“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.
