“Mom,” Caroline said.
Jo looked from Gram to her daughter. She had almost forgotten Caroline was there.
“Is that Billy?” Caroline asked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Gram slammed the photo album shut, startling Caroline.
“That’s enough reminiscing for one afternoon,” Gram said, and stood. “Is anyone hungry? I’ll make sandwiches.” She rushed to the kitchen, taking the photo album with her.
Caroline looked to her mother for an answer to her question, an explanation. Was the boy in the picture the same boy who drowned? Was it Billy, her mother’s old boyfriend and her father’s friend? But Caroline could tell from her mother’s expression that she had already lost her. Her mother had retreated deep inside herself to those dark places Caroline recognized and wished she didn’t. It was anyone’s guess when her mother would surface. The only thing that surprised Caroline was that her mother hadn’t raced out the door.
“Forget it,” Caroline said. She’d find the answers to her questions on her own somehow, some way.
She returned to her bedroom where she found the new sneakers. She pulled on a pair of socks and then slipped the sneakers on. She’d get them a little dirty and no one would be the wiser. Gram had promised she’d keep her secret once she explained to Gram her reasons, the same reasons she used with Adam, although she didn’t mention his part, not wanting to implicate him. She was willing to take full responsibility for the two of them if it came down to that. It was her idea, her plan, her doing.
When she had told Gram she couldn’t stand the thought of what those snappers would do to Sara, Gram had more than understood—she had agreed and believed Caroline brave for taking a stand albeit an illegal one.
“Sometimes,” Gram had said, “doing the right thing means you have to break some rules.”
They agreed to keep it between themselves. It would be their secret and theirs alone. Gram wouldn’t tell Caroline’s mother what she had done, and this suited Caroline just fine. Her mother may suspect, but she would never know for sure, if Caroline could help it. Now Caroline and Gram had secrets too. Take that, Caroline whispered to herself about her mother.
Gram appeared in the doorway. “I’ve got everything out on the table.”
“I’m not hungry,” she said. “I think I’m going to find Megan instead.”
“Well.” Gram pressed her lips together in frustration at having set out food no one was going to eat. “Why don’t the two of you come back here? There’s more than enough sandwiches and you can play board games or cards, do something fun for awhile.”
“I don’t know, but I’ll ask her.” She didn’t want to hurt Gram’s feelings, but she didn’t want to play games. She wondered if she would ever feel like doing anything fun again.
She stepped outside. The air was thick with humidity from the earlier storm. The day was hot. She rubbed the sides of her sneakers into the dirt where the grass would never grow. She kicked a couple of rocks to give the white tops a broken-in look, and hopped on her bicycle.
The seat was still wet from her ride in the rain that morning. She had gotten up and went straight to the lake to discover her plan had worked. The men weren’t on the water searching for two reasons: the storm and the fact that their turtles were gone. They were standing on Stimpy’s porch. She could just make out their cross faces from where she sat on her bike in the parking lot.
When Sheriff Borg emerged from Stimpy’s place, she took off, pushing her bike through the woods, which was no easy task. She wound her way behind the lakefront cabins as quietly as she could. She didn’t stop until she reached Adam’s cabin. She hid her bike behind a tree and tapped on his window much in the same way she had done the night before.
He wasn’t happy to see her.
“I can’t come out,” he said. “My mom is mad. She wanted to know why the floor in my room was covered in mud.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her I got up early to fish, but the storm chased me inside.”
“Good thinking,” Caroline said, and then she added, “Our plan worked.”
“I know,” Adam said. “It’s all anyone’s talking about.”
“Okay”—she put her finger to her lips—“don’t say a word to anyone. No one. And they won’t catch us.”
Of course, this was before she had learned about the muddy footprints they had left behind on the dock. She hadn’t known then that Gram had replaced her sneakers with new ones, or she would’ve suggested Adam do the same. She wondered if she should risk another trip to his cabin to warn him and tell him to get rid of his old sneakers too. But then again, Adam had given his mother a solid explanation for the mud.
She pedaled across the yard, deciding to go to Megan’s like she had told Gram. She entered the dirt road and almost hit a car coming toward her. She braked hard and swerved to the side.
“Careful, now,” the sheriff said through the open window of the patrol car. He pulled up next to her. “Are your parents inside?” he asked.
She tried to swallow. “My grandmother’s home.”
“Good enough,” he said. “Why don’t you park that bike and walk me in?”
She did what she was told and got off her bike. She walked it into the yard on shaky legs. While she struggled with the kickstand, he stepped out of the car and put on his sheriff’s hat.
“Gram,” she called, and stepped through the side door that led to the kitchen. She was hoping to avoid her mother on the screened-in porch. With any luck, her mother had taken off.
The sheriff loomed behind her. He was twice her size and three times her weight. She thought she might cry.
Gram was standing at the kitchen sink washing a plate. When she saw the sheriff behind Caroline, she turned off the faucet and stuck her hand holding the wet towel onto her hip. It soaked the bottom of her shirt and the top of her favorite pants with the elastic waistband.
“What brings you by, Sheriff?” she asked. There was an edge to her voice Caroline heard her use only around people she didn’t care for.
He removed his hat and turned it around in his hands as he spoke. “There’s been some trouble down at the lake, and I was hoping you could tell me what you know about it.”
Caroline stood still.
“Did you find that little girl, yet?” Gram asked.
“No, I’m afraid we haven’t. Not yet,” he said. “But that’s sort of why I’m here. I got a complaint from some of the fishermen that a couple of kids messed with their traps.”
Before Gram could answer, Caroline’s mother walked into the kitchen. Her face drained of color, and the hollows in her cheeks looked deeper and darker than usual. If Caroline didn’t know any better, she would think her mother was the guilty one.
I did it, Caroline thought. Not you. She didn’t want to get into trouble, but why was everything always about her mother?
Her mother opened her mouth to say something to the sheriff at the same time Gram clutched her chest and leaned against the sink.
“Gram.” Caroline reached for her.
Her mother rushed to Gram’s side. “What is it?” she asked. “Your heart? Is it your heart?”
Gram kept her hand on her chest and slumped to the floor. Caroline’s mother sunk to the floor with her. “Just hold on,” her mother said, and looked at the sheriff. “Call an ambulance.”
The sheriff shot out the door to radio it in.
Caroline knelt on the floor at Gram’s side. “Gram, are you okay? Talk to me.” She touched her shoulder. “Please, tell me you’re okay.”
Gram didn’t speak. She pinched her eyes closed and kept her hand splayed over her heart.
“Don’t crowd her,” her mother said. “Give her air.”