The Lifeguard

by Richie Tankersley Cusick

  For the next few hours Donna gave Kelsey such an insider’s view of the island that she fell totally in love with it. It wasn’t just the beach and the village and the festive atmosphere that she found so fascinating—it was the friendly attitude everyone seemed to have. Donna made sure Kelsey visited every store, and afterwards they stopped in at Donna’s restaurant and got ice cream to eat on their way back to the beach. As they walked, Donna recalled hilarious moments from her and Skip’s childhoods, making Kelsey laugh till she hurt. For the first time, she felt glad to be there, but as they came out through some trees onto a rocky embankment, she saw the cliffs towering close by, and her mood changed abruptly. Suddenly it didn’t seem right, she and Donna having such a wonderful time, while somewhere…forgotten…Beth was—

  “What did Skip mean back there?” Kelsey interrupted, and Donna gave her a strange look.

  “About what?”

  “About people taking chances on the beach after dark, and your being lucky and finding them.”

  “Oh. That.” Donna sighed and climbed over the rocks, obviously following some invisible path that she had taken many times before. “It happens sometimes, even when people are warned. It’s like I told you, the guys just can’t be on duty all the time. People think they’re safe ’cause they’re only going in for a minute, just to wade or take a quick dip…”

  In spite of the hot sun, Kelsey shivered. “And they—”

  “Drown,” Donna finished. “The tides are so strong…so different all around the island. People just get pulled out before they know it—and there’s no one around to help.”

  Kelsey reached out to steady herself, but Donna was a few paces ahead and didn’t see.

  “We’ve had two drownings already this summer. It’s not something we publicize—I mean, the last thing we want is for people to be afraid of this place.”

  “That’s…horrible,” Kelsey murmured. She felt weak, and Donna was getting farther away.

  “But like I said, it’s lucky they were found. They were both girls about our age—vacationing on the island. I’m glad I didn’t find them; I think I’d go nuts.”

  Kelsey took a deep breath, a hesitant step. The rocks were hard to climb, but Donna didn’t seem to be having any trouble. “Who did find them?”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t know him,” Donna’s voice was getting farther and farther away. “His name is Isaac. He’s an old fisherman who hangs around the island—really creepy-looking—with an eye patch.”

  Kelsey stumbled, caught herself, trudged on. “I…I do know him…” She wasn’t sure if she had spoken aloud or only inside her head, but Donna was calling back.

  “There’s a really neat view from up here, if I don’t have a heart attack first You can see all the cliffs and both beaches, and Skip’s house is just over there—there’s a road, but it’s usually locked up.”

  “Road? Donna, are we going to the lighthouse?” Kelsey stopped, but Donna continued to climb.

  “Sure! Don’t you want to see it?”

  “I thought we weren’t supposed to—”

  “We’re not.” Donna grinned sheepishly back over her shoulder. “But I love it up here, It’s so private and the view is the best. Come on!”

  Sighing, Kelsey started after her again, already feeling little ripples of apprehension through her body. She didn’t want to run into Isaac again…or Neale…

  “Here we are! Up you go!” Donna gave her a boost, and Kelsey stumbled onto solid ground at last, gasping for breath. “It’s a shortcut,” Donna said apologetically, putting her arm around Kelsey, steering her forward. “I should have put you in training first—sorry.” She didn’t seem to notice how Kelsey clung to her as they went closer to the lighthouse. “It’s something, huh?” Donna tilted her head, gazing up at the imposing structure. “It was built in 1824. The last lighthouse keeper lived here for over forty years.”

  Kelsey raised her eyes reluctantly, her fingers clamping onto Donna’s arm. Again it was there—again—that feeling of being watched… “They just let it go,” Donna said sadly.

