The Secrets of Lake Road - Karen Katchur Page 0,96

shadows cut across the old wooden floor. Dust floated in the remaining slivers of light.

Patricia had fallen asleep again in Dee Dee’s old bedroom. Dee Dee had moved into the master bedroom not long after her folks had passed. She had taken over the cabin, the upkeep, and the bills. Although the position at the hospital didn’t pay much, she didn’t need much to make ends meet. When money was tight, the lake provided her with food and water, the cabin with shelter. And then there was Chris, the lone heir to the Hawke name. He was a good boy for the most part, growing into a fine young man. Who could ask for more?

But she did want more. If she couldn’t have her family back, then she at least wanted the truth so she could finally have some kind of closure.

The old scar pulsed with the beat of her heart. She opened a can of beer, the last in a six-pack, and lit a cigarette. She had the fractured bone, and now she had a witness. She thought about what Patricia had said, wondering how much she should believe. Patricia was clearly a woman on the edge, suffering from a traumatic loss.

Dee Dee pulled in a long drag and exhaled slowly. She could talk with Heil, make sure he was doing everything possible to find Patricia’s little girl. But knowing Heil, he wouldn’t listen. Drownings weren’t good for business. Heil was a heartless man.

She continued another lap around the kitchen table, mulling over her options. If Heil called off the search, she would step up and demand the fishermen continue. She didn’t have much faith in the recovery team. Too much time had passed for their scanners and whatever other equipment they were using to find such a small body in the expansive lake.

But what should she do about Patricia’s version of the night Billy had drowned? Patricia might have misunderstood what she saw at ten years old. It was possible. She was a kid.

But she couldn’t discard the fact that her version also made a lot of sense. There was a full moon that night. The floating pier would have been visible to anyone looking out at the water. And if anyone were on the pier under a moon that bright, they would have been recognizable.

Many times Dee Dee had peeked out the curtains and caught teenagers messing around on that very same pier. It was as though a spotlight had been turned on and the teenagers were caught in the act of being teens. She had done it herself when she was younger.

So it was possible Patricia was telling the truth. Besides, she had never known Patricia to lie. As a child, she had been honest. She wouldn’t even lie about the number of cookies she had eaten when asked. Where most kids would confess to eating two or three, Patricia would look Dee Dee in the eye and say, “I had fourteen.”

And then there’s the fact that Billy’s body was found near the pier, the exact spot Patricia had seen Jo with him. Kevin had been there too, the voice inside her head whispered, but she silenced it by pushing it away. She didn’t want to believe anyone was to blame for what had happened to Billy other than Jo.

Billy and Kevin had been best friends every summer since they were boys. And later they had both become victims, targets of a manipulative teenage girl who flaunted her sexuality, tossing it around as though she were free for the taking, teasing them until neither boy could think straight.

Jo was beautiful, sexy, and careless with what she had been blessed with. She knew how to use her body and good looks to her advantage. She didn’t care who she hurt as long as she got what she wanted. She was out of control. Dee Dee had wanted to shake her, to warn her to be careful with how she used the weapons she had been given. But she didn’t dare touch her because of Billy. He was smitten with her. And Dee Dee didn’t have the heart to say a bad thing about her for fear of hurting him. So she bit her tongue, hoping he’d outgrow what had started as puppy love, and praying he would lose interest, or Jo would.

Neither had happened, and there wasn’t a day that went by that Dee Dee didn’t curse herself for not opening her mouth and exposing Jo for