Secrets At Crescent Point, page 6
“The control panel is not locked,” Siyah said. “I have the power on in the entire property for the renovation.”
“So the ride starting up, that could happen?” Thompson asked.
“It has not happened before.” Siyah shook his head. “I will have a man out to check for a short in the system.”
Thompson nodded, looked out at the booth area. “We’ll have to close construction for a few days while we clear the scene. But this isn’t where he was killed. He was just dumped here.” He scratched his temple, motioned towards her. “I have to ask you something.”
Nodding, Siyah gestured to a place out of Raven’s earshot. The two of them walked from the building towards the deputies setting up yellow crime scene tape around the booth. The lights from inside cast long shadows on the wall, and Siyah tucked his hands into his pockets waiting out Thompson.
He was a good guy, the sheriff. Had come into a hornet’s nest after what had happened up at the Hales’ and held his own, both with the wealthy families in the hill houses and the Romany clans. Fair, direct, and not given to taking anyone’s attitude, he and Siyah gave each other a wide berth out of respect for their individual roles in maintaining order on Noble. From the look on his face, Siyah wondered if that was going to change.
“I have to ask where you were tonight, Siyah.” Thompson blew into his cupped hands, the cold of the night turning his words into vapor. “Niklos is a member of one of the families, he was found on your land, and the one who found him…”
“Was my intended years ago,” Siyah said nodding. “I understand your concern, but I had not seen her since—”
“I doubt you’d kill somebody and prop him up in your bean bag toss, but I have to ask,” Thompson said. “There was some sort of problem with her years ago, wasn’t there? The police were involved, right?”
“She was eighteen and it had nothing to do with anyone here,” Siyah said with a bit of steel.
Thompson didn’t seem to notice or, at least, didn’t let on that he did.
“Siyah, I might not have been here long, but I didn’t get here yesterday, either. I’ve heard the rumors about her and you.”
Siyah rubbed his temple with the pad of his thumb. “Rumors are rarely anything but hurtful half-truths.”
“But there’s still something to them most of the time.” Thompson countered, his mouth turned down. “You were here all night?”
“I was on the sand for the bonfire.”
Thompson was a smart man and most likely knew the answers to all the questions he asked.
Siyah wondered if he thought Raven was lying or, perhaps, thought he was lying to protect her.
“And then? You didn’t stay down there? Don’t your fires last all night?”
“They do.” Siyah answered, forcing the calm back into his voice, and then nodded to the club. “But I had something to attend to. I’d been here maybe an hour before Raven ran in covered in blood. I called you after I got her settled, within minutes.”
“Was Raven at the bonfire?”
“She was,” Siyah’s chest tightened; he knew where this was going. “But left early.”
“Before you did?”
“Yes. Around eight.”
“Any idea where she went between the time she left the bonfire and when you saw her again?”
“Did you not ask her that?”
“I did,” Thompson said evenly. “Now I’m asking you.”
Lips tight, Siyah shook his head. “I do not know what she did during those hours.”
“And now its midnight and there’s a body.” Thompson rubbed a hand up his cheek, scratched at his sideburn. “OK.”
“She did not do this.”
“I didn’t say she did,” Thompson muttered. “But she found him and says she saw someone right before. That puts her right in the thick of things.”
“She said she thought she saw something behind her.” Siyah said. “Shadows in the moonlight, nothing more.”
“Or the killer leaving after dumping the body,” Thompson said. “I want her to come in and have Harvey sketch something.”
“I will tell her.”
“Did she know him?” Thompson’s face looked relaxed, pleasant, but his gaze was shrewd, intelligent.
“There was a connection to Raven’s sister.”
“Sonja?” Thompson shook his head. “What kind of connection?”
“I am trying to figure that out.”
“Any idea why Raven wouldn’t have mentioned that?”
“She does not know you,” Siyah said. “She would have confirmed it if you’d asked, though.”
