On Folly Beach (24 page)

Navigating by the murky light of the moon, she ran behind Cat, being careful not to cry out each time she stepped on something sharp or stubbed her toe. Cat kept her flashlight aimed directly in front of her, but dipped low to the ground as if to light the way. She crossed West Ashley, then headed up toward Arctic, and Lulu realized they were moving in the direction of the pier and pavilion. It was too late for dancing, which just made Lulu even more suspicious.

They passed another pedestrian, and Lulu watched as Cat stepped back into the shadows to avoid being noticed. Lulu did the same, not really knowing why. She didn’t recognize the man, which wasn’t unusual anymore. It was odd to Lulu, who in the winter months had once known everyone. The summers had always brought strangers to Folly, but not now when the beaches were too cold and the wind could steal the hat from your head.

As Cat approached what was left of West Arctic, she began to slow and flipped off her flashlight. Lulu did the same, and immediately stumbled in the dark, letting out an accidental “Oomph.” Cat stopped and turned around, and Lulu ducked behind a palmetto tree, holding her breath until she heard Cat’s footsteps again crunching on sand and rocks.

Cat finally stopped on the beach in front of the abandoned houses, and Lulu stopped, too. They both stood like statues until Lulu started to shiver, her feet so numb she knew they’d be blue if she could see them. She squatted, not taking her eyes off of Cat; then she sat on her bottom so she could tuck her feet under her coat. Lulu figured it had to be about four o’clock in the morning, and her eyelids kept wanting to close over her eyes but she forced them open. Nancy Drew would never fall asleep while spying on someone.

After a while, a brief flare like a match lit up and then vanished, followed shortly by the smell of cigarette smoke. Lulu frowned, knowing that Maggie would be upset that Cat was smoking. Maggie had been giving Cat bubble gum to chew on whenever she felt like having a cigarette, but now Folly’s Finds didn’t even have any gum because the army needed it more.

Lulu searched around on the ground around her with frozen fingers until she found a nice-sized rock. She stuck it under her hip so that she’d be too uncomfortable to fall asleep, and then continued to watch as Cat stood against a fence post and lit another cigarette.

Despite the rock, Lulu must have dozed because she found herself waking with a start, and wondering what it was that had changed. She looked over to where Cat had stood and realized she was gone.

Struggling to stand on feet that were most likely frostbitten by now, she stumbled through the dark, afraid to turn on her flashlight and using the dim glow from the sky to light her way, being careful to stick to the shadows to avoid being seen. She spotted Cat near the waterline, looking up at the first abandoned beach house, and Lulu began to get worried. She’d secretly read Maggie’s copy of Anna Karenina and knew what women sometimes did when they couldn’t be with the men they loved. Not that Cat had shown any sadness when Jim died, but maybe Maggie was right and that was just a show that she put on for everyone when she was in public.

Lulu stopped abruptly, her mind spinning in circles. What if Cat was going to drown herself? Would it really be such a bad thing? She wasn’t a nice person, and she made Maggie upset. Lulu breathed heavily, her breath a silent cloud rising above her until it disappeared. She stood still as she watched Cat stop to remove her shoes.

But then Lulu remembered what Maggie had told her about how you couldn’t help who you loved, and that Maggie loved Cat like a sister and Lulu knew that she couldn’t let Cat drown herself. She began to move forward quickly, her fingers so frozen that she fumbled with her flashlight, unable to turn it on. She stumbled and dropped it, hearing the sound of broken glass as the flashlight hit something hard.

Squatting, she picked it up and held it under her coat and forced the power switch by using her two thumbs. Not even a flicker of light appeared and Lulu knew she’d probably broken the bulb and that it would be no good to her tonight.

She stood, prepared to call out Cat’s name, but stopped when a light shone from an upstairs balcony at the first house. It was a round, small spot of light, and it was gone almost as soon as she knew she’d seen it. Lulu’s eyes searched the dark, wondering how Cat could have gotten inside so fast until she spotted Cat on the beach, unmoving as if she, too, had seen the light.

