Mom says, “No, it hasn’t been—”
“But yesterday wasn’t our fault at all.” I feel defensive.
“We’re not blaming either of you—”
“We thought we had secured the canoe—”
“We understand. And we’re very grateful that you’re home safe.”
Charlie intervenes. “Actually, I have to thank Tony for that. If he hadn’t been there, I would’ve been screwed.”
Mom and Dad consider this as he continues.
“Tony wanted to stay along the shoreline and I argued that we should cut through the woods until I got my way. Then, when I got us good and lost, he had the common sense to hole up under the tree until the storm passed and we could get our bearings. He was levelheaded every step of the way.”
Mom reaches across the table to take my hand.
Dad says, “Well, Keya and I have been talking and we know things can’t keep going the way they have been. Charlie, you aren’t used to our expectations and we’re pretty sure you’re going to continue doing things your own way. Nothing we say or do is going to change you.”
Mom continues the thought, “If we ground you, you’ll find some way to break the rules. Every time you make a promise, you either take it to the very edge or break it altogether. And every time you leave this house, we’re never sure what danger you might be getting into.”
I can see Charlie brace himself for the very real possibility that they’ll toss him out.
“However, you and Anthony have always come home safe. And we know you protect each other, look out for each other. And like we said earlier, he needs to take responsibility for his own actions. That’s why we’ve decided that we need to put a little faith in you. We’re not going to keep punishing you or keep you locked in the cabin. But we want you to be more honest with us. Tell us where you’re going. Because, whether you want to accept it or not, Charles, we care about you too—you’ve become part of our family.”
My parents’ words really hit some deep part of him and for one of the only times since I’ve known him, Charlie is speechless. He gives a brief nod, then asks to be excused and wanders down to the water.
I decide to give him some space. My mind is buzzing with questions from our adventure in the woods. Who does the book belong to? Who left us the garbage bags and severed head? Is it all the same person? And is there a connection between any of these questions and Terry’s death?
chapter 76
At lunch, Charlie comes up from the shore when he’s called, but when we’re done and cleaned up, he turns to Heather. “Would you be interested in taking us to the resort?”
Heather pauses. “What’s in it for me?”
“Hot sun, cool water?”
“What about just hanging down by the dock?”
“Too much seaweed. And…”
She smiles. “You’re scared of leeches.”
He nods, still embarrassed. “How about all the ice cream you can eat? My treat.”
“Will I have to babysit you?”
He raises his hand in an oath. “I promise to behave myself, not to run off anywhere, and to tell you where I am at all times.”
She raises an eyebrow, but I think he’s being genuine.
“Please?” he begs. “It’s a nice day and I’d just like to swim for a bit.”
Heather looks over at me. “How about it? Are you going to conduct yourself accordingly?”
I suspect Charlie has an alternative plan, so I don’t volunteer any promises. “Sure.”
After Mom and Dad give her the go-ahead, she says, “Fine. Be ready in ten.”
chapter 77
Charlie spends most of time in the water while I sit beside Heather on the beach. He swims out to the buoys and back several times, and now I understand why we tied in our race the other day. I don’t think I expected him to be so committed to swimming. In fact, the more I watch, the more surprised I am that he didn’t beat me.
“The longer I spend with him, the less I understand him,” Heather says.
“You and me both.”
“I really didn’t like him—I really don’t like him. He’s aggravating, obnoxious, pretentious, dangerous, a miscreant…”
I don’t argue.
“And then he does the nicest damned things…”she says, looking out at him in the water.
“He’s his own mystery.” There’s an understatement.
“And I wonder how much of it’s bullshit.”
“Which part?” I ask her.
“All of it. I mistrust almost every aspect of him.”
“Including the bad parts.”
“Especially the bad parts!” Heather exclaims.
I smile, understanding how irritating he really can be.
“Did you two really lose the canoe?”
“Yes.”
“The wind came along and took it away?”
“Far as I know, yes.”
“But nothing else happened?”
I think before answering because I really don’t have another explanation. “I don’t think so.”
The answer is vague and she studies me. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
The book and the deer head flash through my mind. “No.”
She peers back out at Charlie and I feel bad that I’ve lied to her, but the fact is I don’t have any real answers. It bothers me. I don’t know for certain how the canoe drifted out into the lake. Maybe whoever left us the deer parts was responsible, or maybe we simply had a run of bad luck and didn’t drag the boat up high enough and the waves took it out before we got back.
My head swirls from the heat and the uncertainties. I rise and tell Heather I want something to drink. She nods and I walk up the beach, leaving the two of them behind.
chapter 78
The convenience store is at the base of the hill beside the ice cream shack. The air conditioning is on; it feels good. I grab a large bottle of water from the refrigerator and take it to the till.
