The Edge of the Shadows (11 page)

TWENTY-ONE

S
eth found out about the party at Maxwelton Beach through Parker Natalia. He'd been invited by “the two hotties giving it,” as Parker put it, and when he revealed that one of the two hotties was Hayley, Seth decided to go. Parker's feminista date on Wednesday night had turned out to be with Isis Martin, and Seth figured that if Parker was interested in Isis, that left Hayley open and available.

Yeah, yeah, he knew he was being dumb. He and Hayley were still at let's-just-be-friends. But just because Hayley wanted things that way, it didn't mean he was meant to stop hoping they could return to being more than friends.

The party at Maxwelton was after dark, out of doors, and in back of one of the big beach houses. Seth figured this was where Isis Martin and her brother lived with their grandmother, but that wasn't how it was. It
also
wasn't a small party with people sitting around, having a few beers, smoking a little weed, and playing music. The word had gone out around the high school that something big was going on, and by the time Seth arrived, at least forty-five kids were already there and more kids were coming.

The house in question was at the far end of Maxwelton Road, where it dead-ended at a point about one quarter mile beyond a sign saying
PRIVATE
. This indicated a neighborhood that didn't encourage non-residents to wander in, and up above the
PRIVATE
sign, someone had posted a hand-lettered
SHHHHH!
on thick poster board, a message that appeared to be for everyone heading to the party. A
FOR SALE
sign hung outside the party site: a big, green-shingled and many-gabled getaway house that no doubt belonged to a dotcom millionaire with a permanent home on Lake Washington. When Seth saw the
FOR SALE
sign and also saw the pitch darkness inside the place, he had his first qualm about the party. But he was already there and there were others behind him coming along the road stealthily. There seemed to be safety in numbers.

He went around to the water side of the house. The yard in which he found himself gave directly onto the driftwood piles distinctive to beaches in the Pacific Northwest. From these piles kids had gathered smaller pieces of wood which were set to burning in the huge stone fire pit that was a feature of the house's well-landscaped exterior. Next to this fire pit a lot of scrap wood lay, waiting to go up in smoke as well.

There were kids everywhere, but they were doing a good job of keeping the noise down. The nearest houses were a long-abandoned fishing shack to the south—a building that the private road didn't even reach—and, some fifty yards to the north and past an empty lot, a summer cottage that was vacant. Across the street on the land side of things, there was only a steep slope of alders that rose to a thick forest of evergreens and then to a road. As long as they stayed relatively quiet, they could party without bothering a soul.

Seth looked around for friends. He heard his name called, and saw that Becca and Derric were there, sitting on a low stone wall that marked the property boundary from the empty lot next door. Jenn McDaniels was with them, and so was Jenn's longtime pal Squat Cooper. Seth didn't see Hayley, but he did see Isis Martin, who was arms-around-the-waist with Parker Natalia as someone took a picture of them with a smart phone. Parker gave a wave to Seth and Seth jerked his head in hello and continued looking for Hayley as he made his way over to Becca and the others.

“Happenin'?” he said to them.

They all had beers. This surprised him a little because he couldn't remember ever seeing Becca drink. She wasn't generally a partier, and neither was Derric. But now seven beer cans lay empty at their feet. He raised his eyebrows when he saw this and he figured they'd been at it for a while.

“I've never been drunk before,” Becca said. “I decided to try it.” She wasn't slurring her words but she didn't look altogether there. “I dunno . . . I hope I don't throw up.”

“Who's driving you guys home?”

Derric raised a lazy hand. “When I c'n see straight. 'F I can't, we'll sleep on the beach. You okay with that, babe? Me 'n' you under the stars or whatever?”

Becca giggled, leaned against him, and yawned.

“Hell,” Seth said, “you guys need to be careful.”

“We need to get blitzed,” Jenn told him. “The Squat man here came that way and the rest 'f us are trying to catch up.” She nuzzled Squat's neck playfully and then said to Seth, “He had, like, a half gallon or something of Jack Daniel's that he stole from his mom. Where'd you put it, Studboy?” This last she directed to Squat.

Squat didn't answer. He was totally ruddy in the face, even in the darkness, and his eyes looked like embers. He finally managed, “Dunno. It was here and it's gone,” and he waved aimlessly in the direction of some kids who were in the deep shadows at the edge of the water. Seth looked that way and could see a bottle being passed among them. He wondered if anyone in this crowd was going to stay sober enough to drive.

