The Secrets of Lake Road (33 page)

“Jo, wait,” he called. “I can explain.”

She kept running. Why wasn’t Cougar barking, alerting everyone there was someone in the woods? She wanted someone, anyone, to know she was there, she wasn’t to blame.

She reached Lake Road and darted across. She stumbled into the ballpark. She was a few steps away from the dirt road that led into the colony, a few steps away from the cabins when Kevin caught up to her. His feet tangled with hers, tripping her from behind. Her body hit the ground with a thud.

He moved on top of her. She tried to roll him off, twisting and turning, wrestling her way out from under him. He grabbed her shoulders and flipped her onto her back, pinning her hips with his weight. Sweat dripped from his nose and chin.

“Let me explain,” he said, panting.

She bucked. “Get off!” she yelled.

He held her down. “Not until you listen to me.”

She wriggled.

“Please,” he said. “Just let me explain.”

“No.” She brought her leg up and kneed him as hard as she could. He cried out and rolled off her, cupping his hands between his legs.

She sprung to her feet. He remained coiled in the grass, his face contorted in pain. She should leave him here, run back to
The Pop-Inn
. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. Instead she stood over him, unable to move away. After all their years together, growing up together, a part of her understood she would always love him no matter what he had done. She couldn’t switch her feelings off as though she were turning off a light. It wasn’t that easy.

After a few minutes he unfolded his body, still lying on his side. Neither of them spoke for several more seconds.

“You deserved that,” she said.

“I know.”

“I was never yours to take. I will never be yours. But if it makes you feel any better, I was never Billy’s, either.” She wouldn’t, couldn’t, be owned by either of them, not then and not now.

He didn’t say anything, and rolled onto his back, staring at the night sky.

“How could you let me think what happened that night was my fault? How could you not tell me the truth?”

“I’m sorry.” He was crying, sobbing. “You have to understand. You wouldn’t have married me if I did.”

“How do you know what I would’ve done?” she asked. “You never gave me a chance.” She paused, sure of only one thing. “I won’t tell anyone what you did. I already have one child who lost a father. I don’t want to have two.” Her own tears started falling, and she wiped them from her cheeks. “But I don’t know what Dee Dee and Patricia will do.”

He turned his head away as though it hurt to look at her. “Everything I did. All of it,” he said. “I swear, I did it for you.”

“No, Kevin, you didn’t. You did it for you.”

*   *   *

Jo pulled open the screen door to
The Pop-Inn
and stepped inside. Every inch of her body hurt from the inside out. It even hurt to think. All she wanted was to fall into bed. She wasn’t more than two steps across the porch when Caroline rushed in behind her. Caroline’s sneakers were covered in mud and her arms and legs were marred with scratches. Her face was pale and she was breathing hard.

Jo was about to ask her daughter if she was messing with Stimpy’s traps again when Caroline threw herself into Jo’s arms and said, “I found Sara’s body.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

It was close to three a.m., the dead hour. The Pavilion and bar had closed. Most of the lake community were tucked safely in their beds fast asleep, unaware of the news.

Caroline stood on the beach next to her friends. Their parents stood behind them. Mr. Roberts put his hand on Megan’s shoulder. Mrs. Roberts bent her head toward Caroline’s mother and murmured something about the emotional state of the drowned little girl’s mother.

“She’s in good hands,” Caroline’s mother assured her.

Cougar lay down near Adam’s feet. The dog chomped happily on a piece of beef jerky. Since it was Cougar who found the little girl, the dog became a celebrity of sorts with the parents stopping to pat his head.

While their group waited for the underwater recovery team’s watercraft to return with the body, Sheriff Borg peppered Caroline and the other kids with questions about what they were doing at the other end of the lake so late at night, and what was Stimpy’s dog doing with them?

The twins explained they had been searching for Adam’s fishing hole when Cougar found her. Adam mumbled something about his secret spot no longer being secret.

“And the dog?” the sheriff asked just as Stimpy approached from the pier.

