We were going over the list when Nick showed up with Rocky. I felt suddenly guilty. Holly might not wish she had girlfriends like me if she knew that I had kissed her prom date. But Nick gave no sign of anything special having happened between him and me. In fact, I got a much warmer greeting from Rocky — a joyful bark, several head butts, and a lot of tail-wagging.
“Are you giving him treats on the sly?” Nick asked me.
“No. I guess I just smell right to him.”
“Like waterfowl?” Nick replied, laughing. “That’s his favorite scent.”
I noticed that Nick didn’t behave in any special way toward Holly, either, which seemed to confirm my theory that at tonight’s party she and I would watch him move on to the next girl — if there was one in the senior class whom he still hadn’t dated.
Nora walked in while Nick and Holly were discussing what they needed to borrow from Frank.
“Hey, Nora,” he said softly.
“Hey, Nick.”
“Hi, Nora,” I greeted her.
She didn’t respond.
Holly said nothing to her sister. Perhaps she was used to Nora’s cold treatment and didn’t try anymore.
“Nora, was that you on the porch late last night?” I asked.
She turned to me as if she had finally realized I was there.
“I don’t remember.”
“Try to,” I said firmly.
Nick and Holly glanced at me.
“It was someone else,” Nora replied. “Someone else did it.”
“Did what?” Holly asked.
“Don’t tell,” Nora said, fingering the collar of her shirt.
Holly gazed at me expectantly.
“Nothing really,” I replied. “I was out walking and went in the greenhouse. I thought I heard something stirring in there.”
“Like an animal?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know what it was. I was curious if Nora saw or heard anything.”
Nora turned her back on us and rummaged through the kitchen cabinets. Holly pressed her lips together, looking as if she didn’t completely believe my story. She’d believe me even less if I told her that a plant moved on its own and my necklace tried to choke me. I needed to talk to someone about what was happening, but not someone practical like her, or emotional and defensive like Aunt Jule. I wasn’t ready to turn my mind over to the psychologist in the pink glasses. Still, it scared me to be alone with Nora in these strange experiences that were somehow connected to my mother’s death. I needed to talk to Nick.
My chance came about an hour later, when I had stopped hosing off lawn chairs to play with Rocky. After several retrievals of his soggy ball, Nick’s dog was trying to con me into the water, not bringing the ball to my hand, but releasing it a few feet offshore. The river was plenty warm for swimming, but I still didn’t want to wade in it And I still hadn’t walked to the end of the dock.
“He wants you to swim with him,” Nick said, coming up behind me.
I turned. “So I can doggy paddle around with that disgusting ball in my mouth? I don’t think so.”
Nick grinned.
I glanced past him, surveying the lawn and porches. No one was in sight. “Nick, I need to talk to you.”
I saw him tense.
“About Nora,” I added quickly, afraid he’d think I was bringing up the kiss.
“Okay,” he said after a moment of hesitation. “What’s up?”
“I know you believe that Nora wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I began, “but some strange things have been happening and I’m getting scared.”
“Scared of what?” he asked.
“Nora is obsessed with my mother’s death. You heard her last night, talking as if my mother could come back from the dead.”
He nodded.
“She thinks my mother is looking for me, that my mother stirs up the water in the boathouse, that she gets angry because I’m wearing Aunt Jule’s necklace and dress.”
Rocky raced over and dropped the ball at our feet. When neither of us picked it up, he ran off with it again.
“Nora is haunted by her,” I went on. “It’s as if guilt has kept my mother alive in Nora’s mind.”
Nick pulled back from me. “Wait a minute. You’re not suggesting that—” I rushed on: “What if my mother’s death wasn’t an accident?”
“The police said it was.”
“But Aunt Jule stopped them before they investigated.”
He shook his head. “No. You’re way off base. Nora is neurotic and confused, but she’s not capable of murdering someone.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“It’s just not in her to harm others.”
“Nick, there are things inside of Nora that none of us understand.”
“Like what?” he challenged me.
“Voices, for one thing. Even as a child she answered questions no one asked her — you must remember that.
There are things she sees and hears that we don’t.”