A Light So Cruel (Pioneer Falls Book 3)

by Heather Davis

  Rose stuffed the phone into the backpack and then reached for the stereo knob. She switched on music but I growled at her to turn it off.

  “No. We need to calm down,” Rose said, finding a classical music station.

  I turned onto the highway heading toward the bowling alley, which was halfway between Pioneer Falls and Still Creek. Big heavy raindrops splashed down, the kind that’d be snow if it were a few degrees cooler. The pavement glittered dangerously. I reduced my speed a little, beginning to worry about black ice. The piano music tinkling out of the speakers didn’t calm anyone.

  “I’m calling Dad again,” Fawn said, but when he didn’t answer, I heard her leave a voicemail about us heading to the bowling alley.

  “What’s that?” Rose said, peering out at the road ahead.

  I slowed and saw a car in the ditch. Specifically, a Volkswagen Beetle.

  Ms. Wilson came around the side of it, waving her arms. Our headlights washed over her, showing her hair wet and drooped around her face. Her red raincoat was soaked to a dark burgundy. She held a hand up to her face, trying to see who we were in the bright lights.

  “Lily, you have to stop,” Rose said.

  “It could be a trap,” I replied.

  “What trap?” Fawn had hung up her phone call. “Look at her car! She probably needs help.”

  “It’s not that simple,” I snapped. “She brought the ghost hunters here. We can’t trust her.”

  Rose said, “If you don’t stop for her, it’s going to look suspicious.”

  “Not that we don’t already look suspicious waffling about stopping for her,” Fawn muttered.

  The twins were right. I pulled the Volvo over and cut the engine. I got out and pulled the hood up on my coat and then sprinted over to her.

  “Oh, thank goodness! I didn’t recognize you in that car.”

  “It’s Maggie’s. What happened?”

  “It’s slick out and I don’t have good tires on the car,” she said. “Cell service is horrible. I couldn’t even call for help.”

  “We can send a tow truck,” I said, glancing back at the twins in the car.

  “Or maybe just give me a lift to a phone,” Ms. Wilson replied with a little laugh. “It’s miserable out here.”

  “Oh, yeah. Of course.” I beckoned her over for a ride.

  Ms. Wilson reached back inside her VW and got her handbag. Then she hurried over to the Volvo, holding her hood up as she ran. As I climbed back behind the wheel, Ms. Wilson hopped in the back seat. “I should’ve asked where you’re headed.”

  “The bowling alley,” Fawn said, a little too quickly. I gave my sister a sharp look in the rearview mirror.

  “On a school night?” Ms. Wilson said, clicking into her seat belt.

  “Picking up a pizza,” Rose said, recovering quickly. “Their phone line’s been jammed, so we’re getting it ourselves.”

  “Oh, nice. Well, there’s definitely a phone there,” Ms. Wilson said.

  For a hot second, I realized she hadn’t asked any of us to use our cell phones. Maybe she thought we’d all be in a dead zone with no reception. I shrugged off the thought and we drove off toward the bowling alley. I turned the heater on full blast, eliciting a collective, “Ahh!” from everyone in the car.

  “So the pizza’s good there?” Ms. Wilson asked, breaking the near silence.

  “Yeah,” Fawn murmured. The tension was pretty thick in the car. None of us knew what to say to make small talk with her. Rose especially was chewing her lip and frowning.

  I reached for the radio dial and turned up the soft music. I didn’t relax until I saw the green and white of the Frontier Lanes sign shimmering up the road. I hoped that Gladys and Ezra would have some idea of how to help. That the reason they weren’t answering the phone wasn’t because they’d already gone down to try to free the brothers.

  When I parked, we all got out of the car. Though the lights were on in the front, we found the doors of the place locked.

  “So no pizza,” Ms. Wilson said, trying to see inside. “I wonder where they’ve gone.”

  “I don’t know. You guys wanna stay here for a second and I’ll go look at their house around back?” I said.

  “Run, okay? It’s cold,” Rose said, rubbing at her arms.

  “We’ll wait in the car,” Fawn said. “Hurry.”

  “Keep an eye on her,” I whispered in Rose’s ear.

