“Have you ever seen her?”
He shook his head, looking forlorn. “No. But they say you can call her. Bring something shiny to the water and call and she’ll come. And she’ll hand you a pebble from down at the bottom of the lake. Hold on to that pebble and make a wish and you’ll get what you wish for.”
“But you haven’t tried?”
“Sure, I’ve tried! I’ve tried plenty. I’ve been going down to the water and calling my whole life practically, but she’s never come for me.” He kicked at the ground with his tan work boot.
I nodded understandingly. “Do you know anyone who’s seen her?” I asked.
“Plenty of people claim they have.” He looked up at me, lowered his voice. “That girl who disappeared a couple days ago, Lauren Schumacher, you heard about that, right?”
I shook my head, feigning ignorance. “No. Tell me.”
“Well, she said she’d seen her. That she’d seen her a couple of times. She had the pebble and everything. Showed it to people in town, friends.”
“So Lauren’s local?”
“Nah. Tourist. From Massachusetts. Her family has rented a place here for a few weeks every summer for years, though.”
“She had friends here, then?”
“Kids she hung out with. Other summer people, but some locals. She showed them the pebble, told them she’d met Rattling Jane, but I don’t think anyone really believed her. They thought it was just for attention. She talked a lot of shit, this girl. Always trying to sound tough and impress people.”
“Did you know her well?”
“A little. I mean, the kids she hung out with, they’re friends of mine, so I’d see her around with them. We hung out a couple times.”
I gestured for him to go on.
“Everyone says she ran away. Trouble at home and stuff like that. But me, I’m not so sure.”
“What do you think happened?”
He rubbed his chin. “Maybe a girl like that, in trouble all the time, smoking pot down by the docks, fighting with her parents, maybe she’s exactly the kind of girl Rattling Jane would show herself to, you know? ’Cause no one’s gonna believe her, right?”
I nodded. Maybe this guy was smarter than he looked.
When he spoke again, his voice was so low it was practically a whisper. And before he said the words, he looked around to be sure no one was listening. “I think maybe Rattling Jane got her.”
“Got her?” A lump formed in my throat.
He chewed his lip worriedly. “She takes people sometimes. Drags them back down into the water. No one ever sees them again.”
Vi
June 10, 1978
THE BASEMENT WAS strictly off-limits. You had to be invited down, and that only happened when Gran was offering certain lessons. Dissections and chemistry experiments were done in the basement. And studying things under the microscope. But the rule was they were never, ever to come down without permission. The basement was Gran’s realm, her workshop and laboratory, and the only place in the entire house they were forbidden to enter.
Vi crept slowly down the old wooden stairs, which let out little warning creaks with each step: Intruder! they seemed to say. She held tight to the smooth wooden railing, smelled formaldehyde, bleach, stale cigarette smoke. Her heart was beating fast. She wanted to turn back, but knew she couldn’t. She needed to find a clue about Iris. Something, anything to help her figure out who she was and where she came from. And the basement seemed like the best place to start.
Vi stepped onto the cement floor, letting her eyes adjust to the dim light. The fluorescent tubes overhead seemed to pulsate, growing bright then dim. She moved beneath them, listening to their hum until she was sure she could hear words, the God of Clues whispering: This way, this way, you’re getting warmer!