I glanced at Kevin. He was trying to help me up. How would he react if I asked him to help me move the body? I had no doubt Mary Lou and the turtle savers would lose it if I asked for their help. I was going to have to take my chances with Kevin. Maybe if he had some kind of police training, as I’d considered earlier, he’d be okay.
“I need your help,” I yelled at him against the mind-numbing crash of the waves and shriek of the wind.
“What?” he yelled back at me.
I moved closer to him and cupped my hands. “I found Miss Elizabeth. I need your help to move her.”
I could tell by the expression on his lean face that he understood me that time. I tried to smile encouragingly, tried to stay calm. I was a public official, after all. People expected it of me. Inside, my heart was jumping up and down while a terrible pain squeezed my chest. I was already crying. It was hard not to panic and run screaming up the hill back to town.
He leaned closer, gray eyes serious. “Where is she?”
I pointed to the sea oats. “I saw her when I fell. I’m afraid the water will take her if we don’t do something. I don’t want to think what would happen if I tell the others.”
“Show me where.”
We both got down on our knees and I looked around in the sea oats again until I found her wrist. Her arm was sticking out of the sand, but the rest of her was nowhere to be seen. Someone buried her here. There could be no doubt of it. If it hadn’t been for the storm pushing at the sand that made up the dunes, we might never have found her.
I put my head down and prayed for the strength I needed. I looked at Kevin’s face, very near my own. He was focused on the body. He looked calm, not squeamish or ready to panic.
“You’re right,” he acknowledged. “We have to get her out of here. The crime scene is damaged beyond repair anyway. It’ll be better than losing the body.”
Of all the things he might’ve said, that wasn’t what I’d expected to hear. It cemented my position on his law-enforcement training. “We have to put her in something. We can’t take her out of here like this.”
“I don’t know if we have time.” He’d already started using his hands to move the sand away from the rest of Miss Elizabeth’s body. I could see she was wearing her favorite black dress with the little pink embroidered hearts on it.
The reality of it hit me like a rock. First the pink rhinestone heart pin I’d found, half buried in the sand on the other side of the island. Now, this. This is what I saw when I tried to help Miss Mildred find her watch. I’d seen the watch on her sister’s arm with the black dress behind it. I felt lightheaded and nauseated. The very idea that I’d found a watch on a dead woman’s arm was unbearable.
“Are you all right?” Kevin looked intently into my face. He’d stopped moving the sand and put his hand on my arm. “Take a deep breath. You look like you’re going to faint. Put your head down.”
And I’d been worried about him! I put my head down and took a deep breath. There wasn’t time for me to panic. Everything else had to wait until we could move Miss Elizabeth. The water was still rising toward the dunes. “We should call someone. This is too much for us to do alone.”
“Look at the water. There’s no time.” He began throwing the sand away from the body, revealing more of her dress and legs.
I caught a glimpse of one of the Fourth of July banners being blown by the wind. “Let me grab that sign. We can wrap her in it.”
I ran up the path, which by now was mostly underwater. Mary Lou and her friends had their arms full of turtle eggs and were trying to get off the beach. It was just as well they were leaving. I didn’t know if the banner would cover all of Miss Elizabeth or not.
I pushed against the wind and took out my cell phone. But there was no service. Why was it that there was never service when you really needed it? I continued across the parking lot where visitors could find free beach access, chasing the red, white and blue banner. I finally grabbed it with both hands and then fell on it so it couldn’t blow away again. Still struggling against the wind, I scrunched the banner into a ball and hurried back to where I’d left Kevin.
But he was already coming out of the sea oats with Miss Elizabeth in his arms. Her poor, dead face had a look of terror on it that I’d hoped never to see outside a movie theater. There was a large red gash in her forehead. Is that what killed her? Who could do such a terrible thing?
“Put her down,” I screamed at Kevin. “We have to wrap her in this. I don’t want everyone to see her this way.”
“We have to get away from the beach,” he yelled back. “Bring the banner. We’ll do it over here in the parking lot.”
I’d never been hysterical, but I could feel a torrent of wild emotions flooding through me, like the ocean flooding the beach. I wanted to scream and rip at my hair. My hands shook as I fought to maintain my self-control. Hold on for Miss Elizabeth’s sake. I’d have to fall apart later. It couldn’t be right now.
I put the banner down in the parking lot and tried to hold it in place long enough for Kevin to lay Miss Elizabeth on it. It was an almost impossible task as the wind kept threatening to rip it from my hands.
He finally put her wet, sandy body down. The banner would barely cover her face this way. I looked at him, not knowing what to do next. I’d run out of ideas.
He stripped off his poncho and tenderly laid it over Miss Elizabeth’s face. If I hadn’t already been sobbing at the time, I would have broken down at that gesture of human understanding. I wanted to say thank you, but there wasn’t time. The water was coming up fast toward the parking lot. My gratitude would have to wait, along with all of my questions.
He stooped down and lifted Miss Elizabeth again. The rain was coming down so hard we could barely see as we crossed the street. Water was ankle deep on the blacktop and was punctuated by floating debris that was washing away with the storm.
I kept glancing at Miss Elizabeth’s arm sticking out from under the poncho and the banner. It was her watch arm, a dread reminder of what I’d seen from her sister. I couldn’t think about what that meant right now. Instead, I focused on pushing myself forward as Kevin and I slogged through the water. Finally, we reached Duck Road. We crossed the empty street and walked up the ramp to town hall. Every shop, every home, was shuttered against the storm. At least no one would see her this way.
I kicked open the door when we reached the office. Despite the overhang that protected the shops, rain propelled us inside, out of the storm. Nancy got up from her desk, took one look at Kevin and sat back down. She didn’t say anything, just stared at the terrible burden he held.
He dropped to his knees and put Miss Elizabeth on the green and white tile floor we’d had installed last year. I could see he was exhausted. In normal conditions, it was a short walk from the ocean-side beach to the sound. These conditions had been anything but normal or easy.
“There’s no phone service—at least I don’t have any,” I told him. “I tried to call Chief Michaels from my cell. We need to get the medical examiner out here. Maybe the State Bureau of Investigation too. I can’t even remember the last time someone was killed here.”
“I have the radio,” Nancy said. “I could call the chief.”