“But . . . you never . . . left town?”
“When something horrific happens, you sort of feel like you have to stay? Until justice is done. Which it never was.”
Stevie found it hard to ask any more questions for a moment, as they started circling the lake. She tried to keep up with Allison, who was very obviously slowing her pace for
her benefit. They continued on for another ten minutes or so, Stevie staggering alongside Allison, until she finally slowed to a stop in a break in the trees. She stepped forward, onto a lip of black rock that jutted out into the air.
“This is Arrowhead Point,” Allison said. “It’s the best view of the lake. I stop here every morning to take it all in—well, when the weather allows for it. You have to be careful in the winter.”
She stepped out onto the point. Stevie hesitated behind her. While the point certainly seemed stable and it stretched out about ten feet, it wasn’t very wide, and it had a gentle downward slope as it narrowed to its tip. Stevie took a few careful steps out onto the rock. Once she did, she could see why Allison stopped there. It was a stunning spot, the lake spread out below, winking in the morning sun. The trees wrapped around, like a hug. All of Barlow Corners and the camp stretched out below, partially visible through the trees. Allison rolled her shoulders, and Stevie managed to catch her breath enough to continue her questions.
“From everything I’ve heard,” Stevie said, “it seemed like Sabrina was kind of the odd one out that night.”
“That’s what everyone says,” Allison replied, sitting down on the rock to stretch her legs. “That’s the standard line. ‘What was good girl Sabrina Abbott doing out there?’ But that part never confused me. She was having fun, that’s all. She’d earned it. She was an incredibly hard worker, but she was also an eighteen-year-old kid in the 1970s, which were a really loose time.”
“She broke up with her boyfriend right around then, right?” Stevie asked.
“She did,” Allison said. “Shawn.”
“Why did they break up? Do you know?”
“It was a normal teenage breakup,” Allison replied. “Shawn was the kind of person who might go somewhere for college, but then he’d come home, get married, do exactly what his parents did. Sabrina was moving to New York City to go to Columbia in the fall. She was so excited about her new life. Looking back on it, I can see what happened. He was always around. Always really nice, but around . . . a lot. He was like an older brother to me. I was really upset when they broke up.”
“Did you ever think that—”
“It wasn’t Shawn,” Allison cut in. “It’s true that Shawn never gave up. I think he was convinced that Sabrina was going through some phase and that she would come back. He wasn’t supposed to be working at the camp that summer. His family had an outdoor sports business—they rented canoes and kayaks, things like that. He was supposed to be working there, but when Sabrina broke up with him, he got a job at the camp. That really wasn’t weird. Everyone worked at the camp. If he wanted to be with his friends, that was the place to be. It was an unwelcome surprise for Sabrina, but he never bothered her. Shawn was a lovesick kid, but a nice one. He wouldn’t have touched a hair on her head. And he was in all night with Paul Penhale, anyway.”
“Do you think Todd Cooper hit Michael Penhale?”
“Absolutely,” she said without a moment’s hesitation.
“Why would your sister hang out with someone who did that?”
Allison sighed deeply.
“I think she must have thought he didn’t do it. Sabrina was really principled, and really smart. Maybe it was too horrible to believe that someone you knew could have done something like that. Sabrina was smart, but . . . she was also young, and she thought the best of people.”