It didn’t matter that Heil had opened the beach. The kids had made an unspoken rule that you didn’t swim in the lake while Sara was still out there somewhere. Sara had been one of them, whether they had known her well or not. An invisible line had been drawn separating them, the kids, from the adult world. It had always been there since the day Caroline was born, but she never felt it more sharply than now.

And those same adults using the snappers to find Sara seemed cruel, although she couldn’t say what they should be doing to make it right. She just knew the way they were going about it was wrong. Opening the beach and expecting people to swim was wrong.

She looked at Megan and Adam. She couldn’t do anything about the heat or the fact the lake was off-limits, but maybe she could talk her friends into going for a bike ride.

“I know what we could do,” she said. “Let’s go to the Country Store.” She searched her pockets for change. Megan pulled a couple of dollars from her back pocket.

Adam stared at the folded bills. “Did you rob a bank?”

Megan shrugged. “Babysitting,” she said.

They pooled their money. Adam contributed a couple of pennies and a nickel. Caroline had two dollars in quarters. Together with Megan’s stash, they had almost nine bucks.

“Get your bikes and I’ll meet you by the steps.”

Adam took off running. Megan held Caroline back. “Let’s ditch Adam,” she said. “And ride our bikes past Jeff’s cabin.”

“What for?” she asked.

Megan rolled her eyes. “God, Caroline. You know what for. To see if he’s around. Maybe he wants to hang out with us.”

Megan looked so hopeful, Caroline couldn’t say no. “Fine. We can ride past his cabin, but Adam’s coming with us.”

“But he’s a baby,” Megan whined.

Who was the baby? she thought but didn’t say. She should want to do the things Megan wanted to do, but deep down all she wanted was to ride her bike and buy candy at the Country Store, same as Adam. Oh, and read a newspaper or two. “Adam’s coming with us. I’m not going to ditch him.”

Once they all had their bikes, they pedaled toward the colony. Adam kept asking where they were going, why they weren’t going to the store.

“We have to do something first,” Megan said in a snotty voice.

Caroline dropped back to ride next to Adam and let him know she didn’t feel the same toward him as Megan did. Megan stopped and waited for them to catch up when they were close to Jeff’s place.

“You go first,” Megan said to Caroline.

“Why? It was your idea. You go first,” she said.

“What are we doing?” Adam asked.

Megan sighed heavily. “Let’s ride past together.”

And off they went, riding their bikes past Jeff’s cabin. Caroline couldn’t believe she had agreed to this, feeling more stupid as each second passed. It didn’t look like anyone was around much to her relief. Megan made a sudden U-turn and rode past again. Caroline and Adam followed.

“What are we doing?” Adam asked for a third time. “Aren’t we going to the Country Store?”

“Yes,” Caroline said. “We are.” And she sped past Megan, heading straight out of the colony and onto Lake Road. Adam’s little legs pedaled fast behind her. Megan reluctantly took up the rear.

Lake Road dipped and turned. The old oak and maple trees provided shady patches in-between long stretches of sunny hot macadam. Within fifteen minutes they reached the Country Store. The bell jingled above the screen door. Mrs. Nester looked over the top of her spectacles when they stepped inside. Adam headed straight for the candy aisle. Megan reached for a cola.

Caroline swiped her forehead with the back of her arm and pulled her baseball cap down to hide her eyes. She walked over to the newspaper stand feeling guilty and conspicuous, which was silly. It wasn’t like she was going to steal anything. She plucked the latest Lake Reporter from the rack and read the front-page news about Sara. Very little was mentioned about her family other than her mother’s name, Patricia Starr, and how it was Sara’s first time vacationing at the lake. The article went on to mention the warning signs posted about swimming, and the lengths the community was going through to bring closure to the family, but the details about how the community was going about it were noticeably left out.

“Can I help with you something?” Mrs. Nester asked.

“Oh no, thank you.” Caroline returned the paper to the rack.

Megan wandered down the makeup aisle. Caroline joined Adam in the candy aisle. Together they picked out bubble gum with the baseball cards, butterscotch suckers, and jelly candies. The entire time Caroline kept thinking about the article in the paper and Mrs. Starr. She looked over her shoulder at Mrs. Nester. Hidden behind her spectacles were sharp beady eyes watching every movement they made. Caroline didn’t know what made her turn around and approach the woman. Courage? She doubted it. More like an annoying itch she couldn’t help but scratch.

“Do you have any old Lake Reporters?” she asked. “Maybe ones from other important events that happened around the lake?”

Mrs. Nester narrowed her eyes. “I might. Anything specific you’re looking for?”

By this time both Adam and Megan had approached the counter and stood next to Caroline. It seemed she had garnered everyone’s attention. She pulled the visor of her baseball cap down a little more.

“I was wondering about other lake drownings.”

Mrs. Nester peered at Caroline over the top of her spectacles. “Now what would you want with that information? Are you looking to cause trouble? Because that’s exactly what you’ll get, poking around in that kind of news.” She glanced over Caroline’s shoulder as though she was making sure they were the only customers in the store.

Mrs. Nester continued. “Folks around here don’t like to talk about certain things. It’s bad for business.”

Caroline put the candy she was holding onto the counter in front of her. “Yes, ma’am. I don’t want to cause any trouble. It’s just—” She stopped, thinking how to explain.

Megan and Adam dumped their loot onto the counter too. Everyone waited for Caroline to continue, but she didn’t know how to tell them it had to do with her mother. She had to know why her mother kept running away from her. It made no sense when she put it this way, but she knew her mother had a secret, and it had something to do with Billy and drownings. If she could figure it out, maybe she could help her mother and she would stop running.

Mrs. Nester rang up their order. When she finished, she told Caroline to wait. She must’ve seen something on Caroline’s face—perhaps pity. Whatever it was, she disappeared behind a door at the back of the store, returning a few minutes later with a pile of newspapers.

“Take these around back. I’ve got a couple of chairs on the patio. Leave the papers on the table when you’re done. If anyone asks, you didn’t get them from me.”

Caroline took the papers and thanked Mrs. Nester repeatedly.

“Go on now, get, before I change my mind,” Mrs. Nester said.

As soon as they were outside, Megan complained. She didn’t want to read old newspapers. She didn’t see the point. It was like doing homework, and it was summertime. She wasn’t going to read anything she didn’t have to. And Adam was more interested in the bubblegum and baseball cards.

They settled on Mrs. Nester’s back patio. The sun blared, but at least they were in the shade under the trees. Megan took out her new lip gloss and smacked her lips while Caroline sifted through the papers. The black print rubbed off on her fingertips. She scanned the article about the boating accident and the man who had drowned, the one she had witnessed three summers ago. She dug farther into the pile and pulled out the last paper in the stack, dated July 1997.

With trembling hands, she shook the paper open, the headline reading: Sixteen-Year-Old Local Boy Drowns. She held the paper inches from her nose and inspected the blurry black-and-white photo of a teenage boy. There was something she recognized in him, a look or coolness she sensed in some boys, definitely Chris, maybe Johnny. But it was hard to gauge something like that from just a grainy photo. She continued to read.