The final bell echoed in the hallway. Lauri Matthews slammed her books into her locker and grabbed her jacket. If she never saw these beige walls again, she would dance through the streets. Two more years of this agony—how could she stand it? She looked at her classmates and felt ancient in comparison. No one else had to deal with an older brother who acted like Hitler.
Several of her friends stood giggling by the water fountain as they watched the track team walk by. Morons, all of them. Lauri headed down another hall so she wouldn’t have to deal with their juvenile laughter. None of them really cared about her anyway. They were just her friends because she was going out with Brian Parker, the school hottie. Until Brian had noticed her, she was just a face in the crowd.
She’d had a few friends, but they’d dropped her when the “in” crowd had picked her up. Sometimes she saw her former best friends, Dinah and Ruth, staring at her as though she held the answer to all their problems, and she had to turn her head. They wouldn’t fit in any better than she did. If she could, she’d turn the clock back to last year when she was just Lauri Matthews, living with her mother and giggling on her bed with Dinah and Ruth talking about how ridiculous Andi Boone looked in that short cheerleader skirt with her meaty thighs, and trading secrets about which boy had spoken to one of them in the lunchroom.
She gnawed on her thumbnail as she walked toward Brian, who waited for her in his shiny car. He gave her that familiar smile, and it occurred to her that she should bolt like a deer from a hunter, run to her mother’s safe arms, smell the scent that was particularly her mom: musk cologne mingled with the fresh scent of Downy fabric softener. But she couldn’t.
Brian kept smiling, and she forced her face to respond though misery dogged her footsteps. Reaching the car, she threw her backpack into the backseat and climbed in. He leaned over and kissed her, and she turned her head so that all he caught was the side of her cheek.
He grimaced. “What’s with the mood? I’ve had it, Lauri.” He turned the key and gunned the engine. Several boys turned to stare and grin. Brian dropped the car into gear and roared out of the school parking lot.
Lauri stayed quiet. What was there to say? Life was impossible and refused to get better. The future stretched ahead of her without a glimmer of light.
Brian glanced at her. “I’ve got soda in the back. Want to check out some of the cabins?”
She knew what he really wanted. What else was there anyway? She was trapped in this pit she’d chosen of her own free will. “I guess. Are the other guys going to be there? Is there another delivery?”
“Nope, just the two of us.” His lecherous smile turned her stomach. “How did your algebra test go?”
At least he was showing some interest in her as a person. Her chilly feelings toward him warmed a few degrees. “Okay. I think I passed anyway. You do okay on your English test?”
He let out an exasperated sigh. “I think I bombed it. That’s okay though. Old man Pynonnen wouldn’t dare flunk me. Dad gives his drama department too much money.”
Lauri felt sorry for Brian’s dad. He worked hard at the clinic and gave a lot of money away to good causes. Brian was always there with his hand out, and he didn’t really give his dad any respect. Brian didn’t know how lucky he was to even have a dad. But who was she to judge? She knew she’d never given her own mom the respect she deserved.
“Do you hate coming home to an empty house? That’s what I miss the most—Mom being there, asking how my day went.”
Brian shrugged and looked away. “Yeah, well, my mom never much cared what I did and where I went. Good riddance, I say. I miss Gramps more than her.”
“I don’t get to see my grandparents much.” Lauri chewed a sliver of nail off her thumb.
“Gramps was great! He was in pain a lot though, ever since World War II. He got shot and the doctors couldn’t get out all the shrapnel. He was doped up on painkillers most of the time. But when the demons weren’t on his back, he was a lot of fun. He taught me how to sail one summer.” Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he slipped his arm around her with a sly smile. “But who cares about old people? We’ve got the whole evening ahead of us.”
Lauri didn’t answer. Her mother had mattered, and she’d taken her for granted. Was she even now doing the same thing with Kade? Kade had given up a lot to come back to Rock Harbor. He had hoped never to come back here, and she knew it.
When they were growing up, he was butting heads with Dad all the time. Lauri had forgotten that, mostly because she’d never understood it. She remembered her father as a great giant who tossed her in the air and tickled her tummy. But her brother spoke only of a hard, inflexible father who said Kade would never measure up. He had wanted to prove that he could make it on his own in someplace new, and now, thanks to her, he was stuck back here in Rock Harbor.
Lauri frowned and looked out the window at the passing forest. In science they’d studied metamorphosis. Kade had metamorphosed into the father he despised. Maybe she should point that out to him.
