Green Lake (7 page)

Still, he was all right doing what he was doing. He stayed busy most of the day, every day
. He was rarely idle. It was what he wanted.

Next Friday was his twenty-seventh birthday, and he would celebrate it like he celebrated all the others, by himself, with an hour or two of maudlin thinking about his real parents. Then his birthday would be over and it would be the next day again.

That night on television he watched as Ronnie Lyman tearfully complained about the treatment of his family by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. How they couldn't bear the thought of their little girl possibly finding her way back to the campsite, only to find it deserted.

“Christ,” Eris muttered.

The reporter had enough sense to interview Eris's superior, and the reason the Lyman’s were asked to leave was fully explained. Still, the worry-worn faces of the Lyman’s had an effect, and Eris was certain the cards, letters, and checks would see an increase. Missing little girls often awakened people's hearts.

He threw a frozen dinner in the microwave and looked out his kitchen window to see Madeleine sitting on the front porch playing with the kittens. Her hair was out of its usual tight bun and flowing freely down her neck and shoulders. It was a nice picture, and Eris stood looking at it long after the timer on his microwave had beeped.

He was about to turn away when he saw Sherman Tanner making his stealthy way up the road. The dog wasn't with him, so Eris figured he was going to the cemetery again, where he liked to rub himself against the stones and jerk off. Eris had caught him at it more than once, but he was too embarrassed by the man's behavior to open his mouth and speak. Tanner had something about buried things, obviously. And burying things.

Eris only hoped Madeleine didn't run out there and catch him at it some night.

He shook his head and was about to walk over to the microwave when he saw Madeleine lift a hand and wave to him. Eris turned his head and moved away from the window, not responding.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Madeleine bolstered her courage enough to walk down to the swimming area the next day. Jacqueline and Manuel would be in for dinner, and she wanted them to know she hadn't stayed holed up in the cabin the entire week. Over her one-piece suit she wore shorts and a top, and she carried a paperback in her hand as she made her way down the road. A woman standing in front of a cabin and drinking a huge glass of tomato juice nodded to her as she passed. Madeleine returned the nod and walked on. The cabins seemed to fill up from Thursday till Monday with people like her sister and brother-in-law, who visited the lake and then drove away again, leaving the place to the full-timers.

Down at the swimming beach she started to groan in dismay when she found the place full of kids, but on closer observation she paused and found herself watching.

The children were disadvantaged, most of them with Down's syndrome. A red-haired woman was attempting to keep them together and instruct them on the building of sand castles on the tiny sandbar. Madeleine counted twelve children of all colors, shapes, and sizes, only a few of them paying attention to what the woman was saying.

Slowly Madeleine approached the group and gave the faces that turned to look a cautious smile.

“Hello,” she said. “I couldn't help noticing. Could you use some extra hands?”

“How many have you got?” asked the woman with a wide smile.

Madeleine lifted her hands and then offered one to the woman. “My name is Madeleine Heron.”

The woman shook her hand. “I'm Denise Lansky. Can you build a sand castle, Madeleine?”

“Give me a bucket and a shovel and I'll do my best.”

“Great.” Denise turned to the children. “Hey, kids, this is Madeleine, and she's going to help us out. Why don't you count off, and the first six of you go with her to that side, and the other six stay here with me on this side. Okay? Ready, now. One… two . . .”

Six children bumped and jumped to their feet to go with Madeleine down the beach a few paces. She caught the bucket and shovel Denise tossed her and received another broad smile from the attractive redhead.

For the next hour she helped build sand castles, wetting the coarse sand and shaping it, helping small fingers poke holes and smiling at their grins of delight. She couldn't believe how relaxed she became, or how quickly the children seemed to take to her. Madeleine had never been around smaller children, though she liked them and enjoyed spending time in their presence, she simply didn't know anyone who had children. She had always believed she would have little patience with them when tested, but she had never been given the opportunity to find out.

“Want a job for the day?” asked Denise when it was time to dole out snacks for the children.

Madeleine looked at her. “I was just wondering if I could hack it.”

“I'm serious,” said Denise. “I'm supposed to have two assistants, and the only one who showed up went to the hospital last night with colitis. I've called and sent for someone else, but I could sure use your help the rest of the day.”

“How long are you here with them?”

“For the week. It's a camping adventure we do every year. I thought I'd have to take them all home early, but my husband agreed to come out and help me with them. What do you say, Madeleine? I'll pay you for a full day.”

