The Lost Sister (11 page)

“I
need
this job,” Cordelia begged the handsome man at the Maine Tea and Coffee Bean. “You have no idea how much this would mean to me. I have nowhere else to go. No place to live, no family in the area.”

That was partly true. She did have family in the area, it was just that Malcolm Crane didn’t know about her—probably wouldn’t even recognize her if she plopped herself down on his doorstep. After she had driven the old VW Bug as far as she could into Maine—as far as the old gas tank allowed her—she stopped at a motel to get some rest and to refuel her body and her car. She knew she’d have to do some research to track down her wayward father.

Within a day or two of leaving Sophie’s place, she had found herself in a small town library with free Internet access. Looking up Malcolm Crane wasn’t too hard. She remembered Rebecca once mentioning that Malcolm was a college professor in Maine, but that was before they’d even moved to Hawthorne—and she still thought of him as her uncle. A lot could have changed since then, but she had to give it a shot. There were no Malcolms listed, but lots of M. Cranes. Fortunately, there were only a few listed in college towns. After placing a couple of phone calls to the college information centers, she learned that there was a Malcolm E. Crane teaching at a small college in Crawford, Maine. After she discovered that, she knew where she had to go and what she had to do. She just needed to be able to support herself and keep busy until she ultimately tracked him down. “Listen,” the guy said quietly. “I can tell that you really want this job. But so do half of the students at Bromley College. And most of them have had at least some food service experience.”

“But I used to run a store,” she insisted, unwilling to take no for an answer. “That should count for something.”

He looked at the résumé she’d halfheartedly scratched out.

“CeeCee, look, I see you’ve listed that you worked in a store, but you didn’t put the name of the place, the town, or even a reference name for me to contact. You don’t even have your Social Security number on this or a last place of residence. It’s like you just appeared out of thin air.”

Cordelia couldn’t risk being discovered. She knew that as a runaway, she’d be tracked down if she used her real name, real Social, or revealed any of her ties to Hawthorne. When she saw the newspapers in the library she stopped at to do research on Malcolm Crane, she realized how much of a big deal her disappearance really was to a small town like Hawthorne.

“I know, I know,” she said, her lower lip trembling. “I can’t really give you anything but my word. I—I need this job more than you know.” Cordelia looked around and nodded at the kids crowding the coffee bar. “I’m telling you. I’m not like these college kids who will blow off shifts for classes and parties. I’ll devote all my time to this coffeehouse. I’ll work nights, weekends, holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s—whatever you want. Do you need overnight shifts? Done. Dishwasher? Floor washer? Hell, I’ll even do your laundry. Just please,” she cried as she looked down at his name tag. “Please, Chris. Give me a chance.”

“Okay, okay, you’ve sold me,” he said, laughing. “I’m going to stop you before you sell me your soul, for crying out loud.” He stopped laughing when he noticed her eyes brimming with tears. She hoped he could tell she wasn’t like the other college kids in town. She really wanted to work—needed it to survive and not just for some extra pocket change for nights out on the town or shopping sprees in Kittery.

“The job is yours. You’ve got it, okay?” he said, dimples deepening. Cordelia could tell that she was winning him over. “And if you need a place to crash until you get back on your feet, we have a small room in the back. Uh, it’s not much. No windows or anything. But it’s cozy, there’s a nice bed. I’ve slept there a few nights when I’ve had to stay late and do accounting work. You’d have access to all the food here after hours. Plus, it’d be nice to have someone here watching the place overnight.”

Cordelia couldn’t believe her good fortune. She almost kissed him. She was nodding her head vigorously as he spoke. She was sold as soon as he said “small room in the back.” “Yes, yes, yes!” she said, almost unable to contain herself. She threw her arms around him, thanking him profusely.

He pulled back, blushing a little, and then said, “I can only offer you a little more than minimum wage, but I won’t charge you rent or anything.”

“Great! Amazing! When can I start?”

He handed her a washcloth and said, “You can start wiping down these tables and then I’ll have one of the other girls show you the ropes.”

With that, Cordelia floated from table to table, wiping them so well that they gleamed. Everything was falling into place. And she had all the time in the world to track down her father—and to make things right.

