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“The boat… sank?” Madison says, her voice a whisper.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Garrett cuts in. “Floating garbage might, if the boat hit the shore and sunk, but part of the seat? Like it came off?”
“It…” I begin.
“It’s on the beach,” Kit says. “You can examine it. The leather is torn, which doesn’t seem possible, but the canoe and kayaks… They aren’t missing. They’re destroyed.”
“How?” Garrett says.
“They’re in pieces,” I say. “Little pieces.”
“Like someone hacked them up with a machete?”
“No, like…”
“It looks like a bomb,” Kit says. “Everything that was on ground level is in small, twisted pieces.”
“So someone blew up your boats?” Garrett says. “The kayak, the canoe, and the motorboat.” He goes still. “Which means Sadie didnottake the boat. Like I said.” He strides to the windows, jabbing a finger out. “My sister is out there. On this damn island. She couldn’t have left because the nutjob who killed your cleaner blew up all your boats, including that one. So we abandoned her out there, on the island, with a killer.”
“All her things are gone,” Jayla says.
“But she didn’t leave on the boat because…” All the color drains from his face. “No. That’s not— No.” Before anyone can speak, he bears down on me. “Someone put a bomb on your boat, and if my sister took it…” He can’t finish.
“We don’t know that,” Kit cuts in. “Yes, her things are gone, but she might have been planning to leave and then the boat wasn’t there, so she’s somewhere on the island, cooling off. Maybe she’s even in the boathouse. No one searched it.”
I remember what I saw in the water. Sadie’s face. Sadie’s body.
No, that’s what IthoughtI saw. A blink, and it was gone.
Kit continues, “I shouldn’t have said it was a bomb. I meant that’s what it looked like with the canoe and kayaks, but it couldn’t have been because the structure is intact.”
Garrett’s face screws up. “The structure is intact? Speak English.”
“The shed wasn’t touched,” I say. “The boats, the life vests, the oars, they’re all in pieces, but the paddleboard was left in the rafters—as if it wasn’t noticed—and there’s no damage to the shed, inside or out.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t. Which—”
“None of you are making sense,” Garrett snaps as he stalks to the door. “I’m done listening.Youdon’t even know what you’re saying. I don’t know why I expected better, all things considered.”
That barb strikes hard, and I fight the urge to snarl something back. Not in front of Madison.
“I’ll go with you,” Kit says. “Give me a second to find dry clothing.”
Garrett stalks out without pausing.
Kit looks at me. “Do you have any clothing renters left behind?”
“There’s a box of your stuff in my storage room.”
“Oh. Right. I never… uh, told you what to do with it.”
“I thought you might want to come out here sometime,” I say, as lightly as I can. “And if you didn’t, I’d have added it to the box for renters who arrive in September with nothing but shorts and tank tops.” I start to rise, blanket wrapped around me. “I’ll show you where it is.”
“I’ll get it,” Madison says. “Then I’m going out to see the shed.”
Another exchanged look between me and Kit, but there’s no reason to keep her from doing that. Better that we all see it and try to come up with a rational explanation.
