Sacrifice Island by Kristin Dearborn Read Free Book Online Page B

looked very young. He could tell she wasn’t, though, from the way she carried herself, and the more conservative cut of her clothes. Her T-shirt and capri pants were almost matronly by the standards of the bar.
    “Is this seat taken?” She pointed to the plastic chair next to him.
    “It is now. Please, sit.”
    “I’m Karen Heath.” She stuck out a warm, dry hand, calloused from work. They shook. Alex introduced himself.
    They danced through the customary “where are you from” conversation, he from New York, she from Minnesota. He discovered she worked for an NGO, trying to teach self-employed tour guides how they could conduct their business better for the tourists and better for the environment. She neared the end of her year here, and didn’t know where she might go next. Inevitably, she asked, “What do you do?”
    Alex had a lot of fun with this question. “I’m a research assistant on a book,” he said.
    “About what?”
    “Hauntings. For this book, I’ve been to a haunted forest in Alaska, a school in Connecticut, a castle in England, and now a haunted island here on Palawan.”
    “A haunted island? Where? Is that the one with the shrine?”
    “Yeah, out past Helicopter Island.”
    “Have you seen ghosts there?”
    “Not yet. We got in yesterday. Today we went out for a few hours…”
    “The morning doesn’t seem a very good time to see ghosts.”
    “It’s not. That’s why we did it. Wanted to get a lay of the land without any distractions.” Alex couldn’t help thinking of being left there, and little dead bearcat eyes.
    “We used to have a ghost in our house.” She leaned in as though she were confessing to killing a man.
    “Yeah?” Everyone had their own ghost story. It was a great way to pick up chicks.
    “A ghost cat. We didn’t have a cat, but all sorts of catlike things happened, stuff fell off high shelves, you know the sound when a cat startles and runs away really fast?”
    Alex could think of a handful of nonspectral reasons for this, from small earthquakes to a rat infestation, but he held his tongue.
    “Tell me more about the El Nido ghost,” she said.
    “You know…it’s not super pleasant. I’d rather not.” Alex didn’t mean to pique her curiosity; he honestly didn’t want to talk about it. He expected her to press him, but instead she simply sat back on her bar stool, and changed the subject.
    A Chinese woman, maybe twenty, appeared at the bar between them. She spoke in deliberate, heavily accented English. “Have you seen my brother Feng? He is Chinese, he is maybe eighteen? He wear a red shirt. I lost him last night.”
    They both said they hadn’t seen him, and apologized. The girl frowned. “Sometimes he drink too much. Thank you.”
    The woman made her rounds, and Alex noticed a lot of head shaking. No sign of Feng. Finally the woman had some luck with a couple of bikini-wearing blondes, one of whom pointed toward the door, then shrugged. The woman nodded, gave a slight bow, then followed the girl’s finger.
    He and Karen kept chatting. She was nice…but off. He couldn’t put his finger on it yet. He debated needling her, getting her talking about herself, but decided he might like to get to know her in a more honest way. It started to get late, and his thoughts strayed more and more to Jemma.
    “Um,” Karen asked shyly, “where are you staying?”
    Alex grinned. “Vista Breeze,” he said. She smiled at him, then reached out and took his hand. She squeezed it.
    Wow. Human contact. Alex tended to forget how much he missed it until he felt it.
    “Are you going back to the island tomorrow?” Karen asked.
    “I hope so…we’re having some trouble with our boatman.”
    “Well that’s no good. Tomorrow’s my day off. I’ll take you guys out if you want.”
    “Nah, we’ll make do.” He didn’t want to impose. Or endanger her. Though a little voice reminded him the biggest danger they faced yesterday was being stranded.
    “I’m out on