Chapter 35 #2
He and Grant stepped into the exam room. I stayed at the threshold with Madden, close enough to hear but not crowding Priya. Gabi moved to the side of the table, hand on the IV line, eyes sharp as a blade. Astrid stayed right by Priya’s side, one hand holding hers.
Carson pulled a small notebook out. Grant stayed quiet, posture unreadable, eyes doing the same quick, thorough scan Gabi had done earlier.
Carson asked the expected questions first. “Do you know what day it is? Do you know where you are? Can you tell me your full name?”
Priya answered. Gabi watched her face while she did it, watching for drift, for confusion, for dissociation.
Then Carson moved into the meat. “The last anyone remembers seeing you was at Home Port a little over a week ago. Can you pick up from that night?”
Priya swallowed. “I was working on reports after the latest beach observation. Headed for home sometime around one-thirty, I think.”
“On foot or by car?” Carson asked.
“On foot. I don’t have a car on island. Sometimes I’ll use my bike, but I don’t like riding it at night.” She stopped, eyes darting toward Astrid. “I know I shouldn’t go by myself, but I’d done it before. And… well… I guess there’s always the time it’s not okay. Stupid.”
Astrid squeezed her hand. “Don’t think about that right now. What happened next?”
“Somebody jumped me.”
“Did you get a look at your attacker?” Carson asked.
Priya shook her head. “Not clearly. It was dark. I didn’t—” She closed her eyes, brow furrowing, trying to pull the memory back like it was something she could force. “I fought, but I didn’t get a good look. Then he knocked me out.”
“What do you remember happening next?” Grant prompted.
“I didn’t know where I was. I—there was time where I wasn’t… I don’t know. I remember being moved. I remember water sounds. A motor at one point.” She swallowed again, eyes shining. “I remember thinking maybe I was going to drown.”
Which could have meant anything. This was an island. Very few places weren’t near water. Had she been on a boat? Was that how Pool Guy had transported her? Had he been the one to transport her in the first place, or had there been someone else?
But neither Carson nor Grant asked any of those questions.
“Tell us about the man who held you captive,” Carson ordered.
“I knew him from the bar. We played pool a few times. Friendly enough, I thought.”
“You have a name?”
“Wes. I never got his last name.”
I spoke up. “White male. Early thirties. Lean, 5’10’, around 170. Sunburned skin. Longish dark hair. Tattoos on his right forearm—something in the American traditional style. Nautical themed. Olive green cargo pants. Gray henley. He came out alone. Locked up. Didn’t look around like he was afraid.”
“How did you even make the connection?” Carson asked.
I resisted the urge to say, Because I did your job. “Overheard him talking to his buddies about her at Home Port. Nothing overt, but his reactions struck me as odd, so we followed when he left and ended up out in the marshes.”
Carson’s jaw flexed once. “Where is this individual now?”
“Dunno. He headed back toward the marina. We didn’t engage when he left, electing to search the premises for Priya. When we found her, we brought her straight here.”
Carson didn’t like that. I saw it in the tension around his eyes. He swallowed it anyway.
“Miss Shah,” he said, voice tight, “did he harm you in any way?”
Priya shook her head quickly. “No. He brought water. Food. Not enough, but… he did.” Her voice went raw. “He didn’t let me go.”
“Did he threaten you?” Carson pressed.
Priya’s hands curled on the sheet. “He kept saying… I wasn’t safe. He kept saying if I left, someone would find me.”
“Someone,” Carson repeated.
Priya’s eyes squeezed shut. “I don’t know who. I didn’t see anyone else there. I just—” She looked at Gabi, pleading. “I just knew he believed it.”
Gabi kept her expression neutral, but her eyes softened a fraction. “You’re doing fine. Take your time.”
Carson scribbled a few more notes before shutting the notebook with a sharp motion like he’d reached the end of what he could get without pushing her into a spiral. “We’ll have more questions later. Right now, the priority is locating Wes and bringing him in. Where can we find you?”
Astrid stepped forward, voice steady. “She’s staying with me.”
Carson’s gaze snapped to her. “We’ll need—”
“She’s staying with me,” Astrid repeated, not louder, just firmer. “Her parents are arriving tomorrow. They’re flying in. This is the news I’m giving them.”
That landed. Even Carson couldn’t argue with optics and humanity at the same time, not in front of witnesses.
He gave a curt nod. “We’ll be in touch.”
He turned to Grant. “Let’s move.”
Grant’s eyes met mine as he stepped past. An acknowledgment—I see what you’re doing. I see what you found. I see that you didn’t bring her to the station first, and I’m filing that away.
Then he followed Carson out.
The door shut. The clinic quieted again.
Astrid exhaled shakily and turned to Gabi. “How soon can I take her home?”
Gabi checked the IV line and looked at Priya. “Give me a little more time for fluids and a snack. I want her steady on her feet first.”
Priya’s shoulders slumped with relief so sharp it almost looked like pain.
Madden’s hand stayed in mine, grip still tight, like she needed proof this was real.
And I stood there in the doorway, watching my sister do what she did best—protect the person in front of her without asking permission—while the chief of police hunted the man who’d kept Priya locked up.
We found her.
Now the island would do what it always did—close ranks, demand neat answers, try to make this one clean.
And nothing about it would be clean.