The Tree Beasts Read online

  Nat pointed to Julian and said to Adams, “Paul said that boy told him the trees in the woods look like monsters.”

  “When did Paul say this?” Victoria asked.

  “When he said he was going to search for them with him.”

  Julian’s guilty face made Victoria’s ire rise. “You told him he could go?” she said.

  Nat’s voice strained. “But he said he really wanted to see the trees.”

  Adams gave Nat a playful wink. “Sounds pretty scary. You know, I used to believe that too when I was about your age.”

  “I’m too old to believe in something like that.” Nat stared at the ground and frowned.

  Sam’s blue pickup truck pulled up.

  Chapter Two

  Sam thought Blackthorn’s entire police force was parked at the side of the road across from the park when he squeezed the pickup between two black and white squad cars.

  From the street he saw Victoria with the police. He searched around for Nat and Katie and got flustered when he didn’t spot them, then he saw them seated on a park bench with a female officer. She wore her red hair in a ponytail under her cap.

  Sam went to hug Victoria by the entrance to the woods, but seeing the pallor of her face and the anguish in her pretty brown eyes, he stood next to her and stroked her arm.

  “Have you found him?” Sam asked a cop.

  The policeman held his hand out to Sam. “Officer Adams.”

  Sam shook it. “Sam Gold.”

  “We’re doing everything we can, sir. We’ll find him.” Adams returned to talk privately with a blond boy and a dark-haired woman while several other officers lined up horizontally and started off into the woods. Sam glanced at the guns strapped to their waists. Would they have to use them to rescue Paul?

  “What took you so long to come?” Victoria asked.

  “I was at a meeting. I left as soon as you called me.”

  “Oh, that’s right.” Now she seemed to remember.

  Sam had been meeting with the club manager at the island’s golf course when Victoria called. The seasonal contract for the maintenance of the landscaping around the clubhouse was coveted among Blackthorn’s hungry handful of landscapers. And with three kids, Victoria and he could have really used the extra money – not that he had time to worry about that now.

  “How are Katie and Nat?” he whispered to Victoria.

  “I think they’re okay.”

  Sam took his hand from her arm and fidgeted. She explained about the boy, Julian, and his nanny, and Sam was afraid that if he didn’t move, what was unfolding in front of him wouldn’t seem like a dream anymore. It would be real.

  The afternoon light was descending into dusk, and Paul still hadn’t been found. Victoria pointed out a man in a green jogging outfit being interviewed by a short man with a neat beard, wearing a suit and long tan overcoat. “That’s the jogger who helped me hunt for Paul in the woods.”

  The man in the suit, who Sam figured out was a detective, came up to the blond boy’s nanny and spoke to her privately. He took the boy’s hand and the nanny trailed behind them as the detective drew the boy into a remote corner of the cold park to question him.

  The jogger walked over and shook Sam’s hand. “Your last name’s Gold, right? I’m going to call you tomorrow for an update. I want to say hi to Paul when he’s home. I know you’re going to find him soon.” He wished them the best of luck before he left.

  The police told Sam and Victoria that Paul’s footprints stopped at the beginning of a road covered lightly with snow on the other side of the woods. The detectives believed this was a positive thing. Proof that Paul was alive? That he’d gone willingly? Gone where?

  Sam watched them going in and coming back out of the woods.

  “This is your son’s?” A policeman held a laminated card up to Sam. The cop’s brown hair had grey flecks. He removed his reflective sunglasses and put them in the pocket at the front of his dark-blue shirt.

  Sam recognized Paul’s white medic-alert card with red writing in the man’s gloved hand and Victoria’s eyes spilled over with tears.

  “Yes,” they said at the same time.

  Sam wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “He always has it in his pants pocket,” he said quietly.

  The detective nodded solemnly and put the card into an evidence bag and sealed it. Sealed Paul away.

  They found Paul’s eyeglasses next, with both lenses crushed, and put them into an evidence bag too. He was out there somewhere alone without his glasses and maybe with someone who was unaware of his condition.

