Sierra wanted so much to sit in the prow of the little fishing boat and watch the thick deep green forests rolling past. This was her first time on a boat in years, and she wanted to enjoy the beauty around her. But Beau insisted that she stay inside the small enclosure with him as he steered the boat. The tinted glass would help conceal their identities. That would make sense except that they hadn’t passed any other boats, let alone seen any people on the banks, since they’d left the cabin half an hour earlier.
“Where is everyone?” she asked. “It’s summer. I thought there would be lots of other boats. Tourists.”
“This part of the river isn’t that deep, and it’s too narrow for a tourist or even a local to let loose on a speedboat without worrying about running aground. It’ll open up soon, get much deeper and wider. That’s when you’ll see more boats.”
She stood on her tiptoes, trying to peer through the glass down at the water. “How deep is it right now?”
He looked at a cluster of instruments. “Twenty feet, give or take.”
“I’d think that was plenty deep for a speed boat.”
“In a different section of the lake, I’d agree with you. But unless you’re familiar with the hazards underneath the water, it would be foolish to do more than what we’re doing.”
“Going as slow as turtles?”
He laughed. “Not quite that slow. This past spring we had some torrential rains for several weeks. The river that comesdown the mountain, feeding the lake, stirred everything up, moved hazards around. I haven’t been out here since then. I’m being extra careful in case some of the debris under the water has shifted. The locals are well aware of what can happen around here. Tourists aren’t. But they’re warned at the boat ramps and the marina. This year, part of that warning is to steer clear of this section for now until it’s fully investigated. That takes time and money the town doesn’t always have in its budget.”
She leaned against one of the windows again. “I know that people have died on this lake. How many have died this year so far?” When he didn’t answer, she turned around.
His jaw was clenched as he carefully steered toward the middle of this section of the lake. “Too many,” he finally answered. “Normally, midsummer, we might have had one, maybe two disappearances or proven deaths. But in the beginning of this year a family of five from Chattanooga came to try out their new boat, even though it was wicked cold and not the usual time for being on the water. They wanted to get used to the boat before summer and figured the cold months would be good for that since there wouldn’t be many other boats around. In spite of the warnings at the marina, and the maps that Billy gave them of the known hazards—”
“Billy?”
“Bobby, actually. Bobby Thompson. But I’ve heard the kids around here tease him so much calling him Billy Bob that I sometimes slip up myself. He’s the owner of the local marina, the guy who flies our medevac helicopter I told you about.”
“Oh, right. I met Mr. Thompson when I was trying to get the names of my brother’s friends. Why call him Billy Bob if his name is Bobby?”
“Billy Bob Thornton, the actor. Bobby looks a lot like him.”
“Ah. Okay. So he warned this family and what happened? They ignored him?”
“I don’t know if they purposely ignored him or got excited and forgot his warnings once they were out on the water without anyone else around to get in their way. They were in one of the hazardous areas they should have avoided and going way too fast. The hull of their boat hit the top of a tree that was hidden under the water. Peeled the boat apart like a can opener. Threw everyone into the water.” He drew a deep breath and shook his head. “The family had life jackets on at the marina. For whatever reason, comfort or something else, they took them off once they were out of Bobby’s sight. None of them survived.” He tapped both of their life vests that they had on. “You never know when an accident is going to happen. That’s why I insisted on these today.”
She nodded, but it wasn’t the vests she was thinking about. It was the mixture of frustration and sadness in Beau’s expression that had her putting her hand on his on the wheel.
He tensed at her touch but didn’t pull away.
“You really do take every death personally, don’t you?” she said.
“Of course. My job is to—was to keep people safe, whether they live here or are tourists. Every preventable death is a failure we have to learn from, to try to prevent the next one. But when people don’t listen…” He shook his head again. “It’s…frustrating is all.”
She dropped her hand to her side. “It is beautiful here, so much wilder than I’d expected. You’d think there would be cabins all along the shores. Water views like this are usually in high demand in other places. Why am I not seeing any here?”
“Do you always ask this many questions?”
“When I’ve got nothing else to do. Are you going to answer me?”
He turned the wheel slightly, steering the boat farther out toward the middle again. The current must have been pushingthem toward shore because he kept having to make corrections in their course.
“Water views cost a pretty penny here in Mystic Lake too, but only in areas that aren’t known to be full of underwater hazards. Because of how this lake was formed, the debris beneath the surface is substantial in most of it. That’s actually one way to know you might be in a dangerous area out here. If you don’t see cabins or docks, take that as a sign to be cautious of underwater debris. Another reason you don’t see as many homes out here is that the lake is landlocked. In spite of how enormous it is, spanning for miles through the mountains, the only way to get to it is from our town. As you well know, that’s an hour-long drive from the outskirts of Chattanooga. One way in, one way out. Unless you fly by helicopter. It can make people feel closed off, isolated.”
He shrugged. “People who come here either love it or hate it, as far as actually living here goes. Personally, I’m glad that most of the visitors are temporary and don’t choose to stay long-term. I like living in a small town and not having glass office buildings and concrete everywhere you look.”
He glanced at her, his brows raising when he saw her looking at him. “Am I talking too much now?”
“It’s nice. What else can you tell me about this place?”
“Enough to put you to sleep with boredom. Is there something specific you want to know?”
