“Let’s head straight on over, set up camp on the island and work backward from there,” Sean suggested. He and David had met at the breakfast bar near the marina. He opened the book he kept on their schedule with relevant sea charts and maps. “We’re clear with the Bahamian authorities, and I started doing calculations on what I could find regarding the current at the time, the time of year and the storm—and I think that once the pirate ship started to take on water and break up during the storm, it would have been forced out of the deep water where it was always assumed to have sunk, and that the debris field would stretch out not far from the first drop-off to the southwest of Haunt Island.”
“I like the logic of getting there, setting up a base and moving on from Haunt Island,” David said. “You like the split that we have of people? Yesterday was the first time it seemed you didn’t trust everyone with us.”
“I don’t. I don’t trust anyone right now.”
“Especially Carlos Roca? And you really think that Vanessa saw him—and that it was him?”
Sean shrugged, looking toward the marina. “There are just so many factors in this situation that make no sense. I’m going to try to get Vanessa to take me through it all again, step by step, from earlier in the afternoon before Georgia Dare came running down the beach. The thing is, I don’t think that one person could have done all this. I think that if Carlos was guilty, he had to have had an accomplice. If he wasn’t guilty, two people had to be involved. Yes, it’s possible that there was a boat at anchor near the island that was hidden from view behind palms or foliage or even the curve of the shoreline. But the thing is—why? Don’t you think that someone must have had a reason—no matter how psychotic—to butcher bodies and leave them on display?”
“There’s the outside chance that an islander, dismayed with what they were doing on Haunt Island, lay in wait, and that the murders were because of outrage over making a film based on the massacre,” David said.
“Yes, there’s an outside chance,” Sean agreed. “I know that Liam ran everything he could on Lew Sanderson, the Bahamian guide who was with them.”
“The man is squeaky-clean. He’s worked with dignitaries from around the world. He’s a family man, married twenty years, two children, and known for helping out in times of distress, such as doing volunteer road work and clearance after storms. His neighbors love him—he’s an open book, so it seems,” David said. He drummed his fingers on the breakfast table. “I think your idea of matching up people and places over the last two years is a good one, and I know that Liam is on the computer now. It doesn’t seem possible to me that someone could commit such a horrible crime, then go back to a normal life as if nothing ever happened.”
“That’s my point. And I still say…I don’t know, we’re missing something, and I think it has to do with the why, and if we could just figure that out, we’d discover the who.”
David leaned back, shaking his head. “Well, there are plenty of theories. First, chalk it up to the Bermuda Triangle. Second, it is called Haunt Island.”
“We both know that a ghost—or even ghosts—didn’t commit those murders.”
“Agreed—I’m just throwing out the theories,” David said.
“Right,” Sean agreed. “Third theory—modern-day pirates, cleverly plotting. They committed gruesome murders and stole a boat and dumped Carlos Roca’s body overboard. But now Carlos Roca has been seen, so that theory is out. Okay, fourth theory. It was Carlos Roca, and he had friends—modern-day pirates—in on it. Fifth theory, Carlos was innocent, and he was hit on the head and is walking around suffering from amnesia. But that’s unlikely, considering the fact that there was an intensive manhunt going on for him after it first happened. Sixth theory—someone on the film crew was in on it with Carlos Roca. That’s why he’s alive and well, it’s how he managed to stay ‘missing’ all this time, and it’s why he seems to be following us now.”
“We’re still back to why,” David said. “All those people had good careers. What would make a professional with no record whatsoever suddenly commit murder?”