The Jennifer McMahon E-Book Bundle

by Jennifer McMahon

  “Are you just coming to bed now?” she asked last night when she’d caught him, sure that she’d felt him beside her just moments ago, his body warm, his breath slightly faster than her own.

  She must have been dreaming.

  “Yeah,” Sam said, settling into bed beside her. “I was on the computer.”

  “What are you working on?” Phoebe asked.

  Sam shrugged. “Nothing. Just messing around.”

  “So what, you and Sam are running a kind of halfway house now?” Franny asked.

  Phoebe remembered what Sam had said when Evie first noticed the pets: Phoebe’s menagerie. Home of the broken and neglected.

  “You’re going to try to cure this cousin?” Franny asked.

  Phoebe shook her head. “I just want to help. This poor girl has nobody else.”

  But the truth was, she did want to cure Evie, didn’t she? It was her nature to take what was broken and try to fix it. A shrink would probably tell her it was because she’d spent her whole childhood wishing she could fix her ma but being completely helpless. This deep-seated kind of masochistic need to keep trying again and again to get it right and actually save someone. Isn’t that, on some small level, what drew her to Sam? She fell in love with people’s frailty, their brokenness. But the deeper she delved into the things that made Sam broken, the more she wondered if it was possible to fix him. Would Lisa’s return make things all right? If they traveled to Reliance tonight, as they were planning, and met her there under the full moon, would Sam somehow be whole again?

  Fixing Evie seemed more realistic. Especially now that she had a road map. The key, according to her research, seemed to involve desensitizing her. She would start small, encourage Evie to take baby steps: going out on the porch to get the mail. Then to the driveway. Then down the driveway to the street. Before Evie knew it, she’d be walking around the block.

  “So she and Sam are pretty close then?”

  Phoebe shook her head. “Not at all. They were when they were kids. They spent every summer together. But now they’re like strangers. Sam’s really pissed that Evie’s staying with us. He’s being kind of a prick.”

  Kind of? The very fact that Phoebe felt the need to downplay just how bad Sam had been acting worried her. The truth was, Phoebe was horrified by Sam’s behavior toward his cousin, which ranged from practically ignoring Evie to flat-out, no-holds-barred animosity. In the past five days, Sam had pulled away from Phoebe and turned into someone she hardly recognized.

  “Maybe he’s scared,” Franny said.

  “Scared?”

  Franny shrugged her shoulders. “Just a guess. I’m not the one reading all the psychology stuff online.” She gave Phoebe a wink.

  “Maybe,” Phoebe said.

  Just this morning, when she’d cornered Sam about why he was being so cold to his cousin, he said there was a lot Phoebe didn’t understand. They were still in bed, speaking in hushed tones.

  “Like what?” she’d asked.

  Sam hopped out of bed, pulled on his jeans. “There was something going on between Lisa and her that summer.”

  “What do you mean?” Phoebe had asked.

  “I don’t know. They were together all the time, whispering. Wearing each other’s clothes. They started locking the door to their room.” He sat on the edge of the bed lacing his boots.

  “I don’t think that’s so weird, Sam,” Phoebe had said, pulling the covers up to her chin. “They were twelve and thirteen. They were just being girls.”

  Sam shook his head. “There’s other stuff, too.”

  “What stuff?”

  Sam looked away. “Nothing. Forget it. All I’m saying is that Evie shouldn’t be trusted. I don’t like you spending all this time alone with her.” He stood and went for the door.

  “What—is she supposed to be some deviant or something? Dangerous even? Because of the kid you remember her being at thirteen? I look at her and you know what I see, Sam? A broken woman. I don’t know what’s sadder—the way she is or the way I see you treating her.”

  Sam slipped out of the room without responding.

  “I think,” Phoebe said, turning back toward Franny, “it’s that Evie reminds him of Lisa. Of what happened to her. Sam has spent years building this wall around that part of his life. Now Evie’s come in with a big old sledgehammer.”

