“What do you mean ‘here’? In this church?”
“No, Ocracoke. God help us if he knows we’re on this island.”
“Andrew, why are we on this island?”
“Well now that you’re in my life, that’s an interesting question. You feel any better?”
“I’m warm now.”
“And your poncho’s dry. I’ve got spare fleece pants and long underwear in my pack.” I looked at my watch. “It’s a quarter past seven. Rain’s let up. Yeah, we should get on with it.”
“With what?”
“I’m fairly confident Beth Lancing is somewhere on this island. Luther, too.”
“Oh, no, Andrew, let law enforcement handle this. We could call them in—”
“What about me? I’m wanted.”
“Of course I’d—”
“Of course what? You’d tell them how I’m really innocent and—”
“No, I wouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t matter what I—”
“Then what?”
“You’d have a day in court.”
“A day in court. Think that’s what I need?”
“You need something. Don’t you want to settle all this crap you’ve been through? Put it to rest, one way or another? Find some peace?”
“I’ve already found my peace, Violet. My home is far out in a beautiful wilderness. And I’m as happy there as I have any right to be. It’s paradise—”
“Sounds a little escapist to me, Andrew.”
“Well, the world, human nature as I understand it, based on what I’ve seen, is well worth escaping. But I don’t expect you to understand that.” I came to my feet. Shadows and candlelight waltzed across Violet’s face, the only warmth in the church. “And besides, what if settling ‘all this crap’ means I go to prison?”
“Are you guiltless?”
“I don’t deserve prison.”
“How do you know what you deserve?”
“You’re a naïve little girl,” I said. “You think if you always try to do the right thing, it’ll all work out in the end. You think that don’t you?”
“It’s called hope. What if I do?”
“I hope you’re never faced with some of the decisions I’ve had to make. Where you lose everything no matter what.”
I grabbed her .45 from the pew and shoved it into my waistband. We’d be leaving just as soon as I repacked the Osprey.
“You need that optimism,” I said. “It protects you from the horror you see. Was what Luther did to the Worthingtons anything less than pure brutality?”
“No. It was awful.”
“Did you fabricate a silver lining there?”
“If they had their faith, I believe they’re in heaven.”
“I’m sure that’s just what Mr. Worthington was thinking as Luther Kite butchered him. ‘Boy, I’m glad I have this faith.’” I glanced up at the wooden cross mounted to the wall behind the altar. “You’re a Christian?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Tell me. Where is God now? Where was He when Luther savaged that family?”
She glared at me, her wet eyes shining in the firelight.
“I don’t know.”
44
MOONLESS and windless, the island brooded: cold, dark, silent. Having left the backpack in the church, we followed the path back to the old general store and turned at the junction onto a southbound trail that would lead us to the middle village ruins in the island’s interior.
“I don’t think anyone else is on this island, Andrew.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to wonder that myself.”
We continued southward, the air now perfumed with wet pine and cold enough to cloud our breath.
It was just after nine o’clock when the trail ended, having deposited us on the bank of a wide slough that separated Portsmouth from Evergreen Island. I remembered this feature from the map and my heart sank. If the Kite’s lodge stood on Evergreen we’d have to bushwhack east for half a mile and bypass the slough via the tidal flats that connected these barrier islands. It would take all night.
Eastward, I could see where the backwater eventually emptied after several hundred yards into the flats. The sea lay hidden behind distant dunes.