Page 117 of You'll Be Sorry

“Why not just share this story thirty years ago? Show the Masons of the world the diary and its hidden messages. Identify the secret well. Reveal the dark history of this town and be done with it?”

“And hazard them destroying it? By the time I connected all the dots and realized the journal’s full importance, I couldn’t risk such a thing. History is already a series of lies written by men. What happened to Rita Light, a fallacy perpetrated by an entire town, there are still many around here who’d be happy for that account to vanish. Though keeping it to myself also started to grate, because othersshouldknow. Rita deserved that much. So”—Isla shrugged—“I decided to make the journal available to Janet Dixon.”

“Make the journal available…?”

“I snuck into the Dixons’ house that August and hid the diary in plain sight. I knew she was a reader. I counted on her to take an interest.”

“Why Janet Dixon?”

“Because she’s not really a Dixon, of course. She married into the madness. But her connection to the family would heighten her curiosity. Unfortunately, I still didn’t know what I didn’t know. For example, the boarded-up well: Rita could hardly document her own death. It took me years of additional research to finally understandwhat might’ve happened to her, and decades to narrow in on a location. But also, the diary turned out to be only half of the story. It took the Dixon kids to discover the rest.”

“The lost treasure.”

Isla jolted slightly. “You know about the lost treasure?”

“Heard all about it. Come on, Isla, we’re both freezing our asses off out here. Once and for all, thirty years ago—what the hell did you do?”

Isla was silent for so long, Mandy thought the woman was once again going to stonewall. But then, eyes downcast, she suddenly clipped out:

“Dog found me. I could see blood on his fur. Lovey and I followed him through the storm, down to the meadow. I could see the house in the distance, but it was dark. The dog headed to the driveway.

“I found Dave Dixon first. He’d fallen across his younger daughter’s body. In the rain, I couldn’t see what was wrong, but clearly both were deceased. Dog kept moving. I followed. Janet came next, sprawled beside Violet, their hands nearly touching. Then, Henry and William. Both face down in the mud.”

“Austin really did all that?”

A shrug. “They’d all been shot. I think Dave had been carrying his daughter. She appeared to have multiple shots to her chest. The others, however, were a single shot to the forehead. There are very few people, drunk or sober, who are that good with a firearm.”

“Did you see anyone?”

“No. But just as I was turning toward the house to use their phone, I heard a noise. A low moan. It came from William.”

“The boy was still alive? And you didn’t call for help?”

Isla finally looked at her. “I could’ve. Maybe I should’ve. But I didn’t. What kind of person murders an entire family? Hunts them down on their own property, eliminating them one by one?”

Mandy didn’t have an answer.

“And what would that person do, if they discovered one person still lived? I couldn’t help the others. But William, he had a chance. I carried him back to my place—”

“Three miles? Half of it uphill?”

Isla merely shrugged. “Desperation is its own kind of gift. Thankfully the bullet had merely grazed William’s skull; I’m an experienced enough field medic. If your father was around, you could ask him. I’d patched him up a time or two, when he didn’t want others to know.”

Mandy opened her mouth to press, then snapped it shut. Now was not the moment.

“Once William was stabilized, I started to realize the enormity of the situation. Including…what kind of stranger would be wandering about in those conditions, happen to turn down a remote driveway, then decide to systematically gun down a family of six? Didn’t make sense. Meaning, it had to be a local, someone who knew exactly what they were doing and why. After that, I reached a decision.”

“You moved the bodies!” Even speaking the words, Mandy could barely believe them. “You knew about the cave because of the Dixon children. They themselves had shown it to you.”

“A cavern I’d never even heard of. It seemed a safe bet.”

“But…” Mandy was genuinely bewildered.

“If no one knew what had happened to the Dixons,” Isla explained slowly, “then the killer also would remain ignorant. A vanished family would be perplexing; a lone survivor, an immediate target. It’s possible I do have a long history of trespassing those grounds, meaning I knew exactly where the Dixons kept their ATV.

“It took me all night, but I got each one transported. Then, of course, I realized my next problem.”

“The search dogs. Being a trainer yourself, you know how skilled they are.”