by Raven Snow
“Stranger things have happened.”
“They have, but unfortunate coincidences also happen.” Eric shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know what to think. Maybe there is some rhyme and reason to what she’s saying. Do we really think it’s the daughter, though?”
“I’ve met the whole family.” Rowen had revisited those encounters several times in her mind between the front door of the nursing home and her car. She revisited them again as she pulled out onto the road. “Shane and Ty don’t really seem like the type. Lacie is a piece of work, but she didn’t strike me as a murderer.”
“And Kate did strike you as a murderer?”
“Most teenagers strike me as murderers.”
“Really? I was more of a book worm growing up. I don’t think there was a murderous bone in my body.”
“Well, Kate strikes me as the sort who might have a murderous bone or two.”
“Do you mean that, or is it just process of elimination?”
“Good question.” Rowen chewed off some of the skin on her bottom lip and immediately regretted it when it stung. “We should look into what she said.”
“How?”
“Another good question… I don’t suppose you know where all the teens are hanging out these days.”
“I’ve never known where teens go. I didn’t hang out as a kid, I didn’t grow up here, and I’m not a pedophile.”
“Fair enough.” Rowen reached for her phone.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m asking someone who might know.”
***
“This is such a bad idea,” Eric grumbled as they waited in the parking lot.
Rowen made a point to slowly and dramatically roll her eyes. “You think all of my ideas are bad ideas today.”
“Then I wish you would take the hint and stop having bad ideas.”
“It’s not a bad idea.”
“You’re going to get us put on some sort of list.”
“I doubt that.”
“We should talk to the parents.”
“Lacie wouldn’t allow it.”
“Then just go to Shane.”
“Too risky.”
“Riskier than this?”
Fortunately, Rowen didn’t have to reply to that. A car pulled up beside them in the parking lot. Margo got out of the driver’s seat. She was dressed more practically than usual, wearing skinny jeans and the first pair of sneakers Rowen had seen on her feet in years. Her blond hair was pulled up in a messy bun atop her head. That was also unusual. She still looked like a model on her day off, but it caught Rowen by surprise none the less.
Rowen got out of the car while Margo was leaning into her backseat. A moment later, it became clear she was unpacking a couple of children. That explained it.
“Sorry,” said Margo, turning with Sara in her arms, balanced on one hip. The little girl’s gangly legs dangled. She would soon be too big to be held. Not that the little girl seemed to notice. She had her arms around Margo’s neck and her head resting on her shoulder. “Lydia ran out and asked if I wouldn’t mind taking the kids before I left. She and Reginald are… having some alone time.”
“That means sex,” said Roswell. He was older than his sister and had gotten out of the car on his own.
Margo flushed and looked back at the boy. “Ros!” she snapped, scolding him.
The boy looked back up at her, wide-eyed. “What? That’s what you meant isn’t it?”
“Sex,” Sara echoed.
“Shh,” Margo hissed. “You don’t know what that is.”
“Yeah we do!” Roswell raised his voice, his chubby cheeks going red with anger. “It’s when you’re alone with another adult. Mom made us go play somewhere else when she had sex.”
Margo relaxed a little. “Right… well… It’s not nice to say that word. Don’t say that word. Aunt Lydia is spending some time alone with Uncle Reginald, okay? Call it alone time.”
Ros looked at Rowen. “They’re having alone time,” he reported to her.
“I see.” Rowen cleared her throat and looked to Margo. “Everything all right with those two?”
Margo raised her shoulders in a halfhearted shrug. “Oh, sure. They’re both being pretty difficult, but they’ll get over it. Some time alone will do them good. Besides, having a couple of kids along where we’re going might make things look better.”
“At least there’s that.” Eric gave Sara a smile. “Hey, Sweetheart. Want to ride on my shoulders?”
Sara nodded. She was shy around most strangers, but she had seen Eric enough to grow used to him. “Thanks,” said Margo, handing the girl over. “She’s heavy.”
