Was there another reason why I’d not shown them the photo? If I was being honest with myself, truly honest, then it hadn’t slipped my mind. I had made the choice not to show them the picture. I had thought about it, then felt the peridot ring grow cold against my finger. I had taken it as a sign to keep the picture to myself. I was trying to follow my instincts, or at least do what I thought the ring was trying to tell me to, but what if I’d made the wrong decision?
The track through the trees lead us up to the top of a hill with a single building. I wouldn’t have described it as a tower so much as a two-story building with a telescope on the roof, but it did seem to have a great view over Green Holt and the surrounding water. I looked around and quickly saw that we were at the highest point on the island.
“Who goes there?” a man shouted from the roof.
“Sadie Alden!” I yelled back. “I’m the peacekeeper, I’ve come to ask you about your sister.” There was a lengthy pause before the voice replied.
“Come up,” he said. I looked back at Miller and then proceeded through the door of the building.
The ground floor was made up of one single, empty room with an ascending staircase. No furniture, no artwork on the walls, but a small kitchenette with an electric kettle. As I climbed up the stairs, I saw that the second floor was identical; bare. This place seemed to only exist so that someone could get onto the roof. The next staircase took us up to a hatch. Miller shoved it upward with his shoulder and we stepped out onto the roof.
The view was astonishing. Turquoise waters surrounded the land below, luscious greenery burst out of the ground all around us and we could even see fish in the shallows. The man that had spoken to us was staring through his telescope intently; it was aimed at one spot on Green Holt.
“I’m Stuart, Natalie’s older brother,” he said without looking at us. “She’s been missing for a very long time, so I would love to know if you have information about what happened to her. I assume that’s why you’re here.”
“It is,” I said. How did you know that?”
“Lucky guess,” he sighed. “Also, my three sons on the beach down there,” he gestured in the direction we’d come from, “they just sent me a text to let me know you were coming.” He smiled and held up a small cell phone.
“We believe she may be connected to a death of a man on Green Holt,” I began.
“You think she killed someone?” he said, lowering the phone and staring at us. He was greying, had stubble on his cheeks that looked a few days old, and his face was gaunt.
“No,” I replied, although I suppose I shouldn’t rule out the possibility. “Did you know that your sister was dating someone from the other island?”
“I… I did, yes,” Stuart nodded. “They were very happy together apparently, she talked to me about him most nights.”
“You weren’t mad?” Miller asked.
“Mad? Why would I be mad?” he chuckled. “Because the guy was from over there?” I nodded. “You been paying too much attention to my children!”
“Yes, they said you threatened to never speak to them again if they dated anyone from Green Holt,” I explained.
“Jeez, I said that when they were in high school so that they would focus on their studies. If they spent their nights trying to flirt with the girls on the neighboring island, then they didn’t have a chance of passing a single exam. They aren’t all that bright, you may have noticed,” he sighed.
“Do you have any ideas about what happened to Natalie?” Miller asked.
“All I know is that she told me she was running away to get married and that she didn’t want me to tell our mom and dad. It was our little secret,” he smiled. “I haven’t told another soul, until right now. I figure there’s not much use lying to the peacekeeper, you probably know when someone is lying, right?”
“Er…yes,” I lied. The ring on my finger began to glow and I didn’t know what it was trying to tell me this time.
“Well, I haven’t ever had a postcard from her, or seen any wedding pictures, but I know she’s happy. I can feel it,” he said. Oh boy.
I pulled out my phone and loaded up the picture. I stepped close enough to show him, trying to read the micro expressions on his face. He pulled the phone out of my hand to get a closer look. “That’s Nat, I know it is. Where did you get this? Who is she with?”
“That is Robert Barton,” I said.
“Her husband?” Stuart said. “Where are they?”
“Robert was found dead in a bunker on Green Holt a few days ago. He had a passport and two tickets to Australia in his pocket. They didn’t make it off the islands,” Miller said.
“Did he have the gold?” Stuart asked.
“What gold?” I said.
“Natalie said that Robert found the treasure, the one that everyone on Green Holt goes crazy for. He actually found it; it was real. I think that’s how he was able to afford their passports actually. I think some of it went missing, but he still had enough to get them off the islands, or at least that was the plan,” Stuart explained.
“Who knew that he had it?” Miller asked.
“Natalie said Robert had told his boss,” Stuart replied. “He was
