Accidental Evil (16 page)

“Nah, you girls finish up. I have to get up to the store and see what’s doing.”

He tossed his rag on the counter and left through the side door.

“Thank God,” Ruth said.

Sarah laughed.

It was amazing how fast the deck emptied. With no more orders to take, Sarah closed the window and helped Ruth scoop the last of the ice cream. They rushed to clean up so they could get outside and join the festivities.

“Thanks for pitching in today,” Sarah said.

“Are you kidding?” Ruth asked. “I made more from tips today than I will in three days at the diner. I’ve got to get out of that place.”

Sarah nodded.
 

“Why the hell would Ricky skip his shift?”

“He’s going to do his magic show at the gazebo in a bit. I guess he had to get ready,” Sarah said.

“That boy is off,” Ruth said. “My sister said so. She told me that he talks to himself.”

“Everybody talks to themselves sometimes. It’s not so weird.”

“During the movies?” Ruth asked. She stopped wiping and turned to Sarah. “During the middle of a movie, she said he turned to the side and started whispering something. Josie leaned over to see who he was talking to and there was nobody there.”

“Ricky’s a good guy,” Sarah said.

“Nobody is saying he’s not,” Ruth said. “I just said he was off.”

They both stopped cleaning when they heard the bell ring a second time.

“That’s weird,” Ruth said.

“Probably just kids playing around,” Sarah said. “Remember when Pete got ahold of the bell rope that time?”

Ruth smiled. “My father thought the Germans were invading.”

Ruth’s smile faded. “Hey, have you heard from your brother at all?”

Sarah shook her head. Ruth looked down at her hands.

“Why? What have you heard?” Sarah asked.

“Nothing,” Ruth said. She turned and picked up the bucket of scoops so she could dump the water in the sink.

“Seriously—what have you heard. I need to know.”

“I didn’t hear anything for sure,” Ruth said, “but my friend Cindy is friends with Carla’s cousin Erin, and she heard that Carla got as far as New Jersey and decided to head to Pennsylvania.”

“Why? What’s in Pennsylvania.”

“Her old boyfriend, Warren,” Ruth said.

“Why would she…”

“Look, I don’t know. It’s just what I heard. All I’m saying is, maybe you should be getting in touch with your brother and figuring out exactly where he’s at, you know? He might be on his own in New Jersey.”

“Great,” Sarah said.

The bell rang again.

“Stupid kids,” Sarah said. Ruth nodded.

[ Communication ]

Sarah locked up the stand and looked up the hill towards the road. The crowd was already deep up there. People were packed alongside the route of the parade, waiting for it to begin. She headed the other direction, walking along the shorefront and ducking beneath the porch roof of Dawn’s. The locals had paths that they used to avoid the main drag in the summer. Sarah took one of those now.
 

She stretched her leg over the fence that bordered the Springbucks’ garden. Winding down that path, she popped out between the cherry trees next to the gallery. The trees had low-hanging branches, so nobody stood near them during the parade. Sarah ducked underneath and darted across the road. All the traffic was gone—the road was closed—but it was an old habit.

Winding between a few more buildings and cutting through some yards, she finally got to her own house. She went in the back, just in case Shari and her dad were in the living room.
 

She popped open her computer so she could send a message to her brother.

There was something wrong. Her computer was connected to the network, and appeared to be working fine, but she couldn’t get on any sites. She had no way to leave a message.

“Great,” she said with a sigh. She clenched her teeth and went down the hall to the living room. “Dad? Can I use your phone?”

He wasn’t there. Shari’s purse was gone, too. They must have bugged out before the parade so they wouldn’t be stuck in town. Sarah scratched the back of her head as she walked to her room. In a few minutes, she had changed out of her working clothes and put on something more appropriate for the summer afternoon. She could deal with her brother’s problems later. Right now, she had to keep a promise to her friend.

She took the path that headed south, towards the gazebo.

[ Show ]

“You look great, Ricky,” Sarah said.
 

“Thanks for coming,” he said. He smiled and then turned back towards his cardboard box. She could tell that he needed to be alone. He was nervous about his act and was going through the order of his tricks one more time. She backed away.

