The Secrets of Lake Road

They pulled each line, opened the traps, and shook the snappers free, one after the other in succession without stopping. They moved systematically, catching each other’s eyes every so often, checking the gibbous moon.

On the last trap, tired and weary, Caroline’s fingers slipped from the latch. The bigger snapper reared its head and opened its mouth in warning. She pulled her arms back. The sudden movement scared Adam, and he let go of the line. The trap scraped the side of the pier and splashed into the water. She lunged for it, catching the side, and shook it until it was empty.

Cougar started barking. The lights in Stimpy’s cabin were turned on. There was no time to close the latch. She got off her stomach and grabbed onto Adam’s arm. “Go, go, go,” she said, pushing him forward.

They took off running down the dock and across the parking lot. They made it to the far side of the Pavilion and ducked underneath the steps. Caroline pressed her back against the wall. Adam did the same. Between heavy breaths and Cougar’s barking, she listened for footsteps. She pinched her eyes closed. Please don’t let them catch us. After what felt like several eternal minutes, Cougar finally stopped barking. She peeked around the corner toward the dock. The lights in Stimpy’s cabin were off.

“That was close,” she said. “We better get out of here.” It didn’t make sense for her to follow Adam home, since The Pop-Inn was in the other direction, but she offered to walk him to his cabin to make sure he got back safely.

“You don’t have to walk me back,” he said. “I can make it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay, but be careful.” She took a step out from under the stairs.

“Wait,” he said. “Here.” He pulled something from his pocket and handed it to her. “It’s beef jerky for Cougar in case he starts barking again.”

“You carry beef jerky in your pocket?”

“All the time,” he said. “Doesn’t everyone?”

She smiled. “Um, no, but thanks.”

Adam crept along the fence line. She hustled across the road and slipped into the woods, weaving her way around to the path that led to the colony. Cougar yipped. She tossed him the beef jerky, and she made it to the cabin without further incident.

She looked at Willow and smiled. “I’m back,” she said, and crawled through her bedroom window and kicked off her dirty sneakers. She peeled out of her wet clothes and dropped them on the floor. She pulled on a nightshirt and slipped into bed. Her arms lay heavy at her sides, exhausted from all of the pulling, lifting, and shaking throughout the night. She closed her eyes, her conscience clear. She believed in her heart she had done the right thing.





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Cold air blew through the open window, sending the curtains flapping into the room. Thunder rumbled. Jo lay still, listening to the storm. Her head pounded and her back ached. She rubbed the spot along her spine where she had been pinned against the tree. Her mouth tasted like an ashtray. A dried stickiness smattered her inner thighs, and she couldn’t help but think that after all the ebbs and flows, the pushes and pulls, they always ended up right back where they had started.

Kevin stirred and rolled to his side. Dried blood stuck to his lip where she had bitten him. His hair fell in his eyes. She smoothed the bangs from his forehead, and for a second, a fraction of a second really, she closed her fingers around the strands and thought about ripping them from his scalp. His eyes moved behind his lids, but he didn’t wake. She let his hair flutter through her fingers, and she gently kissed the cut on his bottom lip. “What have we done?” she whispered, and quietly got out of bed.

After two aspirin and a hot shower, she peeked into Caroline’s room. Her daughter was curled into a ball, sound asleep. On the floor by the bed were dirty clothes and muddy sneakers. Something about it gave her pause, made her feel uneasy, but she had been feeling that way so often over the last few days, it was hard to tell whether it was her intuition or if she was just being paranoid.

She turned away.

Gram was awake, shuffling her feet in the back bedroom, talking in a hushed voice on the old rotary phone before hanging up with a click.

“Jo, is that you?” Gram called.

Jo didn’t answer. Whatever Gram wanted could wait. She was sure it had something to do with cleaning closets, and just the thought of lugging old boxes around exhausted her. She had hardly slept last night, tossing, unable to shake the way the sheriff had looked at her, his questions, his accusations, the fractured bone.

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