Page 88 of Still See You Everywhere

“And I found something.” I hold up the slip of paper from my back pocket. “This is a note I recovered from the nightstand in Lea’s room. It’s a message to her sister, sounding rather… fatalistic.”

I pass it around the room for everyone to judge for themselves.

“But you said Lea’s happy to be with MacManus,” Aolani states sharply, handing the scrap of paper to Ronin.

“Which is the problem. According to Lea, she never wrote this note, or the message to her sister that got Keahi’s attention after all these years. I asked Lea to write down something for me. Her handwriting is small and precise—not a match for what you see here.”

“I don’t understand.” Aolani again. “You don’t think she wrote this, a hidden message in her own room?”

I shrug. “It doesn’t seem so.” Which is as precise as I can be.

“But why? Who?” Ronin now.

“I jumped to a different question—”

“Where,” Vaughn states bluntly, his mind having gone the same direction as mine. “If that note is on this atoll, then by definition, the person who wrote it is, as well.”

“Don’t suppose the script looks familiar to anyone?” I ask hopefully.

Tannis is already shaking her head as she hands the paper scrap back to me. “But we don’t exactly sit around writing notes. Well, the daily board, I suppose. That’s handwritten in dry erase marker. But normally you two handle the majority of the grid.” She nods at Vaughn and Ronin. “With others filling in just a spot or two. Not enough to truly judge penmanship. At least not for me.”

“This script is large and childish,” Ronin supplies. “I would notice it if I saw it elsewhere. I haven’t. And for the record—it doesn’t match Charlie’s. His scrawl is microscopic and almost impossible to decipher.”

“Could this note be disguised?” Aolani asks. “The script seems distinctive in a distracting sort of way.”

“Sure. But that doesn’t change the main implication—someone still had to place it in the owner’s lodge. Meaning that person is someone here, or was here.”

“Fuck.” Tannis swears this time, sounding way more cheerful than Vaughn when he does it. He actually frowns at her, as if that’s no way to drop the f-bomb. She shrugs back, unapologetic.

Vaughn presses his lips into a thin line. I can tell from the look on his face that he’s been thinking, thinking, thinking this whole time. He’s the project manager; problem solving and logistical planning are his bread and butter. Now:

“In the short term, I think it matters less what we don’t know and more what we do. Fact one, a convicted murderer has escaped who has incentive to come here in search of Mac and her younger sister.”

I nod.

“Everyone should know this,” Vaughn states firmly. “And everyone should have a choice whether to stay or go. If MacManus wants to hide here with his security guards, good for him. But this isn’t what anyone else signed up for, and I won’t ask people to take on additional risk. This location is dangerous enough.”

“You will make an announcement at dinner?” Ronin prompts.

Vaughn nods. “Makes the most sense. Camp meeting.”

“And how to get people back to Oahu?”

“There’s the plane,” Vaughn provides, “though MacManus is currently opposed to it leaving, and it’s not big enough to transport everyone. We may just have to demand that it charter the people who want to leave, in multiple trips if that’s what it takes.”

“What about the authorities?” Tannis asks. “If investigators from Oahu are coming to check out the human remains, couldn’t some folks return with them?”

“Possibly.” Vaughn reaches for the corner of his desk. His hand halts midair. “Dammit.”

I don’t understand, but Ronin does. “Where’s the sat phone?” he speaks up.

I have a vague memory of a rugged black radio/phone thingamabob charging on Vaughn’s desk. Sure enough, both the thingamabob and the charger are gone.

“Mac.” Vaughn practically swears the word. “His goons apparently didn’t understand the remote part of a remote atoll, and thought they could still communicate with Honolulu using their cell phones. When they figured out otherwise… Mac asked me to bring them the backup sat phone. I should’ve known they’d simply help themselves.”

He mutters under his breath, crossing his office to a shelf in the corner. Then he draws up short. “Fuck me, they took the backup as well. Goddammit, this is no way to run operations. Their lack of planning is not our emergency. I don’t even want them here!”

Now his hand is running through his hair, over and over again. The rest of us remain silent.

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