really vivid dream that felt one hundred percent real to you, but it wasn’t.”
“No,” she said. “If it wasn’t Jill, then it was someone who looked just like her. It wasn’t a dream. I know what dreams are, and that wasn’t one. It was real. Who’s Chip talking to?”
Bruce took Abigail’s arm, said, “Here, come with me. Talk with him. He’s the island detective.”
“He’s a police detective?”
“He’s a private detective,” Bruce said, and the man must have heard, because he turned toward them both, quickly reaching out his hand toward Abigail.
“I’m Bob Kaplan,” he said. “Chip here told me you had an interesting night.” He smiled at her, revealing very straight but very yellow teeth.
“I don’t know if it was interesting,” Abigail said. “It was pretty awful.”
“I know you’ve told Chip and Bruce all about it, but I’d love to hear what you saw.”
Abigail turned to Chip. “You talked with Jill?” she asked.
“I did. About twenty minutes ago. Alec, too.”
“I want to talk with her as well.”
Something crossed Chip’s eyes. They were odd to begin with, flat almost, and too far apart. “I just did,” he said. “And they’d just gotten to California. They were exhausted and needed to sleep.”
“It’s not that I don’t—”
“I’ll try them again a little later, when you’re around. I understand that it’ll help if you hear Jill’s voice.”
“Okay, thanks,” Abigail said, wondering if she should be more forceful, but something in Chip’s eyes was stopping her.
“How many women are on this island?” she asked, the words coming out at the same time as the thought.
“There are actually not too many at this particular moment,” Chip said, his voice scratchy. He cleared it. “There’s Mellie, who works here. I think you’ve met her.”
“I did. It wasn’t her.”
“I’ve spoken with her and she wasn’t out last night.”
“What about guests?” Abigail asked.
“Actually,” Chip said, “now that Jill has left the island, you’re our only female guest. Tomorrow there’s a whole group of female executives coming from Atlanta, but right now it’s just you.” He said it almost apologetically, as though he’d been working hard to ensure gender equity and he’d been failing.
“I just … I know it wasn’t a dream,” Abigail said, and all three men frowned sympathetically at her. She felt a surge of anger, but more than anything she wanted to get away, grab some coffee, and try to wake up a little.
“We did search the woods,” the detective said, pulling at the long lobe of his ear. “Of course, there are a lot of woods around here, but we didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. We can … I can organize another search later.”
“Never mind,” Abigail said. She just wanted the conversation to end. “Obviously, I had the world’s most realistic dream. Either that or I’m going crazy. Bruce, did you eat breakfast?”
“No, not yet,” he said. “I’ll go with you to get something.”
All she really wanted was coffee, but Bruce made her drink a large glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and then she picked at a blueberry muffin.
“I want to leave this island,” she said after Bruce had finished a second plate of eggs.
She completely expected him to immediately dismiss her, so she was surprised when he said, “I agree. We should leave. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a great idea.”
He looked crushed as he said the words, and Abigail said, “No, it’s not this place. It’s nice here. It’s just, I don’t think I can enjoy myself after what happened last night. I can’t just stay here and pretend I didn’t see anything, or pretend I really believe it was all a dream.”
“I totally get it. When do you want to leave?”
“Can we leave this afternoon?” she said.
He nodded. “Yes, I’ll arrange it.”
“You understand, don’t you?” Abigail said.
“I do. I get it.”
After walking back to the bunk, they both began to pack in silence, when Bruce said, “Oh, I forgot to talk with Chip, tell him to book the plane.”
“We could call Paul,” Abigail said, and she was moving toward the call button.
“No, let me run up and talk with Chip. Also, I was thinking about what we could do before the plane comes. Take a walk, maybe. Or go for a swim. It might feel good, get some of the tension out.”
“I want to look around the woods, Bruce,” Abigail said, her back to him. “I’m going out this morning. I need to see if there’s any sign of her, of the woman I saw.” She turned, expecting Bruce to look