Campfire Secrets Read online

  Sam paused as someone called out his name in the background.

  “Listen, I have to go,” he said.

  “Call me later,” Quinn said. “When you can. No matter how late it is.”

  “Okay, I will.”

  With that, he hung up.

  Ryder pulled up in his truck as Sam disconnected the call. When he arrived at our umbrella, we brought him up to speed. After a bit of discussion, we decided we weren’t really in the mood for a cookout and bonfire, so we all headed to the rental. Once we arrived, Ryder grilled some burgers, Carrie transferred the salads we’d brought to go with the burgers from the ice chests to the counter, and Quinn and I opened a couple of bottles of wine.

  “So I heard from Nora while you were all sailing,” Carrie said after we’d settled around the patio table with our meal.

  “How’s she doing?” I asked. Nora Hargrove was the fourth friend, along with Carrie, Quinn, and me who’d come to Shipwreck Island for a reunion in honor of Peggy, who’d been missing from our lives for twenty-five years but was far from forgotten. Nora and her husband, Matt, had been going through a rough patch after their youngest went off to college, so their oldest son, Denver, had decided to kidnap them in order to force them to talk things out and deal with their problems.

  “She seemed fine,” Carrie answered. “She said that after she arrived at the beach house Denver rented for her and Matt this week, he sat them both down and told them to figure it out. She said he was quite forceful in his delivery and told them in no uncertain terms that his family was the most important thing to him, and he was not willing to live with a situation where his parents were anything less than totally committed to one another. She admitted to being nervous at first, but she could see that Matt was taking this retreat seriously, and she intended to as well. She had real hope in her tone, which is a big improvement from her tone before Denver got involved and took the bull by the horns.”

  “I really hope they work it out,” I said. “Matt and Nora have always seemed like the perfect couple.”

  “I agree,” Carrie said. “I can understand how raising four children might have caused them to drift apart, but now that the children are all adults and they have the house to themselves, they just need to adjust to putting the needs of each other ahead of the needs of anyone else in their lives.”

  Quinn glanced in my direction. “And that is only one example of why I am single. I can do what I want when I want, and I never have to worry about another person.”

  “Maybe, but you do have a job to worry about,” Carrie pointed out. “A very demanding job.”

  “For now,” she sighed.

  “For now?” Carrie asked. “Are you thinking about quitting?”

  “I don’t think there’s been a single day in the past three years that I haven’t thought about quitting. That doesn’t mean I will, but I do think about it.”

  After we finished our meal, Quinn and Carrie both went up to their suites. Carrie liked to watch television in the evenings before going to bed, and Quinn announced that she really did need to return some of the calls and emails she’d been avoiding. In my opinion, my friends had both made up excuses to head upstairs so that Ryder and I could have some alone time together.

  “So, are you on for our run tomorrow morning?” I asked Ryder after the others had left.

  “I am,” he answered. “Tomorrow is Monday, so I have my shot clinic, but I’ll have time to run first as long as I don’t have any emergencies. Let’s plan to meet as usual, and if something comes up, I’ll call or text.”

  “How is that patient doing that you were so concerned about?” I asked about a dog who’d required two surgeries and several days in the hospital last week.

  “He’s doing great. It was touch and go for a while, but he went home yesterday, and I expect a full recovery once the stitches heal.”

  I turned my chair slightly so I could look out over the sea. It was a gorgeous night, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to relax and enjoy it. “I wonder how Sam is doing. I assume if Grace had been found, he would have called or texted, so I guess she’s still missing.”

  Ryder wove his fingers through mine. “I’m sure Sam is doing everything he can, but these things aren’t always solved with a few interviews or phone calls. If she has been taken or if she voluntarily left and doesn’t want to be found, we might not know anything for certain for days or even longer.”

  “Do you think she would take off of her own free will and worry everyone the way she has?” I asked.

  “I don’t know Grace well, but based on what I do know, I would say probably not. But sixteen is a tricky age. I bet if you ask Sam, he’d tell you that there are more cases where the teen simply takes off in a snit than there are cases where the missing teen was actually in any sort of danger.”

  “Yeah, but we have a unique situation going on here.”

  “Yes. We do,” Ryder admitted.

  Quinn came down a short time later to let us know that she’d spoken to Sam. They still hadn’t found Grace, but they had found her car abandoned along a dirt road just north of the marina in Hidden Harbor. The road was really more of a trail that was used mostly by equestrians, although the occasional hiker or mountain biker could be found in the area as well.

  “So does Sam think Grace went to this location for some reason and disappeared from there, or does he think she disappeared from somewhere else, and the car was moved and abandoned there?” Ryder asked Quinn.

  She sat down on a chair near where we were sitting. “He didn’t know. The car is going to be towed to the impound lot. The crime scene guys from the county will come out to look for fingerprints as well as other physical evidence. If Grace was kidnapped and the person who kidnapped her moved the car from wherever she was taken to the dirt trail where it was found, maybe they’ll find evidence inside the car that will help to identify the person who took her.”

  “So I guess the idea that Grace simply took off and is staying with a friend is no longer on the table,” I said.