“I’m trying to be respectful of the families, Siyah, but this isn’t something that you guys can handle with your council. If there was a connection between Raven’s family and Niklos, then I need to know. Especially if there was a problem. We don’t know when he was killed, but he doesn’t look to me like it’s been more than a day. For now, I’ve spoken to a lot of people that will swear that Raven’s sister, Sonja, was at the bonfire the whole night. In fact, I had a deputy run down to the beach and she’s still there with her mama. I shot a call over to Mânca and Mr. Nevasta has been there since he left the bonfire. But Raven…”
“We were looking for Niklos,” Siyah said after a few moments. “It appeared that he had left with his family.”
“Until now.”
Nodding, Siyah leaned against the building, his arms across his chest. “Raven and her sister had not seen him.”
“We need to locate Niklos’s family and make sure they are safe.”
“They are in Romania,” Siyah said. “I heard tonight at the bonfire. They are there to visit Niklos’s maternal grandmother. She became ill suddenly. That is why we could not find them this past week.”
“I see.” Thompson said and wrote in his notebook. “You said his things were gone, too…”
“It appears we assumed wrong. Either Niklos took his own things or someone else did.”
An ambulance pulled up the path, the strobes catching the scene in flashes of red and blue. A body bag unfurled, crinkling in the near silent night.
Siyah turned back to Thompson.
“You’ll call Niklos’s family and tell them about this?”
“Yes,” Siyah intoned.
After a moment, Thompson spoke again. “Did something happen down there to make her leave early? She hasn’t seen her family in years, from what I’ve heard, and decides to wander around a dark construction zone instead of being with them. Why was she here?”
“I do not know.” Why had she not gone to her room at the Adder Inn? After the public shunning her father hit her with at the fire, he was surprised she was not packing her things right now.
Thompson cleared his throat, pulling Siyah’s thoughts back. “Did she come to see you?”
“I have no idea what she was doing here, Thompson,” Siyah said and shoved his hands back into his pockets. “For all she knew I was still down on the beach.”
Paramedics hoisted the body onto a waiting gurney and loaded Niklos into the back of the ambulance.
Siyah peered through the trees to the road beyond. Word would get out before long. One of the deputies was seeing a girl from one of the families in secret. He’d call her soon, Siyah thought.
“I’ve told her and I’m telling you now, she is not to leave until I clear her.” Thompson made to leave, and then turned back. “And you’ll bring her to do the sketch?”
“I will tell her family.”
Thompson’s mouth hitched up on one side, but he nodded to Siyah and headed to the cars.
Siyah watched him go, his gut tightening.
Thompson knew the families, had taken care to learn the customs and beliefs. He knew that the Romany didn’t date casually, that they courted to marry. Sonja claimed that Niklos had made an offer to her and despite what she told Raven, it appeared that he had changed his mind. Thompson would have a motive for the killer to do the stabbing and someone to suspect.
The question was, who would be capable of murder? Faces and names flitted through his mind, each one a greater problem to the families than the last. He thought of Raven’s frightened face, the way she trembled in his arms, and he pushed the alarm down. If she had seen someone, they might also have seen her.
10
Murmuring to myself, I washed the color of violence off my cuticles. The frigid water numbed my fingers and I wished it would do the same to my racing thoughts. What were the sheriff and Siyah talking about and why did it need to be done in secret? Still shaking, I tried to get my breathing under control, but Niklos’s vacant stare kept flashing in my mind sending my insides into a lurch. Steadying myself on the sink, I took in slow breaths as the red-tinged water swirled down the drain.
“Don’t crumble, Raven,” I whispered. “Sonja will need you.”
The thought of my sister, the sorrow that awaited her, sent the sting of tears to my eyes. She’d been worried he was in trouble. Had been sure Niklos would never leave her without word. Guilt over my doubt stabbed at me. I should have believed her.
Footsteps sounded just outside the bathroom, and I peered through the opening of the door at Siyah. He stood looking at me, his dark brows furrowed.
“What did he say to you?” I asked, drying my hands on the paper towel.