“How far are we walking?” asked Rowen.
“Not far. Come on.” Margo led the way. Ros switched between falling behind and running ahead. He kept picking up sticks and breaking them against trees. Margo didn’t say anything about it. She was probably hoping he would use up all his energy out here. Rowen knew how rowdy the kids could be. She didn’t envy Margo’s job of babysitter for the day.
“So you came out this way a lot back in high school?” Rowen thought she knew just about every corner of Lainswich. Even though she hadn’t had many friends, she had spent a lot of time outdoors. A secret trail in the woods felt like the kind of place she would be familiar with.
“Everyone did.”
“Not everyone. Obviously, I didn’t.”
“Everyone popular,” Margo said, rephrasing. Not that she had been popular back then. She had spent the majority of high school being bullied for both being a Greensmith and being considerably overweight. She had remedied at least one of those things. It had afforded her a modicum of attention from boys. Rowen had never thought of that as a particularly good thing. “Kids came back here to hang out…” Margo glanced at the kids before continuing. “They also came out here for… some alone time.”
“Did you come out here for alone time?”
“I plead the fifth.”
“Fair enough.” Rowen didn’t want to picture that anyway. She just hoped they didn’t run into any kids having alone time today. Hopefully not. The sun was still out. Surely kids would wait for the cover of darkness before doing something like that.
***
The overgrown trail finally opened up into the remains of a park. It was a shame nature had been allowed to take the place back. There was a slide and swings and a huge jungle gym. A lot of it still looked sturdy, if not a little rusty.
Ros gave a loud whoop and ran for the jungle gym. On Eric’s shoulders, Sara kicked her legs and whined to get down. “Hold on!” Margo yelled at Ros, running after him. “I’m not taking you brats to get tetanus shots!”
Some of the equipment actually seemed new. There was a tire swing, for instance. Maybe teens had put that up. Rowen spotted some ramps not that far away. She could hear voices and the spinning of wheels. Between trees, she saw faces aimed in her direction. Rowen headed that way before the teens could decide to run.
Rowen needn’t have worried. No one ran when Rowen approached. All but one of them stopped skating, though. They were all guys, Rowen noted. So much for trying to find Kate. All that was here were a bunch of scrawny youths with wispy mustaches and gauged ears.
“’Sup?” asked one of the boys. Around him boys snickered like he’d made some kind of joke.
Rowen did her best to ignore the laughter, even though it bothered her. Rowen hated teenagers when they traveled in packs like this. “I don’t suppose any of you has seen Kate Trainer?”
“Kate?” repeated the youth. Another boy wolf whistled. “Hey Ty, this girl is looking for your sister. Should I tell her where she is?”
Rowen looked past the youth and realized that Ty Trainer was there. He was standing back, away from the others. He was holding a skateboard but loosely, like he had forgotten it was even there. He didn’t even seem to hear his friend when he spoke. He was too busy staring at Rowen.
“Should I tell him she’s ba
ck at my place?” the youth continued. “In my bed,” he added, like what he had been getting at wasn’t obvious enough. The other boys snickered, but Ty still didn’t react. “Hey, Ty! Earth to Ty!”
Ty jumped, fumbling his skateboard in the process. It rolled down the ramp before tumbling into the grass. His face went red as he moved to retrieve it. “What?” he snapped.
“Do you think we could chat for a second?” If Kate wasn’t there, Ty was probably the next best thing.
Ty hesitated. He glanced back at his friends, but it looked like they had mostly lost interest. They were chatting amongst themselves. Several had started skating again. “Why?” asked Ty.
“Come on.” Rowen led the way toward the jungle gym. That left her between the boys skateboarding and Margo pushing the kids on the tire swing. Rowen didn’t want Ty to feel threatened, like she was trying to lure him away from the safety of his group.
Ty followed, his skateboard tucked under his arm. “Kate isn’t around, if that’s what you’re wondering. She might be here later, but she doesn’t come here during the day. During the day, it’s mostly people skateboarding. Why do you need her, anyway?”