Caroline opened her mouth, willing to take full responsibility, but Stimpy spoke up before she had a chance. He assured the sheriff he wasn’t interested in pressing charges, although he was quite certain the kids not only stole his dog, but also released the snappers from his traps.

Caroline didn’t believe Stimpy was letting them off easy because it was the right thing to do. No, he simply didn’t want to look like the bad guy in front of their parents, who also happened to be paying customers.

Seizing the opportunity to get Cougar away from Stimpy once and for all, she said, “The dog should go to Adam.” She glanced at Adam’s mother, who didn’t object. “You don’t even take care of him,” she said to Stimpy. “He’s tied up all day and night. He’s neglected and it’s cruel.”

“The law protects animals, too,” Caroline’s mother said, jumping in and sticking up for her. “Isn’t that right, Sheriff?”

“That’s right,” the sheriff said.

“Why, you little—” Stimpy was cut-off when Heil appeared behind him and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Under the circumstances,” Heil said, “what harm is there in letting the boy have the dog?” He made sure to look at each and every one of the kids as he spoke, his beady eyes roaming their guilty faces.

“Big of you,” Caroline’s mother said.

Caroline elbowed her. She didn’t want her mother to make matters worse. It was no secret neither Stimpy nor Heil were friends of her family nor did the men give any indication that they’d like to be. Heil could easily tell Stimpy to press charges, to take the dog back, and the man would listen. Heil made the rules at the lake. He would always make the rules, whether anyone liked it or not.

Stimpy grumbled but was otherwise willing to let the dog go under Heil’s orders.

“Can I keep him, Mom?” Adam asked.

“I don’t see why not,” his mother said.

Adam hugged Cougar tightly.

They turned their attention toward the lake as the recovery team’s watercraft slowly made its way to the pier.

Heil walked away from the group, directing Stimpy to open the two large gates that lead to the beach. The
SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK
sign rattled against the chain-link fence as though it were saying,
I told you so
.

The kids and parents parted as the coroner’s vehicle backed onto the sand. Two men hopped out, opened the back doors, and pulled out a stretcher.

Sara’s mother had been waiting at the pier. She released the most terrifying sound Caroline had ever heard. Caroline pinched her eyes closed and waited for the cry to end. She searched for comfort in the thought that at least Sara was finally with her mother. When she opened her eyes again, the men were loading Sara’s body into the back of the van. The vehicle rolled off the beach in a hushed silence until it reached the parking lot, where the gravel crackled under its tires. It drove behind the Pavilion and up the hill onto Lake Road and out of sight.

Underwater recovery started packing their gear. One of the men explained Sara’s body most likely surfaced sometime during the storm on that first night, a term they called
refloating,
and the wind had carried her to the south end of the lake. It was the reason they hadn’t been able to find her sooner.

*   *   *

Once underwater recovery was packed and gone, Caroline’s friends and their parents started making their way home. No one talked. There was nothing left to say.

Sheriff Borg tipped his hat at Caroline and her mother, pausing a long time to look over her mother’s bruised face.

“It’s a long story,” her mother told him. “But you’ll have to ask Dee Dee if you want to hear it. I’m sure she’ll be happy to tell you all about it.”

The sheriff continued staring at her mother as though he had more to say, but maybe under the circumstances he decided it could wait because he said, “Fair enough,” and walked away. He stopped to talk with Chris’s mother, Dee Dee. Chris and Johnny were with her. Caroline had just noticed they had been watching from the pier. Caroline couldn’t help but think Johnny was with his new family, and it was her fault.

Her mother looked at the group on the pier, and Caroline wondered if she were thinking the same thing, if she blamed Caroline.

“I’m heading home,” her mother said. “Are you coming?”

“In a minute.”

Once her mother walked away, Johnny headed in Caroline’s direction. He bumped her shoulder and motioned toward the south end of the lake. “You did good,” he said.

She shrugged. “It was Cougar who found her.”

“Yeah, but you’re the one who brought the dog with you.”

“I suppose.” She paused and looked in the direction where the sheriff and Dee Dee were talking. She glanced back at Johnny. “I’m real sorry about what I did to you.” It was the only other thing she could think to say.

