Chapter 37
ALEX IS COMING BACK TO THE LAKE LATER TODAY TO GET HIS THINGS in order before the cops search tomorrow.
Noah has gone back to Boston and is immersed in his investigation into Carol’s disappearance.
I asked him about Sunny, and he said that she’d had a crush on him when she was a teenager.
He was older and nothing ever happened between them.
He was amused that I asked, and I felt like an idiot.
But I wonder if Sunny still has a thing for him.
I hear Alex down the hall. I peek out my door. His bedroom door is open and he’s carrying boxes down the stairs. He hears me and glances over his shoulder.
“Research,” he says. “I don’t want the cops bothering it.”
Which makes me wonder if Detective Bellman’s searches are worthwhile. He’s given everybody ample time to remove anything incriminating if they wanted to. Without a warrant, he has to rely on people’s permission, so he can’t surprise anybody. Still, I guess it’s something.
I sit back down at the desk. I’ll write a little more before bed. A message pops up on my screen. An email has just come in from Noah.
Hi Emma, I’ve got a video clip of Carol.
Her sister found an old home movie taken a couple years before Carol met Alex.
I drove over to Worcester, where the sister lives, and picked up the VHS tape.
She gave me permission to digitize it. I’ve sent it to you.
Wonder if it will jog your memory. Thanks for your help! Be back to the lake soon.
I hold my breath and click on the attachment.
Noise fills my laptop screen, talking, raucous laughter.
It’s someone’s birthday. The camera bobbles, then steadies.
The kitchen is covered in yellow-patterned wallpaper.
Several teenagers, three girls and a younger boy, are grouped around a table littered with liter soda bottles, paper plates, and napkins.
The camera then focuses on a sheet cake with white frosting and pink roses.
Happy Birthday, Carol is written in blue icing.
The girls giggle, and one leans over with a lighter and sets the candles ablaze. They break into the “Happy Birthday” song. When they finish, the woman behind the camera calls, “Make a wish!”
A girl leans over, red hair falling over her shoulder.
I can only see the side of her face, but so far, nothing feels familiar.
But then she speaks, softly at first, then she emits a huge laugh.
The boy disappears from the screen, and I see what I think is his hand reach around behind Carol and poke her in the ribs.
She screams and shouts at him playfully.
I sink back into my chair. My hands shake and I can’t breathe. My heart hammers. It’s her. The woman I’ve heard in my nightmares for nearly thirty years.
Carol Lawson is the screaming woman.
The next morning, Sunny is back and she sits with Ruth, Alex, and me at Ruth’s kitchen table. Larry is out on the porch watching as the cops swarm the Spencer property. They’ve already looked through Ruth’s home and found nothing that interested them.
I barely slept last night after realizing that I was here when Carol was here.
I heard her screams. I take furtive glances at my father.
Could he have hurt her? Done something to her?
Did Carol show up, see me and my mother at the house, and that made her even more angry at Alex?
Did they have a fight? And did Carol really just leave like Alex said?
I didn’t say anything conclusive to Noah after I watched the clip. I was too numb. I sent him a noncommittal email in return. Not sure, I’d said. But I am. And I want to let this settle in my brain awhile before I talk to him.
Sunny keeps giving me side-eyed looks like she knows that I was in her room. Maybe I left some tell-tale sign. Too bad. I don’t care what she thinks. Let her be uncomfortable for once. Or maybe she’s wondering if her text had any effect on me.
“They’re wrapping up,” Larry says, walking into the kitchen.
Alex shoots him a glance. “Do they have anything? Could you tell?”
Larry shakes his head. “Naw. But I didn’t really get a good look.”
“Well,” Alex says, coughs. “Hopefully, that’ll satisfy Tom, and he can concentrate on finding out what really happened to Simon.”
Ruth sniffs and wipes at her eyes with a napkin.
There’s a knock on the door. “Probably Bellman,” Larry says. “I’ll get it.”
“Satisfied, Tom?” Ruth says.
The detective stands in the kitchen doorway. “We can check that off our list anyway.”
“Where does the investigation go from here?” Alex asks.
“Well”—the detective looks down at his notebook—“once we search the Thompson property, we can conclude this portion of the investigation.”
Alex smirks. “Dale still not cooperating?”
“Not yet.”
I think of the dirt behind his shed. Will the cops get a warrant now?
Ruth clears her throat. “Now what, Tom?”
“We’ve still got DNA testing in the works on Simon’s clothes and so forth.” Bellman’s face is flush, jowls shaking. “We’re still looking, Ruth. There’s an answer someplace.”
The conversation continues around me, and I can’t help but tune out.
Carol’s fate runs round and round in my head.
We were all at the house at the same time, that’s obvious to me now.
But what happened after? Alex said that Mom and I left.
Before Carol did or after? Did she just leave like Alex said, or did something else happen to her?
Was she screaming at Alex because she was angry or because …
“Emma?” Alex calls, and I realize that the detective has left and everyone is getting up from the table.
“Yes. Sorry.”
“You okay?”
“Yes, fine.” But I don’t feel fine.