While the cashier rings it in, I glance down at the local newspaper. The headline reads volunteer missing. I unfold the paper and scan the first paragraphs of the article. “Rita Dobson, 56, local wedding photographer, assisting in the search of the recently deceased Terry Butler, has been missing since last Monday…”
My heart beats faster. I buy the paper and take it with me. I skim through it quickly as I walk and jam it into the nearest garbage before Heather can see it.
As I approach, she spies me. “Hey, baby brother. All good?”
I realize I haven’t even opened my water yet. It sounds like a crack of thunder when I do and I take several gulps, covertly scanning the water for Charlie. “He’s still out there?”
“The enigma wrapped in a puzzle sealed with a roll of annoying packing tape? Yeah, he’s out there.”
I spy someone swimming hard toward a buoy and assume it must be him. I toss my bottle of water down beside Heather. “I’m going to swim out, see how he’s doing.”
She looks up at me, squinting in the sun. “Maybe the cool water will do you good.”
“Maybe,” I mumble, wandering down to the water. The waves splash around my toes and it’s refreshing, but my mind is fixed on getting to Charlie quickly, so I don’t savour the feeling.
I see his head bobbing in the water and I dive in and swim toward him with my best front crawl. When I arrive, he’s treading water.
“Yo, Shepherd. Finally got off your lazy ass?”
“Someone else is missing.”
“The photographer?”
It doesn’t surprise me that he knows. “Yeah.”
“Yeah.” He stays afloat with ease, water splashing against his chest.
“Do you know where she was last seen?” I ask.
He shakes his head and it feels good to kno
w something he doesn’t.
“West of Old Fire Tower Road. Right where we were lost.”
As soon as I tell him, he swims back to shore. I follow. He climbs out of the water and plunks down on the blanket beside Heather. “How about that ice cream?”
“Actually, I’m good.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. But thank you.”
He pulls out his phone scrolling through it pauses and stares up at me. “What’s up, Shepherd? Relax and stay awhile.”
What’s he up to, though? He seemed anxious to get to shore, but now he just wants to sit on the beach? Why isn’t he more interested in the missing photographer?
I consider dropping down beside him but decide to go back into the water instead, Rita Dobson’s disappearance buzzing in my brain as I plunge in. I swim out until my toes can barely touch bottom then twist back to watch my sister and Charlie sitting on the blanket.
The woman went missing west of the road, right about where we were lost. Terry was buried at the end of Old Fire Tower Road, but he was likely murdered where we found his glasses and the coolers, as well as the burnt book. Those two areas aren’t linked to each other—unless you know about the deer head and the garbage bags we found after the storm. Although it was raining and hard to see in the dark, it’s doubtful that we wouldn’t have noticed them when we first arrived if they’d already been there. Someone had to have been out in those woods, and it’s likely the same someone who attacked Terry and the missing photographer.
The question was who? And why had they spared us?
chapter 79
I return to shore where Charlie and Heather are shaking the sand off the blanket.
“Are we heading back?” I ask.
“It’s close to supper. If we go now, we can help make it,” Charlie says, jamming our stuff in the bag.
Again, this generosity suggests that he’s more interested in helping around the cabin than figuring out what’s going on in the woods.
He looks up at me, “Right, Shepherd?”
I resign myself. “Sure.” I help pack up and carry stuff to the car.
Charlie flips through his phone while he still has reception. “Have either of you been to the library in town?” he asks. “I’m almost finished A Farewell to Arms and want to read some more of his stuff.”
I laugh. “You’re nearly done? Didn’t you just start it last night?”
“Shepherd, some of us actually enjoy reading.”
It’s a dig, but I let it slide.
“I don’t even know where the library is,” Heather says.
Charlie looks at his screen. “Central Avenue, open Tuesdays to Saturday from nine to five. Unfortunately, they don’t have their catalogue online unless you have a library card. Do you think your parents would let us go to town so I could pick something up?”
Heather is immediately distrustful. “What are you really going for?”
“Another book.”
“And?”
“Getting my hands on some sharp modernist writing?”
“Charlie—”
“It’s a library, Heather. How much trouble can I possibly get into?”
“You don’t do anything like a normal person. You always have another plan.”
I’m sort of proud that my sister has figured him out.
“Nope. I just want to look through their catalogue and pick up a book.”
“And you’ll return it? Not steal it?”
He feigns indignance. “Of course!”
“And nothing else?”
He pauses before saying, “I will probably use the internet. 3g is nice, but I’d like something a little faster.”
She studies him and we both know she’s not done with him.
He raises his hand in a solemn oath. “I promise I will go to the library, check out a book that I will return when read, and maybe use the Wi-Fi. I may ask your brother to take me to Cup of Joan’s for a coffee and try to get him to get the coffee lady’s phone number…”
Heather gives me a look.
