I fought the panic rising in me and reached for the faucet again, turning the handle hard. When the bucket was half full, I shut off the stream.
I thought I felt a trickle on my neck-spray from the faucet or my own sweat. Reaching up to wipe it, I touched dry skin and my necklace. It wasn’t water, but the chain creeping along my neck. I looked down at the silver heart, rising like a slow tide, moving closer and closer to my throat. I dropped the bucket and spun around, as if to catch someone pulling the necklace, but no one was there. I clawed at the chain, grabbing it before it could choke me, and yanked down. It snapped. Holding it tightly in my fist, I ran.
When I was outside the greenhouse, nearly at the porch, I opened my fingers and gazed down at the chain. The end of it was tied in a tiny knot.
eleven
I slept little that night. Whenever I did drift off, I slipped into dreams of swimming through dark water with ropelike plants winding around my arms and legs. The next morning, when I was fully awake, I thought I might have dreamed the events in the greenhouse. Then I found my chain on the bureau, broken and knotted at one end.
I had no idea how to account for what I had experienced last night. I didn’t want to think that Nora’s distorted perception of the world was infecting me, making me see things that weren’t real. But I had never believed in ghosts or other paranormal phenomena. It was terrifying to think that a power I didn’t understand was present when Nora was. How could I defend myself against something I couldn’t see?
When I got down to the kitchen, Holly was sitting at the table writing up another of her lists, looking chipper as usual despite her late night. Her steadiness had a calming effect on me. I poured a glass of juice and sat down across from her.
“Listen, Holly, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night when—”
She held up a hand. “Hey, cut it out. We both know Jason was acting like a jerk. He asked for it and you gave it to him.”
I relaxed. “I wasn’t sure you’d see it that way.”
“Are you kidding? I wish I had a couple girlfriends like you. You’re sweet to a point,” she said, smiling, “but then you deliver the news straight.”
I was surprised and pleased.
“By the way, I put your purse on the hall table. You left it at the Queen.”
“Thanks. I forgot all about it.” I took a long drink of juice. “So what can I do for the party? Clean? Pick up groceries?”
“I’d love it if you’d get the party platters from Dee’s. They’ll be ready at two.”
“Okay. How about before that?”
“Well, since you’ve offered,” she said, “there’s about a million things.”
We were going over the list when Nick showed up with Rocky. I felt suddenly guilty. Holly might not wish she had girlfriends like me if she knew that I had kissed her prom date. But Nick gave no sign of anything special having happened between him and me. In fact, I got a much warmer greeting from Rocky—a joyful bark, several head butts, and a lot of tail-wagging.
“Are you giving him treats on the sly?” Nick asked me.
“No. I guess I just smell right to him.”
“Like waterfowl?” Nick replied, laughing. “That’s his favorite scent.”
I noticed that Nick didn’t behave in any special way toward Holly, either, which seemed to confirm my theory that at tonight’s party she and I would watch him move on to the next girl—if there was one in the senior class whom he still hadn’t dated.
Nora walked in while Nick and Holly were discussing what they needed to borrow from Frank.
“Hey, Nora,” he said softly.
“Hey, Nick.”
“Hi, Nora,” I greeted her.
She didn’t respond.
Holly said nothing to her sister. Perhaps she was used to Nora’s cold treatment and didn’t try anymore.
“Nora, was that you on the porch late last night?” I asked.
She turned to me as if she had finally realized I was there. “I don’t remember.”
“Try to,” I said firmly.
Nick and Holly glanced at me.
“It was someone else,” Nora replied. “Someone else did it.”
“Did what?” Holly asked.
“Don’t tell,” Nora said, fingering the collar of her shirt.
Holly gazed at me expectantly.
“Nothing really,” I replied. “I was out walking and went in the greenhouse. I thought I heard something stirring in there.”
“Like an animal?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know what it was. I was curious if Nora saw or heard anything.”
Nora turned her back on us and rummaged through the kitchen cabinets. Holly pressed her lips together, looking as if she didn’t completely believe my story. She’d believe me even less if I told her that a plant moved on its own and my necklace tried to choke me. I needed to talk to someone about what was happening, but not someone practical like her, or emotional and defensive like Aunt Jule. I wasn’t ready to turn my mind over to the psychologist in the pink glasses. Still, it scared me to be alone with Nora in these strange experiences that were somehow connected to my mother’s death. I needed to talk to Nick.
My chance came about an hour later, when I had stopped hosing off lawn chairs to play with Rocky. After several retrievals of his soggy ball, Nick’s dog was trying to con me into the water, not bringing the ball to my hand, but releasing it a few feet offshore. The river was plenty warm for swimming, but I still didn’t want to wade in it And I still hadn’t walked to the end of the dock.
“He wants you to swim with him,” Nick said, coming up behind me.
I turned. “So I can doggy paddle around with that disgusting ball in my mouth? I don’t think so.”
Nick grinned.
I glanced past him, surveying the lawn and porches. No one was in sight. “Nick, I need to talk to you.”
I saw him tense.
