“Do the Stanfords still own the property?”
A troubled look crosses Ezra’s face. “I don’t know. The records just kind of disappeared. From what I can tell, I think they do. I just don’t know for sure.” He hesitates, as if considering his next words. “Do you think your mom might know?”
I flip through a couple more pages. “I could ask her, but now isn’t the best time.” My heart lodges in my throat as what little distance, what little respite, I’d felt, collapses. Should I tell him? I’ve only known Ezra for a few hours. He doesn’t want to hear about my problems, he has enough of his own.
“My dad left, and my mom’s kind of a mess over it.” Understatement of the century, but I can’t tell the truth. If I do, he’ll ask questions. Questions I don’t have answers for.
He squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry about that. My parents split up, too.”
I wave him off. If only that were all. “No, it’s all right, really. It’s just . . . I don’t know. I don’t want to bother her, not with everything else going on.” I don’t tell him how my life feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from, no matter how hard I blink.
“Wait.” Understanding dawns in his eyes. “Your dad was Greg Gillet? As in the guy from the newspaper?”
Crap. “Yeah. That’s us.”
“I’m sorry. If you want to talk, I’m here.”
The compassion in his eyes tells me he does understand, at least a little bit, what’s going on.
“If you want something to take your mind off things, I’d love the help.”
“Um, sure.” It’s not like I have anything better to do right now. Besides, this stuff’s pretty interesting.
“Awesome.” He flicks through the pages before handing it to me. “I found this one yesterday.”
April 17, 1861.
It was after dawn when I saw a vicious sea monster rolling in the waves. It reared its monstrous head to attack but fled when we fired our weapons.
“This one, too.”
September 7, 1865.
Just after darkness fell, a strange creature attacked our ship. It rocked our boat so badly we almost capsized. In the morning, we found four deep gouges along the hull.
“Holy crap,” I mutter. This can’t be real. Maybe the sailors hallucinated or got the location wrong. We don’t live in Scotland, so Nessie’s out.
Ezra chuckles. “Yeah, that’s what I thought the first time I saw those, too. Honestly, though, I think there’s more going on here than what you can see on the surface.”
“Yeah, right,” I scoff. “I’ve lived here all my life. If there were monsters here, I’d know about it.”
“Maybe.” Ezra gazes out the narrow window at the quiet street below. “But don’t small towns often harbor the biggest secrets?”
He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Misery Bay isn’t like that. What happened to Dad is one of those freak accidents. He probably fell and hit his head running away from whoever killed the reporter and got amnesia. He’ll wander into town, and then he’ll remember what happened, just wait. “How do you know all this?”
Ezra shrugs. “I don’t have Internet at my uncle’s house, so I come here instead.” A wry smile tugs his lips. “I never knew how much I took technology for granted until I didn’t have it anymore.”
I study him with new respect. “That’s pretty impressive. I don’t know how I’d live without my cell phone.”
He shrugs. “I’ve been planning to leave for a couple of years now, which is plenty long enough to get all the logistics figured out.”
I muse at how miserable his life must have been that he had been plotting his escape for such a long time.
He returns to his seat and gestures for me to take mine. “Okay. I told you why I was here; how about you tell me your real reason for being in the library. I don’t buy the book thing one bit.” He jerks his head at the kid’s book.
Heat rushes to my cheeks, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “The police said some pretty interesting things about my dad when they were questioning us this morning.”
He sits up in his chair, the look on his face telling me he wasn’t expecting that. “How so?”
I chew on my bottom lip and wonder how much I should tell him. “They said they ran a background check on him and his family, and they couldn’t find anything from before thirty years ago. I was wondering if there might be something here, like a natural disaster or something that would explain that.”
“Huh.” He smiles. “That actually makes sense. Here I thought you were following me.”
I let my hair fall in front of my face to hide my embarrassment.
“Let’s see what we can find.”
For the next couple of hours, we search Misery Bay’s archives from 1980 to 1995 but don’t find anything that might explain how Dad’s family appeared out of thin air.
