Page 64 of The Witch’s Orchard

She shrugs and says, “I don’t know. A while. She still does them sometimes, but she hides them or tears them up after. She doesn’t show them to Mom.”

“Okay,” I say, my eyes moving over the spirals. The crayon is thick and heavy, indenting the paper even after all these years. I look back up at the two of them.

“You two are friends?”

They glance at each other, and then Nicole nods and Tam says, “We’ve been on debate team together since freshman year.”

Illuminating.

“And you heard about Molly,” I say.

“We went to school with Max,” Tam says. “I always thought hiring a PI was sort of hopeless. Probably a waste of money. But you show up in town and, two days later, Molly is back. I want you to find Jessica. We have to find her, before it’s too late. I want to help.”

“Well, I don’t know how much youcanhelp,” I say. “But this is good. Thank you for this.”

They don’t say anything and my gaze drifts from them, down to the crayon drawings, and back up to them. I say, “You two were pretty young when your sisters were taken.”

“Yeah,” Tam says.

I say, “Nicole, why do you think Olivia was returned?”

She lets out a breath I hadn’t realized she was holding; maybe she hadn’t either. She says, “I sort of… God, don’t tell my mom. Look, I love Olivia. She’s my sister and I love her more than anyone.Anyone.And I think Olivia is perfect the way she is. But if you didn’t know her? I know what people think. What they say.”

She bites her lip again and her cheeks go pink as she looks off into the distance, beyond the overlook and across the valley. Tam moves his hand, subtly, just barely touching Nicole’s between them.

Nicole is still looking away when she says, “They think she was returned because she was defective. Because she wasn’t normal. And…” She glances at Tam, whose face is set and hard while Nicole’s eyes fill with tears.

Tam says, “And if you take a little girl and bring her back because she’s not normal then what would you have been using her for? I mean, why did they bring back Molly Andrews? Whynow? Is it because you showed up here? Started asking questions? Or is it because it’s been ten years? Like it’s some kind of… anniversary?”

“You sound like you have a theory,” I say.

Tam glares at me for a few long seconds and then looks at Honey instead.

“Tell me,” I say.

“What if someone took Olivia all those years ago and brought her back because they realized she wasn’t suited for whateverpurposethey had.”

Nicole bites her bottom lip, looks from the horizon to Tam to me.

She says, “Everyone always underestimates Olivia. They see that shedoesn’t talk and that she’s not like regular people and they assume she’s an idiot. But she’s not. She’s smart and she’s brave and she’s sneaky. People assume that Olivia was brought back intentionally, but I’ve always wondered…”

“You think maybe she escaped?”

She shrugs and looks back across the hills.

“Maybe,” she says, quietly. “Maybe he never meant to let her go.”

I look away, down toward town. Quartz Creek lies in a low valley, and I can follow the line of Main Street from here. I’m on the opposite side of town from Max’s farm, the woods beyond it, Susan’s cabin.

“You two ever been to visit Susan McKinney?”

Tam snorts and Nicole looks down at her shoes.

“So, that’s a ‘yes,’” I say.

Nicole nods.

“What’d she tell you?”