“Sounds good,” Nate said. He started to leave, then turned back to her. “I wish you could have seen that deer, Helen,” he said wistfully. “She was the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. I hope she comes back.”

Helen smiled and nodded. “I hope so, too.” But really, as she watched him limp away, leaving wet footprints behind, she thought he’d been very lucky.

She wants something, all right. She wants you, George Decrow had said.

Helen hoped this was the last they’d see of the white deer.

CHAPTER 14

Olive

JULY 13, 2015

Rosy’s Tavern wasn’t really the kind of place a kid stopped by for lunch (maybe kids weren’t even allowed in there?), but Olive went in anyway.

She pushed open the heavy wooden door with a dartboard painted on the outside and a sign advertising that Back in Black, an AC/DC tribute band, would be playing Friday night. She’d tried to talk Mike into coming with her, but he’d wimped out.

“No way,” he said yesterday when they were hanging out in his old tree fort. Since summer vacation had started, he wasn’t around much. His mom dragged him off to work with her most days. She ran a sewing alterations shop; she also took in dry cleaning and had it sent out. So Mike spent his days filling out dry cleaning slips, hanging dresses and suits in plastic bags, and doing receipts. “My dad and his buddies hang out at Rosy’s. If any of them saw me there, I’d be in deep shit!”

“Suit yourself,” she’d said, climbing back down the ladder and not stopping when he shouted down, “Olive, don’t go! Please?” She hadn’t picked up the phone when he called later, just let the machine get it, her mom’s voice echoing out: You’ve reached the Kissners. We’re not home right now, but leave a message and we’ll get back to you.

The dark tavern smelled like beer and cigarettes, even though Olive knew you weren’t allowed to smoke inside anymore. Not in any store, bar, or restaurant. State law. But maybe people cheated. Maybe they snuck smokes in the bathroom, or maybe the people who worked there lit up once the place was closed down for the night. Or maybe there were just so many years’ worth of cigarette smoke in the place that it permeated the floorboards, walls, and ceiling, clung like a ghost the building would never be rid of.