His father was standing in the driveway, a tackle box in one hand, two rods in the other. “Where have you been?” he demanded.
Eric cocked his head. “Looking for tackle,” he said.
His father snorted. “It was in the basement — I found it half an hour ago. And I’ve been yelling for you ever since! Have you suddenly gone deaf?”
“Half an hour?” Eric echoed, staring at his father in disbelief. “I just went in there a couple minutes ago —”
“It wasn’t a couple of minutes ago. It was—” He raised his wrist and looked pointedly at his watch. “— exactly thirty-two minutes ago. And Jeff Newell just called. They’re going to be here in less than an hour, so if we’re going to take that boat out, we’ve got to do it and get back so I can start the barbecue.”
“I’m sorry,” Eric said, his head suddenly swimming. “I can’t believe I was in there—”
“Daydreaming!” his father finished for him. “So if we’re going, let’s go. Come on.”
Eric took the poles from his father and followed him down to the boathouse.
Dan stepped into the boat, set the tackle box on the middle seat, laid the rods on the floor, then sat in the bow. A moment later Eric had settled in the stern.
The motor started on the first pull, and as Eric released the stern line from its cleat, his father untied the bow line. Putting the engine in gear, Eric nosed the little skiff out of the boathouse.
As his father opened the tackle box and began searching through the jumble of hooks, lures, and sinkers inside, Eric headed onto the lake, but found himself turning to look back at the old carriage house.
Even now it seemed he hadn’t been in the place more than five minutes. Ten at the most. He’d taken a quick look in the garage and the workshop — it couldn’t have taken more than two minutes. Then he’d gone into the storeroom and—
— and suddenly he couldn’t quite remember what he’d been doing. Just looking at stuff.
And touching some of it.
The fingers of his right hand tingled slightly at the memory of it.
But that was all.
And it had been only a few minutes — he felt sure!
Except that now, as he gazed at the carriage house that was growing smaller as they motored out onto the lake, he wasn’t so sure.
A moment later the building disappeared behind a screen of trees, and his father’s voice once again pulled him out of his reverie.
“She’s running fine,” Dan said. “Why don’t we hook up a couple of lures?”
But even as he began fishing, Eric’s mind was still on the storeroom in the carriage house. Kent and Tad would be here soon, and maybe after dinner tonight he’d take them down there.
Suddenly, the idea of exploring the storeroom and finding out exactly what might be inside it was far more exciting than fishing.
With fishing, all he’d get was the occasional trout or bass or muskie.
But in that strange storeroom, there was no telling what he might find.
• • •
ELLIS LANGSTROM DROPPED the last weed in the bucket, rubbed his aching shoulders, and finally stood up to assess his afternoon’s work. The entire border of flowers around the Islers’ summer house was weed free, the soil dark with fertilizer, and the flowers — whatever they were, which Ellis neither knew nor cared to know — actually seemed to be a few shades brighter now that there were no weeds around them.
More to the point, Mrs. Henderson would be happy, and so would the Islers, when they arrived tomorrow.
The yard cleanup had been a bigger job than he’d thought, and now he tried to stretch the pain out of his back as he searched for anything he might have forgotten.
There didn’t seem to be anything — the place looked great, and even Rita Henderson would have to admit it.
Ellis pulled off his gloves and tossed them into the bucket on top of the weeds just as Adam Mosler — stripped to the waist and streaked with sweat and dust — came around the corner of the house, using a filthy bandanna to wipe a smear of dirt from one cheek. The bandanna only made the smear worse.
“It’s raked,” Adam stated, sounding more resentful about having had to remove the mown grass from the front lawn than pleased to have finished the job. “Are you done?” He scanned the patio area disinterestedly. “’Cause even if you’re not, I am.”
“Thanks a lot,” Ellis said, then realized the sarcasm would be lost on Adam. “Yeah, I think it’s done.”
“Yeah, well, you owe me.”
“Hey, it’s not like no one’s paying you.”
“There’s still about ten million better things to do. I feel like a pig.”
“Look like one, too,” Ellis observed archly as he dropped down onto the cool grass and stretched out, feeling his aching muscles finally beginning to relax.
“Hey, check that out.”
Ellis sat up and followed Adam’s gaze, but saw nothing but two people fishing a few hundred yards offshore. “What?”
“That piece-of-crap tin boat? That’s the one from Pinecrest. And that’s the conehead from Pinecrest in it. What a prick.”
Ellis shook his head. “You think all the summer people are pricks. Just because you thought he wasn’t going to pick up his dog’s—”
“He wasn’t!” Adam flared. “And he was hitting on Cherie Stevens right in front of me.”
Ellis frowned. “Right in front of you? Okay, that’s not cool. Definitely not cool.”
Adam scowled, spat at the ground, then glowered out at the tiny boat in the middle of the lake. “His buddies arrive today. I remember them. They’re all pricks.”
“C’mon, Adam,” Ellis sighed. “Get real — they’re not all pricks. My mom says—”
“You watch,” Adam cut in. “Those three guys are going to hit on all the girls. And guess what? Just because they’re rich summer kids who live at The ritzy-titzy Pines, they’re going to get ’em!”
“Says you,” Ellis snorted.
“Yeah, says me!” Adam shot back. “You should have seen Cherie — she was climbing all over herself inviting that jerk to the pavilion dances.”
Ellis finally turned to face Adam, grinning. “Oh, really? I thought she was going with you.”
“I thought so, too,” Adam said, suddenly wishing he hadn’t told Ellis that Cherie had practically dumped him. His eyes shifted back to the boat that was bobbing gently on the water. “If it wasn’t for that prick—”
“Hey,” Ellis cut in, seeing Adam’s expression starting to darken into an ugly rage, which always wound up leading to some kind of trouble. “Come on. Let’s go get cleaned up.”
But Adam wasn’t listening to him, his eyes still fixed on the boat. “I’ll tell you one thing,” he said, his voice so low that Ellis wasn’t sure Adam was talking to him at all. “If I catch him alone somewhere, he’s as good as dead.” Finally, he turned and looked Ellis straight in the eye. “Think I’m kidding?” he asked. “Well, I’m not. I’m not kidding at all.”
• • •
ERIC FED A little bit more line off his reel, feeling the spoon he was trolling drop a few inches in the water. The sun was low in the sky, fish were feeding near the surface, and he could almost feel a strike coming. Slowly, he began to wind the reel, bringing the lure in, drawing it closer to the surface.
And then his neck began to crawl, almost as if something was about to touch him.
Or was staring at him.
He turned around, half expecting to see another boat a few yards away — or even closer — but there was nothing. Then he saw two people on one of the lawns a few houses down from Pinecrest.