H
awthorne Academy had just closed for winter break, but Kate didn’t feel like she was going to have much of a vacation, not with Finnegan O’Malley around. He was continuing to make problems for her and her family and she had reached the end of her rope. Ever since Cordelia disappeared last year, he’d become more and more of a thorn in her side. And now that Maddie had come back from Stanton for winter break, Kate realized that Finn would have one more person on his side when it came to Ravenswood.

Especially when it came to that creepy wall with the faces.

Finn warned what would happen if the wall was destroyed. He brought it up at the historical society meetings, the town council meetings, and at the construction site where workers were preparing to turn Ravenswood into the Endicott Hotel.

But no one would listen. Kate wondered why he wouldn’t give it up.

He tried to appeal to their sense of historical preservation and then he tried playing on their fears, reminding them of the curse that had allegedly been set upon the town and whoever caused the destruction of the edifice. But it was no use. The Endicotts had cut a deal with the state. They would keep a portion of the asylum intact, erecting a museum that honored the countless patients that passed through Ravenswood like ghosts, as well as a tribute to the architectural genius of Samuel McIntyre. In the original plans for the Endicott Hotel, the seventeenth-century fortress wall with the faces of the Pickering sisters was incorporated into the new construction. But as soon as Kate Endicott discovered the more recent addition to the wall—the one that looked eerily similar to Cordelia LeClaire—she was determined to smash the wall into pieces.

“That piece of trailer trash will have no place at the Endicott. Why should we be reminded of that crazy bitch and everything she put us through?” Kate scoffed to her friends as they sat around the table at Crestwood Yacht Club, going over plans for the Misery Island Winter Gala. The charity event would help the Endicotts’ case when they needed to swing the town council’s vote in their favor.

“Do you really want to risk it?” Darcy asked as she stuffed the elegant cream invitations, obviously frightened by the ramifications. Kate laughed at Darcy’s fearful question.

“Risk what?” Kate snapped at the girls, her voice echoing against the vaulted ceiling of the empty club’s ballroom. “Risk pissing off a bunch of ghosts and legends? Or risk pissing off the lawn-boy-turned-historical-activist and his skanky girlfriend?”

Darcy turned red and looked down at the invitations. She winced as a paper cut spread blood onto her thumb and then onto the invitation. Kate noticed the smear of blood and whipped the invitation out of Darcy’s hand. Bridget and Hannah held their breath wondering what Kate would do next.

“Do you really think that we’re risking the wrath of Cordelia or the spooky Pickering sisters? Please,” she said snidely. “Isn’t it time you stopped believing in creepy legends and fairy tales?”

Kate wasn’t aware that Finn was actually the one responsible for the faces on the stone wall, but she had seen him mooning around the carving that most resembled Cordelia—the missing girl that she and the Sisters of Misery had treated so cruelly prior to her disappearance. It became more evident when Kate learned that Finn was the rallying force behind keeping the wall standing during the renovation of Ravenswood into the Endicott.

When she wasn’t met with any opposition to her comment, Kate continued her ranting about Finn. “All of his talks about preserving history and early American craftsmanship are just a pathetic attempt to hold on to Cordelia. I mean, how pathetic is that? Cordelia used him and then threw him away when she was done with him and he’s still holding on to the idea that she’s coming back.”

“What if she does come back?” Bridget offered quietly. The girls eyed Kate nervously. They all had recently received tarot cards in the mail. Hannah, Bridget, Darcy, and Kate—maybe even Maddie—all of the Sisters of Misery. Everyone associated with what had happened that fateful Halloween night. “What if those cards were some kind of warning?” she said softly, as if afraid that if she spoke her fears out loud, they’d somehow come true.

“Don’t you girls get it? Doesn’t anyone get it?” Kate snapped, wondering if Finn was just as ridiculous as the others, thinking that Cordelia was going to return one day. That was never going to happen. Kate would never allow it to happen. “Cordelia is never coming back. If she does, she’ll be sorry. Really sorry.”

Worse than sorry,
Kate thought as a flicker of a smile touched her lips,
she’ll be dead.

“So, what’s the story, Crane? You back for good?” Finn asked.

They were sitting outside the local coffee shop. Finn wanted to sit outside despite the wintry air so he could smoke. Maddie was surprised that she hadn’t heard from him sooner, but when he called to meet up for coffee that afternoon, she couldn’t say no. Maddie thought that he sounded hopeful for a minute, but as she watched him light up a cigarette, she realized that he’d never let his guard down around her the way he had when they were creeping around Ravenswood that terrible night. She paused for a minute.

