Double Life Page 11

  “Strangers? But you must still feel something for him.” Laney tucked a strand of blond hair behind one ear. “Rachel said that he was in some sort of accident and he had to have plastic surgery. Her mother told her that he doesn’t look anything like he used to. Is that true?”

  Emma thought about it for a moment. “He looks different but he’s still Ash.”

  Laney sighed again. “That’s what I figured. I didn’t think he could have changed that much. He used to be our version of McDreamy, remember? Those blue eyes with that dark hair…” She gave Emma a sly smile. “I used to be so jealous of you, you know. I thought your hooking up with Ash Corbett made you just about the luckiest girl in the world.”

  Emma frowned. “You didn’t need to be jealous of me. Nothing was ever going to come of that romance. Helen wouldn’t let it.” She winced at the bitterness in her voice. Why was she letting the past get to her so much? Why did it still matter that she’d never measured up to Helen’s expectations for her grandson?

  “I know, but that’s what made it so romantic,” Laney said. “You were like star-crossed lovers or something.” She made a gagging sound. “Did I just say that? That was cheesy.”

  “Yes, it was. I think you need to step away from the soap operas,” Emma said with a grin. “Join us back here in the real world.”

  “Okay, so I get a little carried away sometimes.” Laney shrugged. “There are worse things.” Her gaze shot to the front of the restaurant and she straightened in her seat. “And speaking of romance…”

  Emma glanced over her shoulder to see who had attracted Laney’s attention. The only person she saw was a man in a county sheriff’s uniform. He’d just walked into the restaurant and was waiting to be seated.

  She turned back to Laney. “Isn’t that Rick Bledsoe?”

  “Yes, and doesn’t he look hot in that uniform? He’s got the tightest little butt.”

  Emma started to turn back around, but Laney reached across the table and grabbed her arm. “Don’t keep looking back! He’ll know we’re talking about him.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Just be cool.” Laney opened her menu but she continued to surreptitiously watch Rick over the edge. “He got divorced last year and I’ve been dying for him to ask me out.”

  “Why don’t you ask him out?” Emma suggested.

  “I just might if I could ever get him alone. One of us is always on duty when we bump into each other. The timing just hasn’t worked out.”

  “What about now?” Emma said. “Looks like he’s having to wait for a table. Why don’t you go ask him to join us?”

  “You wouldn’t mind?”

  Emma glanced back down at the menu. “Sure, go ahead if you want to. I always liked Rick.”

  “Just don’t get any ideas,” Laney warned with a wink as she slid out of her chair. “I saw him first.”

  Emma smiled at the good-natured banter. It felt really good to be out socializing with friends her age. She hadn’t realized how sequestered she’d been at the mansion for the past couple of months. The errands she ran for Helen got her out and about, and she had her evening walks and dinners with her father. But she hadn’t had lunch with a friend, much less a date, in far too long.

  Her solitary lifestyle had started in Dallas after the attack. She’d stopped going out with friends and instead had locked herself in her apartment every night, afraid to venture out any farther than her mailbox.

  But Emma saw now how damaging that behavior had been and how it fit a pattern for her. For one reason or another, she’d been putting her life on hold for as long as she could remember.

  It was time for that to stop.

  “Emma, you remember Rick.”

  She roused herself from her reverie and glanced up. “Of course. Hi, Rick. It’s good to see you again.”

  “Hey, Emma.” He paused. “Are you sure I’m not intruding on your lunch? You probably have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Oh, we’ve already done that,” Laney hurried to assure him. “Right, Emma?”

  “Right.” She smiled at Rick. “Sit down. We’d like you to join us.”

  He took a seat beside Laney and laid his hat in the empty chair next to Emma’s. “So what are you two up today?”

  “We were just talking about what we wanted to do after lunch, weren’t we, Em? I don’t have to be at work until four so I have the whole afternoon.” Laney’s smile was anything but subtle.

  “And what about you, Emma?” Rick asked politely.

  “I have the day off, but I’ll probably head back home after lunch—” She broke off with a grunt when Laney kicked her under the table. She shot her friend a surprised look, and Laney gave her a half-hearted smile.

  “Sorry, my foot slipped,” she muttered. “There’s not much room under these tables.”

  “No, they pack ’em in here pretty tight,” Rick agreed.

  He motioned for the waitress. “Have you ordered yet?”

  “No, we were just about to.”

  The waitress was a young, pretty college-age girl who flirted openly with Rick as she took their orders. Emma could almost see the smoke rolling out of Laney’s ears the longer the girl tarried.

  Finally she had everything she needed and turned to hurry off toward the kitchen. And Laney wasted no time trying to recapture Rick’s attention.

  “What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, our plans for the rest of the day. As it happens, Emma and I are both free as birds all afternoon. What about you?”

  “I’m still on duty,” he said. “My watch doesn’t end until five.”

  Laney’s face fell. “That’s too bad. I was hoping the three of us could go down to the beach for a while. Be just like our high school days. We could even take a cooler. I’ve been wanting to work on my tan.”

  Rick shoved his water glass aside and leaned an arm on the table as he regarded Laney. Emma didn’t see how he could resist her. Her smile and bubbly personality were adorable. Even her blatant flirting was charming.

