Episode 16: Beach-Walks and Backtracking

Aubrey Lance, S.S. (Supernatural Sleuth) -- Season 1, Episode 16: Beach-Walks & Backtracking

I found my parents in my dad’s home office, and asked for permission to go to the beach. 

At first, Mom and Dad were wary about letting Collin, Lockley, and I take a random beach trip in the middle of a school-day afternoon, but the beach was less than an hour from us, and when I told them we promised we’d be back before sundown and that we wouldn’t be swimming, just walking the beach for an hour or so, they acquiesced. 

“Just be careful,” Dad said, tucking me under his arm for a quick hug that smelled like Old Spice deodorant mixed with his more expensive cologne. “I’ll be here getting some work done. If you need anything, call.” 

“Thank you!” I hugged him back and ran upstairs to throw some supplies into a tote bag. We weren’t planning to be there long, but I still tossed in some sunscreen and a couple towels in case our feet got wet walking the shore. I also tucked Emery’s notebook into the bag and added a few bottles of water. 

Collin and Lockley were waiting for me in the kitchen when I came back down. 

“Ready?” Lockley asked. 

“As much as I’ll ever be. Let’s go.” 

Lockley drove, and I rode shotgun. Collin took the backseat, like he usually did for school.  

Collin was abnormally quiet for the first few minutes of the drive. Lockley tapped her fingers nervously on the steering wheel. 

For my part, I was running the possibilities over and over in my mind again. I’d been to this beach a million times. I’d seen it in my dreams at least a dozen more. The police had checked that whole beach, and so had I—and by now, it had been a long time since Emery was last seen there. I could feel in my gut that there was something there I was supposed to find, but what were the odds I’d actually find anything today related to Emery? 

After about ten minutes of somber silence in the car, Lockley glanced at me. “Penny for your thoughts?” 

I sighed. “This is crazy, right? It’s been two years. Even if there was something Emery wanted me to find there, it would be long gone by now.” 

“You don’t know that,” Lockley said, giving me a quick, firm stare before focusing back on the road. 

“She’s right,” Collin offered from the backseat. “There are plenty of things that could still be there from before. The tide comes and goes, things erode, the sand changes—but the benches stay. The trash cans stay. Even those beach umbrellas on the north side stay out year-round and I’m pretty sure they haven’t replaced them in at least a decade. The little diner near the docks has been there forever, too. If Emery wanted to leave you a message, she may have carved it into a wooden post on the dock, or graffitied it on one of the little cement walls near the parking area—it could be anywhere.” 

I felt a little tremor of excitement in my chest as I looked back at him. “You really think we might find a message from her?” 

He shrugged. “Why not? If she’s already sent you dreams and left you clues in a notebook, a hidden message at the beach isn’t that far-fetched. Did you and Emery have a special place at that beach, or anything?”

I shook my head. “No. We hardly ever went there. It’s not even the beach our family usually visits when we go.” That was part of why it was so strange that particular beach was the last place Emery was seen. I still had no idea why she’d been there.

Lockley smiled over at me. “We know what we’re looking for, now. At least sort of. If there’s something there, Aubs, we’ll find it… but until we get there, enough of this awkward silence.” She reached for the car radio. “We need tunes.” 

Lockley had strange taste in music—her playlist held an eclectic mix of songs from early 2000s pop to current indie rock and more—but I had to admit, she had a knack for picking songs that distracted from internal rumination. Before long, Lockley and I were both singing along with her familiar song choices while Collin pretended not to be enjoying the music from the backseat.

When we finally reached the exit for the beach, though, another somber mood-wave hit us.

Lockley turned down the music. “Whatever we find here, we’re in this together, okay?” 

I forced a smile back at her. “Yeah. Okay.” 

Lockley pulled into one of the parking spots near the strip of beach where Emery had last been seen, and immediately a heavy sense of foreboding washed over me. 

When Lockley turned off the car, we all just sat there for a moment. 

“I’ll go pay for the parking,” Collin said, then hopped out and headed toward the ticket machine a few rows down. 

Lockley turned to face me. “You okay?” 

I looked back at her. “No. Yes?” I sighed. “I’m not sure if I’m more afraid of what we might find, or that we might not find anything at all.” 

She grabbed my hand. “Me too, Aubs.” 

We sat like that for a long moment, until Collin returned with the parking receipt. 

Lockley opened her door to get the ticket from him and set it on the dashboard, then we got out and Lockley locked the car. 

They both turned to look at me. 

“You ready?” Collin asked. 

I adjusted the tote bag on my shoulder. “No, but let’s go.”

Lockley nodded to me. “Lead the way.” 

The three of us walked the beach together, keeping a careful eye out in all directions for anything unusual. This particular section of beach was popular and typically busy during the summer, but on this weekday afternoon during a cooler part of the year, there were only a few people out. The beach area itself wasn’t very long—it was bordered on both ends by cement walls separating the public beach from the private yards of beach houses further down—but it was pretty wide, with room for open beach plus rows of umbrellas farther up shore, benches and trash bins near the boardwalk leading from the parking area to the beach itself, and also the dock and diner on one end. 

