by Brett McKay
“No, we haven’t seen her,” Dawn responded.
All the color drained from Morgan’s face.
“Best you boys and girls run on home to your families. There’ll be a meetin’ tonight at the church. We’re putting together a search party.”
“You don’t know what happened?” Gary asked. “Who took her?”
“We don’t know she’s been taken,” he answered quickly. “Just missin’ at this point. I don’t know what’s goin’ on, but light’s about out, and you kids need to be at home with your families. Understand?”
We all nodded. I saw in his eyes the same question I had. What is happening in this town?
The mountains had completely doused the light of the sun by the time I arrived home. A rustling uneasiness was already spreading through the neighborhood; parents shuffled their children into their homes, sweeping a wary eye around. A few of those stares had been directed at me because it was dark, my features were hard to decipher, and people were on the lookout for not only Andrea, but anyone suspicious.
Once I got home, my parents gathered me and my brothers in the station wagon, and we drove to the church. The meeting was held in the gymnasium of the church, and just about everyone I knew was there. The feeling of kinship, loyalty, and love was strong as everyone rallied to help out one of our own. We began the meeting with a prayer, and our bishop finished the meeting with a prayer. Choked by emotion, he struggled halfway through the prayer, and several people cried and sniffled.
Feeling empowered by the bishop’s prayer, I left the church. Nothing was going to stop me or anyone else from finding Andrea. Unfortunately, daylight was already gone, and we were urged to wait until first light to start the search, but several men, including my dad, gathered on their own with flashlights and started combing Riverton and all its fields.
The morning came, and looking out over the sea of volunteers gathered at the gas station where she’d last been seen, I couldn’t imagine how we wouldn’t be able to find her. It wasn’t only in my heart. I saw it in others’ eyes too: the fear of finding Andrea dead. I didn’t want to think about it, though.
Jax’s and Gary’s families were there, along with Rosco’s. Sheriff Packard split everyone in groups and designated areas for each group to search.
The entire search party started at the gas station and headed west past some houses, around Dead Man’s Hill, and into the field behind my house.
Once in the field, we formed a front line like soldiers in the Civil War and walked slowly through the weeds and brush. Sheriff Packard stood north of us, talking to Farmer Joe, who carried his usual scowl and a shotgun. Farmer Joe was loud enough for everyone to hear him, and he was so resistant to the sheriff that I thought he was going to start trouble.
“I can’t have you carrying a gun.” Packard pointed to the shotgun in his hands.
“What?” Farmer Joe exclaimed, his eyes wide. “I’m not going to hurt no one. This is just filled with rock salt. That’s all.” He shook his head.
“We have women and children out here.” He glanced at me then nodded to a family behind me who had two children around five and seven years old.
“I ain’t goin’ no further without it. I tell ya that much. I got a right, and you can pry it from my dead hands.”
Packard sighed and rested his hand on the pistol on his hip and locked his jaw as he stared Joe down. “Don’t start anything. I asked nicely, but I won’t ask again. Take your weapon back to your house.”
Realizing Packard was serious and not backing down, Farmer Joe huffed and marched back to his house, cursing under his breath.
Toward the end of my row, Dawn was walking next to her dad, looking fervently behind every bush and small hill.
I tried several times to catch her eye, and finally on the fifth time, she looked my way. A smile tugged at her mouth. It was grim due to the circumstances, and I returned the expression, nodding my reassurance that everything would be okay. She appeared to read my signal correctly and nodded back.
As we continued, we flushed out a few pheasants and rabbits, but nothing else.
The Crooked House loomed in the distance, watching us, laughing at us. It knew where Andrea was. It probably had Andrea. I couldn’t help but think of the irony of all the volunteers searching behind every rock and in every crevice, while Andrea sat just inside that house—tied up and gagged, probably.
We finished combing the field and continued up the trail that led to the Crooked House. I turned to my dad. “Dad, we need to check that house.”
