Page 1 of It Happened on the Lake

October 31, 1960

Halloween

Prologue

Harper knew better.

Of course she did.

Even though she was only nine.

She shouldn’t leave the house and had promised Daddy she wouldn’t.

But under the covers of her bed, she’d crossed her fingers. So it wasn’t really a lie. She was sick, running a fever and coughing. Daddy had given her three big spoonfuls of the cough syrup with codeine, and she was drowsy.

Even so, she couldn’t sleep.

Wouldn’t.

It was Halloween.

“I’ll be just downstairs, sweetheart,” Daddy had said, leaning over her bed and pressing a kiss to her temple. “I’ll pass out candy if anyone comes.”

“No one ever does.”

“That’s okay. I’ll watch Danny Thomas, okay? Zsa Zsa Gabor is on his show tonight.”

“Who’s she?” Harper had asked over a staged yawn.

“Possibly the most beautiful woman in the world.” He’d smiled then.

Harper asked, “Isn’t Mama the prettiest?”

Something had flickered behind his eyes, and his smile had seemed to waver a bit. “Of course she is. Now, Harper, you go to sleep. I won’t bother you. Call if you need me. I’ll be right downstairs.”

But he’d lied.

She’d seen Bandit, her dog curled on the end of the bed, raise his scruffy head, his ears perking up as the front door had creaked open. Groggy as she was, Harper had heard the engine of Daddy’s Aston Martin turn over. She’d seen flashes from its headlights as he’d driven away.

He’d lied?

To her?

She understood that he sometimes lied to Mama, but he’d never told her anything that wasn’t the truth.

She wondered how long he’d be gone. But she didn’t care, even though she felt horrible from a flu bug that had been going around school and her parents had decreed that she couldn’t go out with her friends. Tonight. On Halloween.

It just wasn’t fair.

Everyone, including her jerk of a brother, was going out trick or treating. And even though it was a Monday, Levi Hunt’s parents were letting him have a party!

Harper’s only consolation was that her best friend had promised to share her candy. “I’ll get two of everything,” Beth had promised. “Even from Old Man Sievers!”

That had been another lie. Old Man Sievers was Beth’s neighbor, a creepy old guy who kept to himself in a house surrounded by a huge fence and guarded by a massive dog that looked like a wolf.

Beth wouldn’t go near his front door.

No one would.

---