Thunder in paradise (part 4)

Carol woke from a restless sleep and looked at the mesmerising view from the bed. The sun was rising, its rays dancing on the ripples of the clear blue water. It was so beautiful. ‘I need to get off this island!’ her internal voice said in her head, ‘I need to get off this goddamned island!’ She stood up and stretched herself before she began to walk the shoreline in search of a boat. She passed two of her workmates, their corpses beginning to decay in the heat, with nothing more than a sheet over them. That creeped the shit out of her.

Robbie, who hadn’t slept at all, watched as Carol wandered, stopping at the bungalow of each their two fallen soldiers but pushing on and placing her feet in the water. She walked towards the west as they all knew that was where the boatshed was. She began to walk as far as his deteriorating eyesight would let him.

‘Man am I old!’ he said, shaking his head.

He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if something happened her so he reluctantly got out of bed and ran after her. Who’s to say Lucas isn’t waiting in the wings wanting one of them to break away from the group.

When Robbie finally caught up to Carol, he asked her ‘where are you going?’

‘I’m getting off this godforsaken island and going home to my daughter!’ she said as the waves gently ebb and flow on her feet. The sand was hot to walk on, but the water had her feet at a comfortable temperature.’

‘We all want off the island!’ Robbie reminded her.

‘So why then as we inspected the boatshed yesterday before poor Sinead got murdered were the phones down?’

‘There was a storm!’ Robbie reminded her.

‘Yea, but to not even have a satellite phone? I find that very iffy!’

‘I do too, but other than send flares into an already lit sky, we had no way of communicating with the mainland!’

‘Well I’m on my way back there now to see if that pubescent son of a bitch is back, because I really…really need to have words with him!’ she was punching her open left palm with her closed right fist over and over again.

From what Robbie gathered it was the smartest thing to do, running after her.

When they reached the dock where all of the food comes in and the hotel liaison, Lucas, is supposed to stay, they hear an almighty scream. They look at each other.

‘You go and see if the phones are working again and I’ll run back,’ Carol ordered.

‘Should we not stay together?’ Robbie asked.

‘Just do what I say!’ she said in an authoritative tone before sprinting on the sand back to camp.

It only took her a few minutes before she was met by three sombre faces. Nicola was hysterical and Sean and Pablo weren’t much better.

‘What happened?’ she asked and Nicola pointed in the direction of Mike’s bungalow. She walked in there softly and was met with Mike, a blue hue to his body, his eyes open but lifeless…he was dead. She respectfully closed his eyes and pulled a sheet over his body.

‘That little fucker has done it again!!’ she screamed before running into the sea screaming, ‘which one of us is next?’ into the direction of the clear blue water. ‘Am I next?’ she said the water now up to her knees. ‘ANSWER ME!!!’ she screamed in the direction of nowhere, pinpointing no one.

Sean went into the water after her and she brushed off his advances to bring her back to shore. Pablo went in to assist when the water reached her torso. They each put an arm under hers and dragged Carol kicking and screaming back to the sand.

Once she was on dry land she fell to the ground and sobbed. The other three sat around her and joined in.

After what seemed like forever, Robbie returned with three flare guns and three extra flares.

He looked at the group and knew almost immediately that the killer had struck again. He looked at the sombre faces and deduced from a process of elimination that it was Mike. He dropped the flares as he shook his head and ran into Mike’s bungalow. He had to see for himself. There lay the man who took him under his wing and rescued him from alcoholism and homelessness. He gave him a shot before he even knew he had anything in the tank left. Mike believed in Robbie, he believed him to be a good private investigator, and he was right.

Robbie fell to his knees and held Mike’s cold dead hand in his and sobbed like a baby in pain.

He felt the warm hand of Sean on his shoulder about thirty minutes later. He let go of Mike and clutched the warm hands of Sean instead. He got up, groaning as he did so, ‘man it sucks to be getting old!’ he said before joining the others who were now on the sun loungers.

‘What did you find?’ Carol dug right to the point.

‘Nothing!’ Robbie answered.

‘No phone or radio?’ Sean asked confused.

‘The phone doesn’t work, and there was no sign of a radio.’ Robbie hung his head in shame. He wished he had more to tell his friends.

‘Any sign of Lucas?

‘No,’ Robbie looked at the sand, drawing shapes in it with his foot. ‘I did find a boat though!’ he looked up.