His face scrunched with thought. “Well, it’s not abandoned anymore. If it was, I’m sure it would be the first place to look, but someone lives there now.”
“All the more reason to look. Obviously, the man who lives there isn’t here helping us. He’s practically the only one in Riverton who’s not.”
“There’s a lot of people who aren’t here. We can’t just accuse someone of a crime because they didn’t show up or they live in a creepy house.”
“Dad, this is a search. We need to look everywhere, right?”
He nodded.
“It’s just a knock on the door. We’ll ask him if he’s seen her or anything suspicious.”
Nodding, he said, “You’re right. We have to check houses too. I’ll get Jerry and Ross to go with me. You stay here.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Just stay back.”
My dad gathered a couple of guys, and two more volunteered, including Dawn’s dad, then five men marched down the trail to the house.
It looked as abandoned as it had the day before Lester moved in. It held secrets and history within its foundation and wood, and I couldn’t help but think of Mathilda Stockholm, her hair in a tight bun, wearing her stiff pioneer dress. An image of her drowning her six-year-old daughter sent more than chills through my system. I felt my stomach churn, and in my head, I saw her crazy white eyes shadowed by dark rings.
Why did she return my pillow? I had a feeling she was calling out to me for help. Help? She’s a murderer! She was evil. Right?
The search party gathered on Beck Street, and people compared notes, coming up with ideas of where to search next.
I wandered over to Dawn, who stood alone and was staring at the Crooked House.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi.” She turned to me. “It’s just awful.”
“I know. I can’t believe it.”
“Vanished. Like that. Her mother turned away for a few seconds, and poof, she was gone.” She shook her head. “Do you think it was them?”
“I do. They took Joanna, and now Andrea. I just can’t prove it.”
“Maybe they’ll find something out.” She nodded to the group of men approaching the house.
“That would be such a relief,” I said.
“You know...” She perked with confidence. “I think they will. My dad is with them, and your dad. They’ll see how suspicious he is and how he’s hiding something. Sheriff Packard is here too.”
I looked at Packard, who watched the five men approach the house.
“Let’s go talk to him.” Dawn marched toward him.
I had no choice but to follow.
“Sheriff?” she asked.
Keeping an eye on the house, he barely turned. “Hi. Dawn, wasn’t it? Still needing sponsors?”
“I put that on hold for now. More important things going on, wouldn’t you think?”
“Yes.” He nodded and looked at me. “Hey, Ret.”
I waved.
We all turned our attention back to the house and the five men knocking at the door. Lester was in the entrance with the door half open and a hand ready to close it. He appeared agitated as they talked to him.
“I wonder what he’s saying,” she said.
“I don’t know.” I turned to Packard. “What do you think, Sheriff?”
“They just got there. Let’s see what happens.” He looked down at both of us. “I know you think Lester and Beaumont ar
e up to something. You might even think they’re responsible for Andrea’s disappearance.”
“You have to admit it’s pretty strange that shortly after Lester moved in, Beaumont went missing, then Joanna, and now Andrea. Not to mention the suspicious activity around Mrs. Beaumont’s murder.”
“I didn’t mention there were any suspicions around Mrs. Beaumont’s mur—I mean death.”
“Why don’t you at least search their house? Then you can be sure.”
“Police have to have reasonable cause or a search warrant to do that. I can’t just walk into someone’s house and search it because you or anybody else thinks they’re weird. There are laws and rules we need to follow. In other words, leave it up to me and my deputies. We’re doing everything we can, and the best thing you two can do is continue to search. Understand?”
We nodded agreement, and Packard left us. Dawn and I watched as he walked up to the five men leaving the house and talked to them. Without saying a word, Dawn and I went back to searching.
THAT NIGHT, MATHILDA visited my room again. I woke up to her throwing things around. She swept both arms across the top of my dresser and knocked over my piggy bank, cologne, a pinewood derby trophy, a couple of Star Wars figures, and some papers.
