The Secrets of Lake Road (31 page)

“It’s open!” Mrs. Roberts called from somewhere inside.

Mr. Roberts was in the family room reading a book next to an oscillating fan. Mrs. Roberts emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a tea towel. “We haven’t seen you around much, Caroline. I hope you and Megan didn’t have a fight.”

“No, ma’am,” she said. “Nothing like that.”

“Well, I’m glad. Megan’s in her bedroom. Go on back.”

Caroline crept down the narrow hall and peeked inside Megan’s room. Megan was sitting on the bed, surrounded by magazines, nail polish, and makeup. Her head was down. Her blond hair fell into her face and her scalp was pink from the sun.

“Hey,” Caroline said, and slipped inside, quietly closing the door behind her.

“Where’ve you been?” Megan grabbed Caroline’s hands. She pulled her onto the bed on top of the magazines and nail polish and plastic lipstick tubes. “I’ve got news,” she said.

Caroline nodded. Her lips trembled and her nose started to run. She didn’t want to cry and look like a baby. But she wanted to tell someone what she had done. She needed to talk to someone who wasn’t in her family.

“Jeff kissed me,” Megan said. “A proper kiss.”

Caroline nodded again and wiped underneath her nose.

Megan blabbed about Jeff’s tongue in her mouth. “He tasted kind of funny,” she said. “Like spit.” She shrugged. “I thought he would’ve at least brushed his teeth or used mouthwash if he knew he was going to kiss me, but whatever. What do you think? Don’t you think he should’ve been more prepared? I mean, I made sure my breath was fresh. What?” She gave Caroline the once-over, as though she was seeing her for the first time. “What’s wrong?”

“Can you keep a secret?” Caroline asked, and looked at the bedroom door to make sure it was closed all the way.

“Of course. Tell me,” Megan said.

“Well, to start,” she said. “I got my period.”

Megan nudged her and smiled. “That’s great. Oh my God, are you crying? You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s normal.” She crinkled her nose. “But you know, now you can officially get pregnant.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “That’s never going to happen.” She wasn’t like her mother. She’d never end up a pregnant teen. “You have to swear not to tell anyone I got it. Promise me.”

“Who would I tell?”

“Promise.”

“Okay, okay, I promise. Is that it?”

“No.” Caroline started from the beginning, telling Megan about the times she had overheard bits and pieces of Billy’s name mentioned by Gram and her mother through the years and especially now after Sara had drowned. She told her how she discovered Billy had drowned when her parents were teenagers. She read about it that day at the Country Store when she had searched the old
Lake Reporter
s.

“I remember. Boring,” Megan said. “What about it?”

Caroline told her how she had put two and two together, that Johnny was named after Billy and that he was really Billy’s son, not Caroline’s father’s.

“Holy shit,” Megan blurted.

“Shhh,” Caroline said. “Keep it down.”

“And you told Johnny?”

“Sort of.”

“Wow, that’s totally messed up.” Megan shook her head. “So, now what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

There was a knock at the door.

Caroline grabbed Megan’s arm. “Promise you won’t say anything. Not until my family figures this out.”

Megan held up her hand. “I get it. You don’t have to worry.”

“Megan,” Mrs. Roberts said. “Jeff’s out front looking for you.”

Megan flung the door open.

Her mother started. “It’s late. I’m not sure you should be going out tonight.”

“Please, Mom. It’s summertime. And Caroline is out. She’ll come with me.” Megan looked over her shoulder at Caroline, pleading with her to say yes.

Mrs. Robert’s crossed her arms. “And what do you plan on doing?”

“I don’t know. We’ll think of something. Isn’t that right, Caroline?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Mrs. Roberts said.

“Please, Mom. I promise we won’t get into any trouble.”

“Well,” Mrs. Roberts said, “as long as you two stay together.”

“We will,” Megan said, and pulled Caroline with her.

Mrs. Roberts followed them to the door. She touched Caroline’s shoulder. “Everything all right, dear?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Everything’s just super.”

*   *   *

Caroline dragged her feet a few paces behind Megan and Jeff, not wanting to tag along on their date or whatever it was they were doing. She’d split as soon as they were far enough away from Megan’s cabin and out of sight. She was trying to think of where she could go, since home wasn’t an option. But when they reached the ballpark, the Needlemeyer twins and Adam were waiting for them.