Again, the spot of light appeared on the balcony, except this time Lulu was looking right at it and could see more than she had before. Somebody was standing outside holding a flashlight, flipping it on and off in an uneven pattern.

Her eyes searched out Cat until she spotted her, moving into the dark surf toward the steps of the house. Lulu moved forward, creeping closer now that the ocean hitting the beach was making enough noise to hide behind. Her feet barely felt the cold water as she stood in the damp sand watching as Cat made her way up the wooden steps, stopping at the top for a moment before moving around the side of the house to where the light continued to appear.

It stopped so quickly, it was like a blanket had been thrown over it. From where she stood, all Lulu could see was two people facing each other on the upper balcony. They stood still for a moment, then began to move like dancing shadows. It looked like they were talking but the crash of waves against the sand erased any words before they reached her. And then, suddenly, they moved together, creating one single shadow. They disappeared for a moment, pressed against the side of the house, hiding in the darkness under the roof’s overhang, before appearing again at the railing.

Lulu squinted, trying to see what was happening. And then, unexpectedly, the shadow broke into two again and one of them moved toward the door and opened it. The two figures melted into one again before disappearing completely inside the house. Lulu imagined she could hear the bang of the door as it shut, leaving the beach and the night dark and still again.

Blowing hot breath onto her hands to warm them in the way Jim had once shown her, Lulu turned around and headed home, hoping to be back in her bed before Maggie awoke. She’d already made up her mind not to tell her sister what she’d seen—not that Lulu even knew what she’d seen. But as she’d learned before, sometimes it was better to be quiet and listen, then wait until the time was right to reveal what you knew.

She continued to walk along in the dark, listening for Cat’s footsteps behind her, while she thought about lights in the darkness, and all the secrets the night could hold.

CHAPTER 13

FOLLY BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA

August 2009

Emmy emerged from the back office at Folly’s Finds with a stack of paid bills to be mailed. She hadn’t planned to hide in the office as long as she had, but she’d had to wait until the puffiness under her eyes had diminished at least a bit. The night before, she’d heard the footsteps again, but this time they seemed to be walking in circles, leaving her more bereft and full of questions than before. She’d spent the rest of the night lying awake and listening to the night sounds around her, waiting for the footsteps to return and point her in the right direction.

She lifted her hair off the back of her neck and sighed. It was only nine o’clock in the morning, but she was already sweating despite the air-conditioning. It got hot in Indiana in the summer, too, but nothing like the waterlogged air of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. She stuck her fingers inside the neck of her short-sleeved cotton sweater and readjusted the belt on her skirt in the hope of letting air in to touch her skin.

Emmy spotted Janell behind the counter at Playgrounds, serving various coffee confections to a dedicated group of locals whose names and faces were finally starting to sink in. A man in his sixties wearing a loose floral shirt, a Bermuda bathing suit in a conflicting pattern, dark socks up to his knees, and sandals waved a greeting to her. “Good morning, Miz Hamilton. It’s going to be another hot one.”

“I’m afraid you’re right, Mr. Bivens. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this hot in my life.”

His wife, wearing a strapless floral sundress and sneakers, approached with two cups. “You need to go get yourself something more suited to our climate, sweetheart. The saying here on Folly is that if you want to look like a local, dress like a tourist.” She laughed at her own joke, and Emmy laughed with her, recognizing the truth of her words.

Turning to Janell, Emmy asked, “Has the mailman been here yet? I’ve got a stack of bills that I’d love to go out today.”

Janell looked at her oddly. “Just put them on the counter where you usually do, and I’ll make sure they get mailed.”

“I hate to make you do that. If you’ll just tell me where the mailbox is, I’ll be happy to do it myself.”