The four of them began to get excited.

‘Finally, we can get out of this retched place!’ Carol cheered.

‘It’s in need of serious repair!’ Robbie said with his brow furrowed. He looked at each of the remaining faces individually; Sean first, then Nicola, Pablo and Carol.

Carol rose and began to kick the sand cursing. Robbie had never seen her so angry. Who could blame her? Lucas was obviously hiding somewhere on the island picking them off one by one.

Sean took charge, something none of the others had the ability to perform after the bombshell Robbie planted on them.

‘Right!’ he said pensively. He stood up and walked around the group in a circle thinking. He clicked his fingers.

‘First things first is we have to see if that boat can be fixed!’ he looked to Pablo who seemed to want to say something.

‘You ok Pablo?’ he asked.

‘Back in my billage in Ecuador, I do wood making!’

The other four began to get excited, looking from one to the other. Carol who was sitting beside him got up and grabbed his shoulders.

‘Will you try and fix the boat?’ she asked him as she looked him dead in the eye.

‘Jes!’ he says emphatically and rises from his seat. ‘Where I can find it?’

They all look to Robbie who gets up pointing west.

‘It’s on the far side of the boathouse! About one kilometre away!’

They all jump to their feet and prepare to go to see if the boat is in any way salvageable. On their way there Robbie approached Sean. He puts an arm around Seans shoulder.

‘So,’ he starts, ‘gay huh!’

‘Yes,’ Sean hung his head in shame.

Robbie moved in front of him and stopped him in his tracks. Sean looks up.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Robbie asked sounding hurt, ‘I thought we were good buddies!’

‘It’s not just something you announce!’ Sean tried to explain.

‘All those nights you were over at my place….’ Robbie paused, ‘…. you could have told me!’

‘It’s just that I screwed that bitch Sammy whilst still in school, ‘he began, ‘I wanted to know for sure before I announced it to the world and she was an easy lay, but she got pregnant and when you come from a very catholic background you do the right thing and get married. In all our twelve years of marriage we only had sex five times, always when she was pissed. Quite frankly I just lay there and she did all the work whilst I pictured Leonardo DiCaprio. Once she got pregnant with the second one, I told her one night after getting pissed. That was the night I really lost my virginity. I had been in a gay bar in town and hooked up with some twink who found me attractive. There she was, a two-year-old on her leg and a bun in the oven. That’s when we decided to have separate bedrooms and she started screwing around like the whore she is. When Barry, my youngest, was born, they had to do a hysterectomy to stop her from bleeding out. I was glad because otherwise I would be still bringing up other men’s kids. She doesn’t have the balls to say it to her folks so she has Gary, her ‘personal trainer’ and I have my video games.’

‘Oh man!’ Robbie shakes his head in sympathy, ‘things are bad, huh?’

‘Yea, she resents me…she has always resented me, but she continues to talk smack about me when the boys are around. My eldest called me a fagot for the first time when he was eight, he didn’t even know what a fagot was! She just continues to break me down. That’s why I took a leave of absence for those three months last year…I wasn’t on a round the world cruise, I was in a mental health hospital because I tried to commit suicide…’

Robbie gasped.

‘Yeah…...that’s something I’m ashamed of!’

‘Oh god man, I had no idea! How did you manage to send the postcards we got every couple of weeks?’

‘Oh, Sammy and the boys went on the cruise and she forged my signature from each destination they visited. It was the only way, in my mind, to be able to look at ye all in the eye again when I returned. I bribed her and paid for the cruise on the condition she would send the post cards!’

‘Why are you ashamed about having mental health difficulties?’

‘The stigma…I didn’t want you guys to think I was less of a man!’

Robbie put his arms around Sean and hugged him tightly. Sean began to sob into his shoulder. Robbie rubbed his back and told him everything would be ok!

Sean broke away from the embrace and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

‘We had better catch up with the others!’ he said.

‘I’m always here for you buddy!’ Robbie said and patted him on the back as they caught up to the others who they heard before they saw…...

 

‘Yea, and it’s not like he was good in bed or anything…he was just…...just…. he could do this thing, with his tongue!’ they heard Nicola say to Pablo and Carol.

Robbie put his hand on Seans arm, a hand that told him he wanted to hear this!

‘I know right!’ Carol said, ‘I mean that man can get my motor running if you know what I mean!’

