by Diane Hoh
She spotted Beak among the volunteers, bending and stooping, his lanky form lifting metal and tossing it aside, as he tried to stay out of the way of the paramedics. His thin face was flushed with exertion and distress.
“There’s Beak,” she told Gina, nodding toward their friend. She was relieved that he hadn’t been a passenger on The Devil’s Elbow when it crashed. It was his favorite ride.
Gina simply nodded when Tess mentioned Beak. She was still trying to take in the nightmare around her.
“I’m going with Beecham,” Sam told Tess, handing her his earphones. “You stay here with Giambone. And stay out of the way.”
Ordinarily, Tess’s temper would have flared at the command. But nothing tonight was ordinary. Besides, she figured, in this case Sam was probably right. She and Gina could be the most useful by helping to move the crowd back. The policemen weren’t having much luck getting onlookers out of the way.
Tess and Gina spent most of the next hour cajoling bystanders, gradually talking them into moving back from the accident scene, leaving the site open for emergency personnel and the cleanup crew.
When the last of the ambulances had departed, sirens wailing mournfully, and the crowd had wandered off, Tess and Gina collapsed to sitting positions, their backs against a cotton-candy booth left untouched by the disaster. Tess’s thin face and Gina’s round one were totally devoid of color, their eyes full of pain and shock. Doss and Sam joined them, their own faces and clothes dirty. Sam had a small cut on one hand. They sank down beside the girls and rested their heads against the booth.
Tess’s brother, Guy Joe, a tall, broad-shouldered boy with a square, handsome face and deep gray eyes, arrived, his denim cutoffs smeared with grease from his cleanup efforts. Trailing along behind him was Sam’s sister Candace, a pale, thin, blonde girl. Candace never wore jeans, and the pink dress she was wearing now was much too large for her, billowing around her like a tent. A heavy hand with an eyebrow pencil made her look far more ferocious than she really was. Tess couldn’t understand why Mrs. Oliver, who was tall, beautiful, and very elegant, never took the time to teach her own daughter about clothes and makeup. But tonight, that didn’t seem very important.
“Well, at least you weren’t on that thing when it went,” Guy Joe said to Tess, patting her shoulder awkwardly as he slid to a sitting position beside her. “When I saw the bulletin on television, I thought of you. I know this place is your favorite hangout.”
“Guy Joe,” Tess said stiffly, still uncomfortable around the brother who had “deserted” her by staying with their father after the separation, “you know I never go near the roller coaster. Haven’t since the first time I ever rode it.”
“According to the bulletin,” her brother argued, running his fingers through his unruly hair, “you didn’t have to be on the thing to get clobbered. For all I knew, you could have been creamed by one of the falling cars.”
Tess knew he was right. One elderly woman had been tossed into a food booth. Two little boys had been slashed by flying metal chunks, and at least half a dozen other people walking along The Boardwalk at the time of the accident had been sent to the Santa Luisa Medical Center.
“Thanks for worrying about me,” she said politely, “but I’m fine.”
A tall, big-boned, very pretty girl with thick, blonde shoulder-length hair ran up to them. Dressed in beige silk slacks over a red leotard, she carried her large frame gracefully, moving with quick, light steps across The Boardwalk. When she reached the group, she sank into a crouch beside Gina. Tess noticed that she was careful not to let her silk pants touch the wood, gently bunching them slightly at the knees.
“Isn’t this just awful?” the girl breathed, her blue eyes wide. “I can’t believe it! My daddy’s going to have a stroke! Something like this happening on his beloved boardwalk, it’s just terrible! Has anybody seen my little brother?”
The girl was Trudy Slaughter, a classmate of Tess and Gina’s, and the “daddy” she spoke of was chairman of the board of directors that ran The Boardwalk. Trudy was a popular, powerful force at Santa Luisa High, having held at least once, every available office. Tess hadn’t voted for her since the day she saw Trudy lose her temper in the school parking lot over an English grade lower than the one she’d been expecting. Seeing Trudy violently ripping at sheets of paper and slamming her books against the windshield of a car had not been a pretty sight. It had given Tess chills, and she knew she’d seen a side of Trudy that not many other people had witnessed.
