“So,” he declared. “Young Master Pierce and Lady Sleeper. What brings you here?”
I looked at Tori. Tori looked at the ground.
It was up to me.
Seeing this guy standing there in an official uniform suddenly made me tense up. This was no joke. We were about to throw down some serious accusations. I had to be careful. I decided to start with the Ruby and the black debris before jumping right in with the murder stuff.
“I…I think we found what SYLO is looking for,” I declared.
The sheriff lifted a surprised eyebrow.
“That so? And what exactly might that be?”
I looked around and saw a box of tissues on the receptionist’s desk. “Can I?” I asked the lady.
“Help yourself, sweetie,” she said with a smile.
I grabbed a tissue and used it to pull the chunk of Ruby out of my pocket. Using the tissue as a protective pillow, I held it out to the sheriff.
“It’s called the Ruby,” I said. “A ton of it washed up on shore not far from Tori’s house. There’s a guy named Feit on the island who’s been grinding it up and pushing it on people, trying to get them to take it. He’s calling it a sports supplement. Marty Wiggins took some before he died. That’s why he was playing like he did. I know some other players who took some, too, but not as much. They said it suddenly made them stronger and run faster.”
I decided not to throw Kent under the bus for having taken the stuff. Or myself, for that matter.
“Then a couple of horses that Tori was taking care of got into the load on the beach. They ran around like super horses, then dropped dead. Just like Marty. For all we know that’s what killed Mr. Nelson, too.”
The sheriff wore a scowl that seemed to deepen with every word I said. He glanced toward Tori.
Tori offered a small shrug as if to confirm what I’d said was true.
“We think this is what’s causing the deaths on Pemberwick. But the CDC people can tell for sure.”
Sheriff Laska stared at the red crystal and reached out to take it, but then pulled his hand back quickly and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He was afraid to touch it. That was good. It meant he was taking us seriously.
“There’s more,” I said and showed him the chunk of black plastic. “A bunch of this stuff washed up on shore in the same spot. We think it’s wreckage from the boat or the airplane that was bringing this stuff to Pemberwick.”
“Airplane?” Laska asked, raising his eyebrow.
“We found it all really close to where Quinn Carr and I saw that shadow explode a few weeks ago.”
I intentionally didn’t mention that Tori had seen the explosion too. As far as the sheriff knew, the only witnesses were her dad, me, and Quinn.
I added, “We still haven’t heard any news about what that was. If you ask me, it’s got something to do with SYLO. It’s just too coincidental.”
Laska took the piece of material and looked at it with a frown. He kept turning it over and over as if expecting to find an answer to the puzzle written on the back.
“That’s some story,” he finally said. “You say there’s a bunch of that red stuff washed up on shore and some fella is going around giving it to people?”
“His name’s Feit,” I replied. “He’s an off-islander. He tried to get me to take it, saying how great I’d play if I did.”
Laska wheezed out a laugh. “Well, you couldn’t play much worse, now could ya?”
I didn’t appreciate the humor and stared at him blankly.
Laska stopped laughing.
“Sorry, that was a cheap shot,” he said sheepishly.
“There’s something else,” Tori said.
This was it. We were about to drop the bomb on SYLO.
“And what’s that?” Laska asked.
“Yes,” came a voice from the corridor. “I’d like to hear more.”
I froze. I recognized the voice from TV.
Laska stepped aside to reveal Captain Granger walking toward us from the sheriff’s office. The guy was as calm and cool as if he had just been sipping a lemonade on the porch, not gunning down a fleeing man.
“These kids seem to think they’ve found our culprit,” Laska said, pointing to the chunk of Ruby that I was still holding out.
Granger was more interested in the black plastic. He grabbed it out of Laska’s hand, examined it, then tossed it dismissively on a desk. He then held out his hand to me as if demanding to see the Ruby.
I gingerly held out the chunk. Granger snatched it with his bare hand—too tough to worry about something as trivial as being contaminated by a substance that might kill him. He examined the rock with a cold, appraising eye.
Laska said, “They said that some fella named—”
“I heard,” Granger said, cutting him off sharply.
It was obvious that Granger had no respect for the sheriff.
“Where can I find this fellow?” Granger asked.
“I…I have no idea,” I replied. “He’s not an islander. Said he was passing through but he keeps on popping up. He was at the football games. And Marty’s funeral too.”
Granger nodded thoughtfully.
“We’ll find him,” he said as though it was an absolute certainty. “It’s a tall tale but we can’t afford to discount anything. Thank you both for bringing this to my attention. I’ll dispatch a team to clean up the beach immediately.”
“What about that plastic?” I asked. “Do you know what that is?”
Granger gave me a smile that showed no warmth whatsoever. “My guess is that it’s a piece of a boat’s hull, but you would probably know better than me.”
Tori said, “That was no boat.”
Granger shot her a look. I was afraid that we had just put ourselves into his crosshairs.
“We’ll collect everything and determine its origin,” he said as if annoyed that he was being challenged.
“Great,” I said quickly.
Granger strode past us, headed for the door. He was about to exit when he pulled up short and turned back.
