“I still think it was Melody,” Riley said. “Who else?”
“Helloooo!” Roo said, pounding the table with her heavy water glass. “Why does everybody always act like I’m not here? I killed Wendell, and I’m not sorry. You can send me to hell or to prison, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
“Oh, Roo,” Evelyn said. “Don’t be so dramatic.”
“What? You think I couldn’t do it? Think I’m too old?”
“Roo?” Riley said.
“He bulldozed the wildlife sanctuary,” Roo explained. “All those birds in the rookery, their nests, their eggs, all of it. He didn’t give a goddamn about anybody but himself, the selfish bastard.”
Lightning crackled outside, and they heard the wind whipping tree branches, the rusty crackle of palm fronds beating against the side of the old house, and the low rumble of thunder.
“I was going to take Maggy over there, Memorial Day weekend, show her the nests,” Roo said. “But half of it was gone! I knew right away that it was Wendell. I tried to call him, but he wouldn’t answer his phone. That night, I’d borrowed Evelyn’s golf cart. One of my birding friends told me there was an endangered wood stork nesting in a live oak on the beach side of your property, Riley, and I took my telephoto lens because I wanted to get a picture of it. I didn’t even know Wendell was on the island. I couldn’t find the wood stork, but as I was walking up from the beach, I heard a commotion, and I looked up and saw people on that balcony at your house. They were having a huge fight, and that girl was screaming and carrying on and threatening to kill herself. When I looked through my telephoto, I saw it was Wendell, with that girl from the bank in town. They were both about half naked. I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to do!”
“Why didn’t you just leave and mind your own business?” Evelyn asked.
“I intended to,” Roo shot back. “I kind of snuck back to where I’d parked the golf cart, and that’s when I saw Scott. He and Wendell were having it out. I heard Wendell tell Scott about Billy killing that man. And then he said he’d go to the police and tell them about Billy if Scott didn’t shut up about his affair with the girl.
“I watched you leave,” Roo told Scott. “And then I saw Wendell go into the house. He came out a few minutes later and got in the golf cart and left. I followed him. He never even saw me. Nobody ever notices an old woman like me. He parked in the ferry lot, but walked over to the marina. I rode Evelyn’s cart right up behind him, and he still didn’t see me. His boat was tied up there, and he was fiddling with the lines.”
Another jagged streak of lighting lit up the sky outside the dining room windows, followed by the sickening crack of a tree limb, and a loud thud as it struck the ground close by. The overhead lights flickered, then went out.
“There goes the electricity,” Evelyn murmured. “Riley, I think maybe you’re right. Maybe we should think about getting out.”
“Could you please let me finish my story?” Roo said peevishly.
“By all means,” Evelyn said.
“I rode up right behind him and got out of that cart, and I was just so mad, I couldn’t see straight. I told him I knew he’d bulldozed half the wildlife sanctuary and I was going to call the Department of Natural Resources and report him.
“He just laughed and called me an old bag and said I should go ahead, because nobody cared, and it was the family’s land, and he could do what he wanted with it. So, then, I told him I knew all about his girlfriend, and how he’d borrowed money from everybody in the family. I said I was going to go to Riley and tell her everything. He thought that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. He laughed and laughed! And then he said everybody knew I was senile.”
Roo turned to Riley. “It was the last straw. He was still laughing when I grabbed the first thing handy.” She gave Evelyn an apologetic shrug. “It was your seven iron. I grabbed it and I swung it, and I bashed Wendell as hard as I could in the back of his head.”
She lifted her water glass and took a sip, then patted her lips with a napkin. “He looked so surprised! Then he was laying there on the seawall, and I was afraid somebody would see him. Lord knows I couldn’t lift him, or try to hide the body, so I just sort of rolled him over toward the boat. Then I got the anchor line and tied it around his waist, as best I could, and rolled him off the seawall into the water.”
“Oh, my God, Roo,” Evelyn said, her eyes round with shock. “You really did it? You killed Wendell?”
“With your seven iron,” Roo admitted. “I didn’t plan anything. It just happened. After that, I parked Evelyn’s golf cart in the ferry lot and drove Wendell’s cart back to the house. That girl was gone by then. I used the garage door opener that was in the cart to park it there, then I let myself out. I took Wendell’s cell phone, and I walked down to the beach and pitched the phone out into the water. Then I walked back to the marina, and got in Evelyn’s cart and drove home, and went to bed and acted like nothing had happened.”
She turned to her sister-in-law. “I’m sorry about your seven iron, Evvy. I buried it out behind the garden shed, under that big Nikko Blue hydrangea.” And then she looked at Riley. “But I’m really not sorry about Wendell. You and Maggy are better off with him gone. He was evil, honey. Pure evil.”
66
Oooowwwww. This time Mr. Banks ran down the stairs and to the front door, howling a protest at the shrill siren screaming through the din of the storm. “Looks like the sheriff’s back,” Billy said, half standing. All heads turned toward the glass storm door and the red lights flashing atop the police cruiser.
“I guess I’ll just go on and surrender right now,” Roo said.
“Everybody stay right where you are,” Evelyn said. “This is my home, and I’ll handle this. You just keep quiet, Roo. You hear?”
But before she could get to the door, they heard the loudspeaker again. “This is Sheriff Schumann. You folks need to get off the island. Now.” As they watched, the cruiser did a three-point turn and sped back in the direction it had come from.
Riley reached for her phone but hesitated. “Everybody go get whatever you want to take to Southpoint. I’m calling the ferry and praying it’s not too late. Mama, could you go see about helping Maggy get ready? Make sure she has her kit and enough meds for two or three days? Billy, can you and Scott—after you run home to get your stuff—can you meet us back here to make sure we’ve got everything ready to go? And could you run by Parrish’s house and tell her we’re all bugging out?”
Billy nodded and he and Scott rushed for the front door. Evelyn began clearing the table. “Mama! Just leave the food. We need to get out of here,” Riley called. “Roo, no more arguments, you hear? We are all getting out tonight.”
* * *
Nate had been waiting all evening for her call. He’d checked all the earlier manifests and knew that she and Maggy were still on the island, and he’d been struggling with how late he would let things go before he drove over to Shutters and forcibly dragged her off the island.
“Carolina Queen,” he said, answering the phone.