CHAPTER ONE
2432 Words
CHAPTER ONE
As the little cabin cruiser lurched and skidded over rough waters, Carly See hung onto her bench in the open stern. She was just as glad that the motor was too noisy for casual conversation. Before they’d left, the pilot had been plenty curious about why she was hiring him for this trip. Now he had settled into navigating toward their destination.
She felt a chill as the islands came into sight—and not just from the cold wind and the spray of icy saltwater stinging her face.
It was a chill of recognition.
She’d seen those same sharp peaks and cliffs twice before in her life. The first time was as a little girl, when her parents brought Carly and her sister on vacation to California. They had gone out on a tour boat to see whales, dolphins, and other wildlife that inhabited this area.
“Oh, the dolphins!” little Megan had cried out. “Look at the dolphins!”
The second time Carly had seen the tall central peak and the smaller ones beside it, she hadn’t actually been looking at them across open water. Two days ago, she had glimpsed those islands in a vision that replicated her childhood adventure.
She knew the image had to be important, because her visions were not a product of her imagination.
They were messages from the dead.
Images and words sometimes flowed freely to her from those no longer living. The hard part was figuring out what those messages meant. In spite of that difficulty, and the necessity to hide her ability from others, those communications had helped her solve many mysteries.
The boat slowed as it neared a single narrow dock that extended out from a rocky beach. Close up, the jagged peaks of Santa Novara looked even sharper than Carly had remembered. It was hard to believe that the islands were even inhabited. But she could see clusters of white-chested birds high up on those rocks and some brown animals lolling about on a small beach. Three small clapboard houses at the base of the cliffs indicated that humans also lived here.
Carly wanted to find out who lived here. Might her sister be among them, alive and well? If so, where had she been during all the years since she’d gone missing? If Megan wasn’t here, might the people have some idea where she was now? Since Carly only heard from the spirits of the dead, she shuddered at the possibility of actually hearing from Megan’s spirit while she was here.
She can’t be dead, she thought. She just can’t be.
She pulled off her scarf and patted her head. Although a few strands of her long dark hair had come free from the bun she wore while working, she decided it would have to do.
The pilot pulled his boat to a halt at the pier, then climbed out to tie his mooring lines. A gangly man with long red hair and a beard came striding toward them. He hurried out onto the dock and helped Carly out of the boat.
“Special Agent Carly See, I assume,” he said.
“And you must be Curtis Novak.”
The man wagged his finger at her.
“Dr. Curtis Novak, the director of the Novara Marine Research Center.”
Then with a rakish smile, he added, “But I guess you can call me Curt. Everybody else here does.”
The pilot spoke to Carly as he finished mooring the boat.
“I’ll wait here for you.”
“It’s not too cold?”
“Nope. I’ll be fine right here.”
With that he ducked inside the boat’s little cabin and closed the door.
Carly and Curt walked along the dock to the rocky shore. The island air was scarcely less damp and cold than it had been on the boat, and it was just early October. Carly could only imagine how harsh the weather would get here as winter set in.
“I must say, Agent See, you’ve piqued my curiosity,” Curt said. “You seem to be here on some mysterious errand. I hope you can tell me what this is all about.”
Carly hesitated. She wasn’t exactly proud of how she’d managed to obtain his permission to come to this place where only scientists were usually allowed. Back in Virginia, she’d sent him a cryptic email:
I am Special Agent Carly See of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. I am working on a missing person case that might involve your research facility. I am not at liberty to say more at this time, but I hope I may visit you at Santa Novara tomorrow to discuss this face to face. Please acknowledge your permission in your reply.
She’d signed her name and also attached her official identification to the email. Dr. Curtis Novak had responded almost immediately, making an appointment with Carly without asking any questions.
But now she was going to have to tell the truth. She took a deep breath and gathered up the courage to admit to her deception.
“Curt, I’m afraid I’m not really here on FBI business.”
“You’re not looking for a missing person?”
“Actually, that part is true, but …”
Her voice faded for a moment.
“The missing person in question is my sister, Megan See.”
Curt squinted at her as they walked along.
“So this is purely a personal thing for you?”
“That’s right.”
“And your superiors have no idea you’re here, I suppose.”
“I’m afraid not.”
“And I guess you’d wind up in quite a lot of trouble if I reported how you used your official status as a ruse to visit a scientific facility that’s completely off limits to the public.”
Carly swallowed hard. She stopped walking for a moment and turned her gray eyes directly on him.
“You’re right about that, Curt. And I wouldn’t blame you if you did report me. But the truth is, I’m not sure I’d care. I’d do just about anything to find out what happened to Megan. And I don’t care much about the consequences.”
Curt chuckled and patted Carly on the arm. As he resumed walking toward the houses, she followed along beside him.
“That’s the spirit,” he told her. “That’s the kind of determination I like to hear. And it’s kind of nice to get a little human drama on this island for a change. We humans here are vastly outnumbered, as you can see.”
He pointed to various groups of wildlife on the beach and cliffs.
“We’ve got every kind of seal you can think of—northern elephant seals, harbor seals, California sea lions. And we’ve got maybe a quarter of a million sea birds of one kind or another. This sanctuary is dedicated to them, and they tolerate our human presence. We do our best not to wear out our welcome.”
Carly peered at the black-and-white birds up on the cliffs.
“Are those penguins?” she asked.
