A Killing On The Water Read online

  It seemed sound, so I picked up the oar and started rowing. The waves were beginning to pick up as the storm moved closer, and water splashed over the sides of the boat. I sent up a prayer that the craft would get me there before it could sink.

  As I rowed, I thought about Page’s call. She had obviously figured out who took Jacob, but the bits that came through weren’t enough for me to know who it was. She had mentioned Ray, but it wasn’t clear if she was saying he took Jacob. She hadn’t mentioned Ed or Liam, at least not from what I could make out, so I guessed that Ray was still at the top of the suspect list.

  My arms started to ache from the unfamiliar exercise and from fighting the growing waves. The rowboat was better designed for calm water, but I didn’t have a choice at this point. I kept going, grateful that I could still see the flashing light ahead. At least I could be sure the kidnappers weren’t around if Jacob was still free to send his signal.

  That signal kept my arms moving, and I made a mental note to start lifting weights when this was all over. My muscles ached and burned, but the ship was drawing near. I began to hear thunder as I got close enough to make out the windows on the side of the ship. I counted to try and approximate where I would have to look once I got inside, but then realized that my most pressing concern was finding a way onto the vessel.

  I examined the ship as I approached, but I didn’t see any way to board it from the water, so I pointed my canoe to go around to the other side. I kept a good distance from the larger craft so that the waves didn’t toss my little boat up against it. Even if the canoe didn’t shatter, I would end up in the water, and I knew I would have no chance at survival, even with the life jacket.

  Suddenly aware of the danger I’d entered into willingly, I realized that no one knew where I was. I sent up another silent prayer as I finally turned and began rowing along the other side of the ship. About two-thirds of the way down, I saw a ladder that ran down the side of the vessel from the deck to the water. Relieved, I pointed my canoe toward the ladder and rowed with renewed energy.

  When I reached it, I set my oar down and grabbed onto the rungs gratefully. I began climbing before realizing that I should have secured my little boat somehow, but it was already too late. The canoe was already several feet away from the ship and being tossed farther away with every passing second.

  Lightning streaked across the sky, and I resumed climbing, not wanting to be on the ladder when the rain began. The ship was taller than I had realized, and my aching arms screamed in protest as I climbed. Finally, I reached the top and climbed over the side and onto the deck. I collapsed, breathing hard and rubbing my arms. I looked around as I caught my breath, looking for my way down inside the ship.

  It looked pretty much the way I would have expected the main deck of a pirate ship to look, with stairs on either side of the deck, leading up to a raised platform with a wooden wheel where the captain would stand to steer the vessel. Under the platform was a set of double doors. I ran over to try them, but they were locked.

  In the middle of the deck, there were huge grates that could be removed to load and unload cargo. There was no way I would be able to lift them on my own, so I continued to look around. Small cannons lined either side of the ship, and ropes and nautical-looking supplies were scattered about. At the other end of the deck was another raised platform. I walked toward it as rain began to fall and a loud clap of thunder made me jump. I started to run when I realized that there were stairs leading down into the hold.

  I took them and found myself in a dark, open space. I paused a moment to get my bearings. I was turned around, uncertain of where the light had been coming from. I listened for any signs of life, but I could only hear the rain and waves. Rows of cannons lined the walls, the ends poking out of small square holes through which I could see the rain and flashes of lightning. In one area, hammocks hung from the ceiling, and I imagined much of the empty space would have been filled with cargo back when a ship like this was in service.

  Farther into the hold, rain was coming in from the grate above. I ducked my head and hurried past it. The ship was rocking on the growing waves as the storm’s intensity increased. At the far end of the ship, I lifted a hatch in the floor and gazed down to a lower deck. I remembered the light coming from fairly high on the side of the vessel. Taking the ladder would put me below where I’d seen the light.

  Still, I called down the hatch, “Jacob?” just in case I was wrong. The sounds of the storm were my only response, so I closed the hatch.

