could go up in a matter of seconds.
I swam, dragging Nora toward the river doors, then stopped in front of them. She was coughing and I had to make sure she had air.
“Come on, Nora. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath out. That’s the way. Deep breath in
—” I sucked down my own lungful of air, then pulled her under with me. I swam toward the light, one arm keeping her next to me, kicking hard for both of us. In the murky water I didn’t see the net, didn’t know I had swum into it, until it was around us. I pulled back quickly, trying to find its edge.
I had to let go of Nora for a moment. Using both hands I yanked on the netting in front of me, tearing at it with my fingers and teeth, making a hole just big enough for one of us. I swam through it, then reached back and pulled Nora to me.
Almost there, I thought, my lungs burning for lack of air. I took Nora’s hand and curled her fingers around the waistband of my shorts, wanting her to hold on to me so I could use both arms to swim. Suddenly I felt her let go. She bolted like a frightened animal, driven by her instincts, swimming directly upward. I saw the net, but she didn’t. She was caught in it — a new net — a plastic one, one that wouldn’t tear.
Nora clawed at it, pulling it around her even more, getting hopelessly tangled inside. I tried to pull it off her. She writhed, desperate for air. My own lungs ached, my body began to cramp.
I felt the net twisting, being wrenched away from me, and I lost my grip on her. I spun in the water till I was sick and didn’t know which way was up.
Then suddenly there was clear light around me. The air was cold against my face, and I opened my mouth and drank it down. Strong arms held my head just above the water. I gulped and coughed, bringing up river water and a bitter fluid from my stomach.
“Easy. Easy now.”
It was Nick’s voice. Nick’s arms. He turned me on my back and swam with me, pulling me to the bank. I heard Rocky barking. Sirens wailed, were getting louder, coming closer.
I tried to speak. Nora, I wanted to tell him, get Nora!
I felt other hands take me from Nick. I reached back, but they carried me away from him and the water.
“Two hundred feet!” a woman shouted. “Get her away.
Go!”
I was finally laid down in the grass. I tried to sit up.
Everything slid past me, out of focus, the world running with water, smelling of river and fire. “Nora! Find Nora!”
Someone crouched next to me. An arm wrapped around my back, supporting me. “She’s safe,” Nick said. “She’s just a few feet away.”
I reached out, trying to touch Nora, wanting to make certain she was there.
Nick caught my fingers. “The police are taking care of her,” he assured me. “Paramedics are on the way.”
I leaned back against him and rested my cheek on his shoulder. I could feel the river water dripping off him.
“Thank you,” I whispered. When I looked up, I saw he was crying.
I asked to speak with the sheriff privately. I had left Nora sitting up, fully alert, and very frightened. It had taken the effort of both Nick and me to loosen her grip on my hand and wrap it around his. Aunt Jule was talking to the medics.
The boathouse smoldered — what remained of it — and volunteer firefighters continued to work. McManus, the man who had questioned me about the rock-throwing incident, told another officer to take charge and walked with me toward the house.
“So,” said the sheriff, sitting on the edge of the porch, pulling out a worn notebook, “I asked yesterday if there was anyone you weren’t getting along with these days. Want to try a different answer?”
“It’s a long one,” I warned him, then recounted everything that had happened, including events from seven years ago, ignoring the strange look I got when I told him about the knots. I mentioned the will without telling him why it worried me. If desire for my mother’s money was a reasonable motive, he would see it, I told myself. The truth was, now that I was safe, I didn’t want to believe it. It hurt too much.
“I don’t have any physical evidence against Frank,” I concluded. “It’s what I say against what he says.”
“And Holly?”
I hesitated. “Like I said before, she could have been scared and protecting herself the night my mother died. The spooky stuff that’s happened — I think that was all Nora. I think Holly hit Nora today, but she may have lost her temper without having any idea what it would lead to. I–I just don’t know.”
The light-haired sheriff pushed his hat back and forth, as if he were scratching his head with it. “Frank’s not here. We checked next door — that’s policy with fire. The house is locked up and his car gone. I’ve already talked to Nick and Jule.”
“What did Aunt Jule tell you?”
He ignored my question. “They’re fetching Holly now. And Nick’s parents — I like a kid’s parents to be around for these things. Why don’t we just sit back and see what Holly has to say, without bringing up what you’ve told me?”
“So she doesn’t shape her story around mine?” I replied.
“Is that why you aren’t telling me what Aunt Jule said?”
He smiled. “That wouldn’t be too smart of me, now, would it?”
“What if we pretend Nora died?” I asked. “If we tell Holly that I found Nora unconscious and that Nora died in the fire, she’ll think I know nothing at all about what happened earlier today or the night my mother died. There would be more chances of—” I stopped myself.
“Catching her in a lie?” he prompted.
Was that how little I trusted her now? “Or showing that she is honest,” I replied.
Twenty minutes later we gathered in the garden room.
While I was changing into dry clothes, McManus had told Aunt Jule and Nick about our plan and had instructed them not to contradict him. I felt guilty for setting up Holly and kept telling myself I was giving her the chance to demonstrate her innocence, but when I entered the garden room, I couldn’t meet Nick’s or Aunt Jule’s eyes.
Holly had just come from the boathouse, her face looking pale and damp. “Are you all right, Lauren?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered, stepping back quickly when she reached for me, not wanting her to touch me.
She turned to Aunt Jule. “Now maybe you’ll believe that Nora is out of control. I blame you for what has happened, Mother, all of it.”
Without saying a word, Aunt Jule retreated to the river room. Both sets of doors were open between that room and the garden room, and I watched her pace.
Holly walked over to Nick and took his hand. Seating herself close to one of the porch doors, she drew Nick into the chair next to hers. Though the doors were open, both sets of drapes that covered them had been closed halfway.
Nora was on the porch outside with a police officer, so she could listen.
I sat opposite Holly and Nick, and the sheriff squatted on the hassock between them and me. He stared at his notebook for several moments, then removed his hat.
“Holly, I have some difficult news to give you. Your sister didn’t make it.”
Holly blinked. “What?”
“Nora died. You know that she and Lauren were trapped in the boathouse.”
“Yes, a firefighter told me, but—”
“Lauren found Nora unconscious. She swam under the doors to get help, but the fire had started, and the place went up like a matchbox.”
