Author’s Note: I did not mean for this series to turn out like, well, a full series … but here we are. Thank you to everyone who’s still with me on this angsty little journey behind the scenes of Veil of Secrets. As the book is wrapping up, so is this series … and hopefully Marin will be able to clean up her mess.
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After DA Hornby exposed Marin’s permiscuous sex life in front of judge, jury and half of Birchport, Marin would have expected the trial to go by faster. How much worse could it get now? But instead the minutes on the clock ticked away unbearably slow as Marin fidgeted in her seat behind Kate and beside Flynn, her mind wandering during Hornby’s and Grant’s closing statements. Every few moments she would look back over her shoulder and recite a silent prayer that Naomi had returned, but each time she turned to find the same spot along the back wall still remaining empty.
Flynn kept stealing glances towards her as she squirmed in her seat, finally reaching a hand over and placing it on top of hers to steady her. Her eyes flitted to his, taken off guard at the sudden comforting gesture. He gave her a sly smirk, his blue eyes sparkling at her with affection. She nodded a sincere thank you, patting his hand with her own before pulling away from his contact and crossing her arms across her chest. What a huge fucking mess I’ve made here, she lectured herself internally. I have to fix this … but first we have to help Kate. At the end of the day, Kate was the whole reason she was here and Marin was not going to let her down.
Once Judge Winters dismissed everyone, the guard allowed Kate a few minutes to talk with her brother and Marin before he had to drag her back to jail. Marin’s heart broke as she saw the broken expression plastered on Kate’s face, a look of exasperation and defeat. Flynn simply wrapped his strong arms around her, cradling her head against his shoulder while she released a few stray tears. “I should be on my honeymoon today … how did this all happen?” she murmured.
Marin rubbed her hand reassuringly along Kate’s back, meeting her eyes in a heartfelt stare. “We’re gonna figure this out, Kate. It doesn’t add up, and we are not going to give up until we figure out who’s actually behind all this.” She gave Kate her best attempt at a smile, a weak tug at the sides of her lips. “We won’t abandon you, Kate.”
“Ahem.” The guard cleared his throat behind Kate. “Miss O’Malley, I need to escort you to the van now.”
Kate turned her head to look at him, nodding slowly. She wrapped her arms around Flynn’s neck tightly, giving him one last squeeze and quick peck on the cheek before turning to Marin. Kate gave her an apologetic look, grasping Marin’s hand in hers before pulling her into a hug. “Thank you for having faith in me, Marin.” Marin hugged her back, wishing she had more to go on than wishful promises to help her friend.
“Hey, we’ll come visit you as soon as they let us, K. Pretty soon you’ll be telling them to turn us away at the door you’ll be so tired of us.” Flynn patted her on the back, a low chuckle rumbling in his throat.
Kate leaned back to look at him, a genuine smile on her face. “You’re probably right … you always did get on my nerves!” She gave them one last nod before turning to the guard.
Marin and Flynn didn’t speak, just gave each other a quick look of understanding before turning to leave-
“Wait!” They heard Kate calling to them, her voice laced with trepidation. They hurried to her side as the guard gripped her by the arm, attempting to finish his original task of leading her out of the building. Kate’s eyes were wide as she spoke. “I just remembered something … last night, I dreamt about the cabin, about the kidnapping. It’s all so fuzzy, but I do recall something odd. I thought it might just be my imagination playing tricks on me in my sleep … but I think it was real.” She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly to control her excited energy. “I remember … a red octopus.” Marin and Flynn both looked at her in confusion, then at each other as they mulled it over.
“Miss O’Malley, we really must be going.” The guard pulled Kate a few more inches towards the exit, despite her attempt to stay with her companions.
“I know, it sounds crazy! But I swear it was real … sorry I don’t remember anything else, but hopefully that will help.” Kate spoke with enthusiasm as she was gently dragged away.
Flynn watched helplessly as the guard led his sister out the door, his fists balled at his sides and jaw clenched in frustration. After a few moments of staring at the empty doorframe, he finally turned to Marin beside him. “A red octopus … I think my sister is losing her marbles.”
Marin’s mind churned through Kate’s clue and her encounters the past few days in Birchport. “I agree it sounds a little odd …” she smirked at him, “But did you already forget your good friend at Shipwreck Sally’s?” Flynn’s brows furrowed, a muddled expression spread across his face. “Nikolai … he has a tattoo of a red octopus on his arm.”
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After a brief pow wow with Flynn and Grant outside the courthouse, laying out the facts they had so far, the trio was convinced that investigating Nikolai was their best chance to try and clear Kate’s name. Nikolai was always so fond of Kate, had such hatred for the Sterlings … it almost made sense that these emotions had turned into an obsession. Could he have kidnapped Kate and murdered Tanner and Bryce? There were too many clues pointing in his direction to ignore at this point. However, if they were going to investigate a potential kidnapper/murderer, they would definitely need to pull out the big guns … or, at least, enlist help from someone with experience with them. Someone specially trained for interrogation and self-defense.
