The Caraway Estate - A Phsycological Mystery Thriller by Author Rebecca Helmer

The Words - CHAPTER ONE

The Atlantic was calm with a consistent southwest wind ideal for sailing.  Glassy waters were crowned by a radiant sun in a cloudless sky. A catamaran etched through the surface, the bow whispering as a salty mist sprayed up around it. It gathered speed as the main sail billowed. Gulls cried out overhead, seemingly hopeful for a midday snack, but quickly lost interest. June had finally begun warming Maine’s coastal residents after a numbing winter. It was a beautiful day for sailing. A perfect day. But good weather should never be trusted as an indicator of good fortune.

Natalie peered upward at the sails of the catamaran, her eyes squinting against the sun, a bright white against empty blue sky. She let her hand fall over the side, fingers tickling in the ocean mist. A thin coat of sea salt had dried in the warm air and dusted the back of her ribs.  Her ivory flesh had not seen sun in too long to remember and it was starting to freckle just slightly across her bony forearms. She disliked her freckles. They were cute, people had always told her. She didn’t want to be cute. If she admitted her innermost secrets, she might say that she wanted to look like the other girl across the deck of the vessel; she wanted to look like Brooke.

Brooke had an otherworldly beauty, impossible to comprehend, let alone to compete with. She laid out on an oversized beach towel in a scant bubble gum pink bikini. Ribs protruding under endowed breasts, spread wide by gravity and wiggling with the current. A mess of blonde hair spilled out from a wide brimmed hat, restless in the wind like a Midwest wheat field.

She remembered the first time she had met Brooke.  An unlikely duo. Natalie had answered an ad looking for a roommate, her sophomore year of college, early on her quest for a doctorate in Psychiatry. She remembered how Brooke’s face had lit up with giddiness before she started chattering about how they were going to be roommates, and how she was on the university cheer team. She giggled and blurted out fun things with too many exclamation points. Natalie was broke and had few options. It seemed that if someone was this excited to room together, it couldn’t be altogether bad. It was a means to an end. The apartment complex on West Elm was the most affordable on campus. Natalie learned too late that it was also one of the hottest places for parties, and halfway into the semester, she was already looking for a quieter place to stay.

Natalie found it incomprehensible that Brooke passed her exams after staying up all hours partying and downing energy drinks. She would awake on a weekday morning to see a halfway identifiable mound of frazzled blonde spread across a pillow, as she peaked into Brooke’s room.  Then a few minutes later there was a groping of Advil and detox pills before the water steamed on in the little shared bathroom shower. Miraculously, the same animal came out fresh-faced, toweling off as though nothing had happened. Then she squeezed into her cheer outfits, conveniently placed bandanas that hardly contained the gyrating and jiggling.

As months went on, however, Natalie couldn’t help but love Brooke. Everyone did. All her energy, all her flaws, she was contagious. Natalie stayed the year with her wild roommate and learned to adapt. When Brooke came giggling back to the apartment with various boys, Natalie took her studies elsewhere, unperturbed, discovering numerous retreats to hide out on campus. She sought out her fellow bookworms, beasts of her own kind.

Brooke challenged Natalie’s study habits as a problem to be solved. Surely a conundrum equally as hard to conceive. Free-spirited Brooke took it upon herself to liberate Natalie from her boring life of academics, inviting her to various parties. It was relentless and insatiable until Natalie ultimately and reluctantly gave in. To the tune of squealing and laughter, Natalie tested the waters, and it was exactly what she had imagined. Horny college boys and silly girls cramming into a room with pulsating music and liquor. She couldn’t imagine the appeal. Brooke couldn’t imagine how Natalie didn’t see the appeal. They were perfect for each other, and the strangest breed of best friends.

Natalie was there as Brooke changed her major from journalism to marketing, to English, and back to journalism again. She was there studying when the bachelors dropped in at all hours – athletic ones, rich ones, handsome ones. In the end, it was a healthy combination of all of those things.  His name was Troy.

Troy emerged from the cabin in green striped board shorts and a baseball cap, wielding three cold drinks.  He had thick, dark hair that always seemed perfectly manicured, even on the ocean.  He was muscular and attractive, or at least handsome enough to bend and sway most people as he pleased. As a result, he hardly had to work for much.  His father came from New England money and had used his inheritance to become a real estate mogul.  Troy had some growing to do, it seemed, but he had goodness in him. Natalie smiled when she heard the news that he had proposed, and Wild Brooke agreed.  They would doubtless take care of each other.

Natalie observed Troy quietly from half-closed eyes shaded in sunglasses. She knew exactly nothing about sailing, and wouldn’t even be on board if it hadn’t for Brooke’s persistence. She watched curiously as he tugged on ropes of tethered sails, lifting a smaller sail alongside the main sail. It whipped excitedly and there was an instantaneous lift. The vessel picked up speed as the wind drove them steadily southwest in the ocean’s current. They entered Blue Hill Bay, a wide channel that flanked a spattering of islands off the coast. 

