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She’s trembling now. Whatever Lenna was afraid of, did it have to do with this? But Sarah was a suspect, not Lenna.
And now they were both here.Rhiannonhad been tricked into bringing them. Of course Lenna had reasons to distrust Rhiannon if she was culpable. She cursed herself for following the voice’s rules without question. Thinking that she was helping Lenna and Sarah, leading them into paradise—all becausesheneeded money. She should have asked more questions of the voice. Why didn’t she? And if the voice was Marjorie, how did Marjorie know about Gillian’s death? And why on earth would she bring these two women together?
Rhiannon felt like such a pawn.
She tried to think back. Rhiannon found Sarah in that café in November. Sarah reached out to Rhiannon with questions about Halcyon by December, and little by little, she seemed moreinterested in seeing the place. By February, Sarah decided to visit; by March, she wanted to stay. After that, the calls from the voice stopped for a while. Rhiannon’s massive buy-in payment to the community hit the account, and just like that, she was an official resident. Marjorie was pleased—and she didn’t question where the money came from. She had to be the voice. Why she’d disguised herself to get Rhiannon to recruit was kind of baffling…but then, Marjorie was kind of unorthodox in general. She truly believed the land was magical andspoketo her sometimes, telling her what to do. The canyons had a voice, and so did the mountains, the insects, and even the desert dirt.
Still, things were great. Rhiannon and Teddy thrived. If there was an investigation into a child who’d gone missing from that hospital, Rhiannon never heard about it. And she hadn’t heard from Joanna, but Rhiannon figured that was what Joanna wanted.
But then, seven months into her official stay, the calls began again.
“Seems like your recruit is settling in nicely, Pigeon. Good work. But what aboutyou? Do you have anyone at the ranch you really jell with? To whom you’d like to tell your deepest thoughts and wishes?”
“That doesn’t really matter,” Rhiannon admitted.
“Come on. You don’t want a friend? Maybe someone you were close to in the past? There’s got to be someone.”
The onlysomeonewas Lenna. And while Rhiannon would love to have her in her life again, there was absolutely no way. Besides, she didn’t want to bring anyone else. The first time, going out into the world, had made her nervous enough. She’d technically committed a crime. “I live here now. These are my people.”
“It’s one thing to live in a community ofpeople.It’s another to live in a community offriends.When I was growing up, my sister and I fantasized about running away from our boring lives in thesuburbs. Bringing our friends, maybe living in a hut on the beach somewhere. It was a decadent idea—always being around people you loved, always having company. You ever wish for that?”
Rhiannon dwelled on this now, as she walked higher up the peak. According to what Marjorie told all of them, she’d grown up in intentional communities.Notthe suburbs.
So maybe the voice wasn’t Marjorie. Maybe it was someone else.
“I can’t do this,” she pushed to the voice on the phone.
“I told you. You have to do two, maybe three.”
“Isn’t there some other way?”
“You should think it over. I wouldn’t want you to have to leave Halcyon.”
When Rhiannon hung up, she’d felt sick. She didn’t want to leave, either. But this didn’t feel totally legitimate.
The next morning, she was getting Teddy out of bed and dressing him for the day. She noticed something strange sticking under her door that hadn’t been there last night. It was an envelope: white, rectangular, nondescript. Rhiannon picked it up and sliced it open. Inside was a piece of paper; pasted to it was the picture of her and Joanna standing in the parking lot of that dive bar. “Smush together. Smile,” Johnny had said, aiming his phone at them.
Rhiannon’s heart fluttered. The photo had been in her possession when she came. She’d forgotten about it, this one vestige of her strange interlude with Johnny and her mother. Then she turned the paper over. Someone had written a message on the back. An awful poem. Ateasingpoem.
Someone knew.
Bile rose in her throat. She tried to rip the photo to shreds, but her fingers were shaking too badly. She shoved the picture into a drawer and slammed it tight, but that didn’t feel hidden enough. She looked around. With scissors, she cut a hole in one of the cupsof her favorite bra and smashed it in. There. Now it would always be on her. Safe, next to her chest.
It had to be the voice’s doing. It was a threat. Incentive so Rhiannon did whatever the voice wanted. But also…this was a physical object, the photo. She’d brought it with her. And the threat wasslipped under her door.The voice was here, then. One of them. And the voice was saying,Unless you do what I ask, I’ll make everyone know exactly what you did.
Powerless, Rhiannon did some digging on Lenna. There was barely anything about her online. Finally, she thought to check Lenna’s dad’s Facebook page. On it, she found a few photographs of him and a newborn baby. He looked so pleased. Grandfatherly. Lenna was an only child.
Rhiannon flipped through a few pictures of her old friend. An ache welled up inside her. She really,reallymissed Lenna. She hated that she hadn’t appreciated her fully when they were friends. She hated that they’d just stopped speaking. The wordsToo ducking late. Lose this numberflashed in her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Lenna clearly hated her, but she’d give anything to talk to her again. The voice was right. She would love to have Lenna here—Lennaspecifically.Even if Lenna said no, it would be nice to see her one more time.
When the voice called again the next day, there was no talk of the photo, but Rhiannon understood it was the underlying ultimatum. She told the voice about hitting up Lenna as a potential recruit. “But I think she’s married. She has a kid.”
“You never know until you try,” the voice said. “You really have no idea what people are hiding, or what they want, or what they need. You should reach out. At least get her to visit. Maybe, once she comes, she’ll want to commit after all. Marriages have cracks. Maybe she’ll see that.”
“Who are you?” Rhiannon whispered, one last try.
The voice just laughed. “Don’t worry, Pigeon. I’ll keep your secrets, as long as you do what I ask.”
Rhiannon couldn’t believe it when Lenna agreed to meet her at the café. She’d played it cool, like there was no history between them—bringing up the past, she figured, might harden Lenna, make her less malleable to the idea of Halcyon. Lenna was awkward at first. She’d danced around questions about Rhiannon’s disappearance that Rhiannon wished she could answer. But then she’d have to admit her terrible lie. That felt like starting off on the wrong foot, too.