  Franny made a note in a chart and put it on the desk to be filed. “Poor thing,” she said, and Phoebe wasn’t sure which one of them she was referring to: Sam or Evie.

  “So how’d he take it?” Franny asked.

  “Huh?” Phoebe said.

  “Sam,” Franny said. “He’s over the moon about the baby, right?”

  Phoebe bit her lip. “I umm, haven’t exactly told him yet.”

  “You what?” Franny took a step back and gave Phoebe a puzzled look. “Why on earth not?”

  “It’s just that we’ve been a little preoccupied, you know, with Evie staying with us. And remember that crazy card we got? Tonight’s the night we’re supposed to go meet his long-lost sister in Reliance.”

  “Are you going? Out into those woods?”

  Phoebe nodded. “That’s the plan. I doubt anyone will show up though. Dr. O. is probably right—someone’s just messing around with Sam. But still, we have to check it out, don’t we?”

  “You want me and Jim to come with you? We could round up some of our friends, too. It might be safer to go in with more people. And to be armed, maybe.”

  Phoebe shook her head, knowing that if there was even the faintest chance that Lisa might be waiting for them out there, the last thing in the world they wanted to do was scare her off with a parade of kooky survivalist types with guns. “Thanks anyway. I think Sam and I will be fine.”

  “It’ll be a good opportunity for you to tell him about the baby.”

  Phoebe nodded. “Things have been so damn crazy. There just hasn’t been a right time.”

  Franny shook her head. “If you keep on waiting around for the perfect time, Bee, he’s not going to find out till you’re in labor! You’ve gotta tell him. Now. Tonight.”

  Phoebe nodded. “I will,” she promised.

  Franny and Dr. Ostrum were both in an emergency surgery. Mrs. Laluk’s cat, Queenie, had swallowed a four-foot piece of ribbon. Phoebe checked her watch. Only three-thirty. An hour and a half until closing time. She was itching to get out of there, get home, and go with Sam to Reliance as soon as it got dark. She pulled a mirror out of the backup purse she’d been using and touched up her lipstick. It seemed stupid really, carrying a purse for just her lipstick, notebook, keys, and cell phone. She was going to have to accept the fact that her wallet was gone for good and get a new one. The stuff they’d had taken from the cabin wasn’t just going to miraculously show up. She’d have to go to the DMV and stand in line for a new license. She picked up the phone to call Sam again, then set it down.

  She’d tried calling Sam on his cell phone four times so far to check in, make sure the plan was still on, but he didn’t pick up. She’d left three messages and he hadn’t called back. It was one thing to be rude to his cousin, but closing Phoebe out was inexcusable. And it made telling him about the pregnancy damn near impossible. Her thoughts were going in circles as she skimmed over the agoraphobia printouts, unable to concentrate. She put the printed pages in her bag and dug out her little memo pad.

  She grabbed a pen and wrote:

  CLUES & LEADS

  She chewed on the end of the pen, thinking, then wrote:

  Mass plates on fake Evie’s car

  Notes from Lisa? Looks like Lisa’s writing.

  Evie’s apartment trashed—why?

  They knew about Elliot—how?

  Man in the cabin must know something—go back and talk to him?

  Changeling girl: Amy Pelletier, Castleton Stat
e College

  A girl named Becca who might remember something—CALL HER!

  Reliance: legends. What happened to all those people? Does it have anything to do with what happened to Lisa?

  Pleased to have come up with some actions she could actually do right now, Phoebe pulled out the phone book, found the number for Castleton State College.

  “Yes, I’m trying to reach my niece. She’s a student there. There’s been a family emergency and it’s very important that we get in touch with her. Her name is Amy Pelletier.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, it’s against our policy to give out any kind of information about a student.”

  “But I’m family! And this is an emergency.”

  “The best I can do is take a message and see that it gets to her. What’s the student’s name again?”

  “Pelletier. Amy Pelletier.”

  Phoebe heard keyboard tapping.

  “I’m sorry. We don’t have an Amy Pelletier registered here.”

  “Are you sure?“

  “Positive. Not an active student, and she’s not listed as an alum either.”