“I saw Tommy,” Gina said, referring to the brother Trudy had asked about. “He’s fine. He’s with one of Beak’s kid sisters. They weren’t hurt, either.”
“I was at ballet class,” Trudy breathed, “when we all heard this horrible sound. Debbie Wooster thought it was an earthquake and ran screaming into the bathroom. But Madame Souska said it wasn’t, because the chandelier wasn’t shaking. She let us turn on the radio and that’s how we heard. We were excused from practice, can you believe that? She never excuses us for anything!” Trudy’s chest heaved in a heavy sigh. “I suppose that means we’ll have to make it up another time.”
“Poor thing,” Tess said sarcastically, too tired to ignore Trudy’s callousness. “And yes, we’re all fine, thanks for asking.”
Trudy blushed. “Well, I can see that! I heard about Dade, though. I can’t believe it. How did it happen, anyway?”
“No one knows,” Guy Joe said wearily. “Maybe a loose rail.”
“I saw someone,” Tess said quietly.
Everyone’s eyes focused on her. But she could tell that her words hadn’t registered. “Under The Devil’s Elbow,” she added, flushing because she hated being the center of attention, and already wishing she hadn’t said anything. “Right after the accident. Running away.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Trudy said anxiously. “Who was it?”
“You saw someone?” Sam asked quietly, leaning forward to peer into Tess’s face. “Running away?”
Tess nodded. “I think so. It was awfully dark and I couldn’t see very well. But there was something …” A lack of conviction forced her words to trail off weakly.
No one said anything for a moment. They think I imagined it, she thought resentfully. I never should have said anything.
Then Doss surprised her by asking calmly, “Who did it look like, Tess? Was it someone we know?” He seemed to be assuming that she hadn’t imagined the shadow.
Sending him a grateful glance, she admitted reluctantly, “No, not really. But I thought … well, I thought there was something familiar about the way it moved.”
“The way what moved?” Beak asked as he joined them. Sweat from his work with the cleanup crew streaked his thin, intense face. Swiping at it with the sleeve of his navy blue sweatshirt, he sank down beside Gina.
“Tess thinks she saw someone running away from The Devil’s Elbow,” Gina told him. Although she said thinks, Tess felt that Gina, too, believed her, and she sent her best friend a warm smile.
“Running away?” Beak asked, leaning back against the booth. “Why would someone be running away? Are you hinting that you think someone did something to The Devil’s Elbow? Deliberately caused the accident?”
That thought hadn’t even crossed Tess’s mind. Wide-eyed she stared at Beak. “No, I …”
Sam interrupted her. “Maybe you should talk to the police. Tell them what you saw.”
Tess looked doubtful. What could she possibly tell them? That she’d seen a shadow? Wouldn’t they laugh at her?
“Relax,” Doss said lazily. “Chalmers will look into it. That’s his job. If he finds even a hint of tampering, then Tess can go to him with what she saw.”
Sam laughed. “Chalmers? Our distinguished police chief? He couldn’t find his own nose without a mirror. Besides, the board got him elected in the first place, to make sure their precious Boardwalk was protected. If he does find anything, whether it was faulty equipment or actual tampering, he’s not going
to announce it publicly. Either way, it’d be bad for business.”
“Oh, Sam,” Gina scolded, “you’re so cynical! The board wouldn’t hide something like that. And the police would never cover it up.”
Sam shrugged. “We’ll see.”
An uncomfortable silence followed. Then Tess asked, “Anyone know who called the paramedics?” Maybe it had been the shadow she’d seen. That would explain why it had been there and she could forget about it.
Doss nodded. “Martha did,” he said, referring to an elderly woman who ran the shooting gallery. “I never knew she could move so fast. The minute that thing took off, Martha raced for the nearest phone.”
Of course, Tess told herself. Because that was what you did in an emergency. You ran toward the phone, not away from it.
Unless you weren’t interested in getting help.
Unless you were only interested in running away. Because you had good reason to run away.