“That is strange.” He closes the last book. “Did you know your grandparents on your father’s side very well?”
I rifle through my memory but only vague smiling faces greet me. “They died when I was pretty young. My sister never even got to meet them.” I shrug. “For some reason we weren’t that close to them. They moved to Alpena, which is about half an hour away, and lived in an old house outside of town.”
“I got it!” Ezra snaps his fingers, a speculative look lighting up his face. “Maybe they abducted him from another state and then moved here. How old would he have been?”
I try to do the math. “Thirty years ago? Ten, twelve, maybe a bit older. Don’t people mostly kidnap babies and little kids?”
“Yeah, but they could have been on the run the whole time and finally landed in Misery Bay. It should be easy enough to research.” He types furiously into a computer and pulls up nationwide cold cases from around the time my dad would have been born.
Ezra must be crazy. My grandparents weren’t kidnappers. People who steal kids are evil. I’m sure Dad would have somehow figured it out if they’d abducted him from somewhere.
“You can’t assume he has the right birthdate, either, so let’s check the surrounding years.” He types for a while longer but eventually stops and shakes his head. “Huh. There doesn’t seem to be anything that matches up.”
I feel a sinking sensation in my chest. This can’t be happening. There must be some logical explanation for it. Maybe things got lost when newspapers started using the Internet. It was over thirty years ago, after all.
Ezra puts his hand on mine. “That’s not to say it didn’t happen; maybe it wasn’t recorded.”
I drop my gaze to the table, the loss of my father clawing at me. “I just want him home. That’s all. He has to have some explanation for what happened, and . . .” A sob catches in the back of my throat and racks my shoulders.
“Hey, hey, it’s all right.” Ezra awkwardly puts his arm around my shoulders and tugs me close for a hug. “He’ll show up. I’m sure of it.”
Chapter 3
Ezra’s obsession with Misery Bay and the strange journal entries haunt me throughout the night, taking the edge off my worry over my dad’s disappearance. Not enough to make the panic less present, but enough to let me function sufficiently to take a shower and put on a brave face for breakfast the next morning. Mom had picked up my brother and sister from Grandma’s house before I got home last night, so I force my lips into a smile for them.
As I enter the kitchen, my brother looks up at me, a forkful of blueberry pancakes hovering in midair. “Do you think Dad’s ever gonna come back?” he asks, his words muffled around a mouthful of food.
My smile falters. “Of course he’ll come home. He loves us.”
Mom glances at me from her place in front of the stove and mouths, “Thank you.”
Molly’s eyes well up with tears. “I miss Daddy.”
The brave facade I’d worked on all morning in the shower, telling myself in front of the mirror that I had to be strong, crumbles. Knees weak, I lean against the counter. “Me, too.�
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Mom wraps her arms around my sister and pulls Molly into a tight hug. “It’s okay.” Her voice is ragged and emotional, a twin to my own.
My sister chokes back a sob. “What if Dad never comes back?”
She clutches Molly tightly for a few seconds longer. “He will, baby. He will.”
“How do you know?” Brett asks. His question sounds more clinical than anything, devoid of the raw panic and emotion contained in my voice. Neither he nor Molly knows about the dead woman. I’m sure he’d feel differently if he knew.
Mom releases me to ruffle Brett’s hair. “Because I know your father, and he would never abandon you guys.”
But what about you, Mom? He was with another woman. Maybe he was having an affair. Would he have abandoned you?
But I don’t ask that.
Instead, I help myself to a couple of pancakes, slather on some butter and peanut butter, and fill some of the emptiness inside, even if it’s only physical.
“Can we go to the beach?” Molly asks while she finishes polishing off her breakfast. Her abrupt change of topic signifies her acceptance that Dad would return. “I wanna go swimming.”
Mom purses her lips. I wonder if she’s thinking the same thing I am, that Tara, or any other kids we see at the beach, will surely tell my brother and sister the rest of the details surrounding our father’s disappearance.
