Page 38 of It Happened on the Lake

“Talk to Dr. Horn,” Costello said. “She’s the best Portland has to offer.” He gave Levi a kind smile and walked away, past a nurse pushing a patient in a wheelchair toward the elevators.

Levi hesitated.

He should just go home.

Leave well enough alone.

But he couldn’t.

Not knowing that Harper, too, had been admitted.

Earlier, posing as a relative, he’d called the hospital and managed to get the number of her room. So even though he told himself he didn’t want to see her, he felt compelled. As a man pushing a walker, a rolling IV attached to him, inched by, Levi toyed with the idea of seeing her.

What good would it do?

More importantly, what harm?

It had been two decades since he’d seen her on the other side of the window of Chase’s room. He remembered how panicked she’d been, how he’d driven her back to the island after their frantic, fruitless search to find his brother.

What had been odd, he thought as he pushed the elevator call button, was that she and he had been friends. Good friends. All through grade school and into junior high, they had ridden bikes and snuck out to swim in the lake under the moon at night, swinging on a rope over the water, or playing Truth or Dare. He’d taught her how to throw “like a boy,” had shown her how to skim smooth flat stones on the lake’s surface, and rolled them both their first cigarettes. The Prince Albert shag tobacco, papers, and matches swiped from his uncle’s stash. They’d gagged and coughed their lungs out, then sworn they would never take up the habit so enjoyed by their folks.

However, once they’d entered the hallowed halls of Almsville High School, things had changed. Harper was no longer a gangly tomboy but had, over the course of one summer, blossomed into a beautiful girl.

One who had caught his older brother’s eye.

And so their story had spun on its axis, landing on that rainy night Chase had disappeared.

Levi remembered her standing on the porch, her hair wet and curling, her eyes round with fear, her chin chattering.

Bedraggled.

Frantic.

Desperate.

And still beautiful.

Of course that had been years ago, before she’d disappeared from his life.

The elevator car landed, doors whispering open to allow a couple of nurses who were deep in conversation to step into the hallway. As soon as they passed, Levi slipped inside and, before he could second-guess himself, pushed the button for the third floor.

At the open door of Harper’s room, he hesitated and noted that the bed was empty.

Thinking she may have already been released, he took a step inside and found her seated in a chair near the window, a blanket over her legs, bandages on her face.

She looked like hell. Pale skin, huge shadows under her blue eyes where blood vessels were visible. Her lips were cracked, a bruise blooming over one eye. Her still-damp hair had been pulled back into a limp ponytail. She appeared small and fragile in the chair.

But he knew better.

She was staring outside, only to glance over her shoulder when she heard him. “Levi?” she whispered, her voice raspy. She muttered something under her breath that sounded like, “Wow. Guess it’s old home week.” Her lips twisted ruefully when she caught his perplexed expression. “Rand was here. You just missed him.”

“Rand?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Don’t play dumb. You know why. He was here ostensibly to check on me, but really he had a lot of questions. You know, in his official capacity. Geez, he’s a cop now. A detective. Can you believe that? I thought he hated cops. I mean I think he hated that his dad was one.”

“That was a long time ago. We were kids. Getting into trouble. No one trusted the police.”

“I guess.”

---