I sat up straight in bed. She turned and growled at me, teeth bared in all their griminess, eyes two times larger and whiter than before. She was an enraged poltergeist. She threw something down on the top of my dresser, and like a whiff of smoke, she was gone.
Shaking, I stood up and walked over to the dresser to look down at everything.
“What’s going on?” Scott rolled over, blinking at me. “What are you doing?”
“I... I just was going to the bathroom. Bumped into the dresser.”
He scowled. “The dresser’s nowhere near the door.”
“Sleepwalking, I guess?”
I turned to our dresser to look for the item she dropped. It was a small, torn piece of blue silk. Like the dress Andrea was last seen in!
Hearing footsteps in the hall, I snatched up the cloth, stuffed it into my sock drawer, and closed the drawer just as my mom opened the bedroom door.
“Ret? Is everything okay? What happened?”
Words caught in my throat.
“He was sleepwalking again,” Scott answered. “Ran into the dresser.” He chuckled.
I shrugged sheepishly.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m fine.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Black Widows Reunite
I spread the piece of torn cloth out on a wooden plank that sat in the middle of us. We were in our new cave, where it was dark, dank, and private. Rosco, Jax, Gary, Dawn, Morgan, and I sat in an awkward circle. We stared at the clue the ghost had given to me. At first, they didn’t understand what it was, but a second later, recognition illuminated Jax’s face.
“Holy shit!” Jax exclaimed.
Dawn gasped. “Andrea was wearing a blue silk dress when she disappeared.”
“What the—” Gary started.
“Son of a bitch!” Rosco said, looking up at me. “Where’d you get this?”
“You don’t want to know.” I shook my head, and Rosco looked at me, dumbfounded.
“No, we do want to know,” Gary insisted.
I looked down at the piece of dress, afraid to speak but knowing they would continue to hound me until I spilled the beans.
“The ghost lady.”
Jax and Gary gasped.
“Her name’s Mathilda. She visits me.”
“She comes to your house!” Jax’s voice went so high, it was nearly a shriek, and he scooted back as if I were poison.
“Who the hell’s this ghost lady?” Rosco asked.
We told him a quick rundown of our Crooked House adventure, and I filled them in on what I had found out at the library as well as what Dawn and I had heard on the walkie-talkie. Gary already knew most of it, but now everyone was filled in.
“And she threw this down on my dresser.” I gestured to the cloth.
The others were silent, then finally, Dawn said, “Don’t you know what this means?”
“No.” Rosco’s Texan accent was strong. “I don’t.”
“She’s telling us something,” I said. “Andrea is in that house! They took her!”
“This Beaumont feller and Lester, is it?” Rosco asked.
“Yes.”
“Sum... bitch.”
“We gotta tell the police,” Gary said, pointing to the cloth. “Go to them with this.”
“No.” I shook my head. “They won’t believe me. All they’ll do is go to the house, knock on the door, and talk to Beaumont or Lester. They’ll lie and say they don’t know anything, and the cops will leave. Same thing happened yesterday. My dad said Lester acted confused, like he didn’t know what they were talking about, and said he hadn’t seen the girl.”
“The cops just need to bust in there and do a search! Not stand on the porch and ask questions! Those bastards took my sister too. I know it.” Morgan was heated, and I couldn’t blame her.
“Of course, but they won’t. They can’t. Sheriff Packard said it’s illegal. The cops need a search warrant.”
“How do you get one of those? This should be enough.” Gary motioned to the piece of Andrea’s dress again.
“And tell them what? A ghost from the Crooked House came to my room last night and gave it to me?”
“Yes.” Jax sounded certain, but the others sided with me in how ridiculous it sounded.
“They won’t believe him,” Dawn said. “Instead, they might wonder how he really got this and start accusing him of something.”
She’d read my thoughts.