She shook her head. “No, it’s not permanent. I’m only going to be here as long as my mother needs me. She’s…she probably doesn’t have much more time left.” Madeline felt strange, as if she was expected to cry or break down every time she mentioned her mother’s illness. What she didn’t want to admit to anyone, not even herself, was that she felt nothing. That all of her grief and sadness had been used up over all of the loss in her lifetime, and what she was left with was an overwhelming numbness.

Finn nodded and flicked the ash of his cigarette away from them. He scratched his head with his free hand. “Probably better off not sticking around here. You don’t want to end up like your friends.”

“You mean the members of the Junior League in training? Yeah, I know.” Maddie laughed, and then took a sip of her steaming latte, burning her tongue. “It’s funny, I go to school with kids whose parents own Fortune 500 companies—”

“Well, aren’t you special?” Finn said sarcastically, interrupting her.

“No, what I mean is, they have more money than they could ever know what to do with and they don’t have snobby attitudes half as unbearable as people around here do, you know?”

“Well, I don’t really hang out with too many Fortune 500 trust fund babies, but,” he said, briefly smirking, “if you’re asking me if it surprises me that we have the most assholes per capita in the U.S. right here in Hawthorne, no, it does not.”

“Wow, still working on that political campaign, are we?”

“Yeah, they definitely are going to be electing me mayor one of these days.” They both laughed at the thought of Finn running the town of Hawthorne. “Nah, I want to get out of here, too. I’m thinking of ditching the next semester of school and taking my bike cross-country. Get out on the open road with my motorcycle and just see the world—the real world, not this pretend playhouse we call a town.”

Maddie pictured Finn out on his bike, driving cross-country, with nothing but desert all around him, small broken-down motels, and the red mountains on the horizon. She had the urge to jump on the back of his bike and ride off into complete freedom. Leave everything and everyone behind and start fresh. It was a thought that both thrilled and frightened her at the same time. She could envision Cordelia wrapping her arms around Finn, pressing her cheek to his worn leather jacket, and setting off together into a new life. She often wondered why that never happened. Finn probably wished he knew the answer as well.

It was at that moment that the feeling of being watched came over Maddie suddenly like a Vise-Grip. It felt as though someone was watching her every move, paying heed to every person she spoke with, listening to every conversation. She looked around nervously and tried to continue joking with Finn, but the feeling was too strong, too overwhelming to concentrate on his words. Cars were driving by and people bundled up in North Face jackets paid no attention as they passed the teenagers seated on the bench outside the coffee shop. But still, there was this feeling she couldn’t shake….

“I have to—need to go,” she said quickly.

“Oh yeah,” he said, looking slightly hurt. “Yeah, right, well, it was good seeing you again, Maddie. Say hi to Reed and his new girlfriend for me.”

Maddie wasn’t sure if he was trying to hurt her feelings with the mention of Reed and how he’d moved on. She wasn’t sure how much he knew about the feelings she had for her former teacher. Darcy had already told her that Reed had moved in with Bronwyn Maxwell, a girl suddenly catapulted to super social status after a multimillion-dollar inheritance from her grandparents. The former field hockey coach was now one of the It girls of the town. It made Maddie sick to think about.

“Uh, yeah.” Maddie took a quick look around and stammered, “Right. I should probably say hi to him now that I’m back in town.” She was worried that someone would hear them talking about Reed—that they would see the disappointment in her face.

“Don’t worry,” Finn snapped as she turned to walk away.

Maddie stopped midstride and turned. “About what?”

“No one saw you.”

What is he talking about?
Maddie wondered. “Saw me?”

“No one saw you talking to me. You’re in the clear with your friends.” He put air quotes around the word
friends.

“You know that I don’t care about that, Finn. You know me better than that.”

“Do I?” he said sharply, and then lit a cigarette angrily, turning his back on Maddie.

Chills ran down her back, the kind that you get when you’re being watched. Maddie knew that feeling all too well. She walked away briskly, trying to shake it off, but it was stuck to her like glue. Tess would have called it the Evil Eye. Abigail would have said paranoia. Cordelia would have attributed it to fairies or elves. Maddie knew it was none of those things. But the one thing she was sure of was this: it was danger.