“You said there was something else?” he asked.
This was it. I looked at Tori. Her eyes were on the floor again. I looked to the sheriff with his belly hanging over his belt. Compared to the steely Granger, he was a joke. Granger was a professional soldier who looked as though he would ruthlessly impose his will on friend or foe. And why not? He had the power of an armed, occupational force at his disposal. All Sheriff Laska had was Deputy Donald. I trusted Laska, but there was no way he could protect us from Granger once we accused him of murder.
“Yeah,” I said before Tori could say another word. “I’m embarrassed to admit this but…I tried some of the Ruby. That’s how I know what it does. I only took a little but it was enough to feel the effect. It’s bad stuff.”
Tori shot me a surprised look, but didn’t say anything. She’d gotten the message.
Granger walked back to me, staring me down. His sharp gray eyes sent a chill up my spine. Did he know I wasn’t telling the whole truth? Worse, did he know we had seen him gun down that man? It was all I could do to keep my knees from knocking together.
“That’s it?” he asked, as if he knew there was a whole lot more.
“That’s it,” Tori said with conviction.
Granger shot her a look as if surprised she had dared to answer when he was addressing me.
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s it.”
“All right, then,” he said. “I’m sure the CDC people will want to talk with you.”
“No problem,” I replied. “I live over on—”
“I know where you live,” Granger said.
That one statement chilled me more than anything else he’d said or done. It meant Granger knew a lot more about Pemberwick Island and the people who lived here than some military officer who just so happened to be assigned the oversight of a quarantine. It was a warning.
“I’d like to ask you all to keep the information about this “Ruby?
?? stone to yourselves and let the CDC do their investigation. It wouldn’t serve anyone to start rumors.”
“Makes sense,” Laska said. “Right, kids?”
Neither of us replied.
Granger put on his red beret and said, “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again, Mr. Pierce. Miss Sleeper.”
He turned and strode toward the door.
“Captain Granger?” Tori called out.
My stomach twisted. What was she doing? Granger stopped, did an about-face, and looked at Tori with impatience.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Going?” he repeated, puzzled.
“With the quarantine. It can’t be easy to keep people happy under the circumstances.”
Granger gave her an ironic smile. “It’s not my mission to keep people happy. I’m here to keep them safe.”
“Right, by keeping them on the island. What would happen if somebody tried to leave? Or should I ask, has anybody tried to leave?”
Granger stared at her, evidently trying to read her. My knees went weak. Tori was not only good at knots, she was pretty good at playing with fire. It would have been interesting to watch, if I wasn’t standing in the fire with her.
“No,” Granger finally stated. “Everyone has been very cooperative. Nobody has tried to leave.”
“But if they did, what would you do?” she asked. “I mean, what kind of force are you authorized to use?”
Granger gave a condescending smile that looked as painful as the time he tried to be charming on TV.
“That’s a situation I don’t anticipate having to deal with,” he said, trying to hide his obvious arrogance. “We’re all in this together, Miss Sleeper.”
“Yes, we are,” Tori said.
Granger gave her a nod and turned.
“Captain?” Tori called again.
I winced.
Granger stopped and looked back at her. Again.
Tori said, “How can you send a team to clean up the beach when you never asked us where it was?”
I wanted to scream at Tori for baiting the guy but couldn’t in front of the sheriff and the receptionist.
The smile dropped from Granger’s face. Tori had hit a nerve.
“You told the sheriff it was near your house,” he said. “And I know where you live as well, Miss Sleeper.”
With that he turned and left…and I started breathing again. Sort of.
Tori spun to the sheriff and said, “Who exactly is in charge here, sheriff?”
Laska sighed and shrugged. “Until this quarantine is lifted, it’s Uncle Sam. I’m stuck here just like everybody else.”
For a second I thought Tori might tell him about the shooting. I didn’t want that to happen and if she started I would have cut her off again. I didn’t want anyone to know what we knew, especially not somebody who was under Granger’s thumb.
“Let’s go,” she snapped and went for the door.
I could finally relax. At least we were on the same wavelength again.
“I hope you’re right,” Laska said to me.
“About what?” I asked.
“That red stone. Who knows? Maybe you two will be the heroes that end this nightmare.”
“Yeah, who knows?” I said and ran after Tori.
She hurried toward her scooter and I had to run to keep up.
“There’s more going on with this quarantine than we’re being told,” she said angrily. “This has to be far worse than they’re admitting or they wouldn’t be killing people who try to escape.”
“You keep saying escape, like we’re in prison.”
“It’s starting to feel that way,” Tori said with a slight quiver in her voice that told me she was as scared as she was angry.
“So what should we do?” I said. “We have to tell people what’s really happening.”
“Yeah, but not yet,” Tori said quickly. “At least until they figure out if the Ruby is causing the Pemberwick virus. If it is, then this nightmare will be over. When SYLO leaves, we’ll tell the authorities everything. We’ll tell anybody who’ll listen.”
“And what if it isn’t the Ruby?”
Tori frowned and looked at the ground.
