this kid. “Out on Montauk. Remember Max the penguin expert?”
The corners of Paisley’s lips tug down in a frown. “Yeah?”
“Well, he invited us. And you were right, he’s not very nice.”
“You went to a party with Max?”
“And a bunch of his friends. It wasn’t very fun. I’d rather be here with you.”
Wordlessly, Paisley hands the pretzels back to me and retrieves Emilia’s iPad from our beach bag. I don’t know how she can use it through the pink waterproof casing, but she doesn’t seem to have any trouble. She opens up a game and starts playing.
“Hey, Paisley?”
The iPad makes a series of pings and whirrs. She doesn’t respond.
“Paisley?”
“I’m playing Fruit Ninja.”
“I can see that. Paisley?”
“Mmm?”
“Why don’t you like Max Adler?”
Paisley keeps slicing pineapples and watermelons. Without looking up from her game, she says, “There was a fire at Windermere.”
I sigh. Not what I asked, but if she needs to talk about the fire, I’m here for that.
“Yeah, there was.”
“Mom said the stable burned down, but the horses are okay.”
“That’s right. The horses got out, they’re fine. Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread. It was scary, but no one was hurt.”
“Did you see it?” she asks.
“I just saw some smoke over the trees. The firefighters were already working to put it out by the time I woke up.”
Paisley nods. “It’s creepy over there. I’m glad the stable is gone.”
I try to get her to open up, say more, but after that, she shuts down entirely. I stretch out on the beach towel and close my eyes. With Paisley not talking to me, my mind kicks into motion. I try to imagine why Caden hid the flash drive in the stable in the first place. Zoe must have already seen what was on it, or found out about the girl from the photos. That’s why he wrote that apology card. Maybe they fought last December. Maybe Zoe ran after discovering her fiancé wanted to be with someone else. Or maybe Caden did something to Zoe. …
I push that thought away, turn to the mystery girl from the pictures. “IdaBeWise.” She must have known all about Zoe, resented Zoe for keeping her and Caden apart. Caden was scared to end things with Zoe, but he loved this other girl. Maybe enough to protect her.
“Anna?”
My head jerks up from the beach towel. Paisley is looking at me like this isn’t the first time she’s said my name.
“We’re supposed to meet Mom in the pickup area in five minutes.”
I wince and push myself up. “Don’t tell your mom I lost track of time, okay?”
Paisley nods solemnly.
By the time we’re waiting for Emilia to pick us up, neither Paisley or I have much to say. Her fear of Windermere seems to have started when the place fell into disrepair. I can’t really blame her; it does resemble a haunted mansion. But I wonder also if it’s grounded in something more real, more menacing. Caden lied to me about his relationship with Zoe. He lied to everyone, including the police. What else is Windermere keeping buried?
20 THEN
July
Herron Mills, NY
Find anything?
Hello to you too.
She can’t actually be pissed. Martina doesn’t strike me as the pleasantries type. Before I can type anything back, another text pops up on my screen.
Haha. Find anything?
Ran all sixteen photos through a reverse Google Image search. No luck.
So what does that mean?
None of these photos have been posted online, so there’s nothing for Google to match them to.
Crap. Of course not. If Caden and “IdaBeWise” were doing even the bare minimum to keep things on the down low, they definitely wouldn’t have been posting their personal photos on Facebook.
OK, now what?
Now I keep digging.
I manage to avoid Caden for most of the week. I send him a few texts, deciding it would be much weirder if I didn’t check in after the fire, make sure he and his mom are doing okay, but in the evenings I tell him I’m tired, or that Emilia has me doing some extra stuff around Clovelly Cottage. I can’t tell if he’s buying it or not. Every so often, as Paisley and I are exploring the Working Waterfront at the Children’s Maritime Museum or escaping into the air-conditioning for two frosty hours at the Herron Mills movie theater, I start to miss him.
Maybe there’s a perfectly logical explanation for what I found in the stable.
Maybe he had nothing to do with the fire.
But probably not.
By Saturday night, I’m going a little stir-crazy. Kaylee hasn’t responded to any of my