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“… A TIME TO KEEP SILENCE, AND A TIME TO SPEAK.”—ECCLESIASTES 3:7

W henever the stress in Sydney’s life became unbearable, she could count on a good hard run to ease the tension and clear her mind. Today even that had not done the trick. Hot water from the shower pounded on Sydney’s back as she replayed her conversation with Walter over and over in her mind. Then her thoughts shifted to Kendall. He’d called and awakened her at 8 o’clock this morning, saying that Walter wanted to take them out on his boat. It was so frustrating to try and explain why she didn’t want to go without revealing all the facts. There was no way she could make Kendall understand. Why would Walter even suggest such a thing? Surely he knew how she felt about boats. Maybe Walter was trying to help her face the fear, but he was certainly going about it the wrong way.

Sydney stepped out of the shower and wound a towel around her hair. The phone was ringing. She threw on her robe and rushed to answer it. “Hello?”

Silence.

“Hello?”The words were garbled and husky, like they were all wrapped up in barbed wire. “They know! They know who you are! Get out now while you can!”

Hot prickles pelted Sydney. She gripped the receiver. “Who is this?”

The line went dead.

Sydney’s hand was shaking when she put down the phone. She tried to place the voice. Something about it was hauntingly familiar.

The sound of the doorbell jolted her and she moved to open it.

“Kendall, you’re early.”

He stepped into the living room and glanced at her attire. He looked at his watch. “I told Walter we’d meet him at two.”

She swung around, causing the towel to fall off her head. The nerve of him. The phone call, her conversation with Walter—it all melted to the razor-sharp tip of an arrow. And that arrow was pointed at Kendall. “If you’re in such a big hurry to get there then maybe you should just go on without me!”

An arched eyebrow was his only reaction. “No, I’ll wait.” He sat down on the sofa.

How could he be so oblivious? Couldn’t he tell that something was wrong?

Sydney stomped to her bedroom and slammed the door. She threw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and retrieved her tennis shoes from the closet. Any other time she would have put more effort into her appearance, but she’d be darned if she’d put Kendall out any further by making him wait an extra minute! She reached for a hairbrush and raked it through her hair in jerky movements. She was going to take her jeep instead of riding with Kendall. That way she could talk to Walter for a minute and then leave. If Kendall didn’t like it, that was tough. At least one good thing would come out of the whole ordeal. She could tell Walter about the phone call.

When she returned, Kendall was pacing back and forth in front of the door. “All right,” she said, “let’s go. I’d hate to keep your dear friend Walter waiting.” She reached for her jacket and purse and stormed out the door with Kendall following close behind. She noticed Hazel’s curtains part as she approached the driver’s side of the jeep.

“What are you doing?”

Sydney’s chin raised a notch. “I’m going to follow you to the dock. I told you earlier that I don’t want to go out on the boat.”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Why would you not want to go? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a beautiful day, and we’ll have a wonderful time. It means a lot to Walter. I want the two of you to get to know each other better.”

She had to stop herself from laughing out loud.

“Come on, it means a lot to me.”

Normally, she would give in. Kendall didn’t know, couldn’t possibly understand, what he was asking of her. She raised an eyebrow, letting him know that she still wasn’t convinced.

“Look, I’ll make a deal with you,” he said. He came around, opened her door, and practically placed her in his truck.

Well, that was a first. He’d never opened her door before.

“You ride with me, and if you still feel the same way when you get there, then I’ll bring you back.”

She searched his face, trying to decide if she could trust him to really bring her back. “All right,” she said. She got in and he closed the door.

Not two minutes after Sydney walked out the front door, her phone rang and Ginger’s voice came across the answering machine. “Sydney, it’s me … hello? If you’re there, pick up. This is really important.” There was a pause, followed by a deep breath. “I really wish I could tell you this in person. Anyway, Mark finally got ahold of Dustin Akin, his friend from The Woodlands. Get this: He’s never heard of Sean O’Conner. He gave Mark the name of some other guy who was the starting quarterback. He even asked some of his former teammates to make sure that he wasn’t missing something. None of them had ever heard of Sean O’Conner either. Something’s fishy here, Syd. Mark’s really worried about it and so am I. I have a bad feeling about this. You need to stay as far away from Sean O’Conner as possible. Call me as soon as you get this message. I’ll try your cell.”

A stony silence settled over Sydney and Kendall on their way to the dock. Sydney kept running the strange phone call over and over in her mind. She tried to place the husky voice. What was it about it that was so familiar?

