Page 236 of It Happened on the Lake

“Sit down,” Rand suggested, then to Levi, “It’s good you’re here. You need to hear this, too.”

“Hear what?” Harper asked as she took a seat on the ottoman and Levi dropped into a wingback chair nearby.

“About Chase.”

“Oh God,” she whispered, hand to her throat.

“It’s not official yet and I’m bending the rules by talking to both of you, but I figured you needed to know. So this is strictly off the record. For now.” He held Harper’s gaze. “He’s dead.”

“Oh. God.” She went ghost white. “Oh God, you found him?” She blinked and looked at Levi.

“Not yet. But we know.”

“How?” she said and looked about to fall apart.

Rand spoke directly to Levi. “Does Harper know about the note from your mother?”

“What note?” Harper demanded. “What’s he talking about?”

Rand said, “Cynthia left a note with Edward Sievers before she died. She instructed him to give it to Levi.”

“Edward Sievers? What’s he got to do with anything?”

Levi said, “He’s living at Serenity Acres. Across the hall from Mom’s room.” He explained about getting the embossed card with its strange message.

“Wait a sec,” she interrupted as he relayed what was on the note. “Chase is dead? For real? And Cynthia knew it?” Her face drained of color and she took a deep breath before snagging a tissue from a box on a nearby table. Her eyes remained dry as she twisted the Kleenex through her fingers. “But you said you didn’t find him.”

“Right.”

“I don’t understand.” Harper was shaking her head. “The note said ‘Theykilled Chase. Makehimpay’?”

As Harper listened in horror, Rand explained about the fight between Tom and Chase, that Chase was accidently killed and Gerald Watkins was involved in the cover-up for his friend.

“Dad killed him,” Levi said, nodding as if finally accepting the truth himself. He squeezed his eyes shut. “I remember he said he would kill Chase if he tried to dodge the draft. But who would do that? Who would even say such a thing?”

Harper sat still. Shocked.

“It was a tough time back then,” Rand said, remembering. “For all of us.” The country had been in chaos. He’d come back from war, not heralded as a hero but seen by some as a traitor, someone who had answered Uncle Sam’s call to fight in a war in a far-off country, a war many in the U.S. despised. For Rand, it was water under the bridge. He’d done his duty and had memories that he’d rather forget, memories the shrapnel lodged in his shoulder wouldn’t let him bury too deep.

And then there had been Chase. His best friend. Gone. No one knew where.

Until now.

“Tough times don’t mean you kill your kid and cover it up. Even if it was an accident,” Levi said, his voice cold.

“You’re right,” Rand agreed. “Absolutely.” Then, as best he could, he briefed Levi and Harper on everything that Gerald had confided in him, confirming what Levi had already suspected.

Levi was stoic during Rand’s explanation, taking in the information. The only sign of his emotion was the muscle in his jaw becoming tight.

Harper was silent on her tufted ottoman, her anxiety evident in her ever-moving fingers twisting the tissue until it shredded.

Levi said, “They didn’t even call an ambulance?”

“No. According to my dad, Tom took Chase somewhere in his boat, he never said where, then he drove back to the middle of the lake where Dad picked him up. They left the Triton adrift in the middle of the lake.”

Harper was nodding slightly, as if remembering.

“Dad swears he has no idea what happened to the body,” Rand said.

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