“A skeleton?”I repeated, my voice small.
“Yeah,” Anchor said.“Prime says it’s pretty damn old.”
I wrinkled my nose, and my thoughts spun.“Why… a skeleton?That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Fuck if we know,” Anchor said.“Doc is headed out there to try to figure out how old it is.”
Pearl glanced down at the piles of papers between us.“Maybe it has nothing to do with this?The stuff happening now.Maybe it’s not even a real skeleton.Like… maybe some teenagers thought a prank would be funny.”Her voice trembled at the end.
As much as she tried to be optimistic, her eyes betrayed her.She didn’t believe it any more than I did.
“Or an animal dug it up,” I added, trying not to sound like I was clinging to false hope.
Anchor shook his head.“We’ll know when Doc looks at it.But Piney swept that area last night.He swears it wasn’t there.”
Pearl sucked in a breath.“So someone—”
“Placed it,” Anchor finished.
The cabin went silent.
The kind of silence where you could hear your own heartbeat, and every creak the cabin made suddenly felt suspicious.
My mind raced.
Who dug up a skeleton just to move it?Why bring it here?Why now?What did it mean?
“I hope one of you is right,” Anchor muttered and rubbed the back of his neck.“Really do.We’ll find out once Doc takes a look at it.”
He sank down onto the couch like the weight of all of it had finally hit him.Pearl sank down beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder.
I dropped onto the floor again and stared at the papers in front of me, but the words didn’t make sense anymore.
All I could think was someone was trying to send us a message, and I had the sickening feeling this was just the beginning.
Chapter Seventeen
Prime
The makeshift morgue was cool and damp.Maybe it was the concrete walls.Maybe it was the fact that every bad thing that had happened on this island had ended up down here sooner or later.
Dead bodies.Evidence.Secrets.
Tonight it was a skeleton.
A fucking skeleton.
Doc stood over the stainless-steel table we normally used for gear repair or cleaning guns but was now used for dead bodies and skeletons.He adjusted his glasses and squinted down at the bones like they were a puzzle he’d never seen before.
“Y’know,” Doc muttered and scratched his chin, “I’m used to fresh bodies.Not ones that are just bones.”
Skull snorted.“You saying we’re moving up in the world?”
Doc side-eyed him.“I’m saying this isn’t exactly my specialty.Bones don’t scream, bleed, or leak, so this is outta my normal wheelhouse.”
Vin crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.“Just tell us how old it is.”
“I said I’m not a bone guy,” Doc repeated, lifting a femur and turning it in his gloved hands.“But… based on wear, sun bleaching, and the lack of connective tissue?I’d guess several years.Maybe more.”