Janell laughed, her long, beaded earrings clicking. “We don’t have mailboxes here on Folly, Emmy. Since the beginning of time, we’ve gone to the post office to pick up our mail. A few years back, they took a vote to see how many people wanted home delivery, and not enough people did. So we go to the post office to drop off and pick up our mail.”

Emmy stared at her. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I just assumed I kept missing the mailman.” She scraped her hair away from her face. “The heat must be frying my brain or something. Look, tell me where the post office is, and I’ll take the mail this morning.”

Janell smiled and slid a package across the counter toward Emmy. “Too late, I’ve already been. But you can go later if you like. It’s an easy walk—just over on East Indian and right behind the Catholic church. Just don’t go at noon—they close for an hour at lunch.”

Emmy shook her head. “I promise to go from now on. Really. I can’t believe I didn’t figure that out. I’ve been trying to mail a postcard to my dad since I moved in. I was just too embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t find the mailbox either here or at the house.”

“Actually, I think you’re going to have to fight me over that. It’s sort of where we get all the news, if you know what I mean. On a slow day, it can be the highlight of my day.”

“I see. Well, then, maybe we’ll just have to take turns.”

Janell laughed again, then greeted a customer standing behind Emmy. Excusing herself, Emmy picked up the package and took it behind the counter in the bookstore. She read the return address with some surprise, and wondered what her mother could be sending her.

She sliced the tape to open the outer box and found a translucent white gift bag from Zoey’s Boutique in Fishers, Indiana. Stuck to the outside of the bag was a folded note written on Paige’s Pages stationery. Being careful to untape the note without tearing it, Emmy opened it up and read:

I saw this and thought of you—a little something to help you beat the heat and perhaps feel a little more native. Since you’ve left, your father has become restless and has started talking about traveling. Not sure if that will last, but maybe we can fit in a visit to Folly Beach while we’re at it.

The note wasn’t signed, but at the bottom there was a postscript:

P.S. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water and wear sunscreen.

Putting the note aside, Emmy lifted the bag out of the box. After cutting the curling ribbon that had been attached to the handles, she pushed aside a swath of tissue paper and found a pale yellow cotton dress with tiny spaghetti straps, and a matching hat with a wide brim and strings that tied under the chin. When she lifted the dress, she discovered what looked like a scrap of material tucked beneath it. Curious, she placed the dress on the counter and lifted up the material, only to find that it was an improbably small black string bikini. Dropping it quickly back into the box, Emmy looked around to see if anybody else had seen it just as Abigail walked through the front door.

“Good morning, sugar,” she called out to Emmy as she entered wearing the ubiquitous Folly uniform of a tank top and shorts with flip-flops. Turning her head toward Janell, she said, “I’m wearing red today—let me know if you have anything pretty to go with it.”

Abigail stopped in front of the counter, scrutinizing Emmy’s face before lifting her hand to Emmy’s cheek, the way Paige had done when Emmy had been small and sick with a fever. “Ben been back visiting, has he?”

Emmy widened her eyes with surprise as Abigail tucked a strand of hair behind Emmy’s ear. “He’ll be there as long as you think you need him.” She dropped her hand. “Maggie stayed with me for a while, too. I think it was because I was so worried about running the store without her, and not knowing what to do. But as soon as I began to feel more confident about my abilities, she stopped coming round.”

“I don’t . . .” Emmy shook her head. “I don’t believe in ghosts. I’m just having bad dreams.”

Abigail patted her hand. “And that’s okay. I don’t think I believe in ghosts, either. But whatever our minds create to help us get over a rough spot is a welcome thing.” Her smile faltered a bit. “When Heath was so sick, I felt Maggie close by again, and it helped me get through it. She’d been a second mother to him, so I think it natural that my thoughts would turn to her. It made me feel not so all alone. Not that my family and friends weren’t there for me. It’s just that nobody else was his mother, that’s all. It’s the hardest thing in the world for a mother to see her child suffering.”