“That you need to stay on Noble.” Siyah didn’t move, his gaze resting on mine, searching.
His stillness unnerved me. Where was the rash temper, the challenging attitude towards anything and anyone in authority? He and Thompson talked outside as if they were childhood friends.
“Anything else?”
“What interests me, Raven, is not what Thompson said, but what you didn’t say.”
“What do you—”
“Raven…” He said my name in that low whisper, the one that made it impossible to keep anything from him. He tilted his head, catching my gaze with his deep blue one. Heat rushed to my face. Siyah could read me like no other. “What are you hiding?”
“I don’t think it’s relevant.” I turned to hide the blush, hoping he’d missed it.
“Why not let Thompson decide that?”
“Thompson? Since when is Siyah Cavaler a friend of the sheriff?” I shook my head. “You said earlier that there was unrest with the families. Is Thompson part of that?”
“That doesn’t concern you,” Siyah said, his jaw working. “And you’re answering me with questions. What did you keep from the sheriff?”
“Are you in trouble, Siyah?” I asked, thinking of him working the boardwalk on his own. He hadn’t told his father, that much I did know, but his friends and cousins? Where were they?
Siyah held me with an intense gaze. “I will ask again. What did you keep from Thompson?”
Not wanting to tell him about my room, to show once again how much of a mistake it was to come back to Noble, I sided-stepped his question with my own. “What unrest are you talking about? With the families, the island, what is it?”
Siyah sighed, and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms, waiting me out. I knew this game and two could play it. I crossed my arms also and pressed my lips together. We stood like that, staring at each other for long moments.
His eyes narrowed, but his posture remained relaxed. “Why were you out at night? Why did you not go to your room?”
“What unrest, Siyah?” I raised my chin waiting for an answer.
The corner of his lip quirked up slightly, but he didn’t give me one. The old fire of frustration ignited. I shrugged, trying to look uninterested. I headed for the table by the door.
“Fine. I see some things never change,” I said. “I should be with Sonja. She’ll find out soon if she has not heard already.”
“She wasn’t wrong about Niklos. He did not leave her.” Sadness flickered across his features.
“No, she wasn’t.” My voice cracked as I put the contents of my purse back, avoiding his eyes. “She never lost faith in him, in them. She will be crushed.”
“She’s young,” he said. “She’ll discover that although heartbreak feels like death, it rarely is.”
I whirled to face him, my eyes burning. “What happened to you, Siyah? My sister’s love is dead and you dismiss her loss like a schoolgirl who was stood up.”
He rose from the wall, strode towards me, his eyes dark with anger or sorrow, I couldn’t tell them apart in him.
“I don’t dismiss her heartbreak, Raven.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “I just know there is nothing to ease it.”
The image of the girl with the chestnut hair at his side, in his arms, flashed in my mind and my heart twisted. “Not for lack of effort,” I snapped.
Siyah closed the space between us quickly, the emotion rolling off of him so palpable I stepped backwards, my bottom hitting the wall behind me. Undeterred, the hurt of seeing him with her nearly crowded out my voice. “Is she even twenty, Siyah?”
He towered over me, a stricken look in his gaze. “You left, Raven. You did that.”
“And you know why,” I said, the pain cracking my voice. I pushed him away, needing to breathe, to escape the ache for him that flooded over. I hurried out of the club, not wanting to stay and let him see me fall apart. A patrol car pulled away from the building, and I ran after it, slamming my hand on the trunk. “Wait!”
Brake lights flared, and then Thompson leaned out his window. “Something wrong?”
“I – ”
Siyah stepped out of the club, scanning the parking lot.
I rounded the car and ducked into the front passenger seat. “Can you give me a ride to my family’s boat?”
Thompson glanced back at Siyah in the rearview mirror, but nodded. “Sure.”
I thought that the years would temper the way I reacted to Siyah, when instead, everything left unsaid seemed to rush to the surface the moment we spoke to each other. I swallowed the lump in my throat and studied the sheriff as he drove, trying to distract myself from what just happened.