  I needed to get through the doors upstairs, which meant I needed a way to get them open. I looked around, but aside from the hammocks, there was nothing on this level. I remembered the various supplies scattered about the deck upstairs, so I went back up the steps and into the rain. I dug through the piles of supplies but couldn’t find anything that would help me get through the door.

  Realizing that I didn’t know for sure if that was where Jacob was, I went back over to the doors and pounded on them, calling, “Jacob? Are you in there?”

  “Yes!” a child’s voice replied. I could barely hear him through the door and over the storm, but I made out, “Get me out of here, please!”

  I examined the doors and realized that the lock was on the handle. There was no deadbolt. I didn’t see hinges, so the doors must open inward. Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my license and debit card, which I had stuck in there so that I wouldn’t have to carry a purse.

  “Hold on,” I told Jacob, sliding the credit card between the doors and pushing the latch in. The door on the right swung open, and Jacob ran into my arms.

  He was crying as I closed the door behind us to keep the rain out.

  “Jacob, thank God you’re safe,” I said, squeezing him tightly. “How did you get out here?”

  “They killed Ms. Greenaway,” he cried. “They took us out in a boat. Then, they threw her over the side, and she hit her head on the edge before she fell into the water. They brought me here after that and left me by myself.” Sobs overtook his body, and I held him and let him get it out.

  While he cried, I looked around the cabin. The walls were covered in wood paneling and built-in shelving, and a few overhead lights designed to look like old oil lanterns lit the area. Empty water bottles and cereal bar wrappers were strewn about the large, wooden table in the center of the room. On one wall hung a white board that, judging by the list of locations and historical figures connected to Sunrise Island, the filmmakers had been using to organize ideas for the documentary. A flashlight sat next to one of the windows, and I assumed that was how Jacob had been signaling to the island.

  One of the chairs next to the table had rope wrapped around it. I figured Jacob had been tied up there at some point but must have managed to wriggle his way free. The scarf on the floor would have been a gag.

  Jacob’s sobs seemed to be dying down now, so I led him to one of the chairs and opened a bottle of water for him. He drank quickly, and then ran into a small bathroom connected to the cabin and vomited the fresh water back up.

  “It’s all right. You just drank too quickly when your body was upset,” I told him, giving him another bottle of water. “Go more slowly this time.” I sat and waited until he had calmed down and swallowed some of the water, and then said, “Okay, now tell me what happened.”

  Jacob’s eyes went wide, and he jumped to his feet. “We have to get out of here!” he said wildly. “They’ll be back soon. They always come after it gets dark. You’ve got a boat, right? Let’s go!” He moved toward the door, but I stopped him.

  “My boat’s gone,” I said. “It floated away before I could tie it to the ship. Is there a radio or some way for us to call for help?”

  “Not that I could find,” he said. “Don’t you have a cell phone?”

  I shook my head. “Its battery is dead. There has to be a radio somewhere—we may need to look on the other levels.”

  Now that I knew the ship had power, going below wouldn’t be so bad.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought to search for a light switch when I was exploring earlier.

  “We can’t look around! You have to hide,” he said. “If they find you here, they’ll kill you! Wait, tie me back up first, so they don’t know…”

  Chapter 18

  The door flew open with a loud BANG!

  Jacob cowered behind me as Erica and Allison strutted in. “Well, isn’t this cozy?” Erica sneered. “I knew you were going to be a problem.”

  Startled, I tried to work out what the college girls were doing here. Had they followed me somehow? Why?

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  Allison laughed, but she stopped when Erica glared at her.

  “You must have figured it out,” Erica said, casually walking to the table and sitting in one of the chairs. “How did you manage to find the boy out here?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said warily, my mind working fast to take in the changing situation. “I thought I saw a light flashing, so I came to make sure there wasn’t someone trapped on the ship.”

  The storm was growing in intensity, and the ship was starting to rock much more in the choppy waves. The thunder was almost constant, and we had to speak loudly to be heard.

