CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
It was afternoon by the time Oscar woke up. Between the seance and the confrontation with Ullman, he’d needed the rest. Nigel and Chris sat at the table with cups of coffee, looking similarly groggy, but Tina was behind the monitors with headphones on.
“Ullman is safely out of the way in the trailer,” Nigel reported. “That way we won’t accidentally trip over him, and Gloria can’t get past the salt lines to move his box.”
“Great.” Oscar paused to drop a kiss on Nigel’s head, then grabbed his things and made for the bathroom trailer. One hot shower later, he felt more human again, not to mention hungry.
There was hot water in the coffee pot, which he used to make some ramen, then ran more coffee. As he spooned noodles into his mouth, Tina took off her headphones. “We got an EVP from Ullman last night. It’s…weird.”
“He seemed to be trying to say something there at the end, but I couldn’t make it out at the time.” Oscar put down his half-finished cup and came over to Tina’s chair. “Do we need to film this?”
“Definitely.”
Once Chris was in position with their camera, Tina brought up the audio file. Ullman’s voice issued forth, flat and cold as a snake’s. “You can’t stop me. I’ll do anything to keep it hidden. Who do you think sent the other six to the bottom?”
What the hell? “Play it again.”
She did so. When it ended, Nigel adjusted his glasses. “Is he…that is, it sounds like he’s confessing to killing his six friends?”
“He was the only one not on the ship,” Tina pointed out. “Maybe because he sabotaged it beforehand? Then shot himself once he knew they were dead?”
Chris looked uncertain. “Out of remorse?”
“I don’t think he’s the sort of man who felt much remorse even when he was alive.” Oscar strove to recall the feelings he’d gotten in Ullman’s bedroom the day they’d explored the second floor. “I never got an impression of grief from him. Just anger…and a sense he didn’t want us prying into his personal business.”
Nigel shook his head. “It doesn’t get any more personal than murdering your six closest friends.”
“But that’s not what he wants to keep hidden.” Tina gestured to the audio on the screen. “He admits to the murder, even implies he did them in to keep ‘it’ hidden. Whatever the hell ‘it’ is.”
“Nothing good.” Oscar didn’t want to contemplate what a man like Ullman might have gotten up to on a private island…but it seemed he wasn’t going to have a choice in the matter.
Nigel wrapped his arms about himself, as if he were cold despite the summer heat. “The question is, does it have something to do with Gloria’s ‘treasure?’”
“Something Ullman wants hidden and Gloria wants found.” Chris lowered their camera slightly. “She was mad at Robin for keeping it hidden.”
“Depending on what it was, Robin might not have even known what she found,” Oscar said. “We should ask Montague if they uncovered any junk or something that night. Something no one would think of as treasure, but might have meaning in context.”
“In what context, though?” Nigel asked. “And how can we know?”
Oscar looked out in the direction of the veranda. “Maybe Robin can tell us that.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
“There was nothing,” Montague said, when Nigel and Oscar brought the results of the EVP and their own speculation to Dr. Lawson and her that evening. The sun was sinking into the west, the sky to the east still clear for the moment.
The latest forecast had upped the chances of the tropical storm hitting them in three days. Which left them today and tomorrow, possibly part of the next day, to wrap things up before they needed to get off the island.
“Are you sure?” Lawson asked. They sat in their chairs in the sand, sipping glasses of wine Ethan poured for them. “Take a minute and think, Patricia. There must have been shells, rocks, maybe an old piece of glass from a broken bottle?”
“Of course there were shells and rocks,” Montague snapped. “Sand, too, imagine that!”
Oscar shifted his weight. “Could you tell us where it was? Maybe if we?—”
“I’m not paying you to dig up this island, Mr. Fox.” Montague turned a forbidding glare on him. “You’re here to lay Robin to rest, first and foremost. Do you understand?”