It was when her cell phone rang, causing her to jump, that she realized that her nerves were raw. She reached in her purse to retrieve it and saw that it was Ginger. She looked at it for a moment, trying to decide if she was going to answer it. There were no short conversations with Ginger. And Ginger had an uncanny way of sensing when something was wrong. She would be asking questions that Sydney couldn’t answer—not with Kendall sitting next to her.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s a friend of mine from Texas. I’ll call her back later.”

Tuesday rinsed off the last plate and watched the sudsy water slide down the drain. The voices of her two teenage grandsons drifted into the kitchen.

“Momaw, the game’s about to start!”

“I’m almost finished.” She reached for her oven mitt and took the pan of hot cookies out of the oven. She breathed in the familiar aroma and listened to her grandsons laughing in the next room.

“Come on, Momaw!”

Tuesday hurried into the room, carrying a plate heaped with chocolate chip cookies just as the pre-game ceremony began. She stopped in her tracks. All thoughts of the game fled. There it was right in front of her—the very thing she’d been racking her brain to remember.

“What’s wrong?”

Tuesday looked down and realized she was gripping the plate. “Boys, y’all go on without me. I’ll be right back. I’ve got to make a phone call.”

By the time she reached the dock, Sydney’s pulse bumped up a notch. In her mind she formulated her excuse for not going on the boat. Her one consolation was knowing that Walter would back her up. He of all people would understand her reasons for not wanting to go. In fact, it seemed strange that he would even suggest such a thing. This time Kendall didn’t open her door. He exited the truck so quickly that he was halfway down the pier by the time she got out. She shook her head. What was it with him, anyway?

A blast of cold air slapped Sydney in the face when she got out of the truck. She pulled her coat tighter around her. She glanced up at the sun that was shining in the thin sky. It was one of those deceptive days where you see the sun and think it’ll be warm until the wind hits.

She gazed over the sparkling water and breathed in the faint fishy smell. It was all so familiar—too familiar. Her thigh began to ache and a wave of nausea engulfed her. Her time with Judith had been a buffer to the pain, but standing here, almost in the same spot she’d stood all those years ago, her world seemed to contract, as if she were living it all over again. She had to get a grip. She was safe here with Walter and Kendall, and she wasn’t getting on the boat. She was going to have a conversation with Walter, and then Kendall would take her home.

It was a short walk on the pier to the boat, but it seemed like the longest of her life. If Walter had owned a sailboat, the similarity might have been too much to bear. Thankfully, what Kendall had referred to as Walter’s boat was in actuality a petite yacht. Walter was moving around on the deck and performing what she knew were last-minute checks before leaving the dock. The radio was turned up full blast, and she recognized the garbled sounds of a football game. Any other time, she would have smiled. Of course: Alabama was playing today. Walter would never miss that. The band was playing their fight song, “Yea Alabama.” Walter whistled along. Her childhood floated to the surface of her mind and she remembered going to Walter’s house with Avery on countless occasions to watch the game. Walter was always whistling that tune.

Walter’s back was facing her as she approached. Kendall was already on the boat beside him. Would it have hurt Kendall to wait a minute for her? She moved to the edge of the pier and Kendall extended his hand. At least he had the decency to do that.

Rather than taking hold of it, she stepped back. Kendall gave her a questioning look, which she ignored. The trick was how to talk to Walter about the phone call with Kendall right beside him. She cleared her throat. “Walter, I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to go on the boat today. I just came to apologize.”

A look passed between Walter and Kendall. Before she could continue, her cell phone rang again. She reached in her purse and retrieved it. The caller ID read Tuesday Phillips. “Excuse me for a minute,” she said. Walter nodded.

“Hello?”

“Sydney, I’m so glad I caught you. Do you remember when you asked me about Buford’s death?”

“Yes.”

“Well, remember how I told you that Buford was mixed up with somethin’ illegal with the guys at the mill?”

“I remember.”

“That tune that kept coming to me. I just realized what song it was: Yea Alabama. You’re probably not familiar with that, but it’s the theme song for the University of Alabama. I just heard it on the television.”

