The Reservoir (13 page)

Holly shrugged.  “It is creepy, you know.”

He smiled reassuringly.  “You have nothing to worry about.  You just enjoy your getaway with your friends.  We’re up here patrolling all the time during the summer.  Nothing is going to happen to you.  I assure you.”

“Is Cassie Cooke the only missing girl you’re aware of in these parts?” Daniel asked.

The deputy studied Daniel with interest.  “Son, is there something you want to tell me?”

“Well, no,” he said quickly.  “But what if…”

The deputy laughed.  “Let’s forgo the ‘what if’ scenarios, or you kids aren’t likely going to enjoy your vacation up here.  Hell, you won’t be getting a night’s sleep if you keep ‘what-iffing.’  So again, you have nothing to fear.  In fact,” he said cheerfully, “I noticed on the OT sheet this morning that David is coming up here day after tomorrow.  I know you’ll feel a lot safer with him up here.”

Holly attempted a smile.  “Oh, I’m sure.”

***     

“I didn’t think he was ever going to leave,” Kendall said, and turned to Niqui.  “Did you have to send him off with another donut and the rest of the bag of chips?  I wanted those.”

Niqui grinned.  “What can I say?  I’ve always admired a man in uniform.”

“Hey!” Aaron protested, and Niqui laughed.  “I’ve always admired a man with six-pack abs more,” she told him, “and that deputy definitely needs to cut back on the donuts.”

Aaron ran a hand along his muscled stomach and laughed.  “Well, then, I’m the man for you.” 

Holly watched her friends, glad they could still laugh and carry on when they were caught up in a situation none had signed up for.  As much as she hated to interrupt their carefree banter, it had to be done.  “Guys, before the deputy showed up, we were discussing the phone calls from … Cassie.”

“That’s right,” Daniel said.  “And I’ve been thinking…”

“About what, Danny Boy?” Zack asked.

“We need to test my theory about Cassie calling the contacts on Holly’s phone.  “If she does manage to call David, and he is the killer, then we’re all in trouble.”

“How do you mean?” Niqui asked.

“Come on, Niqui, think,” Daniel said tiredly.  “If he put those girls in that lake, and suddenly he’s getting calls from a disembodied voice saying the things to him she said to Aaron, he’s going to be suspicious.  He’s going to think someone’s on to him.”

Daniel gave a sickly grin.  “And, you all seem to have missed another important point.”

“What’s that?” Kendall asked.

“Come on, people.  When David gets that call, he’s going to know it’s from Holly’s phone, just like Aaron did.  Duh!”

“Oh, man,” Zack muttered.  “He’s going to be really suspicious, since Holly told her mom she lost her phone in the lake.”

“I need to call my brother,” Holly said.  “Maybe…”

“What, Holly?” Zack said.

“Maybe I can get him to hide David’s phone from him…”  Her words trailed off, as she dismissed the idea.  Harry was mad about David and would never do something that might upset his beloved stepfather.  But maybe she could somehow convince him to hide the phone without divulging anything to him…  Arggh, would Harry help her?

“Call him now, Holly,” Zack suggested.

Holly winced.  “I’m afraid to call the house.  What if Cassie has reached ‘M’—as in Mom?”

“If she had, you’d know about it by now,” Kendall said.  “Your mom would have called straight away.”

Holly shook her head.  “No, not necessarily.  Half the time, Mom’s cell phone is turned off when she’s away from the house.  If she’s home, it’s never on.  She might have missed the call.”

“So call Harry and try to persuade him to hide David’s phone,” Kendall advised.

“If I call the house, and David picks up…”  She shook her head worriedly.

“Look, one thing I do know is this…” Daniel said.

“What?” Zack said.

“We have to go out on that big, bad lake, where we have phone service, so all of us can check our phones for messages from Cassie, because I guarantee you that if we have them, our other friends have too.  It’s only a matter of time before David is alerted that something is amiss.”

“Amiss?” Aaron muttered sarcastically.  “I’ve always so admired your vocabulary, Daniel.”

“Kiss my vocabulary,” Daniel hissed.

“Hey!” Zack cried.  “Enough.  If we’re going to solve this mystery and make it through this is one piece, we have to stick together.”

Both boys looked appropriately repentant.  “We’re sorry,” they said in unison.

“Besides,” Zack added, “Who’s to say Cassie is going to repeat the same messages?  Maybe, just maybe, she’ll divulge additional information that could help us.”

