“I’m telling you you’re a good guy, Zack. My best friend.” He laughed. “Had it turned out I am actually crazy, you would have remained by my side, making sure I got my three squares a day and didn’t end up on the streets, scaring small children.”
“Daniel…”
“Hey! But I’m not crazy, because if I am, my four best friends are crazy too. By the way, what’s going on between you and Holly?”
Zack smiled a high voltage smile, which he promptly tried to subdue. “Nothing.”
Daniel wasn’t fooled. “Yeah, right. Hence, the big, goofy smile you’re barely managing to hide.”
“Okay, I like her.”
“You’ve always liked her.”
“Maybe,” Zack admitted, still smiling.
“Watch the PDA’s,” Daniel warned.
“Okaaay.”
Daniel sought his eyes. “Kendall likes you too, you know.”
“Kendall?”
“Yeah, and you need to be sensitive to her feelings too.”
“Well, thank you, Dr. Phil. And you’re telling me I’m a Boy Scout? Here you are trying to protect Kendall, despite the fact that you and Kendall typically fight like cats and dogs.” Zack narrowed his eyes. “Oh, my gosh. You like her!”
“Leave your gosh out of it, and yeah, dude, I like her. There, I said it.” He dropped his eyes and began kicking at the dock with the toe of his shoe.
“Tell her!”
“She doesn’t like me back. Did you hear anything I just said? I didn’t skip over the part about her liking you.”
“Oh.” Zack shook his head to clear it. “I … don’t think Kendall likes me.”
Daniel glanced up. “Cut the crap.”
“Hmmm,” was all Zack could manage.
Daniel spoke up again. “Unlike you, I’m no Boy Scout, as we both well know. But what I do know is this… If you flaunt—no, no, strike that word. It’s the wrong word. You wouldn’t deliberately ‘flaunt’ anything. What I’m trying to say is, Kendall’s gonna be hurt that you like Holly and not her. It’s going to create some uncomfortable tension between you and her, Holly and her, and maybe even with Niqui, who will likely be caught in the middle of her two friends. And if I see Kendall feeling all dejected and rejected, I’m going to hurt for her, because, damn … love sucks!”
“Love?” Zack raked his hands along either side of his head. “Ah, Danny Boy, you’ve got it bad for Kendall,” he muttered, glancing off across the lake. “I hate drama. I hate causing drama, but… I like Holly, Daniel. I think I always have.”
“You can’t help your feelings for Holly any more than I can help my feelings for Kendall, or Aaron can help his feelings for…
Zack’s jaw dropped open. “Niqui!”
“Bingo!”
Zack laughed uproariously. “Oh, dude, how did this happen? Hey, does Niqui like Aaron back?”
Daniel shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Suddenly, a loud thumping sound emanated from somewhere to the left of the dock. Both boys startled, and then turned. They didn’t immediately spot the source of the sound.
“Is it her?” Daniel murmured softly.
Zack took a step closer to the edge of the dock. Daniel snaked an arm out and grabbed a hold of him. “Zack, too close!”
Suddenly, Zack gave a self-deprecating laugh. “It’s a log—hitting against that other log over there. Whew!”
“Breakfast!” Niqui shouted from up above, causing the boys to nearly jump out of their skins a second time.
“Whew is right,” Daniel uttered, leaving the dock behind. “I thought for sure it was the girl,” he said sheepishly.
Zack fell into step beside his friend. “I did too. I was sure we were going to see her face below the surface of the water, looking up at us from the side of the dock.”
Unbeknownst to them, she was watching them—from the other side.
Chapter Nine
Zack and Daniel strode into the cabin and immediately smelled the mouth watering scent of bacon and eggs cooking on the stove. Niqui was pulling biscuits from the oven, while Kendall and Holly were setting places at the small dinette.
“Any ghost sightings?” Kendall asked.
“Happy to report—no,” Zack said.
He dropped into a chair beside Daniel, and then pulled out the chair on the other side of him. He nodded toward Holly, who accepted the seat with a smile.
