The Reservoir (11 page)

“Fifty of them?” Zack said, his eyes boring into hers.  “Holly, the chains are thick and heavy.  I’m not talking your garden-variety chain.  I have to wonder, what possible reason does your stepdad have for keeping that many chains and anchors in that shed?”

Holly gave Zack a speculative glance.  Was he trying to tell her something?  Suddenly, the air became thick with tension. 

“Holly…”

She crossed her arms over her chest, bracing to hear whatever he had to say next, and then nodded for him to continue.  “Go on.”

“Like we said before, if the girl, Cassie, is in the lake, and she’s not there of her own accord, then
someone
helped put her there…”

Holly’s eyes widened.  Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting?—that David had something to do with Cassie’s death?

“Zack, exactly what are you trying to say?” she said in a clipped voice.

The air was now charged with tension, which Zack promptly attempted to diffuse.  He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.  “I’m not trying to say anything?  Not just yet.  We need more information—a lot more, before we can possibly even begin to understand what happened to Thomas’ sister.”

Holly didn’t speak, and Zack pulled back to study her face.  “Are you angry?” he asked, wincing.  “I really didn’t mean to upset you.  You know I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”

She sighed.  “I know that.  But, yeah, I’m upset.  And for a lot of reasons…”

“Yeah, I hear you,” he told her, smiling into her eyes.  “But we’ll get this business sorted out.  We have to.  I think Cassie needs us.”

Holly nodded.  “I think so too.”

“Zack!” Daniel shouted from the kitchen.  “Thomas is ready to talk some more.”

Zack draped an arm over Holly’s shoulders and together they walked into the kitchen and sat down.  Thomas was eating a bacon and egg sandwich.  “Good, you’re getting a little protein to go with your donut,” Zack observed with a smile.

Thomas nodded.  “Niqui’s a good cook.”

“Well, thank you, kind sir,” Niqui said, rising and tousling his hair before easing back into her chair.

Zack took a shoring breath and said tentatively, “So Thomas, you’re sure you’re up for more talking?  I know this is hard for you.”

He smiled tremulously.  “In a way, it’s good to talk and have somebody actually
listen
to me.”

Zack nodded.  “Okay, then, why are you concerned about the chains in Holly’s stepdad’s shed?”

Suddenly, Thomas sat up stiff as a rod.  He swallowed hard and stood from the chair.  “I have to go!”

Zack grabbed a hold of his arm.  “Kid, did I say something to upset you?”

Thomas glanced around the table, his eyes darting from the group of friends to the door and back.  “I … just have to go.”

The swift shift in his manner was confusing.  It was Holly who tried to calm him down.  “Thomas, listen to me.  You have to trust us.  You’re scared and we get that, but we can’t help you unless you talk to us.”

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore!”  He struggled to pull away from Zack, but the older boy held firm.

“Thomas,” Holly said, “why won’t you talk to us anymore?”

“I thought you guys were just renting this place…” he said in an accusing tone.  “I thought you were just tourists like us.”

“No, Thomas.  My stepdad owns it.  But really, we are tourists.”

“Either way, what’s the big deal?” Zack inquired.

Thomas’s eyes filled with rage as he glared at Holly.  “Because I think your stepfather murdered my sister!”

***

Once again, it took a few minutes to calm Thomas down.  He refused to sit down, and watched Holly in particular as if she were a strange species of animal that couldn’t be trusted—as if she had a mouthful of razor sharp teeth and might sink them into his throat at any second.  She laid a gentle hand on him arm.  “Thomas, listen, I’m not lying to you when I tell you you can trust me.”

He watched her through suspicious, narrowed eyes, but she wouldn’t be deterred.  “Thomas, please.  Talk to me.  Talk to us.  We want to help you help your sister.”

He relaxed ever-so-slightly.

“Tell me, why would you think my stepdad had something to do with Cassie’s disappearance?”

He hesitated for a moment, but gave a resigned sigh.  “The old guy’s creepy, for one thing.  For another, Cassie keeps…”

“Wait a minute,” Holly said, shaking her head in confusion.  “I know David must be ancient to a twelve-year-old.  Heck, we’re probably ancient to you too.  But how old do you think David is?”

“Old!” Thomas cried, and Holly watched him in confusion, deciding to leave the matter for later. 

“Listen, Thomas, before, you said, ‘Cassie keeps…’  What does Cassie keep doing?”