Marin stepped away from the two men, wanting some privacy while she made the difficult call. She rounded the corner of the courthouse, pacing the side of the brick building while she nervously searched for Naomi’s number. It didn’t take long to find at the top of her most recent calls. She pressed dial.
Ring ring, ring ring. Marin waited impatiently, holding her breath as she waited for Naomi to pick up. Ring ring, ring ring. The call went to voicemail. Shit, Marin cursed herself. She hung up the line and stared down at the blank screen of the phone. She inhaled deeply and released the breath steadily, then pressed dial again.
Ring ring. “Marin, what do you want?” Naomi answered the phone, her aggressive tone doing little to mask the hurt in her voice.
Marin was stunned silent for a minute, taken aback by this unfriendly version of Naomi. Not that she could blame her. “Naomi, please don’t hang up!” She blurted out. “I know you’re upset with me, but we need your help with Kate’s case.”
“I’m not upset with you, Marin … you’re a grown woman, you can sleep with whomever you want to. It’s not like you made me any promises.” Naomi paused, her voice choked up with emotion before she cleared her throat to continue. “I’m upset with myself for thinking that you felt the same way about me that I did about you.”
Naomi’s statement hit Marin like a punch in the gut. “I do feel the same! I just … I made a mistake with Flynn. I was confused.”
“Were you confused when you slept with me too?” Naomi spat out, no longer hiding the anger in her voice. “Or was I just your bi-curious experiment, Marin?”
Ouch. That one stung. “I’m sure I deserved that …” Marin responded calmly, the pang of guilt radiating through her body. I just need to tell her the truth, the whole truth. “Naomi … I know I told you I was nervous, that I’d never dated a woman before. And it’s true. But that day in the barn, with you … it just felt so right. Better than anything I could have ever imagined. And I don’t just mean the physical part, although that was pretty damn fantastic too.” She halted ineptly and heard a quiet chuckle from Naomi over the line. “What I mean is, I just feel this connection with you … you get me and I get you. And I’m sorry I wasn’t honest about Flynn, but I promise you he’s not the one that I want.”
Naomi was silent, mulling over Marin’s confession in her mind and trying her best to believe her. She wanted so badly to believe her. “Marin, I want to believe you … but, I think I just need more time. I told you, I’ve been burned so many times before …” She stopped in her tracks, putting back on her retired cop hat and pushing her emotions to the side. “Anyway, you said you needed my help with Kate. That’s more important than whatever this is with you and me.”
Marin sighed, relieved at the small victory but disappointed at the status of their relationship. But she agreed with Naomi, they should be focusing on Kate right now. “Right, so about that … we need your help. We’re going to the lighthouse to investigate Nikolai.”
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The trip out to the lighthouse had been an adventure, to say the least. Grant maneuvered his shiny new speed boat skillfully through the choppy waters, but the raging storm would have made the journey difficult for even the most experienced captains. But however bad the storm was outside, the tension inside the boat did little to comfort the group. After filling Naomi in on the latest clues from Kate and recalling the details of their interactions with Nikolai, an awkward silence hung over the boat like a soggy blanket. Naomi stared straight ahead out of the boat, avoiding eye contact with Marin and Flynn and remaining completely mute.
They pulled up to the shoreline, waves crashing against the boat and rain pounding down as the tall structure of the lighthouse loomed over the tiny peninsula. Naomi jumped off the boat and tied off to the shaky wooden dock while Grant did his best attempt to keep the boat steady. As soon as the boat was secure, Naomi and Grant hustled up the hill towards the lighthouse, Grant turning around to shout at his friends to follow. Marin made her way towards the edge of the boat, but Flynn grasped her by the arm and held her behind.
“I get the feeling that Naomi is mad at me … but I’m not sure why.” He yelled to her over the sound of crashing waves, his brow furrowed in confusion.
“She’s not mad … she’s upset. At me.” Marin confessed, shrugging her shoulders in acceptance. She glanced up towards the lighthouse where Grant and Naomi were trying to open the door. Naomi briefly looked back over her shoulder to the boat, her face dropping when she saw Flynn and Marin still swaying in the water. A pang of guilt radiated through Marin’s chest.
“I don’t understand … I thought you guys were friends?”
“We are … were … Look, right now is not the best time to be discussing this!” She scolded him, gesturing to the rocking boat and pounding rain. She needed to tell him, but now was not the time. “Come on, let’s go!” She pulled him behind her as she leapt off the boat, slipping on the wet dock when she landed. Flynn grasped her by the arm to steady her before they ran up the hill behind their companions.
The entry to the lighthouse was dark and dank, opening up to a large cylindrical structure 120 feet in the air and flanked around the perimeter by a spiral staircase that led all the way to the top. The group was quiet, exchanging a few muted whispers as they started their ascent up the stairs. Grant went first, followed by Marin, then Naomi and Flynn bringing up the rear. The wind howled through the interior of the building and shook the walls, causing the rickety wooden stairs to vibrate and creak underneath their feet. With one particularly strong gust of wind, Marin could swear she felt entire building sway … she pressed one hand to the exterior wall and gripped the flimsy railing on her left side, knuckles white as she grabbed on for dear life and slammed her eyes shut. She felt a hand gently rubbing her back before she recognized Naomi’s quiet whisper. “You’re okay, we’re almost there.” Marin turned to look back over her shoulder to find Naomi staring at her, the anger in her eyes replaced by compassion and concern. Marin smiled gratefully and nodded before beginning the climb again, suddenly filled with a new sense of gallantry.
