TWENTY-FOUR

By the time we swam to shore, Blake, his number two Clay Cooper—Darius’s cousin—a fire truck with four Stella Maris volunteer firemen, and the EMTs were in the parking lot. A crowd of curious Stella Maris residents had begun to form. Blake had the area roped off with crime scene tape. Because they went off the other side, the ferry crew reached land before we did, and were being examined.

I’d lost my sandals in the water—the second pair of Kate Spade shoes the inlet had claimed. The rocks along the waterfront near the dock dug into my bare feet. Nate had ahold of my arm, helping me navigate.

Blake offered me a hand. I grabbed it, and Nate handed me over.

“You all right?” The look in Blake’s eyes told me exactly how shook up he was.

“I’m fine.” I stepped into the grass alongside the parking lot and stayed there. The asphalt was rough and no doubt scorching hot.

“Nate?” Blake turned back towards him.

“I’m good, thanks.” Nate cleared the rocks and came to stand beside me. “Darius, you got it?”

Darius picked his way through the rocks, muttering curses. “Oh yeah. I’ma tell you what, though. This has been the most stressful week of my entire life. And I’ve been on TV for years. I don’t remember things being this exciting on this lil’ island. I came home for peace and quiet. Seems like you all outta that here.” He looked at Blake like maybe he was responsible.

“And from where I sit, it looks like you brought all the crazy with you,” said Blake.

Darius muttered something, continued picking his way slowly across the rocks.

Blake turned to me and Nate. “What the hell happened?”

Nate said, “The Explorer started giving me trouble this morning. Lurching, misfiring. I was gonna take a look at it as soon as we got home. Didn’t had a chance. We rode up top on the ferry. When we got back in the car, I went to start it to run the air conditioning as we approached the dock. It missed again. And then something didn’t smell right.” Nate ran a hand through his hair, looked around, shook his head. I knew he was struggling to explain why we all jumped in the water. We couldn’t say, because our guardian spirit told us to.

Colleen appeared beside him. “I remembered reading this article where some guy’s car was acting just like that and someone had rigged it to explode. As soon as I recalled that, something just told me we should get out of the car and off the ferry. I just knew.”

Nate repeated what she’d said verbatim.

Blake blinked at him. “You think somebody bombed your car?”

Nate hesitated.

Colleen said, “It’s not a bomb. In the article I read, someone ran a wire from a spark plug to the gas tank. Just a piece of wire. And it caused the car to explode, after it misfired for a day or two.”

Nate parroted Colleen.

Darius’s face was contorted in disbelief. “Was somebody trying to kill you, or me?”

“That’s a fair question,” said Nate. “I don’t know. Of course it will probably take weeks for forensics to analyze whatever they’re able to pull out of the water. I could be wrong. It’s just a guess.”

“No,” said Colleen. “That’s exactly what happened.”

Who did that? I threw the thought at her.

“No idea,” she said. “That’s all I’ve been given.”

One of the EMTs approached our group. “Everyone okay over here?”

We all assured him we were fine. None of us wanted to be examined.

Blake said, “Charleston Sheriff’s Office is sending an underwater recovery team. I’ve got an emergency call in to the mayor. We’ve got to replace the Amelia Ruth as quickly as possible. I’m hoping for a loaner from the North Carolina Ferry System. Otherwise, we could be down a while. Plenty of folks have private boats for pleasure, but most everyone on the island depends on the ferry.”

“We’re going to need to charter something to get some of the visitors back to Isle of Palms, aren’t we?” I asked. “I mean, there are a lot of folks here with no place to sleep.”

“I’m already on it,” said Blake. “Their cars will be stuck here temporarily. But I’ve rounded up volunteers who can take anyone back who needs to go. The Robinsons are going to coordinate it all through the marina.”

“I’ve got a boat,” said Darius. “Chris Craft. It’s docked over at the marina.”

“That’s excellent news,” I said. “We’re going to need to borrow it.”

“Borrow it? I’ll take you wherever you need to go…” said Darius. “Aww, hell. I can’t leave the island anyway. I got this damn ankle monitor. And that’s a brand new boat. I ain’t even driven it but once myself.”

Blake said, “Darius, I thought you might want to stay at the bed and breakfast. It’ll be quieter there, and that’s where Nell and Bill are. Coop too, when he’s off duty.”

“Thank ya,” said Darius. “But I understand my lawyer wants me at home. But I could use your help getting my second ex-wife out my house.”

Blake lifted his cap, dug his fingers through his hair, then resettled the cap. “I’ll send Clay with you. He can run her off and keep an eye on things. Hey, Coop.” He motioned for Clay to join us.

“Drop Liz and Nate off, then take Darius home. Clear out any trespassers. I need you to stay there with him tonight instead of going back to the B&B. Maybe a few nights. You okay with that?”

“Sure.” Clay grinned. “It’ll be just like old times.”

Darius smiled. “Sounds good. Thank ya, cuz.”

Clay said, “Blake, you ready for me to take them on now?”

“Yeah,” said Blake. “I know where they are if I need them. Hey—nobody go running off on that boat tonight. Let’s let some of the dust settle. See if we can figure out what we’ve got here. For now, you’re all safer here.”

I was thinking how we were all virtually trapped on the island with at least four potential murderers.