The sun shone bright at the top of the sky as they rounded the bend of Bar Harbor.  It was a small, quiet town on Mount Desert Island that quietly harbored private, luxurious homes of the incredibly wealthy, including four of Fortune 500’s richest people.  Inevitably, people would sometimes sail around it just to ogle as they did.

“Look at those houses!” Brooke gasped.  She sat up tall on slender thighs and leaned toward the starboard side to get a closer view, gawking up at the excessively opulent mansions nestled in the bluffs.  The catamaran glided past at just a distance to avoid being obnoxious.  Natalie followed their gaze, rose and shielded her eyes from the sun. She cast her hair from her face and it obediently whipped behind her.

“They’re incredible,” Natalie quietly admitted, if only to herself.

“Most of these are only summer homes too.” Troy said.  “I wonder who lives in them.”

“People much more important than us, darling,” Brooke replied with an exaggerated air of aristocracy. 

He pulled his bikini-clad fiancé to him by the waist.  “Don’t worry, baby,” he said as he buried his lips in her neck, “I’ll buy you one.”  

She squealed.  “Your daddy’s not that rich!” She giggled without restraint, and raucously returned his groping. 

As in college days, Natalie forgot about the pair kissing blissfully beside her, and only continued to marvel at the architecture on the bluff.  Even more so, she marveled at how insignificant she felt in the sudden gust of salty air, uncertain of her next move in life.  Under the shadow of the impossibly rich mansions dotting the hillside, an unsettling feeling of anxiety came over her.  She had always had a lofty goal laid out in front of her, from Valedictorian in high school, to a medical degree in Psychiatry. But now, for the first time in a decade, she had no distinct plan.  She knew she would join a Psychiatric clinic somewhere, but she didn’t like the feeling of the unknown.  While vacillating between thoughts of the future and the past, the mansions seemed to do the opposite.  With their foundations rooted so solidly in the rocky eastern coast, they loomed intimidatingly above her, even their positions saying, I’m higher than you.  I’m better than you.  You will never have me.  Natalie knew it. She accepted her place in the world.  She would never be rich or powerful, but that was never what she wanted. She wanted to help people, the most broken, helpless, pathetic people, who had suffered beyond what a human should endure. People who had gone through hell and back.

People just like her.

Following an hour or two of circumnavigating Mount Desert Island and sailing out to the open sea, the three prepared to return to the harbor for dinner.  Troy turned the vessel hard for the shore.  The wind picked up and carried it effortlessly through soft, rolling waves.  Natalie realized in the beauty of the rocking ocean that she was maybe – yes, a bit lonely.  She suddenly felt like the third wheel.  A gentle punch in the arm tore her away from her thoughts.

“What are you so quiet for?” Brooke suddenly giggled beside her.

Natalie laughed softly. “I’m always quiet, aren’t I?” Natalie retorted.

“True. Such a deep thinker. One of the greats.”

Natalie smirked and rolled her eyes. “Ha.”

“I’m serious,” Brooke insisted.  “I told you that’s why we’re on this trip. To celebrate your doctorate degree! Besides, I’m going to need that brain of yours.  Especially when we have our marriage problems.” She tucked her legs beside her and looked out to sea, more contemplative than was usual for her.

“Don’t say that. You two are perfect for each other,” Natalie said matter-of-factly.  “In fact, I think this trip should be just as much a celebration of you two on your engagement. And if I had any money yet, I would be footing the bill.” 

“Oh, you’ll be successful soon enough, Doctor,” Brooke replied, “And then you can spend your life paying off your student loans,” she giggled.

Natalie halfway heard the retort, but her eyes were fixated on the shore. “You see that house right there?” she finally asked, pointing to a distant white mansion on the horizon.  “I bet that’s where you’ll end up.”

Brooke cast her eyes over the blue and laughed wholeheartedly.  “I like that idea.”

“And you’ll have three children.”

“Oh! Three?”

“Two boys and one girl. At least.  They’ll be gorgeous, funny, and smart, just like their mom and dad.”

It was a euphoric fantasy, one that matched the violet-blue of the sky. For just a moment, life seemed just right. Brooke smiled. It was a smile full of thoughts, gazing into a wide open future.

In the silence, Natalie was brought back to her own unknown. A vast open road. She had an aching, a yearning for something to fill her bones. It was all probably normal. A typical post-doctorate slump.

Natalie sat upright and grabbed a strappy dress to throw over her sun-kissed shoulders before they reached the harbor.  She gently tied her wind-whipped hair back, away from her face where the apples of her cheeks were turning light pink. They couldn’t decide between clam chowder or sturgeon for dinner.  If only that was their problem.

In a moment, everything changed. Something hit the boat hard.