Never smile at strangers

He’d been Tiffany’s murderer. And not just hers.

After the Seacrests’ pond had been drained, thirteen bodies in all had been found. According to the sheriff and the press, most of the murders had taken place a decade earlier. Three truck drivers, a former Wi

The FBI was investigating the multiple homicides and there was still yellow crime scene tape up at the Seacrest property. There would be for a long time.

Haley pulled her last suitcase out the front door and let the screen door snap in place behind her.

The morning was crisp and clean. Comforting. A fresh start. Haley let go of the suitcase and pulled her cardigan tighter across her body.

“You all packed and ready, baby?” her mother asked. She was sitting in a rocking chair, sipping coffee.

“Yeah.” Haley let go of her suitcase and sat next to her.

Haley was heading to Lafayette to check into her new dorm room. She was finally starting school. Getting out of Grand Trespass.

A baby wailed from one of the houses across the bayou and Haley thought again of all of the blood in that living room. There had been so much.

Her mother’s warm fingers stroked Haley’s cheek. “Remember how strong you are. Stronger than any of us. You’ll always come out on top. You just remember that.”

Haley nodded. Another vision lingered in her head. Erica wrapped in that wet blanket, shivering, blinking the cold rain from her eyes. It seemed as though she’d instantly known that it was her mother they’d pulled up. The initials embroidered across the front of the backpack was just a confirmation. Her mother hadn’t left her in the middle of the night for New York City ten years ago after all. For some reason, she’d been murdered and discarded in the Seacrests’ pond.

Aside from her mother’s funeral, Erica had refused to see anyone, even Haley, the first four weeks after that night. “Sorry, she don’t want to see anybody just yet,” Pamela would tell her at the front door. “Not even you, I’m afraid. But soon. Hopefully soon.”

And when Haley was finally able to see her, it was as though she were looking at a different girl. Erica’s ma

She looked at her mother. Someone who was also making a fresh start. She and Becky finally had her back. She was alive again, not off and on, but all the time. She was almost the same as she had been before the accident, but not quite.

She smoked now and her personality was still a little off, but Haley was convinced that she’d be okay. At least, as okay as any of them would ever be. “I’m so glad to have you back, Mama,” she whispered.

Her mother patted her hand.

A truck pulled into the drive and Haley glanced at her watch. Ten o’clock on the dot. Dependable, as always.

“Good luck. Not that you’ll need it,” her mother said.

“Thanks Mama,” Haley said, kissing her mother on the cheek.

The screen door creaked and Becky stepped out, her eyes heavy with sleep. “You going now?”

Haley nodded.

“But you’ll be back on the weekends, right?”

“Yep, each and every one.”

Haley said her goodbyes, then rolled her suitcases up the drive to meet Mac. She was relieved that Mac was just Mac. . . and that he always had been. He hadn’t been a stranger after all.

The boy with the crooked smile, the one she’d fawned over and decided she could trust. . . he’d been the stranger. She was just thankful that she and her family were okay. And that finally, she could separate herself from the town and begin working on who she was meant to become. She’d needed that for so long.

She opened the passenger door and hopped in. A ray of sunlight shone across her face, but she didn’t shield herself from it. She just closed her eyes and let it warm her forehead.

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