The kids were just about to leave the cabin for the boat, when Niqui spied the message light blinking on the answering machine in the kitchen.  “You guys,” she called in a tentative voice.  “We didn’t notice this before.”

Zack crossed the room to check it out.  “How did we miss this?” he mumbled.  “Holly, come over here.”

Holly approached slowly, afraid of the blinking red light, afraid to hear the message.  Had Cassie called ‘C’ for cabin?

Zack gave Holly a questioning glance, his finger poised above the answering machine button.  She nodded and he pushed.  They heard an odd sound, like static, or like the sound of rushing water.  Suddenly, a distant female voice said, “They don’t like it down here.  It’s cold.  Help them.”

Holly froze.  The voice sounded so sad, so defeated.  The static sound continued, and then suddenly, the girl spoke again.  “He’s going … to kill again.  Go..”  A bit more static played out, and then the call was over.

“Wow,” Zack said in shock, moving to stand beside Holly, who hadn’t moved a millimeter from her spot.  He saw the stark terror in her eyes and took a hold of her shoulders.  “Are you okay, Holly?”

She was afraid to answer him, sure she knew she would burst into tears if she tried.  It was so sad, so horrible, so incomprehensible that they were receiving phone calls from a dead girl in the lake.  Her stomach twisted in a painful knot and her heart thumped in an erratic cadence.  “We have to get them out!” she cried.  “We have to get them out.”

Her friends surrounded her.  “Holly, we’ll help them.  We’ll do our best for them,” Daniel assured her. 

Suddenly, things went from bad to worse.  The next message played.  “Holly, um, this is Chrissy.  I got your call.  I’m scared.  Please.  Call.  Me.  If this is a joke, it isn’t funny.”

Holly sighed heavily and turned to her friends.  “I have to call Chrissy.  She’s really worried.” 

Chrissy had been Holly’s best friend since freshman year in high school, and had recently moved to Tennessee to live with her older sister and her sister’s husband. 

“Can it wait until later?” Zack said softly.  “We should probably go.”

Holly turned to him and he noted she was pale and her features drawn.  “She’ll call my mom if I don’t.  She won’t stop.  And if the situation was reversed, I wouldn’t stop until I knew she was safe either.”

He nodded.  “Okay, then, call her.”

She approached the phone to make the call when the next message began playing.  Things went from worse to worst with this call.  “Hey, sis, this is dad.  I have to tell you, if this is your idea of some kind of a joke, it isn’t funny.  I called your mom’s cell, and she doesn’t answer.  I tried her at the house, but again, no go.  So…  Honey, if you get this message, call me immediately.  I’m leaving work now.  Oh, wait, I’m receiving another call.  Is this you?  God knows, I hope it’s you.”  Click.

“Oh, no,” Holly moaned.  “My dad will call David, you know.”

“Your dad is a cop, too, right?” Daniel said.

Holly nodded.  “Yeah, but he works in Seattle, in the Major Crimes unit of the Police Department.”

“Call him!” Niqui said.  “We need him.”

“Should I?” Holly wondered, and then promptly dismissed the idea.  She could just imagine the phone call.  “Hey, Dad, you have to come to Yale Reservoir.  There’s a ghost in the lake and she’s been doing all sorts of things to get our attention…”  Daniel wouldn’t be the only one facing a stint in the local psych ward. 

Holly sighed.  “We will call him, but first we need proof that a crime has taken place,” she said.

Zack nodded with understanding.  “Yeah, we can’t very well tell him, ‘The ghost told us…’”  He sighed then.  “Okay, but look, my guess is your dad tried to reach us on our phones. If he can’t get you, he will try your friends.  Remember, the last time he visited and we all went to a late movie, he made us write down our cell phone numbers.”  Zack smiled.  “He also made a joke about waiting up with a shot gun in his lap.” 

“He’s protective,” Holly acknowledged with a soft smile.  That trait had annoyed her in the past.  She doubted his protectiveness would ever bother her again.  In the past, when he’d warned her about all the dangers in the world, she’d only half-listened, and had actually been dismissive of him—to the point of rudeness.  She suddenly wished she could take it all back.  She well understood the horrors that could befall a young girl.  Cassie was a constant, translucent reminder. 

Holly visibly grimaced.  What had Cassie experienced at the hands of her killer?  Had he beaten and raped her?  Had he kept her for mere minutes, or had he held her captive for days before ending her life?  Suddenly, Holly wanted to cry.  And then she remembered.  In her message, Cassie had ended by saying, “He’ll kill again.  Go!”