“No, but they look like it from a distance. Those are common murres, and they can fly just fine. I can give you a hiking tour of the island if you’ve got time.”
The offer was almost tempting. But she’d taken advantage of a little downtime from her job to fly all the way out here, and she really needed to catch a plane home at the San Francisco International Airport tonight. Besides, she’d also spent way more on this trip than she could afford.
“I’m afraid I can’t stay that long,” she said.
“OK, let’s get down to business. First of all, let’s get you out of this cold air. I’m sure you’re not used to it.”
They walked into one of the small houses and into a snug, dry office. Curt poured Carly a hot cup of tea, which offered welcome warmth to her hands and her throat. Curt sat down facing her across his desk.
“I hate to say this, Agent See,” he said, “but I’m afraid you’ve wasted your trip. We’ve got a total of six human beings living on this island, and none of them are named Megan See.”
“Do you think she might have lived here in the past?”
Curt was scrolling on his computer screen now.
“When did she go missing?” he asked.
“About ten years ago.”
“That’s a long time.”
“I know.”
Carly could see a list of names reflected in his glasses.
“That name doesn’t show up in our records. And this a list of everybody who has lived here since long before you say she disappeared.”
“Might she have worked here under an assumed name?”
“I don’t see how that’s possible. She’d have to be a naturalist or a scientist in some related field, and our researchers are very carefully screened. Their credentials have to be exceptional, and they also have to be who they say they are. Do you have a picture of her?”
Carly produced one of the last pictures she had of her sister and showed it to him.
Curtis shrugged and shook his head.
“That face doesn’t look familiar. And I haven’t seen many different faces in a long time, not in the six years I’ve worked here. I’d recognize her if I’d ever seen her, even if she’d come here just for a short-term project.”
Carly’s heart sank, and she silently berated herself.
I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, she thought.
After all, there had surely never been much likelihood of Megan being on this island with a bunch of scientists.
Curt looked away from his computer and swiveled his chair toward her.
“Carly—do you mind if I call you Carly, since you’re not exactly here in an official capacity?”
“Please do.”
“Tell me, Carly—what reason do you have for thinking she might have been here?”
Carly stifled a sigh. She’d been half-hoping he wasn’t going to ask her that question. But of course she knew it was inevitable.
“Curt, if I tell you, you’ll think I’m crazy.”
He laughed.
“Carly, I’m afraid that ship has sailed, so to speak. Right now I’ve got no reason to think you’re in your right mind. Go on and tell me.”
Maybe he’d actually believe me, she thought.
But how could she tell this man a secret that she’d scarcely breathed to another human soul—not even her BAU partner?
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she finally said.
Curt shrugged and folded his hands together on his desktop.
“Then what can you seriously expect me to do?” he asked.
“Can I talk to the others? The researchers who live here, I mean?”
Carly more than half-expected the man to say no. Instead, he sent a text message to the five other people on the island, and within a few minutes they had all gathered in the office.
*
After only a few questions, Carly realized that none of the researchers had any knowledge of her sister’s whereabouts. They were a colorful group, all scruffy and weather-beaten, and they all had “doctor” in front of their names.
Carly guessed that Curt had only let her talk to them as a diversion, an amusing and bemusing novelty for a group of people with scant contact with the world beyond the island. The researchers seemed far more curious about her than she could ever be about them. They also seemed remarkably sympathetic.
But it’s definitely time to leave, she realized.
The group returned to their various posts and tasks, and Curt accompanied Carly back to the dock. On their way there, Carly noticed how narrow the beaches were, and how dark the sand was.
“Are there any wider beaches on this island?” she asked Curt. “With whiter sand?”
“No, it’s all like this, like a big rock came popping out of the ocean. Which is probably pretty nearly what happened all those millions of years ago.”
Carly realized that the last of her hopes were crushed.
Weeks had passed since the first vision that led her to believe her sister was alive. In that one, Megan had been walking on a wide beach with beautiful white sand.
Megan was never here.
The beach she’d seen her sister on might have been anywhere. And apparently her more recent vision of this island seen from open water hadn’t been helpful either. Carly hadn’t felt even the slightest hint of any spirit reaching out to her since she’d come here.
Her trip was utterly pointless.
In a matter of moments, Carly was riding the boat back to San Francisco, struggling with questions that wouldn’t leave her alone. If those jagged islands had no meaning, why had she seen them at all? Was she supposed to try to find information about the tour boat her family had taken all those years ago, or someone else who had been on that tour, or some other beach along the California coast?
Her heart sank as she remembered one more thing about Santa Novara.
Native Americans had called them Islands of the Dead.
Was that all she was supposed to learn from the vision?
Whenever she’d received visions regarding Megan, they’d never come directly from Megan herself, but from a long-dead childhood friend who seemed to know something about Megan’s whereabouts. Carly found this comforting in a way, because she never received messages from the living, only from the dead. As long as she didn’t hear from Megan directly, there was still a chance her sister was alive.
Unless …
The Islands of the Dead.
The name itself was deeply unsettling. Was she wrong to believe that she could find her sister still alive somewhere?
Maybe I’ll never know.
As if to remind her that it was time for her to return to her regular life, her phone buzzed. Her spirits lifted slightly when she saw who had texted her. The message even made her smile just a little.
What do you say to tomorrow for lunch?
At least she had something to look forward to when she got back to Virginia.
- Writer
