Tidewater Inn

  “Who knows. Rumors are floating all around. Ask him.” He nodded toward the water.

  While they’d been talking, another boat had anchored and sent a dinghy ashore. Poe stepped out of the rubber raft. He shook sand from his shoes, then headed toward them with a set smile.

  Libby suppressed a sigh. They didn’t have time for this.

  “I was told you might be out here,” Poe said, stopping when he reached them.

  His face was pink with sun, but it only enhanced his good looks. Libby was sure he knew it too. “You came all this way to find us?”

  His smile never faltered. “It’s a lovely day.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to think about your offer,” she said. “I do have some questions though. Where exactly will the resort be built?”

  “He has plans for this entire stretch of coastline.”

  “Even here? This is almost sacred ground,” she said.

  “Oh yes, most certainly here. With all the legends about Blackbeard, he’ll want to capitalize on that. Maybe a wedding chapel.” He dismissed the topic with a shrug. “That’s not our concern though. We simply need to come to an agreement. I realize you’re still looking for your friend, but my client is growing quite insistent. I suspect he’ll move on to another idea if you don’t make up your mind.”

  “Nicole is dead,” Alec said.

  Libby opened her mouth, then closed it again. Protesting wasn’t going to change anyone’s mind.

  He blinked. “Y-You’re sure? I haven’t heard anything about that. Where was her body found?” Tugging at his tie, he shifted his feet in the sand.

  Why would he be so agitated? Was his client that eager to get her land?

  “Her belongings were found,” Alec put in.

  The tenseness seemed to go out of Poe in a rush. “I’m so sorry.”

  The words seemed sincere, so she decided to accept them at face value. “You understand that selling this property has been the last thing on my mind.”

  “Of course. But as I said, my client is growing impatient.”

  “There is no other land for him to buy here, so quit harassing the lady,” Alec said. “You and I both know this is his only shot.”

  Poe’s lips flattened and his nostrils flared. “Her father was the one opposed to selling. I’m sure others in town would be willing to let their property go for the right price. Her brother was quick to agree.”

  “This is the only stretch of beach that can be purchased. The rest is state land.”

  Poe shrugged. “My client has connections. If he wants state land, I suspect he could get it.” He turned to Libby. “I’m prepared to make an offer of twelve million. But we must sign the deal this week.”

  “What’s the rush?” she asked. “I told you I need to think about it.”

  “These things take time, and my client wants to start construction this fall.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m just not prepared to make a decision.” If only he would just leave. They had an unpleasant search to make and he was in their way.

  “Very well. I’ll check back with you in a few days.”

  She watched him walk stiffly away, then clamber back into the rubber raft. She turned to study the peaceful setting. “So this place will be gone. That makes me sad.”

  “You have the power to stop it,” he said.

  “Not really. That’s a lot of money to walk away from. I don’t think I can do it. I see it upsets you, but I suspect you’ve never been poor. I think of all the good I could do with that money. And the pantry will always be full.”

  “My family wasn’t wealthy, Libby,” he said. “But I don’t believe money solves everything. If you don’t have money problems, you have health issues or personal problems. God uses whatever means at his disposal to mold and shape us.” He took her arm and turned her back toward the ruins.

  She’d never thought of it that way before. But she still couldn’t see letting go of such an unbelievable sum of money.

  They poked through the ruins for an hour without seeing anything of import. On their way back to the boat, she heard a shout. Bree was jumping up and down and waving. Libby broke into a jog.

  “Look at this,” Bree said, pointing to the ground. “Have you been down there?”

  “What is it?” Libby asked, stooping to lift away some bricks. “It looks like a door to the cellar.”

  “This area used to have a lot of brick heaped up. The storm surge must have moved enough of the debris to reveal the trapdoor,” Alec said.

  “You didn’t know it was here?” Libby asked. She shoved several bricks out of the way. “We might see things that haven’t seen the light of day in decades. Can we take a look?”