For a moment Sydney felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. White lights exploded in her head. Hot prickles covered her as it all came together. The husky voice on the phone that had sounded so familiar was Maurene’s. Images of Maurene clicked through her mind. Maurene standing on the landing. Maurene’s eyes boring into her at the football game. Was the call some twisted way to try to warn her? Was she trying to ease her own guilt but lacked the courage? She fought hard to stave off the look of horror that was sure to form on her face. How could she have been so blind? She thought of her most recent conversation with Walter. His words rose like a mocking banner. “If something had been going on at my sawmill, you can bet your bottom dollar I would’ve known about it.” Of course he would have known about it. Walter did know about it. Like a dot-to-dot picture, her mind ran through all the evidence and connected it. An image of Hazel on the back porch flashed in her mind. The mean brother who drowned the kitten. All of the color drained from her face. She looked at Walter and Kendall and realized they were studying her intently. Her head started spinning.

“Sydney? Sydney, are you there?” Tuesday asked.

“Yes,” she croaked, “I’m here.”

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, thank you.” She couldn’t let the terror overtake her, not with Walter standing there, listening to every word she spoke. She couldn’t let him know that she knew it was him. “Just keep things under control as best you can. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“What are you talking about?” Tuesday asked.

“Thanks. I’ll see you in a few.”

“What’s going on?” Sydney heard Tuesday ask as she disconnected the call.

Sydney looked at Walter and Kendall. “That was Sean O’Conner. There’s been an accident at the mill. I have to go there right away.”

Walter’s eyes narrowed. “An accident? What kind of accident?”

“Uh, I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

“I see.” Walter paused. “Sean O’Conner, huh? Who was it really?”

A calm stillness much like death came over her when she looked into the face of her father’s killer. Then came the rage. Oh, how she would have loved to rush at him to tear him apart—make him hurt like he’d hurt her. Her voice became steel. “I told you. There’s been an accident at the mill.” Even as she spoke, her mind went over the alternatives. She was alone in a remote area with Walter and Kendall. Could she race to Kendall’s truck and beat him there? No, when Kendall got out of his truck earlier, he took his keys with him. She could try to run, but they would catch her. Was Kendall involved or just an innocent bystander? Her only chance was to make Walter believe that she didn’t know about him. “Kendall, I need you to take me home so I can get my jeep,” she said with a voice of authority. Sydney’s heart dropped when Kendall looked to Walter for permission.

Walter nodded.

“I’m sorry I have to leave,” Sydney said.

Kendall hopped off the boat and onto the pier.

There was a pang of sadness in Walter’s eyes. “Yes, me too.”

Sean beat on the door for the third time then turned and looked at Sydney’s jeep parked in the driveway. Where could she be? He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Sydney’s neighbor peering at him through her window. When she realized he’d caught her staring at him, she slinked back and let the lace curtain cover her. Sean put one hand on his hip and ran the other through his hair. The old woman was always watching Sydney’s house. Maybe she’d seen Sydney leave.

He rushed next door. The front door was open but the glass storm door closed. He grasped the metal handle, only to find it locked. He cupped his hands around his eyes and strained to see inside. The woman saw him the same instant he saw her. She was standing in the middle of the living room. He knocked on the glass door, but she made no move to open it, remaining fixed to the floor.

“Hello?” he said through the glass. “I’m looking for Sydney.”

She shook her head and looked like she might bolt to a back room. “Have you seen Sydney today?” he asked. She didn’t answer. He felt something brush across his leg and looked down to see a cat. He bent down and picked it up.

“I have your cat,” he said loudly.

In a flurry of motion, Hazel rushed to the door. She unlocked the storm door, opened it, and reached for Dixie. She attempted to close the door, keeping Sean at a safe distance, but Sean stuck his foot in the door.

“I’ve got to find Sydney. She may be in danger. You’ve got to help Sydney.”

Hazel’s eyes grew wide, and her head began shaking from side to side. “Can’t hurt Sydney. Shouldn’t make Sydney go on that boat. Sydney didn’t wanna go. He shouldn’t have made her.”

“Boat? Who made Sydney go on a boat?”

“Shouldn’t have gone. No, she shouldn’t have gone. Bad. Bad. Don’t hurt Sydney.”

Sean caught hold of Hazel’s arm. “I need to know who she went with. You’ve got to tell me!”

Hazel raised her eyes to his and studied his face. Panic contorted her features and she squeezed Dixie so tightly that the cat screeched and leapt from her arms. “Don’t hurt Hazel. Please don’t hurt Hazel,” she whined as she backed away from him.

“What! What’re you talking about?”

She pointed her finger at him. “I know you. You broke into Sydney’s house. You’re the eyes! You’re the eyes that have been watching me and Sydney!”