Upstate Uproar (11 page)

“Do you mind giving us directions to the bus
station?” Wendy asked, giving Austin a scratch under his chin.
“Maybe she’ll still be there.”

Vivian glanced at the headline of the
paper:

Human Remains Found Near Haystack
Mountain

Brandon stood and tucked the paper under his
arm. “Sure, I’ll be right back.”

Vivian pointed to the screen door after he
disappeared through it. “Did y’all see the headline? It was about
our hiking discovery. We need to see that.” She told them the
headline.

Kate started down the steps. “We’ve got to go
find Lucy. Let’s get a paper in town while we’re out.” She stopped
on the last step and dug through her purse again. “I think I left
the keys upstairs.”

“I’ll grab ’em,” Vivian said, wiping puffs of
white off her shirt. “Breakfast of champions right there.”

“I think they’re on the nightstand,” Kate
called out.

Kate and Wendy played with Austin while
Vivian hustled upstairs. She opened the unlocked door to what used
to be her and Lucy’s room. A sad feeling washed over her. She and
Lucy had been best friends for almost 17 years. They could finish
each other’s sentences, kick butt at Pictionary and practically
read each other’s thoughts, yet Vivian had no idea why Lucy had
left. She remembered how annoyed Lucy had been when she was being
silly about Larson.
Maybe I do need to cool it when it comes to
meeting men on vacation. I kinda can’t help it, though. But Lucy
knows that about me.

Vivian found the keys in the adjoining room,
on the dresser, not the nightstand.
Pregnancy brain.

She closed the door to Wendy and Kate’s room
just as Brandon was opening a door at the end of the hall.

“I gave your friends the directions,” he
said.

“Thanks, we’ll be back soon. Hopefully with
Lucy.”

He stepped into the room and turned around,
holding the folded newspaper. “Call if you have any problems.”

He closed the door, and Vivian thought she
heard it lock.
Maybe it’s a secret bathroom.
She smiled to
herself and high-tailed it downstairs. Wendy and Kate were playing
with Austin when Vivian pushed open the screen door. “Let’s
boogie.”

They got into the rental, leaving Austin
behind, looking sad.

Wendy gave Kate directions to the bus
station, and as Kate parked, she said, “This looks more like a
strip mall.”

“I guess Lake Placid isn’t a hotbed for
Greyhound.” Wendy got out of the SUV.

The strip had an insurance agency and a place
called LPTs, both closed, and a place that looked like a
convenience store. A sticker on the window said “Bus Tickets Sold
Here.” Benches lined the front of the store with metal dividers
sticking up every so often. Vivian guessed it was to prevent people
from lying down. “This must be the place,” she said and opened the
door for her friends. A small bell jingled on the inside
doorknob.

The girls walked straight to the counter
where a kid who looked all of 19 sat on a stool, staring down at
his phone. His long, gangly legs were practically up to his chin,
and unkempt, stringy black hair fell down around his face. A
skateboard was propped up behind him.

The girls waited a good 30 seconds before
Kate cleared her throat.

Skater Dude put the phone down. “Can I help
you?”

Kate had a picture of Lucy at the ready and
put it in front of him. “We’re looking for this woman. We think she
may have bought a ticket earlier today.”

He squinted at the phone, pushing his hair
out of his eyes, then flopped his head to the left. “Huh. I dunno.
I sell a lot of tickets.”

“Really?” Wendy said, looking around.
“Really?”

“Morning is pretty busy. I usually sell eight
or nine an hour.”

“I see,” Wendy said. “Booming bus
business.”

Kate waved her off, zoomed in on Lucy’s face
and stuck it in Skater Dude’s face. “Please think really hard. We
need to find her.”

He squinted his eyes and looked again, then
snapped her fingers. “Oh yeahhhh, I do remember her. She had pretty
eyebrows. And eyeballs. I dig green eyes.” He nodded goofily, like
a chicken walking around the barnyard.

Vivian smiled. “Yeah, she does.”

“She almost missed her bus, but I was able to
ring her up super-fast and she made it.”

“Do you remember where she was going?”

He looked up at the ceiling, concentrating.
Suddenly he jerked, slapped his knee and yelled. “Buffalo! She went
to Buffalo!”

