Page 122 of Serenity Falls

She frowns. ‘What are you doing, sitting out here on your own? Where’s your date?’

‘At home, I presume.’

Her eyes narrow. ‘You’ve been smoking.’

‘Yeah. Sorry.’

She shakes her head. ‘You are a weak, weak man.’

Weaker than she can ever know.

‘Guilty as charged. Anyway, how was your evening?’

Maybe my imagination, but she seems to stiffen a little. ‘Oh, okay, good.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Just the usual fairground stuff. Went on some rides, ate junk, just hung out, really.’

‘Great. I’m glad. I mean, glad it was fun.’

‘Yeah.’ She nods. ‘No more freaky recordings on the security camera?’

I shake my head. ‘Nope. Not so far.’

She squints at the laptop. ‘What are you watching? Is that Harold Winsom?’

‘Yeah.’ I debate with myself, wondering whether to be truthful, and then think, why lie? ‘You know the number on those messages?’

‘Yeah.’

‘It’s also engraved under Harold Winsom’s statue in the town square. Apparently, it’s a biblical reference. Genesis 6: 13–22. Noah’s Ark.’

‘What the hell?’

I press play on the laptop and gesture for her to watch. Harold Winsom smiles charmingly into the camera again. Sadie leans over my shoulder, intent on the screen. At the end she lets out a breath. ‘That is weird, especially the flood stuff.’

‘I guess it’s metaphorical. He wanted to build a haven in a troubled world. This would have been in the seventies, so the shadow of war and all those horrors was still hanging heavy.’

Sadie considers. ‘Not like the world is much better now.’

‘Yeah, well, humans never seem to learn. They just fight different wars and hate each other for different reasons.’

‘I guess.’ She looks thoughtful. ‘I found something else out tonight.’

‘What?’

‘Just before Frankie died, he was looking up stuff about Serenity Falls.’

‘What sort of stuff?’

‘He had a list of dates, and he was researching old newspaper stories in the library. Apparently, whatever he found, it scared him.’ She pauses. ‘Maybe it even got him killed?’

I try to rein in my irritation and, yes, my own uneasiness. ‘Is this something your new friends told you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Look, I’m not saying there isn’t some troubling stuff going on, but sometimes people exaggerate.’