Page 81 of You'll Be Sorry

“It’s not our first meeting.”

Another tilt of the world’s axis. Damn, this cabin was hot. And suffocating. Mandy had to fight not to tug at the collar of her uniform.

“As a child, you suffered from eczema. Your father brought you by on occasion to pick up a special treatment soap. Generally, you preferred to play outside.”

Mandy shook her head; all news to her.

“Once you were here when William visited.”

“William Dixon?”

“Of course.” The woman eyed Mandy intently.

“I never met—”

“You did.”

“I did not!”

“You did. Outside this cabin. You and William played hide-and-seek. While your father and I…conducted business.”

“Now I know you’re lying. Like a six-year-old boy hiked all the way up here by himself.”

“William loved his siblings, but being the youngest of four wasn’t always easy. Given a chance to sneak away, he’d take it.”

“Then why don’t I remember—”

“Something so insignificant? You were two young kids. You played until it was time to go. It was what it was. Until months later, when the entire family went missing, and then it became about what wasn’t.”

Mandy couldn’t help herself; she dredged through her memories trying to pull up anything to either prove or disprove these crazy allegations. Mandy could picture William clearly in her mind’s eye. But she had no impression of an active, freckle-faced boy. Just the two-dimensional image, captured forever in his elementary school photo. The more this woman talked, however, the more Mandy wondered. She and William could easily have crossed paths at one of the Saturday farmers markets and run around the way kids did. Islawas right; at the time it wouldn’t have seemed anything special, just another day in the life of a child.

“Your father was a good man,” Isla was saying. “Sometimes he’d come by end of shift and help chop firewood. Other times…he just needed to talk. Being responsible for an entire community is a heavy burden for any man. And especially for one who cared.”

Mandy’s temper flared again. “Leave my father alone. He gave enough to this town. He doesn’t deserve you tainting his reputation.”

“Is that what I’m doing, saying your father was kind and caring and responsible?”

“If you and my father were so close, why didn’t I ever hear him mention your name? Not once when I was growing up.”

“Because after that dark, stormy night, when an ancient oak was split in two and an entire family vanished, this town became a study in before and after. Many things changed after that terrible evening. Many people as well.”

“Why? That doesn’t make any…”

And just like that.

Mandy’s gaze dropped to Isla McLean’s stockinged feet. Absolutely correct for an average-sized female. Like her dad was a match for an average-sized male.

Don’t let her get in your head, she ordered herself. But it was too late. Mandy was already thinking things she didn’t want to think. Her father’s DNA all over the Dixon crime scene, as well as possibly his footprints. This woman, one of the closest neighbors, who knew the Dixon children and her father, not to mention English Labs and the history of this village…

An hour ago, Mandy hadn’t even been aware her father had an acquaintance who called herself the Witch of the Woods. Now she had to wonder just how well her father had known this woman, and what might have happened to sever that relationship completely.

“I need you to come with me,” Mandy stated stiffly.

“No.”

“It’s not a request—”

“Do you have a warrant for my arrest?”