  Sam saw Nat and Katie sitting with the policeman. They were frowning. He didn’t blame the kids for growing cranky. Their brother was missing, but they were young and it was getting late. They needed to be home.

  “The kids should get some sleep. I’ll call my folks and they can pick them up and take them back to the house.”

  Victoria reached for Sam’s shoulder. “I’ll call my sister. She lives closer.”

  He touched her arm. “I’ll call her for you.”

  ***

  Diane arrived at the park in less than an hour. She held Victoria tightly then put her arm around Sam’s back in a half hug.

  “Sam,” she said, her voice soft and determined. Her short blonde hair was in disarray, and her clear blue eyes uncertain. “We’ll find him.” Diane squeezed his hand.

  Victoria gave her sister a house key. “I don’t know when we’ll be home.”

  “I’ll stay as long as you need me to.”

  Victoria got down on her knees in the snow and patiently fixed Katie’s coat and helped Nat put on his hat, making sure they were cared for even with everything else that was going on.

  Katie stared at the mark on Diane’s temple. “It’s like mine. Is it the same thing?”

  Diane started to speak. Victoria, her pretty face flushed, patted Katie’s arm. “They’re just birthmarks, sweetheart.”

  Diane smiled at Katie and left it at that.

  Sam hugged Nat and Katie then let them go. He watched them walk slowly away to where Diane’s small red car was parked among the numerous cop cars, just outside the park’s low stone fence.

  The red-haired policewoman walked over and introduced herself as Donovan. “Mrs. Gold. Mr. Gold. I need to ask you to clarify some things. I understand you’re very upset. It won’t take more than a few minutes.”

  “We’re willing to do anything that could help,” Sam said. “Do you know that Paul has epilepsy?”

  Donovan nodded in an understanding way.

  “They already know that,” Victoria said, on the verge of tears again.

  “Can you think of anyone who might want to harm you or your son?”

  Sam and Victoria glanced at each other and both answered no. Victoria, overcome by her tears, was unable to answer any more of Donovan’s questions, so Sam answered for them both.

  Paul was adventurous, he explained, but he respected their unease about letting him walk alone through the streets.

  “What can I do? There must be something I can help with,” Sam said when Donovan suggested his wife and he get some rest, that the police were doing all that they could.

  “Please, sir, it’s best for you to help your wife for now. We’ll handle it.”

  Sam turned to Victoria with a cramp in his stomach and a broken feeling in his heart. There was nothing they could do. That’s what was hurting him the most.

  They stayed with the police in the park until dawn the next day. When the sun appeared, Sam and Victoria reluctantly left.

  Through the pickup’s rear-view mirror, Sam watched the park they were leaving behind. The yellow caution tape the police had put around the playground late last night fluttered in the early morning breeze. Someone had taken Victoria’s roses from the bench. The police worked within the yellow tape and the woods. Sam wondered if the forest might be considered a crime scene now. The police had said it was best Victoria and he went home for a few hours. A crime scene.
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  Sam drove to the island’s police station, and Victoria waited in the truck while he went inside to formally file a missing person report.

  The police tried to be hospitable, but they were a small force, and with some guilt he thought of their uselessness. They might know something about forensics, but they didn’t know that if given a choice, Paul preferred to have a clementine over a candy bar. Sam did.

  While he was handing back the form he had filled in to the cop at the front counter, his cell phone beeped. It was a message from the golf course manager: ‘Had to go with someone else. Sorry. I know you had an emergency. Hope everything’s okay with your family.’

  “How did it go in there?” Victoria said, as Sam got back in the pickup. She placed her hand over his on the steering wheel.

  “Fine.” He didn’t tell her that on top of everything else, he’d lost the job.

  ***

  They pulled up to the house and parked in the driveway. He put his hand on Victoria’s arm as she got out of the truck. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll find him.”

  She looked back at him. “How can you be sure?”

  “I just know.”

