Paradise Island: Complete Edition (26 page)

What had I done? Did the mayor really deserve to die for just being greedy? The others, I could understand. They were horrible people, but was the mayor on that level?

I dared not look at my reflection again. I needed some time to forget that what had happened today.

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T
he next day I woke to voices outside, in an empty bed. Last night Jack had comforted me, his body acting like a talisman that protected me from my own thoughts. He convinced me that what we had done was right, and that people like the mayor did not deserve our compassion, for they had none for anyone but themselves. That much was true, I obliged and rested my head on his powerful chest, listening to the sound of his steady heartbeat. We had just made love, and that had made me feel a little better about the whole thing, but it was Jack’s words, and his calm demeanor that really did it.

But now that I had woken alone, no Jack, just some strange voices yelling this and that, I knew we were done for. Somebody had seen us leaving the mayor’s offices and had reported it when news of his death had spread. His secretary probably found him, and distraught watched as his body was being wheeled away. Perhaps a neighbor, an old lady who rarely goes out made herself known and talked to the secretary of the peculiar couple she saw coming in the early morning hours. The secretary told the police and now here we were, ready to be hauled off to jail. Then they would find out that our next stop was the hardware store where Jack talked about covering up his front lawn in cement, and that would give them cause to dig up the bodies hidden there, and how could we explain that? And then perhaps somebody would finally find Henry’s body, take a closer look at the cause of death, and pin that on us as well.

All these thoughts ran through my head at once as I slowly dressed, my heart almost beating out of my chest. I slowly made my way to the living room where I saw Jack with his back to me and a cup of steaming coffee in his hands, looking at the view outside.

I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. It was just a group of men, working very hard on the front yard. They had already divided everything up nice and proper and were ready to pour the cement, in the process hiding our crimes.

“That was quick,” I said, quite surprised at how fast the crew had started work.

“Once you’re willing to pay anything, the workers aren’t too far behind. If I had arranged to pay the regular price, they probably would have been ‘busy’ for quite awhile.” Jack took a sip of his coffee. “Pretty soon they’ll be done, the cement will harden, and we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

“And then we can leave the island, right?” I asked, still hoping that was the plan. The image of the mayor’s agonizing death still haunted me. I put my arms around Jack and immediately felt better.

“Of course,” he said. “There’s just one thing we have to do first.”

He smiled as he turned around and kissed me lightly on the lips.

“What’s that?” I asked, not really sure what else needed to be done.

“We need to pick a place to go,” he said.

“I guess we do,” I said. “But I don’t really know much about the world. As long as it’s warm, secluded, and maybe has a beach, I’ll be perfectly content.”

“I’ve got a few ideas. We can talk about them over breakfast.”

I went to the kitchen and made us some French toast while Jack still observed the work being done outside. He told me he was very careful to tell them not to dig anything, but he still liked to be sure. Until the cement was poured, he did not want to take any risks.

Over breakfast Jack overwhelmed me by talking about places I’d never heard of. Each sounded pretty magical, though, so I just told him to pick his favorite, and the one that was furthest from the limelight. Last thing I needed was to be plastered all over those trashy gossip magazines with Jack, with people wondering who I was. That would be a sure way for Crow to find out where I was, and I never wanted to see that happen. I told as much to Jack and he nodded in understanding. Apparently, my comment about Crow made him choose one island over another.

I thought about what it would be like to live on a warm island, where you could not only look out at the water, but actually swim in it. I had never learned to swim, but there was a first time for everything, right? I was quite excited at the prospect.

I thought about what stuff I should pack and which I should just throw away. I still had no idea what I was going to do with Josie’s journals, which Jack generously gifted to me. All the thoughts of packing made me realize that there was still one thing that needed to be done. I needed to pack up Lucy’s things to make it look like she had left town in a hurry. It would be quite suspicious if she had disappeared and all her stuff was still at our cottage. As for Greyson Milton, I had no idea where he lived, and I did not want to find out.

I told Jack about my plan to go by Lucy’s cottage and pack some of her things.

“Good idea,” Jack nodded. “Just wait a bit until they pour the cement and I’ll drive you.”

“I can go by myself,” I said. “I think her luggage has the little wheels.”

“Do you really think it’s wise for you to be walking around, lugging her things behind you, through the whole town?”

He had a point. “Fine, I’ll wait,” I said and cleaned up the dishes we had just used.

I lost myself deep in thought again. Everything that had happened for the past week felt like a lifetime. I was ready to leave it all behind, and be reborn in a new life where it was just me and Jack and the sunny beaches of whatever place he had chosen for us. Anything would be better than this wretched cold island, where not only the weather was miserable, but so were the people.

While Jack observed the work outside with a keen eye, I made my way back to the room that used to be mine. I laid down on the bed without really thinking about it. I took Josie’s last journal out and flipped through the pages.

“It’s all because of you, that everything has happened. Maybe I should have left you in that box where I found you. You’ve been nothing but trouble,” I told the journal, as if it could hear me. And as the words left me, I realized that they were true. All my troubles started when I started reading the journals. I wondered what my life would have been like now if I’d just left the damned things be. I would probably still be living with Lucy, working at the diner, and staying as far away from any man who showed much interest in me. I’d probably still be nice to Henry, never aware of his true intentions towards me. Now that I thought about it, it seemed like a pretty lonely, and miserable existence. I hated to think it, much less say it out loud, but my life now, the one I had with Jack, was vastly preferable to the life I had before him. Sure, I wished no one had to die, but in the end anything seemed worth being in Jack’s arms as I fell asleep, exhausted from our lovemaking.

In that spirit, and in her honor, I reread some of my favorite entries from Josie’s last journal. Before, maybe I was a little too judgmental of some of the consent, but now that I had experienced life to the fullest, I began to really like Josie. Except for the whole sleeping with a married man thing, she seemed like a pretty interesting person.

