Page 18 of The Lake Escape
Eventually Julia spoke up. “After Susie went missing, the young kids in the area started the lore… they said, ‘The lake takes them,’ like it was an evil spirit or something. I think it was just a childishway of coming to terms with what happened. But it caught on and became our version of the boogeyman. We were teenagers back then, just like Susie.” She pointed to herself, then David, and next over to Erika. “We all knew her, not well, but well enough that it was a serious shock for us.”
“Susie and her family’s house was right over there,” said David. He pointed to the opposite side of the lake. “We’d canoe to her place once in a while to hang out. She wasn’t part of our lake gang, since she lived on a different shore, but we were all friendly.” He pointed somewhere south of Susie’s house. “Anna Olsen lived down that way, on this side of the lake. There may not be a connection, but there were enough similarities between the two cases to make you wonder.”
“And when was the last disappearance?” Fiona asked, and David cited the year like it was burned into his memory.
Fiona’s expression turned grim. “Don’t you get it?” Her tone implied that everyone was missing something important.
“Get what?” Rick chased the question with a sip of his beer.
The worry in Fiona’s eyes deepened. Turning to Julia, she said, “The two disappearances were both young women, and they happened thirty years apart from each other, and it’s beenexactlythirty years since the last one.”
“That’s right,” said David, as if he was proud his partner could perform feats of basic logic and reasoning.
“I don’t know if I’m being paranoid, but, well… where’s Taylor?” Fiona’s brow furrowed.
Julia whirled around, searching in all directions.
Nutmeg was there, playing with the twins and the nanny.
Lucas had returned and was sitting nearby, staring at his phone.
But Taylor was nowhere in sight.
Chapter 8
Izzy
Alarm cascades through me. Everyone is frantically calling for Taylor. It sounds like a search party, with Julia’s voice ringing loudest. Immediately I go into panic mode, because that’s what a well-trained, highly skilled nanny would do. My heart’s thumping like I’m at a rave. Even though Taylor has apparently gone missing, my first concern is for the children.Where are they?
As it turns out, both are standing in front of me. I wrap my arms around them, not for their comfort, but for mine.
But where is Taylor? And why does everyone sound so crazed?
It’s pitch-black out here. You enter a void as soon as you step away from the bonfire. I power on the flashlight feature on my phone only to shine the bright light directly into Brody’s eyes like I’m his optometrist.
Becca clutches my hand tight enough for my fingers to tingle.
Julia runs over. She moves like a mouse, quick and haphazard, desperation leaking out of her.
“Izzy, have you seen Taylor?”
Before I can answer, a voice calls out from the gloom. It’s Taylor. I hear Julia’s loud exhale. Even though I don’t fully understand the crisis, a wave of relief washes over me as well.
“What is going on?” asks Taylor, who seemingly manifests out of the dark. The twins latch onto her like Velcro monkeys.
“I just gave myself a scare, that’s all.” Julia sounds embarrassed.
“Over what?” Taylor wants to know.
I catch Julia’s subtle nod in twin’s direction. Whatever the problem was, it’s not for young ears.
“Hey, kids,” I say, sinking to their eye level. “Why don’t you each make one more s’more before bath time? Go get them ready, and I’ll help with the toasting.”
My nanny game is strong as I make it sound like the best, most exciting, wonderful idea in the whole wide world. I lead them back to the fire, where they collect their sticks, already lacquered in marshmallow gunk. At least that area is well-lit, so I can keep an eye on them. Before I can offer a single word of caution to mind the fire, Fiona steps in, ushering the children away from the flames like she’s just saved their lives. I happen to notice that she’s wobbly on her feet, holding a cocktail in one hand, so she can’t exactly lay claim to being a paragon of childcare.
Even so, she holds her head high, sending me a scolding stare that I mostly ignore. She can think what she wants about me and bad-mouth me to David if she chooses. I just need these two weeks, so job security is low on my priority list. I’m not attached to the kids, and I’mcertainlynot going to ask for a reference.
But as Fiona shuffles them away, the children send me pleading looks, like they would rather be with me than her. Have they actually taken a liking to me? Now I feel bad about leaving them with sour Fiona, but not enough to rescue them when my curiosity is piqued. I need to know why Julia was so distressed.