“Anyone know whose house this is?” he asked. He heard a shout and turned around to see flames and sparks flying high up from the fire pit as someone threw an armload of very summer-dry kindling on it. It looked like old blow-down that had been gathered from the woods, and the kids who'd done the gathering were dumping more of it next to the fire pit and stoking the blaze. Hayley was with them. So was Aidan Martin. For a second Seth thought they might be a couple because Hayley leaped back when the flames shot up, and she gripped onto Aidan's arm.

Someone shouted, “Holy shit! What're you guys doing?”

Aidan shouted back, “Thought you wanted a fire!” He grabbed up a burning piece of blow-down and used it like a sword, flashing fire in the sky.

Music came from somewhere, and Seth saw that one of the kids had found an outdoor electrical outlet. Into this, he'd plugged a set of speakers for an iPod. They were small but they did the job. Loud rap began.

A boy that Seth recognized from the high school football team came around the side of the house at that point, with a small metal beer keg on his shoulder. He was followed by three other guys, a slew of good-looking girls, and two guys somewhere in their twenties. They were both carrying grocery bags and the bags turned out to be filled with bottles. They started to unpack these on a circular table on the terrace outside the house's back door. A cheer went up from the kids who saw vodka, gin, rum . . . There were mixers, too, and a couple of bags of ice and plastic glasses.

“Come 'n' get it,” one of these guys yelled.

Kids stormed the table from all directions. There was laughter. There was shoving. There was good-natured joking. And someone hurled another enormous armful of dry wood into the fire so that the flames leapt upward, looking like a beacon against the night sky. Sparks shot everywhere. Embers flew. A bottle fell from the table and broke and a girl got down on her hands and knees and began lapping up the booze that pooled on the terrace. A boy sat on her back and tried to ride her.

Now, Seth liked parties as much as the next guy, but this looked like one that was getting seriously out of control. There might have been no one inside the house and no one on either side of the house, but the noise was growing. There was no way someone from the neighborhood
wasn't
going to come investigate what was going on.

He made his way through the crowd over to Hayley. She was standing back from the fire, holding on to Aidan Martin's arm again. This time, though, she seemed to be trying to keep him from flinging his burning piece of blow-down onto the roof of the house. He was laughing and yelling, “Lemme
do
it, bitch.” Hayley saw Seth coming toward her and mouthed “Help!” at him.

Or she might have been shouting it, for all he knew. The noise level was way too high at that point.

Seth said, “Hey, man,” to Aidan, and he managed to get the burning wood away from him. He tossed it onto the fire. “Better watch it with that or this whole place'll go up in smoke.”

Aidan said, “Hey, Seth, gotcher guitar? This music sucks.”

“I totally agree.”

“Well, I'm gonna do something 'bout that,” Aidan said, and stumbled in the direction of the iPod, which was, unfortunately, also in the direction of the booze. Seth watched him grab a bottle of whatever the heck it was and lurch off with it. Then he turned to Hayley and said, “We better get out of here. This is, like, way out of control.”

“I don't know how people found out,” Hayley told him. “It was just going to be Isis and me and a couple of others and all of a sudden . . .” She looked around. “I didn't tell anyone.”

“You had anything to drink?”

“Part of a beer. I set it down and . . . I don't know. I think someone took it.” She pushed her glasses up on her nose. They were smudged and her right cheek had a smear of ashes on it.

“You ask me, we need to get away. And someone's gotta get Derric and Becca out of here because, I swear, the sheriff's going to show up. If he sees Derric, that'll—”

“Hey, you two.” It was Isis. Parker Natalia was with her. She was hanging back as if she wanted to take him somewhere else and he was trying to come forward as if
he
wanted to talk to Seth. He was smiling, and his gold earrings flashed in the light.

“Take our picture!” Isis cried. She tossed her iPhone at Seth, put her arms around Parker, locked a leg around one of his, and dropped her hands to his butt. They began kissing long, hard, and obviously with a lot of tongue. Seth took the picture. She wanted another, with Parker standing behind her with his arms around her waist. “Kiss my neck,” she commanded. He cooperated, laughing. Then he unlocked himself from her and came over to Seth and Hayley.

“This scene reminds me of high school in Nelson,” Parker said to Seth.

“What, having some blitzed chick go for you?”