  He began to help her and Bree move bricks. “Probably nothing important, but if you want to explore, we can.”

  The flashlight in Bree’s hand pushed back the shadows and showed water in the bottom of the hole. A rickety ladder descended into the darkness. “Musty,” Libby said, wrinkling her nose.

  “You can hold the light,” Bree said, handing it to her.

  Libby peered past her. “Wonder what’s down there? When do you suppose the last people were in here?”

  Alec flipped on his flashlight. “Late eighteen hundreds maybe. That’s when the whole place came down.”

  Her pulse sped up. No telling what she might find down there.

  “There might be rats or spiders,” he warned.

  She stopped. “I’m not afraid.” But her quivering voice told a different story, so she cleared her throat and forced strength into her tone. “They’ll run from us.”

  He gave her a skeptical glance, then shrugged. “I’ll go first and make sure it’s safe.”

  He put the handle of the flashlight in his teeth and began to climb down the ladder. Libby heard the ladder groan several times and held her breath, but the rungs held. His feet splashed into the water, and she trained her light on him to see how deep it was. The water came to his calves.

  “It’s not too bad,” he called up. “I’ll hold the ladder if you’re sure you want to come down.”

  “I’m sure,” she said. She tucked her flashlight into the waistband of her shorts and began to step down.

  Even the ladder felt damp. The musty odor filled her head. She climbed down until she was standing in knee-high water that made her shiver. It was colder than she expected. She plucked her flashlight out and flipped it on. With a little more light, she felt more confident.

  “Stay,” Bree told Samson. She joined them in the cellar.

  Alec swept his light around the room. “Looks like it was a root cellar. There are old jars of canned food down here.” He moved to a shelf that held Ball jars. “Looks like pickles.”

  Libby followed him and peered at the contents. “I think they’re still good.”

  “I wouldn’t eat them,” he said, his voice laced with disgust.

  “Me neither.” She followed him, sloshing through the water to explore the rest of the cellar. Bree was examining the walls.

  Old barrels, tools, and items from yesteryear floated in the water or hung on the walls from rusty hooks. She didn’t recognize some of the tools and glanced at Alec.

  “One of the keepers was a doctor,” he said.

  Whale-oil casks bobbed in the water. She paused at an overturned case of shelves. There was less water here. Her foot struck something and she looked down to see what it was. Horror froze her in place when she realized a human skeleton lay partially submerged at her feet. Uttering mewling noises, she grabbed Alec’s arm. Her muscles finally obeyed her, and she turned and ran for the ladder. She thought Alec called her name, but she didn’t stop until she was crouching in the sand and heaving. Samson whined by her ear as if to commiserate with her distress.

  A few moments later Alec’s hand was on her shoulder. “It’s okay,” he said, his voice soothing in her ear.

  She shuddered. “That was a person.” Details she hadn’t noticed at the time came back to her. “A wom
an. I saw a blue sundress.” She sat back and swallowed hard, then allowed Alec to help her to her feet.

  “I think I know who it is,” he said, his voice grim.

  Bree clambered up the ladder and stood beside her. “Are you okay?”

  “Did you see the skeleton?”

  Bree nodded. “It’s not Nicole.”

  “No, no, of course not.” She stared into Alec’s face, noting his pallor. This hadn’t been easy for him either. “Who was she?”

  “I think she was Ray’s wife, Tina,” Alec said.

  Libby stared back at the opening. “Tina? I don’t understand. She was murdered? I just heard she died.”

  Alec turned to look at the cellar hole too. “She went out on a boat ride and never came back. Her skiff was found broken up and half submerged, but her body was never found. So it was assumed she hit a rock and drowned.”

  “What does this mean?” she asked, trying to take it all in. “How do you know it’s Tina?”

  “She always wore a dress. And there was a picture of this dress all over town.”

