The Edge of the Shadows

by Elizabeth George

  He said, “Hey. Happenin’?” to all of them, but aside from Isis, everyone knew he was talking to Becca.

  Isis looked stunned into silence. It had to do with Derric, Hayley figured. He was tall, dark, and exotic. He wore a T-shirt that showed he was seriously built: pecs, lats, biceps, triceps, whatever, and Isis’s pretty face said yum-yum-yum. Clarification as to Derric’s status was going to have to be made clear.

  In any other situation, the girlfriend of the Spectacular Male Specimen would have done the clarifying. But Becca, Hayley had discovered, wasn’t the kind of girl who went out of her way to tell anyone anything.

  As things turned out, Derric did the clarifying, although not directly. He helped himself to a bite of Becca’s sandwich, said, “PBJ again? Babe, when’re you going to di-ver-si-fy?” and then went on with, “I blew it with the ride thing. I’ve got a Big Brother deal with Josh after school, which I totally forgot. I could call his grandma and say something came up, but I hate to do that.” He wove his fingers with hers as he spoke.

  Hayley saw Isis take this in with a glance from Derric to Becca. She also saw Jenn McDaniels hide her smile. Isis said brightly, “I got a car. I c’n drive someone somewhere if anyone needs a ride.”

  Derric looked at Isis. His slight frown said that he didn’t know who she was. Isis seemed to understand his expression. She extended her hand across the table. “Sorry. Isis Martin,” she said. “From Palo Alto? Down by Stanford University? Me and my brother live with Nancy Howard. The chain-saw artist? She’s our grandam. My brother . . .” Isis half stood and gazed around the New Commons. She seemed to find the person she was looking for because she pointed, “He’s over there. God, why is Aidan sitting by himself? Hey, will you guys excuse me?” And off she went, weaving her way through the tables to the far side of the commons and then along the wall to a spot near the door. There, at the farthest possible corner, a boy sat hunched over a table with his back to the rest of the kids.

  “Whoa.” Derric was the one to speak.

  “She’s new.” Hayley realized how lame that sounded. “I met her at Bayview. At the Saturday market. We got to talking and—”

  “‘We got to talking’?” Jenn cut in. “Don’t you mean ‘she got to talking’? ’Cause, does she actually listen once in a while?”

  “Don’t sugarcoat things, Jenn,” Derric said with a smile.

  “I think she’s just nervous,” Hayley said. “You know: meeting a whole bunch of new people? Having to move to a new school in your senior year? I sort of get the impression she had a lot of stuff going on in her old school.”

  “Like what?” Jenn said with a laugh. “I mean, besides her mouth.”

  “A great boyfriend. I think she misses him a lot. They text and stuff all the time. She told me they Skype every morning. But it’s not really the same and I think—”

  “Hayley, you are way too nice,” Jenn interrupted.

  Becca said quietly, “She’s just scared.” She gazed toward Isis and her brother. Isis had pulled her brother to his feet and was leading him toward the doors.

  • • •

  AS IT HAPPENED, while Hayley was saved by the lunch bell, it was a brief salvation. Ms. Primavera caught her on her way to class. The counselor was coming down the stairs with a cardboard box in her arms, and Hayley was heading up to class. Ms. Primavera said, “Hold it right there, Hayley Cartwright,” and Hayley figured she was in for more lecturing. But instead, Tatiana Primavera lowered her box to a stair step and began shifting around its contents.

  They were college catalogues, Hayley saw. The counselor pulled out one for Reed. “In Portland,” she told Hayley. “Not too far, not too close. Not too big, not too small. It’s private but there’re scholarships and grants available. They’ve also got work study and their science department is just what you’re looking for. Now, you take this and we’ll talk next week. Meantime, target nine other schools. By the beginning of November you’re going to be applying.”

  Hayley reasoned that there was no point to arguing at the moment. So she took the book about Reed and then another that Ms. Primavera was inspired to hand over. This one was for Brown University. Rhode Island? Hayley thought. Uh . . . right.

  She went on her way to class and found Isis waiting for her just outside the door. Her face was deadly stricken. For a moment Hayley thought something terrible had happened.

