Manor House
"How do we start?" Jim asked as they sat in the library. His big hands clenched in fists on the tops of his knees and he felt as helpless as a boy whose mother was slowly dying of cancer. Forced to watch from the sidelines, willing to help, but he unable to battle the demon inside her.
Honey lit various candles. "Lavender is very soothing," she said, waving her hand and filling the air with the natural, relaxing scent.
"Let's start in the beginning," Trixie said, settling into her chair and closing her eyes.
"No," Dan said. "Let's start before the beginning. Start from the end of your school day."
"Okay," Trixie said, holding Jim's hand and resettling, sifting through memories like a faded scrap book.
"Mart and Di had been named homecoming king and queen that year. She and Mart made a striking couple, I remember thinking." Her lips quirked. "But of course, I would never in a million years tell Mart that."
"Of course not," Dan agreed.
"This was the following weekend," Honey clarified, her lawyer's brain sorting through layers of irrelevant data. "It was the Friday before Halloween," she said, sitting down.
"Trixie and I had a date for the carnival," Jim said. "Brian was away at school but I managed to come home."
Trixie frowned. "I found the skee ball tickets in the hoodie." She rummaged in the pocket, producing a stream of tickets and an old lollipop wrapper. "Did we play?"
"Yes," Jim confirmed.
"I beat you?" Trixie caught at a fragment of memory and began unravelling it.
"It wasn't really a competition," Jim said.
Trixie waved her hand and made a blowing sound. "Yeah, whatever. I whupped your butt in skee ball. Get over it."
Jim smiled at the shadows of "his" Trixie and tugged on a curl just because he could. "We went on a few rides. Do you remember any of them, Trix?"
Trixie took a deep breath, relaxed, and forced herself to pour over memories long forgotten. "Dinner was corn dogs and funnel cake. I remember thinking Moms would have a cow if she knew."
"Yep, we did. And yep, she probably would have."
"We met up with Dan and Honey, right? Outside the House of Mirrors." She shuddered. "That place gave me the heebie jeebies."
"Why?" Honey asked, forehead creasing. "You never get the heebie jeebies."
"I can't remember why," Trixie said. "A child was screaming. In pain."
Jim startled in his seat. "You're right. I remember that, too," he said, excitedly.
"Was it Emma Ray?" Honey asked. "I don't remember anyone crying."
"Neither do I," Dan said. "But I do remember Nick Roberts and his brother were there, too. Maybe we can put them on a list to interro..uh. I mean question?"
"Maybe," Trixie said with a sigh. "We'll get back to that," Trixie said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Let me think. I was 15 so I think my curfew on Friday night was 11pm."
"It was but we didn't go home, remember? Ruthie came up to us outside the funnel cake stand to say her sister had wondered off and asked if we could help look for her."
"How did we get out to the Preserve?" Trixie asked. "Wait. There was a car we were following?"
Jim nodded. "Dr. Ferris was there, working at the first aid tent. He said he thought he saw Emma Ray leaving in an old SUV. We followed them down Glen Road but they were so far ahead of us, we lost them. By that time the police were at the carnival site, looking for Emma Ray."
"Ferris, huh?" Dan asked, deep in thought. "Another suspect to question."
No, Trixie thought, that didn't feel right. But the old doctor may have some perspective on that night.
Honey wiped tears from her eyes, thoughts of the fear and pain Emma Ray must have gone through tugging at her heart. "We pulled into Lytell's Grocery to ask him if he had seen anything. He said he hadn't seen the SUV so we knew it had to have gone somewhere between town and his store."
"Good thing for nosy neighbors, huh?" Trixie said.
"I stayed with Ruthie and the police, looking for Emma Ray," Dan said.
"Molinson said it was just a crazy hunch, didn't he? That's why he didn't come with us down Glen Road," Trixie said, frowning in concentration.
"Didn't he always?" Honey said with a derisive sniff.
Jim nodded. "I parked the car and got Patch and some flashlights. Reagan and Dad and Mr. Belden came up and we scoured the Preserve."
"I remember that! It reminded me of the time Bobby got lost, except Dan wasn't out there," Trixie said. She turned to Honey. "We even worried about Emma Ray finding a catamount, didn't we?"
Honey nodded, tacitly agreeing with Trixie's comments. "And then it was all so fast," Honey continued. "Patch started barking and we ran and there she was. Face down in the creek."
"I got wet, running to her, didn't I?" Trixie said, her own tears beginning to fall. "She was so little. So small. And all I could think was we had to start CPR as soon as possible. And why wasn't Brian there?" Her voice caught. "He was the one who was so good at all of that stuff."
Jim's own eyes got bright with emotions. "We took turns with the CPR while Honey called the police and ambulance to find us. Your dad and mine went out to the house to guide them in but by that time, it was too late."
"She was gone." Fresh shudders shook Trixie's shoulders as a wall of data crashed into her. "That poor baby. Gone so young."
"After that," Honey's cracked voice took up the story, "the Kettners came out and everyone was yelling. Blaming. It was horrid and ugly and I can't even blame them. Their daughter died, but there was nothing we could do. Nothing we could have done."
It wasn't fair that our loved ones die, Dan thought, cooled to the bone by his own interpretation of that night. Was love even worth it in the end? He'd seen more than his share of death before turning 18 and still, as an adult, chose a career where death was an all-too-real aspect.
"And you sat there," Jim said, linking his hand with his once and future special girl. "You sat there, soaking wet and in shock. No one could reach you. Finally, Dr. Ferris came out and he gave us all a sedative so we could sleep."
"Ferris again, huh?" Dan said with a grunt.
Trixie's eyes felt gritty and tired as she looked up into Jim's brilliant emerald eyes. "But that's not where it ended, is it?"
"You look beat, Trix," Jim said. "Why don't we take a break before we continue?"
Trixie set her jaw, stubbornly. "No, we're in this far, we need to finish it."
Jim sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I couldn't sleep," Jim said, finally. "I kept staring out the window, wondering if I had driven home faster if I'd have been in time to save her. Did we stay too long at Lytell's? Anything. And then I saw a flashlight coming up from Crabapple Farm and I knew you couldn't sleep, either. I grabbed my own flashlight and followed you back into the Preserve."
"You didn't call out?" Trixie said.
"No, if you were hot on a lead I didn't want to scare the bad guy off and I figured you'd notice me soon enough."
"Honey said we were attacked."
Dan nodded. "You were both found by a jogger out at the country club but the CSIs confirmed it was a secondary location. You were attacked in the Preserve."
"I was hit from behind," Jim said, rubbing the back of his neck, the shadow of a crowbar welt still there.
"I don't remember," Trixie said with a little puff of air. She frowned, willing the memories to come back, as if by force alone she could access them.
"You were hit," Honey said, rising to hug her friend. "Punched several times and ligature marks around your neck, like you'd been choked."
Trixie's own small, cool hands touched her neck. She was so cold. The pressure was unbearable and she had to get to Jim. Why was he doing this? Surreality surrounded her and she blocked it off, pushed it back. Unbelieving it could have been him to do this.
Dan's sharp intake of breath caught startled them all. "That second boy. Timmy Stewart. The news article said he'd been strangled." His dark eyes met Trixie's bright blue ones. "You were attacked by the killer and lived."
