The Invited(52)

“The guy never takes his gun off. He thinks he’s an actual cowboy,” her mama said when they got home from the town meeting.

“A cowboy who talks to dead people,” her dad chortled. “He’s got a permit and it’s registered, but you can’t bring a gun into a school like that.”

“No exceptions, not even for John Wayne—I mean Dicky Barns!” Mama said back then, laughing, shaking her head.

Now Sylvia leaned against the bar so that she was real close to Olive. She smelled like roses, only it was off somehow, more chemical. Like a kid’s rose-scented perfume. “Lori went to those meetings hoping to make contact with Hattie.” She kept her voice low, nearly a whisper. “She wanted to know about the treasure.”

    “Did she? Did she make contact? Did she find out anything?” The words tumbled out fast.

Sylvia smiled at her. “You don’t just look like her, you get all wound up like her, too!” She shook her head and considered for a moment, then went on. “I don’t know if any ghosts turned up, but I do know this: Lori showed up late here at the tavern one night. After everyone else had gone home. She was all shaken up and she asked if she could spend the night at my place, said she couldn’t go home, that Dustin—your dad—was real mad at her for something. I asked her what for, and she said it didn’t matter, that none of it mattered anymore.” Sylvia looked over at the men watching baseball stats flashing on the TV. Then she leaned in closer, lowered her voice and whispered, “Your mom, she had a few drinks here with me that night and, to be honest, she got a little tipsy. She told me that she had a secret, and I had to swear not to tell a living soul. Of course I promised. And she told me she’d found it. Hattie’s treasure. She knew just where it was, but she hadn’t dug it up yet.”

“What?” Olive nearly tipped over her Coke. “When was this? Did she say where it was? Did she dig it up?”

Sylvia smiled again. She was enjoying herself now, enjoying the reaction her story got.

“It wasn’t long before she went away. And no, she didn’t tell me where it was. I don’t know if she dug it up. Hell, I don’t even know if she really found it. You know how your mama is. Always telling stories. Especially with a few drinks in her. She likes to pull your leg, you know? See what she can make you believe.”

Olive nodded. Mama did like to fool people, to tell tall tales. She was always testing people, to see how gullible they were, what crazy story they might believe.

“Did she stay with you that night?” Olive asked.

“Yeah. But she was gone when I got up the next morning.”

“And did you see her again after that?”

Sylvia frowned, the lines around her mouth deepening like little canyons. “No. That was the last time. Like I said, it was just a day or two before she took off.”

“And you haven’t heard from her? Or heard anything about her from anyone?”

Sylvia shook her head, dangly turquoise earrings swaying. She reached up, touched one, tugged on it a little. “No.” She stared out across the room, her eyes on the glowing EXIT sign above the door. “Sometimes I think that maybe she did find it. Hattie’s treasure. I never believed it existed, but maybe it did and your mama found it and she took that money and got as far away from here as she possibly could.”

    Without me, Olive thought. She took a long sip of her cold Coke, trying to concentrate on the sweetness, to give herself something else to focus on other than the horrible empty feeling this idea left her with.

All she got was brain freeze.





CHAPTER 15



Helen





JULY 13, 2015

They spent the remainder of the afternoon cutting out the rest of the holes that would be windows. Helen went around with the drill, making holes in each corner, and Nate followed her with the saw, making the cuts, letting the pieces of plywood fall out to the ground below. They didn’t talk about the deer or what Helen had seen the night before. They didn’t talk much at all, just worked steadily, power tools whining, sawdust flying.

“Feels more like a proper house now, doesn’t it?” Nate asked once they were finished, standing back to admire their work from the front yard.

“Getting there,” Helen said. “But we’ve still got a long way to go. Let’s bring in one of the windows and see if we can get it in.”

Riley arrived just in time to help, pulling up in an old battered Honda Civic.

“Thought I’d come check out this house I’ve been hearing so much about,” she said. “Wow! I love it! Classic saltbox!”

Helen gave her a grateful hug. “I love that you know it’s a saltbox! And that you’re here!”

Helen introduced her to Nate, whose first words were “You don’t know anything about installing windows, do you?”

She laughed. “Lots,” she said. They led her into the house.

“That beam looks amazing there!” she said, stopping below the header between the living room and kitchen. “It’s perfect!”

“Too bad it’s from a hanging tree,” Nate said, laughing. “And that it seems to be haunted.”

“Haunted?” Riley said, looking from Nate to Helen.