Page 6 of Hidden Raphael
“Of what?”
“Of Roger.”
“You should be.” She kept her mouth shut, but she wasn't safe here at all. Raphael leaned closer. "The man hit you over the head with the back of his gun last night and ran as I approached… When spring arrives, we’ll report your friends' deaths.” He bent his knees to stand.
Coldness crept up her spine. "The plane crashed near here. I'm sure they'll search for the black box. I've watched the news, and they love disaster stories."
"For big planes." He shook his head and tapped his fingers on the chair like he was done with this conversation. The sound echoed in her brain. "Small planes disappear all the time, unless you're traveling with someone famous. Were you?"
"No." Ice raced through her veins. “My friends Ali and Eileen Mazdani’s bodies are probably still in that plane.”
He flinched and didn’t say anything else. She swallowed and then tried to figure out an answer. "People fish in the North Atlantic all the time. I'll take the next fishing boat back to the mainland."
"Won't be here until April, Kimberly. The last shuttle left November first to take the Halloween enthusiasts back to civilization." Raphael relaxed his legs and stayed in his chair. "You can stay here in your own room until then. I'll keep you safe.”
She stilled herself. "Why would people come here for Halloween?"
"They claim the island is haunted." Raphael stood up and walked toward a small window. Thunder echoed through the room.
Unable to move, she asked, "Why do people think it's haunted?"
He spoke casually. "During the Civil War, the Union soldiers used our property as a prisoner of war camp, a place where Southerners couldn't run away from. There’s a story about some woman who snuck into the prison as a man to find her husband, but then she was discovered and hung." A flash of lightning came in the window. "She, along with a merry group of other reported ghosts who supposedly died back in Scotland then followed the rocks to America to join the family, supposedly run around the halls."
Rain beat on the windowpane. She blinked, unable to process. "Do you believe in ghosts?"
He raised his eyebrows and didn’t answer her question. "Look, this castle is the only property on the island. The man who tried to kill you will have to lay siege the old-fashioned way to this castle."
"Do you have turrets, walls, and a moat?"
"Yes. In addition to more modern home security." He crossed his arms and peered out the window. "No one was supposed to find me."
She stood up and spoke to his back. "I wasn't out looking for you."
"No. You were half frozen to death and your head was bleeding." He turned around. "I found you just as a man was about to club you with the back of his gun. I thought he'd shot you. I fought with him, but then you breathed out deeply, and let me know you were alive. As I helped you, he disappeared. I brought you home and barred all the doors."
“Thank you, and I’m grateful that you saved me.” She never spoke to hot and dangerous men that had her pulse racing. She avoided trouble, and Raphael smelled exactly like she should stay far away. Thunder roared behind him.
Raphael’s body went rigid as he asked her, "How did you know Eileen and Ali?"
She took a step backward then stopped. He'd asked about her friends. She should want to bury them for now. A shiver rushed through her, and she sighed. "I met Eileen on a small island in the South Seas a few years back. We studied meditation and soul enlightenment with the monks. Eileen was my roommate. Later on she married this prince and intended to live happily ever after. I wasn’t invited to the wedding because of my blog, but I understood. We kept in touch, and on my journey to come home, I stopped at their country and then hitched a ride."
He nodded, but kept his arms crossed. "What do you remember of the crash?"
"The pilot, Roger, came back and shot them both in the head." Then she clutched her stomach. "I landed in the ocean and swam to shore. On the beach, I ran."
He rubbed his neck.
The storm flashed again, but he stayed near the window. Kimberly shuffled her feet. “I don’t know why Roger wanted to kill them.” Her face heated. She should have tried to answer that on her own. "They were only married recently.”
Raphael stared hard at her, and in his green eyes another storm brewed. She held back, but he stepped forward. "Why didn't you fly commercial?"
She placed her hands in her pockets. "A plane ticket from the South Pacific to Miami is expensive. I hitched to Ashtibia. This was free. Once in America again, I could rent a car and drive in a day and a half. I wanted to see my mom. My sister."
He scratched his head. "You know nothing else about these people and why the pilot might have murdered them?"
Did he think she'd lied? She closed her eyes. Conversations on the plane raced in her mind, but nothing struck her as strange. It was all love between Eileen and Ali, and they held hands half the time. Was there something else? Her eyes watered from a massive headache.
She took a deep breath and stared at a picture on the wall until the pain deadened. What did she know about her former roommate? "Eileen and Ali were recently married. Her parents weren't thrilled with the choice of her groom, but they supported her."
