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“How’d she do?” Mom asked, checking her watch and ruffling her daughter’s hair.
Chandra equivocated. “Improving.”
“Good, good,” Mom said, not really interested. To her daughter, she added, “Look, honey, you get in the car. Quick. Chop. Chop.”
The girl didn’t need any more encouragement and dived into the minivan.
Mother apologized, “Sorry. We’re already late for the boys’ lessons.”
“Do I have to go?” Willa whined from the interior of the minivan, but Mom ignored it. To Nikki, she offered an apologetic smile. “Martial arts. Tae kwon do and we’re late. Well, I’m always late. Twins. Six-year-old boys. Willa hates waiting, and I can’t say that I blame her, but, well, you know, it is what it is.” She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe her life. “After martial arts, it’s swim lessons for all of them.” She was flustered and breathless. “Crazy, I know.”
“Mo-om,” Willa called from the interior of the van. “Can we just go now?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” she threw over her shoulder, then, turning back to Chandra, “Oh, damn. I forgot the check. I’ll . . . I’ll Venmo the next month’s lessons when I get home. Okay?” She was already heading back to her vehicle.
Chandra’s smile faded. “And this month’s.”
“Right, oh, yeah, right, right! That’s totally what I meant.” Blushing, she threw Chandra an oh-silly-forgetful-me look, then was off, diving into the minivan, getting behind the wheel and slamming the door shut in one quick motion. She maneuvered a quick three-point turn before driving quickly down the lane, dust kicking up in the gravel in her wake.
“I’m not going to count on that, the Venmo thing,” Chandra said, almost to herself, then turned back to Nikki. “Sorry. Business. You were asking about that Duval family.” She shook her head. “They were a strange lot.”
“They were? How so?”
“First of all, the parents weren’t happy. I felt it in their faces, s
aw it in the way they interacted with each other. That’s no crime, of course, happens all the time, but they were different. It was”—she squinted up at the sky, where thin white clouds slid over the sun—“it was this weird vibe. It went beyond unhappiness or not trusting each other to, like, wariness.”
“Before the girls went missing,” Nikki clarified.
“Before, during, and after. It was just always there. And the kids felt it, too, at least the oldest one, uh, Holly did. I sensed it. She was always edgy around her folks. Clammed up, like she was afraid to say anything. But—a lot of people are odd or have different kinds of relationships. As for the Duvals, the entire family seemed, I don’t know, ‘off,’ I’d say. Frankly, I was surprised that Harvey and Margaret stayed together for as long as they did because before the girls went missing, there was talk of them not getting along or having affairs or whatever.” She scratched the back of her neck, beneath her braid. “I never saw any sign of it myself, and gossip runs through Savannah like wildfire through tinder, but who knows? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, y’know? Smoldering somewhere, but it’s a damned shame about the kids.” She clucked her tongue. “Cute little things, all of ’em. And that little Rose, she had a special spark. Holly, she was suspicious, and the middle one . . . uh, Poppy, she was kind of sneaky and a really good student, I think, and like I said, little Rose, she took after her mother, looked more like Margaret than the other two. They favored Harvey, but that wasn’t bad. They were a good-looking group, just . . . off somehow.”
“Maxie seemed to think that you had a special insight into them.”
“Oh. Well.” She rubbed her chin. “I can see things sometimes, especially if I concentrate, but all I saw about that family was trouble, lots of strife, and the cause of it? The older brother. He’s just a bad seed.”
“And you know this how?” Nikki asked. Just because a teenager didn’t meet your gaze didn’t indicate that he was troubled.
Chandra bit her lip. “Well . . . okay . . . I guess I can tell you, but don’t you print it. Got it? Anything I tell you is from an ‘anonymous source,’ right? Otherwise it’s got to be completely off the record.”
“Understood.”
“Good.” Leaning against the top rail, she glanced at the horse, still saddled, switching his tail at a bothersome fly. “Maxie probably told you, or you’ve heard that I sometimes see things, you know. It’s not like it happens all the time, but sometimes. Definitely.” She rubbed her chin, her eyes narrowing as she remembered. “And it happened with that family once, at the Marianne Inn, just up the river, here.” She hooked her thumb toward the north. “I took a trail ride up that way with a couple of friends, oh, God, it’s been over twenty years, of course. I was riding in the lead, I remember, on Zeus—he was my favorite gelding at the time. Sorrel with a stubborn streak but could race like the wind. Man, I loved that horse . . .” She was squinting, thinking, her mind turned inward. “Anyway, that’s when I came across them and there was this, this . . . oh, just something that gave me pause.”
“An aura around Harvey and Margaret?”
“No . . . it was the girls—no, that’s wrong. She paused, her eyebrows drawing together. “Just the oldest one, Holly. I sensed some sadness in her, more like a wave of despair. And then, upon hearing the horses, she looked up, saw us coming and the tears that I’d seen falling dried quickly.” Chandra’s voice was quieter. “The feeling I got, the energy from her, changed immediately. She just forced a smile, then ran off.”
“To the lodge?”
“Yes.” She nodded thoughtfully as the horse nickered softly. “It was open back then.” Clearing her throat, she added, “I’d better see to Oliver.” She stepped to the still-open gate.
“You said, ‘them.’ You saw ‘them.’ So who besides Holly?”
“That’s just it. I sensed there was someone else there, saw a flicker of something, or someone, but not sure who . . . or even what. A shadow. I remember there were bees that day—wasps, no hornets, I think. I remember swatting at them and urging the horse forward. To get away from them.” Her brows drew together and she rubbed her forehead, leaving a smudge. “Funny the things you recall.”
“But you saw someone else. With Holly.”
“Yeah, I felt a presence. Maybe the brother—Owen. Coulda been him.”