“I am
not
blitzed.” Isis was linking her arm to Parker's and saying, “And I don't
need
to be blitzed to go for this guy's tongue.”

“Some party,” Parker said, this time to Hayley. “I didn't see you when I got here.”

“That's 'cause she was in the woods,” Isis said. She winked at Hayley. “How'd it go? Hook up with anyone?”

Hayley looked flustered. “We just got some wood. But, you know, it's so dry that I'm thinking—”

“Your brother was playing around with it,” Seth said. “If he throws it up on the roof of this place—”

“Where is he?” Isis looked around for Aidan.

“Who the hell knows? Where'd all these people come from and who're those guys with the booze?”

“No clue,” Isis said. “But it's totally rad that they showed up. Come on,” this last to Parker, “we need a refill.”

She led him off. He called out to Hayley and Seth, “Talk to you guys later.”

Hayley called back, “Whatever,” but it sounded more to herself than to him.

Seth said to her, “You got the farm truck here?”

“No. Isis picked me up. Why?”

“'Cause me and you are getting out of here, Hayl. But we need to score Derric's keys first. He was talking about driving. Seriously bad idea. You c'n drive his car and take him and Becca to Grand's so he c'n sober up. I'll follow you with Jenn and Squat and—”

“It'll be okay, Seth.”

“Like hell. Someone's gonna call the cops. Come
on
, Hayley.”

“Hey. You're not—”

“Your boyfriend. Right. But I'm still your friend, and friends don't let friends stay at parties that're going to be broken up by the cops so that their parents end up getting called to come fish their kids out of wherever their kids get taken.”

It was the parents part that got to her as he figured it would. She said, “I'll get his keys,” and she headed through the crowd to where Derric and Becca were sitting. They were making out like about twenty other couples, and next to them Jenn and Squat were sharing a bottle of something. Were they going to be sick in the morning or
what
? Seth thought.

He watched Hayley talking to Derric. He looked around. Some girl had climbed up on the wall. She'd taken off her sweater. She started swinging it around her head. Some guys were yelling “Take it all off!” and as if further prompting was going to be needed, suddenly a spotlight hit her. The atmosphere of the party changed instantly.

A deputy from the sheriff's department strode forward with a powerful Maglite held above his head. Another deputy had a bull horn at his mouth and he shouted into this: “All of you, get up on the terrace. Now.” Another deputy came around the far side of the house and behind him was the undersheriff of the county, Derric's dad.

Some of the kids obeyed at once. But a crowd of them began to flee in every direction, with about fifteen of them heading north up the beach in an attempt to get to their cars.

But the cops had already thought this one through. Reinforce-ments emerged from the side of a house about thirty yards to the north. To make sure everyone understood the situation, Derric's dad grabbed the bull horn and shouted, “No one's going anywhere. The road is blocked. Get back here and show some common sense.”

Which, Seth saw, was just about the time Dave Mathieson saw his own son, Derric, throwing a beer can into the driftwood behind the wall on which he drunkenly sat.

TWENTY-TWO

I
n the ensuing chaos, Becca lost the ear bud that blocked people's whispers. She couldn't find it anywhere and was too dizzy to be able to figure out what might have happened to it since it was supposed to be connected to the AUD box, which was clipped to her waist.

To her horror, the first thing she did when she jumped to her feet was to throw up over the side of the stone wall. When she was able to stagger away from the vomit, she turned and saw that Dave Mathieson was coming toward them in a fury. Meanwhile, one of the deputies was making it clear that no one was going anywhere via car and everyone was going to be marching up Maxwelton Road to an old church standing at an intersection. There, inside that place, every last one of them was going to give their names and the names of their parents, who were going to be called and told to come and pick up their offspring. Anyone over twenty-one was in bigger trouble: not only trespassing on private property, but also contributing to the delinquency of minors. Now let's get moving, the deputy yelled. One of the other deputies came forward and used a garden hose to put out the fire.

Hit the fan now
was what Becca heard and it could have come from Derric. But then so could have
when my mom finds out
and
just what I need
and
this is going to look great on my record
. Meantime, everyone else was bombarding the air with
their
whispers, most of which were swear words and scattered plans about how to escape the march up to the church. The problem for most of them, though, was that the first thing the cops did was to relieve every single kid of identification and car keys, so escaping via a vehicle wasn't going to be in the plan.

