The next morning Dawn was well-rested. Lewis had given her one of his vapes to keep and it would tide her over until she could find another locally or have someone ship one from California. She calmly vaped on the balcony while eating her granola. She and Lewis had gathered enough photos together from the internet and arranged them to divide amongst the group for the reenactment. Claudia was bringing her good camera Watson had bought and of course, everyone could use the camera on their phones. As it turned out Claudia, Mallory, Jessi, Bart, and Lewis we're coming that afternoon to reenact the events.
Dawn went downstairs to pack her picnic basket. She put in red wine, avocado toast sandwiches, yogurt, and fruit. She also put in some sparklers Logan had picked up from Abby's joke shop. Then she and Lewis got into the truck and drove downtown to meet everyone. They met near Town Hall where the race began. The food trucks and vendors were setting up for the festivities that afternoon.
"Ok, let's spit up into groups. Of you can, go to the area you were in yesterday for the race. Look around and walk around for any place that looks like a shortcut. Remember not all of the race was areas that spectators were watching. Check around those areas. If you find something, send everyone a group text and we will all meet up at your location. If we don't find anything, I say check in with the group in about an hour and a half," Dawn said.
They divided up.
Because Dawn and Bart had been running the race and didn't have a stationary position they retraced the route in Bart's car, getting out every so often to look around. Even though they felt it had happened down by Watson's neighborhood they started from the beginning. They didn't find anything in the square so they moved on down the road. They got to the spot where they met Claudia and later Karen and Alan. They started walking around the area surrounding the road. This had been a spot on the route that forked from Burnt Hill Road and High Street. Bart started walking toward the playground of Stoneybrook Elementary School. Then he started running faster. He ran across the street and up to a rock formation that was on the corner. He took a good walk around the rock formation. He kicked at the rock sticking out on the bottom. It didn't move. He picked it up with his hands and then he saw it. The rocks were covered space on the ground that was big and slanted down a hole like a storm drain. But it wasn't a storm drain.
"Dawn! Come here a minute!" Dawn rushed over. "I think I've found it!" It had steps. It was a secret passage.
Dawn realized how close she was to her mom and Richard's house. "It's a secret passage. Don't text everyone yet. Let's see where it leads."
They got some flashlights out of Bart's car and began walking down the steps.
Later that afternoon Dawn and Bart were in Miller's Park in the loft of Ambrose Sawmill. A ladder and a door were leading up to the roof. They opened it and we're eating their picnic lunch and discussing the passage and enjoying the remains of the day before the fireworks.
"I just don't want to tell the others yet. The secret passage that was in my house always scared Mary Anne." Dawn laughed remembering." Well of course some of that is my fault. I spooked her on purpose so she wouldn't share a room with me anymore and we could stop fighting."
"Really?"
"Yes, and you are sworn to secrecy because ai never told her."
"Your secrets are safe with me."
Now that they had solved that mystery Dawn was ready to move into what Alan and Cary were up to for the next day.
"What do you think they could be doing?"
"I don't know but we will be taking them out tomorrow."
"There has been a lot of noise coming from Jenny's place. We need to cover all the bases of her property."
"I've got Mary Anne, Logan, Lewis, Claudia, Mallory, and Jessi all coming to work on the stakeout. We will get to the bottom of it. We are professionals."
"Oh, I remember. I remember."
Dawn laid her head down in the hay and looked up at the sky through the door in the roof.
"You know we used to have a barn before the fire. Kristy and I used to swing from a rope in it. That's when I first moved here."
"What made you move away?"
The sun was beginning to set which always made Dawn at ease.
"When I first moved here my parents had just gotten divorced. My brother had a hard time adjusting. He never really made any friends other than the Pikes. It would have been different for me too if I hadn't joined the BSC. It was still strange. Everyone always made such a big deal about what an individual I was but I was just like everyone else back in California. People are very conforming and set in their ways here. They like their meat and potatoes and I eat salad. They didn't always understand my ideas or feelings about things either. I just felt I needed to be with more like-minded people."
"That's understandable. Do you feel different this time?"
"I do. The last time I visited it was with Maggie on a break. She had been having problems with her parents and was struggling with anorexia. She put too much pressure on herself to be a perfectionist. When she lost her diary on the visit she got a bad grade in English. She spiraled out of control partying a lot with our friend Sunny. She committed suicide the first day of school because they made her go into remedial English for the grade. She had been dealing with a lot of other things but we didn't know until Mary Anne found the diary and mailed it back to me. Bu then it was too late. Maggie was gone. I coils only bring myself to read a few entries and I sent it back to Mary Anne because I didn't want to read anymore. It took a long time to get over. Me and Sunny started partying every weekend. It wasn't until after college that I started to calm down and separate from Sunny. She is still partying and not really doing anything with herself."
"That must have been really hard."
"This time feels better now. Different. I'm glad I came back."
"Me too."
Dawn thought Bart would kiss her again but when he didn't and continued watching the fireworks Dawn turned her head and looked down. She could see a figure of a woman in the brook.
The which hurried quickly down by the brook. She thought she had done the spell correctly but nothing had happened yet. And the crystal ball had been struck by lightning. She had to buy a new one and try once again. Time was running out. Lightning could have altered the spell. So far she had seen nothing. She had done it correctly once. That had been decades ago and it was getting hard to remember. She took her crystal ball and we ended in the lake. She knew she was ready and this time it would take....
