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“A fire is an explosion,” Todd told him. Kane gave him his usual shrug. “We haven’t found anything

else of any value, Kristin,” Todd told me.

My father spun on him, and he looked away quickly.

“See you in a little while,” I said, and started away.

Kane followed but looked back at my father and Todd. “What was that about? What did they find that was worth anything?”

“Nothing, really,” I said. “Todd is hoping to find buried treasure.”

Kane nodded, but his eyes were full of new curiosity. I wondered why my father hadn’t told Todd not to mention the metal box. Now I had to lie my way around it, and I could see that Kane had already figured out how to tell when I was avoiding telling him something. I had one of those faces that would make a detective’s job a piece of cake.

I walked faster.

“This place must have been something,” Kane said, catching up. “So much property and a lake. They were very rich people.”

“Supposedly.”

“You’d think they’d have had happy lives.”

I paused and turned to him. I knew, just like everyone else, that Kane’s family was one of the wealthiest in Charlottesville. “Is that what makes your family happy, money?”

He laughed. “Not according to my father. He keeps telling us he’s not made of money, but we love him anyway.”

“Obviously, these people were miserable here,” I said, and continued to walk.

“Then why did that woman bring her children here and keep them in a small bedroom and an attic for years?”

“She was bankrupt. Her husband was killed, and he didn’t have life insurance, and they were in debt when he was alive.”

“So you do know more about all this than you’re admitting.” He pounced.

“That’s all I know,” I said. “Most everyone knows that much,” I added, and pounded ahead, my arms folded across my breasts.

When we reached the lake, I stopped, and he came up beside me. “You look annoyed. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea. The place is cursed.”

“Maybe it is,” I said, and sat on a big rock to look out over the water.

He went down to it and dipped his hand in. “Freezing,” he said. “And I was going to suggest we go skinny-dipping.”

I didn’t respond. He looked out at the water and turned back to me.

“It must have been quite beautiful here once, when that dock was good and the borders weren’t so overgrown. It has a natural spring feeding it. I bet it was even good to drink. It’s kind of serene, even now with all this overgrowth around it. I actually like it. It’s more like undisturbed nature, don’t you think?”

As if it had heard Kane’s remark, a crow seemed to come out of nowhere and perched on a dead branch floating on the water. It seemed to be staring at us as if it was wondering why we had come.

“Hey, crow!” Kane called to it, breaking the tension.

The bird lifted its wings as if to reply. We both laughed. And then it flew off into the woods.

“Be nice to go rowing on this lake,” he said. “Even now.”

“Maybe the new owner will clean it up and make it attractive again.”

He walked back and sat next to me. “I’ve been here before,” he revealed in the tone of a confession. “But I never thought of it this way.”

“When were you here?”


Tags: V.C. Andrews Young Adult