She didn’t dream about the tooth fairy, of course. Instead, she got the feeling that her parents were behind the dollar traded for the tooth and the note left behind, in teeny, tiny script. She saw her mother squint her brown eyes while writing one minuscule word after another. It was amazing to Taylor that what she’d thought at first was a little note from a faraway land turned out to be a note her mother had written in the kitchen downstairs.
Thank you for your beautiful tooth. It will be the centerpiece of a necklace that I will wear proudly, now and forever.
The Tooth Fairy
Taylor had believed for the longest time that what’d she’d seen and felt was only a funny dream. That changed one morning when she was nine and her mother, dressing for a book launch party, asked her to get her earrings from her jewelry box; Taylor found a little metal pill case. Inside, a cluster of small white teeth occupied most of the space.
Although it confirmed there was absolutely no tooth fairy, it gave crystal-clear proof of two things: there was magic in their mother’s love and, as far as her girls could tell, Valerie Ryan had unlocked a pathway to information that was not of this earth.
IF THERE WAS ANY “SPECIALNESS” IN THE FAMILY, an understanding of it was only courted once. Just after their first birthday, Taylor and Hayley were studied by University of Washington linguistics researchers documenting early talkers. The twins had started talking in full sentences at ten months, and Kevin, never missing a chance to make a connection with someone who might be an asset later, answered an ad and submitted a video clip of the girls. Unlike some of his other endeavors, it worked. Sort of. A research assistant named Savannah Osteen was assigned to the Ryans, and she came to Port Gamble to tape them for a four-hour period a few weeks later.
Naturally, Kevin had been particularly proud of the girls’ unusual verbal skills. Whereas most kids, months older, only pointed and called out one word for whatever it was they desired, Hayley and Taylor actually strung words together in a completely coherent fashion. No “Kitty!” for them; rather, it was, “I want to play with Kitty!”
Other times they called out phrases that made no sense to anyone but them.
That was at ten months.
And while it wouldn’t surprise anyone who has studied twins, the Ryan girls did indeed develop a language that was unique to them. Savannah called it the girls’ idioglossia, a language of their own. Neither Valerie nor Kevin quite understood what “levee split poop” meant, for example, but it clearly did signify something very important because Taylor and Hayley called it out many, many times. Outsiders, like the UW observer, considered it to be a descriptive phrase for a bodily function, with poop being the most crucial word. It seemed to be directed at certain people, however, not at the contents of a diaper.
Through the course of the observation period, Savannah captured the action on a videotape recorder mounted on a tripod discreetly stationed in the corner of the living room by a Christmas cactus, which once served as a focal point in Valerie’s father’s office at the prison.
The resulting report submitted by Savannah Osteen to the UW language department focused on the girls’ unique language skills, of course, but it also touched on the intricacies of their relationship:
MEMORANDUM
FROM: Savannah Osteen
TO: UW Language Department Twin A seems slightly more dominant than her sister, Twin B. On at least two occasions Twin A cut off Twin B when she was speaking in the language that they’d developed. In addition, Twin A was somewhat aggressive with the evaluator. A second session will take that into consideration and will mitigate any potential conflict by separating the sisters during the evaluation. Keeping them apart is an optimal protocol for this particular case.
Valerie and Kevin never really got a sense for how the girls performed in relation to other early talkers in the study. A third session was scheduled for about three weeks after the second. Since this one called for the evaluator to join the family for a dinner-time observation, Valerie made her famous planked salmon with balsamic vinegar and shallots. She even sprang for a better bottle of wine—a California Chardonnay—than she would have if she and Kevin were dining alone.
Evaluator Savannah Osteen, however, never showed. She didn’t even call to say she wasn’t able to make it to the taping session. Port Gamble often felt like the ends of the earth for those who lived there or those who had to come and visit, but honestly, everyone knew phone service worked just fine there.
Kevin called the university the following day to see if anything had happened to Savannah, and her advisor indicated in a somewhat curt manner that she was no longer working there.
“She abruptly quit the program,” he said. “Didn’t give us one bit of notice. Maybe we can reschedule?”
Kevin, the crime writer, was suspicious. He was good at that. It came with the territory. “Hope she’s all right. Safe?”
The advisor sighed. “She’s fine. Just undependable.”
“Really? She seemed to enjoy what she was doing,” Kevin said. “She said it was very rewarding, and she thought our daughters could be quite helpful in the study.”
“Changed her mind, I guess. Young people today don’t stick with anything.”
Kevin thanked the man and hung up the phone, a white kitchen wall mount that would stay put for five years before the standards committee of Port Gamble would rule it was not historic and could be removed after the Ryans switched to cell phones. Kevin thought the situation with the UW researcher was a little bizarre and certainly annoying, but ultimately he didn’t mind too much. He’d had second helpings of the salmon the night the observer didn’t show up. He normally hated leftovers. The sole exception was his wife’s planked salmon. Hot or cold, it didn’t matter; it was the best thing he ever ate.