  Isis took her arm. “I’m hopeless. I’m sorry about how I went on at lunch.” She looked around the corridor. It was emptying quickly. Class was about to begin. “I wish I could tell you more, Hayley. It’s just that my family’s had a bunch of troubles and I get all anxious about it and really that’s all I c’n say. I know you have to get to class and so do I and I just want to say thank you for being my friend. Please say I didn’t totally blow it forever at lunch.”

  Hayley couldn’t help smiling at the other girl’s sincerity. “No way did you blow it,” she told her.

  EIGHT

  Becca was at her locker at the end of the school day when Hayley Cartwright offered her a ride. Hayley could drop her off anywhere she wanted to go, she said, and she added mentally Because I want to know if what she said means something, which was startling in its clarity. Becca had removed the AUD box’s ear bud as she often did at the end of the day, in order to practice “those mental on/off buttons, sweet girl,” as her grandmother would have said. The point was to allow the whispers to fade, to make them white noise the way the wind outside your house is white noise. Most of the time, Becca was a total failure at this, and the sounds of everyone’s whispers swarmed her.

  But through those whispers, Hayley’s thoughts had come at Becca so clearly that she knew her face registered her surprise. Hayley said in response, “What?”

  Becca said, “It’s only that I was just thinking about how I was going to get where I’m going and it’s like you read my mind.”

  “I wish,” Hayley said. “So. You want a ride?”

  “Sure. Yeah.” Becca found the books she needed for her homework, and she went on to say that she’d appreciate the ride because she hadn’t brought her bike with her as she normally did when Derric had something going on. So, yeah, she was basically stuck.

  They were on their way to the Cartwrights’ pickup when they were waylaid by Isis Martin. She wasn’t alone but rather had her brother with her. She called out, “Here he is, you guys. I want you to meet Aidan.”

  Becca hadn’t talked to the boy since she’d run into him at South Whidbey Commons. They shared no classes, and at lunch he avoided everyone, always sitting alone in the corner, either at a table or on the floor. Now, his sister was pulling him across the parking lot. His face was expressionless. He looked like someone who was wearing a mask.

  Less than pathetic appeared to come from one of the two Martins. Dyed hair how weird seemed to come from Hayley, as did hoping to replace Derric . . . no way . . . which was the limit of what Becca caught since Isis went into conversation full steam ahead.

  She said, “Here he is,” as they all met near Hayley’s truck. “This is Aidan. We’re heading up to that hardware place. What’s the name, Aidan? I have a list somewhere. Oh, here it is. It was in my statistics book. God, I hate statistics. So we’re going to the hardware store and I’ve got a slew of things Nancy wants. She’s our grandam. Nancy Howard. I mentioned her before, right? She hates being called Grandma so we have to call her by her first name. Lord, Aidan, say something. Don’t be so clueless.”

  That San Diego Internet story . . . because if she’s looking made skeleton fingers dance down Becca’s spine. Her gaze went to Aidan as if dragged there by a magnetic force. He was watching her with enigmatic eyes. How, she wondered, had he managed to perfect having no expression? She strained to hear something more from his whispers but Isis’s thought nonsense was fracturing the inside of Becca’s skull. Please she’s got to . . . the only way . . . being friends
oh right like that’s possible . . . should never have even thought about . . . he liked it and loves me and even now there’s no one who can make him . . . I was always there . . . more important than anything and on and on it went. Becca fumbled for her ear bud, turned up the AUD box volume, and felt soothed by the resulting blast of static.

  She said, “Your grandma introduced us.”

  “She did? Nancy? When? Oh my God! Were you the girl he met when he met Seth Darrow? Weird! ’Cause he said . . . well, it doesn’t matter. But Aidan, why didn’t you tell me you already knew Becca?”

  “You didn’t give me a chance.” When Aidan finally spoke, it was something of a surprise. There was a weariness underlying the boredom in his voice. He said, “Let’s go,” and without a glance in Hayley’s direction, he turned and went off the way they’d come.

  Isis said, “God, he’s so rude.”