“Just what the hell were you thinking?” was what she heard from Dave Mathieson to Derric. “Are you drunk? Never mind, I can see for myself. And did you intend to drive this way?”

“I was getting his keys, Sheriff Mathieson.” Hayley Cartwright spoke quickly. “Seth and I were taking all these guys home.” She indicated Derric, Becca, Jenn, and Squat. Squat was on his back on the top of the wall, smiling loonily up at the night sky.

“Don't try to cover for them,” Dave told her.

“I'm not covering.”

“It's the truth,” Seth told him. “Hayley and I haven't been drinking.”

“'S all right,” Derric said, with a tired wave. “My bad, Seth.”

“You have
that
right,” Dave Mathieson told him. “I thought you had more sense. Give me your damn keys,” and when he had them, he walked away.

It was like a military POW march after that. The kids were herded to the front of the house and then lined up single file. Noise from the woods indicated that some of the kids were hoping to escape by climbing the slope up to Swede Hill Road. Maybe they'd make it, Becca thought, but the cops looked intent upon finding every last person who'd been at the party. In the world of throwing the book at people, the book was going to be thrown.

• • •

BECCA GOT SEPARATED
from everyone except Derric when the kids were lined up along the road. They weren't sobering up quickly, but the mood among them had changed.

As they started their march, Derric stumbled and she caught his arm. He looked at her, said, “Thanks,” and added, “This wasn't one of my better ideas. Have I screwed up my whole life or what?”

Becca didn't need to hear his whispers to know he wasn't talking about merely getting drunk at a party. Nor when he added, “My mom's going to be all over me,” did she think Rhonda Mathieson's concern was going to be solely about the party either.

At least, she thought, a kids' party on private property broken up by the cops wasn't going to make the front page of the paper. And even if the story itself made the paper, there was no photographer there taking pictures to attract Jeff Corrie's attention if he was scanning the Whidbey paper online to see if her face or Laurel's face showed up in a crowd somewhere. So thank God for that. And thank God also that no one had broken into the house and nothing truly bad had happened except some kids—like her, for instance—throwing up on someone's property. They'd used the fire pit and that was bad and guys had probably peed in the vacant lot next door and, okay, they'd been drinking but it could have been a whole lot worse and there were definitely parents all over the place who were going to be happy that it hadn't been.

This was indeed how things remained till the march of partiers got halfway to the church. At that point flashing lights came in their direction and five seconds later a fire engine stormed past them as they scurried to one side of the road.

• • •

SOME KIDS TRIED
to escape in the confusion. What Becca wondered was where those kids were going to go since no one had car keys. She couldn't see anything on fire back the way they'd come, and she herself had seen the cop turn a hose on the fire pit.

They didn't find out anything more till they were in the church. They had their orders from the deputy with the bull horn, “Keep marching, you guys,” and so those who didn't try to fade into the fields and then into the forest along the road did pretty much what they were told.

The old church was waiting for them, a dull brown building surrounded by fir trees. All the lights were on, and the first of the parents were already there. Among these Becca recognized Nancy Howard, who lived on Maxwelton Road, as it turned out. She'd only had to come a half mile, but she didn't look happy. The other adults Becca didn't recognize, except for Rhonda Mathieson. She swarmed over Derric and Becca like ten thousand bees following the flight of their queen.

What have I done wrong when I keep trying so hard
produced two feelings in Becca. A thrill of pleasure burst upon her at the complete clarity of the whisper and her immediate knowledge of its source, which was Rhonda. But a cold bucket of guilt doused that pleasure soon enough because Derric's mom was so incredibly upset.

The only good part was that Rhonda's hovering around them produced the ear bud of the AUD box, which was dangling from its connection to the box at Becca's waist. She hadn't felt it hitting against her knees through her jeans as she walked, and she was seriously grateful that nothing had happened to it. She reestablished it in her ear. She looked around for the rest of her friends.

She saw Jenn, and with her was Squat, totally wasted. She saw Seth arguing with a deputy, and she figured he was telling the guy that he'd just arrived, that he'd tried to get Hayley Cartwright out of there, that at least they could give him a breath test or whatever so he could prove he was stone cold sober and completely able to drive Hayley home. She saw Isis Martin being strong-armed by her grandmother. She saw Parker Natalia trying to ease over to the door. He didn't get far. A cop standing guard at the door directed him back into the church.

