pushed a button to start the drying cycle.
Then she stared at the album.
My big chance, she thought, to see what Fredrick looks like. A guy with mirrors all over his bedroom would probably have quite a collection of photos featuring himself.
It’s more likely crammed with Polaroids of his girlfriends in the raw. That would be his speed.
Do I really want to find out? I doubt it.
Gillian left the album on top of the drier, turned away, and walked to the laundry room door. She stepped outside into the sunlight. Then she halted. She sighed.
If I look in the album, I’ll regret it.
She muttered, “Shit,” turned around, strode to the drier and picked up the album. Holding it under one arm, she walked quickly to the lounge and sat down. She rested the book on her crossed legs and opened it.
There were no photographs on the page. Pressed beneath the clear plastic sheet was a newspaper clipping. There was nothing to indicate the name of the paper or the date. Gillian read the story.U of A CO-ED VANISHESFoul play is suspected in the disappearance, Saturday, of 19-year-old Candice Fairborn, a University of Arizona co-ed, from. her apartment on Spring Street.According to police authorities, the roommate of Miss, Fairborn returned to the ground-floor apartment Stun-day evening after a weekend outing to find a rear window open. Further investigation led to the discovery of an upset lamp in the victim’s bedroom along with the torn. remnants of her nightgown.. Being sought in connection with the disappearance Ls Miss Fairborn’s former boyfriend ...
The story continued, but Gillian didn’t bother to finish it. She turned the page. And found another clipping.MYSTERY BODY GREEN BAY HOUSEWIFEThe partially decomposed body discovered Thursday by hikers in the Bagley Rapids area has been identified as Kathy Ellen Warnack, the 22-year-old wife of Ronald Warnack, who disappeared from their Jackson Avenue home on August 4.According to the coroner’s report, the slain woman had been sexually molested and died of multiple stab wounds...
Gillian had a tight, cold feeling in her stomach.
Why did Fredrick Holden keep these clippings? Why, indeed ?
Her hand trembled as she turned the page.GRISLY DISCOVERYSaranak Lake—The remains of an unidentified female were found Saturday in a densely wooded area north of Saranak Lake...
She glanced at the next page. Eighteen-year-old Pam Jones had vanished from her parents’ home in Park Ridge while they were out playing bridge. On the next page was the story of Maggie Drukker, a twenty-three-year- old housewife who disappeared from her New Orleans apartment while her husband was working the graveyard shift at the airport.
The raped and mutilated body of a Seattle secretary was found in the woods near Salem, Oregon, two weeks after her disappearance.
Remains, partially devoured by wildlife, were found in the bayou and identified by dental charts as belonging to Maggie Drukker, who had disappeared from her New Orleans apartment on November 2nd.
Page after page, the stories went on. Young women mysteriously vanishing from their homes or apartments. Corpses found in secluded, wild areas. On four occasions, stories of the discovered bodies matched earlier stories of disappearances. Gillian turned several pages and came to one without a clipping. The remaining pages of the album were bare.
She turned back to the final story.MISSING TEEN FOUND SLAINUnderhill—The raped and savagely mutilated body discovered Friday by hikers in the Smuggler’s Notch area of Mt. Mansfield has been identified as that of 17-year-old Rhonda Bain, who was abducted May 24 from her parents’ home in Burlington.The nude corpse of the teen was found ...
Gillian didn’t read the rest of it. Numb and confused, she flipped to the front of the album. She counted the clipping. Twenty-six of them.
She looked again at each.
Most of the stories contained references to locations. Some of the areas were unfamiliar to Gillian, but she knew enough geography to realize that the disappearances and murders had taken place in states all over the country.
None in California, though. That was interesting.
She shut the album and stared at it.
Why, for godsake, did Fredrick Holden have a scrapbook like this?
Yeah, why?
Why do I keep my photographs and stuff?
To look at them and remember.
“You guys should get first choice of where you want to set up your tent,” Bonnie said.
“I think we’ll do some scouting around,” Bert told her. “You can have this campsite. I’m sure we’ll find a good one.”
Rick felt something collapse inside. Oh no, he thought. Bert, no.
Andrea pulled a boot off and looked up, perplexed. “What do you mean?” she asked. “You aren’t leaving, are you?”
“There’s plenty of room here,” Bonnie added. “There’s no reason to go.”
“I’m sure we won’t go far,” Bert said. “You girls didn’t come out here to be stuck with us.”
“And vice versa,” Andrea muttered.
Bert didn’t respond to that remark. “Maybe we can get together later on, tell stories around the campfire or something.”
“Whoopee.” Andrea looked at Rick. “I thought we were all going to stick together.”
“Yeah. Well. I guess it doesn’t really matter. We’ll be close by, in case anything happens.”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” Bert said. “I’m sure Jase and the others are over the pass by now.” She turned to Rick. “Why don’t we leave our packs here until we find a place? No point in lugging them around anymore than necessary.”
Andrea peeled a sock off her foot and threw it down.
Rick followed Bert to a path near the shore of the lake. “There are probably a lot of good campsites,” she said.
“This one has the stream. We want to have running water, don’t we?”
“Maybe we’ll find another stream.”
They walked only a short distance before Rick spotted a clearing with a fire ring. “Let’s check this place out,” he suggested.
Bert scanned it from where she stood. “We can do better,” she said.
It’s too close to the girls’ camp for her taste, Rick thought. Great. Wonderful. Shit.
They kept walking. Soon, they came to a clearing with a built-up fireplace that had a grate. There were logs for seats, even a makeshift table. The area had high clusters of rock on three sides that would provide a natural barrier against the wind.
It was probably not much more than a five-minute hike from the girls’ camp.
“This looks perfect,” Rick said.
“Not bad,” Bert agreed. “Why don’t we keep going, though? There’s no big hurry. Maybe we’ll run into something even better if we keep looking.”
“Okay.”
“Maybe we’ll find a stream.”
They found a stream.
But not before they had rounded the end of the lake.
Standing on a small rise, they stared down at it. The stream by the girls’ camp was a trickle compared to this. The wide band of water rushed down over bare rocks, white and frothy in places; in other places gleaming like clear glass. Not far from where it spilled into the lake, the stream formed a wide pool.
“Oh, this is fabulous,” Bert said.
Rick tried to spot the girls’ camp. He couldn’t. The stream emptied into an inlet with a rim of rocky, wooded land across the front. There was only a narrow opening between a high outcropping on the shore and the end of the