The girls looked at each other, then Kate
said what they all were thinking.

“Who the hell’s in Buffalo?”

T
he girls asked
questions of the laid-back convenience store guy for a couple of
minutes, not getting much information other than Buffalo. They
bought a newspaper from him and walked back to the car.

“Maybe she switched her plane ticket to fly
out of Buffalo,” Wendy said, checking on her cell which airlines
used the airport. Lucy had flown into Albany on Southwest, and it
had gates in Buffalo. “I bet that’s what she did.”

Vivian sighed. “It’s my fault.”

“Don’t be silly. In her note she said she was
leaving to be with someone who understands her loss. Is she talking
about losing Steve?” Kate asked.

“I think so. What else could it be?” Vivian
said. “And here I am, being Ms. Flirty McFlirt Flirt with Mr. Hotty
McHot Hot yesterday.”

“Whatever,” Wendy said as Kate pulled out of
the parking lot. “We all know that’s how you are and guys eat it
up. It’s kinda disgusting actually.”

“I
could
tone it down.”

“You could,” Kate said. “But that’s not what
this is about. It’s about Lucy.”

“Then it has to be the divorce and moving out
of the townhouse,” Vivian said. “She worked so hard renovating it,
just to have to leave. That sucks.”

“That’s life, Vivian.” Kate looked at her in
the rearview mirror. “You know that better than all of us. Things
don’t always work out the way we planned.”

“True. True.” Vivian turned her attention to
the newspaper. The cover photo was a picture of the trailhead where
Austin had dug up the jawbone. Crime scene tape wrapped around
trees blocked the entrance.

Vivian read the story, summarizing as she
went along. “Essex County sheriffs responded to a call that human
remains had been found by hikers near Haystack Mountain. Crime
scene technicians, sheriff deputies and volunteers scoured a
perimeter around the area.” She scanned down the page. “Four people
have gone missing from the area in the last 20 years. Timothy
Walker, a handyman, left a job site in his truck and never went
home. His roommate thought he may have chased down his
ex-girlfriend in New York City and decided to stay gone. Bobby
McFarland, a sixteen year old high school student. Margaret
Jackson, a pharmacy tech and avid hiker, left for work on a cold
and icy morning and was never seen again. And then there was
Rebecca Holt.”

“Holt!” Kate said, stopping for a red light.
“Did Brandon have a sister, or is this another relative?”

Vivian sucked in a breath of air and had to
reread the last few lines to herself before reading them out loud.
“Holy crap! Listen to this. ‘Rebecca Holt, wife of Turlington Farms
proprietor Brandon Holt, went missing almost seven years ago.
Brandon left early in the morning to go fishing, and she was gone
when he returned in the afternoon. None of her belongings were
missing and her BMW was still in the garage. Continued on p. 4.’
”

“Wife!” Kate turned up the air conditioning
even though it was in the 50s outside. “What the heck? I wonder if
it’s her.”

“A cop came to the house last night,” Wendy
said, drumming her fingers on the console between the front seats.
“But remember he told Brandon he couldn’t say more? Maybe something
identifying, like a driver’s license, was buried with the body and
they’re working to confirm it.”

“Brandon was awfully relaxed this morning for
a person who just found out his long, lost loved one might have
been found dead.” Kate looked morose and tightened her grip on the
wheel. “I’m really beginning to get creeped out. I was okay at
first, maybe I was in shock after finding the jaw, but now I think
the whole situation is really creepy.”

“It is creepy.” Vivian flapped the paper
down. “It could be the other missing girl, Margaret Jackson, buried
up there. Or someone else completely.”

“The remains might never be identified,”
Wendy said. “That is an unfortunate reality.”

Kate slammed on the brakes and jerked the
rental onto the shoulder, fishtailing to a stop. A car honked as it
passed. Kate breathed hard.

She jumped out of the car and ran toward the
trees lining the road.

Wendy and Vivian chased after her and made
her sit on a fallen tree.

“She’s hyperventilating. See if there’s a bag
or something she can breathe into,” Wendy said, pointing at the
car.

Vivian ran back to the car and grabbed the
plastic bag from the convenience store that the newspaper had been
in. “Will this work?”

