breaking out from the inside. She watching with terrified fascination as a sharp black beak pecked its way out. There was another rumble, as part of the seagulls body ruptured. A long black wing flapped, its scaly limb tipped with three long black talons.
This couldn’t be happening.
More of the monstrous bird emerged, half crow, half bat. The head finally broke through, its long neck swiveling to stare at her. Saliva dripped from its maw.
Cooper snarled, then a sharp pain lanced through Barb, snapping her out of her fog. Cooper bit me.
Barb stumbled back from the fountain, letting out a long undulating scream. Cooper got in front of her, growling and backing, his hackles again raised.
The bird struggled hard, scrabbling at the rock with its long claws, its head and left wing free.
Barb ran, weaving across the grass, Cooper at her heels.
The bird gave one hearty wrench, and broke free with an inhuman shriek and a burst of stone shards. Flapping its bat-like wings, it dove after its prey.
“Are you sure this is where you landed?” Helter said for the fourth time, surveying the shoreline.
“Yes,” Caroline persisted, wading in the water. She looked up at him. “This is where I saw the house from. The long staircase was there, and I couldn’t see the boathouse, so it has to be here.”
Helter looked down at her, impassive.
Caroline looked back at him. He doesn’t believe me. At this point, I’m not sure I believe me.
Helter turned and walked away from her, striding fast towards the boathouse. Caroline watched him go in curiosity, then went after him, horror dawning. She was running when he pulled the grenade from his pocket and tossed it through the boathouse window.
He turned and saw her. “Get down!”
The explosion blew the roof off, planks spinning in all directions, most of them flying out over the water in pieces. The boat rose up off the tracks, then burst through the opposite side of the structure, cracking a pine tree and shearing off branches. The momentum sent it crashing down the slope into the water, where it rested, a huge hole rent in the side.
“What the hell are you doing?” Caroline screamed at him.
Helter ignored her, then went around the remains of the shed and down to the rusty boat tracks, peering into the water.
There was a loud screech of fear. Caroline and Helter looked up to see Barb and Cooper barreling down the slope with them. Some kind of huge black bird was after them, diving at them. As they stared, the thing swooped down, its talons extended. With a squawk, it laid open Barb’s shoulder, tearing another scream from her.
Helter drew his gun and fired. The bullet passed through the thing as if it weren’t there.
Caroline drew her gun, saying a prayer as she aimed. Her bullet tore a chunk from the thing’s wing, spinning it up in the air like a top. It faltered, then folded its wings and dropped like a stone.
“What the hell?” Helter exclaimed, staring at Caroline. His attention quickly turned to Barb, as she threw herself at him, clutching him and crying.
Ignoring her, Caroline ran to the black flailing creature. The demon bird was flopping helplessly with its good wing, trying hard to crawl away with its talons, looking at her with hate. She put her gun to its head and pulled the trigger. The thing let out a squawk as its brains splattered out, its movements ceasing. It began steaming in the sunlight, melting into a pile of goo with hisses like a flesh on a hot griddle.
Barb was still sobbing, and Helter was trying to comfort her. But his attention was all on Caroline, his expression one of mistrust.
“Let’s get back to the supplies,” Caroline said, casting a worried glance in the direction of their camp.
“No,” Helter said, subdued. “There’s something you need to see first.” He pointed to the rusty tracks down into the water. “Go look.”
Caroline kept her gun out, walking down to the water’s edge. Feeling foolish, she holstered her gun, then stepped into the water. “What am I supposed to see?”
“Beneath the metal tracks.”
Caroline peered closer, her eyes suddenly widening. Her snowmobile was there resting in the mud and lake stones, beneath the boathouse tracks…as if they had been placed over it to hide it.
She stumbled backwards, spooked, out of the water.
“You’ve got to take us,” Lease said to his brother across the counter of Lease’s Leases. He turned to look at Bowm
an and Drake, standing behind him.
“I don’t go to that island, not even for you,” his brother said. “But you want to be stupid, go ahead. You’ll get killed on those rocks like everyone else.” He turned to Bowman. “If that girl is there, she’s dead already. You’re better off waiting for her body to wash ashore.”
“You’re a fucking coward,” Drake said to him.