‘You slept with Robbie?’ Nicola said defensively.

‘Yup!’

‘And you deeply regret it?’

‘Yup!’

‘Not me!’ Nicola said, I wouldn’t have traded those six months for the world.

 

Robbie went quiet.

‘They’re talking about you man!’ Sean whispered.

‘I just hope they don’t find out that I was bedding them both at the same time!’ Robbie whispered back putting a finger to his lips.

 

Nicola went quiet, which rarely happened. That girl could speak two hundred words in a minute and make all of them roll off her tongue meticulously.

Carol was regretting saying what she just said.

‘So,’ Nicola began, ‘when did he bed you?’

‘Excuse me?’ Carol said defensively.

‘I mean we only broke up two months ago and were seeing each other on and off for those two months after breaking up from a serious relationship!’

‘I don’t like what your insinuating Nicola!’

‘And what might that be?’

‘You want to know if he was bedding us both at the same time…right?’

‘And was he?’ Nicola felt her jaw tighten.

‘Well we didn’t do anything when you were together for those six months….’

‘…...but when we broke up you found him to be fair game?’

‘Yeah!’ Carol said, dropping the wood she had gathered from the broken-up beach house and squaring up to Nicola.

‘You have a problem with that?’ Carol asked.

‘Actually I do!’

‘Well tough, he is a grown man and he can service my boiler anytime he pleases!’ Carol said as Nicola brushed the hair from her eyes.

‘Well its my boiler who he returns to service on a regular basis!’

‘What?’ Carol was losing what was being said in the process of the metaphors.

‘The plane!’ Nicola pointed out. ‘It was me who joined the mile high club, not you!’

‘You threw yourself at him on that plane! Any red blooded male would have done what he did!’

‘So you’re not jealous?’

‘Hell no!’ Carol smiled a sadistic smile, ‘it was me who screwed him after we got here!’

‘WHAT?’

 

Robbie got up from his hiding place and ran to place himself between the women who were pointing fingers at each other and both getting quite aggressive. Sean stayed where he was, he wanted nothing to do with anyone else’s drama right now, he had enough drama of his own to be dealing with.

Robbie decided to send Nicola to one area and Carol over to help Pablo try and fix the boat.

Carol picked up the fallen wood and brought it over to Pablo.

‘What in god’s name are you doing picking fights?’ he asked Nicola.

‘You slept with that bitch at the same time we were screwing me?’

‘She’s not a bitch and WE WERE NOT EXCLUSIVE!!!’ he shouted at her.

‘What did I ever do to you?’ he asked tentatively, tears forming in her eyes.

‘You…

‘…. slept with you when you were horny and she wasn’t around?’

‘Well…’ he began to think of a way he could get out of the fire.

‘…...you have to think?’

‘Well…’ he said trying to find the right words.

She stood there open mouthed.

‘What was I to you?’ Nicola asked. ‘What could I not give you that she can!’

‘A baby!’ he said softly.

‘WHAT????’

‘I asked you to marry me and you hesitated so I moved on.’

‘To that slag?’

‘She’s not a slag Nicola!’

‘She’s a junkie Robert!!’

‘She was a junkie! She’s been clean for years now!’

‘So those nights you showed up at my door looking for sex, was it that she wasn’t available?’

‘Em…...’

‘…...you came into my bed after getting out of hers!’

‘Em….’

Nicola slapped him so hard that his face was repositioned to the side. He put one hand up to his jaw and rubbed it as he turned his head back facing Nicola’s.

‘I’m going into the boathouse to see if there is anything to drink,’ she pointed her finger at Robbie, ‘and don’t you dare follow me!’

With that Nicola went into the boathouse. She found the fridge easily enough and noticed that as the power went out in the storm, everything was tepid. She went onto her hands and knees to get to the water on the bottom shelf and when she got up and closed the fridge she jumped.

‘Jesus Mary and holy saint joseph,’ don’t scare me like that. She placed her hand to her heart and was confused when she saw the knife coming her way. It came so fast that she had no time to react. She fell onto the boathouse floor and was clutching at her gut. She looked at her hands, they were covered in blood. She began to have a panic attack.

‘It was you all along!’ she said before the knife was plunged deep into her stomach again and again until she lay in an ever-growing pool of her own blood, the life extinguishing from her eyes.

 

And then there were four!!

 

 

picture from pixabay