Holly turned to Zack, fighting back the tears.  “Cassie was warning us off, Zack.  She told us he’ll kill again.  She told us to go.”

Zack blew out a breath.  “She’s definitely giving some mixed messages.”

“Does she want us to go, or does she want us to stay and help her?” Kendall wondered aloud.

The group stood silently, pondering Kendall’s question.

Finally, Zack broke the silence.  “Look, Cassie deserves to have her story told.  Her family, especially Thomas, needs closure.  And if there are more girls out there, I want to know.  What if one of you girls was out in that lake?  Or my sister?  Or my mom?  Those girls belong to people—they have families who are suffering every day because they’re missing.”  He shook his head.  “The way I see it, we have no choice but to help them in anyway we can.  And if they’re suspicious of us, we have to show them our motives are pure.”

“If others are out there,” Holly said, glancing around at the faces of her friends, “do you think they’re ghosts, too?”

Niqui shuddered.  “Cassie’s physically strong.  If there’s a crowd of them…”

“We’ll show them we’re their friends,” Daniel asserted.  “How hard can it be?”

“Let’s get out in the boat and on the water so we can check our messages, and then go from there,” Zack said, and then brightened.  “Hey, I just thought of something.  Obviously, your dad knows you’re up here at the lake.”

Holly nodded.

“If your dad did call David to check on you, or if he called the Sheriff’s Office if he couldn’t reach David, they would likely call up the Marine Patrol who…”

“Just left here,” Daniel said.  “Good.  Good.  That’s good.  They know Holly is okay.   They would tell him and put his mind at ease.”

“I’m going to call Chrissy real quick,” Holly said, attempting to keep a hysterical edge from her voice.  She desperately wanted to tell Chrissy what was really going on, too, but again, could only imagine how the conversation would go.  Her very best friend in the world would think she’d lost her mind.

Fortunately, Chrissy picked up on the first ring.  “Holly, are you all right?” she asked breathlessly.

“I’m fine,” Holly assured her.  “In fact, I lost my phone, and apparently the person who found it thinks that calling people on my contact list is some idea of a funny joke.”

Chrissy’s relief was audible when she spoke.  “Wow, Holly, I have to tell you, I was terrified.  I thought maybe someone was holding you hostage or something.”         

“Nope.  In fact, I’m here with the gang.  Gang, say hi.”  The group called out a mock, hearty hello.  “Hey, I’d pass the phone around so everyone could talk, but we do have to go.  I just wanted to put your mind at ease.”

“Thank goodness you did.”  Chrissy paused for a moment.  “Holly, is everything else going all right?  Is uh … life okay since your … stepdad moved in?”

“Everything’s fine.  Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know,” Chrissy murmured.  “I’ve just been having strange feelings lately, like something is wrong—like you might be…”

“What?” she prompted.

“Like … you might be in danger.”  She laughed at herself.  “Okay, I know.  I’m being paranoid.  But I just can’t seem to shake this feeling.”

“Don’t worry about a thing,” Holly said with forced cheer.  “Things are good.” 
And Chrissy’s instincts were excellent
.

Chrissy knew all about Holly’s original misgivings about David.  In fact, when Chrissy had met him, she hadn’t liked him one bit either.  She had, in her typically tactful way, told Holly as much. 

Frankly, Holly had appreciated having confirmation that her intuition wasn’t off kilter.  But, she had to concede, things had improved lately.  Until she’d arrived at the lake, and all the ghost business had started, she had been feeling incrementally better about David being in her life.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Chrissy persisted, a doubtful tone to her voice.

“Things are great,” Holly said too brightly.  “Okay, so, Chrissy, I’ll call you soon.  I wish you were here.  I really do.”

Chrissy was silent for a long moment.  “Holly…”  Her voice sounded slightly reproving.  She knew something was wrong, and Holly knew she knew something was wrong.  Lying to Chrissy felt
all
wrong.

“Really, everything is fine.  I ... have to go.”  She hung up, because her nerves were frayed and her composure was tenuous at best.  She would fill Chrissy in later.  Heck, she’d hop on a plane and tell her everything in person.  If she got out of this mess in once piece.

“What now?” Zack said, beginning to pace the room. 

Holly sighed heavily.  “I’m worried about my dad…”  Suddenly, she gave a sheepish, humorless smile.  “Why didn’t I think of this before?  I’ll just call him, like I called Chrissy.”  When her friends gave her puzzled looks, she raised a finger.  “Just a minute.”