Kevin was still relishing the meal when he took out the trash, which was heavier than usual. As the black Hefty dropped to the bottom of the metal garbage can, he heard the sound of glass-on-glass rattling, echoing in the night.
Curious, he tugged at the drawstring and peered into the bag. It was full of baby food jars—all of the same kind.
ABC pasta in organic tomato sauce.
chapter 24
TEAGAN LARSEN SAT IN FRONT of the computer. Next to his keyboard was a bowl of fluorescent-orange microwave macaroni and cheese—the only thing that his mother let him cook for fear that anything else would burn down the house. The computer was set up on a small table adjacent to the sofa in the living room. Mindee Larsen had worried about teens being victims of online predators, and while she was sure Starla was cautious, Teagan wasn’t. Since his father had left, he seemed more vulnerable than ever.
Although he’d brought a fork to jab at the sad bowl of pasta, he used his fingers to pick out one slimy, cheesy tube at a time. Each time he did so, he licked his digits with noisy and aggravating abandon.
“Teagan, you’re making me sick,” Starla said. She sat on the couch. “Your face makes me sick,” he said.
Starla didn’t even glance in his direction. “How original, Teagan,” she said. She continued flipping through the channels until she landed on America’s Most Wanted. It wasn’t her favorite show, but the idea of ordinary citizens rounding up the scum of the earth appealed to her.
“I wish Jake’s photo would show up here one of these days,” she said, barely looking over at her younger brother, who by now had started using his fork to eat the mac and cheese.
“I hate him too,” he said.
Starla turned down the volume. This was an interesting exchange with Teagan, and she liked what she heard.
“I thought you liked him,” she said.
Teagan nodded at his big sister. “I act like I like him because if I don’t ‘treat him with respect,’ he’ll beat my butt.”
“He’d better not,” she said, actually meaning it. Since making the cheer team, Starla had dialed down the pretense of being kind to everyone. She didn’t need to be that nice anymore. She was already on top, and that kind of position was very, very powerful.
“You know he was in jail?” Teagan asked.
She didn’t. If it were true, why didn’t she know about it? Her mom’s thug boyfriend was presented to both Starla and her brother as “a dear friend” before both of them realized he was staying over every night in their parents’ bedroom.
“How do you know that?” she asked, no longer interested in the creep du jour who was being profiled on TV—a big fat dude who’d killed his mother with a crowbar and then stolen her car (a measly hybrid, of all things!).
They had a creep du jour right there in their house.
“I heard him talking to mom about it. Said something about how he’d had his freedom taken away once and never, ever would allow that to happen again.”
“What did he do? Molester?”
Teagan went back to typing on the computer. “Dunno. Maybe. They didn’t say what.”
Starla paused, weighing other scenarios before settling on the molester theory.
“I don’t like the way he looks at me,” she said, slumping her head back onto the sofa pillow and wiggling her toes. Her nail polish, OPI’s I’m Not Really a Waitress red, was looking a little tired. She’d attend to that later on that evening.
Teagan was only thirteen, but he almost had to laugh at his sister’s remark. Starla didn’t lift a finger, say a word, or take a gulp of air without someone watching her. She lived for an audience—creepy or not. She just did.
He hated her and admired her for that.
VALERIE RYAN FELT THE STREAM OF COLD AIR coming from the kitchen and knew immediately that the back door had popped open. Kevin was no Mr. Fixit, and it didn’t even occur to her to call him into service. Instead, she went for the junk drawer next to the stove and retrieved a screwdriver. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault. The door handle was always loose.
She noticed the girls’ coats and shoulder bags on the bench by the door.
They must have taken Hedda for a walk, she thought. The dog was lazy but dependable when it came to doing her business on the end of a leash.
“Hi, Mom,” echoed at her, which meant that both girls were right behind her.
“Oh,” Valerie said, slightly startled. “I thought you were out walking the dog.”
Hayley and Taylor shook their heads in unison.
“Nope. We haven’t seen her,” Taylor said, suddenly feeling a little worried. Hedda was loved by everyone, but no one thought she was particularly smart. A lot of people liked to chuckle at the slightly dense, long-haired doxie with a dappled silver and black coat, which had made her look old even when they first got her.
“We thought you were,” Hayley said.
The three of them went outside in the mid-January frost and stood on the back porch calling for Hedda. Hayley went down the alleyway looking, and Taylor canvassed the road along the bay in front. Their mother stayed put, calling for Hedda to come home.
Their dog was gone.
Deep down, mother and daughters knew that something bad had happened. Hedda was a homebody who didn’t go far. She just didn’t. Besides that, the little stub of a dog never missed a meal.
Ever.