  She looked at the yawning hole in the ground and shuddered. “D-Do you think someone killed her and threw her down there?”

  “That was my first thought. I suppose it’s possible she went exploring and got trapped.”

  “But the boat . . .”

  He nodded. “Exactly. Someone would have had to deliberately scuttle the boat.”

  She hugged herself. “I don’t like this.”

  “Neither do I.”

  She looked away from the dank hole. “When did she die?”

  “Three years ago. The news caused Ray’s first stroke, a small one. He loved her very much.”

  Pity stirred for her father. “I’m glad he’s not alive to see this. If she was murdered . . .”

  “The press is going to have a heyday with this.” He took her arm and turned her toward the boat. “One good thing is that it might deflect attention from your friend’s death for a while.”

  She stopped and clutched his arm. “I want attention to stay on her. That’s the only chance we have of finding out who killed her.”

  “You don’t suppose there could be any connection between Tina’s death and Nicole’s, do you?” Bree asked.

  He frowned. “I don’t see how.”

  “Nicole came out here,” Bree said. “What if she saw something? Something that put her in danger?”

  “Maybe. But she didn’t get into the cellar. It was covered over until the storm surge.” He stared back at the cellar. “I need to let Tom know about this. I saw a passageway when we were down there. It looked like it went toward those rocks.” He pointed to a rocky point of land jutting into the sea. “I’ve seen a cave there, but I always thought it was shallow and not very big.”

  He took Libby’s arm and led them all to the cave. They waded into the water and out to the rocks, where he pointed out a small opening.

  Stooping, she peered into it. “It’s bigger than it looks.”

  Bree glanced into the cave, then glanced at Libby. “Any chance Nicole would have gone exploring?”

  Libby nodded. “Oh yes. She explores caves every chance she gets. Last summer she went on a spelunking vacation with some friends. She mentioned finding one here on the island.”

  Alec’s lips tightened. “We might have a connection, then.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  The palm tree provided a little shade. Nicole had been out since morning watching for a boat, any boat, but the sea remained empty. Her stomach growled, and she worked on ignoring it as best she could. The bread was soggy, and the thought of plain peanut butter wasn’t appealing. Besides, she had no idea if the boy would even come back. Her eyes grew heavy, so she propped up her head with her arms and closed her eyes for a few minutes.

  A gull cawed and she sat back up, rubbing her eyes. When she stared back out to sea, she saw the reason for the gull’s displeasure. A boat skimmed the tops of the waves as it headed for her tiny beach.

  Scrambling to her feet, she dusted the sand from her legs and hands and went down to meet the boy. He was wary as he dropped anchor and splashed ashore. It was going to take all her persuasion to convince him she wasn’t crazy.

  “Got your supplies,” he said, dropping a sack onto the sand. “See ya.”

  “Wait!” She ran to catch him.

  When he held out his hands to shove her back, she stopped. “I won’t touch you. Just talk to me for a minute, okay? It’s lonely out here by myself.” Tears sprang to her eyes and she sniffled.

  Concern replaced the wariness on his face. “Hey, don’t cry. I can stay a minute. Just don’t try anything, okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry about before. I was just scared.” She searched his gaze. “Is anyone back on Hope Island looking for me?”

  “Why would anyone there be looking for you? You’re from Raleigh.”

  She shook her head and decided to go ahead with her plan. The truth. “I live in Virginia Beach. My partner and I have a restoration business. We were hired to restore some buildings in the downtown. My partner’s name is Libby Holladay. I’m Nicole Ingram.”

  He gasped and took a step back. “How’d you hear about that? Did you talk to the Ingram girl sometime?”

  “I am the Ingram girl. My birthday is July 4. I’m twenty-five. Libby is Ray Mitchell’s daughter, but no one on Hope Island knew about her.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.” She reached out toward him, but he flinched and stepped back. “Please, check it out. Ask to see a picture of me. You’ll see I’m telling the truth. I don’t know what all those men told you, but it wasn’t true. I was at the boardwalk by Tidewater Inn, and two men kidnapped me. Is Libby in town?”

