Rock Harbor Search and Rescue (16 page)

“I’m sorry, Emily. I never meant to get you in trouble. I really thought you’d said
swap
when Rachel told the sheriff that’s what you’d said.”

Rachel. She’d probably heard Emily right but changed the word to tell the sheriff and convince Gretchen that’s what she’d heard—all to get Emily in trouble.

“I know you didn’t mean to. Sounds like an honest mistake to me.” At least now she had an explanation for the sheriff.

And for Dad.

TWELVE

Sheriff Kaleva looked stern as he sat across from Emily at the kitchen table. “I understand what you’re saying, but Gretchen saying she might’ve misheard a word isn’t exactly evidence of your innocence.”

Frustration tightened in Emily’s stomach. “But that proves I didn’t plan to steal anything, so you can stop trying to figure out what I did with the necklace and try to figure out who really stole it.”

Naomi laid a hand over Emily’s. “Honey, Mason’s been looking for the thief.”

“Yeah, but I was his main suspect, and now that there’s proof I didn’t plan to take the necklace, maybe he can believe that I’m telling the truth about everything and start investigating for real.”

“Emily!” Naomi frowned, the corners of her eyes going squinty before she looked at the sheriff. “I’m sorry, Mason.”

“No apologies needed.” The sheriff met Emily’s stare. “I understand your frustration. Trust me, I’m doing my job. We haven’t just written off everyone else just because you had motive, means,
and opportunity. Despite what you see on television, we don’t stop until the truth comes out.”

Well, that made her feel better. She nodded. “Thank you, Sheriff Kaleva. I’m sorry if it sounded like I didn’t think you were doing your job. I know you’re a good sheriff. I just want to clear my name.” Emily looked at Naomi. “May I go do my homework now?”

“Sure.” Naomi smiled. “And I know you want to tell Olivia.”

Emily felt the blush darken her cheeks as she rushed down the hall to her bedroom. She busted inside and told Olivia what the sheriff had said.

“I’m glad.” Olivia sat at Emily’s desk. “And since you eliminated Malia as a suspect, you can quit your volunteer work with the surf team. You have to study for the Smackdown.”

“Yeah.” But then she wouldn’t get to see Josh every day. Or Brandon. The surf captain had been so nice to her.

“You don’t sound as relieved as I thought you would.” Olivia chewed on her pencil’s eraser. “What gives?”

Emily shrugged and leaned back against her
Phantom of
the Opera
pillow. “I really don’t know.” She pulled the hair tie from the end of her braid and ran her fingers through her hair, unbraiding all the curls. “I won’t miss the laundry or being that close to Lake Superior, but it feels wrong to quit something after just two days.”

“Did you get to talk with Josh today or something?”

She found it interesting that her face wasn’t burning. What did that mean? “No, but Brandon helped me carry the towel bag. And he helped me with the laundry a little.”

“Brandon?” Olivia narrowed her eyes. “I thought you liked Josh.” Before Emily could reply, Olivia’s cell phone rang. She dug
in her pocket for the phone. “Maybe it’s Charles.” She checked the caller ID. “It is.” She plopped onto the bed and answered the call. “Hello?”

Emily leaned her head against Olivia’s, the phone between them, and listened to the conversation.

“Hi, Olivia. It’s me. Charles. Uh, I found out more stuff about Kenneth and Valerie.”

“Oh, thank you. What’d you find out?”

“According to stuff I uncovered, Valerie is his last major modeling client. Over the past year, he’s lost some of the biggest names in the business. Toya. Maive. Even Cheynne was once one of his clients.”

“Not anymore?”

“No. Each one left without publicly stating why. The media only found out when new agents brokered contracts for them.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Not so much, but considering how some of the less popular models publicly spoke about him mishandling their money . . . I just thought you might be interested.”

“I am. Thank you, Charles. Did you find anything else? Anything that would link him to Rock Harbor?”

“Aside from his attention to his last remaining client and her upcoming photo shoot, nothing.”

Olivia moved back to the desk. Emily crossed her arms over her chest and tossed her best friend a confused look. Why didn’t she want Emily to listen anymore?”

“Did you find out anything about the other thing I asked you about?”

What other thing? Emily cocked her head. What was going on?

“I see.”

Olivia wouldn’t look at Emily. “Thanks again, Charles.”

Olivia smiled. “I’ll see you Monday. Bye.” She turned off the phone and shoved it back into her pocket.

“What was that about?” She raised her right eyebrow. Olivia hated when Emily did that because she couldn’t raise just one. “You and Charles have a secret?”

“Don’t be silly.” But Olivia blushed. Furiously.

Her best friend
was
keeping a secret! From
her
! She and Olivia hadn’t kept things from each other since . . . well, never. Emily’s heart thumped hard against her chest. Best friends didn’t keep secrets.

“It’s nothing.” Olivia met her gaze, then lifted her pencil and gnawed at the eraser again.

“If it’s nothing, why didn’t you want me to listen? What didn’t you want me to hear?” It didn’t make any sense for Olivia not to tell her everything. They always told each other everything. Well, she always told Olivia. Had her best friend been holding out? For how long? What didn’t she know about Olivia Webster?

