Prologue
Cassie (Age 26)
Cassie, who lives alone, has just turned out the light in the kitchen when an unusual sight draws her gaze to the window. Countless lights fill the night sky, like bright pinpricks in a cloak of black velvet. Fascinated, she goes outside to gaze at them. The display overwhelms her with a wondrous feeling regarding the vastness of the universe. She actually finds it soothing to be reminded of the relative insignificance of her life and the mostly disastrous trajectory it’s followed so far.
The lights grow brighter, or maybe just closer. One in particular increases in intensity until it seems to be heading straight for her house. Fearful, she backs inside planning to slam the door shut, but then the thing arcs downward and disappears behind the hedges. The leaves rustle.
Her cat Gio rubs against her leg. His fur is sticking straight up on his back, and his eyes bulge like yellow marbles, staring at the place where something might’ve landed. Cassie has goosebumps herself, but still can’t resist going to check. Peering behind the bushes, she sees a small rock glowing like a piece of lit charcoal. When she moves aside branches to get a closer look, a spark flies out and pricks her bare arm. It doesn’t burn but causes a tingling sensation.
The glow of the meteorite or whatever-it-is has already dimmed by the time she shifts her gaze back to it. Now it just looks like the kind of granite found everywhere in this area. Since it’s sitting in the dirt not touching anything, she doesn’t think it’s in any danger of starting a fire even if it’s still hot. She decides to leave it for now. She can collect it tomorrow when it’s definitely cooled down, and possibly take it somewhere like the Museum of Science in Boston. Or maybe call them first to be sure they would be interested. It could be that meteorites land all the time and scientists already have warehouses full of them.
Under the glare of the outdoor lamp, she examines her arm. The spark left a small red mark, but it doesn’t hurt when she touches it. However, a sudden sense of unease makes her quicken her steps back into the house. Gio slips between her feet before she shuts the door firmly behind them and snaps the bolt.
Chapter 1
The murder happened on June 9th or 10th, 1973, the day (or two) after Cassie came home for the summer following her first year at Syracuse. Apparently, the last breath was drawn so close to midnight, the medical examiner couldn’t say with certainty whether it came before or after, though officially the death was certified as occurring on Sunday, the 10th.
Cassie woke early on the 9th, not that she had any premonition regarding what was to come, but because she couldn’t wait to see Julian after so much time apart. At five a.m., diffused sunshine already filled her room, and birds were singing in a chorus outside her window.
Rising and crossing to the study that looked out toward the back of her house, she gazed at the sights she’d missed since Christmas. The still gray surface of Inner Harbor … the large grassy backyard sloping down to a border of mud where the water lapped up … the encircling branches of the gnarled oak she used to climb with her friends. From the side window, she glimpsed crows lined up on the roof of their red barn. Beyond that, past the edge of their property, the familiar gravestones poked up in a scattered formation across the hillside cemetery. She would soon pay one of them a visit.
A feeling rose inside her that was half-adrenaline, half-aching heart for this place that formed an essential part of her. She didn’t know if she’d have the strength to leave it again come fall, but that was something she preferred not to think about just yet. She settled back into her father’s old chair and stared out at the wakening world for an hour at least. She may have dozed off.
Eventually she returned to her bedroom to be confronted by the two suitcases and five cardboard boxes she’d carried up from the car last night. She would’ve rather ignored them and gone directly to Julian’s, but when she spoke on the phone with him before she left Syracuse, he said he would be out with his father on the boat this morning.
Therefore, she dove into the unpacking and rather quickly had her clothes put away in her closet and dresser. But when she reached the box that held her Julian mementos, it slowed her down. She sat on the bed and flipped open the photo album, going through each picture like a preview of coming attractions. Julian and her in his father’s truck, on the lobsterboat, at the beach, canoeing across Inner Harbor, on the rollercoaster at Escapade Park.
After the photos, came the contents of her special carved wooden box. The earrings he gave her for her eighteenth birthday. The roses—now dried—he bought for graduation. The letters—too few—he sent her during their separation. She raised her right hand to gaze for the millionth time at the silver ring he gave her before she left in September. It was a simple, plain band but what mattered was his pledge to be true to her forever.