“About Nora,” I added quickly, afraid he’d think I was bringing up the kiss.
“Okay,” he said after a moment of hesitation. “What’s up?”
“I know you believe that Nora wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I began, “but some strange things have been happening and I’m getting scared.”
“Scared of what?” he asked.
“Nora is obsessed with my mother’s death. You heard her last night, talking as if my mother could come back from the dead.”
He nodded.
“She thinks my mother is looking for me, that my mother stirs up the water in the boathouse, that she gets angry because I’m wearing Aunt Jule’s necklace and dress.”
Rocky raced over and dropped the ball at our feet. When neither of us picked it up, he ran off with it again.
“Nora is haunted by her,” I went on. “It’s as if guilt has kept my mother alive in Nora’s mind.”
Nick pulled back from me. “Wait a minute. You’re not suggesting that—”
I rushed on: “What if my mother’s death wasn’t an accident?”
“The police said it was.”
“But Aunt Jule stopped them before they investigated.”
He shook his head. “No. You’re way off base. Nora is neurotic and confused, but she’s not capable of murdering someone.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“It’s just not in her to harm others.”
“Nick, there are things inside of Nora that none of us understand.”
“Like what?” he challenged me.
“Voices, for one thing. Even as a child she answered questions no one asked her—you must remember that. There are things she sees and hears that we don’t.”
I didn’t add that I feared those things had a reality beyond the one we grasped and that I was starting to have experiences as strange as hers. His quickness to defend Nora had cooled my trust in his ability to keep an open mind.
“Lauren,” he said, “I know how hard it must be for you coming back here. The memories are terrible. I’ve noticed how you
look away from the dock and don’t want to go into the water. You are haunted, too.”
“Yes, but—”
He rested a hand on my arm. “Hear me out. I understand why you’d want to blame another person for your mother’s death. When we lose someone we love very much, we want reasons.”
“Don’t patronize me,” I said, shaking off his hand.
“I’m not. It’s just that I’ve seen this before. Years ago, the Christmas Frank’s wife died in a car accident, her family couldn’t accept it. They accused Frank, saying he was after her money and property. Aunt Margaret’s death was painful enough for him without their making him a murder suspect. But I understand their reaction. Fate and chance—they don’t seem enough to explain terrible losses. We all want someone to point to and be angry at.”
I pressed my lips together.
“Even so, you can’t go around blaming innocent people. Nora is very fragile. Be gentle with her. Don’t do anything to make things harder for her.”
It seemed to me that Nora was doing plenty to make things harder for me.
“Now hear me out,” I replied. “Yesterday I went to see my mother’s grave in the churchyard across from your school. There is another grave next to it. Its stone is inscribed with the word Daughter.”
Nick blinked but said nothing.
“When I got back to my car, I found a note that someone had slipped through the front window, a plain piece of paper with two words: You’re next.”
“When did you go there?” he asked.
“Right after I left the school. Nick, I know that Holly thinks Nora never leaves home, but she does. She was shadowing me at the festival Sunday.”
“That proves nothing,” he said, “especially since what you just described is a prank that could be played on anyone walking through a cemetery. It happened after school let out. Someone hanging around saw you enter the place—they didn’t know you—they just thought it’d be fun to leave the note and get a reaction,” he reasoned. “It was nothing but a joke. You’re reading into it.”
“If the person didn’t know me, how would he or she know which car was mine?”
“This is a small town. Everyone knows the visitors from the residents. You have a D.C. tag, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“There you go. Did you happen to stop at your car between the school and cemetery?”
I nodded, remembering that I had put my purse in the trunk.
“Mystery solved.”
“No,” I told him, “there’s something more going on, and I’m going to find out what it is.”
He shook his head. “You’re going to make yourself as miserable and crazy as Nora. Your mother is gone, Lauren. I know this sounds harsh, but you have to get over it.” He turned away from me and whistled for Rocky.
I have to get over him, I thought, as the two of us walked off in opposite directions.
I was glad to get away from the house that afternoon. I picked up the party platters at two and paid for them, making them an extra graduation gift to Holly. She was probably hoping I’d do that, but I didn’t mind.
Dee’s was on the other side of Oyster Creek, outside of town. On the way home I passed the small road that led to Nick’s house and started thinking about the way he protected Nora. I was glad I hadn’t mentioned the knots to him, for he wouldn’t have believed me. Why give him more reasons to claim that I was going to make myself as miserable and crazy as Nora?
A loud crack shattered my thoughts. I quickly veered to the right, not seeing what had struck my car, instinctively getting out of the way. My car flew over the edge of the road. The wheel jerked in my hands and I struggled to control it. I hit something, hit it hard, and heard the sound of metal bending and scraping. For a fraction of a second my body was thrown forward, then the airbag buffeted me back.
I sat there stunned, staring at the windshield, a spider web of cracked glass with a large chip at the center. After a few moments I unbuckled my seat belt, opened the door, and climbed out shakily.
My Honda had become wedged between two trees, entangled in barbed wire fencing. I leaned against the side of it, too limp to get my cell phone from my purse.