Around the makeshift curtain, back towards the public side of the lawn, she saw Ricky’s mom wrestling with what appeared to be a wild animal. Sarah smiled and approached.

“Hey, Mrs. Dunn,” Sarah said.

“George, I will send you home and you can sit in your room all afternoon and miss everything. Is that what you want?”

The boy finally stopped struggling. He tossed his head and his hair moved out of his face. Sarah liked George a lot. He had more personality than a lot of kids twice his age.

“I don’t want to miss the parade,” he said.

“Then behave and I’ll let you go,” Mary said. She looked up to Sarah. “Don’t
ever
have kids.”

“No, Mrs. Dunn.”

Mary looked back to George and then let go of his arm. The boy was still for a second, like he couldn’t believe that he was free. Suddenly, he bolted away. He disappeared when he darted between two women who were setting up folding chairs.

“Aren’t you going to watch the parade?” Mary asked.

“No,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “I thought it might be too sad this year, you know?”

“Oh, of course,” Mary said. “They really should have planned for this. It seems like they could have kept one of his colts to take his place when the time came, you know?”

“They tried,” Sarah said. “At least that’s what I heard. He was so gentle, but apparently his offspring were a bit temperamental.”

“They used to say my husband was temperamental, too, but he calmed down pretty quick. They probably didn’t give them enough time. Thank you for coming to see Ricky’s show at least. You have no idea how nervous he is. It will be good for him to have a friendly face.”

They both turned. From all the way down at the other end of the road, they heard the warbling echoes of the band starting to play.
 

“They’re on their way,” Mary said. “I better help with the chairs. First of the old ladies will be here any minute.”

Sarah smiled. “Mrs. Dunn, is there any chance I could borrow your phone for a second? I need to get a message to my brother.”

Mary nodded. She dug out her phone from a pocket. “You’re welcome to try, but I haven’t been able to get anything out of it for the past twenty minutes. I was trying to get in touch with my husband to ask him to get more root beer, but I’m not getting any service.”

She handed it to Sarah, but it was dead. Sarah couldn’t even get the display to register. She handed it back and showed Mrs. Dunn the problem.

“Isn’t that funny,” Mary said. “You know, I bet it’s because there are so many of us on the same tower or whatever. It seems like maybe the same thing happened a couple of years ago when they had that concert up on the hill.”

Sarah nodded.
 

“When Vernon gets here, we can try his,” Mary said.

“Thanks,” Sarah said. She watched as Mary went to help with the chairs. After a second, Sarah followed behind her to help too.

[ Speeding ]

A
S
V
ERNON
D
UNN
ACCELERATED
past the Old South Church, he braced himself for impact. The truck launched over a hump in the road. Every year the town tried to fix the thing and every year the frost heaved it back up.

The truck screeched when it landed, but seemed unhurt. Vernon pushed his speed faster. He had covered for two guys who didn’t show up to the lumber yard, and he was going to miss his son’s big performance if he didn’t cover the next six miles in about four minutes. All he could hope for was the show to be delayed. Maybe the parade would start late or run long.
 

Vernon leaned forward to try to peer around the next corner. Maybe it was just the near-collision from that morning, but something was tickling the hair on the back of Vernon’s neck. There was danger up ahead and he was speeding towards it.

All at once, he understood what had sparked his intuition.

He rounded the corner and saw the woman walking right down the middle of the road.
 

Vernon stood on the brakes and his tires locked up. His winch was busted and his four-wheel drive was out of commission, but there was nothing at all wrong with Vernon’s brakes. The anti-lock device kicked in and the brake pedal began to vibrate under his foot. Vernon steered towards the shoulder so he wouldn’t hit the crazy woman. He barked out a laugh—he might actually get stuck in two different ditches in the same day.

The truck ground to a stop just as he pulled up alongside the woman. She turned to look at him.