  “Thank you,” Phoebe said. She shouldn’t have been surprised. She herself had once had a fake college ID she used at bars when she was nineteen—it was easy enough to get. The girl could be anyone from anywhere.

  Phoebe turned to the computer and did a search for Reliance, Vermont. Not much turned up. A few brief mentions here and there. And then, an excerpt from an out-of-print book called Lost Vermont: An Historical Perspective.

  Little is known about the village of Reliance. All that remains are the foundations and cellar holes of several homes and barns, a church and blacksmith shop. A small stream runs along the western edge. In the northwest corner is a small cemetery, the names and dates on the stones illegible. In 1918, according to local legend, the entire population of the town (approximately forty) disappeared.

  “Duh,” Phoebe said out loud. She clicked around uselessly for another five minutes or so, then gave up.

  Next, Phoebe looked up the number for Price Chopper in St. Johnsbury, dialed it, and asked for the floral department.

  “Hi, I’m looking for an employee named Becca?”

  “You got her. Who’s this?”

  “This is going to be a little out of the blue, but I’m a close friend of Sam Nazzaro’s. I was hoping I could ask you a couple of questions.”

  “Seriously? How did you find me here?”

  “Franny Hunt told me she’d run into you at work.”

  “Is this about Lisa?” Becca asked, her voice much more animated. “Have they found Lisa?”

  “No,” Phoebe said. “I was wondering if you could tell me about that summer. I understand you and your brother were friends with Lisa, Sam, and Evie.”

  God. She sounded like some TV cop. And a really bad one at that.

  Becca laughed. “Not Evie. No one liked Evie. No one but Lisa. But I’m sure Sam told you all that already. I bet he told you how close the two of them were. Like little love birds. Kinda sick, actually.”

  “Uh huh,” Phoebe said. She was taking notes in her memo pad: Love birds. No one liked Evie.

  “I’m also guessing there are things he hasn’t told you. Lots of things.”

  “Like what?” Phoebe asked, drawing a question mark in the margins.

  “Does he know you’re calling me?”

  “No, I swear. Franny told me you were friends. That you might be able to tell me something new. I won’t tell Sam we talked. I promise.”

  “Sammy Nazzaro. God, I haven’t thought of him in ages. We moved out of town that fall—right after Lisa disappeared. I think my mom was trying to keep us safe—out of those woods. And away from that family.”

  “Sam’s family?”

  “Evie broke my brother Gerald’s arm that summer. Did Sammy tell you?”

  “No,” Phoebe admitted.

  “Evie, she was nuts. One time she tried to convince us that her blood was green. That she was some kind of alien or something. ‘I’ll prove it,’ she kept saying, then she goes and jabs herself in the thigh with her big old freaking hunting knife. Shit! Her blood was red as red could be. The girl was crazy. Certifiable. But it ran in the family. Everyone in that house was wacko.”

  “They were?”

  Phoebe heard Becca cover the phone and say, “Yeah, I know. I’m going on break.”

  “If this isn’t a good time . . .” Phoebe started to say.

  “It’s fine,” Becca said. “Call me back on my cell phone in two minutes. I’ll be outside on break.”

  Phoebe scribbled down the number Becca gave her in her memo pad, waited two minutes, and called. Becca picked up after the first ring.

  “Where were we?” she asked.

  “You said everyone in the family was crazy.”

  “Uh huh. Well for starters, there’s Sam and Lisa’s dad, right? He was an odd one. Moody as hell. He almost never left the house, a real recluse. He offed himself that summer. He’d tried before, but they had found him in time.”

  They were both silent a few seconds. Phoebe guessed from the way Becca was breathing that she had a cigarette going.

