Ball & Chain (Cut & Run 8)

“The day of the wedding is the next arranged landing if the weather is fair. After that, next week. Next month. Maybe. There’s no real schedule for the ferry because the island is private.”

Nick scratched at his eyebrow, looking over at Ty with a shrug. “We’ll send someone in one of the island’s boats, then. The authorities have to be notified of this, we can’t just wait until nature lets us call.”

Stanton turned to one of the groundskeepers. “Will you please send word to the dock to have one of the smaller launches prepared for the crossing? And see what’s keeping them so long with the radios.”

Once the man had gone and the rest of the staff had begun to disperse for their daily responsibilities, Stanton drew closer to Ty and Zane, lowering his voice. “Is this . . . was this an accident?” he asked, obviously more rattled than he had been letting on.

Ty and Zane shared a look. “We don’t know. We haven’t touched the scene other than to clear it.”

Nick moved closer, keeping the two Snake Eaters in his peripheral vision because they both annoyed the shit out of him. “If help is going to take a long time in getting here, we need to look at that body,” he told the others. “Evidence is disappearing as we stand here, and there’s more rain coming. And we can’t leave the body like this for much longer. The tide will come in. We’ll have to document the scene as best we can and then move him somewhere to preserve whatever’s on him.”

Ty nodded, still frowning.

“And Ty. If he was murdered . . .”

“There’s probably a murderer on the island with us, yeah.” Ty nodded, his frown growing even deeper. “Do it.”

Nick raised both eyebrows, opening his mouth in surprise. He clutched his right hand to his thigh, making a fist with it. “Me?”

“You’re the homicide detective, right?”

“Not anymore.”

“Irish, just look at the f**king body and see if you think it’s a murder or an accident, okay?” Ty snapped.

Nick grunted in annoyance. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

“I’m sorry.” Ty swiped a hand over his forehead, closing his eyes. “Please.”

Nick huffed and brushed past him, stepping carefully in Zane’s footprints to kneel next to the body. There were no defensive wounds on the parts of his arms that were visible, but the dead man’s watch was cracked. Nick cocked his head to read the time. It had stopped at 3:48 am.

“Possible time of death here,” he said without looking up. He pressed his fingers to the man’s neck. He was cold. He tried to articulate the dead man’s fingers and they moved without resistance. Nick frowned. If he’d died just four hours ago, he would still be in rigor. The cold night could have sped up the cooling of the body, but the evidence was saying different things about when the man had died.

He looked around for pieces of the glass watch face, finally finding them in the mud next to a rock a foot away from the man’s head. The beach was littered with rocks and boulders, some smooth, some jagged. It was possible he’d slipped while walking and hit his head. Nick reached for one of the shards of glass, but his fingers were trembling again. He clutched his hand into a fist and pulled it back, swiping it across his thigh instead. He’d need someone to take photos of the glass shards anyway, so he left them there.

Footprints were impossible to decipher. The sand was too loose, and too many people had passed this way. He leaned far over the dead man, trying to see his face without disturbing the scene any more than it had been. What he found was a gaping wound at his hairline, so deep he could see bone and brain matter. The blood had mingled with the ocean and soaked into the sand. The absence of a blood pool made the brutal wound a shock to find.

“His skull’s been caved in,” he announced.

“Could it be from a fall?” Zane called to him.

Nick shook his head before he even gave the question real thought. “Wound like this, there was some real leverage behind it. Looks like someone brained him with a rock. Never saw it coming. Didn’t put up a fight.”

“He was murdered,” Stanton said under his breath, covering his mouth with his palm.

There was a shout from the pathway, and when Nick stood to peer past the others, he saw a man guiding one of the golf carts up the path, waving at them frantically as he swerved the cart all over. When he got closer he hopped out and sprinted toward them, leaving the golf cart to roll by itself down the incline. People shouted and hustled for it before it could hit the cliff and sail over the edge, but the driver didn’t notice.

“What the hell,” Ty said.

“They’re gone,” the man blurted as he ran toward them.

“What’s gone, Gillis?” Stanton demanded.

“The boats!” the young man named Gillis gasped out when he finally skidded to a stop in front of Stanton. “All of them. They’re all gone from the dock. Even the rowboats and kayaks. Mackie says the boathouse was hit by a tree and they’re all gone.”

“Gone,” Stanton echoed.

“You can see them, little dots out floating in the water.” The kid was still breathless. He waved his arm around. “The storm set them all afloat. The ones not still floating sank at the docks.”

Stanton’s eyes were wide when he turned back to Nick and the others. Nick felt his stomach drop as the realization sank in. They were trapped on the island with no way to communicate with the outside world, possibly for days. And there could very well be a murderer among them.

He took a deep breath and let it out, grumbling to himself. “I’m going to f**king die in Scotland.”

Chapter 5

Zane sat quietly in an office chair through a brief debate over whether the wedding festivities should carry on as planned, or if the guests should be told of the murder and the loss of the island’s launches. Ty and Nick argued first with the Snake Eaters and then with each other over which avenue would be most expedient for keeping everyone safe. Kelly was still with Livi and Amelia, or Zane was sure Kelly would have been able to keep things calmer. As it was, Zane just hung back.

Ty insisted keeping the guests in the dark would, at least for a little while, prevent a mass panic and allow them to try to find a solution in relative peace. Nick was adamant that people in danger deserved to know they were in danger, and steps could be taken to protect them and convince them to cooperate.

Zane felt like he was witnessing the core of why Ty and Nick had always made a good team. They were very yin and yang.