But Jared needed to get going, so she had to let him perform his sweep as quickly as possible.
The two of them entered the living room, where the lights were still on. Bonnie was curled up on the sofa like a cat, fast asleep under a blanket. Emmy peered at her. Thank fudge she didn’t look or smell like she’d been drinking, but young people are so resilient and pretty these days that while Emmy probably looked like the dead mother from Psycho right now, Bonnie could have been on the most almighty drink and drugs binge for all her face showed.
The rest of the living room looked… okay. Somebody had clearly knocked a glass of red wine down one wall, and there was a lot of rubbish everywhere, but it could have been much worse. The iPod dock was paused on ‘Ni**as in Paris’, which Emmy thought was quite impressive. The hip-hop set made up hours seven to nine of the playlist, so the party had ended pretty late.
The kitchen hadn’t made it out alive quite as easily. There was a bra hanging like a sling-shot from the oven extractor fan, and on the opposite wall was a variety of food mess. Some hadn’t made it as far as the wall. She guessed there’d been some kind of competition. Someone must have had the munchies too, because there were both burnt and raw defrosted chips dotted about. There was also a large black stain above the hob which suggested there’d been a mild fire at some point.
They crept back into the hallway and Emmy listened for a moment for any sounds coming from her sisters’ rooms. Somewhere in the house there was soft snoring, but that was it.
‘Do you want me to look upstairs?’ Jared whispered.
‘That’s okay, you have to go. Thanks for coming in me. Coming in with me.’ God.
She walked him out of the house, where the sky had lightened a shade. ‘That was a hell of a Halloween party,’ he said, distracted by the impending dawn. ‘I’ll catch up with you soon.’
Jared stepped away from her with a little wave before whipping back around. ‘God, sorry,’ he said, and kissed her lips, just once, cupping her face. ‘And sorry for my morning breath – my mouth must taste rank. I will catch up with you, really soon.’
And with that he really did go, taking off down the driveway in a light jog.
The thought of jogging right now made her want to hurl.
But on the bright side, his mouth really hadn’t tasted bad at all.
Emmy went back inside the house and shut the door, then turned the heating up. She made two cups of tea and then took one over to help her rouse Bonnie.
‘Bonnie,’ she sang. ‘Wakey wakey.’
Bonnie opened her eyes, smiled at the cup of tea and then reached over the side of the sofa and picked up a black box, studying it.
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s my ghost box. It has a radio for ghosts to communicate through, and a built-in thermometer. I bought it on eBay. Wow, there were some real cold spots here in the night!’
‘The door was left open, that’s probably all that did it. I grew up in this house, Bonnie, I can tell you it’s not haunted.’
Bonnie looked crestfallen. ‘But it’s Halloween.’
Emmy didn’t have the strength, stomach or head to argue, as the first signs of the hangover from hell were arriving. ‘Okay, maybe it’s haunted at Halloween. I hope you found something. But I think you’d better head home, your parents might be worried sick.’
‘No, it’s okay, I told them I’d be staying over at the party I was going to.’
‘Did you now?’
‘You guys are really cool, I didn’t think you’d mind.’
Emmy took a long, careful sip of tea. Had she just been inducted into the Maplewood Cool Club? She was now more powerful than she’d ever been.
Was she about to throw up?
…
No, not yet.
‘Really, though, it’s getting light now and my sisters and I are going to have a lot of cleaning up to do. Would you mind heading on home? We can meet again soon if you need any more stuff for your article.’ Plus, Emmy really wanted to flop down on that sofa.
‘Sure!’ Bonnie drained her tea and hopped up with the energy of an NBA cheerleader. It made Emmy’s nostrils flare. ‘See you later, alligator; happy cleaning.’
‘See you soon, baboon.’
Bonnie thought for a moment. ‘I haven’t heard that one before. You’re funny.’
YES, I AM. ‘Wait, Bonnie?’
‘Yep?’
‘Did you drink while you were here?’
‘No.’ Bonnie side-eyed her and scarpered.
Emmy finished her tea with her head resting against the tatty old sofa cushions. The seat had been left warm from Bonnie and she was very tempted to just relaaaax, and maybe have a teeny tiny snooze.
