I nodded once.“Go ahead.”
She swallowed, cleared her throat, and said softly, “Uh… not really.My dad died when I was four.My mom didn’t have any other kids.It was just us.”
“And Bernice?”Anchor asked.“Did your mom ever mention her?”
Shay shook her head.“No.Not once.I… I don’t remember Bernice at all.So I have to assume they had a falling out after those pictures were taken.”
“Yeah,” Pearl said and tapped a finger against her mug, “from what I could tell, the most recent picture of Shay and Bernice together was when Shay was about three.”
I looked at Shay.“Isn’t that about when you said you had a memory of being here?”
Shay’s brows pinched.“Yeah.I don’t remember much of the island… but I know I was here.I feel it.It’s the only memory from before my mom moved us.”
No one spoke.
The silence was thick, almost too heavy for the air around us.
Everyone was processing.Trying to piece together a puzzle none of us had known existed until today.
Push finally exhaled hard.“So what does this all mean?”
“T-t-t-technically…” Piney stuttered, “it could be nothing.Just something that happened back then.Doesn’t mean it has anything to do with what’s going on now.”He wasn’t trying to undermine Shay.Piney was a practical thinker.A man who believed most things in life had simple explanations.
Anchor rubbed his temples.“Maybe.Or maybe it means everything.”
Skull leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table.“It explains why he came to her window.”
“She’s what he’s after,” Push said.
My jaw clenched.
Because that was exactly what I was thinking.Had been thinking ever since she told me about her memories of water.
Pearl turned to me.“Prime?You’re quiet.”
They all looked at me then.
Men who trusted me.
Men who counted on me.
Men who knew I didn’t speak unless I had something worth saying.
I cleared my throat.“Her mom and Bernice were close.The pictures prove that.And Shay’s memory lines up with the age in the photos.Something happened here twenty-some years ago.”
Pearl nodded slowly.“Something that must’ve driven Shay’s mom off the island.”
“These are all just guesses,” Vin muttered.“We don’t know anything for fact when it comes to this guy.It’s all just a jumble.”
Anchor exhaled sharply.“Alright.Here’s what we do know.One: We’ve got four dead bodies of people we don’t know buried on the island.Two: Shay and Bernice were in the file he left for us.Three: he killed Bernice but hasn’t really made a move on Shay.Four: He tapped on her window, but that was it.Five: Shay’s got a connection to Bernice that none of us saw.Not even Shay.We need to connect all of those things to find out who this is and why he’s coming after us.”He looked around the table.“Everything else?We figure it out as we go.”
No one argued.
Anchor ran a hand over his face.“Church, dismissed.”
But no one moved.
Everyone just sat there, staring at Shay like she’d suddenly become the missing piece to a puzzle we didn’t know existed.
