“If that boathouse was taken out on purpose, it means someone intends to have his way with this island and everyone on it,” Ty hissed. “We’ve been looking at it as a murder. What if it was a shot across the bow instead?”
Zane sighed. “I was so hoping this would be a normal vacation.”
Ty smacked him on the side of the head. “Don’t use bad words,” he said as he walked off.
They followed the cliff path, taking an indirect route to the boathouse and dock so no one would see them heading off and wonder where they were going. The way to the dock was wooded and kind of creepy at night. It was also a long walk in the cold, something they should have realized since they’d ridden in the golf cart when they’d arrived.
“Did you bring a flashlight?” Zane asked as he glanced up at the trees reaching over them, their skeletal branches silhouetted in the moonlight.
“I admit I didn’t think this through,” Ty mumbled. He dug in his pocket and extracted his phone. “This is all I have.”
“Me too.”
“Awesome.”
They carried on in the darkness, using the spotty moonlight to show their way for as long as they could. When they broke the edge of the woods and came up to the rise in the path just before the docks, they both stopped at the same time. There was a light moving around the ruins of the boathouse, playing over broken boards and twisted rope. Everything else was dark. As they stood watching, disjointed voices drifted toward them, two or three people speaking quietly.
They both crouched and moved closer, silent on the dirt path. When they got close enough to the docks to hear the words being said, they moved off the path and knelt behind a pile of broken and battered canoes.
“What brings you boys out the night?” a voice asked. Zane recognized the barely understandable Scottish brogue of Lachlan Mackie, the ferryman who’d met them on the docks the afternoon they arrived. He held a lantern, its weak glow not quite reaching the two figures he was addressing.
“We came to see you, Mackie,” one of the men responded.
Ty gasped when he recognized the voice.
Zane smacked him in the shoulder. “It’s Kelly,” he hissed.
Ty put his hand on Zane’s head. “I know, shut up.”
“I recognize a kindred soul when I see one,” Kelly continued. The light continued to play over the wrecked boathouse. Zane assumed Nick had the flashlight. “See, we had to go through airport security to get here, left our hands a little empty.”
“Ah, I see,” Mackie said with a chuckle. “I think I can show you some hospitality.”
“Are they here buying weed?” Zane whispered in Ty’s ear. “We walked half a mile through the creepy woods to watch them buy weed?”
Ty shushed him, shaking his head.
“Do you stay out here, Mackie?” Nick asked.
“Aye. I make quarters up yonder the path.” Mackie was doing something with his hands, probably pulling out or rolling a blunt, if Zane were to guess.
“Must have been one hell of a racket when the storm hit,” Nick commented carelessly. He took the rolled cigarette Mackie handed him.
“Aye, that it was. It was pelting down. I got out here in time to see the tree falling. Stood right where you are. Wasn’t until the lightning strike I saw the dock was gone, the boats all with it.”
Nick stepped closer, and Mackie lit the blunt for him.
“Must’ve been hard, watching all your boats head out to sea without you,” Kelly said.
“Wasn’t the first time, won’t be the last.”
“Really?”
Mackie nodded. “These islands, they weren’t meant to be lived on. That old castle on the hill, she’ll tell you some stories. The house will, too. Even the caves in the cliffs, they’ll sing to you about death. The island likes to be left alone.”
Nick and Kelly stood side by side as Mackie turned and headed back up the path, using an old wooden oar as a cane. Smoke rose as one of them took a hit.
“You boys have a good night.”
Ty and Zane crouched lower as Mackie passed by. There was no reason to reveal their presence, not until the old ferryman was gone.
“Dude’s kind of creepy,” Nick said after he was out of sight.
“That’s you in twenty years.”
Nick jabbed Kelly hard in the stomach, making him double over with a bark of laughter.
Ty sighed heavily, shaking his head. In the moonlight, Zane could see Kelly quietly poking fun at Nick as he lit the blunt again. But Nick was staring over Kelly’s head, looking in their direction.
“He spotted us,” Ty whispered dejectedly.
“Grady?” Nick called out. Kelly turned to peer into the darkness.
Ty and Zane both stood, coming out of their hiding spot. “What gave us away?” Zane asked.
“I saw you come over the rise,” Nick admitted, smirking. He waved his flashlight as they made their way toward them. “Did you hear?”
“Most of it,” Ty answered.
“Sounds like I was wrong, it really was an accident. Unless Mackie set the boats loose himself.”
“That means the murderer is stuck here just like we are,” Zane surmised.
Kelly nodded. “And probably really pissed about it.”
Nick glared and took the marijuana from him, shaking his head. Zane narrowed his eyes when Nick stuffed the blunt in his pocket. Kelly clapped a hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh.
“How’d you two get here so f**king fast?” Ty demanded. He swiped at Nick, smacking him in the arm. “And how do you go from full-fledge meltdown to out here investigating? Rambling about rogue waves and scaring the shit out of us! You had me all freaked out!”
“We rode,” Nick answered, gesturing toward the darkness up the coast. He let out a whistle, and there was a gentle nicker in response. Hooves stomped the wet ground.
Ty glanced around. “Rode what?”
“Horses. We went to the stables.”
“There are stables?” Zane asked, his mood lightening at the mere mention of it.
“Nope,” Ty said.
“Did you two walk through the Sleepy Hollow woods in the dark?” Kelly asked.
“Yes, and it was scary!” Ty shouted. “Why are there horses?”
Nick and Kelly both laughed. “Do you want one of our horses for the way back?” Nick asked.
“Yes,” Zane answered at the same time as Ty’s emphatic, “No!”
Nick flicked on his flashlight again, pointing it at the sound of clopping hooves. The two horses came closer, and Kelly moved toward them, talking to them in gentle tones. Both Nick and Kelly seemed comfortable and knowledgeable around the animals. One of them nudged Nick’s shoulder and he patted the horse’s neck, then took the reins.