Page 26 of Vanished in the Mist
The look on her face showed her doubt in her own statement. She obviously wasn’t a fan of either of them. She tapped Shanna’s paper. “Jack Neal. Add him to your list. I see you already had Sam on there.”
“Right.” She added the name and drew a line from Jack to Sam.
“Now, draw a line from both of them to Tristan. You’re looking for connections, friends, right? Or at least who they associated with on a regular basis?”
“Yes. Exactly.” Shanna drew the additional lines. “Am I missing anyone else?”
Stella considered a moment, then shook her head. “You’ve got all the names of the popular crowd and a pretty good representation of who was besties with whom.”
Shanna shook her head, a smile curving her lips. “Maybe I should have saved Kaden and me some trouble and just sat down with you today. It would have been faster.”
“Maybe. The memory isn’t what it used to be. I wouldn’t have thought of Jessica DeWalt, former cheerleader, and you’ve got her. Never saw her in here as often as the others. Haven’t seen her around in a while. What’s that line you drew from Tristan to Tanya? Far as I know they weren’t friends.”
“The line means there’s something they have in common, that both of them appear to have, ah, drowned in the lake.”
“And you’re wondering if there’s another connection? Like foul play?”
Shanna motioned for her to keep her voice down. “I don’t know that at all. I’m just keeping an open mind until we find Tanya.”
Stella put a hand on her hip. “Now, don’t you go telling half truths, Ms. Shanna. That’ll put you on my bad side quicker than anything.”
Her face reddened, like a child caught with their hand in a cookie jar. It was a struggle for Kaden not to laugh. She really was adorable.
“That’s not my intention,” Shanna said. “I’m just…trying to be quiet about it. I don’t want to spout any theories without proof. And, honestly, we really don’t have a theory just yet. Other than that it’s odd for two kids from the same school to die the same way, allegedly, anyway. We won’t know for sure, of course, until we locate Tanya.”
Shanna pointed to the page. “I haven’t heard of any friends for Tanya. Do you know of any?”
Stella pursed her lips as she studied the page. “Poor little Tanya was pretty much a bookworm. Nice to everyone but never hungout with other kids that I know of. Her parents and her studies were what kept her company. The others on your list, well, they were the popular ones, though I never did understand why. You could put everyone’s name from their graduating class on that chart since they all knew the popular kids. If you’re looking for close ties, then you’ve pretty much covered the main clique that hung together. Let’s see, the prom queen, the quarterback, the rich kid, the cheerleader and, of course, Jack, the resident bully. That’s the gang. But I don’t think Tanya should be on that page at all. She was a sophomore. The rest were seniors. They wouldn’t have hung out with her. Whatever happened to that child has nothing to do with Tristan or the kids he hung with. Then again, I’m not the investigator. So what do I know?” She shrugged and stepped back, as if to leave.
“Stella,” Kaden said, stopping her. “I don’t suppose you can help me with a name.” He turned his pad of paper toward her and pointed.
Her eyebrows raised. “The Phantom? What’s a myth for tourists have to do with what you’re investigating?”
“Humor me?”
She glanced around the room. “Guess everything’s under control for now. I’ll give you a few more minutes.”
Kaden rushed to pull a chair back for her. She raised her eyebrows and sat.
“Your mama taught you manners, young man. Reminds me of another big, strapping fellow around here. Handsome, like you. Now, who am I thinking of?” She frowned and tapped her fingers on the tabletop. “Aw, yes. Aidan O’Brien. Even now, he’s more of a recluse, doesn’t come around much or have much use for most of the people here in town. But he always treats me like a queen.” She patted Kaden’s shoulder, as if he’d somehow passed a personal test of hers.
“He’s Officer Grace O’Brien’s husband, right?” Shanna asked.
“He sure is. Father of little Alannah. Such a sweet child. Pretty, too. When she grows up she’s going to have her daddy sweating when all the boys start coming around.” She chuckled. “But that’s not why you’re here. What was it you asked about? Ah, yes. That silly Phantom story.”
Kaden smiled, not buying her claim that she’d forgotten anything, even for a minute. This woman might be approaching seventy, but her mind was every bit as sharp as someone decades younger.
She crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. “You might do better asking one of the natives for more information. I’m a transplant, only been here a few years past a decade. Even this B and B has been here far longer than me, built before I ever knew Mystic Lake existed.” She smiled. “But I can tell you what I’ve heard. Mainly it’s the kids who spread the rumors. I’ve never seen one piece of evidence that this Phantom exists. I swear every year the next class of kids at school adds more to the myth, embellishing and pretending they’ve seen this Phantom out in the woods by the lake or hiding up in the mountains. They’ll tell you he’s half-man, half-fish, that he has gills and can swim underwater. Every time someone falls off a boat around here and never resurfaces, they blame it on this Phantom, say he’s the one who pulled them overboard and held their bodies under water.”
She shrugged. “Others swear he lives in the caves in the mountains, that he uses old forgotten mines around town to move around without being detected. Some kids have said he’s got a beard to his belly and is covered with fur, like Sasquatch. All I know for a fact is that sometimes people’s food, clothing and other supplies disappear from their vacation homes or hunting cabins up in the mountains. Heck, I’ve even had stuff go missing here, but I’ve always figured it was the local kids, not some ghost. Beau, Police Chief Dawson, does his best to lookinto those reports. When he does catch someone, it always ends up being exactly what you’d expect. Kids up to no good.”
Kaden rested his forearms on the table. “So you don’t think the Phantom actually exists? He’s not someone we should be looking at who might have something to do with the death of Tristan? Or Tanya’s disappearance?”
She waved her hand in the air as if waving away the theory. “You’d be wasting your time in my opinion. I think this whole Phantom thing was made up as a way for kids to scare each other, like telling ghost stories around a campfire. Or, even more likely, a way for unscrupulous adults to build up yet another story about Mystic Lake to make it seem mysterious. Tourists love things like that. And tourists mean money for the town. Hard to blame anyone when you put it in that perspective. A harmless made-up myth to help them put food on the table.”
She shoved back her chair and stood. “That’s about all the time I can spare right now. Frank will be yelling for me to come help with the dishes soon. And I need to keep after the waiters and waitresses to keep the fear of Stella in ’em.” She winked and hurried toward the doorway that led into the kitchen.
Kaden sat back. “I can’t see Dawson using his limited resources to chase a legend and search what’s likely to be hundreds of caves up in the mountains. And sending his people into old abandoned mine shafts would be far too dangerous.”
