The Secrets of Lake Road

“I know. But this is important.” It’s Billy. They may have found his bones. But she couldn’t say this so instead she said, “My mother needs my help.”


Rose continued as if Jo hadn’t spoken. “I’ve got a full workload. People want to come home from their vacations to a clean house. And I’m already down two maids this week.”

“I wouldn’t normally ask.”

“Then don’t.” Rose was a fair boss, but she demanded a minimum of two weeks notice if you needed time off.

“But I only need a few days,” she said. “Can’t you make an exception this one time?”

“If I make an exception for you, then everyone else will expect the same kind of treatment.”

“I understand. I do. But just this one time. I swear, I won’t do it again. Rose?”

The other end was silent.

“Hello? Rose?” She shook her phone. “Can you hear me? Rose?”

The line was dead.

It wasn’t as though she liked cleaning houses—hers or other peoples’. Far from it. It was mindless, unrewarding, and more often than not, disgusting. But it was a job, and no one could fault her for that, not even Gram. She looked at her phone. She held it in front of her and continued walking, searching once again for a signal.

She wound her way around the dock, passing the fishing boats tied and tucked for the night. She was coming up on Hawkes’ cabin, Billy’s cabin, spelled after his last name rather than the bird, but it played into the theme of the other cabins just the same.

The closer she got to his place, the stronger the feeling in her gut told her to turn around. She shouldn’t be seen near his home. It was a stupid risk. But she was always drawn to do the very thing she shouldn’t, powerless to stop herself. Besides, the cabin was dark, and it appeared as though no one were home. Otherwise, she would’ve kept moving. But she allowed herself to linger and gaze at the place she had once known so well. It had been years since she had seen it. Even in the shadows, it looked taken care of, recently sided, a sign the Hawkes lived here year-round.

She took a small step forward.

There were countless times when she had scrambled up these same steps, banged on the screen door, called for Billy. He was always there waiting, grinning in that crazy silly way he had. A part of her wanted to believe if she bounded up the steps right now and knocked on the door he would be there, and she could fall into his arms as though nothing bad had come between them. She liked to think it could happen, but of course she knew it could not.

The porch swing creaked, pulling her from her thoughts. Its chains rattled. She jumped at the sight of Billy’s older sister.

“Jo? Is that you?” Dee Dee walked toward her. There was something off about the way she moved, a kind of clumsiness in her stride.

Jo instinctively backed up. “I—I didn’t know anyone was home.” She diverted her eyes from Dee Dee’s face. It hurt too much to look at her straight on. The resemblance to Billy, what he might’ve looked like had he aged, was too much to bear. She stuffed the phone into the back pocket of her jeans, looking for a way out. She never should’ve stopped here. Why didn’t she turn around? Why was Dee Dee sitting on the porch in the dark anyway?

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you around here.” Dee Dee was wearing cut-off jean shorts, a black T-shirt with a JACK DANIELS decal stamped across the front.

“I’m helping.” Jo’s words got mixed up. “For a few days. Cleaning out closets.” Although Gram hadn’t gotten around to it yet. “I should get back,” she said, taking another step away.

“What’s your hurry? You don’t have a few minutes to talk to an old friend?”

Jo almost laughed at the idea that they were ever friends. For as long as she had known Dee Dee, they never had been. When she was young and had first started dating Billy, she hadn’t understood why his sister hadn’t liked her. But she knew the reason now, knew why Dee Dee had treated her with so much disdain.

“I really should get back,” Jo said, taking another couple steps backward before turning away.

“Chris said he tried to find that little girl.” Chris’s father had taken off before Chris had been born, leaving Dee Dee to raise him on her own. The fact that Kevin had stayed when Jo was pregnant around the same time had always left Dee Dee a little bitter. “And Johnny tried to find her too,” Dee Dee added.

Jo stopped at the mention of Johnny’s name. Leave Johnny out of this, she heard herself say in a whispering voice. By the time she turned around, Dee Dee had caught up to her.

“What did you say?” Dee Dee asked.

“Nothing,” she said, trying to sound calm. The last thing she wanted was to provoke her. “I didn’t say anything.”

Dee Dee grabbed Jo’s bicep with her large hand and squeezed. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what?” She tried pulling her arm free, but Dee Dee held on tightly.