The Edge of the Shadows (30 page)

The road curved but Isis had not slowed. On the slick pavement, she slid. She overcorrected. She spun the car. It shot off the road at tremendous speed. It smashed head-on into a telephone pole. It burst into flames.

Derric stamped on the brakes. His car also went into a slide as well. Becca felt him instinctively reach out his right arm to keep her safe. He knew enough about skidding to release the brakes as behind him Seth honked frantically as if in warning.

They came to a stop. Seth, Jenn, and Squat were already out of the VW and hurtling toward the fiery mass of metal that was Isis's car.

“Get her out!” Derric yelled.

Flames shot up the telephone pole, and the rain was not enough to douse them. The car itself was completely engulfed. Squat was the one who shouted, “No way can you get her! Keep back!”

“Oh my God!” This was from Jenn. She turned to Becca and covered her face.

“It's bad,” from Seth.

“Nine-one-one,” from Squat.

And the air was filled with the
whoosh
of flames and the anguished whispers of terrified kids as they all fell back and away, and shakily Derric punched the numbers into his cell phone to bring them help.

FIFTY-FIVE

A
t Smugglers Cove Farm and Flowers, Seth sat in his VW for a couple of minutes. He'd never been at the scene of someone's death before. The fire chief had told them that she'd probably been killed right when her car hit the telephone pole, so she hadn't even known she was trapped. But that was very small consolation.

The fire trucks had arrived within ten minutes, but it had seemed like an hour. As people who lived in the forest along Sills Road rushed down their unpaved driveways to see what the commotion was, the volunteer firemen doused the flames. Derric's dad had shown up, and an ambulance had come. Through it all Seth asked himself if he could have done anything different.

There were lots of
if onlys
in his head. If only they hadn't been at Maxwelton looking for the chain. If only Jenn, Squat, and Becca hadn't been blocking the road. If only they'd just let Isis pass by, no matter where she was going. If only he and Derric hadn't decided to chase after her.

Now, he had to tell Hayley. Isis Martin had been her friend, and Seth knew he couldn't put Hayley in the position of discovering what had occurred when she got to school the next day. So he heaved open the car door and trudged up the path to the farmhouse's front door. It was long after dinner but the lights were still on and he found the family in the living room playing Clue. Hayley wasn't with them—too much homework—but she came downstairs when her mom called up for her.

When Seth asked if he could talk to her, she looked concerned. She could tell from his tone, he figured. She said, “What's wrong? Your grandpa's okay, isn't he?”

“Grand's cool,” Seth told her. “This's something different.”

He jerked his head toward the front of the house. Hayley followed him onto the porch. She shivered but he figured it wasn't exactly from the cold. When they were at the far end of the porch overlooking the fields and the chicken barn below, he told her. He gave it all to her as he'd learned it from Becca, Derric, Squat, and Jenn, and then from a freaked-out and sobbing Aidan Martin. He didn't know how much she already knew, how much Isis had told her, or what Isis had claimed. So he started with Aidan and Wolf Canyon Academy and when she told him she knew all about that and why Aidan had been sent there, he skipped to the ring. This, it turned out, she knew about, too. So he told her about Becca's conclusions that they needed to search for a chain that might have held a ring and might have been broken during the Maxwelton party.

“We found it. Then Isis showed up,” he said. “Jenn more or less mouthed off at her and Aidan jumped out of the car.”

“
Aidan
was there?” Hayley said.

“Sure. Why?”

She told him about Isis's claim that her brother had run away in advance of their parents coming up to get him. She ended with, “But d'you think he was there all the time? At home?”

“She might've just wanted you to
think
he'd run away. To get you on her side even more. 'Cause that would make him look guilty, wouldn't it? Only thing we can't figure out for sure is why.”

“Why what?” Hayley moved to the porch railing and was staring out into the darkness, the light from the house touching only her hair.

“Why Isis did all this in the first place. Geez, does she . . . Did she hate him or something?”

“Aidan?” Hayley turned back to him. Seth saw that her face was drawn and weary.

“Why else would she want him to go down for a bunch of fires anyway?”

“Because she wanted to go back to Palo Alto,” Hayley said. “He'd messed up her entire senior year. He'd caused her boyfriend to break up with her. Her parents made her come up here to make sure he was cured but she wanted to go home. What better way . . . ?” Hayley covered her mouth with her fingertips.

Seth wasn't sure what to do. He got the impression from Hayley's reactions and from what she said that Isis had pretty much hooked Hayley like a fish and reeled her in. He felt bad about this, but it wasn't Hayley's fault. She was just a nice person who tried to be friends with some girl who didn't know what friendship was.

• • •

IT WAS THE
idea of doing something about lies that prompted him to seek out Brooke Cartwright. The next day he finished work early, so he took off for Langley. He intercepted the girl outside of the middle school.

He was standing next to his car and he had Gus with him. Brooke smiled when she saw the golden Lab. Seth said to her, “We got an appointment. Get in,” and he was relieved when Brooke assumed it had to do with the dog.