“Well, I was hoping you could help Phoebe at the camp, but . . .” She draws out the word long enough to have the desired effect.
My sister squeals. “I wanna go to the camp!” Molly jumps up and down, glee erasing the worry niggling between her delicate brows.
“What about you?” Mom turns to Brett.
He shrugs in a worldly, ten-year-old movement. “Whatever.”
“Will you go with them?” Mom gives me a tight-lipped grimace. “Phoebe could use the help getting everything ready before the campers arrive.”
Translation: I need to keep your brother and sister from hearing what’s going on, and keep them out of trouble.
“Sure, no problem. I have to work at two, though.”
“That’s fine. I’ll come pick you up. It’ll do me some good to get out after the lunch rush.” She gives me a conspiratorial wink. “That and I seem to remember a certain boy coming in around the same time, too.”
“Mom!” I draw out the word in appropriate teenage horror while she chuckles.
“I’m kidding, kiddo. Let’s get some swimsuits and towels and head on out. I’ll give Phoebe a call and let her know we’re on our way.”
Half an hour later, our car rolls down the long, narrow driveway to New Horizons Camp for screwed up kids.
We pass under a huge log archway, and I can’t help but smile. I’d worked here last summer, before my mom needed more help at the diner. It was a lot of fun.
Right after Mom pulls into the parking lot and stops the car, Brett and Molly jump out and race toward Phoebe, my mom’s best friend.
“Thanks for coming by, you guys.” She gives us each a hug, “I need help getting everything ready.” Her chocolate-brown eyes crinkle at the corners when she grins. “There’s so much to do, and I don’t have enough time to get it all done.”
“No problem.” I relish the bright summer sun warming my skin. “We love coming here, you know that.”
Brett sidles toward the paddleboats.
“Get back here. We came to help Phoebe, remember?”
She taps her chin in thought. “Why don’t you start with the guest cabins. I had my cleaning crew tidy them up a few weeks ago, but I’m sure they could all be aired out and freshened up.”
We work for over an hour, double-checking the seven guest cabins and opening the windows. It’s not difficult, since last year’s cabin leaders restocked before they left, but it’s always better to double-check.
After we finish with the cabins, Phoebe suggests we go swimming. Brett and Molly are all for it, so I grab some sunscreen from the stockroom and follow them down the narrow path to the beach, where the water laps gently against the shore.
A circle of trees surrounds the sandy cove, and on one side of the beach, a row of kayaks waits for the next group of campers. We’re not the only ones out here. I smile as I recognize Phoebe’s free-spirited, black-haired sister, Ari.
I spread my towel out next to hers. She shades her eyes with one hand. “You’re not going to go swimming?”
“Nope. I’d rather catch some sun.” I definitely need it. Next to Ari, I’m as pale as a ghost. I tamp down a few tendrils of jealousy. Maybe someday I could be more like her: cool, collected, sophisticated. Yeah, right. Not in this town. I’ll have to get far away, and fast, if that is to happen.
“A girl after my own heart.” Her full red lips turn down in sympathy. “I heard about your dad, sorry about that. How are you holding up?”
I settle next to her on the sand. “I’m fine.” I don’t elaborate, even after she raises her perfectly plucked eyebrows at me. Dad’s disappearance is not something I want to talk about right now. “This is a perfect day for lying out in the sun, isn’t it?”
“Of course.” She studies her glossy red nails before laying down on her towel. “Besides, it beats cleaning or doing whatever it is my sister needs before the juvenile delinquents get here.”
I chuckle because she’s not that far from the truth. Most of the kids who come to Camp New Horizons are angry, bratty little snots on their Hail Mary passes before juvenile detention. For most of the kids, the combination of being away from home, hard work, and therapy really helps.
On the shore, Brett and Molly grab a pair of big foam noodles run splashing into the lake, squealing and churning the water as they beat each other with them. They splash around, not a care in the world, and here I sit, wondering where Dad is and what happened to him. God, I feel old.
