KUVI hauled Thad onto the beach to dance. The sun was starting to dip below the shimmering blue lake by the time the song ended. Another loud dance number immediately started again.
“Wait. What about me?” someone called good-naturedly from behind him as he and Kuvi walked through a swarm of kids and staff. “Thad?”
Thad was aware that it was Brooke trying to get his attention, but something had caught his eye. He saw Alice at the edge of the crowd. She was on her tiptoes, shouting something into Sal Rigo’s ear. Rigo’s brows furrowed and he nodded. Alice ducked behind a grove of saplings planted just past the sand. He saw her long bare legs moving rapidly in the direction of the cabins, and then she disappeared. Lots of counselors were making runs back and forth from the beach to the dining hall to keep the food table stocked, so that wasn’t what set off Thad’s mental alarm. It was more Alice’s furtive manner that had caught his attention.
No sooner had he thought that her actions were suspicious, Sal Rigo also slipped behind the grove of trees.
“Thad!” He turned and saw Brooke standing on the beach, smiling. She looked radiant tonight. She beckoned to him. “Celebration dance with me?”
He read her lips and manner instead of actually hearing her. The noise level at the beach party was out of control. “Sure,” he said distractedly. She was referring to the fact that they’d both been offered positions as Durand managers, he knew. But instead of going to join Brooke, he turned back to scan the shore. An uneasy feeling had come over him.
“Thad?”
“I’m sorry, can I take a rain check?” he asked, pointing significantly toward the kitchen and making a face. He was pretty sure that Brooke didn’t understand him, but since he was purposefully being evasive, he didn’t really expect her to. He plunged into the crowd of shouting, celebrating kids in the opposite direction from Brooke.
*
ALICE trudged up the last part of the road, watching as the castle floated fully into her vision. There was enough light left in the sky for her to see the grand, elegant home. She knew it was her imagination, the remnants of a child’s fanciful mind when it came to the house, but it often struck her as sentient: always ageless and waiting, sometimes mysterious in the sense of a wondrous fairyland, occasionally secretive, threatening, and dark.
Maybe it was the boisterous sounds and music of the distant beach party reaching all the way up the bluff, but tonight, she got no ominous vibes from the castle. Of course it was hard to be anxious with a man of Sal Rigo’s heft at your side.
“When I’m with Dylan, I usually enter at the back,” she called to Rigo when he headed toward the front door.
Rigo nodded and fell into step behind her as they walked toward the side of the house. Earlier at the party, she’d thought he seemed a little more approachable, wearing his Camp Durand T-shirt, talking with the kids as he passed out the photo journals, and helping out the counselors and employees setting up food and beverages. Presently, he’d switched back to his somber professional persona. She noticed him studying the side view of the castle through a narrowed gaze.
Was he worried about Dylan’s note? Alice was, a little, although probably not in the way Rigo was. She was definitely mystified. Dylan had already indicated that he needed to speak to her about something important tonight. What had happened that had made him want to speak with her earlier? Or was the note about something different altogether?
Rigo paused at the perimeter of the stone terrace.
“I’ll watch and make sure that you get in all right. Then I’ll take the woods back to the party.”
Alice smiled and nodded in the direction of the distant music. “They’ll need you down there. If anyone asks where I’ve gone—”
“I’ll just tell them the truth. That Mr. Fall received some emergency information for you and wanted to give it to you in person. I doubt you’ll be missed, though, in that swarm. Besides, the night supervisors took over responsibility for the kids a half hour ago.”
“Thanks for walking me up, Sal. Night.”
“Night. And congratulations again about today.”
“Thanks.”
She used her key. She glanced over her shoulder as she entered, giving Rigo a wave. As she closed and locked the French door, she saw him fade back into the gloom. The sun had dipped completely into the lake, and dusk was descending fast.
She quickly keyed in the memorized code into the security alarm. Silence clung thickly around her as she made her way through the dim media room. The music and sounds from the party didn’t penetrate the thick walls of the castle. She flew up the three stairs that led to the kitchen level and headed toward the hallway.
She had no prescience of threat or fear. When the moment came, she was thinking of how much she was looking forward to seeing Dylan, despite whatever emergency had occurred. They’d face whatever it was together.
Addie’s past crashed into Alice’s present in a single jolting second via a disabling blow to the left side of her head.
TWENTY