  ***

  I ducked around the corner of the bowling alley, sniffing the air as I ran toward the little crappy house that Ezra’s family had been living in. I wouldn’t be excited to see Ezra again, but I didn’t see any other option. I had to warn him and Gladys. I shivered, forcing my feet to move faster down the overgrown path, barely marked with light-colored gravel.

  I’d taken the car keys, but I still worried about leaving Ms. Wilson and the girls in the parking lot. What if she had an accomplice waiting to grab them and drag them into town? I hoped she was only a paranormal faker and not actually evil. I was taking a lot of risks, but it was the right thing to do. I couldn’t let our secret get out. I couldn’t let Jonah and Nathaniel expose us all. Even if they had burned down the auto shop, attacked Mr. Pinter, caused all the trouble. There had to be some kind of justice at some point, but I wouldn’t let it be at the hands of hunters or dumb TV shows.

  Ahead, a porch light cast a weak glow over the mossy, weather-beaten entry. I banged on the door, but no one answered. Then I moved over to the side of the house, trying to see inside, but no one seemed to be home. I didn’t smell any food cooking, or wood stove smoke lingering around the house. Nothing that told me they’d been home in the last couple of hours. I worked my way back through the blackberry brambles that climbed up the sides of the house, stepping carefully on the slick grass. Icy rain trickled inside my hood and I pulled it up, trying to keep the water out. What a miserable night to be creeping around.

  I moved back toward the main path and saw something move out of the corner of my eye, a dark shadow racing into the woods. The rain was masking any scents on the breeze, but I caught the faint hint of musk, fear. Wolf. One of us was out there.

  “Jonah and Nathaniel are trapped at Ms. Wilson’s house,” I called out, hoping that if it’d been a wolf in the woods they’d hear me. “Don’t come into town as wolves.”

  A bush or two shivered as something moved deeper into the shadows. I hoped it was Gladys or Ezra. At least I’d done what I could to warn them.

  What was bad for one wolf was bad for all. Jonah’s words came back to me then.

  They had to see by now that nothing good could come of us fighting amid ourselves. That if ever we needed to band together as a species it was on this dark, dark night. If my risking our safety to warn them didn’t prove that, then nothing would.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I stumbled a little on the path on the way back from Ezra’s house. My raincoat was water-logged now, any sheeting-action long over. Even though I tended to run hot, my skin felt clammy, chilled. I couldn’t wait to be back in the Volvo with the heat on full blast. I rounded the corner of the bowling alley and saw, with relief, the Volvo parked where I’d left it.

  Fawn opened the back door to yell, “You could’ve left us the keys. Rose is freezing.”

  As I got closer, I saw Ms. Wilson had taken the front seat. I shot Rose a look and she gave a shrug. Maybe it’d seemed normal to have an older person riding in the front of the car, younger folks in the back. I climbed behind the wheel and started up the car.

  “Any service yet?” I asked Ms. Wilson.

  “No juice left,” she said, holding up her phone. “I must have worn the battery down trying to get a signal on the road. I forgot my car charger, so I guess I’m out of luck.”

  I put the heat on full blast again and drove out onto the highway. The rain beat down so hard the wipers could barely keep up. The quiet music was more of a distraction now, so I turned it off. Beside me, Mr. Wilson hugged her handbag to her chest.

&nbs
p; “Did you find the Smiths?” Fawn asked from the back seat.

  “No.”

  “Maybe they had an emergency or something,” Ms. Wilson said. She peered out at the road as we passed her car. “I hope I can get a tow truck out here tonight.”

  “The only one in town is at Bob Murphy’s,” Fawn supplied.

  “Could you take me there?” Ms. Wilson asked.

  A shiver crept up my arms. “His shop is closed.”

  “I understand he moved the tow truck up to his house after the fire,” she said calmly.

  Goose bumps rose on my skin. I didn’t want to deliver her, or us, to Bob’s. What if he’d rethought our conversation, all my questions? “Actually, I’ve got to get Maggie’s car back to the shop,” I said. “Rose, can you try texting her to let her know we’re headed there? Ms. Wilson, you can call a tow truck from there.”

  “Or home,” Ms. Wilson said, a smile spreading across her lips. “I guess I should’ve suggested that first. Why not just drop me at my house?”