“Oh, stop looking like an abandoned puppy, will you?” Olivia shook her head. “I just asked Charles to see if he saw anything online linking your uncle to Kenneth Lancaster. He didn’t find anything, so there was nothing to tell you.”

But she hadn’t said . . . “You thought my
uncle
might be involved?”

“Oh, come on, Em. You haven’t seen your uncle in how long? Since your dad married Naomi? Then out of the blue he shows up, right after the necklace went missing, and he’s with one of the suspects? If he wasn’t your uncle, you would’ve suspected him too.”

Well . . . maybe. “I wouldn’t have
not
told you I was checking into it, though. You weren’t going to tell me at all if Charles hadn’t called while I was here.”

“No sense in upsetting you when there’s nothing to report.”

“I wouldn’t be upset.”

“Right.” Olivia waved her hand up and down at Emily. “Like this is you not upset, right?”

“I’m upset right now because you weren’t going to tell me.” Emily stood and glared at Olivia. “Best friends don’t keep secrets, Olivia. Not if they want to stay friends.” She stormed from her room into the kitchen.

Keeping secrets like that . . .

Emily opened the fridge and pulled out the iced tea and set it on the counter. Like Naomi’s brother could be involved in stealing a necklace? No way. She snatched a plastic cup from the cabinet and filled it halfway with tea.

It was ridiculous. But that she’d kept it a secret bothered Emily even more. What else wasn’t Olivia saying?

She opened the fridge door and caught movement from the corner of her eye.

Emily shoved the tea pitcher back on the shelf and stared out the window. What had grabbed her attention? She moved closer to the window, cup of tea in her hand.

The early fall moon cast shadows across the backyard.

There! Was that something right at the edge of the woods behind the house? Had to be big, really big.

Her heart hammered. What was it?

The shadow moved again.

The Windigo! It was real, and it’d come for her. Her grip tightened on the cup. She wanted to scream for Dad and Naomi,
but no sound came out when she opened her mouth. It was like something had a hold on her throat.

The motion detector light on the back porch turned on. The cup slipped from Emily’s hand and crashed to the floor as the edge of the woods was lit up. Tea sloshed across the floor.

Emily stared at the figure moving.

And then laughed at herself as she realized what it was. A wapiti.

Not a Windigo. Just a big, tall elk.

Emily and Olivia were still not talking the next morning. Last night had been the first time they’d ever gone to bed with any bad feelings between them. They sat across from each other at the breakfast table, silent.

“As soon as you finish, Emily, you need to hop in the shower and get ready. I’ll drop you off at practice on my way to work.” Dad slurped coffee.

“Practice?”

Dad sighed. He’d been doing that a lot toward her lately. “Practice for History Smackdown starts today. Don’t you remember?”

Her school had a two-year winning streak, and they didn’t plan to lose now. Every Saturday morning until Christmas vacation, the team would practice for a couple of hours. They’d start back again after the New Year and go every Saturday again until the big contest in March.

She looked at Olivia, who would be going home today, and suddenly wished they hadn’t wasted last night being upset with each other, even though she’d gotten a lot of studying done after
she’d cleaned up the spilled tea. She nodded at her dad. “Sure. I’ll be ready.”

“Good. I’m having a big sale at the store and would like to get there as early as I can to make sure Brad has everything under control.”

Emily stood and took her dishes to the sink. She washed out her cereal bowl, then stuck it and her spoon in the dishwasher.

Olivia was right behind her and followed her to her room. “You can’t still be mad at me, Em. I told you I was sorry. Can’t you let it go?”

“I’m sorry, Liv. I guess my feelings were just hurt that you didn’t share that you’d asked Charles about Uncle Greg from the get-go.”

Olivia gave her a hug. “I should have told you right away, but I really was just trying to save your feelings.”

Emily hugged her back. “Let’s just agree never to keep secrets from each other. Ever. No matter what.”

Olivia pulled back and smiled. “Agreed.”

Emily glanced at the clock. “I’d better hurry up and take my shower. Dad will be upset if I’m late.” She grabbed a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved henley shirt. “Of course, lately, everything I do makes him upset.”

“Is something going on with him? I mean, he can’t stay this upset and it just be you. Is there something wrong between him and Naomi?”

She hadn’t even considered that, but now that Olivia had mentioned it . . . there had been many times she’d come into a room and both Naomi and Dad had stopped talking immediately. And they’d exchanged strange looks. Oh man. She couldn’t take
it if they got divorced. She hadn’t heard them arguing or anything. Maybe she should ask Timmy. He was even worse about eavesdropping than she was.

“I’m not saying I hope they are, you know. I just remember when my parents were going through their rough patch, it seemed I was always in trouble with one of them for something. Remember?”

“Yeah. You were, like, permanently grounded for almost a month solid.”

“So maybe it has nothing to do with you, really.” She grinned. “I was thinking some far-fetched stuff. Like maybe I was adopted or something and Dad wanted to tell me and Mom didn’t.”