by Amy Gutman
young women, Dahlia tried to flag down a waiter but failed to get his at-R 36
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tention. She decided to go to the bar for her Diet Coke. She was feeling 2
tired, she told her friends, but wanted to wait for Tucker.
3
It was almost twenty minutes later when Cindy and Sharon, immersed 4
in conversation about an end-of-year dance, realized that Dahlia hadn’t 5
come back. “When I looked over at the bar, I saw she was talking to this 6
guy,” Cindy Meyers said. “It looked like they’d been talking for a while. I 7
remember feeling glad because she hadn’t been too interested in anyone 8
since she broke up with Jim. I was thinking this might be a good sign.
9
Dahlia was sitting on a bar stool and the guy was leaning toward her. I al-10
most went over to say something, but I didn’t want to interrupt. I guess 11
Sharon and I went back to talking and then we’d finished our drinks and 12
Dahlia was still talking to the same guy. Anyway, we were fixing to leave, 13
so I finally just walked over, but as I got closer, he whispered something to 14
her and kind of slipped away. I told her we were going home, but she said 15
she was going to stay. Tucker still hadn’t got there, and she was waiting for 16
him. That was what she said. But also, I could tell she wanted to keep 17
talking to the guy she’d been talking to. She said his name was Steven.”
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It was just after ten when Cindy and Sharon headed back to the Van-19
derbilt campus.
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By eleven o’clock, when her brother showed up, Dahlia Schuyler was 21
gone . . .
22
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Callie put down the book and leaned back against her bed-24
room wall, legs loosely extended before her, bare feet splayed.
25
She picked up the watch from the floor beside her and closely ex-26
amined it. For a fleeting moment, she wondered if maybe she was 27
going crazy. Could she have put the watch in Anna’s basket and 28
then somehow forgotten? She’d actually have preferred that sce-29
nario to the one now facing her. The noise she’d heard in the 30
yard last night. Someone had been watching. The watch and the 31
anniversary note. There had to be some connection.
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It was almost one in the morning.
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The book lay open in front of her. Now, closing the cover, she 34
absently turned it over, stared at the glamorous photograph on 35 S
the back of the dust jacket. Diane Massey’s hair was swept to one 36 R
side, and she gazed out from under it. Perhaps because she wasn’t 8 4
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smiling, she appeared slightly disdainful. Her arms were folded 1
across her chest. On her left wrist, she wore a watch.
2
Dumbly, Callie stared at the picture, told herself it couldn’t be 3
true.
4
This couldn’t be the same watch that Anna had found. It 5
couldn’t. It just couldn’t. Because if it was, if it was . . .
6
Her mind wouldn’t process the thought.
7
Callie picked up the watch and looked at the photo again. The 8
image was so tiny. She needed a magnifying glass. They had one 9
somewhere in a kitchen drawer that Anna used for science class.
10
Downstairs at the table where they ate their meals, she studied 11
the photo again. She raised, then lowered the glass, until the 12
watch came clear.
13
The same gold bracelet.
14
The same white face.
15
While she couldn’t make out the inscription, she had no doubt 16
what it said.
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Monday, April 17
W
1
h e r e were you supposed to meet her exactly?” The woman 2
on the phone was skeptical, polite, but just barely. Her name was 3
Marianne North, and she was Diane Massey’s editor.
4
“At my apartment. For lunch. She was supposed to come over 5
yesterday, but she . . .” Callie hesitated. “She never made it.”
6
“At your apartment in New York?”
7
“Ummm . . . Yes. That’s right.” Callie twirled a piece of hair in 8
her fingers, thankful for caller-ID block. She wished that she’d 9
spent a little more time thinking through her cover story. For all 10
she knew, Diane was in L.A., out of the country even.
11
She decided to cut her losses and just plunge ahead. “Look, you 12
can believe me or not. But what’s the harm in checking?”
13
Seconds later, when she hung up the phone, Callie felt de-14
feated.
15
It was shortly after one o’clock, a cool, overcast day. She’d 16
planned to work this morning, to catch up on reading for school.
17
Instead, she’d spent most of the morning trying to reach Diane.
18
Not surprisingly, Diane had an unlisted number, so she’d called 19
Diane’s publisher. At Carillon Books, she’d been transferred, put 20
on hold, disconnected. She’d left numerous messages, none of 21
them returned. She’d been about to give up and try the New York 22
police when Marianne North had called back.