  Nat and Katie came barrelling out the front door in their pajamas and slippers, ran to the pickup and stood on their toes, peering into the small back seat in the cab, searching for Paul. Sam stepped out, gathered them together and hunkered down.

  “What are you doing outside in your jammies?” he asked.

  “Aunt Diane said we could,” Katie said.

  Sam reached out to hug both of them. They were so small. “Come here.”

  Nat’s tiny belly stuck out of his soft animal-print pajamas. “Where’s Paul?”

  “Where’s Paul?” Katie said in a loud tone when Sam hadn’t answered.

  “How come you won’t tell us where Paul is?” Nat asked.

  “We don’t know where Paul is, and that’s why the police are searching for him. They’re doing everything they can to make sure he comes home to us.” Sam kissed their faces and gave their backs a gentle push toward the house.

  Chapter Three

  For a few days, Victoria heard the barking of the search dogs which were hunting for traces of Paul all over the island, and every time Sam or she left the house, they had to dodge two local reporters that were waiting on the front lawn.

  In the twilight, she could only hope to hear Paul’s footfall or echoes of it on the hardwood floor upstairs in the hallway, his shoes on the tile, coming in from the back porch. On Thursday night, she realized the sound of his footsteps had been absent for almost a week.

  On Friday morning a small yellow songbird perched itself on a snarl of cherry-vanilla roses that were growing out from a slowly melting pile of snow. A little cold and snow on Blackthorn that time of year wasn’t unusual, but snow roses were.

  Nat stood by the living room window and pulled the gauzy curtain back.

  Victoria was sitting in a comfy armchair, a quilted eiderdown throw covering her knees. “They just started appearing.”

  “But it’s snowing.”

  “I know. It’s really strange.”

  He moved closer to her. “Maybe Paul sent them for you.” He leaned his head against her.

  “Don’t say that,” she said, finally peering up at him.

  “Do you still love me if Paul isn’t here?” Nat asked, his small voice breaking.

  “Of course I do, sweetie. It’s just that Paul deserves to be on our minds all the time.”

  Victoria closed her eyes and cried softly after Nat left the room. She hadn’t set out breakfast for him or Katie. She couldn’t bring herself to carry out routine tasks when Paul was out there somewhere, all alone. There were those in the neighborhood who remained in high spirits, hopeful for Paul’s return, and the certainty in their voices comforted Victoria a little.

  Her neighbour, Mr. Alger, in an orange hunting cap, waved to her from the sidewalk. She crouched farther down into the armchair. It was hard for her to see the neighbors getting on with their lives since she couldn’t get on with hers, not with Paul still out there somewhere, waiting to be returned to them. The postman made his rounds with an overstuffed mailbag, and the couple next door saw each other off into separate cars with matching coffee thermos flasks and a morning embrace.

  Before, Victoria had fretted nonstop about Paul climbing aboard the playground seesaw with little pigtailed girls. There was a chance, though slight, that he could fall off. Now she longed to see him playing fearlessly with the neighborhood children.

  Victoria closed the curtain. The room, unlit by lamps, darkened.

  Usually she filled in the crossword in the day’s newspaper in ink. Cookbooks and some thick novels were lined up on the bookcase, dog-eared at pages where she’d abandoned them. The seagrass doormat on the stone doorstep spelled out ‘Welcome to the Golds’. Welcome to the perfect life inside this cozy house. It had never been perfect, but the greeting on the mat was ironic now.

  Sam came into the living room in blue jeans and a plaid work shirt. “I’ll be leaving soon.”

  Victoria didn’t know how he had managed to get out of bed and go back to work a little more than a week after Paul’s disappearance. She had called the college and asked for a substitute to teach her courses.

  There had been a time when she would have reminded Sam to not wear his work boots in the house so he wouldn’t track mud onto the hardwood floors she carefully waxed every week. Now she was quiet. She hadn’t polished the floors that week anyway.

  “Why is it so dark in here? Is everything all right?” Sam asked.

  Nothing would ever be right again.

