Read Online Immoral by Brian Freeman - Free Book Online Page B

abandoned. Heather didn’t imagine it would last another season, although she had thought that for several years. She assumed the weight of this year’s snow would cave in the rest of the roof, which had already fallen through in several places, leaving jagged holes. The barn’s red paint had faded, chipped, and peeled away. The windows had been broken in by teenagers throwing rocks. The entire frame seemed to list inward, the walls bowed and unsteady. She could probably come back in February and the barn would be no more than a snow-covered pile of splintered beams.
    She pulled into the grassy, overgrown driveway, which wasn’t a real driveway at all but had been worn down by the many visitors to the barn over the years. She parked and got out, and Lissa scrambled out, too.
    “I don’t think I’ve been to this place before, have I, Mommy?” Lissa asked.
    “No, I don’t think so. I think you’ve always been in school when I’ve come here.”
    “It’s not in very good shape, is it?”
    Heather laughed. “No, it’s not.”
    “Can I look around?”
    “Sure. But don’t go inside the barn. It’s not safe.”
    “It looks like the kind of place that could be haunted,” Lissa said. “What do you think?”
    “It might be,” Heather told her.
    “How do you know about this place?” Lissa asked.
    Heather smiled. “I used to come out here when I was a teenager. A lot of us kids did.”
    “What did you do here?” Lissa asked.
    “We just explored a lot. Like you.”
    There was no need to explain the real reason. Back then, she and dozens of other Duluth teenagers came out here to have sex. It was the hottest make-out spot in the county. It got so bad that there was even a secret sign-up sheet passed around school, to make sure there weren’t too many people parked out behind the barn at any one time. Heather’s first sexual experience had been out at the barn, in the back of a pickup truck, under the stars.
    She wondered if today’s students used the barn. There were still plenty of overlapping tire tracks leading around back. She also saw empty beer bottles littering the field. If she looked hard enough, she would probably find used condoms.
    Heather looked down at Lissa again. “Don’t you pick anything up, either.”
    Lissa frowned. “Well, that’s no fun.”
    Heather softened. “You can pick up rocks and sticks, but no people things, okay? If you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it.”
    Lissa shrugged. “Okay.”
    Mother and daughter separated. Heather kept an eye on Lissa as she wandered into the brush. Satisfied that the girl was okay, Heather began scoping out her shot, tramping in the field to find an angle that satisfied her. When she settled on a location and began her setup, she saw Lissa dart behind the barn.
    “Be careful back there,” Heather shouted. Lissa called something in reply, which Heather couldn’t hear.
    She knelt down, looking through the camera’s viewfinder, seeing the image in the frame take shape. The sun, behind her, was approaching the level of the tallest trees. Heather felt a jittery jumping in her stomach and a quiver in her fingers, the way she always did when she knew she was going to get exactly what she wanted. She took a few seconds to measure the light again and adjust the exposure. Then, ready at last, she squeezed the shutter, then again, and again, hearing the motorized whir as the film advanced each time.
    “Mommy!” Lissa shouted from behind the barn. “Come look at this!”
    “In a minute, sweetheart,” Heather called back.
    “Look, look, look,” Lissa cried. She came running from behind the barn.
    “Lissa, Mommy’s busy now. What is it?”
    “Look what I found. Isn’t it pretty?”
    Heather looked away from the camera long enough to notice Lissa holding a gold bracelet. “Where did you find that, sweetheart?”
    “Behind the barn.”
    Heather frowned. “Didn’t I tell you not to pick things up? People things?”
    “Well, yes, but