  “I got out of the ropes,” Jacob said. “There was a flashlight, so I went to the window and turned it on and off so maybe someone would see it and come.”

  Erica laughed, a sound that would have seemed silly and harmless back at the bed and breakfast, but that felt threatening now. Both girls had suddenly adopted a sinister attitude.

  “Your little plan worked,” Erica said to Jacob. “Piper’s here, and now we’ll have to kill her too! Nice job, Jacob!”

  “You don’t have to kill anyone,” I told her, realizing the danger of our position. Clearly the two girls had been the villains all along, and now we were at their mercy. For all we knew, they could be carrying weapons concealed from sight. Their confidence certainly suggested it.

  “It’s not too late. You can get out of this,” I told the pair, trying to sound calm.

  “You’ve both seen our faces,” Erica said. “They’ll be hunting us down until we die if we let you go. No, you’ll have a little accident and fall into the water, just like that old witch, Ms. Greenaway.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked.

  “If they would have just put us in the movie, none of this would have happened,” Erica said. “We were going to get on film, and then a producer in Hollywood was going to see us and make us rich and famous. But no, Liam put you in the film instead, and where does that leave us?”

  “It’s a documentary about my community,” I pointed out. “You’re not even—”

  “Shut up!” Erica said, standing. She began pacing as she continued. “We dropped out of school to come here, and since you stole our spot in the movie, we needed money, fast. Then, the Prestons arrived, and we knew we’d found our ticket off the island. They have more money than any one family needs—it’s disgusting, and it’s not fair to the rest of us. So, we thought, we just needed a way to get the kid. We’d collect a ransom and be on our way.”

  “But that witch was always in the way,” Allison chimed in. “She was so protective of the kid that we couldn’t get him on his own. We realized the only way to get Jacob was to get rid of Ms. Greenaway. So, we met up with that idiot, Duncan Donovan, and outsmarted him. He’d been bragging about having two boats, one big and fancy and the other small and quick, and we knew that we needed the smaller boat to transport Jacob. We found out where he kept the little boat and stole it.”

  “We went back to the bed and breakfast to try one more time to get Jacob on his own,” Erica picked up the story. “But, again, Ms. Greenaway wasn’t cooperating, so we had to take them both.”

  “How did you get her to go with you?” I asked.

  “With this,” Allison said, pulling a gun out of her jacket pocket. She pointed it at me as Erica continued talking.

  “We took them far out on the ocean, and I pushed her overboard. She hit her head on the side of the boat when she fell, so she didn’t even try to swim.” Erica shrugged. “I never thought for a minute that she would wash in to shore so quickly.”

  “How did you get Jacob onto the ship with so many people around?” I asked. “When did you do it?”

  “No one was paying any attention to the ship while they were searching for Jacob,” Allison said. “We waited until that evening to sneak him out here. The storms helped a lot, too. No one could hear our boat over the thunder. We’ve been coming out every evening to check on him and make sure he’s fed. We couldn’t have you dying before your daddy paid us, could we, buddy?” she said to Jacob.

  “Why didn’t you send a ransom note, then?” I asked, wanting to draw her attention away from Jacob.

  “We tried! Several times! But between you, your niece, and those cops, someone was constantly watching us whenever we were around the house.” Erica was borderline hysterical by this point, and I was getting worried. “We were going to make the ransom note tonight, and here you are, interrupting us again!”

  “Where were you hiding Duncan’s boat when you weren’t using it?” I asked the first thing that popped into my head, wanting to draw this out as long as I could in hopes of finding a way to keep them from killing us.

  “What difference does it make?” Erica scoffed. “You’re just trying to put off the inevitable.”

  “Of course I am,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t hurt you to let me see the entire picture. You’re going to kill me, so what difference does it make if I know everything?”

  Allison shrugged. “We found a boathouse near one of the empty cottages close to the lighthouse,” she said. “We kept it in there.”