  “I don’t have time to go to the beach,” he said. “But we could take a boat ride if you want.”

  Laney’s eyes lit with excitement. “A boat ride? I love boats! What do you have in mind?”

  Rick glanced at Emma, and the quick shadow that flickered in his eyes made her dread what he was about to say.

  “I’m going out to Shell Island this afternoon. You and Emma can ride along if you want.”

  Emma’s breath quickened, and she opened her mouth to decline the invitation. But Laney was already accepting for both of them.

  “That sounds like fun! I haven’t been out to Shell Island in years,” she said. “We’d love to go, wouldn’t we, Em?”

  “I don’t know—”

  “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun.”

  Emma glanced at Rick. “Why are you going to Shell Island?”

  “It’s in our jurisdiction,” he explained. “We make a run out there every so often to try and keep the vandals away.”

  “What’s it like now?” she found herself asking.

  He shrugged. “Pretty much the way it’s been for years. The houses are still standing, although some of the roofs have caved in.”

  “What about the church?”

  It was on the stone steps of that church that Emma had experienced the strongest premonition. It was inside that church that the first body had been discovered. She couldn’t help shuddering at the memory.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Rick said. “I was a little uneasy the first time I had to go out there by myself. But there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just land with some old houses on it. Whatever happened there years ago…that’s all in the past. I’m surprised some developer hasn’t snapped it up and tried to build a subdi vision out there or something. It’s actually a real pretty little island.”

  Somehow Emma doubted that. Shell Island would always be a dark, foreboding place to her. A place that still haunted her dreams from time to time.

  But
Rick was right. Whatever darkness had inhabited the island in the past was long gone. People were evil. There was no reason to be afraid of a place.

  Maybe a trip out there in broad daylight with an old friend and a deputy sheriff might be just the thing to exorcise a few more of her demons.

  “Okay, I’ll go,” Emma said, but her stomach was so tied in knots that she could hardly eat her crab cakes.

  THE RIDE OUT TO SHELL ISLAND took only a few minutes, but by the time Rick pulled the boat alongside the dilapidated peer, Emma had decided that she’d made a big mistake. She never should have come out here.

  She tried to tell herself that she was overreacting. There was nothing to be afraid of anymore. All the bodies were gone and nothing had been found out here in years. Like Rick said, Shell Island was just a piece of land with some old houses on it.

  At one time the island had been home to a thriving community, but it wasn’t the ghosts of those who had lived there that haunted Emma.

  Twelve years ago, six bodies had been found on the island. In a course of five years, those six young women had been taken to the island never to be heard from again. Someone had brutally murdered them and the killer had never been caught.

  And eighteen years prior to that, Mary Ferris’s mutilated body had washed up in the bay. For all anyone knew, she could have been murdered on the island as well.

  That the killer hadn’t struck again for over a dozen years did nothing to put Emma’s mind at ease. Because he was still out there somewhere. And there could be more bodies buried somewhere else.

  The sun beat down hot on her shoulders, but she couldn’t stop shivering.

  Rick tied up the boat, then offered his hand down to Laney.

  She laughed with nervous excitement as she scrambled upon the pier. “Wow, this place really is kind of creepy, isn’t it?”

  “We haven’t even left the pier yet,” Rick teased her. “Way until you see the houses.”

  “I thought you said it wasn’t scary anymore,” Emma said. She hadn’t yet climbed out of the boat. She wasn’t sure she was going to. “Maybe I’ll just wait for you two here.”

  Rick gave her an encouraging smile as he held out his hand. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that. Come on. It’s a pretty interesting place. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  Famous last words. Emma grabbed his hand and let him help her up to the pier.

  The island was tiny, but the vegetation had grown up so high that the houses weren’t visible from the beach. Rick took the lead down a narrow path through the fan palms and oleanders.

  As they walked along single file, Laney glanced back and mouthed a thank-you to Emma. Then she jerked her head in Rick’s direction and put a hand over her heart. I think I’m in love.

  Emma just shook her head, but Laney’s silly pantomime helped dispel some of the uneasiness that had been hovering over her ever since Rick had mentioned the island.

  A few yards inland, they came to the first house. Like all the other homes on the island, it was a single-story clapboard building with rickety steps leading up to a covered porch. The front door sagged open and most of the windows had been broken out years ago.

  The shards of glass that remained in the frames reminded Emma of jagged teeth in yawing mouths. And the windows above it were the eyes….

  She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to ward off a lingering chill. It was just an old house. It didn’t have teeth or eyes and it couldn’t watch her, although she had the strangest sensation of being watched. She glanced over her shoulder, her gaze scouring the thick brush.

  Laney grabbed her arm and Emma jumped.

  “Oh, you really are spooked, aren’t you? Come on.” She tugged on Emma’s hand. “Let’s go take a look inside.”

  “You two can have a look around here while I go check out the church,” Rick said. “That’s usually where the vandals concentrate their mischief. But if you go inside the house, watch your step. Some of the floorboards are rotting through. And don’t wander off too far. I’ll be back in a few minutes. If you want, I can give you a quick tour of the island before we leave.”