Brian drove for what seemed forever then turned on a muddy track that followed Lake Superior’s shoreline. He parked at a cabin she’d never seen before and jumped out of the car. He surprised her still more by opening her door. “Hey, I’m sorry for the way things have been lately,” he said. “Let’s kiss and make up, okay?”
She forced a smile, suspicious of his sudden friendliness. “Whose truck is that?” she asked, pointing to a blue Dodge crew cab parked across the road. The surprise on Brian’s face was obviously fake. She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you said it was just the two of us.”
He grabbed her backpack. “Maybe you can do your homework while I talk to them for a few minutes.”
She jerked her backpack out of his hands. “If I’d known you were going to meet those jerks here, I would have had you take me home!”
He spread his hands. “Hey, it’s just a little business to take care of.”
“I already know what kind of business it is, and I don’t want to be a part of it!” Flipping her backpack over her shoulder, she stalked to the house. The lock was already jimmied, so she went on in.
Looking around, her breathing quickened. She knew it was wrong to break into cabins like this, but the pull of the forbidden had become almost an addiction for her. Poking through other people’s private belongings, she imagined their lives, perfect lives that made her long to have grown up as someone else.
She went to the bedroom. It was the room that usually held the most secrets. Her heart did a little dance when she saw the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. Chests like this always held treasure. Dropping her jacket and backpack on the floor, she knelt and lifted the lid.
The aroma of cedar overwhelmed her with memories. Her grandmother in Grand Rapids had a cedar chest full of old memorabilia that Lauri used to sort through every summer. Jackpot. The chest was filled with boxes, scrapbooks, and photograph albums. Brian could spend the rest of the day with his friends as far as she was concerned.
Reverently, she lifted the first box and opened the lid. It held a jumble of loose color photos. Her smile froze when she recognized the smiling lady on the top photo. With a little girl on one side and a boy on the other, a much younger Anu Nicholls smiled at the camera.
Lauri’s gaze darted around the room. Who would have photos of Anu and her family? Lauri sorted through the box. Every picture in it was of Anu, by herself or with the children. Someone was . . . obsessed.
Fear soured Lauri’s stomach. Was Anu in danger? She couldn’t find out without broadcasting to all of Rock Harbor that she’d broken the law by breaking in to someone’s cabin. In spite of the way things were at home, she wasn’t keen on being sent to an institution for juvenile delinquents.
Lauri had never felt such conflicting emotions. Anu Nicholls was one of her favorite people in the whole world. Lauri often stopped by the store and bought pulla on her way to babysit Donovan’s kids. Lately, Anu had taken to showing her how to make the Finnish delicacies she carried in the shop.
How could Lauri protect her without getting in trouble?
Lauri’s eyes widened, and she began to smile. Maybe she could solve the mystery herself. If she prevented someone from hurting Anu, surely no one would ask how she came by the information. Maybe she could actually redeem herself, prove to Kade that she was not the troublemaker he believed her to be.
In a fever of excitement, she began to go through the cedar chest. One box contained military medals and another, children’s drawings. The childish signatures at the bottom made her blink in astonishment. Hilary and Rob, Anu’s children. Of course.
She searched further and stopped when her hand touched cold metal. Two guns lay on the bottom of the chest. Lauri checked them. They were loaded.
Snatching her hand away, she scooted back on her heels away from the cedar chest. Her heart felt as cold as the metal on the firearms. Biting her lip, she forced herself to continue looking. There had to be some clue to the identity of the cabin’s owner.
She sorted through a jumble of old coins—some from other countries—and several boxes of baseball cards. Her hands went still as she realized she was leaving her fingerprints all over the stuff. But it was too late now. She laid each box aside as she finished with it. One side of the chest was empty now, and she continued to pry.
In one box she found handcuffs, duct tape, and rope. She felt sick as she wondered if someone intended to kidnap Anu. But why? She’d never hurt anyone. Money maybe. Everyone said Nicholls’ Finnish Imports had been a Cinderella kind of success story.
Flipping through a newer photo album, Lauri came across a recent picture of Bree and Davy. A large red circle was drawn around Davy, and Lauri felt her heart flip. Maybe Davy would be used to get at Anu. Was that possible? Nausea rose in her at the thought that this little boy might be put through even more than he’d already endured. She had to find a way to keep that from happening.