“I think it started after their junior year.” Liv begins. “Matt told me about this one time when he stopped by Mom’s house. It was last summer, and Julie and her harem were there.”
“Harem? That’s the second time you’ve used that word.”
“It’s the way Matt refers to Julie’s friends. Anyway, the girls were all lounging out at the pool. He went there to pick something up—I honestly don’t remember what. When Julie went in the house to get it, he said the scene changed into something like a bad porn film. The girls were all wearing tiny bikinis that according to him barely covered...well, anything. As soon as Julie went inside,Jessie and Marty instantly became all flaunty and flirty.” She shrugs. “He said it was very uncomfortable. According to him, when Julie came back outside, she went off.”
“At him?”
“No, at them. Matt said that Julie told them that family is off-limits, that family isn’t part of the game.”
Game.Becky used that word too.
“They have a game?” I ask. “A real game—like a competition?”
“I asked Julie about it, and she laughed it off. But there are other people I know who have talked about it. My friend Beth still lives in Blue Gil. She swears these girls are not to be trusted.”
“Yet so many people showed up to find them,” I say.
Liv nods. “I think it was because of what happened to Coach. If he hadn’t died, the town would have made assumptions about the girls too.”
“Thinking of Julie locked in that shed, I’m glad their disappearance wasn’t blown off.” I lean back against the chair and think about what my sister just said. “Tell me, what’s the endgame for the girls—for this game? Is seducing enough or must there be sex? Or is it to cause the destruction of some guy’s marriage?”
“What I think,” Liv says as she looks back over the lake. “Or maybe it’s what I hope is true...”
“What?”
“This game—whatever they had going—started last summer. I believe that Julie actually liked Austin and didn’t want to play.”
“Then why do it?”
Liv turns toward me. “Do you remember high school here?”
I nod.
“Peer pressure is a real thing.” When I don’t respond, she continues, “So let’s say that this competition was already happening amongst the other girls. Finally, Julie was either pushed into joining or did it on her own to stay with the harem. Austin wasn’t onboard and broke up with her. The way I see it, this happened after Christmas. Some of the other girls had been doing this since last June. Julie was behind. To catch up, she needed a sure thing, a married man who was a guaranteed score. One that wouldn’t reject her.”
“Craig.”
Liv nods.
“You don’t think it was real infatuation?”
“I don’t. She hasn’t been happy, the opposite.”
“Her weight?”
Liv nods again. “Mom has been beside herself.”
“Does Mom know about the game?”
“She didn’t. I told her my theory when Julie and Marty first went missing. I thought maybe it would help. I was hoping they were off in a hotel in Lawton or Kalamazoo with some married guy.”
“But they weren’t.”
She sadly shakes her head. “It’s why Mom forced Sheriff Manes to make the announcement. She hoped it would scare the other girls into stopping whatever they’re doing, if the game exists.”
I begin to pace. “Shit, if Julie’s connection to Craig was only for this game, there were probably other men.You said Jessie and Marty came on to Matt. Becky said Marty came on to Hank.”
“According to Beth, none of the girls were exempt. However, it always seemed like from the time they were young, Marty was a driving force.”
