Vicious Memories

Chapter 46

"He'll know what to do," I said again.

Alice stood on a small stone next to me, and the extra two inches put our eyes on the same level.

"He'll know what to do," I muttered.

"Yes," Alice said, rolling her eyes. "He will."

Hanging moss swung in soft circles. Water fell like diamonds from the leaves overhead. A blanket of quilted light and shadow grazed the mud in the small clearing north of our village.

Through a window framed by nearby tree trunks, we could see Gabriel striding toward us.

The journey home had taken us under three hours at a near sprint. We'd traded thoughts between breaths, slowing down to rest just twice. I'd skimmed the file quickly, reading the relevant parts out loud as our expressions grew steadily more horrified.

"Does it mean he's the killer?" Alice had asked.

"We've said it a hundred times so we might as well say it again - we can't assume that anything is connected. But just because we decided that Neema isn't the killer, it doesn't mean that he definitely isn't."

"He can't be, though. His alibi is strong for all of them, and I know for a fact that he would never have touched Jessica."

"And we're sure," I'd panted, "that we should keep this from the rest of the village?"

"Yes."

We had run into Cooper out on patrol and he'd clapped us both on the back. "Good to see you're safe, mate. You too, Sheila."

"The farm was empty," Alice had responded, gesturing behind us. "Did something else happen?"

"Nah. Gabriel pulled farm duty and reallocated them to the fishing group. Said the plants would keep for now. Safer to be in bigger parties out there. New orders are that nobody is supposed to head into the jungle in less than threes, unless they're on specific guard duty."

"Listen," I'd said, "we need to speak with Gabriel as soon as possible. Alone."

Cooper raised an eyebrow and I glanced at Alice, who had managed to rig the briefcase to stay between her pack and the small of her back, mostly out of sight.

"Please," I'd pressed.

Now, as Gabriel approached, Alice studied the briefcase with a sad look in her eyes. A slash of light caught her left cheek and illuminated the freckles there.

I wondered what might be different about the two of us after last night. I wondered, too, if any of those things would matter once we returned to the far more tangible problems facing us all. What was the point of it all? Or was the point really that we had to find happiness where we could, the only other option being to curl up and die right here on the ground?

In some ways Alice and I were total opposites, but in others we were startlingly similar. We both felt protective of the people around us, of the villagers who had become friends and family - Alice more than I, of course, but I truly had grown to love them in the short amount of time I'd been here. We both also took responsibility for the hardest parts of our lives here, for the things that needed to be done to carve out a living on the island, and we both felt slightly separated from everyone else, as if the drive that burned within us to protect the rest of the group put up a glass wall that could be seen through but never fully breached.

The air smelled of roses and wet bark.

Alice looked at me as if she could hear my thoughts. Her eyes beneath her long lashes were bright. The corners of her lips twitched.

"Sorry." I looked away, embarrassed. "I was staring."

Her eyes twinkled as she flashed a small smile. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again as the rustling of leaves announced Gabriel's arrival.

His presence, as it always did, changed the atmosphere in the clearing immediately. The circles under his eyes had become so pronounced that they looked like actual bruises. For the first time since the murders began he was unable to keep the concern he felt from his face and I thought about what it must mean if he - the pillar of strength and leadership for the entire village - wasn't able to hold it together anymore.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Fine," I said without preamble, "but we found something."

Focusing on the most important parts - and skipping over the details of the previous night in the cave - I explained what we had found near the northern cliffs. I described the abandoned settlement in detail.

"Your best guess," Gabriel said, "how long since anyone lived there?"

"At least two years. Maybe three at the outer edge."

"Do you think it was a Stranger colony?"

"Possible, but I'm not sure that's likely. Why would they have left?"

"I thought you said something happened there. A fight. Maybe they split into factions, one of them won out, and then they moved."

"Again, it's possible," I said. "But if one faction won out there wouldn't be any need to go anywhere. And besides, there was only space there for twenty or so people. Assume at least five or six were killed to make for a fight large enough to disturb the entire village and that leaves just fourteen. That isn't enough to be the Strangers. You said you've been attacked by up to a dozen at a time. Who builds for them, catches their food, cooks, keeps an eye on us, defends the village?"

"Point taken. But if it was a different group, why haven't we seen them? Where did the rest disappear to?" Gabriel left the last question in that logical train of thought unspoken: Did they manage to get off the island?

I shrugged.

Silence descended as Gabriel's eyes flicked between us. Something squealed and chittered in the distance. Water continued to drip off the leaves overhead.

"Is that it?"

"No." Alice withdrew the briefcase from behind a small fern. "We found another one."

Gabriel's eyes darkened to a shade of black I wasn't sure I had ever seen before, and a grumbling noise emanated from his chest, something between a cough and a growl. I shifted from foot to foot again and the muddy sound of my steps echoed all around us, an eerie laugh that sounded like it came from the jungle itself.

"Who is it this time?" Gabriel asked.

Alice and I shared a long glance and I noted how the aura of sadness I'd glimpsed on her face before had sharpened. Her almond eyes flicked to the floor, then back up at Gabriel.

We both saw the truth dawn on him before we said a single word.

With a grimace, Alice held the briefcase out to him.

"It's you."