The Lucky Ones(87)

“You swear?” Allison couldn’t face her. She lay on her side under the covers, though the room was stuffy with summer heat.

“I swear to God,” Thora said. “You haven’t left your room in days. What is it?”

Allison told Thora what had happened.

The wave.

Roland carrying her to the beach.

Straddling him and how good it had felt.

Why did that feel so good?

The kiss.

That stupid kiss.

Roland’s hands on her waist, on her thighs.

The sound he’d made when Allison had moved her hips.

She told Thora everything. It all came out in one long tortured monologue, whispered between gulping sobs.

The child in Allison had expected the worst, that Thora would condemn her and mock her. The little bit of Allison that was growing into a young woman thought Thora would maybe tell her she was overreacting, that it was no big deal.

Thora hadn’t done either.

“I have to tell you something,” Thora said, and the tone of her voice made Allison finally roll over in her bed to face her. Thora was ashen. Even her lips looked white, bloodless.

“Tell me what?” Allison asked.

“You can’t tell anyone I told you,” Thora said. “I’ll keep your secret, you keep this one. You have to swear. I’m not supposed to know.”

Thora’s mouth was such a tight line it would have taken a pair of pliers to open it up.

Allison said the two words necessary to unlock Thora’s lips.

“I swear.”

Then Thora told her a story. Thora told her the story of how she’d wanted to peek at Dad’s medical files he kept under lock and key in the closet in his office. She wanted to know something—didn’t matter what, Thora said, so don’t ask.

Allison didn’t ask.

Thora waited until a night when everyone was going to see a movie in Astoria. And right before they were all about to leave the house and pile into Dad’s van, Thora had said she changed her mind, had an upset stomach, didn’t feel like going.

Everyone went without her.

And when she was alone in the house, she looked high and low and in and out and finally she found the key to the closet and the key to the filing cabinet. She found the files she was looking for and sat down in the closet to read them.

“What did you find out?” Allison asked, fascinated now, far more fascinated than scared or ashamed.

“You need to be careful around Roland,” Thora said. “You need to stay away from him.”

“Why?” That made no sense to Allison. Roland wasn’t just nice, he was the nicest. He wasn’t dangerous. She was the one who’d kissed him...

“He had a sister named Rachel,” Thora whispered. “She’s dead.”

“Dead?”

Then Thora said the three ugliest words Allison had ever heard.

“Roland killed her.”

Someone knocked on the door. Hard. Loud.

“Girls?” It was Dr. Capello. “Everything all right in here?”

Thora looked at her frozen on the bed.

“Don’t be alone with Roland. Ever,” Thora said, and that was all. Then she ran to the door and opened it.

“Hi, Daddy,” Thora said. “Everything’s fine.”

“You missed breakfast again, young lady,” Dr. Capello said to her. And Allison knew she needed to lie if she were going to survive.

“I had an upset stomach,” Allison said.

Dr. Capello looked at Thora, who nodded, and Allison knew she had a partner in the lie. Thora was going to let Dr. Capello think it had been girl trouble and that’s all this was.

“Let me know if you need anything,” Dr. Capello said. “Feel better, doll. Come on, Thora. Allison’s not feeling well. Let her rest.”

Thora hadn’t wanted to leave, but she wasn’t as quick on her feet as Allison had been. After giving Allison one last look of warning, she walked away.

And alone in the room in her pretty little blue bed, Allison’s heart died.

Eternity passed while Allison rocked back and forth, her arms around her knees, crying and shaking, too scared to leave her room. Roland had killed a little girl. Roland had killed his sister. Thora was scared Roland would kill her, too.

The house’s morning sounds faded to silence. Roland was at work at his new job at that fancy restaurant in Clark Beach. Allison knew Dr. Capello would be up in his office. Kendra was probably in her room reading. Deacon and Thora lived on the beach during the summer. Oliver had left two days ago. And from her bedroom window, she saw Dr. Capello walk out the front door and take his usual path into the woods for his daily ramble.

This was her chance.

She crept from her room into the hallway. When she walked past Thora’s room she heard low voices murmuring—hers and Deacon’s. That was all right. As long as they stayed in there and didn’t try to stop her it would be okay.

Allison snuck up the third-floor stairs and slipped through the door into Dr. Capello’s office. She found the key where Thora had said she’d found it the week before when she’d gone on this very same hunt. The key was to the closet door in the office where Dr. Capello kept his filing cabinet. Allison didn’t know where to start. Thora’d had three hours to dig, but Allison might have half an hour, if that, until Dr. Capello came back from his walk. But it couldn’t take that long to find out the truth, could it? All Allison wanted to know was that Thora was lying to her. She had to be lying to her. Roland? Kill his baby sister? Never. Never ever. Maybe Thora was in love with Roland. Maybe she made all that up because she was jealous. It had to be lies. All lies.