It Begins by Richie Tankersley Cusick Page A

blacktop for about ten minutes, then turned off again onto an even narrower dirt road, this one winding off through thickly wooded countryside for several more miles.
    “That’s it up there,” Angela finally announced.
    To Lucy’s relief she saw the fairgrounds up ahead, a noisy carnival bright with lights and busy with activity. Across the road and a good walk away stretched a large unlit field where kids with flashlights directed traffic and motioned them to their parking spot.
    “Okay,” Angela said, unstrapping her seat belt.“Why don’t we just meet back here about ten-thirty?”
    Lucy looked doubtful. “You’re sure that’s enough time to … to not worry Irene?” she remembered to say. “I mean, how can you know for sure how long her meeting will be?”
    “Trust me. It’s a stupid disciplinary committee, and they never end before eleven. Night’s the only time they can get everyone together without having
other
very important meetings to go to.”
    “What kind of discipline?” Lucy couldn’t help asking.
    “A bunch of stupid frat guys. They’re always such jerks, and they’re always in some kind of trouble. I mean, you’d think they’d learn by now that it’s
not
cool to get drunk and act like total idiots in the cemetery.”
    Lucy’s hand froze on the door handle. “What … about the cemetery?”
    “Some guys went into the cemetery last night and got drunk and were messing around. And I guess somebody saw them and complained.”
    It was all Lucy could do to keep her voice casual. “What were they doing, do you know?”
    “The usual stuff, probably. Breaking things … stealing things … spray-painting the headstones … just your usual damage to private property. Oh—and I always love this one—making out with their girlfriends on the graves.”
    “So …” Lucy could barely choke out the words, “it was just a … a joke?”
    “Well,
they
thought it was. But they’re gonna get suspended and their fraternity will get put on probation.” Angela thought a minute, then gave a wry smile. “That’s the part Irene really likes. The punishment part.”
    But Lucy wasn’t listening anymore. As she got the door open and climbed out, her mind was spinning with rage and disbelief.
A joke! Kids drunk and playing pranks!
No wonder there hadn’t been any news coverage … no murder investigations … no reports of missing girls … And all the agony she’d suffered … the terror … the guilt and regret and horror and—
    “Are you coming?” Angela was waving at her from the other side of the car. “The Festival’s
this
way. God, I can’t believe they made us park way out here in all this mud!”
    Yet that still didn’t explain her encounter with Byron that morning, Lucy reminded herself, following Angela through the field. Still didn’t explain the things he’d said … the things he’d known …
    Unless he was part of the joke, too. Unless he was there last night with those other guys, and he guessed I might come back this morning, and he wanted to scare me into not saying anything …
    “If you tell anyone … you could die … they wouldn’t believe you anyway …”
    “Did you hear me?” Angela snapped.
    “What? Sorry—what?”
Still doesn’t explain Byron … still doesn’t explain a lot of things—
    “I
said
, let’s just meet back here at the car. Are you
listening
to me?”
    “Yes,” Lucy murmured. “I’m listening. Ten-thirty. Here at the car.”
    She felt betrayed. Mortified and furious at being the butt of such a cruel, twisted joke. How those guys must be laughing at her right now—if, in fact, they even remembered the sick charade they’d carried out last night.
    “Okay,” Angela said. “See you later.”
    They parted at the main gate, but Lucystood on the sidelines for a moment, taking everything in. It was after six now, and the Fall Festival was in full swing. Angela was right about one thing, she noted—it seemed the whole town had turned