The Jennifer McMahon E-Book Bundle (98 page)

CHAPTER 34

Phoebe

JUNE 13, PRESENT DAY

“H
ow do you even know she’ll be here?” Phoebe asked as they pulled into the Price Chopper parking lot.

“I don’t,” Franny said. “But if she isn’t, I bet I can talk whoever’s there into telling me how to get in touch with her. I’ll play the long-lost-relative card.” Phoebe had seen Franny in action and knew the Price Chopper employees didn’t stand a chance.

They made their way past rows of shopping carts, through the automatic doors and the vestibule full of gum-ball machines and the claw game full of ugly stuffed animals and plastic jewelry. Phoebe flashed back to her job at the Crazy Cone when she was twenty, the constant mechanical beep and song of the video games, the kids who came in, pockets heavy with quarters, hoping for a high score or for the biggest, best prize.

“There she is,” Franny said, heading past the display of freshly baked cinnamon buns toward the floral department. A woman with a green smock was trimming rose stems. She lifted her face and Phoebe inhaled sharply and grabbed Franny’s sleeve, jerking her back.

“What?”

“That’s Amy Pelletier—the girl from the woods! The one who played the old woman and ran naked onto the golf course.” She tugged on Franny’s arm, dragged her out of the store.

“Are you sure?” Franny asked, stopping at the rows of green plastic shopping carts on the sidewalk outside. They hadn’t moved far enough away and the automatic door kept opening and closing with an angry hum.

“Positive!”

Franny scowled, which she often did when she was thinking hard. An elderly couple walked past them into the store. Then a woman with a baby in a pink pig sleeper complete with a snout built into the hood. “Come on,” Franny said at last, turning to head back into the store.

“What are you doing?” Phoebe’s voice was frantic. Becca was just a girl, but the stunt at the cabin made her seem . . . otherworldly. Like a true changeling. A person who could turn from old to young, who could stab another with a corkscrew without injury. Who knew what else she was capable of?

“Do you want to figure out what’s going on here or not?”

“I do, but what makes you think she’s even going to talk to us?” Phoebe asked.

“Oh, she’ll talk. If she doesn’t, we’ll make a scene. If she wants to keep her job, she’ll cooperate.”

Phoebe followed Franny into the store and toward the floral department. Becca caught sight of them, immediately put down the sharp beaklike pruners, and took off her smock. She spoke briefly to an older woman behind the counter, then headed right for them.

“Let’s go outside,” Becca said. “I could use a smoke.”

F
or the first minute, they all just stared at one another, no one knowing how to get started. Becca took long, hard pulls from her Marlboro Light.

“I don’t get it,” Phoebe said. “How did Sam not recognize you?”

Becca smiled. “It’s been a long time. Our family moved down to Massachusetts a few months after Lisa disappeared. Would you recognize the adult version of some kid you knew when you were ten?”

Phoebe was silent, trying to remember kids she’d known back then. She’d never had close friends, no one she’d ever invite home. There were girls she talked to in school, girls she got paired with for gym and science projects, but no one special. Even now, they were all faceless, nameless.

“Well, I barely recognized you,” Franny admitted. “And you and I were pretty good friends for a while there. If it hadn’t been for your name tag, I wouldn’t even have been sure enough to come up and ask.”

Becca nodded.

“So when did you move back to Vermont?” Franny asked.

“After I finished high school. I moved up to Burlington, waited tables there. I kind of stayed away from this whole area, too many crazy memories. But they found me.
He
found me.”

“He?” Franny said.

“You can’t run from the Dark Man.”

A sharp chill ran down Phoebe’s neck. She took in a sharp breath and exhaled slowly.

“Dark Man? I think I saw that movie. He was a vigilante superhero, right? All scarred up and tormented. Or maybe you’re talking about the Man in Black—Johnny Cash?” Franny laughed, but the others didn’t. “No? So what are we talking about, the devil or something?”

Becca shook her head. “You don’t understand.”

“Tell me about what happened at the cabin,” Phoebe said. “Why would you do it? And who are the others? Did you all plan it with Sam? How long did he know?”

“Whoa!” Becca said, holding up her hand with the cigarette in a smoky slow-down gesture. “That’s a lot of questions.”

“So start with the first . . . the most important,” Franny suggested. “Why?”

Becca studied the burning ember at the end of her cigarette.

“If you don’t start talking, we’re going right to the cops,” Franny warned.