“Better than nothing,” Wendy said and took it
from her. She handed it to Kate and gave her instructions for
breathing in and out of the bag. She stayed next to her, rubbing
her back and fanning her.

Tears streamed down Kate’s face. “Those
women, those women” was all she could say between breaths.

“Do we need to get you to a doctor?” Wendy
asked softly.

Kate shook her head, lowered the bag and took
a little deeper breath.

Vivian paced in front of them, feeling
helpless. She had only been tested in the emergency action realm
once when Audrey had fallen off the metal bleachers at one of
Rick’s softball games. Audrey cut her lip, and blood spilled from
her mouth. Vivian handled the situation pretty well until she saw
blood on her own T-shirt. Then she had to pass Audrey off to a
stranger and put her head between her legs so she didn’t faint.
Rick came out of the game to help.

After a minute, Kate was breathing normal
again, but she was still trembling.

“You better?” Vivian asked.

Kate nodded.

“Come on,” Wendy said, getting up. She held
out her hand to help Kate. “I’m driving. Let’s get back and pack
up. We’re not staying there another night.”

Vivian and Kate both agreed, and they got
back in the car. Kate laid her seat back and closed her eyes.

They were quiet driving to Turlington Farms.
In the back seat, Vivian tried to call Lucy two more times. Both
went straight to voice mail.
She’s probably on a plane.
She
gave up with the phone and flipped through the paper to p. 4,
finding the continued story on Rebecca Holt. Since Kate was so
upset, she decided not to share with the other girls what she
read.

Questions remained surrounding Rebecca’s
disappearance. Many in town suspected Brandon. They married less
than a year after Mary Beth’s death, and Rebecca disappeared less
than a year into their marriage. Brandon had her declared dead
after three years. People also wondered about Mary Beth being a
strong swimmer and yet drowned.

Wendy pulled up to the house, and they got
out of the car. Austin bounded up, excited to see them. His
demeanor was a contrast to what the girls felt, but they each
patted his head anyway.

Vivian’s legs felt like they weighed 200
pounds each as she dragged up the porch steps. She opened the door
and the aroma of breakfast meats and sweet rolls enveloped her,
making her mouth water and putting a little energy in her step.
Pans clattered in the kitchen.

“You stay here, Austin,” Wendy said and gave
him a gentle pat. “Be a good boy.”

Vivian turned to Wendy and Kate. “Let’s get
one last breakfast out of this, then pack up.”

“I’m going to lie down,” Kate said. “Y’all go
on ahead.”

“Are you sure?” Wendy looked at her. “I’ll go
up with you.”

“I’m okay,” Kate reassured and started up the
staircase but then stopped and turned around, patting her belly.
“On second thought, that maple bacon smells too good to pass up. I
think a plate of piggy will help us both feel better.”

The girls went into the kitchen and told
Tracy how they’d had no luck finding Lucy.

Tracy handed Wendy a big, steaming cup of
coffee. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. She just needs some space.”

Wendy put a cinnamon roll the size of a
softball on her plate, then scooped some fresh pineapple. “I still
can’t believe she bailed.” She put her plate down to fix up her
coffee the way she liked it.

Vivian smirked as Kate put six or seven
slices of crispy bacon on her plate, then threw in a link of
sausage for good measure. She turned to Tracy. “Where’s
Brandon?”

“He’s in town. Had to go talk to his buddy
who was here last night.”

“Adam, the cop, right?” Vivian asked.

“He just had to clear a few things up. No big
deal. He’ll be back soon.”

The girls settled around the table, and Tracy
went back into the kitchen.

Vivian looked at the other girls and mouthed,
“Police station.”

Wendy choked taking a sip of coffee. Kate
didn’t react and kept her attention on her plate of pork.

Vivian smeared a big blob of grape jelly on a
biscuit and took a bite.
Mmmmm, just like my grandma used to
make.
She watched Kate, who looked lost in thought.
She
needs a biscuit. That’ll cheer her up.
Vivian held the bread
basket out to Kate, but she passed. “These are the best ever,
you’ve got to try them.”

Kate didn’t say anything, just shook her
head, then stabbed a piece of sausage with her fork and smeared it
in maple syrup.

Wendy leaned forward and waved the girls in
close. She whispered, “When are we telling Tracy that we’re
leaving?”