  Then she was gone, off across the parking lot again. Hayley looked at Becca and shrugged. But even with the AUD box plugged in to block the whispers, Becca could tell something was going on with Hayley. She wondered if it was the mention of Seth, Hayley’s former boyfriend. Hayley clarified matters when they got into the old pickup with SMUGGLERS COVE FARM AND FLOWERS fading on the doors.

  They were on the curving road that would take them from the high school into Langley village. The woods grew right to the edges of this road, and Hayley was taking care to watch for deer. She said to Becca without looking in her direction, “It’s got to be Aidan. I was wondering about it, but it’s got to be.”

  “What?”

  “You know how you said she was scared?”

  “I did?”

  “Yeah. You said Isis was scared. Is scared. You said that at lunch.”

  Becca looked down at her backpack on the floor of the pickup. She said cautiously, “Oh. I forgot,” and prepared herself to keep from revealing any of the whispers she’d sorted through as Isis was babbling away in the New Commons.

  “I wanted to ask you about why you said it. At first I thought, Well, Isis wants us to like her and she’s scared that we won’t,” Hayley said. “Only, even at lunch it seemed like something more. And I was going to ask you if you thought the same thing. Like . . . if you thought something going on with her because of what you said. Only . . . now I think it’s Aidan.”

  Becca glanced at Hayley. She drove with hands at two o’clock and ten o’clock, and she never took her eyes off the road, which made Becca feel safe with her. But she didn’t trust “safe with her.” She couldn’t afford to. So she drew from her own experience and said, “Coming here to the island when you’re not, say, a baby? It’s way hard. Everyone’s known everyone else from pre-school. It’s a freak-out having to try to make friends because people all seem to be already in fixed groups.”

  Hayley glanced at her, then. “You did okay. You’re doing okay.”

  “On the outside, maybe. On the inside? Not so much.”

  “You’ve got Derric and Seth. You’ve got Jenn. You know me, not as good as you know them, but you still know me and here we are in the truck together and it’s not like I’m freaking you out, am I?”

  Becca smiled. The last thing Hayley Cartwright would be able to do was freak anyone out. She was way too nice. And Becca, too, felt something flowing from Isis Martin. It seemed to be fear but she didn’t know of what. She said, “Why Aidan?”

  “What? Oh. You mean why do I think whatever’s going on with Isis has to do with Aidan? I didn’t at first. But at lunch today . . . how she tried to get him out of the New Commons? And then just now? I mean, wow, are they completely different from each other or what? And here’s something else: Where’re their parents? She talks and talks but so far she hasn’t said word one about her mom and dad.”

  Becca didn’t want to go near that subject since the last thing she ever wanted to do was to talk about her own parents. But the thought of her own unwillingness to speak of her mom and stepfather prompted her to consider Hayley’s words in a way she might not have done otherwise. Even the whispers that came at her from Isis and her brother had nothing to do with parents, which was odd.

  She said, “I dunno, Hayley. She’ll probably tell you what’s going on eventually. When you talk about your family, she’ll probably talk about hers, too. And if something’s going on with her family that’s making her act sort of strange . . .” Becca’s voice faded as she saw the immediate change in Hayley. She’d said something to affect the other girl. But she didn’t know what it was. She loosened the ear bud casually so that it dropped onto her shoulder, away from Hayley’s view. Immediately she heard after the walker . . . the worse it gets and when there’s a wheelchair . . . got to deal with that because no way can Mom . . . and now with Brooke being such a pill . . . I don’t care I don’t care only don’t lie Hayley because you do and you know it . . . shut up shut up shut up.

  Becca was startled with the ferocity of Hayley’s thoughts, all of them running beneath the pleasant exterior of the girl. Slowly, she returned the ear bud to her ear.

  What she knew at the end of their conversation was pretty simple, as things turned out. If something was going on with Isis and Aidan Martin, something was going on with Hayley Cartwright, too.

  NINE

  Derric and his Little Brother came out of the Cliff Motel just as Becca left Hayley’s pickup. The Little Brother lived at the Cliff, not in one of the motel’s rooms but in the apartment behind and above the office. His dad was in prison, his mother was long gone to meth addiction, and Josh and his little sister, Chloe, were being raised by their grandmother, who owned the place.