“This isn't
like
you. What on earth is
happening
to you?” It was Rhonda talking to Derric. He looked sullen and sick to his stomach simultaneously. His reply of “Jesus. Lay
off
, Mom,” didn't go down well. Rhonda turned to Becca. “What were you two thinking?”

Becca said, “Sorry. We were dumb.”

“And lay off Becca, too,” Derric snapped. “Let's just go the hell home.”

“Do you actually think it's going to be that easy?” Rhonda demanded. “There's a fire down there and no one's going
anywhere
till that's taken care of.”

“They put out the fire,” Becca told her. “I saw the guy take a hose and—”

“Evidently, you didn't see what you thought you saw because it doesn't take the fire department to douse a fire on the beach.”

“We weren't on the beach,” Derric said. Unnecessarily, Becca thought. “An' the fire was in a legal pit.”

“Illegally lit by a bunch of drunk kids on someone's private property,” Rhonda countered.

“Give it a frigging rest,” Derric said.

Rhonda's eyes filled with tears. She walked off, allowing Derric and Becca to be herded into one of the pews along with everyone else. Becca felt bad for her, but she felt bad for Derric, too, because she knew this was going to be yet another issue between him and his mom.

• • •

THEY WAITED NINETY
minutes. By that time all the parents of all the kids had arrived and were milling around outside. Becca could see them when the doors opened, and she could hear them shouting questions when Dave Mathieson entered. The partiers were either sobering up or they were asleep. Five of them had been sick on the floor and were cleaning up their own mess as directed by a completely unsympathetic deputy. Dave went over to talk to Derric's mom, and they spent a couple of minutes in earnest conversation. Then Rhonda walked over to where Becca and Derric were leaning against each other at the far end of a pew.

She said to Becca, “You'll have to wait. He says no one leaves without an adult who'll take responsibility for them tonight. I'm sorry,” and then to Derric, “Let's go home,” and she turned and walked off.

At that point, Dave Mathieson strode to the front of the church and the set of his jaw made him look even angrier than he'd been when he'd confronted Becca and Derric at the party. He planted himself on a riser and said in a loud voice, “Listen up, all of you smart-asses, so you have a clear picture of just how serious this situation is. Your little party spread its wings. The building next door went up in flames from the fire you guys were all enjoying—”

Moans, shouts, angry retorts, and cries constituted the general reaction and it came immediately, breaking into the sheriff's words.

He said, “Yeah. That's right. So you've got one hell of a problem. Those of you who're legal age . . . ? You'll be taking a ride up to Coupeville. The rest of you are released to your parents as soon as they get here if they're not here already.
But
”—he increased the volume as kids started to move—“you'll be hearing from the appropriate authorities as soon as damages are assessed.”

A few kids protested. They'd been on the beach, they'd not even gone near that stupid fire pit, they'd been leaving when they saw the party was getting out of hand. But the undersheriff wasn't interested in this. He was finished speaking and he nodded to the deputy by the door. He opened it and allowed the parents to enter one by one to claim their offspring.

Derric said to Becca, “This is such bullshit. At least he could let us drive you home. I'm gonna go tell him—”

“'S'okay,” Becca said hastily. There was no point in provoking anything else between Derric and either one of his parents. “I c'n call Mrs. Kinsale. It's better than Mr. Darrow.” What she meant was that she couldn't risk her living situation with Ralph Darrow. She was sobering up pretty quickly at this point, but she knew she smelled like beer and vomit. Ralph Darrow would not appreciate having to be exposed to her scent.

Derric said, “Bullshit, Becca. What's the point of my dad being the undersheriff if he won't even give us a break?”

“That's the whole point. He can't.
Because
he's the undersheriff.”

“I don't want you . . . Crap. I'm so frigging sorry.”

“Hey, I'll be okay. Both of us blew it. You didn't exactly force me to go to the party and no way did you force me to chug a bunch of beers.”

“We shouldn't've gone. When we saw it was at that empty house . . .” He put a fist to his forehead and gave it a tap. “I am totally losing it.”

“Just go home with your mom. It'll be okay.”

“I don't think so.” He hugged her hard and swung around to go to his mother.

That was when the fire chief came into the room at such a pace that he nearly knocked over two sets of parents in his haste to get to the undersheriff. He spoke to him tersely. Dave Mathieson announced, “Everyone, stay where you are.”

Then along with the fire chief, he rushed out of the place as protests rose around them and two deputies took up positions at the church's front doors.