“Hell, I’ll go down there right now and bust open their door and kick their asses!” Rosco said. “Take that girl back myself.”
“I’ll go with you,” Morgan said.
“Is that what you’re suggesting?” Gary asked me in disbelief.
“Not exactly but close. We must get into that house and save Andrea. Try to do it without being seen. Then we’ll take Andrea to the cops, and they’ll have to listen. They’ll have to go arrest them.”
There was terror in Jax’s and Gary’s eyes, but Rosco had a smile and gleam in his. “Sounds cool. I’m ready.”
“We’re doing this now?” Gary asked.
“No, we can’t. Not in daylight.”
“Daylight’s much better than the dark!” Jax hollered. “Why do we have to wait until night?”
“There’s too many people right now still searching for Andrea. They’ll see us break into the house, and we’ll get caught before we can help Andrea. I’m sorry, but we have to do this at night. We need to plan a sleepover. We’ll sleep at my house in the backyard. Then when everyone’s asleep, say around two in the morning, we’ll go.”
Silence filled the cave as reality sank in. I felt it too. My stomach squirmed with adrenaline and fear, and my body trembled.
“I know this is a lot, but we have to think about Andrea. That poor, innocent girl and what they might be doing to her. She’s probably tied up and gagged in there, sitting in that house with them and the ghosts who haunt it. We need to be brave for her.”
My words reached their hearts, and they breathed in more confidence and courage.
“We’ll have to be heroes for her. We have to be the Black Widows.”
“Yes,” Jax said, excited.
Gary grinned. “We’re back!”
“Who’s the Black Widows?” Rosco asked.
Dawn and Morgan gave me a strange look.
“We are,” I said. “It’s our gang name.”
“We have T-shirts made and everything,” Jax said.
“You know the male black widows are killed by the females once they mate, right?” Rosco said.
“Well, let’s make sure not to mate with any females,” Gary said, and we all laughed.
Disgusted, the girls shook their heads.
�
�It’s just a cool name,” Jax said.
“All right! I like it.” Rosco smiled. “Black Widows unite!”
He put his hand out in front of him, and the rest of us placed our hands on his for the cheer.
“One, two, three... Black Widows!”
MY BODY WAS TENSE AND jittery the entire day. I couldn’t think or act straight, and when people asked me questions, I couldn’t focus. I didn’t want the night to come, but I wanted it over, and like Robert Frost said in one of my favorite poems, “He says the best way out is always through.” And I could see no way out but through.
We had a bit of a struggle getting our parents to agree to us sleeping outside. Since Andrea’s disappearance was still fresh, and there was speculation that she was kidnapped, they were extremely apprehensive. But my backyard was fenced in, and we agreed to sleep in a tent.
Rosco brought his pellet gun, Gary brought a baseball bat, all Jax had was a pocketknife, and I borrowed a six-inch army knife from Jeff. The weapons made us feel more secure. I also brought a small flashlight.
I’d pulled my Black Widow T-shirt out of my bottom drawer, and Jax and Gary were wearing theirs. We helped Rosco make his before we pitched the tent.
Dressed in our Black Widow T-shirts and jeans, we stood next to our tent as the sun settled down and invited the night in. As an armed gang, we had the courage to face whatever horrors awaited us at that house.
We stared at the Crooked House for a long time. There were a couple of lights on, one upstairs and one down. Beaumont’s hearse was parked in the driveway, and another car sat in front of it, but it was covered entirely by a gray tarp. It had to be Lester’s car, and I was reminded of the person who’d run Todd Harrison off the road. Is he hiding the damage?
“It’d be sweet if they drove away tonight, left the house for some time,” Gary said.
“I wouldn’t get a chance to use this,” Rosco said, sounding disappointed, as he held up his pellet rifle.
“All that gun’s good for is to piss ’em off. It won’t really hurt them. Not like this knife will.” Jax held up his tiny pocketknife. “I can stab ’em with this.”