Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers (18 page)

“I’ll help you, of course, I will, but I’m not doing that. I had not even seen Glen since we were kids and I do not plan on returning to that place now.”

Regina peered at her friend. Black Water was not the smallest town on the map, there were even two high schools, but it was sure as hell not a place where residents didn’t see each other for years. Nikki read her friend’s face.

“Well, I have seen him, but you know…not anywhere near him or talking to him or anything. Creepy.” She cringed.

“So, besides going up to that place, what do we do?” Nikki asked as the group concentrated their attentions on Regina.

She suddenly became nervous. “Give me some time to think about it. I’m not Angela Landsbury.”

Barron and Nikki tried to take their eyes off Regina sensing her discomfort.

“What time is the wake tomorrow?” Nikki asked, changing the subject.

“Eleven, I think.” Barron answered. They all sat in silence for a couple of moments.

“We better get going. I promised my grandmother I would take her to Edgarton,” he explained to Nikki. Regina stood up from the porch steps. “Guess I will see you later. You coming to the parade tonight?”

“I doubt it,” Nikki replied.

“Yeah, I know how you feel, but my parents want to hang out. I have no choice. I’ll call you tonight.”

“Later,” Nikki responded, watching her friends depart.

Barron and Regina headed toward the truck. After climbing into the leather seats, Barron spoke before starting the engine.

“I know that you are going to go anyway so can you just wait until tomorrow so that I can go with you?” he asked without even looking at Regina.

“Yes.” She smiled, her heart instantaneously lighter. She rested the side of her head gently on the glass of the passenger side window comfortable in the notion that Barron knew her all too well. As Barron started the engine, Regina put her hand up, spread her fingers, and wiggled them stiffly in farewell to Nikki who waved back with a quick and empty smile before returning her eyes to the rolling hills that lay out before her.

Nikki wished that she could jump off the porch and begin running. She would start at a leisurely trot, she imagined, admiring the trees and the landscape that unfolded grandly on any side of her. Then she would notice that she was breathing harder as her jog picked up speed until she was running so fast that she could hear nothing but the beating of her own heart, rapidly leaving everything behind, over one hill, and then the next, and the next until she was flying and there was nothing and no one.

Regina melted at the fact that Barron knew that she would go to the DeFrank estate with or without her friends and she desperately wanted him by her side, but a part of her felt there was no time to wait.

Barron pulled the lumbering truck into Regina’s parents’ driveway. The powerful engine gave a low hum. “Thank you, Barron,” Regina finally spoke.

“For what?” the gallant man asked, turning in his seat to face the girl who immediately lit up with a smile.

“Just for being there for me; for not thinking that I’m totally crazy,” she said.

“Now that is where you’re wrong. I do think you’re totally crazy,” he corrected.

Regina laughed and slapped his shoulder playfully. “I know, I know. Let me re-phrase that. For being supportive even though you think that I’m totally crazy.” They both laughed. “No, I don’t think that you’re crazy. You’re just grieving, that’s all.” He said in the calm manner that made him so easy to talk to.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Everyone grieves differently and for you I think that you just need to feel like you are doing something, like you are helping your friend. This is the way that you are dealing with the pain; by not dealing with it…in a way, by focusing your attention on something else,” he explained. “Wow that is pretty good.” She started to laugh again and soon they were both laughing at his amateur, but clever analysis of Regina’s behavior. Barron’s rolling laughter winded down and he leaned toward Regina and looked into her eyes.

He’s going to kiss me
, Regina thought as she began to close her eyes and purse her lips entrancingly in preparation for them to meet his. She opened her eyes fully when she saw that he stopped just short of the intimacy that she anticipated and he spoke.

“It’s guilt,” he said. The subtle smile faded from Regina’s excited face. Barron sat unmoving.

“What?” Regina lurched back in her seat almost bumping her head against the glass. She had been expecting a passionate encounter, but what came from his mouth sounded almost like an insult. The vexed expression cemented itself in her face before she could even begin to try to hide her true emotion. The man sighed and leaned back in his seat as if he did not want to say what was coming next, but he trudged on through the heavy conversation.