  “After all its years of warning people away from the rocks…of course it didn’t always help. Lots of ships went down in the cove. Lots of folks still think the lighthouse is haunted…that all the souls of the drowned walk in the tower…and cry…and try to lure new souls to their deaths…”

  Kelsey squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force the fear away…the cry of the wind…the unseen eyes that watched…watched…

  “Maybe it was them,” Donna whispered, “Maybe Beth heard them calling her and—”

  “Come on,” Kelsey said firmly. She fought down mounting terror and pulled Donna along behind her, hurrying, not really seeing clearly, tugging her back down the embankment as she tried to keep her balance. She heard Donna stumbling along behind her, the wail of the wind, her own heart pounding—and she saw the rocks, weaving unsteadily beneath her feet—but not the thing—she didn’t see the awful thing sticking out of the grass, clawing at the air as if it were still alive, clawing at her ankle like a last hope—

  She didn’t see the thing until she fell, and Donna fell beside her, until she heard Donna scream, and she rolled over, panicky, and reached out to grab Donna’s hand.

  Only it wasn’t Donna’s hand she grabbed.

  And it wasn’t Donna’s eyes staring back at her, empty and glazed with horror.

  Chapter 7

  KELSEY DIDN’T REMEMBER GETTING back down the cliff. It was as if some automatic pilot had taken over and flung them both onto the beach and set their legs in motion. She was vaguely aware of running, of Donna’s shout, of people looking at them as if they’d lost their minds, but it wasn’t until she heard a horn honking that she came fully to her senses.

  “Skip! Skip! Oh, thank God—Skip!” It was Donna’s shrill voice that shattered the last of Kelsey’s stupor, and she saw the jeep slamming to a halt on the sand, and Donna throwing herself on Skip and crowds gathering to listen as Donna babbled. “Skip—up there—you’ve got to come—Skip—”

  He was half out of the jeep with his arms on her shoulders. “Donna, snap out of it. Stop it now, tell me what’s wrong—”

  “Oh, Skip—up there—”

  “Where?”

  “There—there—” Donna made a blubbering sound, and Skip shoved her into the jeep. The crowd was growing, people attracted by the shouts, some straining to look up the beach, others starting to walk in that direction.

  “Come on, Kelsey, get in.”

  They took off in a spray of sand, and Kelsey turned her face into the wind, glad for the stinging shock against her cheeks. Donna was still jabbering in the front beside Skip, and from time to time he reached over and patted her, nodding, his face anxious but baffled. As the curious dwindled away behind them, Kelsey could see the cliffs getting closer, and she pressed her fists into her stomach, trying to stop the awful dread.

  They jolted to a stop beside the locked gate, and Skip jumped out. “Okay. Where?”

  “Up there. On the other side. It was in some weeds.” Donna shuddered as Kelsey got out and raised her eyes slowly to the lighthouse. “Shouldn’t you call for help?”

  “Not till I’m sure I really need it.” Skip pulled at the chain around his neck, his expression annoyed. “Terrific—I’ve lost my key again.”

  “You guys are always losing your keys!” Donna’s voice rose. “Skip, hurry!”

  “No, wait—here it is—” Skip took a blue key from his pocket, fiddled with the lock, and unwound the chain. Then he put his hands on his hips, scanning the face of the rock.

  “You don’t believe me,” Donna said, hurt.

  “I didn’t say that at all. All I said was—”

  “Maybe you should at least call Neale,” Donna insisted. “Call someone, Skip, please!”

  “Neale’s with his dad on the search party, and Justin’s due back any second,” Skip mumbled, eyes still studying the rocks above. “And what were you two doing up there anyway? Yo
u know better, Donna; you know how dangerous that place is.”

  “Don’t lecture me, Skip!” Donna shouted. He whipped around, and her face was pale and pleading. “Skip, there’s really somebody up there—you’ve got to help her—you’ve got—”

  “You can’t help her. I think she’s dead.” Kelsey bit her lower lip and saw the others staring at her.

  Skip let out a low whistle. “Are you sure?”

  “Maybe just unconscious—” Donna began, but Kelsey shook her head and walked to the gate.

  “No, her eyes were…empty. She was dead.”

  “You…you mean you really found a body up there?” Skip was staring at them in total astonishment, and they nodded in unison. “Was it Beth?” Skip asked at last.

  The girls exchanged desperate looks, then Donna shut her eyes, swallowing hard. “I don’t know—it happened so fast—”

  “You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know—”

  “We didn’t really see her face!” Donna broke in, panicky. “We just tripped over her—Skip—get up there!”