  Laney went up the porch steps first and glancing over her shoulder, motioned for Emma to follow. “Don’t you want to see what’s inside?”

  “Not really.”

  But Emma had to admit a part of her was curious. And now that she’d had a little time to adjust to being on the island, she realized that much of the creepy atmosphere she remembered from her trip out here before really had been exaggerated in her mind.

  There was nothing dark or menacing about the place. The sun was shining and the oleanders bloomed in profusion. The vanilla-like fragrance hung on a warm, balmy breeze that blew in from the gulf.

  All these years, she’d been afraid of this place for no reason, Emma realized. It really was a very pretty little island.

  She followed Laney up the steps and the two of them walked inside. Even with the broken windows, the tiny rooms were dim and slightly claustrophobic. The floorboards squeaked ominously under their feet as they walked from room to room, and Emma tried to tread lightly. The house was set up off the ground. If she fell through a rotting floorboard, she could easily break a leg.

  There was nothing much to see inside. Just a few tattered books and some old clothing that had been left behind. Emma picked up one of the mildewed books and glanced at the spine. It was an old history book.

  “Hey, come take a look at this!” Laney called from another room.

  Emma dropped the book and wandered back out into the corridor. “Where are you?”

  “Down here. I think this must have been one of the bedrooms. You’ll never believe what’s in here.”

  She sounded too calm for her discovery to be anything dire, Emma decided. She followed the sound of Laney’s voice to the end of the hallway. The door was open and Laney stood in the center of the room.

  “Check it out,” Laney said and spreading out her arms, slowly turned in a circle.

  Emma couldn’t imagine at first what she was doing, but then she looked down and saw that Laney stood in the middle of what looked to be a pentagram.

  A red pentagram.

  A spray can had been discarded nearby and Emma let out a breath of relief. For a moment she’d actually thought the symbol might have been drawn in blood. Crazy.

  “How long do you suppose it’s been here?” Laney said, making no move to step out of the symbol.

  “The paint looks fairly fresh.” Emma was surprised at how calm she sounded. “That area doesn’t have as much dust as the rest of the floor.”

  “I wonder if Rick knows about this. I should probably go find him and tell him.”

  “And leave me here?” Emma blurted, giving away her nerves.

  “You can come, too, if you like.” But Laney’s tone clearly conveyed her desire to be alone with Rick Bledsoe. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m sure it was just some kids fooling around.”

  She was probably right. After all, the culprit had left his spray paint can behind. That hardly seemed ominous. “Rick said he was going to the church. Do you even know where it is?”

  “I’ve been out here a few times. I remember the general layout of the island, and besides,” Laney said, grinning, “I have a sixth sense about these things. I’ll find him, don’t worry. But if I’m not back in an hour, send out a search party.”

  “If you’re not back in an hour, I’m taking the boat back to town,” Emma warned.

  She followed Laney back out to the porch. At the bottom of the steps, Laney paused and glanced up at her. “Are you sure you don’t mind? I know you only came out here because I asked you to and now I’m abandoning you. But this is the first chance I’ve had to be alone with Rick in ages. And I really like him, Em.”

  Who was she to stand in the way of romance? Emma thought. Or lust, whatever the case might be. “Go on,” she said with a careless shrug. “I’ll be fine.”

  After all, she was a grow
n woman. If she couldn’t stand to be by herself for a few minutes in the middle of the afternoon, she had bigger problems than she thought.

  EMMA LASTED FIVE MINUTES ON the porch and then she decided that she really didn’t care if she interrupted Laney’s only opportunity to be alone with Rick or not. She didn’t want to wait at the house by herself because she was starting to get a little spooked again.

  Maybe it had been teenagers who’d painted the pentagram on the floor of the bedroom, but given the island’s history, Emma wasn’t going to beat herself up for being a little shaken by the symbol.

  She considered just heading back to the boat to wait for the other two there, but as she lingered on the porch, her gaze swept over the scenery and she glimpsed the roof of the church peeking through the vegetation. That was where Laney and Rick were.

  Emma didn’t remember it being so close to the beach, but she’d only been thirteen when her father brought her out here to look around. She didn’t remember the island being so overgrown, either, or the houses being in such poor shape. But they must have been because no one had actually lived on Shell Island since the fifties.

  As Emma stood there staring at that roof, she tried to remember everything she’d read about the island back then. It had been inhabited by a handful of families who shunned modern conveniences. Most of the men had been fishermen, but a few had been day laborers in town. The women hadn’t been allowed to work off the island, and the children had been home-schooled.

  Even when they came into Jacob’s Pass for supplies, the islanders didn’t mingle with the townspeople. They took care of their business as speedily as possible and returned by boat to their homes.

  Then one by one, for whatever reason, the families left the island and some of them settled around Corpus Christi. Others moved farther away, and so far as Emma knew, no one had kept track of their whereabouts.

  But the rumors about the families had persisted for years. When Emma’s class studied local history in junior high school, she’d been amazed by all the stories of dark ceremonies, animal sacrifices and ritualistic worship. For a while it had almost been a contest to see who could come up with the most bizarre tale.