Izzy released a resigned sigh. “It’s the real reason I came here,” she confessed. Her words hung in the air.
The revelations she delivered over the next several minutes left Julia speechless.
“Once I read about the bones, I set up a Google Alert lookingfor job opportunities. I just knew I had to come here and learn more. What better way to investigate my aunt’s disappearance than during a two-week stay right across from her old house? And before you get mad, I got my CPR certification and took an online first-aid class, so I wasn’t completely irresponsible. Plus, I read a ton about nannying and watchedMary Poppinsenough times to have it memorized.”
Mary Poppins? Despite the shock, Julia couldn’t suppress a smile.
“That’s quite inventive of you, Izzy,” she said. “ItisIzzy, right? I mean, is that your real name?”
“Yes, I’m Isabelle Greene, like I told Detective Baker. And my mom is Lauren Greene, but she was Lauren Welch until she married my dad. They divorced, but she didn’t want to take her old name back. There were too many painful memories attached to it. I don’t know if she’s ever been diagnosed, but I think my mother has suffered from PTSD ever since her sister’s disappearance. That’s why I became a true crime junkie. And I got the idea that if I could figure out what happened to my aunt, it would somehow help heal my mother’s heart.”
As the news sank in, vague memories began to congeal in Julia’s mind, forming an increasingly vivid picture. Lauren and Susie Welch—the girls from across the lake. She had played with Izzy’s mother as a young girl. As a teenager, she’d done vodka shots in the Shack with both Welch sisters. How crazy was that? She hadn’t thought of Lauren Welch in ages, not since the family abandoned the lake house shortly after the disappearance.
But then again, the lake lore was always about the missing, not those left behind.
“I’ve been investigating Fiona’s disappearance as well. Taylor asked me to find out if Lucas might be involved.”
“Lucas?” But then Julia caught on. “Right, the kiss.”
“I don’t think he did anything to her, and he’s actually been helping me… Taylor, too.” Izzy cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Anyway, we’ve discovered some concerning information.”
Izzy took a Polaroid picture from her backpack and placed itface up on the kitchen table in front of Julia. She told the craziest story about a box that had once belonged to Anna Olsen, but had ended up with Susie Welch.
“This picture was hidden inside a secret compartment. I’m certain the boy in the photograph is David. He was involved with my aunt, and judging by the blacked-out face, it didn’t end well.”
Julia stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the image before her. She recognized David’s gold chain, which had belonged to his father. She even remembered that ratty old Nirvana T-shirt he had worn until it was threadbare. She knew David and Erika had hooked up back in the day, but she wasn’t aware he had a relationship with Susie. Of course, David had pursued everyone, Julia included. And growing up, he had spent more time on the lake than Julia. Her parents always had to leave to get back to work, but David could spend his summer with Cormac, his ever-grieving mother a shadow of herself. Had Julia missed an entire romance between David and Susie Welch?
“There’s more.” Izzy told Julia about Anna’s letter to her sister Grace and the strange coincidence of two women hiding secrets inside the box before they went missing.
Julia thought things couldn’t get any crazier until she read Anna’s letter, which Izzy had saved on her phone. The story was heartbreaking, but the mention of the Mob nearly took Julia’s breath away.
Izzy’s leg was bouncing up and down fast enough to shake the table.
Julia cupped the nanny’s hand, and the leg movement slowed. “This is all very disturbing,” she said. “Especially since it’s the second Mob reference I’ve heard in one day.” She revealed David’s connection to a gangster named Jimmy T and his association with an underground website that also had a tragic link to Fiona Maxwell.
Izzy’s eyes danced as she absorbed all the information. “I’ve seen that website. I got the code to his computer and searched through it. I know I shouldn’t have, but the Polaroid changed everything.”
“What? How?” Julia was equal parts impressed and concerned.
“Don’t ask,” said Taylor, and Izzy didn’t offer, so Julia chalked it up to kids and technology and left it at that.
“So you saw a porn website on David’s computer, but he could have just been watching it. What made you think he’s running the site?” Julia crinkled her nose.
“There was a spreadsheet,” Izzy explained. “It was obvious from the entries that he was making money from it. It looked like a lot of homemade stuff, which could easily include revenge porn—but I only got a quick look because he caught me, and, well, it was kinda scary. He threatened me…”
“Oh, Izzy, this iswaytoo dangerous,” said Julia, whose shoulders sagged with the weight of this news.
“So let’s review,” she continued. “We have a sketchy adult website—not that there are many non-sketchy ones—the Mob, a revenge porn suicide, three missing women from the same lake, a secret letter, and a Polaroid picture of your aunt with my neighbor in what appears to be a relationship gone sour. I’m afraid to ask what else you wanted to tell me, Taylor.”
The room went so silent that all Julia could hear were the distant sounds of the twins playing in the yard next door.
Taylor inhaled deeply, closed her eyes, and released a sigh of surrender. “I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to come right out and say it. I’m pregnant.”
The moment she made this announcement, a piercing scream erupted outside.
Chapter 38
Izzy