  Both of the children knew Becca, as did their grandmother. For along with her grandkids, she’d taken in Becca as well when she’d first ridden her bike into Langley, wondering what she was going to do when her mom’s plans for her fell apart in an instant.

  Josh yelled, “Hey! Hi, Becca! Me ’n’ Derric’s going for a hike. He’s takin me to th’ institute. Whidbey Institute. Up in th’ woods. You ever been there?”

  At this, Derric saw Becca as well. He gave her a grin and strolled over to her. Josh accompanied him, darting around at his side. He punched the air and scuffed his feet and said, “There’s tons of trails, Derric said. An’ he said we can’t get lost ’cause he’s got a map only we’ve got compasses, too, so we’re not using the map at all. We have it just in case.”

  Derric said, “Think we should invite Becca, Josh?”

  “Becca? No way. She’s a girl. Bleagh. This’s for guys. Anyways, she c’n play Barbies with Chloe.”

  “Way cool,” Becca said. “I love Barbies.” She exchanged a look with Derric and added, “Among other things,” and stepped up to kiss him. Derric’s arms went around her, and he made the kiss last.

  “Yuck!” Josh shouted. “Gross! Stop it! Come on, you guys. We got to go.”

  “That’s telling them, Josh,” a man’s voice said from the other side of the street. “Break it up, you two. Come up for air. You’re out in public.”

  The tone was jovial. It was also highly recognizable. While they were kissing, Derric’s dad had pulled his sheriff’s car into the front parking lot of the arts center. He’d got out and he stood there at the edge of the lot. He was watching them, his arms folded across his chest and his head shaking in one of those kids-will-be-kids kinds of movements.

  It was odd that Dave Mathieson would be in Langley. As the undersheriff of the county, he had his office twenty-eight miles to the north in the county seat, which was the old Victorian town of Coupeville. Langley had its own tiny police department to handle the routine problems in the village, so if he’d come to town, it was an indication that something was going on.

  “Whatcha doing here, Dad?” Derric asked his father.

  Dave crossed the street to join them. He gave Becca an arm-around-the-shoulders hug. He made much of shaking Josh’s little hand. He said, “Djangofest
.”

  As an answer, it was totally inadequate, but then the fire chief’s SUV pulled into the parking lot and stopped right next to the sheriff’s car. The fire chief called out, “See you inside?” to Dave Mathieson, which put the upcoming music festival and fire together.

  “Might be a firebug around,” the undersheriff clarified. “Those early fires could’ve been carelessness. But after the fairgrounds fire, we’re looking at how to protect all of the Djangofest venues. Setting a fire in the middle of a concert? That’d be a real thrill for a firebug if that’s what we’ve got going here.” He looked down at Josh, who was listening, wide-eyed. He said, “You don’t mess with matches, do you, kiddo?”

  Josh shook his head solemnly. “Grammer would smack me a good one.”

  At that point, Dave Mathieson should have gone off to his meeting, but he didn’t. Instead, he asked the boys what they were going to do together on this fine day and when Derric mentioned the hike, he told them to skedaddle while the light in the forest around Whidbey Institute was still good. Then he gave Becca a glance that seemed rich with meaning. She decided to stay where she was in case he wanted to tell her what was up.

  Derric and Josh drove off with a wave. Derric yelled, “Call you tonight, babe,” at Becca and then they were gone.

  Dave said, “He thinks the world of you.”

  Becca said in return, “Feeling’s totally mutual.”

  Dave Mathieson was silent at that, as if tossing this around in his mind. Becca wondered if he was worried about Derric and her the way parents worried when their kids got involved with each other. It was pretty much a universal worry: boys, girls, hormones, and sex.

  She wanted to pull the ear bud from her ear in order to catch what was on Dave’s mind. She managed to do this surreptitiously. What she heard made the breath catch in her chest.

  A single word only. Rejoice. This was followed at once by wonder if she knows . . . betraying . . . finding out could mean all the difference . . .