“I just wanted to ask her some questions.” Rowen turned her back to the jungle gym and leaned against it. “Do you get along with your sister?”
Ty shrugged. “Not really. She’s my sister. Does anyone get along with their sister?”
Rowen wouldn’t really know the answer to that. She got along with her cousins all right. Peony and Willow had mostly always gotten along. “I’d like to think so.”
“She thinks she’s too cool for me. She thinks she’s an adult even though she’s only, like, two years older than I am.”
“That seemed like a big age gap when I was your age.”
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t feel like a big difference to me. She just thinks she’s special because she has a car. She can drive her friends around and stuff. She was the first out of all of them to get a car.”
“Do you have a car?” Rowen realized she didn’t actually know how old Ty was. “Are you old enough to drive?”
“I’m sixteen. But, no, all I have is this.” He hefted his skateboard up beneath his arm. “Kate got a car as soon as she turned sixteen, but… whatever.”
“Are you jealous?”
Ty snorted. “Naw. I’m not like her.”
“How so?”
That question seemed to catch Ty by surprise. He stared at Rowen like he had when she had first approached the ramps. Her questions were making him nervous. Rowen could feel it. The kid knew something, or at the very least he suspected it. “I don’t know,” he said, finally. “That car belonged to Grandpa. She was super excited to get it even though he’d, like, just died. I dunno. I wouldn’t want a car like that. I wouldn’t want a dead dude’s car; that’s just gonna make me sad.”
“Were the two of you really close to your grandfather?”
“I dunno.” Ty reached over and spun the tires on his skateboard. “About as close as we were to Bertha, I guess. Grandma was the one who did stuff with us. After she died, Grandpa didn’t want to do a whole lot. I guess he was depressed.”
“You still visited him, though.” It wasn’t a question, but Rowen still expected a response from Ty. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear come out of his mouth, but he had something else to say. She was sure of that.
“Yeah… Like I said, it was kind of like with Aunt Bertha.” Ty swallowed and spun the wheels harder. “We kept an eye on him.”
“He died from mixing up medications, right?”
“Yeah. Guess we didn’t do a very good job of keeping an eye on him.” Ty raised his head. He met Rowen’s gaze, setting his jaw as he made a conscious decision to face her. “Just ask me what you want to ask. Is this about my sister?”
Of all the things Rowen had expected him to say, that hadn’t been very high on the list. She tried not to let her surprise show on her face. “Why would this be about your sister?”
A muscle jumped in Ty’s jaw. He watched Rowen for several long seconds, quiet and appraising. The way Rowen had asked the question hadn’t been to try and feign ignorance. She was just keeping her hand close to her chest. Ideally, Ty would think she knew more than she did. Finally, Ty looked back down at his sneakers again. “I dunno.” He was back to mumbling but hadn’t ended the conversation. “I know a lot of it looks super suspicious. Kate gets whatever she wants. If she wants something and doesn’t get it, something happens. A friend will gift it to her or something. She can talk her friends into a lot, but I’m pretty sure she shoplifted a lot of junk too. Mom and Dad just ignore it. Well, Mom does anyway. Kate is her favorite.”
Rowen thought back to her few run-ins with Lacie. The woman and her daughter weren’t unalike. Lacie probably loved the idea of a miniature version of her running around.
“Dad is afraid to make her mad, so he just pretends like that stuff never happens.” Ty rolled his eyes. “Meanwhile, I never get away with anything.”
“And does your sister ever do anything worse than shoplifting?” asked Rowen, steering things in a much darker direction. “I won’t tell your parents you said anything,” she added when Ty didn’t respond. “You have my word. You don’t want her to keep getting away with this stuff, do you?”
“No,” Ty said softly. “No,” he said again, louder this time. “I don’t.”
“So, what’s the worst thing she’s ever done?”
“I… I don’t know for sure. I just know… she was always there the night before they died, and it always worked out super well for her in the end.”
