Daughters of the Lake(7)

Johnny went on, “Just so that we’re clear. You are not making a statement here. We’re just old friends talking over coffee at the kitchen table. Nothing you say right now can or will be used against you. But if you know anything, anything, tell me now. I do not want to find out about it days or weeks down the road. If you’d like to call a lawyer, though, we can do this by the book.”

Kate finally found her voice. “I don’t need a lawyer. If I could be of any help to you, I would. But I really don’t know anything more than what I saw, what we all saw. I was in the house doing the crossword puzzle. I heard Sadie barking. I knew Dad had taken her with him that morning, and I got worried. Sadie doesn’t bark like that for no reason. So I went down to the beach to see if he was okay.”

Fred smiled at his daughter.

“And that’s the first time you saw the body?” John led her.

“Yes, that’s the first time I saw the body,” Kate stumbled over her words. “I’d never seen the woman before.” The lie stung on her lips.

“And the baby?” Johnny took a sip of his coffee.

“I can’t explain that,” Kate said, shaking her head. “It was something about the way the woman’s arm was hidden under the folds of her dress. I saw . . . I noticed . . . I don’t know. A lump or something. I was really upset by the sight of her and I had this feeling. I guess you’d call it intuition. My instincts took over. I had the feeling something else—someone else—was there. I can’t explain how or why.”

It was mostly the truth. She looked around at the three concerned faces, all nodding.

“That’s really all there was to it,” she concluded.

Johnny put down his coffee cup with a sense of finality. “I’m going to leave it at that for now,” he said to Kate. “But I’ve got a dead woman and her baby on their way to the morgue, and it’s my job to find out who they are and what happened to them. Just so you know, I am going to need to get a formal statement from both of you, Kate and Fred, but we don’t need to do that now. You’ve all been through quite an ordeal today.”

“Thanks, John.” Fred patted his old friend on the back. Such are the perks of raising a family in the small town where you, your parents, and your grandparents were raised, he thought.

Fred and Johnny had grown up together, played on the same Little League baseball teams, vied for the same girls in high school. If they’d lived in another place, a bigger city, Kate certainly would have been hauled to the police station and questioned because of her peculiar behavior on the beach that morning. That’s all she’d need.

“All right, then. I’ve got to get back down to the station to see if they’ve ID’d her,” Johnny said. “I don’t recall any missing persons reports about a woman and a baby from around these parts, but we don’t know where this lady might have come from.”

Kate’s mother reached across the table and squeezed her daughter’s hand.

“And Kate”—Johnny turned to her as he was on his way out the door—“this goes without saying, but don’t leave town.”

“Am I in trouble here?” Kate asked him, standing up. “I mean, seriously, John. This is crazy. I faint at the sight of a dead body, and now I can’t leave town?”

“You’re not in trouble,” he said to her. “But we are going to need to get your statement sooner rather than later. You leaving town isn’t going to look good to those who do the looking.”

“But I was planning to go to Wharton for a few days,” she said, referring to a small tourist town some fifty miles down the shoreline. “Can I still do that?”

“Taking your cell phone?” Johnny asked her. Kate nodded. “Then, okay. As long as I know where you’ll be.”

Kate pushed her chair away from the table, said goodbye to the sheriff, and walked out onto the deck, her giant malamute, Alaska, at her heels.

“Come on, Lassie girl,” she called to the dog. “Let’s go for a walk.”

They headed down the staircase toward the beach. Put it behind you. It’s over. She stopped and stared at the spot where they had found the body, remembering the sight of the woman’s hand grasping at the shore. Her slight smile. The baby. Alaska howled and scratched at the wet sand, digging in deep and pulling Kate away, down the beach, toward different things.



As he drove back to the station, Johnny Stratton felt his heart pounding in his chest. By all rights, Kate Granger should’ve been sitting in the back seat of his squad car. If it had been any other person, any other family, the scene on the beach would’ve been probable cause to hold her for questioning, at the very least. Johnny shook his head. He knew too much. He knew that Kate had recently left her husband because of his infidelity. That news was all over town. And he knew, from her father’s own mouth, how distracted and upset and distant Kate had been these past few weeks.

And now these bodies—a beautiful young woman and what looked to be a newborn. Johnny could barely formulate the thoughts that were simmering on the edges of his mind. Not Katie Granger. He had been at her baptism. Her first communion. Her wedding. He had known her father all his life. Was there any possibility that she was mixed up in this ugly scene? The very thought of it produced a bitter taste in Johnny’s mouth. Like blood.