Glow (Glimmer and Glow #2)(95)
“What?” she repeated when Dave handed her a folded piece of paper. She’d understood Dave’s shout this time, but was still bewildered by the actual message. Mira was the camp cook. Why was she taking messages for Alice?
“Hold on,” Dave said, rolling his eyes. He went and deposited the two cases of soda on a serving table in front of Kuvi. Kuvi was bopping around to the music, but gave Dave an appreciative wave before she started to load the sodas into a huge tin receptacle filled with ice. While he was gone, Alice read the message in the light of the brilliant sunset.
To Alice Reed,
Mr. Fall phoned the kitchen. Apparently, he knew you’d be on the beach and hard to contact, so he called here. He’s received some news, and wants you to come up to the castle immediately. He said not to worry, it’s not an emergency, but it is important. He suggested you take the main road, and come now, while it’s still light. He also said to make sure Sal Rigo accompanied you, and that he’d be waiting for you in his den.
Mira
Alice blinked in amazement. This was strange. She saw Dave reapproaching. Kuvi had handed him a Camp Durand T-shirt. He’d pulled off his old one and was shrugging on the new one as he approached her. The T-shirts were black with a neon green design and print. Alice suspected the shirts would glow in the dark.
“Mira gave this to you?” she yelled when Dave got close enough.
“Yeah. No way anyone could hear a phone out here. Did I hear Mira right? Was it Dylan Fall calling?” Alice could tell that by his incredulous expression that Kuvi hadn’t betrayed her secret to Dave, even though she suspected Kuvi and Dave were growing closer and closer. “Was Fall contacting you about some kind of emergency? I thought I heard Mira say he needed to see you. Is everything okay?” he asked, nodding at the note she clutched.
“It’s about something from home,” she lied, thinking intently.
“Nothing serious, is it?” Dave bellowed.
“I’m sure it isn’t,” Alice replied, smiling gamely for reassurance. She glanced around the beach, looking for Sal Rigo.
*
KUVI hauled Thad onto the beach to dance. The sun was starting to dip below the shimmering blue lake by the time the song ended. Another loud dance number immediately started again.
“Wait. What about me?” someone called good-naturedly from behind him as he and Kuvi walked through a swarm of kids and staff. “Thad?”
Thad was aware that it was Brooke trying to get his attention, but something had caught his eye. He saw Alice at the edge of the crowd. She was on her tiptoes, shouting something into Sal Rigo’s ear. Rigo’s brows furrowed and he nodded. Alice ducked behind a grove of saplings planted just past the sand. He saw her long bare legs moving rapidly in the direction of the cabins, and then she disappeared. Lots of counselors were making runs back and forth from the beach to the dining hall to keep the food table stocked, so that wasn’t what set off Thad’s mental alarm. It was more Alice’s furtive manner that had caught his attention.
No sooner had he thought that her actions were suspicious, Sal Rigo also slipped behind the grove of trees.
“Thad!” He turned and saw Brooke standing on the beach, smiling. She looked radiant tonight. She beckoned to him. “Celebration dance with me?”
He read her lips and manner instead of actually hearing her. The noise level at the beach party was out of control. “Sure,” he said distractedly. She was referring to the fact that they’d both been offered positions as Durand managers, he knew. But instead of going to join Brooke, he turned back to scan the shore. An uneasy feeling had come over him.
“Thad?”
“I’m sorry, can I take a rain check?” he asked, pointing significantly toward the kitchen and making a face. He was pretty sure that Brooke didn’t understand him, but since he was purposefully being evasive, he didn’t really expect her to. He plunged into the crowd of shouting, celebrating kids in the opposite direction from Brooke.
*
ALICE trudged up the last part of the road, watching as the castle floated fully into her vision. There was enough light left in the sky for her to see the grand, elegant home. She knew it was her imagination, the remnants of a child’s fanciful mind when it came to the house, but it often struck her as sentient: always ageless and waiting, sometimes mysterious in the sense of a wondrous fairyland, occasionally secretive, threatening, and dark.
Maybe it was the boisterous sounds and music of the distant beach party reaching all the way up the bluff, but tonight, she got no ominous vibes from the castle. Of course it was hard to be anxious with a man of Sal Rigo’s heft at your side.
“When I’m with Dylan, I usually enter at the back,” she called to Rigo when he headed toward the front door.
Rigo nodded and fell into step behind her as they walked toward the side of the house. Earlier at the party, she’d thought he seemed a little more approachable, wearing his Camp Durand T-shirt, talking with the kids as he passed out the photo journals, and helping out the counselors and employees setting up food and beverages. Presently, he’d switched back to his somber professional persona. She noticed him studying the side view of the castle through a narrowed gaze.
Was he worried about Dylan’s note? Alice was, a little, although probably not in the way Rigo was. She was definitely mystified. Dylan had already indicated that he needed to speak to her about something important tonight. What had happened that had made him want to speak with her earlier? Or was the note about something different altogether?