Secrets and Lies (Cassie Scot) (24 page)

Putting on a brave face, I turned back to Christina. “Come on. The concert’s going to start any minute. You can sit on my lap.”

The concert began promptly at one with the children, ranging in age from six to ten, singing the national anthem. They went through a few more selections, with the audience clapping politely after each one. Madison stood with her back to us, directing the students and occasionally helping the younger ones remember the words.

Finally, after the last song was over, Madison turned to the audience. “My kids have requested that I sing a solo for you. So to conclude, I’m going to sing, ‘America the Beautiful.’”

Then Madison began to sing. In the space of a few seconds, I was transported. No longer was I sitting on a lawn chair in the middle of a park with the hot July sun beating on my head. Instead, I saw the amber waves of grain and the purple mountain’s majesty. They were so beautiful that I wanted to cry.

I’d only heard Madison sing a handful of times, but her voice could do that. She brushed off compliments, but she was the most amazing singer I’d ever heard. She made you feel the music, not just hear it.

When it was over, the audience came out of a sort of trance and sprang to their feet, applauding heartily. In the midst of all that, Nicolas whispered fiercely in my ear, “Why didn’t you ever tell me she was a songbird?”

“A what?” I asked.

“Didn’t you ever pay attention to any of our magic lessons?” Nicolas asked.

I shot him a slightly hurt look, which made him look away. Finally, when the applause died down and all the children were running to greet their families, Nicolas excused himself to go talk to Madison, while Christina climbed back into my lap.

“Uh oh,” I said to Kaitlin. “I don’t think she’s that enthusiastic about him.”

“He’s enthusiastic about her.” A small smile played at the corner of Kaitlin’s mouth. “What’s a songbird?”

“I’m not sure.” I thought about the context for a minute, though, and what I knew of Madison’s singing ability. It truly was a remarkable gift, but from Nicolas’s reaction, it was far more out of the ordinary than I had suspected.

If it had some magical origin, it might explain how Madison had excelled in her music studies when she had not sung or learned to play an instrument before going to college. If it was a gift, it might also explain why Madison had sunk into a deep depression when I first knew her. Gifts are tied to the soul. Forbidding someone to use a gift sickens the soul as surely as forbidding someone to breathe sickens the body.

How had I not known about this particular gift, when Nicolas had? Despite his insinuation, I had paid attention, but I had also noticed over the years that my parents kept things back. Sometimes I thought they were trying to protect me and sometimes they were trying to protect themselves, but either way it kept me in ignorance about a lot of things that would be useful to know – such as the dangers men could pose to me.

Nicolas had found Madison by this time. She looked as if she were trying to escape. She searched the crowd for me, sending me a clear signal with her eyes, but before I had a chance to decide to rescue her, I caught sight of someone else out of the corner of my eye: Scott Lee. He seemed intent on going to her rescue as well.

I stood, scooping Christina into my arms, and pushed through the crowd. Kaitlin followed right on my heels. Scott was already there when I reached Madison’s side, about to square off with Nicolas and making Madison look, if possible, even more afraid. Ignoring the two of them, I put my free arm around my friend in a congratulatory hug. “You were fantastic, as usual.”

“Thanks. I love being on stage. It doesn’t even feel like me when I’m up there. I did concerts and musicals in college and now I’m not sure I can stop.”

“You should put together a show for the tourists,” Kaitlin said. “Every Friday and Saturday night – Madison Carter Live. I’ll be your manager.”

Madison laughed as if she thought Kaitlin were joking, but I’m not sure she was. “No one’s going to want to come to see me sing.”

“I would,” Nicolas and Scott said at the same time. Scott bared his teeth at Nicolas, who obviously had no idea why Scott Lee was suddenly in his face. It wasn’t as if the two had ever had much contact.

Unfortunately, I thought I knew, and I didn’t like the way things were shaping up for Madison.

“How’s your hand?” Nicolas asked.

“Great. That stuff worked... great.”

When Madison threw another “help me” glance in my direction, I wedged myself between her and her over-eager suitors. “Let’s get some ice cream to celebrate.”

T
HE DAY HAD BEEN BUSY AND
distracting. There wasn’t a lot I could
do to help identify Regina and Laura’s killers until someone started taking my calls, but I had at least planned to make some follow-up calls. One message, people can ignore. If you really want people to talk to you, sometimes you have to make it clear that you’re not giving up.

Before I had to decide between joining my friends for ice cream, however, and making those calls, someone called me. I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered with a brisk, “Hello, Cassie Scot.”

“Hello, Cassie, this is Mrs. Layne, Renee’s mother.”

I straightened, remembering the rumors that Renee had been seen fleeing the stables just before the fire. I had been very interested in talking to Regina and Laura’s camp counselor but she had eluded me, both at the camp and in the days since. “Hello, Mrs. Layne. I’ve been trying to get in touch with your daughter for days.”

“Really?” She didn’t sound happy to hear that. “I have no idea where she is. I assumed she would come home for the rest of the summer after the camp closed down, but she didn’t, and no one knows where she is. When I called Nora, she suggested I call you.”

That surprised me. I had been under the impression that the old hag hated me.

“When was the last time you spoke to her?” I asked.

“Thursday morning,” Mrs. Layne said. “She called to say the camp was closing and she’d probably be coming home this weekend. She was pretty torn up about her girls. I think she blames herself.”

I could understand that point of view, since she had been in charge of their safety and according to reports, she had not been in the cabin at the time of the disappearance. But I didn’t say any of that to her mother. “Have you spoken to anyone else at the camp? Who saw her last?”

“Nora saw her with someone named Mackenzie.”

Uh oh. “Does anyone know if she left camp?”