“I’m sure Alfred the constable would love to meet the true Amy Pelletier,” Phoebe added. “At the very least, you’d have a hell of a lot of explaining to do. And I’d bet it’s against the law to present false ID to cops.”

“Okay,” Becca sighed. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But then we’re done, right? You don’t come back and bother me at work. You don’t tell anyone you talked to me. Deal?”

Phoebe nodded.

“So back to the original question,” Franny said. “Why do it? How’d you get involved in this mess?”

“Because Teilo asked me to.” Becca dropped her cigarette into a can of sand next to the building that was already overflowing with butts.

“Teilo?” Franny said.

Becca nodded. “The King of the Fairies. He contacts me sometimes. Asks me for favors. But it’s not like asking really, ’cause no one ever says no. That’s how come I ended up moving back here, getting this shit job. He wanted me close by.” She lit another cigarette with a pink Bic lighter—the one remaining vestige of her old nickname.

“How does he contact you?” Franny asked.

Becca’s eyes darted around the parking lot. She lowered her voice. “Leaves me notes. Calls me on the phone.”

“From fairy land?” Franny asked, raising her voice. “Is that a long-distance call or what?”

“I don’t expect you to understand,” Becca replied, her voice dripping with contempt. “He walks between the worlds. Sometimes in human form. Sometimes he comes in dreams. Or as an animal. He’s a magic man.”

“What does he look like when he’s human?” Phoebe asked.

“Tall. Dark hair. He has six fingers on each hand.”

“Well
that’s
pretty distinguishing,” Franny said. Phoebe shot her a look.

“What about his face?” Phoebe asked.

“He always wears a mask. If a human looks upon the true face of a fairy, they’ll be driven mad.”

“How convenient,” Franny said.

“The others at the cabin—the fake Evie and Elliot—who were they?” Phoebe asked.

Becca sucked on her cigarette, held the smoke in her lungs, and closed her eyes. Then she exhaled and opened her eyes only halfway, squinting at Phoebe. “You’ll leave them out of it, right? If I tell you, you won’t go hunt them down?”

“Not if you explain everything,” Phoebe said.

“It was my brother, Gerald, and his girlfriend, Trish.”

“So you go through all this hoo-ha at the cabin for what exactly?” Franny asked.

Becca looked around nervously. “It was all Teilo’s plan. He told me what to do. He said we had to take all your stuff, especially the old fairy book. Make it look like you were never there. Make you think you were going crazy.”

“And who was the old man?”

“Just the guy who owned the cabin. Someone Gerald knew from work or something. We gave him five hundred bucks, told him we were playing a prank on some old friends, and he agreed to go along with it.”

“Gerald and his girlfriend—does Teilo contact them too, ask them for favors?” Phoebe asked.

“No,” Becca said firmly. “I do. They’re all caught up in this mess because of me. Me and Danny.”

“Danny?” Phoebe said.

“My son. He’s five. His uncle Gerald adores him.” She reached into her front pocket and pulled out a little cloth coin purse that was stuffed full of cards and money. She rummaged through and pulled out a tiny photo of a little boy with dark hair and freckles. “That’s my little man,” she said, touching the boy’s cheek as if he was actually there, then tucking him carefully back into her wallet.

“So, what—you threaten to not let Gerald see Danny if he doesn’t do what you ask?” Franny asked.

Becca shook her head. “It’s not like that. Gerald and Trish, they do it to keep Danny safe. To keep him with me.”

“Safe from whom?” Franny asked, but Phoebe knew the answer.

“Teilo. If I don’t do what he asks, he’ll take Danny. I couldn’t live without my son.” She looked pleadingly at Phoebe. “You know how it is, right?”

Phoebe took a step back. “Yes, I mean, no. I don’t have kids. But I can imagine.”

“Danny’s dad got killed in a bike accident two summers ago. Danny’s all I’ve got.”

“So let me get this straight,” Franny said. “Some crazy, mutant, child-stealing, six-fingered guy—whose face you’ve never even
seen
—gets you to do things by threatening to steal your child. And what, take him away to live in a big old tree with the Keebler elves?”

Becca shook her head frantically. “Look, you don’t know, okay? You haven’t seen what he’s capable of. He has . . . powers.”

“Do you know how to get in touch with Teilo?” Phoebe asked. “Where to find him?”