Telling herself she was letting her imagination do some pretty fancy running, Tess pushed all thought of the shadow out of her tired, aching mind. All she wanted to do now was go home and crawl under the covers and sleep, and forget about this dreadful, horrible night.
As if it could ever be forgotten!
Chapter 4
I FOUND IT IN the attic. I was looking for ski clothes. Found no ski clothes. Found the book, instead. A journal. A little red book, hidden in the bottom of an old trunk. The name on the front, in cheap gold letters, was LILA O’HARE.
O’Hare? No O’Hares in this family. None in Santa Luisa, for that matter.
I read that journal. Took me all day, but I read it. Every page. Hot day, stuffy attic with its tiny windows and sloping walls and smells of cedar and mothballs. Sat there all day, sweating and reading.
Glad I read it. Even though it changed everything. When I finished reading it, I knew that nothing would ever be the same again.
But I’m not sorry I read it.
The journal was written by this woman named Lila, who was married to a guy named Tully O’Hare who owned The Boardwalk. Reading that seemed weird, because I’d never thought about who owned The Boardwalk before my father and his friends bought it. Now I knew. Someone named Tully O’Hare.
Lila and Tully ran The Boardwalk together. Very happy, the O’Hares were. Pretty boring stuff, but I read it anyway. Nothing better to do.
Then suddenly the entries changed.
I wish someone could help us. We can’t pay the back taxes on The Boardwalk. Tully’s worried sick. He’s afraid we’re going to lose everything.
What would we do without The Boardwalk? It’s our whole life. Tully’s granddaddy built it and it’s all we’ve got. I don’t know what Tully will do if it’s taken away from us.
We were both so excited about the baby coming. We’ve waited and hoped for so long. Now Tully is afraid we won’t be able to take care of our child.
He’s going to the bank to see Buddy about a loan.
Maybe that will save us.
Who was Buddy? Was there a banker in town named Buddy? Not that I knew of.
Turns out, there were a lot of things I didn’t know.
Chapter 5
WHEN TESS ANNOUNCED THAT she was going home, Sam insisted on walking her to the parking lot. Almost empty now, it seemed strangely eerie and quiet. As uncomfortable as she felt around Sam after their fight earlier in the week, she was glad she wasn’t alone.
Lights began flickering off at The Boardwalk. Someone had made the decision to close early. Good idea. Tess shuddered. Who could have a good time there tonight?
Sam moved forward to stand beside her. A breeze off the ocean picked up stray strands of his dark, wavy hair and lifted them gently. “So, Shelley take off yet?” he asked brusquely.
Oh, no. Were they going to have that discussion again? Their argument had been about Shelley. When Sam found out that Shelley was leaving for Europe, he’d made some snide remarks about her abilities as a parent. Because Shelley had wanted Tess when no one else seemed to, Tess had defended her stepmother. The argument had escalated, and Sam had left her house in a fury. She didn’t want to get into that again, especially not when she was feeling so shocked and shaken.
“Yes,” she mumbled, turning toward her little blue car, “she’s gone. Left around five o’clock.” Would Shelley have gone if she’d known about The Devil’s Elbow? Probably.
“Then I’ll drive you home,” Sam said in that commanding voice she hated. “You can come back and pick up your car tomorrow.”
It would be nice, when she was feeling so sick inside, to let Sam take over. But that would just reinforce his notion that she needed looking after. Even though sometimes—like that night—she wouldn’t have minded letting him decide things for her, she certainly wouldn’t admit that to him. If he wanted someone to take care of, let him buy a puppy!
“I can drive myself home, thank you very much,” she said, her voice as cool as the night air.
“You are so stubborn!” he said heatedly, throwing his hands up in the air in disgust. “You never give an inch!”
That seemed funny to Tess and she almost laughed. She’d been giving inches all of her life. People told her what to do and she did it, because it was easier than arguing. If she was arguing now, with Sam, maybe it was because doing what people told her hadn’t worked out so well. Just when she’d thought she was finally going to have a happy family, like other people, her father had said, “We’re divorcing,” and that was that.
So if she’d been giving Sam a hard time lately, maybe it was because she was getting just a little tired of having other people make her decisions for her.