Sheriff Thompson had unruly dark auburn hair and eyes that could not choose between gold and green. His rugged appearance seemed better suited to a motorcycle, not a sheriff’s car. He took us along the back road, one hand on the steering wheel, seemingly lost in thought.
I stared out at the strip of pitted asphalt just inside the headlights. Fog swirled in the beams and misted the windshield. I shivered in my seat more from the fight leaving me than the cold.
He flipped the heater up higher.
“Siyah said there’s been a lot happening lately on Noble.” I tried to sound casual. If Siyah wouldn’t tell me, then maybe his new friend, the sheriff, would. “Unrest in the families.”
“I think a better word would be suspicion run amok,” he said and looked over at me. “No offense.”
I shook my head. “I take none.”
“People are nervous, that’s all.” Thompson shrugged. “Random things taken all together can seem like something when it’s not.”
“Random like Niklos?”
The sheriff seemed to not be really saying anything, and I suspected he knew this.
“Well, no, Niklos had a definite knife wound. No, there were a couple of tourists who reported seeing strange, uh, figures on the shore. But they were intoxicated and diving at night. No one should be taking them seriously.”
“Some are?” I thought of the ghost stories that I’d heard as a child; specters and angry spirits in the woods or in the deep waters. “The Romany believe this?”
“No,” Thompson said, and then shrugged. “I don’t know. I get reports all the time of tremors or noises, but the woods and the caves are usually to blame.”
“The water pounding through the Devil’s Gate,” I said and nodded.
The cliffs overlooking the ocean were carved with caves that caught the waves, spewing and echoing during storms. “It can be frightening to those who’ve never seen it in the daytime.” Disappointed, I settled in my seat. “But nothing else like Niklos’s death. That’s good.”
“Well,” Thompson fidgeted, tapping his thumb on the steering wheel. “A Romany boy, a teenager, drowned three weeks ago while swimming.”
“Tragic, but not strange,” I said and wondered which of the families had suffered such a loss.
“But who swims alone in the summer? School is out and the riptide in that area is always bad this time of year. Everyone knows not to swim alone or you’ll get smashed to bits on the rocks.”
“Was he wearing clothes to swim in?”
“No, he…” Thompson’s brow furrowed. “His clothes were torn when we found him.”
“Would that happen if he fell off a boat and got trapped against the rocks?”
“No, he’d be pulverized, not shredded.”
“Oh.” My stomach lurched.
“I’m sorry. Forget about all that. You’ve got enough to deal with right now.” He pulled to a stop near the entrance of Black Shore Harbor and shut off the engine. He looked out at the boats, almost every craft had lights on. News of Niklos had already come to our community. Thompson sighed heavily, and got out. “You’ll come into the station and do the sketch with Harvey?”
“Yes, I will.” I forced a smile at him over the top of the patrol car. “Thank you.”
The scene inside my home with the sheriff was awkward and solemn. He was not part of our world, but he’d taken the time to tell my family himself rather than send his deputy, who was one of the Romany.
When he left, my sister huddled on her bed between my mother and myself and sobbed.
At one point, my father’s form filled the door, but he only looked at the women crying on the bed and rubbed his face with his palm as if trying to erase the expression of helpless sorrow on it.
We fell asleep embracing my sister.
When dawn peeked over the masts and a cold wind flared the windsocks, I awoke with a feeling of dread. I had to go back to my room at the Adder Inn. Someone left a threat buried in my pillow and I meant to find out who it was.
11
I woke and attempted to do a devotion for my Sunday morning, but found myself worrying and praying instead of reading. Afterwards, I tried to convince myself that the damage to the room at The Adder Inn would not be so bad in the daylight. Maybe my father’s anger at the bonfire, finding poor Niklos, and the fight with Siyah all colored how I remembered it. But I was wrong. The moment I walked through the door, frustration welled in me. It was worse than I remembered.