23
From her perch on the side of her bed, Callie’s eyes moved to 24
the watch. It was sitting on her nightstand. Now she picked it up.
25
On the back of the face were numbers and letters: 1120, followed 26 S
by 157480CD. A serial number, she supposed, proof of owner-27 R
ship. She reminded herself that she couldn’t be sure that this 8 6
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watch belonged to Diane. But even as she tried to reassure her-1
self, her anxiety was growing.
2
She hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Maybe food would help.
3
As she walked downstairs, she was conscious of an overpower-4
ing silence, broken only by the muffled sound of her footsteps on 5
the carpet. Faces in the photographs lining the wall watched her 6
slow descent. She and Anna on a Nantucket beach. Anna at Dis-7
ney World. A formal portrait of Anna at six. Anna on a sled. She 8
found herself wondering about these pictures, why she had so 9
many. It was almost like
she was building a case that she really 10
had a life. See, we were here. And here and here and here. For a mo-11
ment, it struck her as slightly bizarre, almost embarrassing.
12
In the kitchen, she opened the refrigerator and stared blankly 13
at its contents. If she’d had the time she might have cooked 14
something, a childhood comfort food. Meat loaf and mashed po-15
tatoes. Macaroni and cheese. Instead, she settled on a peanut 16
butter sandwich along with a glass of milk.
17
She put the sandwich on a plate and sat down at the table. As 18
she ate, she looked around the kitchen, but something didn’t feel 19
right. The pleasure she normally took in this room was sharply 20
diminished today. Everywhere she looked, she confronted hidden 21
dangers. The knife block on the kitchen counter. A long three-22
pronged fork. The gas jets on the kitchen stove, odorless yet 23
lethal. For the first time, she fully grasped the truth of Rick’s ob-24
servation. She could see how the kitchen was, in fact, the most 25
dangerous room in the house.
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Tuesday, April 18
D
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e p u t y Tim O’Hara drove his Jeep Cherokee off the ferry 2
onto Blue Peek Island. He wished that he’d had time to change 3
before coming out today. In a Shetland sweater and freshly 4
pressed khakis, he was feeling a little self-conscious. He looked 5
like the clueless college kid he’d struggled to prove he wasn’t.
6
O’Hara pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto Main 7
Street. He hadn’t been on the island since summer and was 8
struck by the bleakness of it. During July and August, the island’s 9
population grew to over a thousand, but during the long dark 10
winters, it shrank to a couple hundred. By June, the summer 11
people would start trickling in and Main Street would burst to 12
life. Today, though, it was hard to believe that this change would 13
ever take place. Everywhere he looked was gray. The place felt 14
like a ghost town.
15
Last summer, he’d been the deputy assigned to island duty, a 16
standard first-year rotation in the Hanson County sheriff’s office.
17
Blue Peek Island was forty-five minutes offshore but technically 18
part of the county. Four days a week, for three long months, with 19
almost nothing to do. He’d taken to driving around the island, 20
patrolling its quiet streets. He’d given several speeding tickets, 21
arrested a mailbox vandal. As he saw it, he was just doing his job, 22
something to earn his paycheck. But the islanders had rolled 23
their eyes. They’d called him Mr. Columbo. He’d gritted his 24
teeth and pretended to laugh, but he hadn’t thought it was funny.
25
So he was only twenty-three. He still deserved respect.
26 S
Today would be different, though. At least that’s what he 27 R
hoped. Maybe, just maybe, he’d finally catch his first real case. A 8 8
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major step toward his long-term goal of joining the Maine State 1
Police.
2
He’d been on his way to pick up his fiancée when the sergeant’s 3
call came in. They’d planned to have dinner with Molly’s folks 4
after a trip to the mall.
5
“I need you to check out a call on Blue Peek Island. Missing 6
person report. I’d send Barrett out,” the sergeant said, “but he 7
doesn’t know the island.”
8
“No problem,” O’Hara responded. “I’ll take the next boat out.”
9
A missing person report. This could be interesting.
10
He’d pulled out a long thin notebook and flipped open the 11
cover. At the bottom of the first page, he scrawled a 1. If the 12
notepad was ever introduced in court, that could be important.