“I’m going home,” she said flatly, opening the door of her car.
“Fine! Great! You do that!” And he stalked away, broad shoulders jerking in anger with each stride.
Watching him go, she was unpleasantly surprised to discover that she was analyzing his walk, comparing it to the movements of the figure she’d seen running away from The Boardwalk. Afraid that he would turn suddenly and see her watching him, she ducked into her car and settled behind the wheel. If Sam had been running under The Devil’s Elbow, he would have said so when she’d mentioned what she’d seen. He would have said casually, “Oh, that was me. That’s the route I take when I jog.” And that would have been the end of it. She would have put the figure out of her mind completely.
But Sam hadn’t said that. So it hadn’t been him.
Then who was it? And why had they run away, instead of rushing to The Boardwalk to help?
Maybe the person had helped out. It suddenly occurred to Tess, as she headed up the hill toward home, that the figure she’d seen could easily have joined the crowd of volunteers without her knowing it. After all, she hadn’t recognized the person, so how could she say whether or not they had returned to the accident and pitched in?
She’d been jumping to conclusions, as usual. She had no real reason to believe sinister things about that figure. Might as well put it out of her mind right now.
She had always loved the drive home, up the hill. Random house lights scattered throughout the woods on both sides of the road eased the darkness, like candlelight in a dark room. It had always seemed peaceful, even romantic.
But not tonight. Not with those terrible screams echoing in her ears.
At the top of the hill, she took a sharp right turn into the long, tree-lined driveway leading to The Shadows, the exclusive condominium complex she and Shelley called home now. Their unit was all the way at the back, overlooking a lush green valley. Tess loved the daytime view, but at night it seemed isolated and lonely. This would be her first night alone in the house and she wasn’t looking forward to it. Shelley’s timing was the worst! Why did she have to leave for Europe on the very night that the worst disaster in Santa Luisa’s history had taken place?
The patio beside their carport was surrounded on three sides by tall, thick oleander bushes, their narrow green leaves swaying in the night bree
ze. A small, black, metal gate separated the carport from the patio, which sat directly outside the condo’s kitchen. Tess hurried from the car to the back door, unlocked it and went inside, quickly flipping on the kitchen light switch as she entered the house.
It seemed so empty. No Shelley fixing a drink in the kitchen, no loud jazz music blasting through the rooms, no coat, purse, car keys, scarf, magazines, and newspaper left in a trail behind Shelley as she advanced from one room to another.
Tess swallowed hard. Even when Shelley was in town, she wasn’t home that many evenings. What was so different about tonight?
What was different was that something atrocious had happened and Tess wanted someone there to share her pain.
While flooding the kitchen with light made the room feel a bit more friendly, it also seemed to magnify the wide, gaping blackness of the big picture windows over the double sink and the French doors opposite the breakfast nook. Shelley didn’t believe in curtains or drapes. She said she liked to “bring the outdoors in,” and usually added, “where it belongs,” which Tess found funny.
It didn’t seem the least bit funny tonight. Tess couldn’t have said why, but the bare, black windows left her feeling raw and exposed.
When the phone shrilled, she jumped, banging her elbow on the kitchen counter and dropping her purse. Her lipstick fell out and rolled under the oval wooden table in the breakfast nook.
It was Gina calling. “Just wanted to make sure you got home in one piece. You seemed pretty rattled.”
Tess laughed nervously. “I guess I still am, a little. Aren’t you?”
“I feel just horrible. All those people hurt. Poor Joey! And Sheree! And then there’s Dade …”
They both fell silent. Then Gina said, “Are you all alone or is Sam playing bodyguard? I saw him leave with you.”
Tess switched on the breakfast nook chandelier, a hanging fixture with lights shaped like candles ensconced in copper holders. Shelley had left the sink full of dishes, as always. Tess hooked the black rubber phone grip over her shoulder and began loading the dishwasher as she talked. “I’m alone. Shelley’s off to sunny Italy. And I didn’t feel like dealing with Sam tonight.” She paused, before adding seriously, “Gina, hasn’t The Boardwalk been in business for about a hundred years?”