The Night Before(24)

“Of course we remember,” Rosie said. Laura always made them run back to the house to get garlic and crosses. She loved tracking him, thinking she saw his footprints in the soil. “He stopped doing that long before…”

“I know. But one time it was just the two of us. Me and Laura. I don’t know why, or where the other kids were, where you two were. But she came running over, in the house to my room, banging on the door. She said he was out there again, with that cape, walking the wall at the end of the pond. God, I must have been thirteen then. It was the last thing I wanted to do. We were getting older. Teenagers, you know? But Laura was still a kid, still wanting to have her adventures.”

“I remember,” Rosie said. “She used to beg us to play with her. She didn’t like that things were changing. She felt like she was getting left behind.”

“That’s why I went with her. We walked the path to the pond, but there was no one on the wall. She said we should split up. That I should go one way and she would go another, both of us walking around the perimeter of the pond until we met up again. I started to wonder if she’d been making it up, about Lionel Casey being out there that day. But I went along with it. I told her after we’d searched the perimeter, I was going home.

“She agreed and I started walking. I made it halfway around and didn’t see her. I thought maybe I’d been faster, so I kept walking in the same direction, until I was back where we started. With no sign of Laura. It was so quiet that day. The trees were still bare. I called her name, then listened. I called it again. Still, no answer. I didn’t know where to start looking for her. I remem ber hearing nothing but my feet on the dead leaves. I thought maybe he’d been there. Maybe he wasn’t just a harmless old hermit after all.”

Gabe stopped and the room was as quiet as the woods he’d just described. Lionel Casey had not been a harmless old hermit, and all those years they’d gone into the woods, he’d been there. Hundreds of times. Together, in pairs. Sometimes alone if one of them left before the others. Never aware of the danger.

“I went to the places I thought she would go—the field, the overlook. And then, finally, the fort. Remember that fort we built? One piece of plywood lodged between the trees?”

“We remember Gabe. Please—just tell us what happened,” Joe said. Rosie couldn’t speak, or move. She could barely breathe thinking about her sister out in those woods with Lionel Casey.

“She was there, in the fort. But not with Casey. She was there with Rick. And he had a knife to her throat.”

Rosie gasped, hands to her mouth.

“What?” Joe said, his voice raised with anger.

“It was just his stupid pocketknife. But still, he was holding her by the hair with the knife … and I just fucking lost it. My brother had been a pain in the ass, but this was beyond anything he’d done before. Seeing Laura like that … it was too much. We got into a fight, rolling on the ground, kicking and punching each other. And then all of sudden, he was off me. Lying on the ground, holding his head.”

Gabe placed his hand on his head as though acting out the scene. All of them were picturing this moment—knowing what was coming.

“I looked back,” he continued, “and there was Laura, holding this stick with both hands. White-knuckled, hair clinging to the sides of her face that was wet with mud and tears. She was a wild animal. She came at him again and I got up and grabbed the end of the stick. I got it away from her. My brother stood, cursing at both of us, but he ran. Back to the house. Of course, I told my mother what he’d been doing to Laura with that knife. He said he was just trying to scare her because she thought she was so tough. But that’s when he left.”

“Before the year was up,” Rosie said. “I always wondered why your parents didn’t wait until the end of the term. Jesus Christ, Gabe. What are you saying? What do you think this story means?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a story. But I have this image in my head. Of Laura, like a wild animal. Holding that stick. Swinging it at my brother’s head. If I hadn’t stopped her…”

“That’s enough.” Joe held up his hand. “Enough. Was this the only time it happened? Did your crazy-ass brother hurt her again?”

“I don’t know. Honestly. Rick wasn’t about to tell me, and Laura never wanted to talk about it. But, God, I think about how angry she always was and I have to wonder if my brother was the cause of it.”

“No!” Rosie wouldn’t hear any more. “I don’t believe it. If it had been more than that one incident, she would have said something. She would have done something about it.”

“Maybe,” Gabe said. “I hope you’re right. The thing is, we’re at a crossroads right here and right now. You already said, Rosie, that one of two things happened last night. And if it’s the one I think it is, maybe we give her some time.”

“Time for what?” Joe asked. “What have you two been discussing?”

Rosie looked at Gabe but didn’t answer.

“You think she hurt this guy and now we should give her time to get away? Like some criminal? Seriously?”

Gabe was about to answer when they heard the sound. The ping on Laura’s laptop.

Rosie rushed back to the table and stared at the screen. Joe was right behind her.