Visualizing where the homes were placed and taking into account the distance they’d walked from the beach, he gauged it to be roughly over a half a mile. Reaper couldn’t be certain until he did a computer search of past category-level hurricanes in this area, but with a little work and a hell a lot of luck, they could pinpoint which hurricane could have caused this level of destruction—and when. Allerton plainly stated it was three years ago. If the bastard was lying, it wouldn’t be hard to prove, unless Allerton had no intention of letting them return to the States for fear they’d stir up questions.
Reaper stood looking at Ginny, doubting there would be one. Allerton didn’t leave witnesses. That was why Gavin believed he was so fixated on Ginny.
“Are you ready to go back to Sherguevil, or do you want to go on?”
With a silent answer, Ginny moved to her left, following a smaller trail that wasn’t as overgrown. Reaper noticed Ginny moving faster and faster over the ground as she barreled through the overgrowth. “Slow down.”
She let him catch up with her, her footsteps slowing until she came out into another clearing on a different side of the island. Reaper could see the ocean through the palm trees and through tropical foliage around them, there was rubble scattered around the long rectangular area.
“This used to be where we lived. Over there was the school.” Ginny went to a pile of rotted lumber. She heaved several of the dank, smelly boards away. “There isn’t even a scrap of paper here.”
“Careful. I don’t want you to get bitten by a bug or a snake. Let me.” Reaper started moving more of the boards, finding nothing more than bugs crawling out of their hiding places.
“Every single thing that belonged to the islanders and the school is gone. Everything. Why?”
“It’s been picked clean.”
Ginny closed her eyes in anguish at his words. Then they flew open. “Gavin …” Ginny looked around, even though she knew they were alone. “What if they aren’t dead?” She grabbed the front of his shirt to bunch it within her fists. “What if he moved them somewhere else and just told me they’re dead? Couldn’t that be a possibility?”
Reaper looked around the area. “It’s a possibility.” It was a possibility. However, though Reaper might have agreed with her out loud, inwardly, the thought was a dismal one. There had been too much care taken to remove every item from this once thriving community.
As they walked alongside the beach, they made their way back to the dock, allowing Reaper time to think. When they returned to the States, he could talk to some of his contacts from the military to see just what the government had on their records. Whatever it was, Reaper didn’t have great faith about it being the truth. More than likely, what had happened to the islanders had been swept under the rug. Recognizing some of Allerton’s guest who were sitting on the patio this morning, he felt that if they weren’t dead, they were either imprisoned in labor camps, or worse, used like him as sex slaves.
He kept the disgusting thought to himself as Ginny took off her shoes as they neared the broken dock and started walking barefoot on the pristine beach. Imitating Ginny, Reaper sat down on the sand to take off his shoes. He broke into a smile when Ginny ran toward the ocean, her feet making footprints in the wet sand, then ran back before the wave could reach her feet. Reaper remembered playing the same game when he was a child living near the ocean.
Twirling around, she gave him a bright smile. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Her smile dimming almost as soon as the words came out. Reaper cursed inwardly at the guilt-ridden expression that transformed her face from joy to sadness.
“Yes.” He had a lump the size of golf ball in his throat. All it took was one of her fucking smiles to pull him out of the nightmares of his past. If he found out that Allerton had kidnapped these islanders from this paradise, he would rip the fucker’s head off with his bare hands. The bastard didn’t have the right to take the light out of her smile.
The level of destruction in the village and the buildings on the outskirts had been too carefully gone through to have been a natural disaster. Whoever had done this had one purpose—to find what Ginny had taken, and they had needed the islanders gone to achieve that goal.
The demolition showed the wanton disregard for human life. If there was a God, at least He may be capable of some mercy for those who had committed this crime. Reaper, on the other hand, had no intention of showing any to whoever orchestrated this annihilation.