Suddenly Psychic (Glimmer Lake #1)(32)

Helen didn’t need nursing. Yet. Once she did, she’d need a woman’s help. But for now she just needed someone to keep an eye on things and make sure she was okay.

“Hey, Grandma.” Robin reached for a brownie. “How old were you when the dam was built?”

Helen glanced away from the window. “What has you thinking about that?”

“Um… Val and Monica and I are doing kind of a history project. I thought I might put something up at the store to draw more customers in. Maybe put something on the website too.”

“Oh, that was so long ago.” Helen waved her hand. “No one wants to hear about that.”

Robin set her coffee cup down. “I do.”

Helen tasted a brownie. “I was twenty when they finished. It took years to build, of course, but it started during the Depression and went through the war. They were government jobs, so they had lots of men working on it over the years.” Her eyes took on a dreamy quality. “For the longest time, we thought it wouldn’t happen. Then all of a sudden it did.”

“Were people in favor of it?”

“Of course not!” Helen looked affronted. “All my daddy’s grazing land was flooded. All the farms and ranches down in the valley. The only people who liked it were people like your grandfather who got permits to log all the lumber from the valley and then had access to more land farther up in the hills. They knew when the new road went in, it would only be a benefit. So the timber people liked the dam. The rest of the town didn’t.”

“Where did people from Grimmer go?”

Helen’s eyes took on a hollow quality, like she was looking at something in a dark room. “People went everywhere. Most down to Bridger City, I suppose. Some up to Sacramento. Lots and lots of boys were going into the army, of course. My brothers all moved away, and three of them were drafted. A few people stayed and built up the new town, but most people left.”

“And you and Grandfather stayed.”

Helen’s face was carefully blank. “I married your grandfather right around the time the town was breaking up. Of course I stayed.”

And were pretty miserable until he died. Robin didn’t say it. She didn’t have to. Her grandmother had been a stunning woman, and Gordon Russell had treated her like a trophy. Robin didn’t try to understand their relationship. It was probably not uncommon for that day and age. Helen was a poor, pretty girl from a decent family that lost most everything during the Depression. Gordon was a rich man’s son who gave her a good life. Robin couldn’t judge.

“Did people have a lot of warning?”

Helen frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, when they finished the dam and started flooding the valley. They gave people lots of warning, right?”

Helen’s smile was sad. “How fast do you think a lake fills up? It takes months. Years even. Don’t you worry. Everyone had time to move.”

Unless they were chained up in an old mine shaft.

Robin took a chance and flipped open her sketchbook. “Do you recognize this man? Was he someone you knew?”

Helen reached for her reading glasses, put them on, and froze when her eyes reached the page where Robin had drawn their mystery man.

Froze. As in Robin actually checked if she was breathing.

“Grandma? Do you know him?”

“Where did you see this man?” Helen was barely audible.

“I think… it was in an old picture.” Robin watched her grandmother. Helen definitely knew who it was. Whether she’d say more was another question.

“He was a boy from Grimmer.” Helen closed the sketchbook and took her glasses off. “I think. Don’t remember his name. Nobody important.”

“You didn’t know him?”

“Oh, everyone knew everyone.” Helen waved her hand again. “Grimmer was that kind of place.”

“But you don’t know this man’s name?”

“No.” She took a deep breath. “I’m old, you know. I’ve known too many people over the years. Can’t remember everyone.”

“But this man—”

“Can you be a lovely girl and get me another spot of coffee?” Helen held out her cup. “Then tell me everything that girl of yours has planned for next year. Has she settled on a college yet? Last time your mother came by, she said Emma had early admission to three different ones already.”

And that, Robin knew, was all she’d get out of her grandmother that day.





“Okay, so Grandma Helen definitely knows who it is.” Robin set her knapsack on the library table where Monica and Val were huddled over some old books and what looked like card boxes. “She didn’t tell me a name though.”

“She doesn’t have to.” Monica slid a picture over to Robin. “His name is Billy. We’re not sure of a last name.”

“Wow, already?”

Val walked around the table. “There was a government photographer up here when the dam was built. Something about documenting it for Congress? We think it’s him.”

Robin grabbed the magnifying glass Monica held out. She held it over the photograph, which was in a plastic sleeve.

A large group of men were standing in front of the half-finished dam. They were wearing jeans and button-down shirts, but all their hats had been removed. All the men wore a grim expression.