“Not as bad as more central New York. I lived in Rochester for a few months and holy crap, talk about gray.”She tucked her hands into the front pouch and drew out my wallet and keys, putting it on the console between us. “What’s this?” She pulled out the car.
“Oh, I collect diecast cars.”
“And you carry them around?” Her lips tipped up into a charmed smile.
“No.” I huffed out a breath. “Not usually. Just was itching at an idea in my brain.”
“Tell me about it.”
“You don’t care about my process.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” She glanced over at me. “Being an author isn’t like being a banker.”
I sighed. “All right. The car story you told me about the lake got me thinking. Do you have more details?”
“Did you listen to the podcast?”
“I did.” It was a well done podcast, but it spoke more about the missing kids than the car. “They didn’t really talk about the car much.”
“Well, that’s more of a town story than anything you could track down with facts.”
“That’s the part I want to know.”
“Okay then.” She stuck her hand out the window and followed the air current as her face tipped up to the sunlight. “So, I told you the car was in the middle of the lake, right?”
“You didn’t say exactly where.”
“I think it’s moved a bit with the currents, but it seems to have settled in some rocks and got really wedged in. My brothers actually dared each other to swim out to where it was. Scared the hell out of my mother because they jumped out of our boat to do it.”
“Did anything happen?”
“No. Well, they could never seem to reach it. The lake is huge. It doesn’t look like it from where we live. It’s an irregular shape and gets narrower then widens when you get past the cove.”
“I took a walk over there today. I see what you mean, but I couldn’t get much of a view with all the ice.”
“Yeah, there’s ice until May. Especially this year since we had so many cold days.” She wiggled over a little so Mouse could get closer to the door. “You’re a damn cow.”
He didn’t seem to care, now that he could get his whole head and upper body out the window.
“Have there been any more accidents around the car?”
“Not in ten years. I think most of us locals have learned to leave it be over the years. Sometimes the older teens take their parents’ boat out on the lake, but for the most part they aren’t interested in sticking around Haven these days. The signal sucks for their cell phones.”
“Can’t have that,” I said wryly.
“I noticed you don’t really go on your phone.”
“You don’t either.”
“I do things for my social media, but I’m not much of a scroller other than that. I’d prefer to be painting or drawing.”
“You never answered me the other night with what you do.”
“Little of this, little of that,” she said vaguely. “We got a little distracted.” She flicked open the door on the Mustang and clicked it shut.
I cleared my throat. “Yeah.”
I turned off on Destiny Street. The market was by the bank, well past the eateries and bookstore. Well, if she wasn’t going to share what she did, I could at least get a few more details. “So there haven’t been any disappearances since?”
