Page 3 of It Happened on the Lake

Harper had thought she might spy her jerk of a brother at the Hunts’ house. Evan was friends with Chase Hunt, Levi’s older brother. Evan, Chase, and Rand Watkins, another neighbor, were always together. “Thick as thieves,” Mama had said. Not that Harper cared what Evan was doing.

Where was Beth?

Still out with all their friends?

Beth had mentioned that she had to take her brothers out trick or treating in the neighborhood, three-year-old twins that Harper thought were cute and annoyed Beth to no end. But it was late. Shouldn’t Bobby and Billy be in bed?

So...

She slipped off the chair and found Gramps’s binoculars. They weren’t as high-powered as the telescope, but she could search the dark water quicker standing on the window seat and swiveling.

She scanned the water, but she saw no boat through the rising mist. No sign of her friend.

Harper felt more lonely than ever.

And a little dizzy, her head thick and pounding, her legs a bit wobbly, her chest tight.

Weird.

She should go back to bed.

Before Dad got back and decided to check on her.

Besides, she knew Beth wasn’t coming.

This was a dumb idea.

Now she crept down the staircase, her flashlight catching in the eyes of several of Gram’s cats, who stared at her with unblinking gazes.

“I’m leaving,” she told them, her throat raw.

But...

There was another telescope on the main floor in the parlor, and seated next to it was one of Gram’s dolls. She had a million of them, and Harper had been warned not to touch them unless Gram supervised. As if she’d hurt any of the creepy things. Most of them were old, dressed in clothes from a different era. As Harper walked into the parlor, she picked up an ancient doll with a hard face and eyes that rolled up. If you pushed on its belly, it let out a pitiful “Ma-ma.”

“Isn’t she a beauty?” Gram had said with pride. “Her name is Maude.”

Well, she wasn’t all that pretty. One eye barely opened, the brushy eyelashes thick, her pinafore very old-timey. Harper listened as the doll wheezed, “Ma-ma.”

The truth of it was that Harper didn’t much like dolls. She was what Mama called a tomboy at heart, and she preferred being outside, climbing trees or swimming, or playing war with Evan and running along the trails that crisscrossed this island. What she really wanted was a horse that she could ride forever. So far, Mama and Daddy had refused to get her one, even though they promised Evan a motorbike when he turned sixteen.

It wasn’t fair.

Again.

Angrily she tossed icky Maude back into her chair and was rewarded with a final “Ma-ma.”

On the off chance that Beth was still coming, Harper tiptoed to the foyer with its marble floor, massive chandelier, and split, curved staircase.

She eased across the tiles to the center table where a huge bowl in the shape of a pumpkin was set, then stole a handful of candy bars before she made her way back to the parlor, where the calico cat was seated on Gram’s favorite chair. It stood and stretched, as if hoping for Harper to pay it some attention.

Not tonight.

Not feeling as crummy as she did.

Instead she looked out the window once more, staring across the terrace to the black waters of the lake. But her vision was off, her own watery reflection seeming to wobble in the window. Steadying herself, she was about to peer through the telescope when she saw movement near the boathouse on the dock below.

Beth!

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