  “I would think that to be a factual statement,” Quinn answered. “I guess, deep down, I suspected that was the case from the beginning, but it does help to know for certain what Sam is dealing with.”

  I supposed that was true, but I had to admit that with confirmation of kidnapping came an intensified feeling of stress and uncertainty. “Did Sam mention whether or not he’d been able to speak to Wilson Montgomery?” I asked.

  “He called him, but Wilson has already returned to Montgomery Island. Sam asked if he would be willing to come back to Shipwreck Island for questioning, and he said he would, but he wouldn’t commit to when.”

  “Can’t Sam just go to the island and talk to him?” Ryder asked.

  Quinn answered. “Not if Wilson is unwilling to grant him access to the island. Without a warrant, he won’t be able to simply force his way onto the island, and without a compelling reason to suspect Wilson or someone else on the island of wrongdoing, he’ll never get a warrant. At this point, all he can really do is hope that Wilson will cooperate. If he won’t, Sam is going to have a rough go of it. Gavin Montgomery is a very wealthy man with a whole lot of influence. I learned the hard way that if he doesn’t want to be gotten to, there is no way to get to him, and I assume the same is true of his son.”

  “We need physical evidence linking Wilson to Grace’s disappearance,” I said.

  “We do, but I really doubt that getting that physical evidence is going to be easy,” Quinn said. “He might have been careless and left fingerprints in the car if he moved it himself, but short of that, I’m afraid that Sam has an uphill battle ahead of him if it was Wilson who took her.”

  Ryder glanced at his watch. “I really should go.” He glanced at me. “I’ll see you at our regular meeting spot in the morning.”

  “Okay,” I said, looking up at him.

  He bent down, kissed me briefly on the lips, and then headed toward the drive where he’d left his truck.

/>   “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Quinn said.

  “You didn’t interrupt. We were actually talking about Grace before you came down.”

  Quinn moved over to the chair Ryder had vacated since it was closer to me, and it afforded a better view of the sea than the chair she’d been sitting in.

  “I pulled up some aerial photos of the island,” Quinn informed me. “There are a lot of buildings on the island, and it’s pretty much impossible to know for certain what any of them are used for, with the exception of the main house, which sprawls in every direction, and the helicopter bay.”

  “How many buildings are there?” I asked.

  “A lot. There are long buildings that look like they could be either warehouses or dormitory-style housing for the island employees, and there are other buildings that look as if they could be used for storage or manufacturing, but the building I’m most interested in is a large square structure that looks like a greenhouse.”

  I raised a brow. “A greenhouse? As in the sort of place where one might grow Kadupul flowers and opium poppies?”

  “Perhaps. There’s no way to know what’s being grown inside based on the aerial view, but the existence of such a building does seem significant based on what we know. If the greenhouse does possess Kadupul flowers and opium poppies and we can link them back to the seeds and flower petal on Veronica Smith’s body, that might give Sam enough cause to get the warrant he needs to really take a look around.”

  “I agree, but how do we prove the greenhouse has these two specific flowers?” I asked.

  “Seems to me that someone is going to need to figure out a way to sneak onto the island and take a look.”

  “Someone like us?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I know I tried to get on the island in the past and was unsuccessful, but I was just starting out as a journalist and had a limited playbook. But now, I think there might be a way. It will be risky, and planning will be key, but if we’re careful, I think we can sneak onto the island and get a look at the greenhouse. It’s near the back of the property, and I doubt it’s as highly guarded as the house and warehouses.”

  “Okay, I’m in,” I decided without really taking the time to think things over. “When do we go?”

  “We’ll need to go at night, and it would be best to go on a night where the moon is blocked by clouds or fog. We’ll need a boat and paddle or surfboards, as well as a waterproof camera and full-length black wetsuits with hoods.”

  “So, your plan is to paddle onto the island?”

  She nodded. “I think that if we approach from the backside on a dark night, we should be able to sneak onto the island without being seen. A boat can’t access the island from the back due to the rocks, so my plan is to have someone take us as close to the island as they can and then wait for us in the boat while we paddle in.”

  “We should do this without Sam’s knowledge,” I said. “He’s a cop, and what we’re planning is illegal. He’d have no choice but to stop us. It’s best if he’s completely out of the loop.”

  “Agreed,” Quinn said. “We can have Carrie or Ryder man the boat.”

  “Let’s ask Carrie. Ryder might be risking his political career if we get caught, and Gavin Montgomery decides to make an issue of it. I have nothing to lose, not really. Carrie doesn’t have a career to protect, but you do. Are you sure you want to risk it?”

  Quinn laughed. “Totally. This wouldn’t even be the most dangerous thing I’ve done this month. Trust me. I’ve got this.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I’m in.”

  “I want to study the maps and aerial images a bit more before we attempt our approach. And we should look at the weather forecast to pick the best night as well. The darker, the better. Once we have a solid plan, we’ll talk to Carrie, line up a boat, paddle or surfboards, and whatever else we need. Then when the time is right, we’ll head out and get Sammy the physical evidence he needs to get the warrant he must realize is going to be necessary to find out if Grace is on that island or not.

