Page 227 of Secrets Along the Shore

“Becca,” I croaked.

The door creaked open after a moment, and Becca entered. She carried a tray, metal and old, the paint chipping off the handles. On it sat a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and a chipped mug of coffee. The smell of it turned my stomach.

“Breakfast,” she said simply.

“I’m not hungry,” I told her. “I need water.”

Becca frowned but set the tray down on the nightstand. She didn’t leave.

“I saw someone,” I said. “In a dream. A man I didn’t know, holding a syringe with a heavy scent of rosemary. I think he was one of them. I think he did something to me…to all of us.”

Becca stared out the window.

“I need to go back to the lodge,” I said, hoping to convince her. “Not to run. I swear, I’m not trying to escape. But there’s a room, Becca. Off of Scanlon’s bedroom. A secret study. He documented everything. It’s all in there. There’s one cabinet that’s locked. I don’t know where the key is. I’ll show it all to you. You’ll have your answers. In fact, I think I might have seen a picture of this man from my dream in there.”

Her gaze snapped on me. “What man?”

“I’m not sure. I had a dream, and I remember a young man doing something to me with a plastic syringe. If we want answers, that’s where they’ll be. Not here. Not in a child’s old diary pages. Scanlon had files on everyone.”

“He wrote it all down?”

“Yes. He thought he had found a cure for deafness. He thought he would be rich. Of course, he would have documented his findings.”

She hesitated.

“Plus, there’s a body in my basement,” I added. “I need you to call the sheriff. Please. Right now. My phone is broken. We have to go in the daylight while we can see. The lodge has no electricity. I was blind in the dark. Deaf and blind, Becca. That was done on purpose.”

Her mouth opened, then closed, but I could see I was reaching her.

“Please. Come with me,” I said. “Or let me go. I won’t tell thesheriff what you did. I won’t tell him you tied me up or kept me here. We both want the same thing. The truth. That’s all we want, isn’t it? For Livvie?”

Becca walked to the bed slowly. Her fingers reached out and touched the frayed edge of the rope binding my ankles. She didn’t untie it.

“You think the truth will fix this?”

“No,” I said honestly. “But it’s the only way forward. Livvie didn’t survive what happened. But we did. And we owe it to her to find out what happened that night. Someone silenced her for a reason.”

Becca stared at me for a long time. Her expression flickered, her lips tightening like she was holding back something too sharp to speak aloud. She moved to the nightstand and picked up the diary.

“I used to think this would be enough,” she whispered. “That her words would tell me what I needed to know. I’ve memorized them all, but they’ve only made things worse. I’m sorry, Scarlett.”

“We’ll find the truth together,” I promised. “But not like this. We need each other now. I need you, Becca. I can’t do this alone. I don’t want to. I want you beside me.”

She closed her eyes. When she opened them, her face was wet with tears that she didn’t bother wiping away.

Without a word, she kneeled and untied my ankles. Then she unlocked my wrists. The pain from returning circulation made me cry out softly, but I didn’t move. Not until she helped me sit up.

“We go together,” she said. “But if you lie to me…if you trick me in any way…”

“I won’t,” I said. “I promise.”

And I meant it.

The rowboat rockedas we crossed the lake. Morning mist still clung to the water in long silver ribbons. Becca rowed in silence, her face tense, her arms strong and practiced. I sat behind her, my hands tucked into my lap. My wrists still throbbed.

A crowbar was beside Becca. She had brought it and placed it there. A silent message in case I ran? I wasn’t sure.

“When did you find her notebooks?” I asked quietly, keeping her mind on her plan.