“And I’ll live to enjoy that,” the man replied. He turned back to his brother. “Take the boat or don’t. But you wreck it and you survive, I’m going to want a new one to replace it. Business is business.”
“Fine,” Lease said, banging his fist once on the counter. “We’ll just go to another boat rental place on the lake—”
“No one else would even consider it,” his brother replied. “Even if they were open in the dead of winter, which they aren’t.” He smirked. “You could always buy a boat, I suppose.”
Lease walked behind the bar, then grabbed his brother’s arm, pulling him into the back room. “We’ll be right back after we discuss a few things.” He pulled his brother, already protesting, out of sight.
“Why couldn’t that damn helicopter pilot just fly us there?” Bowman said, rubbing his eyes.
“His boss said he had already left for vacation.”
“Why couldn’t they get someone else to fly the copter?”
“Because only helicopters equipped with two engines and an autopilot can fly at night,” Drake said patiently. “This guy, Mac Ready, has the only copter like that. Be glad that Lease has a brother here who was willing to rent us a boat. Most of the local businesses here got flooded out two years ago.”
“Wasn’t that when they found those other vehicles?” Bowman asked. “After the flood exposed them? From those four college kids who went missing?”
Drake nodded. “This island is not a place you go to in the dead of night. I have to agree with Lease on this one. I think it’s better to wait until morning.”
“And what if something happens to her?”
“She’s on a deserted island, it’s unseasonably warm, and she’s got a boyfriend with her,” Drake said meaningfully. “I think the worst trouble she’s going to have is an unplanned pregnancy.”
“Hey,” Bowman said sharply.
“Sorry,” Drake said, raising up both hands. He raked one through his hair. “Jesus Christ—”
“And stop that, too,” Bowman said irritably.
Drake widened his eyes, then rolled them, looking away.
Lease appeared, a set of keys in his hand. “My brother said we could take a boat, but we’re on our own. Do you still want to do this?”
“Yes,” Bowman said.
“Alright,” Lease said, pushing past him. “Let’s go hook up the trailer to your truck.”
“Why not your truck?” Bowman asked.
“Because I’m coming back tonight,” Lease said. He looked at Bowman squarely. “And I’m only doing this because you said you’d put in a good word with the chief, and I’d make detective.”
“I said I would,” Bowman said. “I keep my word.”
“Good,” Lease said, hooking up the boat trailer with a thirty-foot aluminum bass boat. The fading sunlight gleamed off the dull metal of the huge motor attached to the back.
“But you’ll take us there?” Drake asked with trepidation. “We have enough gas to get there and back?”
“I’ll drop you off in the shallows,” Lease said, putting in some rope, a few life vests, and two extra gas containers. “I’ll be back out tomorrow morning to get you.” He held up a flare. “Light this by noon, okay? I’ll take that as a signal.”
“What about a radio?”
“My brother said radios don’t work out there,” Lease said in a subdued tone. “Now let’s go. Dark is coming.”
Caroline sank down at the campsite tiredly. Helter had repitched the tent closer to the shore, with a wall behind them for security, near the foot of the main staircase, so they could see anyone approaching. He’d made another fire for them with fallen branches, and was heating up some soup on his small propane stove. Cooper was sleeping near Barb, who had finally stopped sobbing and was looking out across the water toward the rapidly darkening shoreline.
“Was it there?” Helter asked.
“Yes, her boat was still tied up and floating, just like we’d left it,” Caroline said, but she did not sound relived. “There was a figure on the dock, though.”
“A man?”
“Too short to be a man.”
“A dwarf?” Helter joked.
Caroline didn’t answer. Helter finished heating the soup, then poured some into two cups. He handed one to Barb, who took it with a grateful smile. He took the other to Caroline. “Sorry, I just have two. If I hadn’t planned on soup and coffee at the same time, I wouldn’t have had two.”
“Thanks,” Caroline said gratefully, drinking the hot liquid.
“Hey, save some for me,” Helter chastised. “This is the last of the food stores.”
Caroline swallowed once more, then took the cup away from her mouth and handed it to him. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Helter consoled. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Caroline said. “If I wasn’t dead inside I’d be sobbing like Barb was.”