Before closing up the boxes again, she removed the cassette recording of a piano recital Julian had done in high school. Debussy’s Rêverie, one of the most exquisite songs she’d ever heard, and Julian played it masterfully. Not that she was any kind of expert, but his performance managed to silence an auditorium full of rowdy teenagers, which was saying quite a lot. She had listened to the tape often while she was away.
When nearly everything was back in its place, the phone rang, making her leap in response. She dashed down the hall and through the open door into her mother’s bedroom, glad to see her mother had already risen and gone somewhere else in the house. “I’ll get it!” Cassie shouted, lifting the receiver.
“Hello?” She made her voice soft and sultry, thinking it would be Julian on the other end.
Her heart sank when it wasn’t. “Oh hi, Mr. Harrington.” Ew. She felt weird having used her sexy voice on her mother’s boyfriend. He was saying something to her now, but she pretended not to hear, cupping the receiver and calling out to her mother. She hung up the second the phone was picked up in the kitchen.
Cassie returned to her room to change out of her pajamas. Anticipating a hot day, she put on her bikini and topped it with a tank top and cutoffs. She braided her hair in the back, and dabbed on lipstick and eyeliner before heading downstairs to get breakfast.
Her mother was still on the phone. Cassie tried to ignore the conversation while preparing a bowl of granola with milk and sliced banana. She glanced through the newspaper headlines while she ate, though mostly she was focused on thoughts of her upcoming day.
Eventually her mother hung up and announced she was going to a party with Mr. Harrington tonight. She came up behind Cassie and played with her braid.
“That’s nice,” Cassie said. Since she expected to be with Julian, she wasn’t sure why her mother bothered to tell her. She knew one of Mr. Harrington’s daughters, making it awkward the father of this girl she hung out with a few times was now dating her mother. However, he was divorced, and Cassie’s mother was a widow, and there probably weren’t a lot of eligible people their age in this small town.
“Let’s plan dinner together for Sunday.” Her mother patted her shoulder absentmindedly. “I missed you while you were away.”
“Mm, me too.” She got up to rinse off her dishes. “I’m going to Julian’s.”
“Of course you are.” Her mother smiled. “Take the car if you like.”
Cassie glanced out the window at clear blue sky. “I’ll ride my bike.” Brumewich, Massachusetts, where she lived, was compact enough that most anywhere she might want to go lay within a thirty-minute bike ride. This, despite that homes were stretched out from one another, separated by luxurious lawns and hundreds-of-years-old trees. They were spoiled by an excess of natural beauty, here in Brumewich.
“Be careful, honey,” her mother said. “Last week a car hit a bicyclist on Sand Road in Ruford. The boy broke his nose.”
“Yeah, don’t worry, Mom,” she said, though she knew it was wasted advice. For every possible way that one might get injured or die, her mother could dig up a recent example from the news.
Fifteen minutes after setting out, Cassie approached Julian’s rather rundown house, located across the street from the main commercial dock. Since it was a Saturday in June, the harbor was bustling, between the fishing boats coming back in for the day, and the pleasure boats heading out. Passing near the water, she looked out to see if Julian had arrived. She spotted the Reis boat, but only Armando, his father, was there tidying up a few things. He didn’t notice her, and she didn’t call out to him, figuring there would be plenty of time to greet him later.
Armando’s Chevy pickup was parked in the driveway, outside their carport. She had painted an orange lobster on the back of its cargo bed last summer, and it pleased her to see the colors hadn’t faded. She laid her bike down on the lawn that was more dirt and weeds than grass. The uneasy sense of someone’s eyes on her made her glance back before approaching the house. A young woman, Teresa Patterson, leaned against the side of a rusty green Volkswagen Bug across the street.
Cassie remembered her from high school, though Teresa was older, a senior when she was a freshman. It really wasn’t possible to forget the older girl, because of how gorgeous she was. Whenever she passed by in the corridor, every boy’s eyes would be on her. Behind her back, they called her Raquel—because of the actress Raquel Welch. Seriously, she was that sexy. But despite all of them lusting after her, Cassie couldn’t recall her dating anyone in particular.
Teresa looked as amazing as ever, in a little white dress that exposed cleavage on top, and long, tanned legs beneath. When she noticed Cassie looking, she shifted her gaze to the dock and waved at someone down below.