Suddenly, he sagged and sat back down on the chair.  Zack released his arm, but leaned toward him, staring searchingly into his eyes.  “I want you to believe us.  You can trust us.  You don’t have to be afraid of us.  Okay?”

Thomas studied his face, and then his posture relaxed.  He nodded.

“Now, what is it Cassie keeps doing?” he persisted.

“She keeps coming back to your dock, that’s what.  She keeps…”  He glanced off again, an array of emotions crisscrossing his face.  “Look, I don’t want to go in the water.  I know the ghost is my sister—I know she is, but she scares me.  My own sister—and I’m afraid of her!”  He glanced at Zack, his eyes imploring.  “She wants me to come in the water with her.  I know she does, but…  I just can’t do it.”

Zack smiled sadly.  He understood.  On one hand, the boy wanted to help his sister, but on the other, he was terrified.  Cassie the apparition was an unknown quantity, and although he wanted to trust that she wouldn’t harm him, he wasn’t convinced.  Frankly, Zack wasn’t convinced either.

The day in the water, when she had a grip on Daniel’s leg, she had refused to let go.  What if she had been trying to pull him under, but the tube had been the reason he had stayed afloat, rather than any deliberate effort on Cassie’s part to keep him above water?  And when she had a hold of his wrist, maybe she hadn’t meant to let go at all.

Zack sighed and rotated his shoulders, trying to dispel the tension gripping his upper back.  “So Thomas, you believe Cassie keeps coming back to this particular waterfront because the person who killed her lives here?”

“What else am I supposed to think?” he said.  “Whenever I see Cassie, gesturing to me like this…”  He put his hands together as if he was in prayer.  “Anyway, when she does that, I yell to her, ‘I don’t know what you want.’  She’s points this way—every time.  A couple times, I told her I’d go where she wanted me to, but on land.  I’d run along the bank, watching her swim under the water, until she stopped.  She always stopped out there—at that dock.”

Zack and Holly glanced at one another, and then at the faces of their friends.  Each looked on, Niqui’s face registering terror, Kendall’s wearing a speculative glance, and Daniel’s wearing a sympathetic frown. 

“Sometimes,” Thomas said, “she rises up above our dock and points out toward the deep water.”  Thomas groaned.  “I don’t think she can hover above water for long, though, because it’s like she can only hold on for a minute or two before she starts to drop like rain back into the water.”  Thomas smiled wistfully.  “She’s so pretty and sparkly when it happens,” he said.  “But Cassie was always pretty, even for a sister.”

Zack smiled.  “I can tell you loved her a lot.”

“Not enough,” Thomas said glumly, “because when she points to the deep water, I know she wants me to swim out there with her.  Maybe she wants to show me something.  I mean, she probably does, right?  But I’m a lousy swimmer.  Even in a vest I’m scared of the deep water.  I’m afraid I’ll drown.  I know I should go out there, but I’m scared.  If I was a good brother, and wasn’t such a coward, I’d just start swimming.  If I drown then…”  He gave a neither-here-nor-there shrug.  “I could be with Cassie forever.”

“Listen to me, Thomas,” Zack said with authority, grabbing a hold of his shoulders, “don’t you
ever
try to swim out after Cassie, even wearing a vest.  Do you understand me?”

Thomas shook his head uncertainly.  “But…”

“You could be hit by a boat out there,” Zack cut in, “and then you’d be no good to anybody, least of all, Cassie.  If I catch you even considering it, I’m going to give you a thumpin’ upside your head you’ll never forget.”

“But then, if I drowned, Cassie would have company,” he moaned.  “She’s probably so lonely out there—and cold.  I don’t want her to be cold.”  He began to cry and Zack pulled him into a hug.

“It’s going to be all right,” he soothed.  “We’re going to do our best for Cassie.  I give you my word.”

Thomas pulled back, searching Zack’s face.  “Really?” he asked, his voice quivering.

“Really,” Zack assured him.

“But Thomas,” Holly said fiercely, “you have to listen to Zack.  Don’t you dare try to swim out to deep water.  Trust me, your sister doesn’t want you dead, even if she is lonely for you.  Okay?  And my guess is, ghosts don’t get cold.”

“Okay,” he murmured morosely.  “Okay.”

“I should get home,” Thomas said.  “My mom’s going to worry about me.” 

The group was standing at the front of the property, but some distance from the water’s edge.  Despite knowing the ghost was likely this boy’s sister, no one was eager for another close encounter at the moment.

Thomas jogged off toward his cabin then, turned, waved, and then disappeared into the trees.