Helter put his arm around her.
“Why do you believe me?” Caroline whispered into his shoulder. “I thought you would shoot me out there, when you were looking at me on the shore. Seeing my snowmobile like that…it almost made me believe I was a ghost.”
“I believe you because you shot that bird and it died. I shot it, and the bullet went through,” Helter said. He swallowed the rest of the soup in the cup, then put it aside. “We need to talk about why. No more lies.”
“I had them blessed,” Caroline admitted, summarizing her preparations for coming to Latham’s Landing. She emptied all her pockets, producing several bundles of dried herbs, a handful of incense, and two almost full boxes of ammunition. “That was all I could fit in my pockets when I saw the priest without being obvious. There were more herbs and incense strapped on the snowmobile, but they’ve got to be mush by now.”
“So whatever is on this island is a Christian evil,” Helter said, looking uncomfortable.
“And you’re not Christian,” Caroline surmised.
“Not even close,” Helter admitted.
“The woman at the store said it wasn’t so much the materials,” Caroline shared. “It’s the faith that they are going to work. Ten years of Christian schooling had an impact on me, even if I didn’t agree with a lot of what was taught. My belief is pretty solid.” She paused. “Were you ever religious?”
“I believe in the church of me,” Helter said, flashing a smile. “I’m the only one I have faith in, because I’m the only one I can ever fully trust.”
“They you’ll have to borrow some of mine,” Caroline said. She reached beneath her clothes at her neck, bringing out one of her rosaries. She took it off, then placed it around Helter’s neck, and made the sign of the cross over him.
He stood up. “I might as well go see if it works. Give me one of your guns, I don’t care which.”
Caroline handed him her .38 handgun. “Where are you going?”
“Back to Barb’s boat,” he answered. “She might have some supplies we can use. And I want to see that dwarf for myself.”
“There’s a cooler with some sandwiches, and a lot of extra snack food,” Barb offered. “I planned to eat lunch and dinner on the boat. Otherwise there are just extra clothes, a radio, lifejackets, and stuff to make casts of footprints in several totes.”
“I’ll bring the food and the clothes,” Helter said, with a nod.
“Be careful,” Caroline called after him. “That dwarf, or whatever it was, went into the water when he saw me. He didn’t resurface.”
“Thanks. I’ll watch for it.” Helter looked at her, then at the fire. “This might be a good time to use some of that incense. Can you give
me a stick?”
Caroline dipped a bundle of herbs into the fire, blowing on it to make it smoke, then handed it to him.
“You asked what else Tina said,” Barb uttered suddenly, fumbling for her micro recorder. She opened a file and hit play.
“It wasn’t the stairs that creaked, or the way the lights never fully chased the shadows from the corners. It was that sense of hushed anticipation, that feeling of being not alone that filled you from the moment you entered and built with each passing second, making your heart race.” Pause. “You’ll feel it too, if you go there, Barb. As sweat breaks out on your cool flesh, your only thought will be of what finale waits around the next corner, drifting down on spider’s silent legs to snatch you unawares before you can scream. I’ll tell you one more time: don’t go there.”
Caroline looked up at Helter. “Watch yourself.”
As Helter headed off into the darkness, she threw some powder from a bag into the fire, saying a prayer that the incense would work.
“Can I have one of your crosses?” Barb asked timidly.
Caroline handed Barb her second cross necklace. “Here. Are you a believer?”
“Let’s say I am now,” Barb said, slipping the jewelry on.
Mac looked at his watch. Another hour and he’d be there. Just in time for the sunset, if he was lucky.
Every time at the island brought some new delight. And this time he’d come prepared, putting in a lot of work to make this visit extra special.
Please let those two girls still be there, Mac thought over and over frantically. Find a way to keep them there for me.
“That’s it?” Bowman said, staring at the dark silhouette of the old mansion on the water.
Lease didn’t answer, busy backing up the trailer with the boat into the water at the launching site. Drake was helping direct him.
Together, the three men got the boat set and then boarded. As they started off, the sun rapidly sank.
“Hey, there’s a fire on the shore,” Drake said, pointing to a small flickering flame near the front of the island silhouette. “That’s got to be the kids.”
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