Becca shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. Teilo finds you. I’ve told you enough already. Too much. But in case you haven’t figured it out, you can’t hide. If you’ve still got something he wants, you can’t win.”

Phoebe touched her stomach. There was no way he was getting Sam’s firstborn.

“What do you know about Lisa’s baby?” Phoebe asked.

Becca looked at her blankly. “Lisa? Is she back?”

“You tell us,” Franny said.

“I haven’t seen Lisa since that summer. But Teilo, he told me she’s been with him. But then she ran off. Once you live with fairies, you can’t come back to the human world. That’s what Teilo says.”

The cell phone in Franny’s bag rang.

“Look, I gotta go,” Becca said, tossing her cigarette butt on the ground and grinding it out with her foot. “Remember our deal, okay? We’re done.”

Franny answered her phone, listened a minute, then said to Phoebe, “Sam’s at our place. He’s trying to take Lisa.” Turning back to the phone, she said, “Jim? Don’t let him take her. Do whatever you have to do. We’re on our way.” She dropped the phone in her bag, said, “We’ve gotta fly.”

Becca was halfway back into the store, but Phoebe caught up with her, put a hand on her shoulder, got her to turn around.

“Was Sam really in the woods that night? When Lisa disappeared?” Phoebe asked, remembering what had brought them to Becca in the first place.

“Ask him,” Becca said.

“I will. But first, I’m asking you,” Phoebe said.

Becca smiled. “He was there. Gerald and I, we went into the woods because Evie told us Teilo was going to open the door to the fairy world. Sam was there too. And Evie.”

“And Teilo? Did you see him?”

She nodded.

“Was it the first time you ever saw him?” Phoebe asked.

“Nah,” Becca said. “Gerald and I had seen him a bunch of times. Evie told us where to find him. She gave us stuff for him—food, presents—offerings, I guess. We’d bring it to him in the woods and he’d give us gifts—junky stuff like old coins, a silver spoon. He gave me a toy compass once. God, I loved that thing.”

“Wait,” Phoebe said. “Evie did that? She knew who he was? Where to find him?”

Becca nodded. “The first I saw him I was by myself in the woods. I thought he was the bogeyman. I was scared shitless. Then the next day, Evie comes to me, explains that it wasn’t the bogeyman. She tells me and Gerald that the King of the Fairies is living down in Reliance and whatever we do, we have to keep it a secret. She drew us this little map showing us where to find him. You find Evie, the real Evie, and ask her. She can tell you all about Teilo.”

CHAPTER 35

Lisa

JUNE 15, FIFTEEN YEARS AGO

P
hyllis stood statue-still, her hand raised, frozen in place right where it had slapped Evie’s left cheek. Sammy stared, wide-eyed as an owl. Phyllis had never struck any of them, had never so much as threatened a spanking. How many times had she or Da said it when Sam and Lisa and Evie were little, intervening over a disputed toy? “We don’t hit in this house.” Calmly and firmly, a reminder, a statement. And it was true—even drunk, Aunt Hazel never lost her cool.

Hazel drained what was left of her drink, setting the empty glass down on the table with a thud. Lisa pushed her chair back, the metal legs scraping across the linoleum floor. She scooted past her mother, keeping her eyes averted, and jogged out the door after Evie.

“Lisa!” her mother called, snapping out of her trance. “Come back!” But Lisa kept on going. She searched the yard and saw no sign of Evie. It was just starting to get dark. Racing around the house to the driveway, she saw her bike was gone, and there, in the distance, was Evie, riding toward the center of town.

“Evie!” Lisa cried. “Wait up!”

The bike wobbled as Evie stood and pumped the pedals faster.

Lisa sprinted after her, leaping over cracks in the sidewalk, her feet in their pink and silver Nikes flying across the ground.

Evie. Poor Evie. How could Lisa’s mother have done such a thing?

“Please! Wait!” Lisa cried, panting, but Evie was out of earshot.

Evie. Her half sister. How long had Evie known? Had she known that Dave was her father her whole life, watching as he showered Lisa with gifts and hugs and funny songs while Evie stayed off in the shadows, the unacknowledged daughter? God, it was so unfair! And Da? Did he know? How could he live with a secret like that?

She remembered what Evie had told her back in Cape Cod:
Things are going to be different when we get back.

Lisa didn’t understand what had happened in the kitchen, but she was sure it had something to do with Da.