She wasn't happy when he pulled into the Langley clinic's parking lot, on Second Street in the village. She was even less happy when he came around to her side of the car, opened her door, and said, “Gus, you stay.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. She accused him of kidnapping her, to which he said, “Right, kid. It's my new career. Come with me and don't make me carry you 'cause believe me I'll be happy to if that's gonna be what it takes.”

“I don't want—”

“This is on me and no one's gonna know. Unless someone has to know. Got it?”

“But—”

“Nope.” He put his arm around her shoulders and he gave her a squeeze. “I know you're scared. I know you don't want to cause trouble at home. But you got to trust me. We're gonna work everything out.”

“Nothing works out.”

“This will.”

Seth had phoned the clinic, so Rhonda Mathieson was expecting them. She saw Brooke and said, “Here you are! Come with me, young lady,” and she took the girl with her.

That was when Seth called Hayley. She started to protest. He said, “I'm paying, Hayley. There's something wrong besides her just being thirteen years old. Brooke knows it, but she doesn't want to say because of your dad and all the troubles and no insurance and no money and, geez, Hayl. You know all this. So I'm getting Mrs. Mathieson to look her over. If something's wrong with her we c'n at least all sit down and figure out what to do. Which we can't as long as you guys keep mum about everything going on in your lives.”

He thought she'd hung up on him when there was only silence that greeted his remarks. But then he heard a little gasp which he knew was a stifled sob which he also knew would humiliate Hayley. He said, “It'll be cool, Hayl. And I'll bring her home,” but only the second part could he be sure of.

FIFTY-SIX

H
ayley had heard the expression “her heart in her mouth,” but she'd never really thought about what it meant until she watched her mother on the phone with Rhonda Mathieson. When Seth had called her with the announcement about Brooke, she'd been furious with him at first. But she'd also assumed that Seth would have already returned Brooke to the farm when she herself arrived home. When Brooke hadn't shown up by the time her mom got back from her house cleaning day, Hayley was actually sick to her stomach with dread.

She didn't have the first clue what to tell her mom, but that didn't matter as things turned out because not ten minutes after Julie Cartwright arrived and before she wondered anything at all about Brooke, Rhonda Mathieson called. Hayley was the one to answer the phone. When she handed it over to her mom, she felt anxiety grip her like a cold fist.

When Julie replaced the receiver in its cradle, she stood there looking at it. Her shoulders were drooping.

Hayley said to her, “What is it?”

“Rhonda thinks Brooke has a bleeding ulcer. She'll need some tests at the hospital and an appointment with a gastro . . . a gastro-whatever-it-is.”

Hayley lowered herself to one of the kitchen chairs. She murmured more to herself than to her mom, “But why didn't she . . . why wouldn't she . . . No wonder.”

“Yes. No wonder,” Julie Cartwright said.

• • •

RHONDA MATHIESON DROVE
Brooke home. She brought her personally, rather than let Seth return her because Brooke was “making things a little tough for herself,” as Rhonda put it.

Brooke ran up the stairs when she came into the house. Rhonda watched her go. Julie went to Rhonda. She took Rhonda's arms above the elbow in a half-hug kind of gesture, and said, “I don't know what to say.”

Rhonda patted her hand. “Is there some place we can sit? Is Bill here, by the way? He might want to—”

“I haven't told him yet.” Julie Cartwright indicated the living room and its ancient sofa. “It's all a bit difficult right now.”

Hayley was watching all this from the doorway to the kitchen, and she found that she wanted to yell and punch the wall. A
bit
difficult? she wanted to shout at her mom. But instead she offered Rhonda Mathieson the only thing they had to offer anyone, which was a cup of tea or instant coffee or water. Rhonda smiled at her, said she wanted not a thing but thanks so much, and she went to the sofa. She sat and waited for Hayley's mom to do the same. To make sure her mom did just that, Hayley went into the living room and planted herself in the rocking chair that her father could no longer use.

Rhonda patted the sofa next to her, an indication of where she wanted Julie to sit. When Hayley's mom had done this, Rhonda gave them the news. First of all, she said, Brooke was extremely upset about having Seth Darrow cart her to the clinic, so Rhonda hadn't told her much because she didn't want to increase the girl's distress. Besides, at this point, only tests were going to be able to pinpoint the exact nature of the problem. But her symptoms suggested a bleeding ulcer, so this was a medical emergency.

“It's an ulcer that's gone untreated,” Rhonda explained. “If it isn't dealt with very soon, it can penetrate the lining of the stomach. That permits undigested food and stomach acids to enter the abdominal cavity.” Rhonda placed her hand on her own stomach as if in demonstration. “When that happens, the problem becomes acute.”

Julie clutched her hands in her lap. “She's been different for months. But I told myself it was her age. Thirteen and you know how difficult children get when they reach adolescence and I thought . . . She kept eating and eating.” Julie cleared her throat. Hayley knew very well that her mom didn't want to cry in front of Rhonda Mathieson. After a moment, Julie said, “She never said a word. I've completely failed her.”

Hastily Rhonda covered Julie's clutched hands with her own. “Brooke didn't
want
you to know. She herself doesn't know the extent of the problem because I'm not entirely sure. As I said, only tests can tell us, but the eating indicates . . . It would actually have made her stomach feel better to have food in it.”