  “Then there was their grandma, their mom’s ma,” Rebecca continued. “She was nutty as could be. Lived with her father all her life until she had the stroke. No wonder her husband left. Her dad was a creepy old man, that’s what my mother always said. The town doctor, but half the folks went to the next town because they didn’t want his cold hands anywhere near them. Now Sam and Lisa’s mom, Phyllis, she turned out okay. But Hazel drank like a fish, hid bottles in the garage and the shrubs. Sometimes Gerald and I would find them and take a sip. Real rotgut, bottom-shelf stuff. It’s no wonder she was such a drunk. Growing up in that house. Getting pregnant so young.”

  “You mean with Evie?”

  “Nah, this was before Evie. She had the baby at home. Her grandfather delivered it. Stillborn, that’s what they said. But people in town, my mother for one, they say they heard a baby crying in that house for some time after.”

  “So what happened to it?” Phoebe asked.

  Rebecca sighed. “Don’t know. Maybe it really did die eventually. Maybe creepy old Grandpa sacrificed it to the dark lord and drank its blood.”

  Phoebe shivered.

  “Just kidding,” Rebecca said. “Probably the lucky kid got adopted into some other normal family.”

  “What about Lisa?” Phoebe asked. “What was she like?”

  Becca was silent a minute. “Everyone said she was just imaginative. But there was more to it than that. She saw things. Heard voices. She said the trees and birds and frogs and shit all talked to her. Would you say a girl like that’s just imaginative, or would you think she needed some hardcore psych meds?”

  Phoebe nodded, even though Becca couldn’t see her. “So what do you think happened to her?”

  “I think what I’ve always thought. Teilo came for her and took her to the land of the fairies.”

  “Seriously?” Phoebe said.

  “Look,” Becca answered, “I gotta go. I shouldn’t even be talking to you. If he finds out . . .”

  “If who finds out?” Phoebe asked.

  “Forget it. You want to know what happened to Lisa, you ask Sammy what he saw in the woods that night.”

  “But Sam wasn’t in the woods,” Phoebe said.

  Becca laughed. “You ask him how he got that big old scar on his chest,” she said, then hung up.

  CHAPTER 20

  Lisa

  JUNE 10 AND 11, FIFTEEN YEARS AGO

  “Were you spying on me?” Evie’s breath was hot on her cheek. Lisa had just come out of the woods after watching Gerald and Pinkie head down to Reliance with the backpack Evie had given them. Evie had been lying in wait in the tall grass, and as soon as Lisa got into t
he yard, Evie pounced, tackling her. Now Evie was on top of her, pinning her down.

  “No, I wasn’t spying,” Lisa said, struggling to get a breath. “I just went for a walk.” Evie was sitting on her stomach, leaning over her chest. She held Lisa’s arms up above her head. Evie outweighed Lisa by at least a good thirty pounds. She wasn’t going anywhere. The key on a string dangled down from Evie’s neck, hitting Lisa’s face.

  “Bullcrap. You were following me.”

  “I didn’t even know you were out here. Now get off me!”

  Evie’s grip tightened on Lisa’s arms.

  “Please?” Lisa begged. “I’m kinda suffocating here.”

  Evie rolled off her.

  “I think you should stay out of the woods. Quit going down to that cellar hole,” Evie said. She took out her knife and started to use it to cut one blade of grass at a time, making a neat little pile.

  “Why?” Lisa asked, squinting at her cousin. “Don’t you get it? Whatever’s going on down in Reliance is the most magical thing that’s ever happened to me, to any of us. Don’t you want to figure out what’s happening here?”

  It wasn’t like Evie to want to give anything up or leave any mystery unsolved. Evie wasn’t acting much like Evie these days. The old Evie would have clobbered the crap out of Gerald before conspiring with him in the woods.

  But then again, no one in her family was being very normal. Maybe there was a spell on all of them. A curse from a wicked witch.

  “Because this is getting too weird. At first I thought it was just someone playing a joke, you know? But now I’m thinking it’s kind of creepy. And what if it’s like . . . like a trap or something?” Evie turned, continued adding to her grass pile.

  Lisa laughed. “It’s not a trap,” she said.

  “How do you know?” Evie asked.

  “Because they wouldn’t do something like that.”

  “They?”

  “The fairies,” Lisa explained.