The Reservoir (19 page)

She sagged against the bridge.  “We can’t exactly tell them our informant is a ghost, can we?”

Holly felt Cassie’s hand on her arm.  “You need physical evidence,” she signed, and slipped into the water.  Holly and Zack watched her ghostly form recede, entranced by the fluidity of her movement. 

Zack finally looked away from the water, and back to Holly.  “I wonder why she can’t speak,” he said.  “In all the horror movies, ghosts make, well, ghostly sounds.”

“She says she can speak underwater.”  Holly shrugged with a sigh.  “Maybe it has to do with her remains being in deep water.  I don’t know…”

Cassie soon returned with something in her hand. 

“He didn’t manage to get this away from Katie,” she signed, and held out a small object for Holly and Zack to see.  Holly took it from her.

The golden heart was tiny, but she could still see there was an engraving on the back.  She smoothed her fingers over the surface where it was soiled, clearing away the mud.  “Katie, from Mom and Dad, with all our love,” she read aloud.

Cassie tapped Holly to get her attention again.  “He always takes everything from the girls,” she signed.  “Everything.”

Holly watched her confusedly.  “Then how…?”

“Katie put this in her mouth.  She swallowed it.  She knew…”  Cassie paused and glanced below her, apparently seeking Katie’s face.  When she met Holly’s eyes again, she could see the sadness in Cassie’s face.  “Katie knew she was going to die, so…”

Holly felt sick with fear and anger.  Whoever had killed these girls and the little boy was going to pay. 

Whoever
.  David?  Was her stepfather the killer?  The thought simply did not compute—it was just so incomprehensible to think her mother might have married a murderer.

“Cassie,” Holly said with urgency, “where are the other bodies?  In deep water?”

Cassie looked confused.  “You have your proof.  The locket is proof, right?”

Holly nodded.  “It’s good we have the locket, but it still doesn’t prove there are bodies under the bridge…”

Cassie nodded slowly with understanding, but perked up.  “The little girl and the boy, they’re at the washout, across from Yale Park.  They’re just below the shelf of pebbles, where the water drops off.”

Holly told Zack what Cassie had just told her.  He shook his head in confusion.  “That’s not very deep there, is it?”

“No,” Holly said, remembering David had mentioned it was shallow due to the shelf created from a landslide into the water. 

Cassie began signing again.  “I can take you to the little ones.  We can go now.” 

Holly relayed the message to Zack, who nodded.  “If their bodies aren’t too deep in the water, we could say we were diving and found him,” he noted.

Holly nodded this time.  “Let’s hope they’re not too deep. One thing, Cassie, do anchors and chains mean anything to you?”

Cassie suddenly looked angry, her brows drawn low over her eyes.  “Yes, he wrapped us in chains, and with some of us, weighted us down with anchors…”

Holly nodded and told Zack, who nodded in return.  “Chains and anchors,” he said morosely.  “Like the ones in the shed.”

“Another thing, Cassie,” Holly said.  “Besides Thomas, have you ever tried to get anyone else to help you?  Do you visit all the docks along the lake?”

“You mean, show myself to other people?” Cassie signed, and then nodded.  “Not exactly, but sometimes I…”

“What?” Holly prompted.

She bit back a sheepish smile and seemed hesitant when she admitted, “Sometimes, when I’m bored, I’ll scare the fishermen who are out on the lake during the early morning hours.  It’s always good for a laugh when they fall out of their boats.  I’ve never encountered one who couldn’t swim…” she hastily signed, watching Holly’s face for any sign of condemnation.  “I would never allow anyone to drown.”

Holly noticed Cassie seemed worried she would judge her harshly for her behavior.  “Cassie, sometimes you have to laugh, so you don’t cry.”

The ghost girl managed a tight smile.  “Don’t I know it.”

“There’s something on this knife,” Aaron said, holding it close to his face and squinting to see.  In frustration, he turned to Thomas.  “Tommy, shine a little light on the subject.”

Thomas moved closer and held the beam of light on the blade.  “Is that what I think it is?” he asked Aaron.

He nodded.

“What is it?” Niqui asked, wrapping her arms around her body as if to stave off another chill.

“It’s blood,” Aaron said somberly.

“Do you think it’s…?” Thomas gulped.  “Is it my sister’s?”

Aaron draped an arm over his shoulders.  “There’s no way to know right now.  We’ll have to give this knife to the authorities.  They’ll conduct tests to determine if it’s even really blood.  Heck, it could be red paint, for all we know.”