Madeleine looked at Denise's earnest blue eyes and ginger red hair before giving a brief but firm nod. She didn't exactly have pressing business back at the cabin. “What do we do first?”

“We feed them, apply another dose of sunscreen, and take them on a hike. Later on this afternoon, after lunch, we meet someone from the park who tells them about good camping habits and gives them all stickers then we go on a short boat ride, courtesy of a friend with a pontoon boat. After that it's supper and a sing-along before bedtime.”

”A big day,” commented Madeleine.

“I show them a good time,” said Denise, “and wear my butt out in the bargain. But it's worth it. Just look at those happy faces.”

Madeleine looked and had to agree.

“I need to run back to my cabin and leave a note,” she told Denise.

“I'll be right here,” Denise told her. “Slathering on the sun block.”

“Be right back,” Madeleine said, and she jogged up the path that led to the cabins. She dashed off a quick note to Jacqueline and Manuel and then hurried back down to the swimming beach. Others had arrived by this time, some throwing distasteful glances and others indulgent as the children squirmed about on the small sandbar. Denise had three more bodies to apply sunscreen to, and she looked tremendously relieved when she saw Madeleine.

“I had this terrible feeling you weren't coming back. You're either incredibly bored or very naive about kids.”

“I'm both,” said Madeleine. “Where do we hike?”

“Not far. We're actually camped near Diamond Bay, but there's no swimming beach. The minibus is up in the parking area. I thought we'd go on a little nature walk then look at the trees and rocks and such. Are you ready?”

Madeleine was already panting from her first jaunt, but she could do more. She thought she probably shouldn't have sold her exercise bike and treadmill. A few months of inactivity and already she felt completely out of shape.

She was to feel even more out of shape as the day wore on. After lunch the children were more boisterous than ever, excited about their park visitor, who turned out to be Dale Russell. He said a quiet hello to Madeleine and Denise before turning his attention to the children, who watched in awe as he told them stories about litterbugs and firebugs and gave each one of them an official PARK PROTECTOR sticker when he was finished. Before he left, Dale looked at Madeleine and said, “Thursday?”

She shrugged a shoulder in reply and he gave her one of his heartwarming smiles. Madeleine only lifted a brow in response.

“Did he ask you for a date?” Denise asked in surprise.

“Do you know him?”

“I know he told the daughter of a friend that COs were discouraged from becoming romantically involved with the locals. I didn't know if that was baloney or what.”

“He didn't ask for a date,” Madeleine clarified. “He simply asked if I was going to the dance next Thursday.”

“He's also supposed to be engaged. I was relieved to hear it, since my husband's convinced Dale is gay.”

“They say the best-looking men usually are,” Madeleine said, and at her tone, Denise looked at her.

“You sound curiously uninterested.”

“Do I?”

“Yes.” Denise and Madeleine grinned at her.

“No. Will you be going to the dance?”

“No. We leave the day before. You should go. I went last year and had a really good time. Are you with anyone?”

“Me? No, I'm staying at my sister's cabin for the summer.”

“All the more reason you should go.” Denise looked at her watch then. “Time for our boat ride. We need to get to the dock.”

The next half-hour was contained madness as they hurried to strap twelve little bodies into twelve personal flotation devices and hustle them aboard the huge pontoon boat owned by Denise's obviously wealthy friend, introduced to Madeleine only as “Bill.” She and Denise put on their own life jackets and sat squat-legged on the floor of the boat with the children, while the owner's teenage daughter flopped into one of the seats and studied all their faces.

”A new assistant, Denise?” she asked, and pointed to Madeleine.

“Just day help,” Madeleine answered.

“Ignore her,” said Denise under her breath, and then the engine started and no one could hear much of anything for several moments as they pushed away from the dock and headed out onto the lake.

The children clung to each other and to Denise and Madeleine as they moved over the choppy water. Several of the children's mouths never closed, but simply remained open in drooling pleasure.

“You never said whether you were going to the dance with Dale Russell or not,” Denise said to her in a loud voice, and before Madeleine could answer, the teenage girl was leaning over Denise, her nostrils flaring.

“What did you say?”

Denise leaned back. “I wasn't talking to you.”

“Did you say Dale Russell asked her to the dance?” She pointed rudely at Madeleine again.

“What if he did?”

The girl straightened. “Sonofabitch.”

“Hey,” said Denise. “Watch your mouth around these kids.”

