Nessa giggled. “You’re famous, Harriett.”
“So it seems,” Harriett replied.
“OMG, I’m going to be the most popular girl in school today.” Lucy was beaming as Nessa pulled up to the drop-off point.
Harriett turned around and gave her a wink. “Tell your classmates they’re welcome to visit me anytime. I’ve always adored children. They’re absolutely delicious.”
For as long as anyone could remember, there had never been anything along Danskammer Beach but sand and scrub. A thin barrier island just off the main island’s south shore, it disappeared beneath waves during any strong storm. The stretch of ocean it faced was no good for swimming, and the lonely five-mile road that ran beside the beach was often closed for repairs.
At the far end of the island, just outside Mattauk city limits, the road passed over a bridge before swerving inland away from the sea. On the far side of the bridge, a tall steel gate blocked the sole entrance to a long, narrow stretch of land that jutted out into the water. The only people allowed access were the owners of the mansions in a community known as Culling Pointe. Before Memorial Day, the Pointe was a ghost town. Even during the summer, it was easy to forget anyone was out there. Occasionally one would spot a perfectly groomed woman browsing the shops in Mattauk. But for the most part, the millionaires and billionaires kept to themselves—and kept Mattauk’s full-time residents out of Culling Pointe.
They were halfway along Danskammer Beach Road when Nessa suddenly steered the car onto the shoulder. “The voice just got a lot louder. We should stop and look.”
“I jog down here all the time,” Jo said. “Kind of creepy to think I might have been running right past someone’s dead body.”
Nessa parked and the three women climbed out. A hundred yards of impenetrable scrub separated the highway from the beach. Stunted by salt water and gnarled by wind, the trees hunched closely together, their leaves whispering to each other in the breeze. Nessa hurried along the side of the road, listening for the girl’s voice over the crashing of the waves. Harriett and Jo trailed behind.
“You really think Nessa can hear the dead?” Jo asked Harriett. She’d come along for the adventure. She was still on the fence when it came to Nessa’s psychic powers.
“No reason not to believe her,” Harriett replied. “She seems perfectly sane, and I don’t think she’s capable of lying.” She didn’t seem to have anything more to say about the matter, and they walked in silence for a minute or more.
“You probably don’t remember, but you and I met once,” Jo said. “Years ago. At the grocery store.”
“Yes, I remember. You backed into my car.”
Jo felt herself blush. “It was right after Lucy was born, and I was a total disaster. I remember I was still bleeding like a stuck pig and I had baby vomit down the front of my shirt, and you got out in this amazing dress, looking like someone in a magazine, and you told me you’d take care of everything. I was so relieved my insurance premiums weren’t going to skyrocket. I had no idea you were actually going to send someone out to my house to repair the taillight I’d broken.”
“Don’t make it out like I gave you a kidney,” Harriett said. “I only made a call.”
“Harriett—I was the one who backed into your car, and you sent someone out to my house to fix my taillight. He didn’t even take any money when he was done. He said you’d already paid him. Why did you do that?”
“Who knows,” Harriett said with a shrug, as though her motives were a mystery even to her. “Why wouldn’t I? You seemed like you had other things to worry about.” As far as Jo could tell, Harriett wasn’t being modest. She truly didn’t think her behavior had been remarkable. It had, however, made a huge difference to Jo. She’d thought about it several times a week for the past ten years.