She winced. “Where does that leave you if you pay her and she drops the lawsuit?”
“I don’t know. To assure my status, I might have to file for divorce.”
“Which she might contest and ask for even more money.”
The horrible thought had kept him up at night, but he didn’t look away and gave a short nod. “Lauren is unpredictable. Scott wants to tie any settlement to a binding agreement so she will not contest it again.”
“But your marital status would be very ambiguous.”
“It could be. Scott says the whole thing is a mess and could go either way. What do you want me to do?”
Her chin came up, and she tucked strands of hair behind her ears. “It’s not my decision, Reid. The whole situation is more than I can wrap my head around. You let me find this out from Lauren instead of telling me yourself.”
“You spoke to Lauren? When?”
“This morning. She asked me to stay away from you and said I should give the two of you space to work out your marriage.” Her voice wobbled, and she turned away as if to hide the pain in her eyes.
Reid set his hand on her forearm. “I wouldn’t stay with her for any amount of money. She abandoned Will. She hurt him. The pain she caused me isn’t nearly as important as the way she destroyed Will’s confidence. Would you step back away from him and let her have your spot?” He saw her recoil. “And your reaction is exactly how I feel. Don’t let her do this to us, Jane.”
She still wouldn’t look at him. “I’ll have to think about it.”
* * *
Jane’s eyes burned after talking to Reid. She didn’t know how to process the reality that Reid might still be married, but for now, she planned to stay far away from him until she sorted out her feelings.
The kids, glistening like playful seals, emerged from their dip in the water with the pod of dolphins. Pete fluttered down to perch on a rail, and several other pelicans dove to the water and came up with wriggling fish.
Will shot her several anxious glances as she sat in the bow. She snatched up her phone with something akin to relief when Augusta called.
“You notify next of kin yet?” Jane asked.
“Jackson did. I’m set to interview Gail’s ex-husband in about two hours.”
Conventional wisdom indicated the murderer was generally known to the victim. “Anything from the coroner?”
“Nothing yet, but I still suspect foul play. We’ll know more after the autopsy.”
Jane stared at the shoreline. They were only about half a mile out. “I think I’ll go along on that interview.”
“I can handle it, Chief.”
“I know you can.” Jane shot a glance Reid’s way. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
“If you insist.”
The tightness in Augusta’s words gave Jane pause, but only for a moment. Her hair still stank of smoke, and she wouldn’t be able to loosen the muscles in her shoulders until she had answers to at least something she could control. The situation here was impossible. She ended the call and went to tell Alfie she needed to put ashore.
“Hold your horses.” The old man blinked faded blue eyes and gave a shrug. “Got binoculars on you?”
“No, should I?”
“Yer man didn’t tell you about them survivalist types camping over yonder?” He waved a wrinkled hand toward smoke rising from the treetops on a small, unnamed island filled with impenetrable forest.
“He’s not my man.” She turned and shaded her eyes with her hand to peer through the sunshine at the location. “Survivalists? Any idea who they are?”
“Coconut telegraph hasn’t sussed it out yet. Their boat’s called Westwind. That’s all I know.”
The smoke seemed ominous after the fire, especially when she caught a whiff of it, but her nerves were playing tricks on her. This group was unlikely to have anything to do with Liberty’s Children or even the fire this morning.
She lowered her hand. “Have any of them been to town yet?”
“Ain’t seen anyone but tourists.”
Jane glanced at her watch. “We’ve got time to stop by and see what’s going on. I can make a friendly official call and make sure they are legally allowed to be there.” The location was outside her jurisdiction, but the campers were unlikely to know that.
The Liberty’s Children cult was an offshoot from Mount Sinai, a survivalist group Jane and her father had fled when she was a teenager. She and Reid had confronted the group a few weeks ago and learned the leader hated her mother. And Reid. She had to know for sure if there was any connection with that curl of smoke to the dangerous group.
Alfie gave the order to haul up the nets, which dripped water and little else other than a bit of trash and debris onto the deck. In minutes they were underway to the island.
Jane had never set foot on the island, and she didn’t know many people who had. First of all, access was difficult. There was no pier and no protected bay to find anchorage. The people there would have needed to use rowboats to ferry themselves and their belongings ashore, and even then, landing was tricky. A small spot without vegetation existed on the eastern side of the island, and she trained Alfie’s binoculars on it.
“See anything?”
Her gut clenched at Reid’s deep voice. His voice always reached in and held her in a spot she hadn’t known existed until he’d come back into her life. His tanned, muscular arm brushed hers, and she moved away just a bit.
She swallowed and nodded. “Looks like they landed there.” She handed him the binoculars and pointed it out. “There are marks in the sand and mud. And you can see several inflatable boats through the bushes farther up.”
“I see them.” He lowered the binoculars. “You’re suspicious it could be Liberty’s Children?”
“Aren’t you? Gabriel knows where you are now. And where I am. He could have come after us or sent a group to be a thorn in our sides.”
“For what purpose?”
“I don’t know. The hatred he showed toward my mother had me wondering what she’d done to him. What if he thinks I can lead him to her?”
Reid raised a brow. “You’re stretching.”
“Am I? I’m not so sure.”
Isaac lowered the anchor, and she moved toward the inflatable rowboat.
Reid followed her. “I’ll come with you.”
“I can handle it alone.”
“While you can, the question is, should you? If you really think these people could be part of Liberty’s Children, they might be dangerous.”
“Then the kids need you to stay here and protect them.”
His expression sobered, and his mouth twisted. “Fine.” He bent down and helped her get the craft over the side of the old shrimping vessel.
She clambered down toward the whitecaps rolling atop the blue water. The sea spray hit her in the face, and she was wet by the time she hopped into the dinghy. The tide helped her as she rowed toward shore, and the bottom scraped sand more quickly than she’d expected. The sea soaked her legs to the knees when she climbed over the side and hauled the craft to the shore.
Though careful to watch for snakes, she forced her way through the marsh toward the sound of voices. Her feet sank into the soft, wet ground and made sucking sounds when she pulled them free. A marsh was never her favorite place to be. Mosquitoes buzzed her head, and she waved them away. She reached drier ground where briars tore at her clothing. Water oak trees reared into the blue sky, and she found a newly trodden path to the clearing.