The girl sneered. “Don't tell me what to do on my own goddamned boat.”

Bill heard that one and he barked at his daughter to shut her mouth. She stomped away, and Denise's lip curled as she watched her go.

Madeleine began to smile, and she started to say, I think you did that on purpose, to Denise, but a sudden, sharp scream from one of the children caused her to jerk her head around and look to see what was wrong. Suddenly every child on the boat was screaming, and then Denise and even Madeleine screamed when she saw the tiny, limp body caught in the ropes trailing along beside the boat. The girl's blonde hair floated like seaweed in the water above the yellow of her sweat-suit. Her upturned face was bloated and discolored, and Madeleine slammed her eyes shut and turned abruptly away before the image of the little girl's staring, milky eyes could stick in her mind the way that reddish black hole in the side of Sam's head had.

Then she began yanking children back and gathering them to her, trying to cover their heads with her hands and telling them in a shaking but soothing voice not to look, just don't look.

Bill, his face white, had stopped the pontoon boat and was radioing for help.

Help in the form of Eris Renard came nearly a half-hour later.

He was in a boat by himself, and Madeleine saw him give a start to find her there, surrounded by twelve shaken Down's children and a sobbing redhead.

“Great,” muttered the teenage girl. “It's the ugly one.”

Eris pulled the boat along the opposite side of the pontoon where the body floated. He climbed onto the pontoon and walked to the opposite edge to look over. Madeleine saw
him go very still for a moment then he abruptly turned and jumped back into his own boat to pick up the radio.

“No hoax,” she heard him say. “She's here.”

The response was difficult to hear, and Madeleine heard Eris tell whomever he was talking to that a dozen kids were on the pontoon boat. When he turned around again his face was grim, and she clearly heard a voice instruct him to spare the children further trauma and bring in the body himself. The sheriff's department would be waiting on shore.

Eris took a tarpaulin and laid it on the seat beside him then he guided his boat around the pontoon boat and placed it as close to the body as he dared. Without hesitation he went into the water, and Madeleine watched as he attempted to untangle the body from the pontoon's rope. His face held no expression though his long brown fingers worked frantically. When the body was finally free, Eris held onto one sleeve of the yellow sweat-suit and swam with it to the side of his boat before motioning to Bill that he could go on.

As the pontoon pulled away, Madeleine's eyes were glued to Eris's face. She saw him place an arm of the body behind the ladder of the boat to hold it there until he could get on board and get the tarpaulin. She saw him wrap the tarpaulin around the body and slowly lift it over the side of his boat. Then, though they were many yards away by this time, she saw him lean over the side of the boat away from them and hang there for several minutes. Madeleine's heart went out to him as she watched him heave.

Denise had stopped crying by that time, and she was attempting to calm the children, who were full of frightened questions. After listening to her for several minutes, Bill's teenage daughter shook her head and said, “They've seen enough bodies and dead people on TV by now that I wouldn't be too worried. That pockmarked CO probably scared them worse than the floater.”

Madeleine stood and extended a stiff arm to put her finger right in the middle of the girl's chest.

“Please shut up.”

The girl backed away in belligerent surprise. “God, what is your problem? Dad, did you see what she did?”

Bill did, and when they were safely docked again, he came to apologize. “Denise, Miss Heron, I won't make excuses for my daughter, or for what happened out there today, but I will say I'm sorry.”

Denise nodded to him and touched his shoulder. “Do you think ... I mean where do you . . . how do you think we got her?”

He rubbed at a temple and said, “The only thing I can figure is that we snagged her right here at the dock just after Shelly took care of the lines. She never does it the way she's supposed to, which is probably how we wound up carrying the body along with us, with the line trailing along with her under the boat. Then, when we slowed down, she had time to bob up from underneath us.”

“Under the boat?” said Denise, looking sick. “She was underneath the boat the whole time?”

“I'm sorry,” Bill said again, and he left them alone with the children.

Supper was a somber affair, with more questions, questions, questions, and much interest and curiosity in the dozens of sheriff s department cruisers now parked around Diamond Bay. As they were ready to begin their evening sing-along, Denise's husband, Tim, arrived. After staying for one or two songs, Madeleine bid everyone goodbye and slipped away, refusing payment for the day or a ride back to her cabin. She had seen Eris's truck parked at the dock, and she figured to ride back with him. It was late, nearing dusk, and he would be going home soon.