No. She opened her eyes again. What she needed was to get out of these damp clothes, shower and get cleaning. They were on a countdown now with about ten more days to finish the house completely, and only two days before the new carpets were being fitted.
If she could crack on with the clean-up today, tomorrow could be about moving furniture and touching up any paintwork, then the carpets would arrive and then they could probably take the rest of the time a little easier. So she stood up, held her head for a moment and then headed upstairs to the bathroom. I will not think about Jared yet. I will not think about Jared yet. I am a very busy woman. Jared Jared Jared.
Emmy stopped on the landing, which was dark, and listened outside her sisters’ bedrooms. All was calm and peaceful. It seemed the party hadn’t made it to the upstairs of the house, which was a relief.
Jared. Kissing Jared. Spooning with Jared. Jared. She tried not to think as she crept into the bathroom and closed the door.
And then she screamed, waking the whole house, almost causing herself to puke and then have a heart attack, and causing the person lying in the (thankfully empty) bathtub to scream back at her.
‘Get out!’ she screeched at the man dressed as a devil.
Emmy closed the door and locked it behind her in a flash. She could hear the landing outside come alive with voices, and saw a light switch on and pool under the bathroom door. There was definitely a handful of voices, and not just those of her sisters – but after reassuring them through the door that she was fine, she switched the shower on, full and hot, ready to drown them all out and deal with whatever was happening out there afterwards.
The warm steam and soft water, combined with the strawberry-scented shampoo, lulled her into a false sense of feeling hangover-free for a few minutes. She kept her eyes closed and massaged her hair, thinking about last night.
So, her and Jared, hey? It happened. It was strange to think about after knowing him so well, but at the same time he seemed so new to her. Shouldn’t she be cringing? Embarrassed by her actions, worried about the next time they saw each other? Because she wasn’t. She just felt calm, and happy. She felt at peace. And not because a boy had changed anything in her, but because she was more comfortable in her own skin after last night. She’d found happy in a hopeless place.
Steam-cleaned and seemingly free of leaf mulch, Emmy gulped some water from the tap and exited the bathroom, noticing a sticky black stain on the floor, and… hair? Whatever. The landing was back to quiet again. She entered her bedroom with trepidation, relieved to see it free of food-fight remnants, pumpkins or strangers. It did look like someone had been in here, though – her humble box of ‘keep’ items had been opened and nosed through, but it looked like nothing had been taken.
After a very brief lie-down that lasted two hours, she was up and dressed and feeling like death. But she was ready to crack on.
Out on the landing she tapped on her sisters’ doors. ‘Get up, party animals, we’ve got a lot of cleaning to do.’
Rae appeared downstairs sooner than she’d expected, and the coffee pot was still brewing. Emmy hadn’t cleaned anything yet, but had done a lot of staring at the mess.
‘Morning,’ she rasped.
‘Morning,’ Emmy replied. ‘Coffee?’
Rae sat on a bar stool. ‘Yes, please. This doesn’t look too bad.’
‘You were expecting worse?’
‘Dunno.’ Rae was still in her costume and full, but smudged, make-up. She watched Emmy, until Emmy handed her coffee and a sponge.
‘Did you have a good time at our party?’ Rae asked.
‘A really good time actually, everyone seemed to be having fun and being friendly. From what I saw while I was in here, anyway.’
‘You weren’t here all the time?’
‘Weren’t you here all the time?’ Emmy replied.
They watched each other for a moment, before Rae answered, ‘I was here the whole time.’
‘Me too.’ Emmy picked up the bin and a large spatula and walked over to the food pile slumped at the foot of the wall. ‘Let’s clean.’
‘Do we have any food? Edible food?’ Rae dropped the burnt and the raw chips into a bin liner one by one.
‘The fridge door seems to have been left open, so don’t have anything in there. There’s UHT milk on the side. And Bonnie brought another hamper with her so perhaps there’s something in there.’
‘Bonnie and her crew of young ’uns seemed to enjoy themselves,’ Rae said, plucking a box of rosemary-infused crackers from the hamper and dipping one in her coffee.
