Nora said. Tyler, in the backseat, kept her eyes down as Jack swung the car onto Beach Lane. She didn’t want to see the road she’d driven yesterday, but her mind dwelled on it: the windowless brick house across the field to the left, the woods to the right, the row of mailboxes, Dan’s mailbox. She saw herself and Nora walking Seaside’s shadowy ruts, the strange man staring out at them through the screen. She remembered the desolate, abandoned look of Dan’s cabin with its empty porch, and how she’d felt anxious to get away from it. Without knowing, she’d somehow known her search for Dan would end badly. Dead more than a year. God, it was hard to believe. He lives in Beast House? I wouldn’t say that, not exactly. That crazy old man, Captain Frank, had known all along. He’d toyed with her. Even last night, he’d kept it to himself. Maybe he just didn’t have the guts to come out with it. Maybe he’d wanted to, but couldn’t force himself to be the bearer of such news.
