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Just then the body zipped in a big black bag is being carried out of the woods. The very presence of the bag has the entire area going a little quieter and a sense of melancholy falls upon everybody. Even though the sun is well above the horizon and rays of it spear through the trees it somehow gets just a shade…grayer somehow.
“Can I…?” Nate asks and waits for the Sheriff to nod his consent. They both walk over to where the body has been placed on a gurney.
I follow not wanting to miss anything. I wait for Nate to unzip the bag before I push my way up beside him so I can take a look too. And all the air rushes out of me. The body of the woman lying inside the bag really does look a lot like me. Enough so that I find myself edging closer to Nate in an instinctual search for warmth and life.
We have the same dark hair, the same coloring, and our build is the same. Given the fact that this is where my car broke down last night and we’re both visitors to the island, I can’t help but feel…connected to this woman. It could easily have been me lying here instead of her.
Then what she is wearing sinks in. It’s wet from the rain that drenched everything late into the night and a little dirty, but I can still tell what the gown is supposed to look like in better situations. I gasped and covered my mouth immediately, hoping the two men didn’t hear it.
I saw…I saw this woman last night. Or at least I think I did. The flash of white in the woods just before Nate scared the shit out of me by being all lurky and scary. Then another thought zips through my head like a runaway bus bearing down on a group of nuns carrying pug puppies crossing the road to get to young school children. Nate was out in the woods with me. He could have killed this girl, started back for his truck, and found me.
But that doesn’t feel like the right scenario. It doesn’t seem…rational to think he came from just strangling a girl to death and then found me. One, I'm not sure how long it takes to strangle the life out of a living creature, but it seems like it would take a minute. Two, he didn’t have a scratch on him when he showed up at my window. And why not kill me too? It’s not like anyone would miss me for weeks and weeks. And I saw the flash of white right before Nate scared me to death, not giving him enough time to catch her, kill her, and wrap back around.
But that still doesn’t mean I didn’t see this woman right before she was killed. It doesn’t mean someone close by would not like a loose end like me running around if I said anything about what I saw. And who the hell can I trust? I don’t know a goddamned person on this island. Hell, for all I know Nate could still be involved. He could have a partner and was trying to get rid of me so they could finish the woman off.
“So, you’re saying you…found Ms. Newman out here, Nate?”
“How did you know my name?” I ask the Sheriff in an accusing tone. Everyone looks suspicious suddenly.
“Tags.” He says it so matter-of-factly that I feel stupid now for not remembering that shit would show up on a search. “And the two of you didn’t see anything?”
Me and Nate look at one another, and the knowledge that both of us were close when this woman was breathing her last begins to slowly sink in. That fact is even more unsettling than anything else about all of this. To think while both of us were talking, meeting for the first time, a woman was being murdered just yards away is…terrifying really.
“It…was dark and the storm had just started. Lightning and thunder. I could barely hear him when he spoke, and he was standing right in front of me.”
“I saw her headlights die or I wouldn’t have known she was there and would have driven right by her.”
“And there were no other cars, no other vehicles at all, anywhere around?”
“I literally saw no one from the time I left my house to the time I got her back to the inn. Except for her, of course.”
“What about on your way back?”
Nate shakes his head. “Nothing.”
“I don’t mean to alarm you or cause you to worry ma’am, but if I were you…I wouldn’t be taking any walks alone in the woods.” The Sheriff gives me a look full of concern and sadness before looking over at Nate.
“Nate, I’d keep a close eye on my friend, if I were you. This is probably a domestic violence situation between romantic partners, but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t at least warn you. Not with the way she looks and how your car was so close.”
Something passes between the Sheriff and Nate that leaves me wondering…do they know something about this murder that they aren’t telling me? Could it lead to me getting myself killed?
Chapter Five
____________
Nate
I take one last look at the woman lying dead in front of me. Death is never easy but when it’s hurried along by means other than natural ones it makes it even worse. It leaves stains behind that can mark the entire area if left uncleaned. One of the easiest ways to offer cleansing in this situation… find out who did this and bring them to justice.
She really does look a lot like the woman standing by my side - Nova. The hair is the same, with Nova’s being a little shorter than the dead woman’s, and the age looks to be a close match. But the thing that really reaches out and grabs me are the eyes. Nova’s are more green than this woman’s, full of intelligence and life. Nova’s eyes are bright and searching instead of dead and protruding from her ashen face.
When I think of how close she came to being in the bag instead of this unidentified woman my heart speeds up and a hollow ache forms in my stomach. I really need to find a way to get this woman off my island. It’s the only way I can be sure she’ll stay safe.
“You’ve found your witch,” I walk her back to my truck and help her inside after we wrap things up with Don. But I don’t just walk away, “Now go home and write your story. I’m sure the whole twist of it being me will make for good reading. I can drop you off at the dock so you can be on the next ferry and have an Uber waiting on you on the other side. Your car will be shipped to you of course, when the mechanic has it fixed.”
“I’m not leaving.”
Damn!
