“Yeah. But she was gone when I got up the next morning.”
“And did you see her again after that?”
Sylvia frowned, the lines around her mouth deepening like little canyons. “No. That was the last time. Like I said, it was just a day or two before she took off.”
“And you haven’t heard from her? Or heard anything about her from anyone?”
Sylvia shook her head, dangly turquoise earrings swaying. She reached up, touched one, tugged on it a little. “No.” She stared out across the room, her eyes on the glowingEXITsign above the door. “Sometimes I think that maybe she did find it. Hattie’s treasure. I never believed it existed, but maybe it did and your mama found it and she took that money and got as far away from here as she possibly could.”
Without me,Olive thought. She took a long sip of her cold Coke, trying to concentrate on the sweetness, to give herself something else to focus on other than the horrible empty feeling this idea left her with.
All she got was brain freeze.
CHAPTER 15
Helen
JULY 13, 2015
They spent the remainder of the afternoon cutting out the rest of the holes that would be windows. Helen went around with the drill, making holes in each corner, and Nate followed her with the saw, making the cuts, letting the pieces of plywood fall out to the ground below. They didn’t talk about the deer or what Helen had seen the night before. They didn’t talk much at all, just worked steadily, power tools whining, sawdust flying.
“Feels more like a proper house now, doesn’t it?” Nate asked once they were finished, standing back to admire their work from the front yard.
“Getting there,” Helen said. “But we’ve still got a long way to go. Let’s bring in one of the windows and see if we can get it in.”
Riley arrived just in time to help, pulling up in an old battered Honda Civic.
“Thought I’d come check out this house I’ve been hearing so much about,” she said. “Wow! I love it! Classic saltbox!”
Helen gave her a grateful hug. “I love that you know it’s a saltbox! And that you’re here!”
Helen introduced her to Nate, whose first words were “You don’t know anything about installing windows, do you?”
She laughed. “Lots,” she said. They led her into the house.
“That beam looks amazing there!” she said, stopping below the header between the living room and kitchen. “It’s perfect!”
“Too bad it’s from a hanging tree,” Nate said, laughing. “And that it seems to be haunted.”
“Haunted?” Riley said, looking from Nate to Helen.
Nate laughed, and Helen said, “He’s just joking. Come on, let’s see if we can get our first window in. Let’s start small—the bathroom?”
Riley helped them fit the window into the frame, then shim, square, and level it and nail it in place. When they finished the first window, they went on to do four more, in what seemed like no time.
“Wow,” Nate said, admiring their work. “If we had you here more often, we might even get back on schedule.”
“Big project like this is bound to get a little behind,” Riley said. “I’m happy to swing by and help out when I can. And if you want to break down and hire a pro for a week or two to help speed things along, I’ve got lots of names.”
Riley was wearing a tank top, and Helen was struck by the woman’s tattoos. She was covered in designs, all in black ink only, ranging from delicate to bold: an eye, a fish, a pentagram, a crystal ball, a winged horse. She had a black snake in a perfect circle on the back of her neck, its tail tucked into its open mouth, just visible under her angled bob.
Helen saw Nate looking at the tattoos and knew he didn’t approve—he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to do that to their body. Helen had toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo once, back when they were first together, but Nate had advised her against it, warning that she’d be sure to regret it at some point.
“I think we owe you a beer,” Nate said.
“Sounds great! And I’ve got a little weed if either of you are interested,” Riley said.
Nate shook his head. “None for me thanks, but I’ll go grab some beers.” He gave Helen a raised-eyebrowsyou’re not really going to do that, are you?look that helped her make up her mind.