  She was sure of the answer to that. Libby would leave no stone unturned until she stood on this beach and rescued her.

  “You don’t know anything,” he said. “Nicole Ingram is dead. They found her belongings on the beach.”

  The revelation made her take a step back and gasp. “I fought them. My pink cover-up came off in the struggle. One of them tossed it. And I lost my flip-flops when I jumped overboard. That’s all they found, right?”

  “I don’t know what they found. Just that Nicole’s clothes were on the beach.”

  “Libby didn’t believe it, did she? She’s still on the island?”

  “She’s still there. Poking around to try to find out who kidnapped her partner. But I’m not convinced you’re the one she’s looking for. Your brother told me you were wily and not to believe any story you concocted.”

  She managed a smile. Even if she didn’t get off the island today, he would go back and investigate. He’d find out she was telling the truth. “So don’t believe it. Check it out for yourself. Then tell Libby where I am. I’ll make sure the police know you were duped, that you weren’t an accomplice.”

  As soon as she said the word duped, she knew she’d made a mistake. No guy liked to look foolish.

  “I’m not stupid,” he said. “You’re the stupid one. Trying to snow me with a crazy story like this.”

  “Look, I know it sounds crazy. But it’s even crazier that someone would kidnap me and stick me here in this place. Think! What would be the motive? Locking up a crazy sister? There are places for that. His story makes no sense, and you’d know it if you had any brains at all!” She was past caring if he was mad. Past worrying about hurting his feelings. “You’ve got to see the truth.”

  “I’m out of here,” he said, turning on his heel. He stomped off toward the boat.

  Nicole ran after him and grabbed his arm. “Check it out,” she said desperately. “That’s all I ask. My picture has to be in the paper. Or online. You’ll see I’m telling the truth.”

  He brushed her hand off. “I’ll check it out, and then I’ll let you know how crazy you are.”

  She tried on a winning smile. “What’s your name?”

  “Zach,” he said.

&nbs
p; “You have a nice boat.”

  “Yeah. My uncle likes to fish.”

  “He’s a commercial fisherman?”

  He shook his head. “Works for the Coast Guard mostly. Fishes in his spare time.”

  “And your parents?”

  “Dead.”

  A common bond. “I’m sorry. My dad has cancer, and I’m afraid he won’t make it. It’s hard.”

  “What about your brothers?”

  She saw where he was going with that. “No brothers. Only two sisters, and they both live in California.”

  He stepped into the waves. “I gotta go. I’m going to be late.”

  She wanted to scream and beg him to take her with him, but she forced herself to smile and wave. “Thanks for the supplies, Zach. Don’t forget to look up my picture.”

  Alec held the door to the sheriff’s office open for Libby. He knew by her expression that she dreaded being interrogated by his cousin. “I’ll do the talking,” he whispered, guiding her toward Tom’s office with his hand at the small of her back.

  She held her head high as several workers glanced at her curiously. Her courage impressed him. Not many women would have gone into that cellar hole with him. Not many women would hold up under the suspicion she’d been under.

  They found Tom at his desk scowling at the computer. He straightened when he saw them. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “We found something out at the old lighthouse ruins.” He pointed to the first chair. “Have a seat, honey.” He nearly bit his tongue off when he realized he’d called Libby honey. She smiled and didn’t seem to take offense, though, so that was good. He sank into the chair beside her. “We could both use something to drink. Got any bottled water?”

  “Yep.” Tom reached into a small refrigerator behind his desk and extracted two bottles. “You both look pretty puny. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so white.”

  “Thanks.” Alec uncapped his bottle and took a swig of water. “It was a rough day. The storm surge uncovered a cellar out at the ruins.”

  “A cellar?” Tom frowned. “I didn’t know about a cellar.”