Spoiled bitch.
The ringing stopped and went to another busy signal. She hung up the phone quietly and stood as tall as she could to look over all the open cubicles. There must be other phones here, and maybe they worked. She spotted one toward the back of the office. A black office phone next to what looked like a fax machine. She walked over to it, picked up the handset with a shaky hand, and dialed Zoe’s number again. The same thing happened, ringing followed by a busy signal. She hung up. Her heart was starting to race, and her breathing felt shallow, as if she wasn’t able to get enough air into her lungs. She told herself to calm down, that there was still a chance that all the strange things that had happened in the past few days were nothing more than coincidence.
A woman came into the office, humming to herself. It was Mellie, the only female staff member that Abigail had actually laid eyes on since arriving here.
“Hello,” Abigail said from across the room.
Mellie squinted toward her, then said, “Hi, Mrs. Lamb. Making a call?”
“Trying to,” Abigail said.
“Yeah, I heard that the phones were glitching again. Sorry about that.”
“How long does it usually last?” Abigail said, walking across the office.
Mellie shrugged, said, “Not more than a day, usually. That’s the problem with wanting to have a resort that’s entirely cut off from the rest of the world. You wind up being cut off from the rest of the world.”
Abigail pressed her lips together and nodded. Mellie pushed a strand of her red hair behind an ear with one of her fingers. She had pale skin covered in freckles. Her eyebrows were so thin as to be almost nonexistent, and she had a deep groove from the top of her lip to the base of her nose. “Mellie,” Abigail said, when they were a few feet apart. “Did you hear about what happened last night?”
“Er, you mean what happened to you?”
“Yeah.”
“They woke us up early this morning and had us search the island. They said you saw a woman who appeared injured … is that right? … outside your bunk.”
“I saw Jill Greenly outside my bunk. She was bleeding all down her side, and then she ran into the woods.”
“I didn’t know it was Mrs. Greenly,” Mellie said, her thin nostrils flaring a little.
“Yes, it was definitely her, but then Chip Ramsay told me that she’d left the island yesterday. So I guess I was confused.”
“You’re not confused,” Mellie said, lowering her voice. Then she looked toward the door and added, “I shouldn’t be saying this, but she’s still on the island.”
“What?” Abigail said.
“Shhh. I’d lose my job if they knew what I was telling you. She’s here, and she’s not in danger. No, listen to me. The plane will come tomorrow. You just need to keep your head down until then and you’re going to be okay.”
“I don’t know what … Mellie, tell me what’s happening here.”
Mellie turned back and looked at the door again. Abigail glanced over her shoulder and saw Aaron come back into the office, his head down, reading something printed on a piece of paper. Mellie leaned in close and whispered, “Don’t trust your husband.”
CHAPTER 21
Abigail walked back down the stairway, then turned away from the lodge’s hall toward the tunnel Mellie had shown her earlier that led to the pool.
She needed a place to sit for a moment.
There was no one else around as she walked down the dingy hallway, and she was grateful. She didn’t know what she would do if Chip or even Bruce suddenly appeared. She’d probably scream.
She took the turn that brought her into the tunnel, darker than she remembered. She was scared, but she also didn’t want to go back through the lodge, risk running into someone she’d have to talk to. Her instinct was to run, but part of her knew that if she allowed herself to panic, she’d never stop. So she walked through the tunnel as calmly as possible, finally pushing through the double glass doors into the warm, chlorine-tinged air. She thought of going into the women’s changing room—she’d have it to herself—but she actually wanted to be outside instead, not closed in by walls. She walked past the entrance to the changing room and kept going. There was an unmarked door at the end of the hall, and she pulled it open, relieved to find that it led to the outside world. The cold air felt so good that she just stood for a moment with her back against the door and breathed in and out, even closing her eyes for a moment.
The slight breeze