  “Any other questions?” Erica asked sarcastically.

  I thought for a moment, before asking, “Were you ever going to let Jacob go?”

  Both girls laughed. “Of course not!” Erica said. “Like I said before, he saw our faces. He had to die if we were going to get away with it.”

  “You know, they would have traced the ransom money anyway,” I said. “You were never going to get away with this.”

  “Shut up!” Erica shrieked. “That’s enough. It’s time for you to die.”

  She pointed at the door, and Allison kept the gun on me as she led us out onto the deck. The rain soaked me through in seconds.

  “Over there,” Erica said, pointing at the side of the ship that was farthest from the shore. “That way, you’ll wash out with the storm, and no one will know you’re dead, maybe ever.”

  “Wait,” I said. “It’s high tide right now. It doesn’t matter which side you send me over. The tide will wash me in to shore.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Allison said. “You can’t know for sure which way the waves will carry you.”

  “You’re right,” I told her. “But statistically, if you throw me over right now, I’ll wash up on shore and someone will find me right away.”

  “They won’t know it had anything to do with us,” Erica pointed out. “And I think you’re wrong. I say you go over now, and you wash out to sea. We’re not stupid.”

  “Yes, you certainly got it right with Ms. Greenaway, didn’t you?” I pointed out.

  The girls looked at each other and then back at me. “Enough talking,” Erica said. “Get over there.”

  I inched my way over to the edge, noticing that Duncan’s motorboat was attached to the ladder. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard its motor running through the noise of the storm.

  “You’ll have to shoot me to make me go over,” I told Allison.

  “Take the life jacket off,” she replied.

  I looked down in surprise. I’d forgotten I was still wearing it. I unbuckled it and dropped it slowly to the deck.

  “Now, jump!” Allison ordered.

  “No,” I said.

  She turned and pointed the gun at Jacob. “Jump, or I’ll shoot him.”

  I paused, loo
king from Jacob to Erica to Allison, trying desperately to find a way out of this predicament. Not finding one, I closed my eyes and began to step over the rail.

  BOOM!

  An earsplitting crash of thunder startled me, and I dropped my foot back to the deck just before a giant wave slammed into the side of the ship, knocking us all off our feet. The gun flew from Allison’s hands and slid back through the cabin door. Allison’s eyes met mine for a second.

  “Run, Jacob,” I shouted, pushing to my feet and heading for the ladder. I began climbing down quickly, skipping as many rungs as I could. Jacob appeared above me while the girls ran to get the gun. As soon as I got to the boat, I began untying the knot, keeping hold of the ladder with my arm as I waited for Jacob to reach me. “Hurry!” I shouted, and Jacob dropped into the boat just as Allison reappeared with the gun.

  Thankfully, the boat was similar to one Mason had taken me out in once, and I knew how to use it. I threw it into gear and burst forward just as a shot rang out. The bullet whizzed into the water as I drove as fast as I could away from the ship. I headed straight toward the shore, throwing it into reverse to slow the boat down as we approached land. I let the boat gently run aground, and we jumped out and ran to the nearest cottage.

  Banging on the door, I yelled for the occupants to help us. A light came on, and a minute later, the front door opened. A groggy-looking man in pajamas stared at us in confusion.

  “Please, we need to use your phone!” I said, shivering. “It’s an emergency.”

  “Come in,” he said, hurrying into one of the rooms and emerging with a cell phone. “Here,” he said as he unlocked it.

  “Thanks,” I said. I dialed Shep’s number. “Shep!” I yelled into the phone as soon as his groggy-sounding voice answered. “You have to get out here! I found the missing boy, and I’ve got the killers trapped on the ship!”

  “Who is this? Piper? You’ve got the boy at your place?” Shep asked.

  “Yes, it’s Piper. And no, I’m not at home, I’m at one of the rental cottages on the east side of the island. Its number…well, I don’t know. Head this way, and I’ll be waiting outside.”