Chapter 4
Cora’s group gathered together for the 2:00 P.M.—Cora, Jane, Ruby, her son, Cashel, and Adrian. Cora was surprised Cashel had come along for the retreat. He was a busy attorney, one of the few in Indigo Gap. But he had mentioned that another lawyer had been recently hired at his practice and he needed a break. So he joined his mother. Ruby was only too happy to spend time with him.
“I can’t believe all the beautiful shells and sea glass I found this morning,” Ruby said.
Their guide smiled, fiddling with his name tag. His hair was silver blond and face rugged with lines that spoke of years in the sun. “Do we have everybody?”
“I think so.” Cora checked the group. “All here.”
“Follow me,” he said, and led them to his truck. Or was it a Jeep? Or some kind of strange combination of the two? They filed into the back of the vehicle, like an old-fashioned hayride.
“This ought to be fun,” Jane muttered.
After they were situated, Frank, the tour guide, went over the rules. This island is full of rules, mused Cora.
“As you know, you’re officially in Low County,” he said. “Sea Glass Island is the smallest of the islands. When folks think of our islands, they usually think of Edisto or Hilton Head. We are barely a blip on the map compared to them. But because of the geography of our island and the way the currents enter, we have an unusual amount of driftwood, sea glass, and seashells.”
“Hence the name Sea Glass Island,” Cashel said with a sarcastic note.
Adrian looked at Cora as if to say “Didn’t everybody know that?”
A grinning Cashel winked at Cora. She made a mental note to ask him to stop winking at her. It was something he did frequently. Once or twice was one thing, but now he was coming off like an old, creepy uncle.
She didn’t quite understand Cashel. He was GQ gorgeous and when she first met him she was quite attracted to him—but his mother worked for her. She made it a policy to not date her employee’s sons. Her policies were in flux, admittedly. But just now, in her head, it became a policy. She created policies as the business went along.
No male teachers.
No sleeping with retreaters.
No dating the sons of mothers who worked for her.
Always do background checks of her guest teachers.
The guide, Frank, explained about Sea Glass Island’s booming tourism industry, but said that it was experiencing difficulties staying afloat during the off season. Plus, it was dealing with some damage from recent hurricanes, which had destroyed part of a public beach. He stopped the truck.
“Over there,” he said. “It used to be a huge beach.” He pointed to a small beach, full of huge rocks. “It’s an area designated as unsafe for visitors, which on a small island like this, is too bad.”
“Are there any restoration efforts in place?” Adrian asked.
“There’s a group here trying to raise awareness and money. I can give you their card at the end of the tour.”
Adrian nodded. “Sounds good.”
Not only was Adrian attractive and smart, but he was just plain nice. You had to like that in a man. Some women, of course, didn’t like nice guys, which was something Cora had never understood. Many of the women she used to work with at the Sunny Street Women’s Shelter in Pittsburgh fell only for “bad” guys—and it never led to anything good.
She turned her face as she adjusted her hat and saw Cashel peering at her. He looked away.
“From this angle,” Frank said, after driving further into the island forest and explaining about the plants and trees around them, “you can see our famous hook.”
A piece of the island jutted out, forming a hook shape, and part of the resort was built onto it. The Mermaid Hall was built on it, connecting the crafting area attached to the older resort with the new crafting area.
“Wow,” Jane said. “We were right there, almost at the tip of the hook this morning, right?”
Cora nodded. From here they viewed the long Mermaid Hall from a different vantage point.
“What’s that?” Ruby said, pointing to a huge building on the side of one of the hills.
“That would be the home of one the island’s biggest families, the Grimms,” he said. “You’ll see roads named after them and so on.”
Adrian coughed.
“They were one of the founding families. Recently, they’ve been fighting to keep their property, though,” he said, and drove off.
“What do you mean?” Ruby said.
“Well, developers are always wanting a piece of them. We hope they never sell. Of course the other big family on the island did sell, which is how the resort started. But it’s never enough, you know?”
Ruby grunted. “One resort on this beautiful island is enough.”
“I’d have to agree,” Jane said.
Cora kept her opinion to herself. Of course she agreed with them. But she realized several sides to stories like this existed.
They turned a corner and the landscape changed. Smaller, tidy homes painted in bright colors sat clustered together in a straight line.
“This is Gator Corner,” he said, laughing a little when Ruby gasped. “We don’t have alligators anymore, but we used to. Behind that clump of trees is the swamp. I’ll drive over there. But be prepared. It’s different.”
Different it was. Gone were the tidy homes. The places lining the swamps resembled nothing more than shacks. A glittering mobile or chime hung in the window of one of the homes. It caught Cora’s eye.
“Don’t be fooled,” Frank said. “Some of these folks have more money than God. They just like to keep it simple.”
Simple or not, the chimes currently catching her attention were gorgeous. Cora wanted to exit the car and find out who had crafted them. Who lived in such a place, with such beautiful chimes in the window?
But Frank kept moving.
When they returned to the main resort, the island police surrounded the area. They appeared to be waiting for them. Odd.
As they exited the van, the police took a special interest, watching each person. Several officers came up to the group.
“We’re looking for Adrian Brisbane.”
“Um, yeah, that’s me,” Adrian said.
“Please come with us to the station,” one of the cops said.
“What? What for?”
“We need to ask you some questions about Marcy Grimm.”
Adrian’s face reddened.
“Adrian? What’s going on?” Cora said. “Who’s Marcy Grimm?”
“Marcy Grimm is the woman whose body was found last night,” Ruby said.
“I thought her last name was Dupres,” Cora said.
“Not officially yet,” Ruby said. “According to the paper.”
“Can you please come with us?” The officer held out his arm and gestured for Adrian to follow him.
Cora’s heart thudded against her ribs. What was going on here?
Adrian began to follow the police and then turned around. “Cora, we’ll talk about this later. I—”
She held up her hand. “Okay,” she found the courage to say.
As he left, she caught Cashel’s smirk.
“Don’t just stand there,” Ruby said to him. “Follow him. I didn’t put you through law school for you to stand around with that stupid look on your face.”