The Edge of Nowhere (12 page)

His face lit up. “Kids from school? Why can’t you go?”

“Debbie said I probably wouldn’t make it. On the bike. You know.” She nodded to where her bicycle sat, this time next to the Dumpster.

Seth said, “Oh yeah. To get out to the lake, you definitely need a better bike than that.”

“I guess. But I was sort of thinking Debbie worries too much and maybe that’s why she didn’t want me to go.”

Seth said, “That’d probably be because of her daughter. That’s how Reese died. On her bike.”

“Oh.” Becca hadn’t known that. Only that Ms. Ward, the registrar from the school, had killed her. She wanted to know more, but Seth was saying that he’d just come into the Star Store to pick up his paycheck and, “Sammy and I can run you out to Goss Lake if you like.”

She said, “Who’s Sammy?” and Seth shot her a grin.

“Come and meet him,” he said.

SAMMY TURNED OUT
to be Seth’s car. It was a Volkswagen, a vintage model from 1965. It was completely restored, with a paint job so shiny that Becca could see her face in it.

Before they left the Star Store parking lot, Seth pointed to a cottagelike building next door, mustard colored, with a garden in front. That, he told her, was South Whidbey Commons. “If you want to meet people—outside of the usual high school crowd—that’s where you should go. After school and on weekends. I play chess there sometimes. Guitar, too, with my trio. It’s a good hangout for people.”

They trundled their way up Second Street as Seth explained there were several different ways to get out to Goss Lake, but Debbie had been more or less right about the ride. No matter the route, there were plenty of hills.

The way he chose was straight out Second Street and onto a road called Saratoga. This flashed in and out of the woods, passing meadows and wetlands, and curving high up along the passage between Whidbey and Camano Islands.

When they reached Goss Lake, Becca saw only a slice of it through the trees. It seemed protected from all wind, hidden away in a cavity of land.

There were kids everywhere. Most of them were whizzing in one direction on the road that ran around the lake. Others stood along the road with stopwatches, yelling out times. Becca said to Seth, “Wow. It’s supposed to be a time trial for something. I didn’t think there’d be so many kids. What d’you think’s going on?”

Seth watched them for a minute, resting his hands on the top of the steering wheel as he idled Sammy at the stop sign just at the edge of the route the bicyclers were following. “Looks like they’re getting ready for a race, doing laps around the lake,” he said. “It’s probably a fund-raiser.” He went on to say that there was
always
a fund-raiser for one cause or another going on on the island. She’d get used to that.

They watched the kids for another minute, with Seth concentrating on every rider that went by. Becca finally said to him, “Are you looking for someone?”

He said, “Who me? Nah.” He waved off the idea. “What about you? Who’re you s’posed to meet?”

“Some kids,” she said.

“That’s helpful,” he joked.

“Derric Mathieson,” she told him.

Becca wasn’t ready at all for what came next. The air in the car went completely dead, as if life itself had been sucked right out of the old VW. In its place Becca heard
prick . . . did not . . . oh yeah right . . . like I really believe . . .

Warily, Becca glanced at Seth. She felt uneasy when she saw that his eyes had gone flat.

Finally, he spoke. His voice sounded careful and a little cagey. “Can’t take you any farther than this. Too many bikes. Everyone’s probably hanging around the boat launch. That’d be the logical place to start the ride.” He pointed to the right. The launch was just along the road a ways, he told her. Someone would be there who could take her back into Langley later. “I can’t stay,” he said. “You’ll ask someone for a ride, right?”

He sounded concerned, sort of sorry to be leaving her on her own. But
no way no way . . . just what I need . . . jerk-off buttwipe
was on his mind and his expression remained what it was. Becca had the feeling that she needed to get away from him. She needed to do it quickly, even if it meant that she would have to walk the entire distance back to Langley later.

BECCA MADE HER
way along the narrow road in the direction that Seth had indicated. The bikes whizzed by. Kids along the road called out times and encouragement. As the riders flew by her, Becca caught some of what was going on in their heads. She couldn’t, of course, attach the thoughts to anyone because the thoughts were like leaves in the wind. There were the swear words of someone getting tired of riding. Along with them were the words that told her some boys were admiring the butts of some of the girls as they rode. Someone was hot, and a whole lot of kids were thirsty. But it all felt friendly and innocent. Nothing like those final moments with Seth.

Becca found the boat launch. A table was set up at the top of the driveway down to a parking lot, and at the table there were three kids sitting with a stack of paperwork while two other kids were recording times being reported by stopwatch holders. One of these latter kids was Derric. He saw Becca and smiled and waved.

“You made it!” he cried. “Come on over. Watch out for the bikes.”

As she crossed carefully, she saw him hand off a clipboard to one of the kids at the table. He came up to her and flashed his high-wattage smile.

He said, “How’d you get here? Manage to ride your bike? Pretty impressive . . . for a girl,” and he grinned again.

She said, “I wish. Seth Darrow brought me. But he couldn’t stay.”