“Ms. Polhemus?” he asked. She was a relatively new arrival to Kingston Lakes, but she had made the rounds. Vernon had met her at a cocktail party, and then again at Earl Palange’s fiftieth birthday party. Vernon was good with names and faces. It always irritated his wife when he could name everyone in a room faster than her.

She looked at him as if she hadn’t noticed that he had nearly turned her into Polhemus jelly, right in the middle of the West Road.

She blinked.

“Vernon Matthew Dunn,” she said.

He laughed. She almost sounded a little flirtatious. She turned her mouth up into a smile when she purred his name.

“You can’t walk right down the middle of the road like that,” he said. “I nearly killed you.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Do you need a ride to town? I’m trying to get to Ricky’s magic show.”

She was already circling around the front of his truck before he could finish his question.

The door hinges croaked as she opened the door. Peg Polhemus jumped up into the seat like a little kid. Vernon steered his way back onto the road and hoped he wasn’t stuck again. The truck obeyed this time. He didn’t need his son to magically push him out of the ditch. Vernon cut his eyes over towards his passenger. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, but the annoying chime hadn’t sounded. If the passenger’s seatbelt warning chime was broken, so much the better. Every time he carried something heavy in that seat, the chime was endlessly annoying.

With his new, unbuckled passenger, Vernon kept his speed reasonable. Yes, he would be late, but he had narrowly avoided killing a woman. It took the near-collision to remind him that being late to a magic show wasn’t the end of the world. As long as he was there when Ricky finished, he would be fine.

“I’m afraid you’ve missed the parade already,” he said.

“Oh?” she asked.
 

Vernon put his window up. She spoke so quietly that he could barely hear her.

“Something wrong with your car, or were you just looking for an excuse for a walk?”

She turned to him, but didn’t reply. The tingling sensation returned to the back of his neck.

“Are you okay? I’m starting to wonder if maybe I should turn around and take you down to Maine General,” Vernon said. He smiled in her direction. She only stared back.

“Okay,” he said. His smile disappeared as he slowed down and angled the truck towards the shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I had an aunt who got aphasia a couple of times right before she had a stroke. No offense.”
 

He cranked the steering wheel around. “I know you’re a healthy person and all, but you don’t seem to be able to communicate right now.”

He got the truck around as far as he could, but there wasn’t enough room to turn around on the road. He put the truck into reverse. When he turned the wheel the opposite way, he heard the passenger’s door open. Vernon did a double-take and saw Peg Polhemus walking down the road again. Maybe she couldn’t talk, but she was certainly quick on her feet.

“Hey! Peg!” he called.

“Shoot,” he whispered to himself. He turned the wheel back around again and reversed. When he slammed on the brakes, the passenger’s door swung shut. Vernon dropped it back into drive and drove after her. As he started to pull alongside her, she picked up her speed. Vernon accelerated too. He paced her at fifteen, and then twenty miles-an-hour. She hardly seemed to be running, but she had no trouble going faster.
 

“What the…” he said to himself. When he stomped on the accelerator, she veered away from the road and disappeared through the woods. As he lost track of her behind the trees, it still looked like she was pulling away from him.

Vernon thought about it for a second before he realized her likely destination. The West Road had a curve to it. Peg Polhemus, the new non-verbal sprinting champion of Kingston Lakes, was probably making a bee-line through the woods right for the park on the south end of the town. That’s where the gazebo was. That’s where everyone was gathering for Ricky’s magic show.

The tingle lit up the back of Vernon’s neck yet again. He hunched forward and kept his gas pedal pressed to the floor. The truck began to rattle as it reached its maximum speed.

[ Speculation ]

L
ILY
WAS
LOOKING
THROUGH
one of the front windows. Gerard was looking through the other. Behind her, Trina paced the floor of the living room.
 

“Still nothing,” her father said. “I can’t raise anyone on the phone. The computer doesn’t work, and none of the cell phones have signal.”

“There’s another one,” Gerard said.
 

Lily pressed her face to the window and tried to spot what he was looking at. Gerard’s eyes were sharper than hers. She caught a shadow out near the mailbox. She stared at it until it moved. The thing darted across the driveway. Just for that second, it looked like it was alive.