  “Because there’s—” Fawn blurted but must’ve been elbowed by Rose because she yelped in pain.

  “Her house isn’t too far from the coffee shop,” Rose interjected. In the rearview mirror, I could see the light from Rose’s phone reflecting onto her face. She had to be concocting some kind of plan, or been texting someone.

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” Ms. Wilson said. “Home would be great.”

  “I think we can do that,” I said, trying to focus on the dark, rainy road ahead. The forest was thick here again, and deer and elk often ran out. I slowed a little.

  I heard my phone ping in my bag. “Ms. Wilson, can you hand my bag to Rose?”

  “Sure,” she said, passing it back to Rose.

  Seconds later, Rose held up my phone. “It’s Morgan, he’s with Cooper.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “Tell them we’ll meet them.”

  In the mirror I saw the question forming on Rose’s face—probably where.

  But I didn’t want to answer with Ms. Wilson in the car. Rose typed something into my phone and hit send. Beside her, Fawn frowned and took the phone from her, checking to see what she’d typed.

  The drive back to town was tense, quiet. Until we got closer to Ms. Wilson’s house. The white van was parked on the street. The rain had trailed off, so I cut the wipers.

  “Okay, here we are,” I said, pulling up near the iron fence of Ms. Wilson’s house.

  “It’s okay, Lily, you can ask me about all this,” Ms. Wilson said as she gathered up her bag. I turned and caught a glimpse of her smile, genuine, almost proud. “Spirit Sleuths is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to Pioneer Falls. An old friend works on the show.”

  I heard a gasp from the backseat. Rose pointed out the window. Dad rushed toward us, his flashlight’s beam sweeping over the car.

  “We’re okay,” I yelled, rolling down the window.

  Meanwhile, Ms. Wilson popped out of the car, a cheerful grin on her face. “The whole Turner clan tonight. What luck.”

  Dad said’s voice held a steely edge. “Ms. Wilson, what are you doing with my daughters?”

  “The girls were kind enough to rescue me from car trouble on the road to the bowling alley,” Ms. Wilson said. “You’ve raised some very kind kids.”

  Dad frowned. “Good night, Ms. Wilson.”

  She shouldered her purse and headed toward the walkway to her house. Dad kept his gaze on her.

  “They have Jonah and Nathaniel,” Rose said as she got out of the back of the car and into the front seat again.

  “I know. That’s why I’m here.”

  “You have to go in and save them,” Rose said. “Dad, you have to!”

  “I’m working on it. Right now, they haven’t broken any laws. I have no cause to bust in there. Besides, the sheriff’s watching this feed back at the station. We had a few calls asking about its veracity. Townspeople don’t like this kind of negative attention. I guess it came up at the town council’s zoning meeting earlier tonight when they went live.”

  “Maggie was at that meeting,” I said.

  Dad nodded. “You need to get her car back to her. Where’s the truck?”

  “Let’s see.” I dug my phone out and noticed a text string from Morgan and Skyler. Someone had told them to meet up at the old movie theater. Not me. I gave Rose a sharp glance. “You told them to go the movie theater?”

  “No. I thought you had before, but that seemed weird.”

  “So who told them to meet us there?” Fawn asked, poking her head out from the backseat passenger window.

  “Ms. Wilson!” I said, realizing she’d been in the front seat of the Volvo with my bag while I’d been poking around Ezra’s house. She’d probably texted them, pretending to be messing with her own phone. “She knows, Dad. She must know everything!”

  Dad’s expression was bleak. “The guys are stepping into an ambush.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  A minute later, I screeched the Volvo to a stop in the alley off Main Street and herded Fawn and Rose out. Fumbling at first with the keys, I unlocked the back door of the coffee shop and let us in.

  “Log back onto that site as soon as you can,” I told Rose. “You’ll be my eyes and ears. I need to know what’s happening at the garage.”

  “Wait—where are you going now? Dad told you not to leave us,” Fawn grumbled as she pushed past me into the kitchen.

  “You’ll be here with Maggie. You’ll be safe,” I told them.

  “Speaking of…” Rose trailed off.