Daniel leaned back in his chair, resting an arm across the back of the chair beside him. “Kendall,” he said, encouraging her to sit down by arching his eyebrows repeatedly and suggestively.
“Something in your eye?” she said with a disgusted snort.
“No!”
Zack laughed. “Well played,” he teased his friend.
“I beg to differ,” Kendall said.
“Good thing I like ‘em mean and feisty,” Daniel muttered under his breath.
Zack burst out laughing, and Holly gave Daniel a puzzled glance. Did Daniel like Kendall?
Kendall’s eyes shot to Daniel’s face, as the implication of his words registered with her. She seemed as surprised as anyone by his declaration. When she took the seat beside him, she suddenly realized what she had done, and leapt from the chair as if her butt had been scorched.
“Hey!” Daniel cried. “I don’t have cooties.”
Kendall simply stood silently by, her eyes widened in stunned surprise. After a moment, in which she said nothing, she took the seat beside him—leaving the others in stunned surprise. Finally, she turned to Daniel and spoke, “I’m glad you’re not crazy.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said.
“Enough sweet talk,” Niqui said drolly. “Breakfast is served.” She turned, crossed the room, and carefully forked bacon onto everyone’s plates, and then retrieved the scrambled eggs. She spooned a heaping mound onto each plate, and then hurried to the fridge to pull out orange juice. “Kendall, would you mind getting the toast?” she asked.
Kendall nodded and left her seat at the table. She pulled the two slices of toasted bread from the toaster and put another couple into the antiquated appliance. After toasting six slices, she returned to the table. She passed the first slice to Daniel.
“Thanks, babe,” he said, smiling cheekily at her.
She glared at him, prompting him to rearrange the expression on his face. The smile that followed was genuine and contrite, and Holly was certain she saw some communication pass between them. Daniel straightened in his chair and then asked Kendall if she needed anything.
Holly smiled at Zack, who smiled at her, and then smiled at Niqui, who smiled at Holly. As if on the cue, they turned toward Daniel and Kendall and said, “Ahhhh, sweeeeet!”
Kendall promptly staved off the sentiment by raising a fist and holding it threateningly for all to see. “Shut up.”
Breakfast time conversation ensued, and everybody refrained from mentioning the events of the day before. It was as if all was right with the world and the reservoir.
Holly glanced around the table at her friends. It was odd, everybody talking as if everything really was okay. She experienced the same feeling now that she often felt after having woken up from a terrifying nightmare. She’d lay in bed, frightened to move, the blankets pulled up to her chin—convinced nothing would ever feel the same again. Yet, morning always came. The sun shone again. A new day beckoned and the night before was forgotten.
It was morning now. Today was a new day. A new day in which the group would have to decide what they were going to do about the ghost.
On one hand, Holly was grappling with whether or not to suggest they simply cut their trip short. They could leave and pretend nothing had happened. Maybe it hadn’t happened. Maybe it had been a bad dream.
But when she looked around the table at her friends, nothing had ever felt more real than this very moment—this moment of camaraderie when they had come through the other side of a terrifying experience and could still smile and laugh together. No. They had
a job to do. She didn’t have a clue what that job was—but, for whatever reason, the ghost had chosen to reveal herself to them. She had sought them out, and some inner voice told her, the ghost needed their help. Deserved their help.
Suddenly, Zack nudged her with his elbow, drawing her out of her reverie. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.
She gave him a tremulous smile. “Just thinking…” She didn’t have to tell him about what, since he nodded in understanding. He glanced up and at the others.
“Guys, we have to talk,” he said.
***
“Okay, if you guys are right, and this girl was murdered and her body dumped in the reservoir, then her unfinished business is obvious,” Kendall stated matter-of-factly.
“What’s obvious?” Niqui said.
“It obvious that she wants her body found,” Kendall said. “If I was killed and somebody dumped my body in a reservoir, I’d sure want someone to know. I’d want out!” Kendall shuddered. “Can you imagine how dark and scary it is in that water? I mean, in some places it’s sooo deep.” She made a face and shuddered again. “And who knows what else is down there, tangled up in all the trees.”