Ted held a flashlight over a sheet of paper that explained the rules and regulations for the big fishing tournament tomorrow.

Megan stepped back from the group and mumbled, “More boy stuff.”

“I’m totally doing this,” Jeff said about the tournament. “First prize is a hundred bucks. Who wouldn’t try for that?”

The boys nodded, an air of excitement surrounded them.

Adam tugged on Caroline’s arm. “Are you fishing tomorrow?” he asked.

“Nah,” she said, having made up her mind while talking with Gram. “Not this year. Besides, I’ll be too busy rooting for you.”

“Well, I know just the spot to catch the biggest trout anyone has ever pulled out of the lake,” he said.

“You do not,” Ted said.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then show us.”

“I’m not showing you,” Adam said. “You’re the competition.”

“You won’t show us because you’re lying. You don’t have a fishing hole.”

“I do too,” Adam whined.

“Leave him alone,” Caroline said, although the boys ribbing had started lifting her mood. The familiar role of mediator was comforting, a sign something hadn’t changed. She gazed across the open field. Every few seconds the lightning bugs flashed their presence.

“Show us your fishing hole, and we’ll show you ours. That way we’re even,” Ned said.

“Yeah, help the new guy out,” Jeff chimed in.

Adam looked at Caroline, and she nodded. Catching the biggest trout was more luck than anything else. Besides, she didn’t want to go home.

It was that easy. They were off on some kind of quest to find Adam’s honey hole. Caroline trailed behind Adam, the Needlemeyer twins behind her. Jeff grabbed Megan’s hand and pulled her along, taking up the rear. They made their way through the path in the woods that would take them to the lake.

They walked single file, sticks and leaves crunching under their sneakers. Poison ivy spread through the woods to their left. Cougar barked on their right. Adam stopped abruptly, and Caroline nearly walked into the back of him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of beef jerky. “Always prepared,” he said, and exchanged a knowing look with her.

Cougar yanked on his chain the closer they got, stretching every link as far as it would go until he was choking. The stake he was chained to bent at a diagonal as though at any moment it would fly out of the ground. The funny thing was, Caroline wasn’t worried about the dog breaking free. He didn’t sound vicious or mean. His barks sounded more like a cry for attention.

Adam walked up to Cougar but stayed far enough back as not to make contact. The dog yelped, cried, and pulled at the chain in excitement. Adam tossed a chunk of beef jerky over the dog’s head so he wouldn’t continue choking himself. Cougar whipped around and gnawed on the jerky. Adam threw two more pieces.

“One was enough,” Ted said. “Save some for us.”

Adam stuffed the rest of the jerky into his pockets.

The sight of the hungry, attention-starved dog made Caroline feel bad. While he continued to chomp on the beef jerky, she walked up to him and unhooked the chain from his thick leather collar.

“What are you doing?” Megan squealed.

Cougar rubbed against Caroline’s legs, chewing and rubbing, circling her. She reached down and scratched behind his ear. Adam joined her. And soon the twins, Jeff, and even Megan surrounded the dog, petting him, letting him lick them all over.

“Let’s take him with us,” Adam said.

The six of them, seven if you included the dog, proceeded down the path, single file, with Cougar running circles around their legs, darting on and off the trail, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. They stopped when they reached the parking lot, which was now filled with tents for the Trout Festival. People were still working under battery-powered spotlights, setting up displays, preparing for the events the next day. The dark of the night seeped in between the cracks of light. The Pavilion was open, and music blared from the live band performing in the bar upstairs.

Caroline couldn’t help but think, after everything that had happened, summer had come after all.

She turned to Adam. “Which way?”

“It’s on the south side.” He pointed. “Past that old private beach nobody uses. Closer to where the lake feeds the stream.”

“That’s nothing but a muddy hole,” Ted said. Ned agreed.

“No, it’s not all mud. There’s a spot where the water is deep. All the big fish are there. I swear.” Adam’s head bobbed. Cougar poked his nose inside Adam’s pockets, searching for the jerky.

