Page 78 of The House Beyond the Dunes

He grins. “Not even close.”

Chapter Twenty

LANE

Sunday, December 31, 2023

7:30 p.m.

“Our adventure began at the fence on the beach between North Carolina and Virginia,” Reece says.

“Fence?”

“The one that keeps the wild horses on the preserve,” he says.

“I saw two black horses yesterday. I thought I was imagining them for a moment.”

“You’re not. There are about a hundred horses in the herd. They mostly live on this side of the dunes in the winter and hang out in the woods. They travel toward the ocean in the summer when it’s hot or when the wind shifts and blows out of the west and brings the black flies.”

“Black flies?”

“They bite.”

“Another day in paradise.”

“It can be at times.”

I’d seen hints of it on Friday, but it vanished almost immediately. The weather’s version of bait and switch. “So, what did you and Kyle do?”

“We borrowed a truck.” He used air quotes around the wordborrowed. “His brother’s truck.”

“Devon said Kyle had two brothers.”

“Correct. But they weren’t close.”

“Kyle never mentioned brothers when we were together. I guess neither one of us was ready for that conversation. Was this the brother who died or the one who went to prison?” Everything I knew about Kyle is falling apart. But people are complicated, messy. He presented an image that wasn’t much better than a magician’s illusion.

Reece draws in a breath. “Jeb, the one that went to prison.”

“That must have been hard on the family.” I’ve worked with families torn apart by prison sentencing. The inmate isn’t the only one sentenced to purgatory. “Why was Jeb sent to prison?”

He pauses. “Jeb kidnapped a woman in Nags Head. Messed her up pretty good. He was seventeen at the time, but old enough to be tried as an adult.”

The words chill into my bones. I don’t need to ask what happened to the girl. Several of the women in my group have suffered sexual assault. Though some have grown comfortable enough to discuss it, others keep their ghastly experiences buried deep. “What happened to the girl?”

“She filed charges. There was enough DNA and surveillance footage to back up everything she said.”

Did the truck parked under the woodland house belong to Jeb? My mouth dries. “Kyle never once said a word to me.”

“The three Iverson brothers were tight at one time. But as they got older, they started to go their separate ways. Kyle wanted a different life.” He shakes his head. “And now they’re all united again.”

This conversation strikes something deep inside me.

Nervous, defensive laughter bubbles up. “How did we get from ‘borrowed’ truck to kidnapping?”

A half smile tips the edges of his lips. “Most of the stories featuring Kyle take a turn for the worse. This was supposed to be one of the good ones.”

I’m not ready to press for more details about Jeb or Zeke, but I want Reece to keep talking. “What did you and Kyle do in that truck when you drove into Virginia?”

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