Hours seemed to pass by, as I entered and reentered her world again, until finally Jack was at my door, beckoning me back to the real world, which I was more than willing to return to.

“There you are,” he said, smiling. “I was looking for you everywhere.”

I lifted Josie’s journal to show him. “I was just reminiscing a bit.”

“Well, enough of that, the cement has been poured and is drying as we speak. The crew has left for the day so we’re free to do whatever we want. In this case, we should probably head over to your cottage.”

I nodded and put the journal back in the desk drawer where I found it. Even though I knew there wasn’t anyone else who wanted to take it from me, I still felt somewhat protective of it.

I stretched my arms and legs and was ready. “Let’s get ready,” I said as I searched for a warm jacket. Jack went to his room and presumably did the same. Once we were ready we left the house, and locked it up behind us.

I looked at all the work that had been done and was quite pleased at how everything had turned out. It was far more pleasing to the eye than I had imagined, and it actually made a lot more sense than the front yard that was there before.

I got up on the bike behind Jack, put on my helmet, and held on for dear life. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but every time I got on that bike I was a nervous wreck. I made Jack promise me that he’d get a car next time we were in a place where we needed transportation other than walking. He nodded, but there was something mischievous in the look that he gave me that told me that he probably still planned on having a motorcycle around. I just hoped it was in addition to a proper car, no matter how small. Maybe I’d learn to drive one, and it wouldn’t be a problem. It would certainly be a lot more practical.

Soon, we arrived at our destination and I told Jack to park as far from the central road as possible. I hated the thought of someone seeing us here, hauling away Lucy’s things. But even if they did, we had agreed upon a plausible explanation. Lucy had met someone and decided to move to London with him and I was sending her stuff over. The same story needed to be told to the diner owner, a phone call (no way was I going to go there in person) that I needed to make.

After Jack parked as much out of the way as possible, we made our way to the cottage. I had a key, of course, so that wasn’t a problem. I quickly locked the door behind us.

It was strange entering Lucy’s room after everything that had happened. Every innocent little thing, from her fancy bags, skirts, trinkets, seemed to have a sinister edge now, for she laid dead in the ground, with a bullet in her head. I shook that image of her falling into the pit of death, her final resting place, and focused on the task at hand. Jack helped me pack up as many things as we could. Once the luggage was well and full, I needed Jack’s help to zip it up properly.

I looked around the room. I packed all of her favorite stuff as far as I knew. “I think that should do it,” I said. “We should get out of here.”

While Jack secured the luggage to the motorcycle, I took one last look at the cottage and said goodbye to my past. I locked it behind me and left the key under a rock that Lucy had always used. I saw her key was also there as well, and when I saw it, I felt deep sadness overtake me. It was irrational, and stupid, but I couldn’t help but mourn for the friend I lost, even if she wasn’t the person I thought she was.

Jack put a hand on my shoulder and I returned to the land of the living. We rode out of there quick before anyone had a chance to stop us or spot us. I hated the thought of running into that Rory fellow again and having to lie to his face.

Once we were back at Jack’s place, we only had one problem on our hands: now that we had Lucy’s things, what the hell were we going to do with them? Jack put the luggage in the little outback garage place where he kept his bike, while we agreed on what should be done. A bonfire seemed like a good idea at first, but it was bound to be seen by someone, and we didn’t want that.

After he locked the garage, we made our way back to the house together and saw that the cement was already starting to harden up pretty nicely.

“It should be pretty solid in a day or two. That’s what the guys said, anyway,” Jack said as he opened the door for me.

“Oh, Jack, I can’t wait to leave this place behind,” I said, sitting down on the sofa with my jacket still on. Packing up Lucy’s things was more exhausting than I thought it would be.

He sat down next to me and put an arm around me. “Me too,” he said and kissed me gently on the cheek. “The only good thing to come from this place is you, Sophie.”

“I feel the same way about you,” I said, and huddled closer in his arms, feeling better already. “Sometimes it feels like we’ll never get off this island.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m buying tickets today. We’ll definitely be getting off this island in the next few days.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said. “But I’ll believe it when it happens.”

I thought about the time back in the U.S., when I escaped from Crow. I had traveled as far as the little money I had taken could take me by bus, until I had made my way to the other side of the country. I worked shitty low paying jobs and once I had enough for a plane ticket, I took the plunge and chose London, thinking it would be like the novels I had read as a child. The harsh reality was quite a blow.

And then I met Lucy. And she took me to this island. And then I met Jack, the love of my life, which are words I thought I’d never be able to say, much less think, with a straight face. Before I had no use for love, but now that I had someone like Jack by my side, it was easy to use that word, for no other word could compare.

“Shit,” Jack said, waking me from my thoughts.

“What is it?” I said when he stood up from the sofa and watched the view outside. Then I saw them. Dark clouds were coming our way.

“A thunderstorm is coming. We better cover the cement before it arrives.”

I helped Jack cover up the cemented front yard with the long lines of plastic left by the workers. Apparently the workers had told Jack that it was best to keep the cement exposed for as long as possible, but to cover it up if any hint of rain decided to show up.

We had covered most of it just in time, for a light drizzle started. In the distance, I could hear thunder. It was getting closer. After securing the plastic as best we could we ran inside before the rain got any worse.

We took out jackets and boots off, looking at the dark clouds that were headed our way.

“I sure hope that plastic holds. If the cement is ruined now, they’ll have to redo it.” Jack said, a look of concern on his face as he stared straight ahead at the tempest that was forming in our midst.

“I hope you’re right, Jack. I sure hope you’re right.” I did not voice my suspicions of vengeful spirits coming after us, because it sounded silly in my head, as well. I shuddered to think how it would sound being said out loud.