The Secrets of Lake Road

“Oh, I think they do,” he said. “Have you talked with your daughter? If anyone is to blame for stopping the search, it’s the kids who messed with those traps.”


“She had nothing to do with that.”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” he said. “I can’t prove it. I can’t prove a lot of things that happen on my lake—not legally anyway—which brings me around to you.” His eyes roamed her body.

She crossed her arms, covering her breasts. “What about me?”

“Don’t play innocent with me. You may have fooled everyone else around here, but I know who you really are. I know what you’re capable of.”

“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

He leaned across the desk. “I hear you like it rough.”

“You’re disgusting.” She took a step back.

“Am I?” He came up out of his seat and leaned farther across the desk, his large stomach resting on top, his eyes narrowing to mere slits. “You don’t think I didn’t know what you were doing with those boys under my Pavilion steps? On my beach? Why don’t you tell me what really happened to Billy Hawke?”

She stumbled backward. “This isn’t about me or—Or Billy. This is about a little girl,” she stuttered. “And her mother.”

His face burned red. “You’re damn right, it is. So why don’t you just stay out of it?” He reached across the desk as though he was going to choke her.

She backpedaled out the door and ran through the Pavilion. People turned to stare. She ignored them and hustled down the stairs and into the parking lot. Heil was nothing but a pervert trying to scare her. That was all. He didn’t know anything about her or Billy.

Heil was a dirty money-loving piece of shit.

*

Jo picked up a rock at the water’s edge and launched it into the lake. Plop. She picked up two more and threw them as hard as she could. Plop. Plop. She tried not to think about Heil and his accusations. She stared at the floating pier. On certain nights in the light of the moon, under a star-filled sky, the pier became a beacon in the center of the lake.

When she had been younger, there had been countless times where she’d swim out to the pier and lie under the stars on a night much like tonight. Sometimes Billy had been with her. Sometimes Kevin had been there too. Other times, her favorite times of all, were the times when she had been alone, her thoughts drifting, floating on the water, at one with the universe. She missed that girl, the one with dreams, confident and strong—the one with hope for a future.

She folded her arms. The water kissed her toes. She continued staring out at the lake, wondering what had happened to that girl she used to be, where she had gone wrong, remembering the very last time she had swum to the pier, the very last time she had seen Billy.

*

They had been drinking, all of them, under the steps of the Pavilion. Eddie had pulled a long shift at the bar, carrying cases of beer, rolling out empty kegs, exchanging the barrels for full ones, busing tables. But it had been a special night for Kevin. He had been asked by Tony, one of the guys in the band, to play a few songs and warm up the crowd. It had taken some coaxing, mostly from Billy to get Kevin to do it.

“Don’t be a wuss,” Billy said. “You’re really good. You should be playing to a crowd.”

Kevin had looked at Jo. She believed he was asking what she thought he should do. Of course she wanted him to play, but she also wanted to be sitting in the bar listening, not outside under the steps hearing his voice as though it were secondhand smoke. No, if he was going to play on a stage in front of a crowd, in front of other girls, she had to be there, front and center, listening firsthand, smoking the cigarette herself.

“Why do you keep looking at my girl?” Billy asked, and ruffled Kevin’s hair as though he was a child and Billy a man. Although Billy was messing around, the tension between the two was palpable. She felt sure Billy sensed there was something between her and Kevin the last few days, something much more than friendship.

“You should definitely play,” Jo said to Kevin. She moved to stand next to Billy, touching Billy’s arm and shoulder as she spoke. “It drives the girls wild when you do.” She was teasing Kevin, or maybe she was goading him to see what he would do, who he would choose, her or some other girl in the bar. Or maybe she was trying to hurt him because she really didn’t want him to play his guitar for anyone but her. She pressed her body against Billy, wanting to show her feelings for him, too. He was more than happy to wrap his arm around her and pull her close.

“Go on,” she said to Kevin as though she didn’t care what he did, and nibbled Billy’s ear. She wasn’t playing fair, but she couldn’t help herself.

Kevin’s eyes burned through her. “Yeah, I think I will play,” he finally said to Tony.

“Well, all right. Let’s go,” Tony said, and Kevin followed him upstairs.

She stepped away from Billy and lit a cigarette.