“We’ll have to take the long way around so no one sees us,” Caroline said. A gang of young kids walking around at ten o’clock at night was sure to draw attention. “We can go the way we went to the pump that day,” she said to Adam.

The twins balked. Megan picked at her cuticle, obviously bored. Jeff shrugged.

“You don’t have to come with us,” Caroline said to the others, and started walking.

Adam and Cougar followed. After more bellyaching, the twins and Jeff and Megan chased after them. It took almost an hour to get to the private beach, walking through the woods behind the lakefront cabins with nothing but slivers of moonlight cutting through the branches of trees to guide them. Cougar panted, but his barking had stopped. Once, he drifted toward the lake to get a drink of water, but otherwise he walked alongside Adam the entire way. He was a good dog and meant to be with kids.

The cabin that sat at the back of the private beach was deserted. It had been dark and empty every summer for as long as Caroline could remember. Although she had heard the family who owned the property preferred to stay away from the lake during the peak summer months, coming only in autumn when the air was cool and the trees were dressed in their finest colors.

Caroline didn’t see the point. Why would you need a beach if it was too cold to sit on it and too frigid to swim? And it wasn’t like they weren’t in the most secluded spot on the lake, a place to hang out where other vacationers couldn’t bother them.

Johnny and his friends had used the private beach for their end-of-summer party, figuring if they got caught, it wouldn’t matter since they’d be going home the next day.

Thinking about Johnny hurt, and she pushed the thoughts away. She turned toward Adam. “You better lead from here.”

“This way.” The moonlight caught the back of his ears, making it look as though he had two big orbs on the sides of his head.

She followed close behind. The twins pushed and shoved each other, cackling about how this was nothing but a waste of time. Jeff and Megan dropped back from the pack.

“You go on ahead,” Megan called. “We’ll catch up with you.”

Ned made kissing, sucking noises. Ted mumbled, “Gross.” They continued on, leaving Jeff and Megan on the beach. Caroline didn’t want to think about what Megan was doing. The idea of kissing a boy still made her feel icky.

“Here,” Adam said.

They had been walking a good ten minutes. Mud caked to their sneakers, and it was hard to find a safe place to step. The brush was thick and trees lined the water’s edge. Not many people came down this far where the lake narrowed and eventually emptied into a stream that really wasn’t much of a stream at all, but a trickle of water that ran through the woods another half mile until it dried up altogether. Some believed with the rate of erosion, global warming, and dry summers, the lake would one day cease to exist. But Gram had told her it wasn’t possible. The lake was a natural lake made from a glacier and fed by underwater springs from deep inside the earth’s core.

She believed Gram’s version and realized she still trusted her. She had to trust in someone. And she didn’t doubt Gram would’ve told her about Billy and Johnny if she could have. She found comfort in the thought.

The twins and Adam approached an area where it did look as though the water was blacker, deeper.

“There’s big fish in there,” Adam said. “I know it. I’ve seen them swimming around.”

“Yeah, but who’s going to come all this way to prove you pulled a trout out down here? You need a parent with you for it to count,” Ned said to Adam.

While the boys argued over the rules and whose parent would be willing to walk all this way, Cougar had wandered farther down near the stream. He yipped and whined. Caroline went to see what was wrong. She had to weave around trees and wind her way around moss-covered rocks. A thorn bush pricked her thigh, and her sneakers sunk in the deepening mud.

“What did you find?” she asked the dog. “Bring it here so I can see it.”

Cougar yelped and whimpered.

Her first thought was that he must be hurt, but then she saw something lying on the ground near his paws. She took a couple of steps closer. In the mud, not far from where she stood, was Sara’s body. Her braids splayed in the puddles surrounding her head, and her eyes, cold and lifeless, stared into the night sky. Her bathing suit was tattered and torn. The skin on her arms and legs was shredded. Only the ghostly glow of her face hadn’t been touched, as if the snappers had known to leave something for her mother.

“Guys.” Her voice cracked. “Guys,” she said a little louder. Cougar continued to paw at the muddy water near the body, whimpering and whining as if he knew he had found what everyone was looking for.

“Guys!” she yelled, and stumbled backward. She turned and ran back the way she came, slipping on the rocks, tearing through the thorny brush. Cougar followed on her heels. “Guys,” she said out of breath when she had finally reached them.