We spent over an hour scouring every permanent fixture on the beach from the parking area to the water’s edge and then back up to the dock and diner, looking for etchings, carvings, graffiti—anything that could be a message. 

By the time we called it and went inside the diner to use the restroom and grab some quick to-go milkshakes for the drive home, we’d accumulated a handful of photos on my phone of a heart with an arrow through it etched into the metal of a trash can and some spray-painted smiley faces from the poles of the dock, but that was it—it all seemed like random, ordinary graffiti and there hadn’t been much of it. The beach, on the whole, had been surprisingly pristine.

Collin went to pay for the shakes, while Lockley and I sat down in chairs near the counter to wait.

“Anything jumping out at you?” Lockley asked as she watched me scroll through the photos. 

I shook my head. “No. Vandalism is alive and well, but nothing we found seems like a hidden message.” Part of me was relieved we hadn’t found something terrible—that sense of foreboding from the car parking lot was still lingering—but the rest of me just felt deflated. If none of these pictures were a message from Emery, then we were back to square one, with no leads and no idea what to do next. 

“If there was a message, Emery would’ve left it somewhere she knew you would find it,” Lockley said. “We’ve looked in all the obvious places. Maybe there isn’t anything here.”

“Yeah, I don’t think there is,” I agreed. “The messages in the notebook were all so Emery. Nothing here seems meaningful. It’s just some random markings from other people.”

Lockley squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry, Aubs.” She looked genuinely disappointed. She must have really been hopeful we would find something here.

I met her gaze and squeezed back. “Me, too.” 

“Any epiphanies?” Collin asked with an expectant gaze as he walked back over with a cupholder of three milkshakes.

I looked up at him. “Unfortunately not.” 

His face fell. “Oh. Well, we can always come back another day and look again.” 

I dropped my phone back onto the table. “No. I think this is a dead end.” I offered them both a weak smile. “Thanks for coming with me, anyway.” 

Collin looked at me. “Of course.”

 Lockley nodded her agreement. “We’re right here with you, Aubrey, wherever this leads.” 

“Thank you. I’m not sure what I’d do without the two of you,” I said, sincerely meaning it. 

Collin smiled. “Good thing you don’t have to.” 

I looked at the time on my phone. “We only have a little over an hour until sunset, and we promised to be back by then. We should get back on the road.” 

“Sustenance for the ride,” Collin said, handing me a chocolate milkshake. “It doesn’t make problems go away, but if you have the choice of a problem with a milkshake or a problem without one, that’s kind of a no-brainer.” 

I chuckled and took the milkshake. “True enough.” 

****

We got back home around 5:30 p.m., a good ten minutes before sunset. 

As I came in the front door, Dad lowered the book he was reading and looked up at me from his armchair in the living room. “Hey, the motley crew is back. How was the beach?”

I shrugged. “About like you would expect, I guess.” 

He gave me an odd look. “You okay?” 

I nodded. “Yeah. Just feeling a bit down today.” 

He pulled off his reading glasses and set the book on the side table. “Want to talk?” 

“No, I’m okay,” I said, mustering up a smile. “Can Lockley and Collin stay for a bit? They’re still outside in Lockley’s car.” 

Dad studied my face for a moment, then nodded. “Of course. Your mom’s already chopping stuff for some Pinterest recipe she wanted to try for dinner, but I don’t think she’ll mind. You can check with her.” 

I nodded, then headed to the kitchen. “Hey, Mom.” 

My mom glanced back from her spot at the cutting board, then pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes with the wrist of the hand holding a large knife. “Oh, hey Sweetie. Did you have a good time at the beach?” 

“It was okay.” I didn’t feel like elaborating, so I forged onward. “Do you need help?” 

Mom smiled at me. “Thank you, but I’m having fun in here. I’ve got this. You go relax.” 

I walked over and hugged her. “Love you.” 

She hugged me back with the arm that wasn’t wielding a knife. “Love you, too.” 

I grabbed a can of fizzy water from the fridge. “Can Collin and Lockley stay for a bit? They’re still outside.” 

“Of course.” Mom smiled again. “Grab them some drinks, too. You heading up to your room?” 

“I think we’ll just hang out on the porch,” I said, grabbing two more drinks and setting them in the tote bag I was still wearing on my shoulder. “I’ve still got some homework from last week to catch up on, but—”

Mom lowered her knife. “Aubrey, I may never say this again, but do not worry about your homework tonight. Go and spend time with your friends.” 

I gave her one more hug, then went outside to where Collin and Lockley were waiting. 

The three of us headed to the backyard and settled into the porch chairs, and I handed out the drinks.

Mom walked over to the door and flipped on the porch light from inside the house, then headed back to the kitchen. 

“Thanks, Mrs. Lance,” Lockley called, and we settled into a comfortable silence.

After a few minutes of quiet sipping, Collin looked at me. “You still have that notebook with you?” 

I still had it in the tote over my shoulder. “Yeah. Why?” 

Collin’s eyes locked on mine. “Wanna look over things again?” 

Lockley sat up straighter, watching for my response.

I hesitated only a moment before I nodded. “Yes.” 

Maybe we hadn’t found the missing piece, yet, but it had to be there somewhere—and I wasn’t giving up until we found it.

***

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