About halfway up, the stairs opened to a slightly wider landing in front of a door. The door was ajar, the room behind it completely dark except for the occasional flicker of lightning. Grant looked back questioningly at his companions, who all nodded in agreement before he pressed the door open.
Grant fumbled his hand along the wall before finally feeling the light switch and flicking it upwards. One solitary lightbulb turned on, dangling from the ceiling and swaying along with the entire building in the tumultuous storm. It cast a bright light over the center of the room, although its beams left the corners still dark in the shadows. Marin’s stomach churned as she entered the room, immediately hit by the smell of garbage, liquor and body odor as she surveyed the untidy scene. Empty bottles of vodka lined the wall under the window and a few stray ones rolled under the table. Papers strewn about. She was pretty sure she saw a cockroach shimmy across the floorboards past the unmistakeable trail of ants under the desk, making a zig-zag line between empty food wrappers and chip bags.
The four began searching the room. Lots and lots of papers, but nothing unusual outside of the lone phone bill with a surprisingly long list of charges for a certain “Russian Beauties” 900 number. Grant was digging through a stack of files on a table in the corner when he released a victorious cry. “Found something!” He waved a folder to the others, a big “Sterlings” written across the front. They spread the papers across the sticky table-desk-dining room underneath the light.
Trade agreements, schedules, ship inventories … all including the Sterling company crest in the top right corner. When had Nikolai worked for the Sterlings? When Marin picked up a paper from the stack, a single aged photograph slipped from between the pages and fluttered to the table. Naomi picked it up, studying it before raising her eyebrows in recognition. She turned it around to show the others. It was Nikolai and Pierce and Margaret Sterling … standing outside on a beautiful day with their arms around each other and smiling. “What the- ???” Flynn muttered.
Suddenly they heard the thuds of heavy footsteps from somewhere above them in the lighthouse. Naomi slipped into full-on cop mode, putting her game face on and whispering commands. She set the picture down in the stack of papers. “Grant, grab the folder and papers – we’re taking them with us. Let’s go check out upstairs … I have a feeling we’re about to have the opportunity to ask Nikolai about these in person.” Her eyes danced between the other three investigators, pausing briefly on Marin’s. “I’ll go first. Keep your eyes peeled, we don’t know what we’re up against!”
The next few moments happened so quickly … Marin recalls Naomi leading them to the top of the stairs to the viewing room, barging in forcefully to find an extremely intoxicated Nikolai slumped against the wall. His eyes drooped and his face sank in remorse, mumbling on about something under the bed, regrets … he must have been delusional. And then Marin saw it, the glint of metal as Nikolai raised the gun and pointed it in her direction, causing her blood to run cold and her limbs to freeze in fear.
The gunshot echoed through the tiny room, Marin slammed her eyes shut as she waited for impact. But it never came. As she gradually peeled her eyes open, anticipating a rush of pain as her senses caught up with the adrenaline pumping through her body, instead she found Nikolai sliding down the wall in a pool of dark blood flowing out of his abdomen. Disoriented, Marin barely heard the yelling as Naomi and Flynn argued with someone behind her. Duffy. What was Duffy doing here? As she snapped back to awareness, she noticed the color draining from Nikolai’s face, his lips moving slightly in a low whisper. Right or wrong, her instincts kicked into overdrive and she knelt on the floor, barking out orders to Grant to remove his shirt and belt to help stop the bleeding.
Marin pressed the fabric of Grant’s shirt firmly against Nikolai’s belly, praying that the bleeding would slow under the pressure. He was muttering something softly, fading in and out of consiousness as he laid out on the floor. “I’m sorry …” he murmured. “Sorry for it all. Its all under the bed …” he repeated, over and over until his eyelids fluttered and he faded into unconciousness.
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Marin wasn’t sure how long she had been kneeling beside Nikolai when the paramedics came. She doesn’t remember how she got down the stairs, aside from the random mental flashback of her descent down the shaky wooden steps, Grant holding her upright with an arm around her waist and gripping her hand in his own. She remembers someone wrapping a blanket around her shoulders as she sat huddled on the cold floor of the ground level in the lighthouse, the crisp air from outside sending a chill down to her core as it dried the sticky, congealed blood on her hands. She placed her hands in front of her face and examined them, the unfamiliar blood-stained appendages looking more like an accessory from a horror movie rather than something that should be attached to her. Looking up she noticed Naomi watching her out of the corner of her eye as she spoke to one of the officers on the scene and then she felt herself start shaking, the chemical high she had been riding the past while slipping away as her emotions started to catch up with her. Before Marin could stop herself, she felt the moisture dripping down her cheeks as the tears brimmed over her eyelids and suddenly there she was … Naomi, kneeling on the ground with her as she sobbed, holding her tight against her chest and stroking her hair as she whispered to her. “It’s okay, I’m here …”
To be continued …