‘You know she was asleep on the couch this morning when I came in.’
‘Came in from where?’
‘… The kitchen. I came down to grab a drink.’ Emmy knew she was being cagey but a) she didn’t want to deal with all the squeals and the shouts of ‘I knew it!’ yet, if she said what she and Jared had been up to, and b) Rae was being cagey with her – and yes, she was that petty.
‘Good morning, sunshines!’ beamed Noelle, flowing into the room and helping herself to coffee. ‘Whoopsie daisy,’ she said, sitting down on a potato waffle.
‘Good morning to you,’ Emmy replied.
‘Why the fuck don’t you have a hangover and look as shit as we do?’ asked Rae.
‘Oh, I do, I look awful,’ Noelle said, her cheeks rosy and her skin clear and her hair tousled and beautiful. ‘Did you all have fun last night? It was a success, wasn’t it? I had a good time. Okay, see you in a while.’ She hopped back up, topped up her coffee, filled another mug with more coffee, nabbed the box of crackers and went to leave the room.
‘Wait, wait, wait,’ said Emmy. ‘Come back, we’ve got cleaning to do.’
Noelle smiled at her and carried on out the door. ‘But Jenny’s upstairs.’
Emmy and Rae squealed in exactly the way Emmy didn’t want them squealing at her, and there were overlapping shouts of ‘Come back’, ‘Oh my god’, ‘Jenny’s in your bedroom?’, ‘You dirty BITCH!’
‘Okay, okay,’ Noelle said, popping her head back in the room. ‘Let me go and have a coffee with her and then I’ll be back down to clean forthwith.’
‘Well, I never,’ said Rae. ‘Hooking up with her childhood sweetheart. Who knew our little Noey was such a firecracker?’
‘Ha ha ha, yeah totally. Right, I’ll focus on here and you go and start on the living room.’
‘Fine.’ Rae stood up and grabbed the sponge and the bin liner. ‘But when I’m feeling two degrees above rough we need to talk about this.’
‘This?’
‘That.’
‘Me?’
‘Noelle.’
‘Right.’ And Emmy was alone. Just her and the pounding sound inside her head.
A couple of hours later, and the house was still a tip. Jenny had gone home, and Noelle, Emmy and Rae worked slowly and silently, scooping things into the bin, wiping things off the wall, taking things outside to Febreze them, and then coming back inside and having to clean the hallway floor from pumpkin pulp yet again. It turned out that was something to do with Rae and a competition to hurl them from the upstairs window during the early hours of the morning. Rae couldn’t remember who’d brought them, or how they got fifteen pumpkins down the drive, through the house and upstairs.
The doorbell rang and they all winced at the noise. Rae glanced out the window on her way to the door. ‘It’s just Jared,’ she said with zero enthusiasm.
‘Jared’s here?’ Emmy pulled off her rubber gloves and went running after her.
Rae opened the door before Emmy arrived. Outside was a police officer in full uniform, and behind him was a police car, and another police officer who was staring up at the house, hands on hips. ‘It’s not Jared. Soz,’ she said, which was aimed at Emmy but she couldn’t be bothered to turn her head. ‘Hello.’
‘Morning, madam.’
‘Morning back atcha.’
The police officer consulted his pad. ‘Are you perchance Miss Lake?’
‘I am,’ Rae answered. ‘Ms Lake, actually, is what I go by now.’
‘And are you Ms Lake?’ he addressed Emmy, who stood by her sister.
‘I am.’
‘And are you, also, Ms Lake?’ he asked Noelle, who had muscled her way to the front.
‘I might be,’ she replied. ‘What can we help you with, officers?’
The police officer glanced back at his colleague who gave a discreet shake of her head. He faced the sisters again. ‘I’d like to ask you a few questions relating to your whereabouts last night, if I may.’
Noelle smiled at him. ‘We were all here, the whole day, and then the whole night. We were hosting a Halloween party, and there are maybe thirty-odd people that could vouch for us being here the whole time.’
Rae held her breath. Emmy’s eye began to itch.
The police officer looked at all three ladies. ‘Is that so?’
‘Absolutely,’ Noelle answered, unaware that her sisters would like her for once to be less self-assured around law enforcement.