  Maggie scraped a batch of cookie dough onto her floured counter and slapped it into a log shape. Her face was red and her eyes puffy. She looked as if she had enough steam coming out to heat the convection oven. I motioned the twins to go out front. Maggie paused in shaping her biscotti rectangle on a parchment-covered baking sheet.

  “I have your keys,” I said. “The car’s out back.”

  Maggie shrugged and pointed over at the hooks, where her purse was hanging. “Thanks, I guess,” she said, her tone flat.

  A wash of guilt flooded me. “Look, I’m sorry that I had to shut down the shop. There’s an emergency happening.”

  She nodded, barely looking up. “Oh, I know all about that. A couple of folks at the meeting had their laptops running the live feed.” She brushed her wrist against her chin, wiping away a spot of flour.

  “So you see that we had to—”

  “No, I don’t see.” Exasperation was plain in her voice. “What do some crackpots trying to prove some ridiculous theory about inhuman creatures in Pioneer Falls have to do with you? That’s the part you keep leaving out every time you run off to do something that has to do with creatures. With ghosts. With wolves. What is happening, Lily?”

  Maggie’s glare was unfriendly, angry. She was nervous, too—I caught a slight whiff of perspiration. She glanced down, patting at the rectangle of dough then reaching for a brush and egg-wash.

  “Believe me, I want to tell you everything,” I said, my heart starting to pound harder.

  Maggie brushed the dough roughly. “If you really don’t trust me, then I get it. But you know, I’m not stupid. I’ve seen things I can’t explain. I have my own theories,” she said, her voice with a slight quaver in it. “And that feed…”

  “You think there are actual werewolves in Pioneer Falls,” I bluffed.

  Maggie set down her brush and crossed her arms. “I’m pretty sure there are,” she said, holding my gaze.

  To my surprise, I didn’t see judgment there. I saw something like acceptance, the desire to know the truth so she could get behind it. My lip quivered.

  “Oh, Lily…” Maggie’s expression softened.

  Fawn popped her head back into the kitchen. “Why aren’t you gone yet? Dad can’t handle all of them on his own,” she said, and then, she caught sight of Maggie’s baking operation. “Ooh, biscotti. You gonna dip them in chocolate later? I prefer Scharffen Berger’s bittersweet squares.”<
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  Maggie sighed and slid the tray into the preheated oven. Fawn, sensing she’d interrupted a tense conversation, slowly backed away. She shot me an apologetic glance.

  Maggie closed the oven door and set the timer. “You don’t have to say the words. If it’s that uncomfortable—”

  “It’s not that,” I said. “It’s dangerous. People who figure out this secret get hurt or killed. That can’t happen to you. You’re the closest thing I’ve had to a—”

  “Big sister. You’re about to say big sister,” Maggie interrupted, her mouth quirking a little. “Maybe a favorite cousin?”

  I exhaled, feeling the weight lift from me a little. I could tell Maggie had questions, that she didn’t have it all figured out, but she had an inkling of what we’d been hiding. And it didn’t seem like our secret mattered to her.

  “I have to go. Dad needs backup. Can you keep the twins safe?”

  Maggie’s eyes filled with concern. “Where are you going? Where is George?”

  “He’s gone to rescue Morgan and Skyler at the old theater. I think Cooper’s there, too. Listen, lock the doors. Don’t let anyone in. We don’t know who we can trust anymore. You, of course, but no one else.”

  She gave me a faint smile. “Thanks. So, it’s really this serious?”

  “It’s all real, Maggie. Everything you imagine.”

  ***

  At the main entrance, the thick chains that’d secured the doors hung loosely. It looked as though the chain’d been cut. I snuck toward the sound of voices coming from the auditorium, far enough that I couldn’t quite make them out, but definitely a male voice. Morgan, I hoped.

  As I paused near the musty velvet curtains that flanked the doorway to the auditorium, my phone pinged with a text—Rose warning she’d seen the Spirit Sleuths’ van roll past the coffee shop, heading this way. That was all we needed, having them film any of this.

  “Dad?” I whispered. “Morgan?”

  I parted the curtain a little, peering into the theater. The lights were out, but I could sense people sitting in the dark. And I could smell Morgan.