A car passed by, then its brake lights flashed on and the driver backed up.
“Lauren!” Frank said, pulling himself out of his tiny sports car. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure.”
He quickly strode toward me.
“As I was coming around the bend, something hit my windshield. I shied away from it and ended up here.”
“Something like what?” Frank asked. “A stone, a bird, fruit off a truck?”
“I didn’t see.”
Frank walked around to the front of my car surveying it with a grim face and sharp eyes. He examined the windshield, then whistled softly. “I don’t like telling you this, Lauren, but that was no pebble that ricocheted against your windshield. It was something heavy and I suspect it was thrown.”
twelve
I gazed at the big chip in the glass and the splintered lines radiating from it. “I figured something had been hurled at me.”
“Did you now?” he replied, studying me curiously. “Did you see someone by the side of the road?”
“No, but I was on automatic pilot,” I admitted, “thinking about a lot of stuff.” I retrieved my purse from the car floor. “I’d better call the police to report this and find out whose fence I’ve ruined.”
Frank slipped his own phone from his pocket. “Don’t bother,” he said. “The sheriff’s a busybody. I can track down the owner and help you if your insurance doesn’t cover the damages. Who do you want to tow your car? Pete? He still has the Crown station on Jib Street.”
“That’s fine.”
While Frank made the call I examined the front of my car. By sheer luck it had run between two trees, plowing into the fence. The trees were planted in even intervals along the stretch of road, about a car width apart. If I had steered a little to the left or right, I would have hit a tree head on. Before braking I had been going the standard speed for country roads, 50 mph. The accident could have been a lot more serious.
Frank clicked off his phone. “Someone will be here in about fifteen minutes. Let’s see if we can find what hit you.”
It wasn’t hard. Rocks don’t abound on the Eastern Shore, and bricks aren’t part of the natural landscape. The only thing on the road and its sandy shoulder was a half a brick. Frank picked it up and showed it to me, his face thoughtful, then placed it on my car’s hood.
We transferred the party food to his car. Fortunately the cold cuts and bread had not been made into sandwiches and could be rearranged at home. We had just finished when a sheriff’s car put on its flashers and pulled over. A small man with a round, sunburned face climbed out and ambled toward us.
“Frank,” he said, nodding his head.
“Tom,” Frank replied coolly, his tone indicating that this was the man he didn’t like.
The sheriff introduced himself simply as “McManus.”
“Now let’s see,” he said, “Blue Honda, D.C. tag. I don’t have any report of this, and I just checked in.”
“It just happened,” Frank replied.
The sheriff asked to see my license and began to question me. It was routine stuff, but the last question caught me by surprise: “Is there anyone you’re not getting along with these days?”
“Uh, no,” I told him, “not really.”
“And who would be in your not-really category?”
Nora, Jason. “No one,” I said.
He studied me for a moment. I gazed back at him as steadily as possible.
“Kids,” McManus said at last. “One day after school’s out and they don’t know what to do with themselves. I’m sorry about this, Miss Brandt. It doesn’t make our town look good.”
“It can happen anywhere,” I replied.
“Hope your insurance covers most of it. Well, here comes Pete’s boy.” The sheriff gesture
d toward the tow truck as he walked back to his car.
Pete’s “boy” looked about thirty and seemed pleased to be towing my Honda. “She’s real pretty,” he said, “even with barbed wire wrapped around her.”
Frank winked at me, then helped the mechanic disentangle the car. I filled out a form and was told to check in with Pete after talking to my insurance company.
When Frank and I finally headed home in his car, I thanked him for helping me out.
“No problem,” he said. “That’s what neighbors are for.” We rumbled over the creek bridge. “So, how’s Nora?”
I could guess why he was asking. “She’s not that good at Softball, Frank.”
He laughed. “Well put. I didn’t think she had that kind of aim. Of course, she could get lucky.” Then his face grew serious. “Does she have any friends nowadays? Could she have gotten someone else to throw the brick for her?”
“As far as I know she doesn’t trust anyone but Holly and Nick.”
“Are there any other candidates for Wisteria’s Hoodlum of the Year? I know the sheriff already asked, but it didn’t sound like you were saying anything more than you had to.”
“I had nothing concrete to tell him,” I explained. “It’s possible my date for the prom decided to get back at me. I kind of landed him on the floor with the punch bowl.”
“So I heard,” Frank said, grinning. “Of course, Jason would have a good throwing arm,” he pointed out.
I nodded, unconvinced Jason had done it.
We were silent the last few blocks home, then Frank suddenly swore and swerved, narrowly avoiding the deep mud of Aunt Jule’s driveway. “You need a sled around here,” he said as he parked the car on the street. “Why doesn’t she pave the thing? Oh, I know. She can’t afford it.”
As we got out to unload the food Aunt Jule emerged from the house.
“Jule, come here a sec,” Frank hollered.
I could tell from the stiffness in her back that she didn’t like being summoned by him. Before she said something unfriendly, I interjected, “I had an accident, Aunt Jule, and Frank stopped to help me.”