  “Okay, okay, just don’t get hysterical on me. You wait here.”

  “No, we—”

  “Wait here, Donna, I mean it!”

  They watched helplessly as Skip disappeared up the hill. Kelsey wasn’t sure just how far down the cliff she and Donna had gone, how long it would take before Skip finally found that awful thing sprawled in the weeds. She could feel her pulse hammering, and when she looked over at Donna, her friend looked back miserably at her.

  “What’s taking him so long?” Donna groaned. I thought he’d be hollering by now.”

  “Maybe he’s in shock,” Kelsey murmured.

  “Or throwing up. That’s what I feel like doing, just throwing up.” Donna covered her face with her hands, her voice shaking. “Oh, God, Kelsey…if it was Beth…I swear I really didn’t see her face…if it is…if it—”

  “Come on, I’m going for help—no, wait, look, there he is—” As they hurried over to meet him, Kelsey tried to get a glimpse of his face, steeling herself for the worst. But it wasn’t grief distorting his face. It was anger.

  “I guess you think you’re pretty damn cute, huh, you two?” He nodded at them, his lips pressed into a sneer. “Pretty funny stuff, calling me away from the beach like that. What is this, Scare the Lifeguard Day?”

  Donna looked flabbergasted. “Skip, what are you talking about?”

  “Oh, come off it, Donna—okay, so I fell for your stupid joke. Dumb me, ha, ha. You just better hope nobody drowned back there while you’ve had me on this wild goose chase.” Skip shook his head and slammed the gate back into place. “Now get out of here. You can walk back.”

  “Skip—”

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Kelsey ran up, catching his arm, her eyes wide with disbelief. “This isn’t a joke! Believe me, there’s nothing funny about it—there’s a girl lying up there, and she was dead! Didn’t you see her?”

  “No. And you didn’t, either.”

  “Well, then, you must have looked in the wrong place,” Donna was babbling again, grabbing Skip’s shoulders, shaking him. “You must have stepped right over her…or maybe…she rolled down the hill! You shook the ground, and she rolled right down—”

  “Rolled right—” Skip rolled his eyes and pushed Donna firmly away. “Donna, you are a typical, illogical, emotional female. Rolled down the hill!” he snorted and climbed back into the jeep. “There is nobody up there! Dead or alive! If you don’t believe me, go see for yourself.”

  “No!” Donna looked stricken at the prospect of meeting up with a corpse for the second time, but then she saw the look on his face. “All right, we will go back! We’ll show you!”

  “You will not. You’re not supposed to go up there and you know it. If you go back, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”

  “Then come with us. I dare you!”

  “Oh. Great, Donna. Terrific. You really do want me to lose my job. No way. I’ve listened to you enough for one day.” Skip gunned the motor and the jeep made a sharp half turn. “You’re crazy, Donna. A crazy, lamebrain female if there ever was one.”

  “But I saw her, too!” Kelsey’s voice rang out, firm and clear over Donna’s protests, and Skip hesitated. “She was up there, and I fell over her, and her face was only this far from mine! I saw her! We both couldn’t have made her up!”

  Skip pondered this, his green eyes lazily playing over her face, then finally he chuckled. “Okay, I’ll give you this one, you guys are pretty convincing. But you better watch out—I’ll get you back one way or another.”

  “Jerk!” Donna shouted as the jeep sped off down the beach. “Didn’t I tell you he could be a real jerk? And a chauvinist? Sometimes he makes me so mad! Kelsey, where are you going?”

  But Kelsey was already climbing up over the gate and didn’t stop to answer. By the time she reached the top of the cliff she was sweaty and out of breath, but she forced herself down the other side and began to search. Within seconds Donna ran up, gasping, behind her.

  “Kelsey—”

  “It’s not here, Donna, Skip wasn’t playing around; it’s not here anywhere.”

  “But that’s crazy, it must be! Something like that just couldn’t disappear! Let’s look for it! Oh, God, what am I saying? I must be out of my mind; I just said let’s look for a dead body! Oh, Kelsey—”

  “It’s no use, it just isn’t here.” Kelsey shook her head angrily and plopped down on the ground. The lighthouse rose above them, watchful and silent, and Kelsey stared at it, thoroughly shaken.