“…and I think that’s it.” Charlie ponders the to-do list in his mind before looking over at me. “Oh, and maybe get a newspaper to find out what’s happening in the world.”
“A newspaper? Because the world wide web isn’t thorough enough?” My sister’s observant nature impresses me again.
“What can I say? Sometimes I like kicking it old school.” He gives her a big smile and winks.
I feel the depth of her sigh.
chapter 80
We get back to the cabin and Charlie follows through on all his promises. He helps with supper, which he successfully convinces Mom and Dad to let us make. Even though the rest of the family is outside, he doesn’t say much. After supper, he asks us all if we want to play a game of Risk and everyone agrees. I hold my own in the game for a while, occupying North America, but the balance of power soon shifts and Dad and Charlie wipe me out, then Mom, then Heather. The two of them battle it out for nearly another half-hour until Dad finally gets Asia and Australia and quickly finishes Charlie off. By the end of the game, it’s late. Charlie grabs his book and sprawls out on the couch by the good reading light.
Since he doesn’t mention anything, Mom eventually brings it up. “Heather says you were asking about the library in town?”
Charlie glances up at Mom. “Yeah, I was thinking about it.”
“You wanted to pick up a book?”
He nods.
“And maybe get a coffee?” she asks, looking over at me and smiling.
I can see Heather’s told her about Laurie. Dammit Charlie, why did you have to bring me into it?
“And then you two will come back to the cabin right after?”
“Yeah, with the drive there and back, a little bit of looking around for a book, and maybe a quick stop at Joan’s, I’m hoping it will only take us a couple of hours. Is that okay?”
Mom queries Dad with a glance and he contemplates his answer before leaning forward to say, “If we let you go, we are putting our faith in you to keep your word.”
“I understand,” Charlie says.
I’m barely in this conversation.
“But if you break this promise, that’s it. We can’t keep banging our heads against a wall, expecting you to work with us. We’ll make sure that you get on the bus safe, but we’d have to ask you to leave.”
“Understood.”
I hope Charlie means it.
chapter 81
Charlie doesn’t talk to me that night and it isn’t until we’re in the car alone the next morning that he finally says something.
“Do you know how lucky you are, Shepherd?”
“What do you mean?”
“To have a family that gives this much of a crap about you?”
“I do.” The more time I spend around Charlie and understand the life he must live, the clearer this becomes.
“In fact, I’ve never known anyone luckier than you.”
It takes me a second to realize what he means by this—that he’s never met any parent as loving as the two of mine.
“Explains why you’re such a boy scout.”
“Can you just stop?”
But he shakes his head. “Serious. If I had parents like yours, I’d be all normal and well-adjusted.”
I can’t help but laugh out loud. “I don’t think you could ever be normal and well-adjusted.”
He looks disappointed. “You really don’t think I’m going to keep my promise, do you?”
“Nope.”
He sticks out his hand. “Wanna bet?”
“What? That you’ll do exactly as you say?”
“Yes. To the exact letter.”
This feels like a bet I can’t lose, but because it’s Charlie, I’m suspicious. “To the libra
ry, borrow a book—which you won’t steal—use the Wi-Fi, look at a newspaper, and maybe grab a coffee?”
“Well, I was planning on stealing the book, but I’ll check it out from the front desk. And I might look at a few newspapers and have a doughnut with that coffee.”
“No stealing, no breaking and entering, no drug dealers, no killers—”
“I can’t promise we won’t come across dealers or killers—the place seems to be crawling with them. But I do promise not to antagonize any of them.”
“If you can do all that, I will buy you that doughnut.”
“If I do all that, you can buy me a half-dozen.”
“Deal.”
chapter 82
We arrive in town and I follow Charlie’s directions to the library. It’s an old brick building with touches of recent renovations around the windows and front door. We try the door—it’s a few minutes after nine o’clock—but it’s still locked.
“I don’t understand how small towns operate. Closed on Sundays, sometimes Mondays, and even when they say they’ll be open, they may or may not be.”
“It’s called a relaxed way of life.”
“But how does anything get done?”
“What does it matter? You haven’t been in that much of rush lately.”
“What? You mean the past couple of days?”
“Yeah. After I told you about the photographer—”
“Rita Dobson.”
I’m embarrassed to have forgotten her name but am even more surprised that Charlie knows it.
“Hey, I do my research.”
“Well, you sure didn’t seem too concerned yesterday.”
“The second I rushed out of the water and wanted to leave, your sister was on to us. I had to act without acting.”
“How very Zen of you.”
“Just biding my time. But here we are. We need to focus. The glasses, the book—”
“Rita, Terry—”
“And possibly the dead deer and the plastic bags—”
“They’re all connected.”
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