The Lost Bones (Widow's Island #8)(30)

A minute later Henry stumbled up the shore, pulling Rich by his arms. Cate felt ground under her feet and stood, her wet clothes weighing a thousand pounds. She pushed out of the water and caught up with Henry. She grabbed one of the unconscious man’s arms and helped drag him out of reach of the waves.

“Is he breathing?” she asked, panting hard herself.

Henry didn’t answer. Water ran down his face, dripping from his hair as he focused on his patient. He shook Rich, shouting his name, and felt for a pulse at his neck. Cate pressed her fingers against the other side. She felt nothing.

Henry tilted Rich’s head, lifted his jaw, and administered two rescue breaths. Cate watched the prone man’s chest rise from the force of Henry’s breaths. Henry paused, his gaze locked on Rich’s chest as they both waited for it to rise on its own. Cate’s brain spun as she tried to remember the proper steps for CPR. Her mind was blank.

“Thirty chest compressions,” said Henry, moving to position his arms over Rich’s chest. “Then two breaths.” He started compressions, and Cate supported Rich’s jaw, readying herself to give the breaths. She glanced back at the boat. Ashlee was sitting upright, and Tessa stood beside her, one hand on the pregnant woman’s shoulder.

It doesn’t look like she’s in active labor.

Logan was speaking into the boat’s communication system and had a cell phone at his ear. Tessa gave Cate a thumbs-up. Cate raised a hand, uncertain of what she was acknowledging.

Ashlee must be okay.

“Now,” ordered Henry, pulling her attention from the boat.

Cate gave two breaths. Rich’s lips were cold, the temperature of the ocean.

Henry resumed compressions, and Cate stared at the unconscious man’s face, willing him to give some sign of recovery. She saw nothing, his body jolting in time with Henry’s hands.

How long will we have to do this?

Raw determination filled Henry’s face as he pumped Rich’s chest.

Cate held her breath, dread curling in her stomach. She knew Henry wouldn’t stop until he physically couldn’t go on. And then she would take over.

I don’t think it’s going to help.

It didn’t.





12


Four days later


Cate took another sip of wine and stretched out her legs. She and Henry relaxed on a blanket in a corner of the park, a small distance away from all the other concertgoers attending the final event of the Widow’s Day celebration. There had been a kid’s parade through North Sound, and a small carnival was still underway at the other end of the park. Deputy Bruce Taylor had just taken the concert stage and introduced his two sisters.

“Julie said the whole family is musical.” Henry pared a piece of parmesan cheese and prosciutto from the little charcuterie board they’d bought at a food booth and popped it in his mouth. “I guess there’s another brother too.”

“Weird how it can run in families,” said Cate, smearing apricot jam on a slice of cheese. She’d had only a third of her glass of wine but could already feel it in her toes.

Bruce sat down at the piano, and his sisters started to sing.

Goose bumps rose on Cate’s skin. “My Lord,” she mumbled with her mouth full of cheese. “They’re amazing.”

Bruce added his voice to the duo, and Cate wished she could turn up the volume. She and Henry listened in stunned silence.

The two of them needed this relaxation. Nothing had felt right since Rich Causey had died on the shore of the tiny empty island.

Henry had been relentless with the CPR that day. He and Cate had traded off for nearly an hour without a response from the man. They’d reluctantly stopped and sat with the body on the beach until Tessa and Logan had returned from rushing Ashlee to the hospital on Vancouver Island, crossing the Canadian border to get her to the closest medical center.

Ashlee had a baby girl that night. Both mother and daughter were healthy and had already returned to Oregon, to the relief of Ashlee’s parents.

Cate visited her in the hospital and got to hold the tiny red-haired girl. Ashlee cried as she told Cate about trying to get away from Rich Causey. “He rarely let me out of his sight,” Ashlee said. “Sometimes he’d even tie me to a tree if he was going to be gone for a long period of time. The other women on the island were nice, but no one dared interfere.”

“How did you get the package with Jade’s bone to the store?” Cate asked.

“Rich took me with him that one time. He’d been selling my jewelry there for a while but took all the credit for creating it. I buttered up his ego by praising him for selling the work, and then I told him it was a lifelong dream to actually see my pieces in a store. He’d made me promise to not say a word to anyone while we were on the island.” Ashlee looked wistful. “It was such a pretty little store, and I did love the way she’d arranged my pieces. I nearly cried when I saw it. I’d hoped to sneak the package into a mail drop once we were on the island, but he got angry about something, and I had to leave the package on the counter in the store before he noticed.” She gave a small smile. “Most of my clothes didn’t fit, so I was wearing a giant shirt of his. It was perfect for hiding things alongside my bulging stomach.”

“He would have been furious if he’d known what you did,” Cate said.