Cassie turned back to the house. Julian was likely inside taking a shower, as he always did immediately after getting off the boat, wanting to scrub off the fishy odor. Funny thing, she actually loved that smell. She was a child of the sea and always would be.
The Reis family, father and son, never locked their doors, night or day, home or not home. She assumed they kept their money in the bank, and what else would anyone want to steal? The thrift store furniture? The record player from 1943? The rickety upright piano that Julian—defying all odds and sour notes—had learned to play like a god?
An unlocked home was not unusual in Brumewich, though. Whenever a visitor encountered one, they were expected to knock first to announce their presence, then go right in before anyone inside might be forced to rise from their chair to get the door.
Cassie followed protocol, but it threw her off to find Julian frozen in the center of the family room, looking at her like she’d caught him in the middle of an embarrassing act. His hand that was balled up in a fist moved into his pocket where he may have deposited something.
Though he clearly wanted to hide the object, she would still have asked him about it if he hadn’t distracted her immediately. He broke into a smile that lit up his face, sweeping away her brief suspicion. “Cass!” He crossed the room in two steps, lifted her in his arms, and swung her around in a full circle. “Cass, I missed you.”
She raised her hands to his neck and kissed him, breathing in the familiar scent of warm citrus that came from his shampoo, and releasing the longing she’d felt through the snowbound winter and the drenching spring in Syracuse. Eventually they drew back just to look at each other. His expression shone with good humor, over-confidence, and carelessness in equal amounts. It made her jealous to see how brown he was already, though summer had barely begun. He’d inherited rapid-tanning skin along with glossy black hair from his Portuguese dad.
“Where were you last night?” She’d been hoping he might come to her house and surprise her.
“Me? I was home.”
“I called. No one answered.”
“What time?”
“I don’t know. Past ten.”
“Oh yeah? I was asleep.”
“That’s pathetic,” she said.
“My father gets me up at four-thirty.”
“Oh all right.” She kissed him again. “Did you miss me very much?”
“Are you crazy? I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“Good. I hope you suffered a lot while I was gone.”
“I’ll suffer even more if I don’t get something to eat.” He went into the kitchen with Cassie following directly behind.
“You’re not hungry, are you?” Julian foraged for sandwich ingredients in the fridge and cupboards. He was always famished after he came back from the boat.
“I’ll take everything you have,” she said to spite him. The front door opened and a moment later, Armando entered the kitchen.
“Look who’s back from college.” He gave her a warm smile. “You’re gonna get a big hug but not before I clean up.”
“Nice to see you, Armando.” Mr. Reis always insisted Cassie use his first name.
“He tell you what happened?” Armando nodded in Julian’s direction.
“He never tells me anything,” she said.
“Papai, forget it.” Julian looked annoyed.
But Armando launched into his story. “This mornin’ on the boat, he’s got a trap balanced on the side. I tell him to heave it. He shoves it off and stands there in a daze while rope flies out of the hot water barrel, you know, followin’ the trap down.” He paused for effect. “So my fool kid gets his leg in the way. Know how fast that thing goes, Cassie?”
She nodded her head, because she did know. She’d been on the boat once when Julian was setting traps.
“The line’s tightening round his leg, pullin’ him down, draggin’ him to the edge … he’s strugglin’ to free himself but he can’t. So who do you think saves him? I grab my knife, saw at the rope … friggin’ hard to cut it. Meanwhile my son’s holdin’ onto the side for dear life.”
“Obviously you managed it since I’m standing right here,” Julian said.
“You bet I did. But thanks to you, we lost a perfectly good trap.”
“How’s your leg, Julian?” she said.
“Fine. My father’s exaggerating.”
“Gonna have a good bruise there in the morning,” Armando said. “And you’re welcome.”
“Thanks, Papai.” Julian gave him a sheepish look. Sometimes, the way they spoke to each other reminded her of brothers rather than father and son. Partly because his dad was only eighteen when Julian was born. And mostly because his mom died in childbirth and it had been just the two of them since then. Cassie had never seen a parent and child that were closer.
“Why weren’t you paying attention?” she asked Julian.
“Couldn’t wait to see his girl.” Armando looked at Julian’s developing sandwich. “You gonna share that with her?”