  “Are you going to do the crossword puzzle?” he asked, as though the difference in her routine was troubling to him, as though if she didn’t fill in the puzzle every morning, she would lose it, or that not doing the crossword today was a sign she already had.

  “How are you doing?” he asked, and right away Victoria knew he’d asked because he wasn’t doing well himself.

  He hid his face in his hands and made a muffled sound that was like a dog whimpering in pain. She wanted to tell him it was normal, that she’d been crying every moment she could too. But she shut him out.

  ***

  Just after Victoria heard Sam’s pickup truck pulling out of the driveway, the doorbell rang. She was still in her bathrobe and thought about ignoring the sound, but she didn’t want Nat or Katie to answer the front door, so she got up out of the armchair and walked into the hall.

  She discreetly pulled back the curtain of the small window at the side of the door and saw a pretty young woman with short black hair. She was wearing a stylish velvet jacket and stood patiently on the stoop. She was Miss O’Malley, Nat and Paul’s teacher.

  Miss O’Malley waved to Victoria and she put the curtain back in place. Now she would have to open the door.

  She reluctantly opened it all the way. “Hi.”

  Miss O’Malley beamed at her with bright white teeth. “Do you have a moment, Mrs. Gold? I have some time before I have to be at work. I would like to talk with you.”

  “Please, come in.” Victoria straightened her bathrobe and then reached up and tried to fix her hair.

  “With everything you have going on, it’s very kind of you to take the time to speak with me,” Miss O’Malley said inside the hall.

  “You’re Paul and Nat’s favorite teacher.”

  It seemed like Miss O’Malley would cry. “I’m so sorry about Paul,” she said, and she held Victoria’s hand lightly.

  Nat ran into the hall when he heard Miss O’Malley’s voice and reached up to hug her. She let go of Victoria’s hand.

  “Are you excited about returning to school after the holiday?” Miss O’Malley asked him.

  “Yeah. Paul’s excited too.”

  “I’m so glad you’re both excited,” she said, and Victoria was grateful.

  It wasn’t really a holiday. Victoria had told the kids that to explain why she wasn’t takin
g them to school when, in fact, the real reason was she didn’t want to let them out of her sight after what had happened to Paul. Deep down inside Victoria knew they would have to go to school eventually, but she felt Paul would be back soon. Then they could all return to school together.

  Katie came in to see what was going on and Miss O’Malley said hello to her. Victoria pulled Nat aside and asked him to watch Katie while she spoke with Miss O’Malley.

  Victoria led Miss O’Malley into the living room and gestured to the couch. She sat down and Victoria sat in the armchair across from her.

  Miss O’Malley faltered and then said, “Your daughter is very pretty. Has she always had that little mark? It reminds me …”

  “It’s just a birthmark. My sister has one like it.”

  “Ah. Never mind. How is everyone holding up?” Miss O’Malley asked in a quiet voice.

  “Katie and Nat are all right, considering.” Victoria fought back tears and peered around the room for a tissue. “Sam and I … We’re waiting on the police, mainly.”

  “That must be hard.” Miss O’Malley opened her handbag and passed a tissue to Victoria.

  “Thanks,” Victoria said, wiping her eyes.

  Miss O’Malley smiled and folded her hands in her lap. Victoria steeled herself for the teacher to ask her when Nat and Katie would be returning to school.

  They were silent for a moment, then Miss O’Malley said, “I want to let you know I’ve organized a candlelight vigil at the school tonight for Paul’s safe return.”

  Victoria crumpled the tissue in her hand. She didn’t say anything and Miss O’Malley filled the silence. “I hope that’s all right. I would love for you and your family to be there.”

  “Thank you for thinking of us but I’m not sure we can go.” Victoria got up to show Miss O’Malley out of the house.

  ***

  When Sam came home from work, he said he thought they should go, so after dinner he drove them to the elementary school in town. Paul and Nat’s classmates and their families were standing in a group on the school’s manicured front lawn, the adults holding lit candles. Victoria’s insides turned.