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She only went outside when Grandfather said so. Only when Grandfather was there and it was almost dark outside did he ever let her and Orion go outside. And it was never to play. It was always when he wanted to teach them something science.
Nanny complained about how weird that was all the time. Kids were supposed to play outside, Nanny said. She snuck them out sometimes. When it wasn’t really hot out. And Grandfather wasn’t coming. They played with bubbles and a kickball and stuff. Then Nanny hid the toys before Grandfather came back so he wouldn’t be mad. She hid them behind the wood dollhouse in the breezeway that probably used to be her mommy’s.
Oakley loved that dollhouse. It looked so pretty. Grandfather never let her touch it, though.
Oakley knew where the mailbox was. Even if it was a really, really long way from their house and the other buildings around them now. She’d never been that far from the house before.
She clutched her special letter very close.
This was it.
Shehadto do this. She had to bebrave.
She had to save her baby brother.
She pretended the driveway was a river of lava, and her raft was melting. She marched, avoiding lava monsters. The whole entire way.
Oakley followed the driveway all the way to the end. Where the big road was.
There was the mailbox. She marched up to it really fast. Reached.
Oakley started crying. It was too tall. Shecouldn’t reach!
She was too short to reach the handle. No matter how she climbed she just couldn’t do it. She heard a sound. Oakley jerked around.
A car was coming. Grandfather!
57
He missed his woman.Murdoch had consoled himself with the knowledge that after she’d spent the day with him—going to the doctor and the dentist and the school and everywhere else—that she was going to come back. She was on her way out to the edge of the county now, to ask questions from a retired doctor who lived out there, just growing tomatoes most days.
See if he remembered theColesons,for one thing.
But Neil had called Murdoch in. He’d had a call up in the north part of the county. Now Murdoch was watching the office like a grunt. And, well, watching over Gladys. She could be a bit wily, that woman. He was almost as much in love with Gladys Lockwood as he was Zoey—just in an entirely different way.
Gladys was a born troublemaker, and she enjoyed it.
He’d told himself he’d see his Zoey again. And, he would use his time wisely. Gladys had lived in Garrity County her entire life. She would know the Colesons, too. Time for Murdoch to go fishing.
While he waited for his woman.
It just took bribing Gladys with junk food to get her to open up. “So, tell me about the Colesons of Coleson Hollow, my love. I know you know all the stories.”
"Oh, the stories they used to tell about that place," Gladys laughed after she spoke. Murdoch had always found this woman utterly fascinating. "My grandsons used to go by there when they were young, Sheriff. About twenty, twenty-five years ago. Said there were ghosts at Coleson Hollow. I’m sure, with the hospital and all out there, there probably are."
Murdoch did the math. Neil was her youngest grandson, but he had been raised in Dallas, he'd said once. He was around the same age as Murdoch. "Who did they say the ghosts were?"
"Why, Dr. Coleson's first wife and their eldest daughters, of course. Supposedly, they weremurdered.Well, Maria most definitely was, such a pity. Intruder broke in, found her. And, well, did things to her I won’t discuss. They found her body at the bottom of the stairs one night when her youngest was no more than four. Had four daughters, she and young Andrew. That was a good forty or forty-five years back, I believe. A lovely woman. A movie actress. Very beautiful. Very, very beautiful. And kind.” She paused a moment, as if she was looking back.
Murdoch just waited. Gladys liked to tell him stories of the past. He loved to listen. “How did they meet?”
“Introduced to Andrew by his own starlet mama, I believe. She had been reasonably famous in Mexico before marrying Andreas. Francisca, her name was. So, so beautiful, that lady. One of the softest hearted young ladies I have ever met—Andrew’s wife. I remember how put out my Viola was when Andrew brought Maria back from California with him. A whirlwind romance, it was. Never had you seen two young people more in love. Gave up her career for his, too. I’m glad that boy found happiness again, after he lost her.”
He wished he could have been there for Garrity in its heyday. And Coleson Hollow. What was left now—well, it would be lost eventually. People didn’t move to a place like Garrity. Not without damned good reason.
“Andrew was married a good fifteen years or so to that little blond love of his. Her name…give me a minute…Kim, I think she was. Four girls, she gave him, too. That’s right—four from his Maria, and four from his Kemberly. That youngest one came as a wee bit of a surprise, that’s for sure. And so sickly at first.”
Murdoch figured why not go for it. He pulled up the portrait on his phone. "Is this woman a Coleson, by any chance?"