13
Consecutive numbering could help to prove that the evidence 14
hadn’t been altered.
15
“Name’s Diane Massey.”
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O’Hara’s pen, poised to write, stayed in midair. “You kidding 17
me?” he said.
18
“You know her?”
19
“Well, sure, I mean she’s . . .” O’Hara stopped. No point in 20
making the sergeant feel like a total idiot. “She’s a writer. She 21
wrote this book about Steven Gage. You know, the serial killer.”
22
“I know who Steven Gage is.” The sergeant sounded ag-23
grieved. “So you know this Massey woman?”
24
“Not know her exactly. I mean, I saw her around last summer 25
when she visited her parents. They’ve got this gigantic house 26
right on the tip of North Point.”
27
“Yeah, that’s what I hear,” the sergeant said. “Anyway, here’s 28
the deal. I got a call from this woman in New York. Her 29
name’s — let me see — Marianne North. Says she’s Massey’s ed-30
itor and she can’t get in touch with her. Probably nothing, you 31
know, but this woman was real insistent.”
32
Probably nothing.
33
But maybe not . . .
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O’Hara parked in an empty space. Today he had his pick. The S 35
Massey house was just up the road, overlooking the Narrows. The R 36
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house was visible from where he stood, fog-shrouded and impos-2
ing. It had been built by one Thomas Massey, more than a hun-3
dred years ago.
4
Last summer, he’d spent a couple of hours at the Blue Peek Is-5
land History Museum, learned about the wealthy Boston families 6
who’d built the first summer homes. They’d called themselves 7
rusticators and relished simple pleasures. Their summers were 8
filled with a festive round of sailing, parties, and picnics. These 9
days, descendants of those first settlers returned with their own 10
children. But the summer people wouldn’t start to arrive for an-11
other month at least. The island was all but deserted now. Why 12
was Diane Massey here?
13
A set of granite steps led up to the house, which was shielded 14
by a stand of pine trees. From where he stood, he could just make 15
out a corner of the shingled roof. As a breeze came up, he heard 16
a rustle of trees tossing in the wind. He flipped the latch on a low 17
gate and headed up the stairs.
18
O’Hara rapped on the back door, three sharp knoc
ks. He 19
waited a bit, then tried again. Still no response. The porch where 20
he stood wrapped around the house. Now he walked toward the 21
front, his footsteps sounding hollowly on the worn wooden 22
planks. Below him, a vast expanse of lawn ended in granite cliffs.
23
By summer, the grass would be emerald green, a smooth velvet 24
carpet. Today, it was still scruffy and brown with weeds poking 25
through it.
26
By the front door, he saw a wooden folding chair with a blue 27
canvas seat. Beside the chair, on a rickety table, was an ashtray 28
filled with cigarette butts. A few more knocks. Still no answer.
29
He tried the door. It opened.
30
“Ms. Massey? Are you here?”
31
He was standing in a two-story foyer with a broad staircase to 32
his left. At the end of the central hallway, he saw a closed door.
33
“Hello?” O’Hara called.
34
It was darker in the house than it was outside. O’Hara flipped 35 S
a light switch. A heavy wrought-iron chandelier sent out a dusty 36 R
glow.
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Then, as he inhaled, he smelled something, a faint scent of rot.
1
He walked down the hall. The smell grew stronger. His hand 2
moved to his gun. For an instant he considered calling Dispatch, 3
then decided against it. If it turned out to be a false alarm, he’d be 4
asking for it. He’d already taken enough ribbing for that Mr.
5
Columbo bit. Better to handle this on his own. Not get too ex-6
cited.
7
When he reached the door, he pushed it open and found him-8
self in the kitchen. The room was empty, no one here, but the 9
smell almost made him retch. He found a light switch on the 10
wall, clicked it, and scanned the room. There was an ancient 11
woodstove and, next to it, a modern gas-fueled one. A dining 12
table with four cane chairs. Dishes set out to dry. Everything ap-13
peared to be clean, in order. Where was that smell coming from?
14
Over beside the woodstove, he noticed a narrow door.
15
He approached and flung it open, peered into its depths.
16
Brooms and mops. Cleaning products. Just a utility closet.
17
From where he stood, the stench was fainter. It was stronger 18
nearer the hallway. Testing, he moved in that direction. Yes, he 19