“Tell me,” said Rowen, and Ty did. He told her everything he knew.
Chapter Fourteen
It was a difficult decision, deciding who to talk to next. Eric didn’t make things any easier. He had a case against talking to any of them. His reasoning made sense, but it wasn’t helpful. Rowen needed to confront someone.
“You should go to Ben if you think you have something,” Eric had suggested.
“I don’t have something,” Rowen reminded him. “I just have an idea. It really isn’t much to go on. I need to talk to Shane. It’s either him I need to talk to or Kate herself.”
Eric didn’t argue with Rowen after she said that. It was the lesser of two evils. Even Rowen knew that. It was infinitely better to corner an adult than a child. Not that Kate was technically a child anymore. She was eighteen now, Rowen reminded herself.
***
Shane was easy enough to find. He managed a local supermarket. According to Ty, he spent most of his time there. The supermarket worked him overtime a lot without overtime pay. Being put on a salary was the worst thing that had ever happened to the poor guy.
Sure enough, Shane was there when Rowen arrived. At least, that’s what the woman behind the customer service desk said. She popped her gum and pointed to the back. “He’s past the ‘employees only’ sign. A shipment came in today and it’s all messed up.”
The customer service worker didn’t use her phone to call back and make sure they were expected and Rowen didn’t wait for her to. She headed to the back, walking through the swinging double doors like she worked there herself. The woman hadn’t been wrong. The stock room was full. Wooden pallets were stacked dangerously high. Shane stood below a teetering stack of the things, waving his arms in an attempt to direct a man driving a fork lift. “This all looks super safe,” Rowen muttered before raising her voice. “Hey, Shane?”
Shane jumped and spun, nearly getting run over by the fork lift for his trouble. Rowen seethed through her teeth as he stumbled away. “Careful,” she said, like he needed to be told. Then again, seeing how the stock room was organized, maybe he did.
Shane swallowed and approached Rowen. “H-hey,” he said, still a little shaky from his near death experience. “What are you two doing here?”
“I wanted to talk.” Rowen glanced over at Eric. “About the house,” she added, sensing that she probably needed a reason.
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“Okay. Just a second.” Shane turned and ran back to the fork lift. He exchanged some words with the man operating it.
“You sure about this?” asked Eric.
“You’re really dragging your feet on this one. You know that, right?”
“Someone needs to be dragging their feet. Talking to Ty was bad enough. If we talk to the dad… Well, there won’t be any coming back from this. I can tell you that much.”
“Most of this town hates the Greensmiths. Why not add a few family members to the list?” Rowen smiled at her husband, even though she didn’t feel much like smiling.
Eric rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. He followed her when Shane waved them both over. There was a small office that looked to be all his own. Not that it was terribly impressive. The room was small and cramped. One of the walls looked like it was made out of plywood, like the office hadn’t been planned during the initial construction of the supermarket.
“Take a seat,” said Shane, motioning to a couple of uncomfortable-looking, fold-out chairs. He walked around his desk and sat down himself, immediately grabbing a yellow stress ball from in front of the computer. “Sorry about the state of this place. It’s insane. We get shipments and the people unloading the truck just start stacking things up to the ceiling. I’ve tried talking with them about it, but they change employees a lot.” He shrugged. “What can you do?”
Off the top of her head, Rowen could think of a few things she would do. She didn’t mention them. Telling Shane how to do his job wasn’t why she was here. “Work can be rough when everyone isn’t pulling their weight,” she said instead. It sounded innocuous enough.
“Very true.” Shane nodded as if she had just said something incredibly wise. “So, what brings the two of you here? You said it was something about the house?”
Rowen nodded and scooted forward a bit so that she was sitting on the edge of the chair. She heard the low hum of employees chatting through the walls. It made her want to lower her own voice, just in case they were somehow overheard. “It’s also about… Kate.”
“Kate?” Shane repeated. He suddenly sat up a little straighter. “Did something happen?! Is she all right?!”