“Kendall could be right,” Holly mused aloud. “But maybe her unfinished business is twofold. Maybe…”
“What, Holly?” Zack prompted.
“Maybe she wants us to find her killer.”
The declaration was met with stony silence. Finally, Daniel spoke. “How the heck would we do that?”
“I don’t…” Holly’s words trailed off as she was interrupted by an ear-splitting sound from outside.
“What the heck was that?” Daniel said, jumping to his feet a tenth of a second faster than Zack and rushing to the backdoor.
The girls rose simultaneously, and followed the boys to the porch. “What was that?” Kendall murmured. “It sounded like splintering wood.”
“We’ll check it out,” Zack said with authority in his voice. “You girls stay here.”
Kendall harrumphed in disgust. “We’re not staying back here like weak-kneed little princesses while our knights in shining armor rush off to see to the danger…”
“Why not?” Zack asked.
“Because we don’t see any knights,” Niqui supplied. “And I can hit harder, run faster, throw better, and fight dirtier than anybody here.”
“Niqui goes first,” Daniel quipped.
“We all go,” Holly said, ever the voice of reason. “Although…” She turned to Kendall. “Somebody should stay by the phone, so if one of us screams, ‘Dial 911!’—that someone can make the call.”
“You mean me?” Kendall said in her usual droll tone. “Because I’m the smallest, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Okay, whatever. Besides, if these brave boys stand here long enough, whatever made that noise will probably be long gone anyway. That’s probably their plan…”
Zack made a growling sound and stormed off the back porch, followed by Daniel, Niqui, and Holly. He stopped in the dusty patch of earth that qualified as the cabin’s backyard. “I don’t see anything.”
Holly did a slow circle, trying to spot what might have been the source of the ear-splitting sound in the woods. Suddenly, she pointed. “I think it came from David’s shed. It’s just over … there.”
Zack nodded, taking the lead. This time, Holly hurried to his side. He took her hand. Niqui and Daniel followed, walking side by side.
“We should have grabbed a weapon,” Niqui muttered.
“We don’t have any weapons,” Daniel pointed out. “Well, except you, Niqui. You’re as lethal as they come.”
“Thanks,” Niqui said sweetly, but then frowned. “That was a compliment, right?”
“Absolutely,” he assured her. “If I ever find myself in a dark alley, surrounded by thugs, I want you by my side.”
“Thanks,” she said sweetly, but frowned again. “Is that a compliment?”
“Absolutely. You’re model beautiful, but tough as nails. You don’t take any guff, but you don’t dish it out, either. I respect that.”
“Ah, thanks, Daniel.”
“Just keeping it real… Pound it,” he said, raising his fist for Niqui to return the gesture.
When the group reached the shed, Zack motioned for the girls to stay back, while he and Daniel approached quietly. Even from their vantage point several yards away, they could see someone or something had broken down the door. It hung from rusty hinges, and unfortunately, blocked their view of the inside.
Zack inched closer to the shed, Daniel at his side. When they were a mere few feet away, Zack gestured for Daniel to move to the right, while he took a step or two to the left. He nodded at Daniel, reached for the door and took hold of the handle, and then, with a second nod, yanked the door open.
He jumped back in the nick of time when the door fell toward him, a hundred pounds of heavy rough hewn timber, aimed at his skull. It missed him by a few inches, landing on the ground with a resounding thud.
He heard Holly gasp from behind him. “I’m all right,” he called, turning toward her briefly and flashing a reassuring smile.
“Nobody’s inside,” Daniel said. He stood at the threshold of the leaning old building, his head thrust forward and scanning the inside. He coughed and pulled back. “I’m a goner,” he said, gasping and fanning the dust-laden air with his hands.
“Daniel, get out of there!” Zack commanded. “You’re going to have an asthma attack!”
“I haven’t had a real attack since I was twelve,” he protested.