  Donna dropped down beside her. “What are we gonna do? Call the sheriff?”

  Kelsey ripped a handful of weeds from between the rocks. “And tell him what?”

  “You’re right. He’d think we’re crazy, too. We can’t prove a thing. And Sheriff Rickert hates practical jokes—he’d just as soon throw us in jail as look at us.” She grew silent for several long minutes, then glanced uncertainly at Kelsey. “We did see it, didn’t we? We didn’t imagine it?”

  “Things like this only happen in movies,” Kelsey grumbled, “not in real life. Oh, I wish you’d seen her face!”

  “You do? Why? So I could have nightmares till I die?” Donna was instantly contrite. “Sorry. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody, especially you. You think it might have been Beth? Can you remember anything about her face?”

  Again Kelsey saw those wide-open eyes, staring and vacant, filled with fear. “No,” she squeezed her own eyes shut, forcing the memory away. “Just her eyes. The rest of her face was hidden in the grass.”

  “Then we’re back to nothing,” Donna sighed. She shaded her eyes and stared off toward the ocean. “I guess I can’t really blame Skip for being mad. For thinking it was just some kind of sick joke. It is pretty hard to believe. I mean, this whole thing with Beth disappearing and all—he’s got to be thinking about all that horrible stuff at school. Those Brookfield Murders.”

  Kelsey, scanning the slant of the cliff as it meandered to the sea, only half heard her. “What?”

  “Oh, those coed killings. Don’t tell me you never heard about the Brookfield Murders—it was all over the news.”

  This time Kelsey sat up and leaned forward.

  “I do remember something about that. At least I think I do. Some boarding school, wasn’t it? But I don’t remember all the details.”

  “Well, that was Skip’s school. Brookfield. Named after the town, also Brookfield. Where he and Justin were roommates.” Donna wrinkled her nose and tilted her face into the breeze. “Skip said it got really scary around there for a while, cops swarming everywhere you looked. Girls just started disappearing.”

  “How horrible. Did he know any of them?”

  “He dated some of them.” She gave a wry smile. “He told me about them, of course. Said they were all really nice girls—not the kind who’d just walk away with anybody or hop in some stranger’s car. He was really upset about it when he and Justin were hom
e for spring break. No clues, no leads, nothing. Those girls vanished into thin air, and no one could find them. They still haven’t found them.”

  Kelsey felt a shiver work its way up her spine. “And they never had any ideas at all? Not a single suspect?”

  “No, and I guess they thought of everything, too. Even checked out the local mental hospital to make sure none of the patients had escaped. A mental hospital in the same town as the school—I find that extremely appropriate somehow.”

  Kelsey laughed but it sounded strangely hollow. Her eyes moved again, restlessly, over the rocks, the wind-worn path, the scrawny plants.

  “You seem awfully nervous,” Donna said uneasily.

  “I am.”

  “Me, too. I’m scaring myself. Let’s go.”

  Donna led the way up again so she was several yards ahead when Kelsey let out a yell.

  “Don’t do that!” Donna scrambled back, watching dubiously as Kelsey squatted down. “I almost killed myself! What is it? Oh, God, I can’t look—”

  “Come on, Donna, it’s not a body.” Kelsey moved her hands in a wide circle along the grass. “But it’s been here, don’t you see? Look at all this grass, all flat like this—it’s been here! We didn’t imagine it, Donna. It was right here in this exact spot!”

  Donna stared down at the vague imprint on the ground, her face pale and blank. “Then where is it? If it was here, where did it go?”

  “I don’t know,” Kelsey retorted grimly. “But unless it got up all by itself, something—or somebody—had to move it.”

  They stared at each other in silence, horrible possibilities washing over them in icy waves. At last Donna sank to her knees and clamped cold fingers onto Kelsey’s arm.

  “What…what if it was Beth?”

  “What if it wasn’t?”

  A mocking wind howled up over the edge of the cliff. Far below, the ocean hurled itself furiously against the jagged rocks.

  Kelsey raised her eyes and stared at the lighthouse, its broken shell resolute and guarded.