“Forget about it,” he said. “It’s not your fault.”

He was right. She was twelve years old and couldn’t be held responsible for her parents’ lies.

“It’s funny,” he said. “But I’m not really mad. I mean, it’s messed up finding out Kevin’s not my real dad, but it kind of makes sense. Now I know why things were always weird between him and me, you know?”

She nodded.

Johnny nudged her shoulder again. “I’m staying with Chris and his mom until the end of the summer. At least until I figure things out.” He shrugged. “I wanted you to know.”

Caroline looked at the ground and forced out the word
okay
.

“You’re still my little sister, you know.”

“Half-sister,” she said.

“Technically, true.” He wrapped an arm around her. “I’m still going to pick on you.”

“Great.”

He laughed and dropped his arm. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around the watering hole.” He started walking away.

“Hey, Johnny,” she called.

He turned around.

“No halfsies,” she said. “Brother and sister.”

“You got it,” he said and smiled his crazy silly smile that could break a million girls’ hearts.

*   *   *

Gram was pulling out the last of the boxes in the back closet off the screened-in porch. She told Caroline she was determined to get through all the old junk and be done with it. She had been directing Caroline’s mother all morning:
Pick up this box and set it out for the trash, carry this one to the car to donate, try not to break anything in this box and put it in the hall closet
.

Her mother didn’t complain and did what Gram had asked her to do. However, Caroline noticed every move her mother made was done with slow, careful steps, as though she were recovering from a bad fall. There were bruises on her mother’s body to match the shiner on her face. Despite looking beat-up, her mother seemed, oh, Caroline didn’t know,
better
somehow. There was something different about her, something Caroline struggled to name, but she didn’t put much effort into it anyhow. She no longer felt as though it was her responsibility to figure her mother out. She learned maybe it was better to leave some things alone.

“I can help,” Caroline said to Gram when she dropped another box onto the floor outside Caroline’s bedroom door.

“No, you should be outside,” Gram said. “Go on and have fun. You shouldn’t be hanging around inside, not on a day like today.”

When Gram left to get another box, Caroline closed her bedroom door, climbed out the window, and crawled into the arms of the willow tree. Her mother continued carrying boxes in and out of the cabin. She listened to the door creak open and bang closed. Every now and again Gram would call to have her mother lift something heavy.

Her father’s truck was gone. He had told her late last night when she had returned to the cabin that he’d be on the road for awhile, and he had no idea when he would return. Something about the way he said it made her sad, although he assured her it had nothing to do with her or the fact that Johnny wasn’t his. She didn’t believe him nor did she try to stop him from leaving.

There was more stomping coming from the screened-in porch, and then the door slammed for the last time. Maybe her mother decided she had had enough and was taking off too.

“Caroline,” her mother called. “Are you out here?”

“Over here,” she said, and hopped down from her hiding spot. She moved the long sweeping branches aside and emerged from under the tree where her mother stood waiting on the other side.

“I’m going for a drive,” her mother said.

Of course you are,
Caroline thought, but didn’t say. She only nodded.

Her mother hesitated, as if she was deciding whether or not to say whatever else was on her mind. In another second she asked, “Do you want to come with me?”

The question surprised Caroline. Her mother had never asked her to come along before. A week ago she would’ve jumped at the chance to be with her. But now?

Now, Caroline decided, she didn’t need to be.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Jo felt as though she was seeing her daughter for the first time in a long time. There was something new about her, a maturity she hadn’t seen before.

“Come on, come for a drive with me,” she said. “I can’t promise the radio station will play anything good, but I doubt the jukebox in the Pavilion is any better.”

A hint of a smile touched the corners of Caroline’s lips. “You’re right about the jukebox,” she said. “But I’m heading to the lake for the fishing tournament.”

“Did you enter?”

“Not this year. I promised Adam I’d go and cheer him on.”

“Oh,” she said, somewhat surprised by her disappointment that her daughter had other plans. After all, she hadn’t intended on asking her to come along. It was something that occurred to her at the last minute, that it was time to have the conversation she had been putting off. But nonetheless she said, “Well, if you promised Adam.”