“I can’t believe his parents let him out of their sight,” Holly commented.  “If I lost one kid, I don’t think I would let the others out of the house.  Especially up here.”

“It’s probably hard for them,” Zack observed, “but they have no choice but to go on.”

“Well, they do have a choice…” Daniel said, wincing dramatically.

Zack acknowledged his words with a weary nod.  “Okay, what next…?”

As if on cue,
next
came in the form of their friend Aaron arriving at the cabin.  They heard his stereo reverberating through the trees before they saw his vehicle pull into the dusty driveway.  To their surprise, he had brought his small fishing boat with him, on a trailer behind his Bronco.

“Aaron!” Niqui cried excitedly, prompting Zack and Daniel to pass knowing looks between them.

Aaron climbed out of his Bronco, slammed the door behind him, and stomped toward the group with an angry scowl on his handsome face.  His dark eyes, narrowed in anger, were focused on Holly.  “You know, I might expect the others to pull a prank on me, but not you Holly.  At least, not that kind of a prank!”

Holly shook her head, unsure what he was talking about.  She turned to Zack for support, spreading her hands in a gesture of confusion.  He draped an arm over her shoulders.

“What’s up, Aaron?  What are you talking about?  What kind of prank?” Niqui asked.

He gave her a smile, albeit brief.  “Hey, Niq.”

He turned to Holly again.  “How many times did you need to leave those awful messages?” he demanded.  “Just so you know, you really creeped me out.  I had nightmares all fricken night.  Real funny!”

“One more time, Aaron,” Zack said in measured tones, “what are you talking about?”

“Oh, Holly and her repeated phone calls.”  He glared at her again.  “Real funny.  I finally called your mom, and she told me it couldn’t be you calling because you’d lost your phone in the lake.  Uh huh.  What a hoot!  Unfortunately, I’m not laughing.”

“Let’s go in the house!” Zack suggested, ushering a stricken Holly and the others inside.

Kendall and Niqui sat on the couch in the living room, Daniel claimed his recliner, and Zack and Holly remained standing.  Aaron paced the room, still clearly agitated.

“Aaron,” Zack began, “tell us again about the phone calls.  When did they start?”

“I don’t know,” he said irritably.

“Try to think,” Zack pressed.

“Late evening, I guess.”  He glared at Holly again.  “One prank call would have done the trick, thank you very much.  Did you have to keep calling me over and over?  I finally shut the damn phone off.”

Holly shook her head, a puzzled expression on her face.  “Aaron, I didn’t call you.  My phone
did
fall into the lake yesterday.”  She frowned.  “Zack, what time exactly was it that I lost the phone, do you remember?”

He shrugged.  “It was nearing dark.  I know that much.”

“You guys are a laugh a minute,” Aaron said in a surly tone.  “Did you plan this?  Creep out the late arrival?  Was that the plan all along?”

“Aaron, you have my word.  I didn’t call you.”

He searched her eyes, and then his eyes widened, before he glanced at Zack.  He laughed uncertainly.  “Come on, fess up, guys.”  He flashed a quick, sheepish grin.  “Okay, I’m cool now.  I can take a joke as well as the next guy.”  He glanced around him and said in a theatrical voice, “Come on out, Ashton Kutcher.  I’m Aaron Bell and I’ve been punked!”

Zack shook his head, no trace of humor in his crisp blue eyes.  “Nobody called you.”

“Somebody called me,” Aaron insisted.  “She kept saying…”

“What?” Holly said in a whisper, reaching for Zack’s hand. 

“Uh, first couple calls said, ‘They don’t like the water…’  Next several were something like, ‘It’s too dark,’ and finally, over and over, ‘Help us, please.’”

Niqui let out a cry, and Kendall scooted close to her friend.  They wrapped their arms around one another, while Holly stood still as a statue, her mouth opened in shock. 

“Holly, are you okay?” Zack asked.

She swallowed over the lump lodged in her throat.  “I … don’t know.”

***

“Okay, this is too weird,” Aaron said, as he paced the room.  The group had filled him in on everything that had happened since their arrival at the lake.  He gave them all another suspicious glance.  “Again, peeps, if this is some kind of a joke, tell me now.  I won’t be mad.  Really.  I’ll be relieved.  Really relieved,” he added drolly.

“It’s no joke,” Zack told him.  “Apparently, Cassie is making phone calls.”

“No way.  Besides, there’s no service on that lake, right?” Aaron said.