“Just the same, you don’t have your allergy meds up here. Get back.”
Zack sidestepped the door on the ground and entered the shed. It wasn’t as small as he had first thought, since it stretched several yards behind the entrance. Rusty tools hung from the walls and an assortment of broken car parts littered the floor. Tires, some with good tread, were stacked nearly ceiling high. Assorted hub caps hung from hooks on the walls. A few posters, with scantily clad women draped across muscle cars, hung haphazardly from tacks.
In order to move around, Zack had to high step it over and around all the debris. He bent to pick up a nail, noting it was like one he’d seen in a museum, with a square head. Dropping it, the nail hit the ground with a thud. He glanced up and his eyes lit on a pile of something at the rear of the building. A blue tarpaulin covered the entire mound, which was huge. He wondered, what was back there?
Everything he’d seen so far was old and decrepit—certainly nothing worth stealing. Well, some of the tires might be serviceable, he thought. Or maybe the old nail had some value. Who knew? But what warranted covering with a tarp?
It was clear the tarp was newer, since he recognized it as being one similar to the tarp his dad used to cover up his motorcycle when it rained, which was most of the time in the Pacific Northwest.
“What are you doing, Zack?” Daniel called from a distance of several yards away from the shed.
Holly’s voice was closer when she spoke. She was standing in the doorway. “Did you find something?”
“I’m not sure. Stay back, okay. This place could fall over any second.”
“Then get out of there!” she cried. “My stepdad told me to be sure no one went near this shed. He said it was too dangerous to go near it—let alone inside it.”
“I wonder why he doesn’t level it?” Zack mused as he climbed over piles of junk to reach the back.
“Zack, why are you going back there? Do you see something? Can you tell what made the noise?” Holly asked.
“The noise came from somebody using a crow bar on the door. If you look, you can see where the hinges pulled away from the splintering wood. The door is really well-constructed and heavy, but the hinges had practically disintegrated from age and rust.”
“Who would do that to the door? Why would someone want in that bad? And where is he or she now?” Holly said.
“Probably heard us coming and took off running. Hey, where’s Daniel
?” Zack called.
Holly glanced around, frowning when she didn’t see him nearby. “I … don’t know. Daniel!” Her eyes widened. “Where is Niqui? Niqui! Daniel!”
“Over here! We’re coming.” She heard Daniel before she saw him. She wondered how a skinny kid like him could sound like a Grizzly bear tramping through the underbrush. Niqui, in contrast, made no more noise than a doe in the woods.
To Holly’s surprise, her friends weren’t alone. Daniel had a kid by the scruff of his neck and was propelling him along. Niqui had him by the arm, lest he try to run away.
Freckled, strawberry blond, and no older than twelve, the boy fought valiantly, clearly underestimating Daniel’s strength. Most people underestimated Daniel’s strength.
“Daniel, Niqui, who is he…?” Holly muttered, but her words trailed off when she heard Zack’s gasp of surprise from inside the shed.
“What the—?” he cried, and Holly turned her attention to him.
“What is it, Zack?” she called to him, followed by, “Um, you need to come out here. Daniel and Niqui have caught our burglar.”
“I ain’t a burglar!” the kid protested. “I was just trying to see…”
“See what?” Daniel demanded. “See what you could steal, that’s what.”
“No!” the kid said defiantly.
Suddenly, Zack burst out of the cabin, apparently believing Daniel and Niqui might need a hand. He came to abrupt stop when he saw that the burglar was a little boy and currently well under control.
“So you broke into this shed?” Zack called to the boy, taking Holly’s hand and crossing the distance from the shed to their friends.
“I wanted to see!” he declared again.
Zack stared intently into the kid’s face. “What were you trying to see?”
“The chains and the anchors. I counted them before. I wanted to see if any are gone.”
Zack continued studying the boy, unspeaking. He glanced back at the shed. “How’d you get in before? Did you break the hinges?”
He shook his head. “No, there was a window before. It’s boarded up now.”
“When did you go in through the window?” Zack asked, frowning.
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