Natalie laughed. “Sabine’s a vegan, Charley. No meat.”
“I take it you’re not?” Sabine asked, crinkling her nose. But she was smiling.
“Nope. I’m a Southerner. Barbecue is its own food group for us.”
The trees fell away, dumping us on the beach. White sand shifted under my sandals, finer than the black sand I’d been walking on for the past two weeks. But the sand was nothing compared with the scene before me.
The sun sparkled, rising into a cloudless sky. The ocean lay ahead,stretching until it met the horizon, blue kissing blue. Close to shore, the waves broke and retreated. But for the first time since I’d set foot on Nil, the beach was full of people and activity. A firepit wafted lazy smoke into the air. Around the fire, kids laughed and talked. Two shirtless boys were playing catch with a coconut, throwing it like a football, their shoulders and backs rippling under a sheen of sweat. The girl built like a Playboy bunny was sprinting down the beach beside a tall boy with dreadlocks, like an advertisement for island athletic wear. Other kids floated on surfboards past the whitewater. It looked like an island retreat, like the perfect Hawaiian vacation spot.
Something twanged, like when a violist strikes a sour note.
“Natalie,” I said, turning, “where are the adults? The little kids?”
CHAPTER
15
THAD
DAY 279, MID-MORNING
I hated to leave Charley, but the look on Miguel’s face left me no choice.
“What’s up?” I asked. Miguel was usually chill. My-English-is-choppy-so-I’m-just-gonna-listen chill, but still chill. Right now his face was anything but chill. He looked seriously disturbed. “Is it about the Shack?”
“No.” Miguel kept his voice low. “Elia’s team. They bring something back. Something you need to see.”
Something bad. Miguel’s face said it all. My stomach felt like I’d swallowed rocks.
“Behind the Shack,” he said. “Come.”
Sy and Johan lounged on a flat rock at the City’s edge. Johan’s hair was so filthy it looked more brown than blond, and both boys’ skin was streaked with dirt. They were Search-dirty and then some. Elia was nowhere in sight.
“Welcome back,” I said.
Sy stood. “Thad, check this out.”
He walked over, handling a piece of cloth as if it held delicatecrystal. Beside me Miguel crossed himself and whispered in rapid-fire Spanish. Johan looked ready to throw up.
As Sy slowly peeled back one corner, I’d have sworn Nil giggled. Inside the cloth was a bracelet, an ivory-colored cuff, about two inches wide and perfectly smooth.
I knew that cuff.
It’d taken the owner months to craft it—to smooth it using a fine mixture of sand and salt. I remember sitting beside her, watching her rub the cuff. I’d thought it was creepy then. Hollow and empty, it was beyond creepy now.
“What is it?” Bart’s voice came over my shoulder. I’d forgotten he’d followed us.
“A bracelet,” I answered, irritated. Then I looked at Sy. “Where’d you find it?”
“Near the groves.” He swallowed. “Whoever she was, she didn’t make it. I, uh, had to take it off her wrist. Or what was left of her wrist.” Sy looked ashamed.
“I told him to leave it.” Speaking for the first time, Johan’s words were like nails. “That to bring it back was bad karma, but he insisted.” Johan shot a dark look at Sy, who visibly withered. “He doesn’t get it.” Johan’s troubled face matched Miguel’s. “We buried the body, and we should have buried the bracelet with it.”
No argument there.
“Look, I thought we should bring it back,” Sy said. “So you or someone else could ID her. I didn’t think just telling you about it would be enough to make a positive ID. She deserves a cross, man. On the Wall.”
I couldn’t argue with that either.
