Vicious by Kevin O'Brien Read Free Book Online

at Mattie’s reflection in the rearview mirror. “We could go sailing. Your daddy used to take us sailing all the time. Do you remember going out on a boat with Mikey and Daddy?”
    Her son let out a long sigh. “Mom, I gotta go now !”
    “Okay, honey, okay.” Biting her lip, Susan slowed down for another curve in the tree-lined road. She considered taking him out to the woods and letting him go there. But she thought about Wendy Matusik, and the notion of venturing into those woods with Mattie right now gave her the willies.
    Wendy’s wasn’t the only recent missing-person case in Cullen. In her Web search, Susan had found a link to a brief story about a thirty-six-year-old woman from Vancouver, British Columbia, who had been camping with friends in Cullen earlier in the summer. Monica Fitch had gone hiking in the woods by Skagit Bay one morning and never come back. A weary rescue worker on the unsolved case said he believed Monica might have attempted to go swimming in the bay and drowned.
    None of those “Best Places to Visit” articles that Susan read had mentioned any casualties among Cullen’s hikers and campers.
    After another curve in the road, she noticed an intersection up ahead. At the corner stood a slightly run-down, one-story cedar shaker with an illuminated sign over the front porch. ROSIE’S ROADSIDE SUNDRIES , it said between twin Coca-Cola logos.
    “Hallelujah,” she sighed. “Hold on just a little longer, sweetie. We’ll stop in here. I’m sure they have a bathroom. That’s my good boy….”
    As Susan pulled into the gravel lot, she noticed a neon sign for Rainier Beer in the front window. A sandwich board by the screen door advertised:
     
    Gourmet Deli & Snacks! – ATM
    Beer & Wine – Fresh Coffee – Ice Cold Drinks
    Camping Supplies & Live Bait
    RESTROOMS
     
    “Thank God,” Susan whispered as she read the last line.
    Also on the porch, on the other side of the door, was an old-fashioned, coin-operated bucking bronco for the kiddies to ride. Someone had tacked a faded, weather-beaten handwritten placard on the front porch post: THIS IS A KID-FRIENDLY ZONE — WATCH WHEN YOU BACK OUT !
    Susan parked beside a dark green Honda Civic, the only other vehicle in the small lot. Switching off the ignition, she glanced up at the illuminated sign again and remembered the Bellingham Herald news article: Wendy Matusik was last seen that Friday afternoon around 2:30 at Rosie’s Roadside Sundries in Cullen. She was alone….
    As she helped Mattie out of his booster seat in back, Susan glanced at her wristwatch: 2:30. And Friday, too, she thought, hesitating for a moment.
    She told herself she was being silly. “C’mon, sweetie,” she announced. “Let’s leave Woody in the car. He can sit out this little excursion. I’ll crack a window for him….”
    Once Mattie climbed out of the car, he made a beeline for the bucking bronco on the store’s front porch. Clutching the front of his pants with one hand, he bounced on his heels and pointed to the coin-operated pony ride. “Can I, Mom? Can I, please?”
    “First, the bathroom,” she said, shutting the car door. “Then you can take on the mechanical bull.” Stepping up to the front porch, she took Mattie by the hand and pushed open the screen door. Inside Rosie’s Roadside Sundries, it smelled like stale coffee and popcorn.
    Two teenagers—a pretty brunette and her gangly, goofy-cute boyfriend—wandered up the aisle with shopping baskets. Susan guessed they were both about eighteen. “We’re getting this,” the young man declared, waving a box of Cap’n Crunch at his girlfriend. “I have breakfast with the captain every morning.”
    The girl rolled her eyes. “Do you sleep with him too?” She tossed a box of Pop-Tarts into her basket. “God, you’re so retarded—” The slim, pixie-haired girl stopped and grimaced with embarrassment when she locked eyes with Susan and Mattie.
    The boy let out a laugh and nudged her. “Hey,