When I can’t watch them any longer, I prop myself up on my elbow to look at Ari. “Did you know Hilary Crum?”
Ari sits up. “The reporter?” I nod and she shrugs. “Phoebe and I went to school with her. Why?”
Feeling like I might finally get some answers, I lean closer. “Oh, just curious. What was she like?”
Ari reclines onto the sand, settling her sunglasses more firmly on her nose. “Annoyingly perky and hyper. After she joined the school newspaper she was pretty hard on everyone, especially when she was chasing a story.”
Molly shrieks, directing my attention from Ari’s words to the splashing out in the water. When it subsides, I turn back to Ari. “I didn’t even know my dad knew her.”
She stares past the kids playing in the water, toward the faint shadow of the netting cutting through the bay. “Me, neither, but then again, I don’t live here, so I don’t know the inside scoop.”
“What do you think happened?”
She doesn’t say anything for a few long seconds. “I think a woman died in a horrible, tragic manner. Yes, she ruffled more than a few feathers, but that’s not reason enough to kill her.” She holds up her hand to stop me from interrupting her. “And that’s the only thing we can be certain of until the police find out what happened. This is a strange town, and strange things happen here. I’m sure the truth will come out eventually.”
“It’s always seemed pretty normal to me until Dad disappeared.” Almost perfect, actually. Even though this is the second time in as many days someone has called Misery Bay weird, it still looks like every other small town in America: hot summer sun, kids splashing in the deep-blue water, and ice cream at Dairy Queen if we can convince Mom after she picks us up.
One perfect eyebrow arches over the rim of her glasses. “Really?”
“Okay, fine, maybe I never paid attention before. I know people get lost in the woods a lot, especially during hunting season. Do you think that’s what happened?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he just . . . left. Misery Bay tends to have this polarizing effect on people. They either love living here, or they hate it.”
Anger bubbles
up within me. “Dad would never leave us like that!” I pick up a leaf off the sand and crumble it. “There’s got to be a good reason for what happened. I know he’ll come back and sort it all out.”
Ari reaches over and pats my hand. “I’m sure he will. My fiancé disappeared, too, but he left in much less of a dramatic fashion.” She chuckles.
I smile, grateful at the distraction. “What happened to your fiancé?”
“I thought he loved me, but it turns out he loved Miami more.” Her lips twist in a smirk. “Especially the bikini-clad girls.”
I grimace. “Sorry. That must have sucked.” Idiot. Kinda makes me glad I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t have to worry about him cheating on me if he doesn’t exist.
She shrugs. “It did, and I may or may not have keyed his car and trashed his stuff.” She lies down on the blanket. “But in a way, Carl leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Why?”
She pushes her sunglasses higher up on her nose. “It taught me to take care of myself first. If I spend my life putting others above myself, I’ll end up alone and lonely. Definitely not my style.”
Brett wades out deeper, and Molly bobs behind him, holding on to her foam noodle for dear life.
“Don’t go past your waist,” I call out, but neither of them hears me. Molly can’t swim that well, and I don’t want to wade in after her.
“Use the megaphone.” Ari points at the lifeguard tower. “It’s on a hook by the chair.”
“Good idea.” I stand up and jog over to the tower. After I climb the creaking white-wood stairs, I unhook the megaphone and put it to my lips. “Brett!” He turns slowly. “Don’t let your sister go out too deep, okay?” His shoulders slump, but he waves reluctantly.
As he returns to playing in the water, I settle down into the lifeguard’s chair. The weathered wood is warm to the touch, and I decide to wait a few minutes before rejoining Ari to make sure my brother complies.
I pull out my phone, but I can’t get any signal this far out in the woods, so I dig around in the plastic first aid box out of boredom. I skim through the Band-Aids and gauze and stop on a pair of black binoculars. These might be fun to play around with for a while.
When Darkness Falls Page 3