“But … if it’s blood, it could be hers,” Thomas said, his eyes clouding with tears.

Niqui stepped closer to him and bent to make eye contact.  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  One step at a time, okay?”  She pulled him into a hug.

He took a deep breath and nodded.  When he stepped back, his face was earnest, and he sounded older than his years when he said, “One step at a time.” 

Unfortunately, he took a step back and tripped over a metal bucket.  He fell backward, landing with a thud on the hard, wooden floor.

“All right, Tommy?” Aaron said with concern.

The boy rolled over onto his knees and was about to stand, when he suddenly skittered on his knees to the spot where the bucket had been near the wall. 

“Tommy, what’s up?” Aaron asked.

“I think I see something,” he said.  “There’s something on the wall.  See, near the floor.  The bucket was hiding it.”

Aaron joined him as he bent to study the wall.  “What do you see?”

“Look closely,” Thomas said.  “There’s a cutout in the board.  See it?  It’s a square.”

“Can you pull it out?”

“I think I need your pocket knife,” Thomas told him, staring intently at the section of wall.  “Wait, no, look.  There a divot in the corner…”  He stuck his finger into the divot and pulled.  The wall board popped out like a piece from a puzzle.  He gasped in surprise.

“What’s in there?” Niqui called from over his shoulder, where she was bent at the waist and watching.

“It’s a metal box.”  Thomas said as he pulled it out.  The metal box looked old and had an ornate pattern of anchors framing the top.

“Open it,” Aaron urged.

Thomas glanced up, hesitating.  “I don’t know if I want to.”

“Give it to me,” Aaron told him, simultaneously reaching for the box.  He saw it had a keyhole and wondered if it was locked.  He expected it would be, but when he tried to open the top, it lifted up easily.  He stared into it, taking note of the contents.

“What’s in it?” Thomas and Niqui asked in unison.

Aaron glanced up, his eyes lighting on Niqui first, and then Thomas.  He reached into the box and pulled out a small, silver barrette.  He examined it, and then pulled out a small, toy car.

“What the heck?” Niqui said, her brows furrowed in a frown.  “Do you think it belongs to a little kid?”

Aaron replaced the items in the box, and then pulled out a pair of golden hoop earrings, followed by a ring.  “It’s a class ring,” he murmured.  “2008.”

When Niqui began to cry softly, both boys turned to her in alarm.  “Niqui…?” Aaron said softly.

“It’s his trophies,” she said forlornly.  “The killer’s keepsakes.”

Aaron dropped the box.

***

“We have to get a hold of Holly and Zack,” Kendall told Daniel, who was driving faster than he should have been on the curvy mountain roads.

He nodded.  “So this Cleve Walker is Cassie’s killer?”

“He could be,” Kendall told him.  “He owned the cabin up until—what did the Search and Rescue guy tell me?  Uh, ten months ago.”

Daniel nodded again.  “I guess his having owned a gas station explains why he had all those tires and car stuff in the shed.”

Kendall gave him a puzzled frown.

“Oh, that’s right.  You weren’t at the shed with us.  In the shed, there were stacks of tires and car parts—even posters of girls on cars.”

“And there were those chains and anchors…”

He turned toward her, nodded, and turned back to the road.  “A huge pile of them.  You’re thinking this Walker guy killed Cassie and wrapped her in chains and anchors, to keep her body weighted down in the water.”

“It makes sense, and…”  She paused, frowning.  “Remember, in the message she left at the cabin, Cassie referenced ‘they,’ rather than simply saying ‘I.’”

“So you’re thinking this Walker dude had the big pile of chains and anchors in his kill kit, because he was a serial killer.”

“It makes sense,” Kendall said again.

Daniel gave a shudder.  “Okay, try to reach Holly.”

She started to dial, but then slumped in the seat.  “Daniel, turn the truck around.  We have to go back into Amboy and find a pay phone.”

“What?”

“We don’t have service, remember?”

“We’ll talk to Holly and the rest of them back at the cabin then.”

She gave a withering sigh.  “What if Holly and Zack are still out on the lake.  What if we show up at the cabin, find the cops there, and can’t make the call.  We have to fill Holly and Zack in on our findings now—just to be safe.”