Derric said, “Oh, too bad,” but Becca heard a whisper that said
close close close
and sighed from him the way clouds moved, darker ones lower than lighter because the darker clouds were heavier, containing the rain. He added, “Anyway, glad you’re here,” and
nice
was there, too, along with
way too close
and then
feels . . . rejoice.

She wondered what all this meant. Did he think it was nice to have her around? Did he rejoice when she was near? But why would he when he barely knew her?

“Sort of the way it feels,” he said with a shrug.

She felt herself get stiff, as if he’d answered her thought. She said, “Huh?”

He said, “It always feels too bad when someone doesn’t want to be part of something, you know?”

“Oh,” she said. “Seth.”

“Yeah. Seth.”

There were no swear words in Derric’s thoughts and nothing nasty when he said Seth’s name, but the dark clouds came again and with them the smell of smoke, as if a fire were burning five feet away. She said to Derric, “D’you know Seth? Well, I guess you do. I mean everyone knows everyone it seems. Around here.”

“Oh yeah,” Derric said. “I do know Seth,” and his tone told Becca that something bad had happened between them. He took Becca’s arm then and brought her farther off the side of the road. His grip on her arm was firm and she thought he intended to tell her something. But then he added, “We need to get more out of the way here. Someone loses control, and one of us gets hurt.”

A FLURRY OF
gutter whispers hurled at them. Becca knew without seeing who was approaching. She wasn’t surprised when Jenn screeched up and braked in the dust at the side of the road.

“What the hell’re
you
doing here? Get out of the way. Don’t you
see
what’s going on?” More gutter whispers followed but Becca could tell Jenn didn’t want to say them in front of Derric although if Derric hadn’t been standing at her side still with his hand on her arm, Becca knew Jenn would have let loose. “These’re bicycle trials and you’re in the way! What’s the matter with you? Are you a retard or something? I thought you couldn’t get out here anyway. Why’d you come? Worried there might be a
cash
register around?”

Becca fell back a step. The heat of Jenn’s anger was far stronger than the smoke of Derric’s whispers.

Derric’s grip on her tightened. He said, “Seth brought her. It’s cool, Jenn.”

Jenn’s eyes widened. She hooted. “Seth
Darrow
? Wow. You’re a deep one, huh?” Her glance went from Becca to Derric to Derric’s hand on Becca’s arm. Then she seemed to catch sight of the bag from the Star Store that Becca was holding, the bag with the pumpkins and the Doritos inside. She said with a smirk, “So what’s that, then? Your lunch or your score?”

Becca said in a stumble of words, “It’s . . . well . . . there’s pumpkins.” She was too embarrassed to add that there were Doritos as well, all things considered. Jenn was as trim as a cheetah, and she didn’t need to know there were reasons that Becca herself was heading on the fast track to l-a-r-d. She added, stupidly, “I got them for Debbie’s kids.”

Jenn rolled her eyes. “Aren’t
you
the little saint. Like no one knows why you hang around those kids, Beck-
kuh
.” She shook her head, gave a laugh, and took off again.

When she was gone, Becca realized Derric still had his hand on her arm, but his grip had loosened and now he was patting her and his whisper was
sorry . . . oh gosh . . . stupid
,
although he didn’t say anything
.
She was the one to speak.

She said, “Why’s she hate me so much?”

Derric moved his hand briefly from her arm to her shoulder. “It’s not you. Okay?”

“Who is it, then? ’Cause the way I see it, I haven’t done a thing to her except see a ten and not a twenty.”

Derric looked confused. “What?” he asked her.

“Never mind,” she told him. “It’s dumb. Forget it.”

TEN

T
he first outside job that Debbie had for Becca in exchange for her room at the motel came on Saturday following the bike trials on Goss Lake. It wasn’t too huge a job, Debbie told her that morning, but it was a bit dirty. Still it needed doing.

The job turned out to involve the entire front of the motel. There, flower beds ran along the two streets at whose junction the Cliff Motel sat, and they also formed a border between the motel rooms and the parking lot. Just outside the door to room 444, Debbie placed a bucket of tools, a huge container of bulb food, and two dozen bags crammed with bulbs. Autumn, she said, was the time for planting. She herself was heading out for groceries, along with Chloe and Josh.

Once Debbie and the kids had rumbled off, Becca got out the cell phone. So far, she’d continued to phone Laurel. So far, Laurel had continued not to respond. Unable to help it, Becca had begun to dwell on the unthinkable: that somehow Jeff Corrie had managed to track her mother. If he
had
found Laurel, then she would have ditched her cell phone as soon as she saw him. There was no way she’d want him to be able to trace Becca, and that cell phone would have been one of the ways.

Once again when Becca tried, there was no contact. She told herself Laurel was okay, okay, okay,
okay
. She shoved the phone in her pocket and began with the bulbs. Each bag held more than a dozen, she saw. With two dozen bags to deal with, she was going to be at it for quite a while.