“What else do you like to do?”
“I like to hike, and obviously canoe. If it’s rainy, I read.”
“And fishing?” he asked, with a smile.
Selena’s face grew somber. “I haven’t since my dad passed away.”
“Would you like to go sometime? With Shaun and me?”
She considered it for a moment, tilting her head so that her long hair swayed in a way that he liked.
“I think that would be nice.”
Their eyes held for a beat, and before Evan could look away, Selena did, glancing at the floor.
“So what are you writing about now?”
He licked his lips, his eyes skimming over her shoulder, to the basement door. “Here, let me show you.”
He led her down the steps, holding her hand in the dark—completely on the pretense of avoiding a fall, he told himself—and turned the lights on in the basement. It was nice having someone with him down here; the air felt better, lighter. When Selena spied the clock at the far end of the room, she stopped, transfixed.
“Whoa.”
Evan kept walking toward it. “I know, it’s pretty impressive, right?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it impressive. ‘Weird’ might be the word.”
“Definitely weird. Come here, let me show you the sides.”
Grateful that he’d cleaned up Bob’s message the night before, he brought her close to the clock’s intricately carved case and let her examine it.
“Wow, it looks like writing or something.”
“Good, I’m glad you think so too. I was beginning to wonder if it was just me.”
She studied the clock from all angles, peering up at the looming structure as she walked to its other side, her stance almost like she expected the timepiece to topple forward at any second.
“So this is what you’re writing about?”
“Yep, and I’ve already started digging into things a little bit. Seems it’s got a fairly dark history. Its maker disappeared the same night his wife died, in its presence, over ninety years ago, and I think another person did too, but I’m not sure yet.”
Selena took a few steps back, bumping into the worktable and causing one of the brass weights to roll toward the floor. Evan reached out and caught it before it could fall.
“Sorry, it’s really ...” She searched for the word, bringing her hands up before her. “Odd.”
“Yeah, I’m excited to delve into the story a little deeper.” he paused, glancing at Selena and then the clock. “You wouldn’t want to come with me somewhere tomorrow, would you?”
“Where?”
He cleared his throat. “To the house where it came from.”
Her eyes grew large for a moment, and she tilted her head again. “Oh, wow, why?”
He had to smile at her discomfort. “I want to take a look around, get a feel for the place if I’m going to include it in the article. We might even find something interesting there.”
“Do you have permission to go inside?”
“No, but from what I gathered, there hasn’t been anyone living there for a long time. At the very least, I want to see the outside. I’m going out there tomorrow afternoon.”
Selena gave the clock another look, and then turned her gaze to him. “This is important to you, huh?”
He nodded. “I think the article might get my foot in the door with a magazine in the cities. I—”
“What?”
What the hell. If not now, then it would be later. “I lost my last job after borrowing some money that wasn’t mine, to pay for my wife’s treatments. I paid it all back before they even knew it was gone, but they caught it in the accounting office and let me go a few weeks back.”
He waited for her reaction, and when she only nodded, he continued. “I never did anything like that before, and I don’t plan to ever again, but it was what I had to do at the time. If I sell this article, it might help get our lives back on track. We need this.”
Selena watched him for a time, her eyes running over him as though she were inspecting the clock again.
“You think I’m a criminal,” he said.
“No, I don’t. I think you’re a sweet man who loved his wife very much.”
His throat swelled, and he nodded, looking down at the floor.
“I’ll go.”
A smile pulled at his mouth, and he tried to restrain it from becoming goofy without much success. “Great.”
“Now, can we go back upstairs?”
“Sure.”
He followed her toward the kitchen, throwing one last look at the clock before killing the lights.
13
Evan hoped for sunshine but received a sky full of clouds instead.
The day dawned gray and unyielding, the lake’s surface coated with a thick layer of fog that obscured everything in a soupy haze. Sometimes it sounded like a boat passed only yards from the island, but Evan knew that fog distorted noises, giving sounds hallucinatory qualities. It hadn’t rained yet, but the sky threatened it, hovering close, with rounded bellies of thunderheads nearly skimming the treetops.
They spent the morning inside, away from the cool air and clinging mist. Evan practiced letters with Shaun and helped him pronounce several short words until he said them correctly. A few minutes to noon, the fog began to lift, but the clouds remained, their cover tainting Long Lake an icy color of ash.
“It’s supposed to be warm, Shaun,” Evan called out as he readied lunch. “This is springtime, not fall, buddy.”
Shaun peered at him from the kitchen table, not sure if he should smile or frown at his father’s statement. Evan laughed. For the first time since they’d been there, his spirits were fairly good. After seeing Selena off the night before, a sunset glaze coating the dark lake as she’d paddled away, he’d slept well. No dreams jerked him awake, and when he rose, the cloaking fatigue he’d worn the days prior didn’t follow him out of bed.