“I guess,” Maryn said, relenting. Maybe Adam was right. Maybe it was time to lean on somebody else. At least for a little while.

“Okay,” she said, sniffling. “I’ll wait here. You’ll leave tomorrow?”

“First thing,” he assured her. “But you’ve got to tell me the address there.”

“You know, I don’t even know the address,” Maryn said. “Just the name of the street. South Virginia Dare. Oh yeah, and the house name. All the beach houses down here have names. It’s Ebbtide.”

“Ebbtide,” Adam repeated. “I’ll leave here first thing in the morning, and I’ll call you when I’m about an hour away. Get some sleep, okay?”

“I’ll try,” Maryn promised. “See you tomorrow.”

32

When she got back from her morning run shortly after nine, Julia walked, breathless and sweat-drenched, into the kitchen, where she found Dorie and Ellis already dressed for the beach, loading ice and cold drinks into their cooler.

Julia helped herself to a bottle of water, gulping it down so fast it splashed onto her tank top. She sank down on a kitchen chair and rolled the icy bottle across her forehead and neck. “Cute suit,” she said, eyeing Ellis’s midriff-baring coral tankini. “Is that new?”

“Kinda,” Ellis said, as she smeared sunscreen on her chest and arms. “I bought it in Rehoboth Beach last summer, but I never wore it because I wasn’t sure I really liked it.”

“You mean you were too shy to wear it out in public,” Julia said bluntly. “Ellis, this is the perfect suit for you. The top’s not too low cut, but it shows off your nice flat tummy and that cute little booty of yours. Now, promise me you’ll throw out that hideous black one-piece you’ve been wearing. I mean, my nona had a suit just like that one.”

“It is not an old-lady suit!” Ellis protested. “Is it, Dorie?”

Dorie wrinkled her nose and helped herself to the bottle of sunscreen, squiggling lines of lotion up and down her arms and legs.

“Really?” Ellis sighed. “Dorie, I thought you were on my side.”

“I’m not on either side,” she said. “I’m neutral. Like Switzerland. I will say, however, that I like this bathing suit a whole lot better than the other one.”

“Yeah,” Julia said. “That black suit looks like something out of the 1968 Miss USSR pageant.”

“Fine,” Ellis said, slipping a cover-up over the pink suit. “Go ahead, gang up on me. I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

She picked up her beach towel and tote bag, and grabbed the handle of the rolling cooler, heading for the back door. “Are you coming down to the beach with us, Julia?”

“After I shower,” Julia said. “Have you guys seen Madison this morning?”

“Nope,” Dorie said. “And I’ve been up since seven. I went out to the store at eight, to pick up more cereal and orange juice, but her bike was already gone.”

“Her car’s still parked in the garage,” Julia said. “So that’s good.” She walked to the front of the house and peered out the living room window, then came quickly back to the kitchen.

“Listen,” she said, lowering her voice. “I’m going up to Madison’s room to check things out. One of you go out front and watch for her. If you see her coming, give me a signal, okay?”

“Julia, no,” Dorie said, her voice sharp. “You’ve got no right.…”

“Madison admitted to me last night that she’s been lying to us,” Julia said. “Her real name is Maryn. That guy who called her cell phone? Don? He’s her husband. She’s terrified of him, you guys. She told me last night that she found out he’s into something bad, and she ran away. That’s how she ended up here, on Nags Head.”

“What?” Ellis said. “She just suddenly opened up and confessed? When did all this happen?”

“Last night, while you were out on your hot date with garage guy,” Julia said smugly. “And don’t think we don’t expect a full report about last night, either, Ellis Sullivan. We want to know why you came home so early. And why you left again and were out past midnight.”

“What are you, Harriet the Spy?” Ellis asked, blushing nonetheless. “It was a date, that’s all. Nothing to tell.”

“Hmmph,” Julia said. “We’ll get back to you later. So, yes, Madison, or rather, Maryn, did open up to me. She came into my room not long after you left, ready to bitch me out because she’d figured out I’d been snooping around her cell phone.”

“She had a right to be pissed at you,” Dorie pointed out. “We’re your best friends, so we expect a certain amount of nosiness, but it’s different for her.”

“She was pissed,” Julia admitted. “But she wanted to know what I’d told her husband, Don, when he called. Then she really grilled me, so I grilled her right back, or tried to. But she wouldn’t tell me much. So now, I’m just going to take matters into my own hands. Watch the front door, okay?”

Julia pulled her cell phone from the plastic case clipped to the waist of her running shorts. “If you see Madison coming, give me a call, and then try to keep her occupied until I can get out of there.”

“Absolutely not,” Dorie said. “You can’t just go rifling through her things. You’ve got no right.”

“Don’t sweat it, Dorie,” Ellis said. “Julia can’t get in there, anyway. Madison locks her bedroom door every time she leaves the room.”

Julia gave a conspiratorial smile. “True that. But I don’t necessarily need a key. Madison sleeps with the windows open. I noticed it when I was out on the beach the other day. There’s an access door onto that widow’s walk on the third floor from the attic. I’m just gonna go out the door, climb onto the widow’s walk, and then crawl in her bedroom window. It’s a teeny-tiny room, it won’t take but a few minutes to check it out.”

Dorie crossed her arms over her chest. “I can’t stop you, but I’m not gonna help you, that’s for damned sure. If Madison’s in trouble, we need to help her, not turn on her.”

“I offered to help,” Julia said. “She just told me to mind my own business. She says she’s leaving by the weekend, if not sooner. So it’s now or never.”

Julia turned to Ellis. “What about you? Are you in, or are you out?”

Ellis sighed. “Oh hell. I don’t like it, but I don’t like the idea of her lying to us, either. How do we know she’s not the one who ran away because she’s into something illegal?”

“My point exactly,” Julia said triumphantly. “Okay. Cover me, Ellie-Belly. I’m going in.”

Dorie snorted. “You two are crazy as bat-shit. And when Madison comes home, and figures out you’ve been messing with her stuff, I do not want to be around to pick up the pieces.”

But Julia didn’t bother to respond. She took the stairs to the second and third floor at a trot. When she got to the third floor, she twisted the doorknob of Madison’s room, just to make sure. As Ellis had predicted, the door was locked.

Julia went down to the end of the hall and tugged at the door to the attic. But the summer’s heat and humidity had caused the old wooden door to swell. She tugged harder, then braced one leg on the door frame, and yanked with all her might. The door swung open suddenly, throwing Julia backwards, landing on her butt on the splintery wooden floor.

“Damn,” she muttered, picking herself up. She gasped as a wall of heat engulfed her when she stepped into the low-ceilinged attic. She pulled the door nearly shut, to ensure she could make a quick getaway once she’d finished searching Madison’s room.

A single window high in the roof peak illuminated the room. Julia picked her way past piles of cardboard boxes and dust-shrouded furniture, sneezing as she headed for the door onto the widow’s walk. It had to be close to a hundred degrees in the attic, she thought, as sweat poured down her face, back, and arms.

The access door had an old-fashioned slide lock as well as a dead bolt. Julia’s hands, slick with sweat, couldn’t budge the lock mechanism. In frustration, she yanked off her top and used it to grasp the lock and jerk it open. She took a step backwards and kicked the door as hard as she could with her running shoe. The brittle old wood splintered, and the door flew open.