The Unkindness of Ravens by M. Hilliard (fastest ebook reader txt) 📕

“Was there anything else?” he asked.

“Something to do with a little girl drowning.”

“Carol Douglas.”

“Yes. I guess she asked you, too, since you were there.”

He looked at me.

“She wanted some old newspaper articles. I found them and read them. She was looking into a couple of things, but I can’t make sense of them.”

“She did ask me about it. I was surprised, because I’ve never mentioned it. I never spoke about it to anybody, after the fact. Once we talked to the police, we never mentioned it again.”

“You and Matthew,” I said.

“Yes. Carol was his little sister.”

“What happened, Vince? What did you tell Joanna? This could be important.”

“I don’t see how, after all this time,” he said, scrubbing his hands over his face.

I waited.

“All right.” He sighed. “But if you read about it, you know the story. Matthew and I were scouts, and we were going to practice tracking in the woods. Carol wanted to tag along, she always did. Sometimes we would let her, but we were trying to earn a badge, so we said no. Then she threatened to tell on us. That was her latest thing, ‘I’ll tell Mommy.’ It wouldn’t have mattered, we weren’t doing anything wrong, but you know how little kids are.”

I nodded. I had employed this tactic with my older sister.

“Time consuming, having to explain yourself to a parent. You could never be sure who they’d believe,” I said.

“That’s right. My kids do it. Makes me glad I’m an only child.”

“So, then what happened?”

“Matthew took her aside and talked to her. They bickered for a bit, then he whispered something to her and she was all smiles. He tugged her ponytail and she headed off toward the house. Truth be told, I think he had taken to bribing her. Money, candy, an ice cream cone here and there. It doesn’t take much at that age.”

This, too, I knew from experience.

“So, you thought she went home?” I said.

Vince nodded.

“We figured we were clear, so we started talking about where we should go. She must have followed us, or listened and tried to get ahead of us. I don’t know.”

Vince stopped. He was staring straight ahead, into the distant past. I kept still, waiting.

“It wasn’t long after when I heard a scream. I couldn’t tell at first where it came from, and then I heard it again. We both ran for the kill. I waded right in, but I lost my balance. The current was too strong. Matthew yelled at me to get out and get help, and that he’d try to get Carol. He was bigger and a good swimmer. He was already partway in when I got up the bank and looked back. I ran to the Prentisses’ house, yelling my head off all the way. His mother must have heard me because she was already in the yard. She told me to go in and phone for help and wait for the police. Then she ran toward the Ravens Kill.”

“And when the police came? What happened?”

“It was too late.”

“Matthew?”

Vince shook his head. “One of the policemen pulled him out. He was clinging to some rocks at the edge. He had swallowed a lot of water. They stuck us both in an ambulance and checked us out. Carol was nowhere in sight. They called in more officers, from all over, but still they didn’t find her until hours later.”

“The current took her under,” I said, remembering the Barrett kids and their twigs.

“It did, and Matthew never got over the fact that he couldn’t save her. He hated to fail, even then. When we were in the ambulance, he was sobbing and gulping and spitting up water. It was awful. He asked me never to tell anyone, ever.”

“The police?”

“Oh, we talked to them, but after that we never mentioned it. Until Joanna asked, I hadn’t thought about it in years. I’d worked at not thinking about it, you know?”

I knew. Nowadays, specialists would have been called in to help the kids process the trauma. Back then, you just didn’t discuss it.

“So, you told Joanna all of this, what you just told me?” I said.

“Exactly,” Vince replied.

“But what made her ask?”

Vince leaned back in my chair and looked at me.

“Now that I’m not sure about,” he said, “though she and Felicity had been spending a lot of time together lately.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Felicity was worried about something,” he continued, “Joanna didn’t give me a lot of details. But it was something to do with all these old stories being dredged up, and the effect on her kids. She seemed a little afraid.”

“And if Matthew were running for office, these things might be reported on again?”

“I didn’t know that was common knowledge, but I think so. Felicity feels responsible for Marjorie’s death. And she’s a private person.”

“But where does Joanna fit in?”

There was a commotion behind me. The noise in the hall made it clear the meeting had ended. Vince looked past me and stood.

“I’m sure a lot of it was Friends’ business, with the jumble sale coming up,” he said, taking the box of books. “Well, thanks, Greer,” he added.

I stepped aside, and he left. I heard him greet someone outside the office, and then that was drowned out by the sounds of the arriving story hour crowd. I settled into my chair and waited for the noise to die down. I now knew everything that Joanna had, and a few things she hadn’t. It was time, as Poirot would say, to employ the little gray cells.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I started by making notes about my conversation with Vince, and added in the little details I had gotten from Mary Alice and Henri. I pulled out the copy I’d made of Joanna’s handwritten notes and studied it. Kinsey Millhone wrote things on index cards and rearranged them on a bulletin board; I’d have to make do with paper, pencil, and the circle and arrow method. I snagged a big piece of craft paper from Jilly’s cubby