Read Online Experiment in Terror 03 Dead Sky Morning by Karina Halle - Free Book Online Page A

down?” Bill asked him suspiciously.
    “I have a good memory,” Dex said, tapping the side of his noggin.
    “Anchor off the northwest then. It’s only a short walk through the forest to the campsite. But if I were you, I’d think about staying on the boat the entire time. That island can play tricks on you–”
    “What kind of tricks?” I shot in guiltily.
    “Tricks… you know, like birdsong suddenly appearing or disappearing, or feisty raccoons. The bigger problem is that you’ll be constantly worried about your boat swaying free of its anchor hold in the middle of the night. The west side is the best, but at this time of year, your boat is never completely safe in those rip tides. There’s a reason why that island was chosen to house the people no one wanted. It was impossible for them to escape.”
    And it still is, I thought to myself. Dex looked at me sharply as if he shared that thought with me. I don’t even know where it came from. It was like someone else put it in my head.
    “Did you hear me?” Bill asked, getting slowly to his feet.
    I stared up at him dumbfounded, not sure what he had just said.
    “If you get in any trouble out there, you can phone me,” he repeated testily. “Just know your reception will be useless most of the time and the boat’s radio will be your only point of contact. In that case, I’d call the Coast Guard. If you can reach your boat, that is. It’s not much good if it’s out adrift in the middle of Haro Strait and yes, that does happen at least once every year.”
    “Can I use the Shining to contact you?” I asked. Dex smirked at that like I thought he would.
    “Shining?” Bill repeated. “Oh, I get it. You’re having a bit of fun, eh. Fair enough. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Approach from the west, make sure your anchor is secure, tie up your dingy securely at night and try and keep most food on the boat. Like I said, feisty raccoons.”
    He looked over at a white “parks and recreation” truck parked nearby. “Now I better get on with the rest of the day. Good luck, you two. You’ll need it.”
    Bill turned and walked off to his vehicle, leaving Dex and I sitting on the log with a wide distance between us.
    “ The Shining probably scared the hair off of him,” Dex said, watching him go. He focused his eyes on me. “Now you’ve got a pair of balls today.”
    I rolled my eyes quickly. “I just like to know what’s going on. What were you talking about while I was sent on a coffee run?”
    “I was just getting the lowdown.”
    “Which is?”
    Dex shrugged. “The history of the island.”
    “Which is?” I repeated.
    “I’m going to call my friend in Victoria, Zach, see if he can pick up some books from the library there. We don’t have time or the resources to get them here.”
    “So we’re basically heading into this blind? Heading to an island that you can only approach from the west and stay on the boat and beware of killer raccoons.”
    “Ah, so they are killer raccoons now. You better watch that imagination of yours; the results might not be so pretty.”
    I didn’t know what to say to that so I sipped on my latte, which had turned cold.
    “Just tell me what you know, so we are on the same page,” I said, my eyes imploring his.
    He scooched over closer to me and faced me with his right leg lying across the log and leaned forward, diverting my attention away from my coffee.
    “This is what I know,” he said, giving me all of his attention. “It was a remote colony for Chinese lepers. They pretty much all died there. It’s a provincial park now. It’s hard to get to but people still camp there. Some people report strange occurrences. Most people don’t stay overnight and when they do, they don’t go back. Given that fact and the fact that so many unhappy people died there, I have no doubt that the island must be haunted. And despite what Bill said, we’ll be staying overnight on the island so as to not miss a moment of