“Her stuff is still unpacked and in her cabin,” Mrs. Layne said. “Everyone else has gone.”

“Thanks for letting me know,” I said. “I promise I’m going to do everything I can and I’ll let you know the moment I hear anything.”

I called Evan as soon as I hung up with Mrs. Layne, both to give him the latest tidbit, and to find out how his search was going. It had been two days, and I felt impatient to hear some actual news.

“Hello, Cassie.” Evan’s voice made me long, fleetingly, for the rest of him.

“Where are you?”

“Kansas.”

“Kansas? You’ve been through Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and now Kansas?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you getting the impression that you’re on a wild goose chase?”

Evan hesitated. “Yeah, I am. I’ve been telling my dad that since yesterday evening, but the only alternative is...”

When he didn’t finish, I prodded him a bit. “Is what?”

“Is to admit that your father was correct in his approach, which was to lay some magical traps around the camp and at Mackenzie’s house.”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the bedroom wall, banging it a couple of times. Men and their stubbornness would put pride above anything else. “If it helps, it was probably just as well that you tried it both ways.”

“Maybe. We’re probably going to head back to the camp soon. Why’d you call?”

“To tell you that Renee Layne has been missing since Thursday morning. Her mom called to say she never went home, and her stuff is still unpacked at the cabin.” Quickly, I related everything else I knew.

“All right,” Evan said. “I’m going to make my father head back to the camp now. If we can’t find Mackenzie, we’ll start looking for Renee. It can’t be a coincidence that she’s missing.”

“I agree.”

I started to hang up but Evan called, “Wait.”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry I couldn’t make the concert. How was it?”

I hesitated, but decided it couldn’t hurt to tell him. “Interesting. Have you ever heard of a songbird?”

“Sure, why?”

Apparently, I was the only one who had missed this tidbit about the magical world. “Well, Nicolas said Madison is a songbird.”

“Really?” Evan sounded more interested than I would have guessed.

“I’ve heard her sing before and knew she was good, but it never occurred to me that she had a real gift before.”

“Hmm.”

“Evan, I was wondering... do you think maybe Madison might be in danger? I mean, now that people know about her gift. They might even suspect she has some magic talent. Is that nuts?”

Evan took in a deep breath. “No, you’re not nuts at all.”

“Also, your friend Scott was there and he... well, I know you trust him even though he’s a werewolf, and I’m trying to keep an open mind, but I don’t like the possessive way he treated Madison.”

“Damn. All right. I’ll talk to him. And her. I’ll probably be back in town tomorrow.”

I hesitated, thinking back to my encounter with the two of them at Kaitlin’s Diner earlier in the week. I hadn’t pushed, but Evan hadn’t volunteered any information. “Is something going on with her? I mean, the other day at the diner–”

“Are you jealous?”

“No.” Then, more emphatically. “No!’

“All right, then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

M
ADISON CALLED ON SUNDAY MORNING, AND
I could tell she was
trying hard not to fall apart. She didn’t want to talk over the phone, but I invited her over for lunch and a three-way sympathy powwow. I didn’t know what was going on in Madison’s life, but between the three of us, I made sure we had plenty of chocolate.

An hour later Kaitlin, Madison, and I sat on the living room floor, surrounded by pizza boxes. A batch of brownies was baking in the oven, and there was vanilla ice cream in the freezer that I planned to turn into root beer floats. All we needed were French fries, but nobody would deliver them.

Kaitlin went first, confiding in Madison as she had confided in me that not only was she pregnant, but she didn’t even know who the father was. Madison’s face grew paler and paler as Kaitlin spoke, until I feared she would faint.

“What’s wrong, Madison?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s nothing as bad as Kaitlin.”

I passed her another slice of pizza, dripping with grease, and shrugged. “It’s not a contest.”

“What’s up with you and Evan, then?” Madison asked.

I hesitated. I had actually wanted to ask her that same question, but she had gone there first. When I looked to Kaitlin for help, I saw that she, too, wanted to know the truth I had been hiding for weeks. Since they had believed me dead.

“He saved your life,” Madison continued.

I nodded. “That’s the trouble, actually. Now, I owe him a life debt.”

When they still looked at me with confusion, I did something I rarely did: I explained, in great detail, a truth about magic. Why not? The knowledge could protect them one day.

“I really stuck my foot in the other day, didn’t I?” Madison said when I had finished. “When I told your brother off for being mad at Evan. I had no idea.”

“Most people don’t,” I said. “I’m sure I’m not supposed to tell you, but I stopped caring as much when my parents kicked me out.”

“Good for you,” Kaitlin said. “But what are you going to do about him?”

I shrugged. “I’m working on it.” When she continued to give me her helpless look I added, “Really, Kaitlin. I’ll be okay. He’s not as bad as you think he is.”

“Are we talking about the same person?” Kaitlin asked. “Do you remember poor Mrs. Bertrim?”

“Yes.” She had been a short, sweet-faced history teacher in high school, well past the age of retirement, though nobody thought she would stop teaching until she died. She quit at the end of our freshman year.

“He had her in tears when she tried to pop a quiz he wasn’t ready for. She didn’t try another pop quiz the rest of the year, and then she retired.”

I hadn’t heard that story, or if I had, I had chalked it up to just so much myth and rumor. There were so many stories, many untrue.

“I was there,” Kaitlin said, as if sensing my doubts. “I don’t know why, but that’s always what I remember when I think of him – the look on her face.”

“He does tend to get what he wants,” Madison added. “But he saved your life.”

“Yes, he did.” And he had been young when the worst stories had circulated about him, including the one Kaitlin brought up. He had been fourteen at the time, still a child. Now, at twenty-one, he was hot on the trail of a murderer, trying to bring justice to two teenage girls. And still trying to protect me.