Unspeakable Things
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PRAISE FOR THE CATALAIN BOOK OF SECRETS “Life-affirming, thought-provoking, heartwarming, it’s one of those books which―if you happen to read it exactly when you need to―will heal your wounds as you turn the pages.” ―Catriona McPherson, Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and Bruce Alexander–winning author “Prolific mystery writer Lourey tells of a matriarchal clan of witches joining forces against age-old evil . The novel is tightly plotted, and Lourey shines when depicting relationships―romantic ones as well as tangled links between Catalains . Lourey emphasizes the ties that bind in spite of secrets and resentment.” ―Kirkus Reviews “Lourey expertly concocts a Gothic fusion of long-held secrets, melancholy, and resolve . Exquisitely written in naturally flowing, expressive language, the book delves into the special relationships between sisters, and mothers and daughters.” ―Publishers Weekly PRAISE FOR SALEM’S CIPHER “A fast-paced, sometimes brutal thriller reminiscent of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” ―Booklist (starred review) “[A] hair-raising thrill ride.” ―Library Journal (starred review) “The fascinating historical information combined with a story line ripped from the headlines will hook conspiracy theorists and action addicts alike.” ―Kirkus Reviews “Fans of The Da Vinci Code are going to love this book . one of my favorite reads of 2016.” ―Crimespree Magazine “This suspenseful tale has something for absolutely everyone to enjoy.” ―Suspense Magazine PRAISE FOR MERCY’S CHASE “An immersive voice, an intriguing story, a wonderful character―highly recommended!” ―Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Both a sweeping adventure and race-against-time thriller, Mercy’s Chase is fascinating, fierce, and brimming with heart―just like its heroine, Salem Wiley.” ―Meg Gardiner, author of Into the Black Nowhere “Action-packed, great writing taut with suspense, an appealing main character to root for—who could ask for anything more?” ―Buried Under Books PRAISE FOR MAY DAY “Jess Lourey writes about a small-town assistant librarian, but this is no genteel traditional mystery. Mira James likes guys in a big way, likes booze, and isn’t afraid of motorcycles. She flees a dead-end job and a dead-end boyfriend in Minneapolis and ends up in Battle Lake, a little town with plenty of dirty secrets. The first-person narrative in May Day is fresh, the characters quirky. Minnesota has many fine crime writers, and Jess Lourey has just entered their ranks!” ―Ellen Hart, award-winning author of the Jane Lawless and Sophie Greenway series “This trade paperback packed a punch . I loved it from the get-go!” ―Tulsa World “What a romp this is! I found myself laughing out loud . .” ―Crimespree Magazine “Mira digs up a closetful of dirty secrets, including sex parties, cross- dressing, and blackmail, on her way to exposing the killer. Lourey’s debut has a likeable heroine and surfeit of sass.” ―Kirkus Reviews OTHER TITLES BY JESS LOUREY THRILLERS Salem’s Cipher Mercy’s Chase MAGICAL REALISM The Catalain Book of Secrets Seven Daughters YOUNG ADULT The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One COMIC CAPERS May Day June Bug Knee High by the Fourth of July August Moon September Mourn October Fest November Hunt December Dread January Thaw February Fever March of Crime April Fools NONFICTION Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Text copyright © 2020 by Jess Lourey All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781542008785 ISBN-10: 1542008786 Cover design by Caroline Teagle Johnson Illustrations by Tony VanDenEinde of Little Elephant Interactive To Patrick, who showed me the way out. CONTENTS AUTHOR’S NOTE PROLOGUE PROLOGUE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 41 CHAPTER 42 CHAPTER 43 CHAPTER 44 CHAPTER 45 CHAPTER 46 CHAPTER 47 CHAPTER 48 CHAPTER 49 CHAPTER 50 CHAPTER 51 CHAPTER 52 CHAPTER 53 CHAPTER 54 CHAPTER 55 CHAPTER 56 CHAPTER 57 CHAPTER 58 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR AUTHOR’S NOTE I was one of a few hundred kids to come of age in Paynesville, Minnesota, in the 1980s. I grew up thinking that every small town had a curfew siren that warned the children indoors at 9:00 p.m., that Chester the Molester was a common nickname for the bogeyman, that Peeping Toms were not unusual. I had my own problems at home, some childish, others much more serious, but the rumors of a man hunting children became the backbeat of my preteen and teen years. I graduated high school in 1988 and moved to Minneapolis. When Jacob Wetterling was abducted on October 22, 1989, from St. Joseph, Minnesota, thirty miles up the road from Paynesville, I was preparing to drop out of my second year of college. Those rumors from my early years (don’t go out at night or Chester will get you!) rushed back into focus. Pictures of Jacob were everywhere. People came together to search for that sweet-faced eleven-year-old who’d been abducted by a masked man with a gun. Days passed into weeks into years, and Jacob was never found. Not until a local blogger began writing about the potential connection between Jacob’s disappearance and the abduction and release of eight boys in and around Paynesville in the ’80s was Jacob’s abductor arrested, twenty-seven years later. He led authorities to Jacob’s remains. The experience has haunted me. It’s haunted many of us in the Midwest, upending what we thought we knew about rural communities and the safety of children. The true version of events has been told well in other places, most notably in season one of the In the Dark podcast. It was the emotional repercussions of those events that I needed to give voice to. I needed to create coherence out of my memories of growing up in chronic fear. When Cassie McDowell, the fictional heroine of this story, came to me and begged for her story to be told, I saw my chance. While the story is inspired by real people and events, it is entirely fictional. However, it’s my hope that the character of Gabriel honors the goodness in all nine of those boys. Thank you for reading. PROLOGUE The lonely-scream smell of that dirt basement lived inside me. Mostly it kept to a shadow corner of my brain, but the second I’d think Lilydale, it’d scuttle over and smother me. The smell was a predatory cave stink, the suffocating funk of a great somnolent monster that was all mouth and hunger. It had canning jars for teeth, a single string hanging off a light bulb its uvula. It waited placidly, eternally, for country kids to stumble down its backbone stairs. It let us swing blindly for that uvula string. Our fingers would brush against it. light! The relief was candy and sun and silver dollars and the last good thing we felt before the beast swallowed us whole, digesting us for a thousand years. But that’s not right. My imagination, I’d been told, was quite a thing. The basement wasn’t the monster. The man was. And he wasn’t passive. He hunted. I hadn’t returned to Lilydale since that evening. The police and then Mom had asked if I wanted anything from my bedroom, and I’d said no. I’d been thirteen, not stupid, though a lot of people confuse the two. Now that his funeral had called me home, that cellar stink doubled back with a vengeance, settling like a fishhook way deep in my face where my nose met my brain. The smell crept into my sleep, even, convinced me that I was trapped in that gravedirt basement all over again. I’d thrash and yell, wake up my husband. He’d hold me. He knew the story. At least he thought he did. I’d made it famous in my first novel, shared its inspiration on my cross-country book tour. Except somehow I’d never mentioned the necklace, not to anyone, not even Noah. Maybe that piece felt too precious. Or maybe it just made me look dumb. I could close my eyes and picture it. The chain would be considered too heavy now but was the height of fashion in 1983, gold, same metal as the paper airplane charm hanging off it. I’d believed that airplane necklace was my ticket out of Lilydale. I didn’t actually think I could fly it. Big duh, as we said back then. But the boy who wore the necklace? Gabriel? I was convinced he would change everything. And I guess he did. CHAPTER 1 “Fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair for six.” Sephie beamed.