“That would be so great,” Riley said. “I worry about her a lot, but I don’t know how to help. I’ve offered for her to come and stay with me for a while, but she always says no. Besides, I don’t think Dustin would go for it. Olive’s all he has now. Honestly, I think if she wasn’t there, he’d lose it completely. Back when he was younger, before he married Lori, he was a big drinker. Suffered from bouts of depression. I’m afraid he’s slipping back into his old self. Which makes me so, so worried for Olive. She’s all he has, but he’s all she has, too. Well, her dad and me.” She paused, smiled at Helen, put a hand on her knee and gave it a grateful squeeze. “And now you and Nate!”

Helen nodded. She looked over toward the trailer, thought about telling Nate all of this. Surely he’d want to help Olive, too. He still didn’t trust her, called her “Little Ghost Girl” when she wasn’t around, but once Helen told him what was going on with Olive, he’d want to help. How could he not?

Riley saw her looking toward the trailer. “Nate should be careful,” she said.

“Careful?”

“Yeah, there’s a story I didn’t mention when he was here ’cause I could tell he’d dismiss it as pure bullshit.”

“What is it?”

“Well, there used to be this guy, Frank Barns. He was the town doctor, and he loved to hunt. He lived over by Carver Creek. One day, back in the seventies, I think it was, he caught sight of the white doe out in the woods and became totally obsessed. He went out looking for it every weekend. One time, he was with his son, Dicky. Dicky was just a kid then, ten or eleven years old. They were over by the bog hunting quail. And Frank caught sight of the doe and took off after it. Dicky tried to keep up but lost sight of him. Frank Barns never came out of those woods.”

“No way!” Helen practically yelled. “He disappeared?”

Riley nodded, eyes widening, caught up in the story and Helen’s response to it. “Search parties looked for him for weeks. Hound dogs, a helicopter even. Nothing. The man vanished without a trace.”

“What do you think happened?” Helen asked. She was good and stoned now. Her thoughts felt strangely fluid.

“Hattie got him,” Riley said matter-of-factly.

Helen felt cold all over. “You know,” she said, feeling brave, emboldened by the weed. “I saw her, too.”

“The white deer?”

“No, the person. Hattie in human form. If I tell you, will you think I’m totally nuts?”