Carolina Isle Read online

  “I didn’t kill any dog,” R.J. said softly, but in a voice that carried weight.

  Lassiter stepped closer to the bar and narrowed his eyes at R.J. “I’ve known John Nezbit all my life and I know that he has responsibilities that would weigh heavy on any man. He has a wife and six children, all of whom he struggles to support. That dog of his …” The man paused and swiped at his eyes as though wiping away a tear. “He raised that dog from a puppy and it was a companion to his children and to him. That dog guarded his family from danger and watched over them while they slept. That you mainland people would maliciously run over that dear animal again and again, all while hanging out of the windows and laughing, is beyond anything we’ve ever heard of about you people.”

  When David started to say something, Sara saw R.J. put his hand on the younger man’s arm. R.J. was watching the lawyer with narrowed eyes. Sara had seen that expression on R.J.’s face only twice before. Both times the recipient learned why R.J. Brompton was called “ruthless.”

  “That poor dog,” the lawyer said, then pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped his nose. He lifted his chin and gave a little smile, as though he was smiling through his tears. “Oh, well, all we can do is warn our children about you people and hope that the stories will make them stay at home where they belong. So! Now it’s done and you must pay the price.”

  “And how much would that be?” R.J. asked in a voice that made the hairs on Sara’s neck stand on end.

  “I have no idea,” Lassiter said, his eyebrows raised, as though R.J. had asked him an odd question. “That’s up to the judge to decide. How much is the safety of a man’s family worth?”

  “We’ll buy him a new dog,” David said. “A trained guard dog. A rottweiler. Or a Doberman.”

  “I guess if it had been one of his children you’d buy him a new kid too, right?” Lassiter said as he looked at Ariel, who was staring at him, her face flushed, her eyes wide. “Or maybe you’d let one of these beautiful young ladies have a baby with him to replace the child you killed.”

  David grabbed the bars. “Is that the case you’re going to present to the judge? That we might as well have killed a child?!”

  “When do we see the judge?” R.J. asked quickly.

  “Monday morning,” Lassiter answered.

  All four of them gasped. “Do you mean we have to spend three nights in here?” Sara asked. When she felt Ariel take her hand, Sara clung to it.

  R.J. moved closer to the bars. “If your case with Nezbit doesn’t start until Monday, that means you’re free to help us now. For a proper attorney’s fee, that is.”

  “Wish I could help you there, but I can’t,” Lassiter said, chewing on his gum. “You see, everything you brought with you, including that fancy car, has been impounded by the independent government of King’s Isle. The way things stand now, you only have the clothes on your backs, so how could you pay me?” Again, he looked at Ariel.

  “I can have money wired to you,” Sara said.

  “Wired?” Lassiter chuckled. “Like Western Union? You know what happened the last time I tried to help some tourists that were in a similar situation to yours? They gave me a check, but when they got back to the mainland, they canceled it. I called them, but you know what they did? They changed their phone number. When I went over to the mainland, I found out that they’d moved and left no forwarding address. Can you imagine that?”

  For a moment they were all silent as they thought about what he’d said. To get away from him—or was it to get away from King’s Isle?—people had had to leave their home.

  “If we could get you money, cash,” R.J. said, “could you get us out of here?”

  “Sure. It’s not like you can go anywhere, is it? There’s no ferry until Monday afternoon and no one in town is gonna help you. Not after what you did to Fenny’s poor dog.”

  “Fenny?” R.J. asked. “I thought his name was John.”

  “John Fenwick Nezbit. Good old name.” He looked at David with a sneer. “Of course it’s not like the names in Arundel that carry old money with them, is it?”

  For the first time, Ariel moved close to the bars and smiled at the lawyer. “Personally, I hate coffee,” she said in the sweetest voice anyone had ever heard. “And, Mr. Lassiter, I understand your reluctance to trust people who didn’t grow up on your beautiful island. Perhaps this would persuade you to help us.” She pulled off her ring and handed it to him. It was small but exquisite: a sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Sara guessed that the ring was worth at least twelve grand. Smiling in a gracious way, Ariel handed the ring through the bars to the lawyer.

  Sara held her breath. She could believe that he’d take the ring and they’d never see him again. But he smiled at Ariel, then yelled, “Ike!,” and a policeman came through the door and unlocked the cells. Sara knew she’d never heard anything in her life as good as the key turning in that lock!

  As soon as the door swung open, Sara wanted to run out into the sunshine, but R.J. and David held back, so Ariel and she stayed with them. “If you represent Nezbit, who represents us on Monday morning?” R.J. asked.

  The man looked David up and down, his upper lip sneering. “He looks like a lawyer in the making. Let him defend you. As for the rest of you, an apology and a fine should do it.”

  “What did Ariel do?” David asked.

  “Illegally parked,” the lawyer said quickly. “She was in a car that was parked on the courthouse steps. The whole town saw it. Well, that’s all the help I can give you for now. Just show up Monday morning.”

  “Where can we stay?” Ariel asked. “Sir. I mean …”

  He smiled at her. “There’s no hotel here, if that’s what you mean, but there is a boardinghouse. But the landlady wants money and yours is being kept for the moment.” He shrugged.

  “That’s illegal!” David said, taking a step toward the lawyer. Again R.J. caught his arm.

  “Let me give you some advice, Mr. Rich Kid from Snooty Arundel: Keep your mouth shut. Don’t ask any questions of anybody. You know how to mow a lawn? Paint a house? Then get a job and let people pay you in food and a bed. Come Monday morning, show up here at nine A.M. sharp and say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ to the judge. Pay your fine, then get off King’s Isle, and never come back. You understand me?”

  “Yes, sir, he does,” Ariel said quickly. “We all understand you and we’re going to do just what you said. Aren’t we, David?”

  Sara could see the conflict on David’s beautiful face. She doubted if he’d had much bad happen to him in his life, so he believed in the goodness of people. He probably believed that if you talked to a person and explained the situation, he’d see your point of view. Sara wanted to put her arms around him and comfort him.

  When she glanced at R.J., she could see that he was trying not to look at the lawyer with hostility as that would only hurt them. “Is there any possibility of a sentence other than a fine?” he asked the lawyer, who was at the door.

  When Lassiter turned, his face showed his gloating. He loves this! Sara thought. “Yeah, sure. You could get six to eight months in jail. Depends on the judge’s mood. And how good a case against you I present, of course.”

  “You can’t—” Sara began.

  Lassiter cut her off. “Can’t what, little New York missy?” His eyes were angry, full of hate. “Can’t send a rich man to jail? I can assure you, missy, that our courts here may be small, but they’re legal. For all that we protest, we pay taxes to your American government so we are, on paper, part of it. By the time your lawyers prepare a case and by the time our one and only judge who, by the way, is Fenny Nezbit’s uncle, has time to hear the case, your sentence will be up. Tell me, Mr. Rich and Powerful”—he looked at R.J.—“do you think we’re so stupid that we can’t delay a hearing a whole eight months and keep you in jail that entire time?”

  When R.J. didn’t answer, the lawyer left the jail area laughing.

  David, R.J., and Sara stood where they wer