“You were her best friend. You felt like you should have been there, like you should have protected her, but you weren’t and now that she is back, in a weird sense, you are doing all that you can to make it up to her. You’re trying to make amends for what you didn’t do eight years ago, but you can’t blame yourself, Regina. This is not your fault; whatever happened to Lola is not your fault.
There was nothing that you could have done about it then and there is nothing that you can do about it now.”

Regina was still in a rigid position with her head against the glass of the passenger door. She had been unable to move the entire time that Barron was speaking. Regina’s mind wandered for a while. She brought one of her palms to her cheek as if trying to check her own temperature. Barron actually made sense, but Regina was still as confused as she ever was.

“I’m sorry, Regina. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Barron’s voice blew all of the slowly forming thoughts and images in her head into meaningless ashes that swept out of her mind like clouds of smoke billowing from a fireplace on a winter night, dissipating and leaving no trace behind. Regina grabbed Barron’s hand. “It’s not you, Barron. It’s not you.” She thanked him again and climbed out of the vehicle.

“Regina, are you OK? I should have just kept my big mouth shut.” He scolded himself.

“I’m fine, Barron. Really, I’m OK.” She confirmed with a weak smile.

“All right” he finally accepted with reluctance. “I’ll see you tonight,” he continued.

Regina turned to make sure that she had heard him correctly. “I should be back in town tonight for all of the Black Water holiday festivities.” He lifted his eyebrows with sarcastic excitement. “I will see you downtown.”

“Ok, bye Barron.”

“Regina,” he called out of his window. Regina turned.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s OK.” Regina conjured a smile.

“Bye,” he said before rolling up his window and rolling back down the driveway.

“Mom…Dad?” Regina called as she opened the creaking storm door.

“We’re in here,” she heard her mother yell from the kitchen. Her parents were seated at their breakfast nook with the cool sun shining brightly through the kitchen. They sat across from one another,
both wearing their reading glasses and staring down at the game with its little square pieces strung to create a precise puzzle of words across the board.

“Wow, vortex.” Regina read on the board as she plopped down on the cushioned bench next to her father. “This must be serious,” she joked.

“Damned right it’s serious. Today is the day that I whip your mother’s butt.”

Her parents had been in this board game war ever since she could remember. Her father could never beat her mother no matter how much he tried. Her mother was an intelligent woman, but her father was no idiot and at times Regina even thought that on occasions when he could have won, he decided to not change the tide of the triumphs because he enjoyed seeing her mother’s exhilaration much more than he enjoyed winning a board game. “That will never happen,” her mother informed her calmly. “I’m just killing time, trying to put off cleaning the basement for as long as possible.” Mrs. Dean added.

“How was your date with Barron?” Her father asked. He kept his eyes on the seven square pieces of wood that were spread out in front of him on the long wooden holder. Every second or two Regina noticed her father’s eyes narrow the way that they always did when he thought he may have a good word.

“It was good. We went to see Sheriff Handow.” Both of her parents looked up from the board.

“Why?” her mother asked.

Regina shrugged. “We just wanted to see if they had learned anything new.”

“Have they?” her father asked.

“Not really. Sheriff Handow just kind of gave me the runaround without actually telling me
anything
. I guess that is just what detectives do. They think that maybe Glen DeFrank had something to do with it.”

“Glen!” Her mother’s voice rose and she was visibly upset.

“My God! Are they sure?” she asked her daughter.

“Don’t get so upset, Mom, the body was found
on his property
.” Regina sarcastically re-informed her mother of the facts, but immediately felt guilty for being rude.

“No, Mom, they’re not sure of anything. They just think that because the body was found there…that’s all.”

“I hope to God it wasn’t him!” Her father spit.

Regina was surprised at her father’s sudden exponential rise to anger.

“I knew that they found Lola there, but I never thought that Glen DeFrank could be responsible for something like this. Regina he didn’t ever try to hurt you or anything, did he?” Her mother asked. The room became soundless as they waited for her response.