The questions piled up in her mind as she ran faster, harder. Up ahead, she saw a gathering of kids outside the general store. They were hanging out on the porch eating ice cream and drinking sodas. And there was Evie as their center, holding something in her hands. Lisa’s bike was parked against the side of the building, the spokes gleaming in the bright floodlights illuminating the front of the store. Behind the kids, a blue bug light lured mosquitoes in, zapping them with a horrible little sizzle.

Lisa slowed to a walk, trying to catch her breath before climbing the steps to the porch. In the window were lottery signs, a neon Budweiser light, and a taped-up poster for a lost dog.
HAVE YOU SEEN BRUNO
, it said in a childish, messy scrawl.
WE MISS HIM
. Below it, a photo of an old yellow Lab and a phone number.

Lisa climbed the steps, trying to identify all the kids. Gerald was there, holding a cream soda in his good hand. And Pinkie with a strawberry sundae cup. Her friend Franny was beside her with a matching sundae cup. Mike and Justin were beside Gerald, both wearing Little League uniforms that had an ad for Tucker’s Body Shop on the back. They had on green caps and cleats. There were two other boys there, who Lisa vaguely knew but couldn’t name—older, also in green baseball uniforms. Backpacks and baseball gloves covered the two benches.

There, in the center, was Evie, with the gang of kids circled around her.

“I don’t know, Stevie,” Gerald was saying. “Are you sure this is real?”

“Positive,” Evie said. “Just look at it.”

Gerald leaned down and Lisa came up behind him, getting a strong whiff of dirty hair and body odor. She peered over his shoulder to see what Evie was showing them.

There, opened up in Evie’s hands, was
The Book of Fairies.

“How could you?” Lisa blurted out, shoving past Gerald.

“Lisa?” Evie blinked. The left side of her face was red and swollen-looking. “I just thought people should know. I’m tired of all the secrets.”

“You’ve ruined
everything
,” Lisa said, almost in tears, her voice shaking. She couldn’t believe that just a few minutes before she’d been chasing Evie to comfort her. “Why would you do this? Why? Just to seem cool to these idiots?”

Lisa saw it so clearly: Evie, the odd girl out, tired of never being special, desperate for attention, willing to do whatever it took to get people to notice her. It was pathetic.

“Hey, who you calling idiots?” one of the older boys said, squaring his shoulders. He had the faint beginnings of a mustache and tiny, rodentlike eyes.

Lisa ignored him. “I kept my stupid promise. And you did this. It says right there in the book, Evie. It says we have to keep it a secret! Or else.” Lisa snatched the book from Evie, held it tight to her chest.

“Or else what?” asked Pinkie, her pale face all scrunched up, stained with strawberry sundae. The others were silent, holding on to the sodas and ice creams, waiting to see what might happen next.

“Lisa,” Evie began, “I—”

“You were pissed off that the fairies came for me!” Lisa interrupted. “That I was chosen and you weren’t. Kind of like with Da, right? I’m the daughter he sees. You’re just no one. The fat cousin nobody can stand.”

Evie took a step back, cowering like she’d been hit again.

Gerald snickered into his hand, covering his mouth, looking more nervous than amused.

Lisa turned and jumped down the steps, grabbed her bike, and pedaled toward home, one hand steering the bike, the other clinging to
The Book of Fairies
. She pumped the pedals as fast she could, trying to race away from everything that had just happened. She wished she could ride hard enough and fast enough to leave it all behind. Escape the whole stupid town, her whole life. She dumped her bike in the driveway and ran straight for the woods.

Her promise to Evie and Sam didn’t count anymore. Not after this.

She made her way quickly but quietly to Reliance, stopping every now and then to listen and make sure she wasn’t being followed.

The only sound was her feet in the leaves and twigs on the forest floor—
crunch, crunch, crunch.
She found the cellar hole and sat with her legs crossed, back pressed against the wall. Yogi posture.

Her back ached and she had horrible cramps. She couldn’t believe she was going to have to go through this misery every month—what was so hot about “being a woman” anyway?

She closed her eyes, then called out. “Teilo? Are you there? Everything’s such a mess,” she sobbed. “Da’s in the hospital and I think he really might die. Evie’s a traitor. She took the book and showed it to people. I’m so sorry. I know you trusted me or you wouldn’t have left it.” She was crying hard now, leaning forward, sobs wracking her. “Teilo? I know you’re there. I believe in you. I’ve always believed.”

And then she heard it: a rustling in the leaves that turned to footsteps, coming her way.