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Which is not the same as no, and once again raises my suspicion. Between Charlie’s own attempt at not-so-subtle questioning and his accent, which I swear comes and goes—
A palm tree crashes down immediately to our left. Charlie jerks at the wheel, causing the UTV to slide right, then left, then right again. I squeeze my eyes shut until the tires magically dig in and we lurch forward.
Charlie’s grinning wildly, his salt-and-pepper hair a riot of curls whipping around his head. I want to be as gleeful as he is, but I don’t have that level of crazy in me.
“Had my own near-death experience,” Charlie shouts out.
“Where?” I glance around anxiously.
“McMurdo. Somethin’ fell outta the sky. Maybe space debris or a meteorite, or equipment from a weather balloon. Space is chockablock full of this and that and plenty of it crash-lands in the Antarctic. We gotta know just what, of course, junk or no junk, so I get sent to check it out. Have shovel, will travel.”
“Aren’t you an engineer?”
“I’m whatever I need to be, luv. Nature of the job. Let me tell you, this place, I’ve been a freakin’ electrician for months now. What this level of salt does to wiring. Don’t even get me started.”
“Okay.”
“So, I ride around in my snowcat for what feels like forever. Round and round. Waving at all the penguins—”
“Seriously?” I give him a look.
He flashes me a fresh grin. “Finally find me a hole punched into the ice. Definitely something big crashed down. So I get my shovel and start digging.”
“Were the penguins around for this?”
“Always, luv. Best part of Antarctica. Penguins, penguins, and more penguins. Now, I’m a-digging and a-digging and then… I’m flat on my back, unable to move. Pain shooting up my leg so bad, I can fair hear it, screaming through my nerves.”
“What did you do?”
“What I had to do, luv. No cavalry gonna reach me before the cold digs into my bones. I crawl inch by inch back to the snowcat. Then I force myself up into the cab, cursing and swearing and shrieking like a lunatic. Have you ever wondered if penguins can blush? Take it from me, luv. Yes, they can.”
“Okay, now I know you’re pulling my leg.”
That hundred-watt smile again. But edgy, too. There’s something going on here; I just can’t put my finger on it, which leaves me both intrigued and wary. Is Charlie merely a character, which seems a strong possibility, or something else?
“I might be telling a furphy, but then again… My back had locked up. There’s a special term for it, comes on from digging trenches. Don’t remember much of the return to base, but if I hadn’t done it, would’ve died on the ice instead. As it was, they had to medevac me out of there and all sorts of nonsense. So that’s my story. You have yours. I have mine. And we’re both still here to tell the tale.”
He pulls up outside the mess hall on that triumphant note. I have to shake my head, like a person awaking from a weird dream.
“How long have you been here?” I ask as I climb out.
“Long enough, luv, to know next time you tell a furphy—say about cleaning under a bed—you best clean under the bed.”
I open my mouth, but before I can stutter some kind of excuse, Charlie is off again. I stand in the torrential downpour, watching his retreat and wondering what the hell just happened. This day, this afternoon…
I feel Lea’s note burning a hole in my pocket. Tell my sister I love her.
I don’t need the storm to feel terrified anymore.
Because this island isn’t paradise. And at this point, I have no idea who to trust, let alone what to do next.
CHAPTER 17
HAVE EITHER OF YOU MET MacManus’s ward?” I ask Trudy and Ann fifteen minutes later as I peel my way through a bag of potatoes.
“Lea? How do you know Lea?” Trudy works on setting up two gigantic pots of water to boil.
“Vaughn mentioned her. Then, cleaning the lodge, I saw her picture. She’s beautiful.”