‘Might my partner and I come in and have a sit down while we do this?’ he asked, pleasant enough, but Rae was pretty sure this was some sneaky way of getting into the house without a warrant.
Luckily, Emmy spoke up. ‘I’m not being difficult, but there is literally nowhere you’d want to sit in there right now.’
‘Perhaps we could move this to the station then.’
That didn’t sound like a question.
‘Is that necessary?’ Rae asked.
‘When was the last time you saw the mayor?’ he asked Rae directly. ‘You and she are old friends, I gather? Or at least you were. I can’t imagine you’re happy about her being part of “the establishment” now.’
‘I’m very happy for her,’ she answered.
‘And you last saw her…?’
‘Maybe a couple of days ago?’
Noelle felt her smile crack at this, just a touch. She knew her sister. And her sister was hiding something.
The police officer wrote on his notepad. ‘You didn’t see her yesterday, or today?’
Rae shook her head, as did her sisters.
‘So, you had a party last night?’ asked the other police officer, coming up behind her partner and looking over the sisters’ heads into the hallway. ‘Were you drinking?’
‘Of course,’ Rae answered.
‘Of course? Drink often then, do you, madam?’
‘Like a fish, but I don’t know what you’re implying.’
Police Officer One was clearly getting tired of standing in pumpkin juice, so he got to the point. ‘Mayor Reynold had her house vandalised last night. Today we can’t get hold of her. We have reason to believe you ladies might be involved. That is what we’re implying, and that is the tip of the iceberg of why we’d like to speak to you down at the station, if you could accompany us.’
The three sisters blinked and opened and closed their mouths like salmon that were severely hungover. Eventually, Rae said, ‘We didn’t vandalise her house, she’s my friend!’
‘If you could accompany us to the station perhaps we can clear all this up.’
‘Are we under arrest for anything?’ Noelle asked, folding her arms over her chest.
‘Not at this time. Your cooperation
would simply be appreciated.’
‘Will Jared be there?’ Emmy spoke up. ‘PC Jones?’
Police Officer Two nodded, her eyes on Emmy’s face.
‘Can we just grab our bags and wash our hands? And Rae, you should get changed.’
‘Emmy —’ both Rae and Noelle started to protest, but the police officers nodded them inside and went to sit back in their car.
Emmy stopped them when they were in the hallway. ‘We’ll ask to speak to Jared when we get to the station and we’ll get it all cleared up. I think we should just cooperate. We don’t know anything, so it’s no big deal, right?’ They nodded. ‘Right, Rae? You don’t know anything?’
‘I might know something,’ she whispered, leading them further into the house and away from the door.
Great, thought Emmy. Off to prison we go.
Rae walked them upstairs and stood outside her bedroom. She faced her sisters. ‘Just don’t make too much noise okay? No screeching, or… laughing.’
She opened the door and inside was Mayor Reynold, sat on Rae’s bed and turned away from them, wearing a pair of Rae’s PJ bottoms and one of Rae’s hoodies pulled over her head. ‘Good morning, everyone,’ she said, her voice scratchy, refusing to face them.
‘Gabbi? Are you okay?’ Noelle asked, stepping forward.
‘I cocked up,’ Gabbi said, turning slowly. ‘Massively. Don’t laugh.’
When she looked at them, it was like looking through a tunnel (the tunnel being the hood) into the past (the past being Gabbi’s teenage Goth-phase face staring back at them). Gabbi pulled down the hood.
Emmy and Noelle gasped. Rae couldn’t help but start to shake with silent snickering, doubling over.
Gabbi’s hair had been dyed jet black, and a large, shaved undercut had been shorn into the side above her right ear. Her nose had been pierced, in a very off-the-books kind of way, and what appeared to be an emerald earring dangled from the enflamed and bloody nostril. But the worst thing, the reason for her sad eyes and Rae’s endless cackling, was the writing scrawled up one cheek, across her forehead and down the other cheek in thick black lettering.
MAPLEWOOD IS FULL OF…
Maplewood was full of something unrepeatable, so said their mayor’s face.
My Sisters And Me Page 18