“Cass, you want some?” Without waiting for her reply, he added, “She’s not hungry.”
Just for that, she swiped a piece of cheese from on top of his bread and stuck it in her mouth.
“I taught you better manners than that,” Armando told him. His gaze shifted to the table. “And after she was so nice and brought you a cookie.”
She followed his eyes to a sugar cookie shaped like a heart, resting on a napkin on the table. “Oh I didn’t bring that.” She looked at Julian. “Where’d you get it?”
When Julian didn’t answer, Armando said, “Must be from my secret admirer.” He took the cookie and walked away.
“He has a secret admirer?” she whispered after he’d gone out.
Julian snorted. “Pete dropped it by earlier.” She did think it was odd, though, that he hadn’t said that right away.
They set out in the truck after he demolished his sandwich in several huge bites.
“Beach?” she asked him as he backed out of the driveway.
He gave her a sideways glance with half-lidded eyes that told her he had something else in mind.
“Surprise me,” she said.
Before long, he drove to the end of an empty road, where a residential construction site lay deserted. “I don’t think anyone works here on Saturdays.” He parked the Chevy under the shade of an elm tree on the side.
It wasn’t their first time doing it in the truck, and they knew how to manage the limited space. Amazing what one can accomplish when the desire is strong enough. He grabbed a condom from the glove compartment, and it did worry her a little to see what a ready supply he had despite her being out of town for months. But it could’ve been Armando’s stash. Last summer, he’d been dating a woman ten years his junior.
The cramped quarters and months spent apart rendered their love-making frenzied and ecstatic. But the best part to Cassie was when he gathered her in his arms afterward and she listened to the rhythm of his heart. Here was home in the best possible sense.
Their repose didn’t last long. At the sound of an approaching vehicle, they sprung apart and scrambled to locate discarded clothing. As soon as Julian had on his shorts, he started up the truck and headed back the way they’d come. Cassie was pulling on her T-shirt as they passed the middle-aged couple—probably the property owners—who looked amused.
When they reached the road, they exchanged a glance and burst out laughing. “Beach now?” Julian said.
“Hell yeah.”
He drove them to Thorne Cove, which they liked better than Gull Beach, crowded with families this time of year. The cove had a cottage beyond the sand line, and was, strictly speaking, a private section of the coast shared among a dozen or so homeowners. But this early in the season most of the summer dwellers had not yet arrived, meaning no one was around to complain about their trespassing. The beach itself was small, with trees on one side and rocks jutting out into the water on the other.
She and Julian played like they were eight years old. They swam in the bitter-cold ocean, and when they needed to get warm, they sat near the water’s edge and built a castle. Then back in to rinse off, and onto the beach where Julian buried her under the sand and threatened to leave her there.
Later while Cassie lay in the deliciously warming sun, Julian practiced diving off the rocks. She turned her head sideways to watch him. It filled her with awe that this tall man with a Grecian nose, sculpted torso, and powerful arms that must’ve come from all the work hauling traps … that this extraordinarily handsome man had pledged himself to her.
Three teenage girls had recently arrived and set their towels close to where he was diving. They sat there watching him while they spread baby oil all over their bodies. From the way they giggled and whispered among themselves, Cassie knew they were talking about him, maybe even daring each other to go speak to him.
When he got out of the water, he actually swaggered past the girls on his way to Cassie, showing how much he enjoyed the attention. So naturally she kicked sand on him as soon as he was close. In response he leapt on her and kissed her with the taste of salt water on his tongue.
During the drive back to his house, she asked him what they should do tonight.
“Sorry, I’m gonna be busy,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Me and my friends are hanging out at Escapade Park.”
“Can’t I come?”
“It’s only guys tonight. One of them just got dumped by his girlfriend.”
“Which friends are these?”
“They’re from Ruford. You don’t know them.”
“I thought you would’ve saved tonight for me,” she said.
“Tomorrow is yours.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Day and night. And the day and night after that. And so on for the rest of our lives, except when I need to work.”
She wasn’t happy, spending her first full night home without Julian. Jealousy niggled at her, and she couldn’t help being afraid his plans might have something to do with Teresa Patterson, aka Raquel. She even wondered if thoughts of how he was going to choose between them might’ve been what distracted him on the boat this morning. But she told herself that was ridiculous.