Page 15 of It Happened on the Lake

The world spinning.

The boat seeming to sink and the wild-eyed woman aboard pointed a long, accusing finger in Harper’s direction. It seemed that through her lipless mouth, one ragged word escaped: “Bitch,” just before Harper lost consciousness.

February 1968

Chapter 3

Her nerves were shot.

She couldn’t sit still.

She paced back and forth across Gram’s Persian carpet, from the window to the couch and back again. Sat down between some of Gram’s dolls, then was on her feet again.

The sound of the grandfather clock in the hallway, ticking off the seconds of her life, only made it worse.

She checked her watch.

For the thousandth time tonight.

Because she was stuck “Gram-sitting,” as her father called it, and it was making her crazy.

She’d already suffered through an episode ofThe Lawrence Welk Showfollowed byMannix.She’d nearly gone out of her mind. All the while that she’d stared at the boob tube she’d been thinking of Chase and how she had to meet him tonight.

Alone.

Once Gram had fallen asleep.

If the old lady ever went to bed and began to nod off.

I don’t have time for this, she thought, pacing back and forth in the parlor. Licking her lips, she made her way to the window and stared out at the dark night. No sign of life on the black water.

But it wasn’t time.

Not yet.

Still, her nerves were stretched tight.

She had to see Chase. To tell him.

She heard the sound of Gram’s wheelchair as she rolled into the room.

“Good Lord, girl, you’re going to wear out the carpet!” Gram said. After her stroke last month she’d spent most of her days in a wheelchair, though with physical therapy she was determined to walk again. “Come over here. Sit. We can play a couple of hands.” She was wearing her favorite kimono—red and gold silk decorated with wide-winged cranes. “It’ll be fun!”

Great. Just what Harper wanted to do, square off in a gin rummy match against her wily grandmother. Tonight. Of all nights.

“Come on.” Gram motioned awkwardly for Harper to join her at the small inlaid table Gram had picked up “outside of Tokyo,” a lifetime ago. “Sit,” she repeated.

Harper glanced out the window to the dark waters of the lake and pulled up a chair, startling the one-eared orange tabby who had been curled on the cushion. It hissed its displeasure before hopping to the floor and slinking into the shadows.

“Oh, Earline, you stop that,” Gram said, amused as always by the cats she’d adopted over the years. She claimed there were only five, but Harper felt that there were at least a dozen. At least! And none of them liked her.

The feeling was mutual. “Okay,” she said, hoping she sounded more interested in the card game than she really was.

Anything to pass the time.

Again, she glanced at her watch as Gram tried to shuffle the playing cards—a deck she’d picked up in Malaysia.

“Here, you do it,” she muttered, obviously irritated at being unable to perform the simple task.

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