The Bone House

rights under the union contract. At the end of the year, he got what he knew was coming. The ax fell. The nominal excuse was budget cuts, but everyone on the peninsula knew the real reason. They all knew what kind of man Mark Bradley was, and no one was going to let him take advantage of another teenage girl.

In the wake of Mark's dismissal, Hilary had wanted to quit, too, hut that would have left them with no income at all. She also didn't want to give anyone at the school the satisfaction of seeing them turn tail and run, as if somehow that would justify the hostility towards them, like an admission of guilt. She stayed. But since that time, it had been a long year of being shunned. She was nearing the end of her third year in the district, and she knew her own tenure decision would come down soon. Even if they granted her tenure, she and Mark were struggling with the question of whether they wanted to leave. He had no job prospects. She was tired of living under constant suspicion.

What kept them where they were was the fact that they loved their home on Washington Island. They loved Door County. They'd moved from Chicago to the peninsula because it was exactly where they wanted to live. She just didn't know if they could stay in a place where they would never be welcome.

Then there were the doubts. The questions. They followed her everywhere. Even the handful of friends who'd remained on her side sometimes lapsed into awkward silence, as if to say: are you sure?

Are you sure it was just a fantasy? Did you read the diary? It was so detailed, so precise, so explicit about their sexual encounters. What if it really happened?

That was a question Hilary refused to entertain. She never even allowed it to enter her mind. She knew her husband. If he said there was no affair, then there was no affair. But she also knew that Mark was afraid that in the end she'd begin to believe the lies. They would both be consumed by the cloud of judgement.

That was why she'd told him how she felt on the first day and never again. If you have to say it more than once, you don't mean it.

'I trust you.'

'Tell me what happened,' Hilary said.

Mark shook his head. 'Hil, I don't know. I wish I did.'

'Start at the beginning. Did you see Glory on the beach?'

He nodded. 'Yes.'

'Did you talk to her?'

'I did, but it was just for a couple of minutes.'

'Why didn't you tell me at breakfast?' she asked, keeping her tone even. She didn't want him to hear an accusation in her voice.

Mark hesitated. 'I should have, but I wasn't ready to drag up everything for you again. Or for me. I didn't think it mattered, because nothing happened. I saw. her, and then I walked away. As far as I knew, that was the end of the story. I have no idea who killed her.'

'What went on between the two of you?'

Mark sat down next to her on the sofa and stared at the carpet. 'Glory was drunk. I didn't think it was safe for her to be out there like that, so I tried to persuade her to come back to the hotel with me. She wouldn't go.'

Hilary saw the tension in how her husband was holding himself. His body was taut, like a coiled spring. There was something else that he was reluctant to tell her, and she made a guess about what it was. 'Glory came on to you, didn't she?'

Mark exhaled in a loud hiss. 'Ah, shit.'

'Tell me.'

'Yes, she kept asking me to have sex with her. I said no.'

'I get it,' Hilary said. 'Look, we both know Glory is the wild one compared to Tresa. I'm sure she liked the idea of trying to seduce the man her sister was in love with.'

'Nothing happened,' he insisted.

'You already said that.'

'Most of it was just talk, but the one thing she did — she took her bikini top off.'

Hilary closed her eyes. 'What did you do?'

'Nothing. That was it. I gave up trying to get her to go back to the hotel with me. I left.' He added, 'Things were getting out of control, Hil. I just needed to get away.'

'Don't blame yourself,' she told him.

'I do. I should have told someone she was out there, but she was threatening to say we had sex. She said no one would believe me, and she was right. I couldn't take the risk, not after last year. I couldn't put myself in the middle of it. Or you.'

We're in the middle of it anyway, Hilary thought, but she didn't need to say it out loud. Mark knew the score.

'They're going to come after me,' he said. 'They know I'm in the hotel. The police are going to paint a bullseye on my chest.'

'You're probably right,' she acknowledged, 'but let's not panic, OK? Did anyone see you leaving the room? Did anyone see you on the beach or see you when you came back?'

She watched him mentally retrace his footsteps. 'I don't know. There may have been a hotel employee on the patio when I left our room, _i but that's a couple hundred yards away. I'm not sure whether he saw me or would recognize me.'

'Did you see anyone with Glory on the beach?' she asked. 'Someone killed her. Whoever it was may have been watching the two of you.'

Mark shook his head. 'I didn't see anyone.'

She heard hesitation in his voice. 'But?'

'I don't know. I felt like we were being watched. I felt like Glory saw someone, but I didn't see anyone there.'

'Did she talk about anyone else?'

'Just Tresa,' he said. 'And her boyfriend. Troy Geier.'

'What did she say?'

'She talked about Troy being jealous. And she said — well, she said

Tresa saw the two of us during the competition, and she got rattled. That was why she didn't do well.'

Hilary nodded. She'd actually felt guilty being in the audience during Tresa's performance. Despite everything that had happened, she still liked the girl, and she hated to see her do poorly.

Mark leaned back into the sofa and stared at the ceiling. The room was gloomy and cold. 'So what do I do?'

'Right now, nothing,' Hilary said.

'I should tell the police what I know,' Mark insisted. He paused. 'Or do you think I should shut up? I mean, if no one saw me…'

He let the thought drift away, but she knew what he was thinking. If no one saw him on the beach, should he really put his head into the lion's mouth by admitting he was out there with Glory?

'We need to talk to a lawyer,' she said. 'Right now. Today. Until we do, I think you shouldn't say anything. We don't lie, but we don't volunteer. OK?'

Mark nodded. 'OK.'

'We'll get through this,' she said.

He frowned and said what she was thinking. 'It's going to be just like last year, Hil, you know that. Everyone's going to think I'm guilty.'

'You're not.'

'I'm not sure how much more of this we can take.'

'I know.'

Mark leaned over to embrace her, but before he could, their heads snapped around. Someone rapped sharply on the door of the hotel room.

Without looking through the peephole, Hilary already knew. It was beginning.