“Then I don’t know. If they’re killing people to keep them from escaping, then whatever it is that’s on this island has got to be a lot scarier than anything Granger can do to us.”
We stood there for a long moment, not sure of what else to say. Tori and I had traveled in different orbits for years, but the events of the last few hours had thrown us together with a shared secret that meant we had no choice but to trust each other.
“Strange days,” I said.
“Tell me about it.”
“I’m not sure if I can keep this from my parents.”
“I can’t tell you what to do,” she said. “But I’m not telling my dad. Not until I have a better idea of what this is all about. We’re on Granger’s radar now. I don’t want my dad there too.”
I nodded. “I hear you. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Tori didn’t respond to that. She turned, climbed on her scooter, and took off, leaving me alone on the far end of Main Street.
It was getting late in the day. I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was get home, grab something quick to eat, and go to bed. The less of my parents I saw in the process, the better. I didn’t want to be tempted into spilling my guts.
The walk home brought me past the Blackbird Inn. It was a quiet evening, but it was suddenly broken by a harsh, wrenching sound that was coming from behind the property. I’d spent a lot of time on the grounds working for my dad and couldn’t imagine what it could be. In spite of my being exhausted, curiosity won out and I went to investigate. I walked up the driveway of crushed seashells and around to the small parking lot out back.
The loud squeaking continued, followed by what sounded like something being thrown to the ground. Again and again. It was coming from beyond a row of tall hedges. The only thing back there was a dilapidated old tool shed that the Berringers wanted torn down, but Dad and I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. I walked across the lot and along the path that led through the bushes and up to the old structure. When I stepped through, I saw something that was disturbingly wrong.
It was Kent. He was dismantling the shed. It was strange enough to see him doing any kind of work because Kent never lifted a finger to do anything useful, but what went beyond strange and straight to unsettling was how he was doing it. Kent was tearing the place apart with his bare hands. The squeaking sound came from boards being ripped off the frame and tossed onto a pile as he worked at a fever pitch to dismantle the structure. He yanked on the boards, pulling out four nails at a time, as if the slats were made of Styrofoam. The guy was sweating and breathing hard, his total focus on the act of disassembling the shed.
Or destroying the shed.
He was still on the Ruby.
“Kent!” I called.
He shot me a surprised look. His eyes were wild, just like they were in the game.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Kent dropped the board he had been holding and suddenly charged at me. I was so surprised that I didn’t even think to move. He came at me like he did the running backs from Memagog…with mayhem on his mind.
“Whoa, dude,” I said, taking a step back.
Kent picked me up by the front of my hoodie and threw me with such force that I must have traveled five feet in the air before my feet hit the ground. I stumbled back, trying to keep my balance, but the force was too much and I landed on my butt, hard. Kent was after me again, just like in practice, only now we didn’t have pads on and Kent was Ruby-fueled. He leaped at me and put his knee on my chest.
“It’s you she talks about,” he said, breathing hard, spitting in my face. “I win the game and all she talks about is you. Maybe she won’t like you so much if I mess up your face.”
He reared back, ready to punch me.
My arms were pinned by his knees so
I couldn’t defend myself.
“Kent!” came the voice of my savior.
Kent froze and looked up to see Olivia standing at the opening in the hedge.
“What are you doing?” she screamed.
Kent was torn. He wanted to beat the crap out of me but not in front of Olivia. Still, he had to fight the urge to crush my face. With an anguished cry, he threw himself off me and knelt with his hands on the ground, breathing hard.
“Are you all right?” Olivia called to me, nearly in tears.
I was fine. The guy who was in real trouble was Kent.
“You took it again,” I called to him. “Didn’t you?”
Kent turned to look up at me. His eyes were still wild but the anger was gone. What I saw instead was confusion and fear…just like with Marty.
I added, “How much more did you take?”
“I didn’t,” he said, gasping for breath. “It never wore off. I have to keep moving…keep the blood pumping…work it off. I…I need to control it.”
Olivia ran up to us and cried, “What is wrong with him? He’s…he’s acting crazy.”
“I’ll take you to a doctor,” I said to Kent.
Kent jumped to his feet and backed away toward the half-demolished shed.
“No!” he screamed. “Nobody can know.”
“Know what?” Olivia shouted.
I ignored her and focused on Kent. “You’re in trouble, man. If you don’t get it out of your system, you could die.”
Kent went back to pulling boards out of the structure.
“I can work it out. Gotta keep the blood moving. Gotta keep breathing.”
I took a chance, went up behind him, and put my hands on his shoulders. I felt incredible tension, as if every muscle in his body was flexed.
“That’s the worst thing you can do,” I said, trying to sound calm. “Keep this up and you’ll flame out. Your body can’t handle this. You have to relax.”
He made a move to start pulling off more boards but I held him tight. He didn’t fight me. I had gotten through to him. Whether or not he could control himself was something else altogether.
“Listen to him, Kent,” Olivia pleaded, in tears. “Calm down.”
Kent looked at her, and I actually saw his eyes soften. He really did care about Olivia. It wasn’t me who got through to him, it was her. I felt the tension leave his shoulders. It was slight, but it happened.