“No!” Regina scowled. She could see the relief that spread through the faces of both of her parents.

“He never tried to murder us while we took piano with him, Mom, if that’s what you’re asking,” Regina said. “… Unless of course we hit a sour note.”

“That’s not funny, Regina!” her mother snapped.

“Sorry,” Regina said with a whimper. “I guess I am just trying to make light of everything.”

“Well don’t! I would never be able to forgive myself if something would have happened to you. I don’t know how Gloria is dealing with this. I should go by there today. I will bake her a cake,” her mother said.

A cake. Great! That will ease the pain of her daughter being brutally murdered
, Regina thought to herself.

“Maybe it was him, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was someone else. They just don’t know.” Regina said.

“He was always such a sweet boy, handsome and popular, but after his parents died…he was just never the same. But even then I never thought that he was capable of anything like this. I wish Sheriff Handow would get a hold on this thing,” her mother thought out loud.

“They don’t know shit!” Her father spat, even when he was angry he still seemed like a big old teddy bear in Regina’s eyes. He leaned over and grabbed Regina’s wrist, rattling it gently.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t you. It could have happened to anyone so I think that every family in Black Water that had a daughter Lola’s age at the time should be thanking their lucky stars,” her father said returning his gaze to the impossible array of tiles that were arranged on his holder.

“Did you know a little girl named Ann Ivey?” The question slipped out of Regina like a belch she never felt coming.

Her parents glanced at one another thoughtfully for a quick moment.

“Hmm,” her mother moaned as she thought. “Wasn’t she Pastor McGee’s granddaughter?” Her father kidnapped her or something, right?” Mrs. Dean spoke to her husband trying to jog his aging memory.

“Right.” Regina nodded.

“Where did you hear about her?” Regina’s father asked, keeping his eyes on the wooden tiles that mocked him mercilessly.

“Just saw a missing poster for her at the police station and I was wondering.”

“They keep them up for that long?”

“I think they just want to keep her memory or something,” Regina guessed.

“C’mon, honey, no matter how hard you stare at them the tiles won’t change their letters,” her mother teased.

This conversation had suddenly whet Regina’s investigative appetite again and she sat uneasily thinking about what might be behind the walls of the DeFrank estate. She rapped her fingers on the table thoughtfully.

“What’s wrong? Are you hungry, do you want a sandwich?” her mother asked, pointing to a pile of sandwich triangles that were arranged on a plate on top of the stove. Regina had made up her mind and tomorrow was just too late.

“Can I borrow the car for a little while?” Regina asked.

“You just got home…I thought that we were hanging out tonight,” her mother questioned with disappointment.

“We are, Mom. It’s early, I won’t be gone long. I just want to cruise around town for a while,” Regina lied.

“Sure, honey.” her father said, squinting at the same useless wooden tiles.

“Charlie!” her mother snapped.

“Pat, Jesus. The girl has not been home in years. She wants to see some of her friends and hang out a bit. What’s the big deal? She’s twenty-four years old, we can’t keep her locked up here. Besides we’re all going to the Halloween Festival and the party at the Jamison’s tonight, right?” he said, looking to his daughter.

“Right, Dad!” she agreed quickly and the pair stared questioningly at Patricia Dean. It was two against one. Her mother’s face drained of enthusiasm, but it was nice having her daughter back in the house, even if her daughter and her husband were ganging up on her.

“The keys are by the fridge.” She waved.

Delighted, Regina jumped up from the bench, kissing her father on the cheek, then her defeated mother.

“I won’t be long,” Regina promised as she grabbed the keys from the place that they had always hung since she was a kid. On the way out, she grabbed one of her mother’s sandwiches. “Thanks, Mom!” she shouted, not wanting her mother to be upset with her. Before they heard the front door, Regina poked her head back into the kitchen.

“By the way, Daddy, if you use the e at the bottom of Mom’s word sage, you can make edacious.” She said with half of a bologna sandwich triangle shoved into her mouth. His face illuminated with the light of a star-filled sky.