  Chapter 2

  As planned, I met Ryder the next morning for our run. Quinn and I had discussed the fact that it was going to be important to keep to our regular schedule as much as possible as we came up with our plan to sneak onto the island and have a look around. We planned to talk to Carrie this morning over coffee and bagels. Once we determined whether or not she was on board, we’d move forward outlining our next steps. We figured it would take a couple of days to get everything ready before we could make our move. Quinn had a friend in Naval Intelligence who’d helped her acquire the intel she’d needed for stories she’d worked on in the past. She planned to call him today and ask him if he could get his hands on better photos of the island and surrounding sea. It would be important to find the best place to approach.

  In the meantime, we planned to carry out the tasks we’d already put into play. The previous evening, Carrie had told Ryder that she, Quinn, and I had plans to spend the afternoon at her new condo, putting things away and waiting for her new furniture to be delivered. Quinn felt that if at all possible, we should stick to that plan. It felt wrong to lie to Ryder. I supposed that technically not telling him what we planned to do wasn’t lying since the subject had never come up, but when he mentioned a concert later in the week, I’d been forced to tell him that I might have plans with Quinn and Carrie and would need to get back to him. Of course, what I really meant was that I needed to figure out which night we were going to execute our plan to access the island before I could make plans with him or anyone else.

  “Is everything okay?” Ryder asked as we jogged along the hard sand near the waterline. “You seem sort of distracted.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Well, I suppose fine isn’t really accurate. I guess I’ve been thinking about Grace. I can’t help picturing her in all sorts of terrifying situations, and it isn’t sitting right to feel so powerless to help her.”

  “I know what you mean. She’s been on my mind a lot as well. Maybe Sam will have news today. Good news.”

  “Have you spoken to him?”

  “No,” Ryder answered. “I’m going to call him after I get back to the boathouse. I didn’t want to call him too early in the event he was up late.”

  “Are you planning to make a statement about the case? As mayor of the island, I mean.”

  “I’m sure I’ll get a call from the local newspaper today asking for a statement. I’m sure Sam will as well. One of the reasons I want to speak to him beforehand is so we can ensure that we’re on the same page before either of us says anything.”

  “That sounds like a good idea. I’m hoping that Sam will find something linking Wilson to Grace, which should be his ticket to access to the island.”

  “You seem really certain that Wilson is the man behind all the disappearances.”

  “I won’t say that I’m certain, but I do have a gut feeling. There’s something about the guy that creeps me out.”

  “He is an odd sort of fellow, but I’ve spoken to him on occasion, and I certainly never picked up the serial killer vibe. In fact, I’ve found him to be mature and level headed, even when it comes to subjects he may feel strongly about.”

  “He keeps women here on the island. More than one from what I’ve heard.”

  “Wilson certainly isn’t the only man of means to offer financial support to women he occasionally enjoys an intimate relationship with, and doing so certainly doesn’t mean he is guilty of wrongdoing,” Ryder pointed out.

  “Maybe, but the guy still seems shifty to me.”

  Ryder slowed as a man with two dogs jogged toward us from the opposite direction. Baja was an obedient dog who stayed next to Ryder as we ran, but it wasn’t unusual for dogs to approach him, as the two dogs had today. Normally, when that occurred, Ryder allowed Baja to say hi before calling him to his side and continuing on his way.

  “That guy looked familiar,” I said after Ryder greeted the man, Baja greeted his dogs, and everyone moved on.
/>   “His name is Tim Newton. He’s lived on the island for a long time. Probably since you used to summer here.”

  “Newton? Is that the same Tim Newton, whose father worked as a video game developer?”

  “That’d be him. When you lived here before, he was still in college, but he has since graduated and developed his own career in software development. He has a house on the island, but he lives full-time on the Bay.”

  “It sounds like he’s done well for himself.”

  “He has,” Ryder agreed. “He started off developing video games like his father but has since branched out. Most recently, he partnered up with a guy who used to work for the Department of Justice and has branched into high-end cybersecurity systems.”

  “Wow. I’m impressed. It seemed like the two of you are friends.”

  “We are. Tim has done very well for himself, but he’s also a regular guy. We get together for drinks every now and then, mostly to discuss his willingness to participate in some of the community projects that depend on donations.”

  “So you aren’t only a politician, but a mooch as well,” I teased.

  “For the right cause, you bet I am.”

  After Ryder and I worked our way back around to our starting point, he kissed me goodbye, and then we headed back to our respective residences. Carrie and Quinn were talking on the deck when I arrived, so I grabbed a mug of coffee and joined them.

  “It’s a beautiful day,” I said, sitting down with my friends.

  “It is,” Carrie agreed. “Although I’m having a hard time appreciating it with everything that’s been going on.”

  “Any news about Grace?” I asked.

  Carrie shook her head. “Not a word.” She glanced at Quinn. “Quinn tells me that the two of you think Wilson Montgomery is involved and are planning to prove it.”

  “We’ve talked about him as a suspect before,” I reminded Carrie.