“What kind of tests?” Hayley asked.

“It's called an endoscopy. This'll show the surgeon—”

“Surgery?” Julie's voice wavered.

Rhonda scooted over and put her arm around Julie's shoulder. She waited a moment to explain further: a plastic tube down into Brooke's stomach would contain a probe; the probe would show if there was a bleeding ulcer; the surgeon would use electricity or heat or clips to stop the bleeding, a medical glue would minimize the chance of an occurrence of more bleeding in the future. But there could also be the need for abdominal surgery if the bleeding couldn't be stopped in this way.

“But,” Rhonda added quickly when Julie's expression showed horror, “this is at the absolute furthest extreme. The important point is that we need to be proactive. I'd like to set up an appointment for tomorrow. She could go to the emergency room in Coupeville right now, but I think we're okay waiting till the morning.”

“No frigging way!”

They swung to where Brooke was standing. She'd come back down the stairs. She was completely white faced.

“I won't,” she announced.

“Sweetheart,” Rhonda said carefully. “There isn't an option here. If we don't—”

“I said I won't and I
won't
.”

Julie rose and went toward her. She said, “You needed to tell me. Brookie, this is dangerous, and I don't understand why—”

“It doesn't matter!” Brooke shouted.

Julie stopped in her tracks. “How on earth can you say—”

“You can't make me. I
won't
,” she shrieked. She turned and fled, crying, “Just let me die!”

Rhonda said nothing. Hayley felt tears coming. Thirteen years old, she thought. And then she said to herself that enough was enough.

“Mrs. Mathieson.” Hayley didn't know if she could but she knew she had to. Rhonda turned to her, and her face was perplexed but open and willing to listen. Hayley hoped she was also willing to do more. “My dad,” she began.

“Don't,” Julie said.

Hayley went on. “My dad has ALS, Mrs. Mathieson. Lou Gehrig's disease? ALS. He's going to die. Our family doesn't have medical insurance. And we need help.”

• • •

THERE WAS NO
further discussion over what to do. The Cartwrights would do what had to be done. As to how to pay for it all in a situation in which the family was holding life together with glue and shoe laces and far too much pride . . . ? Rhonda said to them that there were ways. For goodness sakes, Rhonda said, even if the government rejected their obvious need—which was highly unlikely—this was South Whidbey, a place where people helped each other, where fund-raisers were a weekly occurrence, and where—“for God's sake, Julie,” she said—there was an organization long established to help people with their medical bills. It was time for action for the Cartwright family and, like it or not, it was time to face facts.

When the phone rang later in the day, Hayley assumed it would be her mother letting them all know what was happening with Brooke. But it turned out that the caller was Parker Natalia, who said when he heard Hayley's voice, “Don't hang up on me, Hayley. I've got a message for Becca, is all.”

She wanted to ask him why he didn't call Ralph Darrow's house if he had a message for Becca. Better yet, why didn't he just walk over to the house from the woods? But it turned out that he was in Canada, back in Nelson, where he'd been since two days after Isis Martin had fatally crashed her car. “The sheriff more or less invited me to leave,” he told her. “I shouldn't have outstayed my visa.”

Hayley didn't know what to say to him. He'd phoned once, after Isis had been killed, but she hadn't returned his call. She'd been drawn to him, true. Chances were she would still be drawn to him if she saw him. But she didn't really want to be drawn to Parker Natalia right now. So she'd avoided him.

Now, she couldn't. So she said, “Sure. I'll give her the message.”

It was simple enough. He'd asked around: his friends, his relatives, his old band mates. No one knew Becca's cousin. “Tell her that doesn't mean she's not up here,” he said. “Nelson's small. But it's a hell of a lot bigger than Langley. So I c'n keep asking around. I'll do the ad in the paper for her, too. Could you tell her that, Hayley?”

“I'll tell her.”

And then it seemed there was nothing more to say, but when she was about to wish him well, he said, “Look. I've talked to Seth. He let me know what's going on with your family. Your dad, your sister. The whole thing. And listen, Hayley, I just want to say I'm sorry. I added to your mess, and I didn't mean to do that. Maybe sometime you'll be able to . . . I don't know exactly. Maybe we can see each other again. Sometime. Not now, I know. But sometime.”

She said, “It's okay. I think we both got used by Isis. It's not your fault.”

“Except for the lying, which was totally my fault. I should've been straight with you. I panicked thinking that if you knew that I'd hooked up with Isis first, it would wreck things between you and me.”

Hayley understood. But she wasn't really ready for what Parker Natalia had to offer. With him, it would only be a matter of time, and she didn't really need to have her consciousness clouded at the moment. She said, “I'm applying to colleges. Well, universities, really.”

“Good going,” he said and he sounded as if he meant it.

“I'm hoping for a place with a good environmental science program.”

“Excellent,” he said. “You go for it, Hayley.”

That was it. They parted, if not as friends exactly, then as a man and woman in better understanding of who each of them was.

And that, Hayley decided, was pretty much all you could expect of life: understanding who you were and what made you tick and coming close to understanding others as well.