Daniel sighed wearily this time.  He slowed and did a u-turn, and sped back to town.  Once there, Kendall tried calling out on Daniel’s cell phone, just in case he might have service.  “No go,” she muttered, glancing around in frustration.  “I don’t get this.  We’re in a town!”

“Where’s a pay phone?” Daniel said, pulling into the store lot again.  “There has to be a pay phone here.”

“Yes, over there,” Kendall said, pointing.

The twosome climbed out of the truck and jogged to the pay phone near the entrance to the store.  “Shoot!  I don’t have fifty cents,” Kendall said.

Daniel fished a couple quarters out of his pocket and passed them to her.  She jammed them into the phone and hurriedly punched in Holly’s cell phone number.  She got her friend’s voice mail.  “Dang it. I can’t reach Holly.”

Daniel gave her a withering look this time.  “Kendall, if you’ll remember, Cassie currently has Holly’s phone, and Holly has yours!”

She smiled sheepishly.  “Oh, yeah,” she murmured, and then, under her breath muttered, “Thank God Cassie didn’t answer.”  She started to dial, but remembered she’d just used the quarters Daniel had given her.  “Uh, Daniel…”

He already held two out to her.  “Thanks.” 

This time, she dialed her own phone, but with the same results.  No answer.  When she heard her own voice, advising callers to leave a message, she said in a rush, “Holly, call us.  Listen, David can’t be the killer…”

Her words trailed off and she hung up the phone when she suddenly spotted John, the Search and Rescue guy, pull into the parking lot of a small museum across the street from the store.  Soon, he was joined by Deputy Donner, who exited his vehicle and strode to the back of John’s truck.  Kendall moved closer to Daniel, and the two watched as John passed the deputy a heavy-duty chain, along with something else neither teenager could identify.  John hoisted the obviously heavy chain into his truck bed, and then shut the canopy with a bang.

Kendall turned toward Daniel, her eyes as wide as saucers.  “Was that what I think it was?” she asked.

He nodded.  “A super-sized chain—of the Cleve Walker variety…”

“Could they be the killers?” Kendall wondered aloud.  “The Search and Rescue guy and the cop?”

Daniel shrugged.  “I don’t know what to think.  I mean, what we just saw definitely falls into the circumstantial evidence category, but it’s pretty coincidental…”

“And weird,” Kendall added.

When Deputy Donner bid John a cheerful goodbye and climbed into his truck, the kids pressed themselves against the side of the store, trying to make themselves invisible.

“What are we doing?” Kendall said finally.

Daniel gave a humorless chuckle.  “I don’t know.”

They turned in unison, in time to see John back out of the museum lot, and drive north, away from town and toward the reservoir. 

They both started when the pay phone beside them rang.  Kendall snatched it off the hook.

*** 

Safely back in the dinghy, Holly checked Kendall’s phone for messages.  Kendall had left one, and she had to listen twice to understand what her friend was saying.  “David can’t be the killer…”

“What’s up, Holly?” Zack asked.

“Kendall left a message.  She says David can’t be the killer.”  She sighed with relief.  “Thank God.  I was so scared.”

Zack watched her curiously.  “What else did she say?”

“That’s all.  I’m going to call her now.  I think she must have called from a pay phone.”  She punched in the number.  Kendall picked up on the third ring.

“Holly!  Is that you?”

“It’s me,” she said.  “I’m sorry I missed your earlier call.  Uh, Zack and I were out of the boat.”

“What’s been happening?”

“Too much to tell you about right now.  I’ll fill you in later, okay.  But about your message…  You said David can’t be … the killer.”  Her voice broke, she was so relieved.

“That’s right.  Daniel and I met a guy named John.  He’s a Search and Rescue guy.  Anyway, he knows David, and he also knows the man who owned his cabin up until ten months ago.”

Holly gasped.  “Did you just say what I thought you said?”

“Yeah, David’s only owned it for less than a year.  He bought it from this guy named Cleve Walker, who owned a gas station north of town.”

“Where is this man now?” she asked, practically holding her breath in fear.

“He’s dead.”

Holly let out a long, relieved breath.  “Thank God.  So it’s possible he’s the killer…” she mused.  “Wait, yes!  It makes sense.  Cassie said the killer took her and the other girls to the cabin…  He has to be the killer.”

“To the cabin where we’re currently staying?” Kendall said shrilly.  “To kill them!?”

“Yes,” she said sadly.  “And Kendall, he killed so many girls.  Zack and I saw their ghosts in the lake.”