Caitlin knew the teenager had hidden other wardrobe items and makeup behind the stacks of paper products in the loft, but she hadn’t been aware that Nicole had stashed anything in a bag in the wall.She must have really been concerned about getting in trouble if her mom found out she was wearing the bikini, so she had to find a better hiding place in case Aunt Lydia stumbled upon it while she was restocking paper supplies, she reasoned.
The location had been a smart choice. If it weren’t for the remodel, the swimsuit might have remained hidden indefinitely—or at least until the windows needed to be replaced.Seems like every time I start to feel a little calmer about being on Dune Island, I get hit with another reminder of what happened the last time I was here, Caitlin thought mournfully, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
As she gingerly lifted the skimpy material from the bag, a square of folded paper dropped onto the table. She began tounfold it and saw the words, Pirate’s ARR-Cade across the top of the page, along with a cartoon image of a parrot wearing a tricorn hat. Caitlin instantly recognized that she was holding a paper placemat from a popular arcade on the boardwalk. She continued to unfold it, and a smaller, rectangular piece of thick paper fluttered to the floor.
Reaching for it, Caitlin noticed it wasn’t a piece of paper after all; it was a strip of snapshots, the old-fashioned kind that were dispensed from a photo booth like the one at the arcade. There were four photos in all, and Nicole was pictured front and center in each of them. Dressed in the same snakeskin print bikini that Caitlin had just pulled from the bag, the teen was wearing bright red lipstick and heavy eye makeup.
Three other people were squeezed into the booth with her: a brunette girl in a blue tank top and sunglasses, and two guys dressed in orange lifeguard T-shirts. The guy to Nicole’s right was blond-haired and broad-chested. To her left was a slimmer, very tanned, dark-haired boy. Standing on the other side of him, the brunette girl was partially edged out of the frame.
The teenagers were all making silly faces and gestures in the first snapshot. In the second, they were smiling naturally at the camera. The third photo showed Nicole had swiveled sideways to kiss the cheek of the grinning blond boy. In the final picture, she was turned toward the dark-haired guy, her puckered lips near his ear, her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
Typical Nicole behavior,Caitlin thought, amused.
Strangely, seeing her face again wasn’t nearly as disturbing as accidentally coming across her swimsuit. Maybe that was because Nicole looked so happy in the photos. Or maybe it was that Caitlin’s sadness was overshadowed by her curiosity about the other teenagers. She couldn’t stop staring at the snapshots and wondering who they were.
Nicole probably met up with them at the beach near the arcade—maybe that’s why she never wanted me to come with her when she took a walk?I wonder if the four of them were sort of on a double date.Although if that was the case, Caitlin imagined the brunette girl would’ve been annoyed that Nicole had kissedbothboys in the photos.
Maybe she was only mugging it up for the camera?Caitlin surmised.Or else she was acting out one of her “scenes,” or playing a game to see which boy would give her the most attention? Or maybe Nicole and the other girl had picked out two cute, random guys at the arcade and they were just flirting with them for fun?
But Caitlin sensed there was more going on between them than that—otherwise, why would Nicole have kept the strip of photos hidden in the wall? She turned it over, looking for a clue, but the other side was blank. Caitlin glanced at the paper placemat. Inscribed with a maze leading from the parrot on the top of the page to a treasure chest on the bottom, it was designed to keep children occupied while waiting for their food to arrive at their tables. There were no markings on the front of the placement, and only a reddish-pink stain on the back.
Nicole must have blotted her lipstick on this, Caitlin guessed. But as she started to turn the paper to the front again, she noticed that there was faded writing beneath the pink smudge.
She squinted at the barely legible print and read, “NR”. Beneath the initials was a drawing of three cubes in a row. The middle one had a large X on it. Above the cubes was a series of straight lines; below the cubes were several squiggles.
N obviously stands for Nicole, and R must be the first initial of one of the guys in the photos, Caitlin deduced. It surprised her that Nicole, who’d always acted as if she were more sophisticated than her peers, had scribbled such a cutesy note on the placemat—and then, apparently, she’d kissed it. Was she being serious or was it some kind of ploy, part of an act?
And what about the drawing? Was the picture a random doodle, or was it supposed to depict something specific?
Caitlin got up and turned on a lamp. Holding the placemat an inch above the bulb, she scrutinized the sketch. Only then did she see there was a fainter inscription below the squiggly lines. “Thurs Aug 29,” it read.
A chill turned her skin to gooseflesh and she dropped onto the sofa. Thursday, August 29, was the day Nicole drowned. So why was that date written on the placemat? Was it the date she’d taken the photos?
No, that can’t be right. The arcade and all the other shops on the boardwalk were still closed because the tropical storm knocked out their electricity and it hadn’t been restored yet, she remembered.Maybe Thursday, August 29, was just the day Nicole was doodling on the placemat?
Caitlin shook herself. There was no use wondering any further. Focusing on the past only made her miserable, and even if she figured out the significance of the scribblings, it wouldn’t change what had happened.
Not that I’m blaming Shane, but I wish he hadn’t given me this bag—or that he’d never found it in the first place.Caitlin was already plagued by enough guilt and sad memories about that summer, without receiving tangible reminders of Nicole’s youth. Of her death day.
She quickly refolded the placemat and the bikini and tucked them back into the plastic pouch, along with the photo strip. She had no reason to keep Nicole’s belongings, but it didn’t seem right to discard them, either.
I’ll decide what to do with these things some other time, she thought, and buried the bag beneath her clothes in her bottomdresser drawer, where it at least would be out of sight, even if it wasn’t completely out of mind.
EIGHT
Once Caitlin finalized the project details with Shane, she knew she needed to think about her career back home.
In Santa Fe, she usually spent her spare time between campaigns catching up on the paperwork, household chores, and medical appointments she’d let lapse while she was working. She also liked exploring new hiking trails with friends, taking pottery-making classes, and hanging out with her brother’s family. But in Hope Haven, she wanted to keep to herself to avoid the gossips. Letting herself ruminate on Nicole—on the clothing and photos she’d found and on the scribblings with the date Nicole had died—wasn’t helping anyone, either. So she decided to call her consulting agency and inquire about upcoming campaigns.
Maybe I can get a head start on the preliminary analysis, she thought as she tapped the director’s name, Tobias, in her contacts list.
“You know I can’t officially offer you a campaign until the client signs a contract with us,” he told her. “But off the record, we’re about to close the deal with a parochial school that needs funding to build a new gymnasium. You’d be perfect for that one, since you’ve done so many similar campaigns.”
That’s exactly why Iwouldn’twant to do it, thought Caitlin, but she tried to be more diplomatic in her reply. “I enjoy working with private and parochial schools, but there are lots of consultants qualified to conduct a campaign like that one. I’d love to take on something a little more challenging.”
“Hmm.” There was a quiet pause, followed by what sounded like a door closing. Then he said in a low voice, “Thereisanother organization I’ve been courting. A local major hospital plans to add a children’s wing to its facility. Of course, they’d need to conduct a feasibility study, first…”
Tobias discreetly filled her in on the details, and the more Caitlin heard, the more she wanted to manage the campaign. Emphasizing her experience, she told him she thought she’d be effective in helping the hospital meet or even surpass its campaign goals.
