Weeping Walls

by Gerri Hill

  “They’re going a bit overboard,” she said. “They got crime scene tape up, which just calls attention. There were already four cars parked along the road watching. Next thing you know, there’ll be a damn news crew out here.” They left the damp woods and headed back to the porch. “I did read through the files, though,” she continued. “Someone’s definitely been in the house.”

  “How so?” Ice asked.

  “The initial report, the one the sheriff’s department did when they first found Paul Canton, said the door inside the kitchen went into a small room. They listed it as a storage room. Empty. The FBI’s file also mentioned the door. They said it was a large pantry.” She shrugged. “So, it was unlocked when they did their search.”

  “And the new case?”

  “No mention of the door. Which leads us to believe that they didn’t really check the house. We can check with Brady. It’s his report.”

  “He said they checked the house. Nothing was disturbed,” Billy said.

  “And like we’ve already surmised, they probably opened the door, saw all the spiderwebs and crap and called it good,” she said.

  “So if the door leads to a storage room or a pantry, why lock it?”

  “And it was locked from the inside,” Paige said.

  “Exactly. So was the room off of the dining room,” she reminded them. “It was unlocked the first time I was down there. It slammed shut. I thought it was…well, I thought it was a damn ghost,” she admitted. “But what if someone was in the house? They slammed it shut and locked it.”

  “From the inside,” Billy said skeptically.

  “Yes.”

  “So how did they get out?”

  “We know that room has a secret door, it opens into what? I called it a laundry room, but was it? It had an earthen floor. Seems a little dirty to be a laundry room.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Maybe there’s a second door,” she said. “It was dark. I couldn’t tell. But maybe there was another door, one that opened into another part of the house. A trick door like the first one.”

  “And?”

  “And maybe the room off of the kitchen is the same. Maybe it’s got a secret door too. Maybe it opens into another room like the one I was trapped in.”

  Ice shook his head. “Now you’re just making shit up, CJ.”

  CJ grinned. “Yeah. But it’s possible.”

  “Come on. Secret doors, hidden rooms. Makes no sense.”

  “Well, it does make sense,” Paige said. “We’ve seen it, Ice. There could very well be another one. But I think our main question should be, who would have known about it? As Howley told us in our first briefing, the house has been vacant forty years.”

  “Well, we do know one person who could have known,” CJ said. “Edith Krause.”

  “How?” Billy asked.

  CJ looked at Paige. “Remember what Lizzie told us? That Edie’s mother worked here for the Underwoods. Edie was young, still living at home. Chances are, she came here with her mother.”

  Paige nodded. “She could have known about the rooms.”

  “Yeah. And when her son died, she took her revenge out on the boys who picked on him. We know Butch Renkie did. And Lizzie said Mark Poole did too,” she said.

  “Four boys went missing,” Ice said. “How do we find out, now fourteen years later, if they were bullies or not?”

  “We could ask Lizzie about the other two,” Paige suggested.

  “Or teachers,” Billy said. “Small towns like this, teachers tend to stick around.”

  “Good idea,” she said. “Of course, we’re speculating Edith did this. We still need to account for her husband, who appears to have dropped off the face of the earth.”

  “She killed the boys, then killed him,” Ice said.

  “Sounds great,” she said. “Only we have zero evidence of that.”

  “Maybe they’ll find something in your…you know, the laundry room,” he said.

  “Yeah. Why don’t you guys hang around for that? We’ll head over and visit with Lizzie again.”

  Ice made a face. “I’m not going back in that house,” he stated. “No way.”

  “There’s nothing in that house that’s going to hurt you,” she said. After her little trip down the chute, she could say that. Whatever thing—spirit—that was talking to her, while unsettling to say the least, appeared to be helping, not hurting.

  “You don’t know that.”

  She knew there was no arguing with him. He had his own phobia. So she let it go with a slap on his shoulder. “See you guys later.”

  “You’re coming back here, right? I mean, it’s gonna start getting dark in a few hours. You think they’re going to want to be in there then?”

  “Don’t tell them the place is haunted.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  CJ drove the now familiar road back to Shady Pines. It was only a few miles from the Wicker house as it was, but she took her time.

  “Are you okay?” Paige asked.

  “Yeah. It’s just been a crazy day.” Then she laughed. “Probably shouldn’t have used the word ‘crazy,’ huh?” She glanced at her. “What? Are you worried about me?”

  “A little, yes.”

  CJ shook her head. “I know it’s…yeah, crazy,” she said. “But really, I’m trying not to think about it.”

  “So you’re going to leave this out of your report?”

  “The voices? Hell yeah. After what happened in Hoganville, Howley would most likely have me committed.” CJ reached across the console and rested her hand on Paige’s thigh. “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?” She asked the question with a smile, but part of her was afraid Paige was going to say yes. Paige seemed to consider her reply carefully, which made CJ even more apprehensive.

  “I don’t think you’re crazy, CJ. I’ll admit, I don’t understand it. But I’ll say it again, after all we witnessed in Hoganville, nothing really surprises me.” She linked her fingers with CJ’s. “I never shared this with you, but when Fiona was dying, she told me something, something she had no possible way of knowing.”

  “What?”

  “She said, ‘Don’t run from CJ. Trust her.’” Paige squeezed her hand tighter. “She said, ‘The awful things her father did to her, it makes her wary of others.’”

  CJ felt her chest tighten. “How could she have known about my father?”

  Paige shook her head. “That’s what I mean. She shouldn’t have known. Yet she did.”

  CJ pulled her hand from Paige’s, clamping it around the steering wheel instead. Even though she’d shared everything with Paige, from her childhood beatings to her father’s molestation of both her and her sister, it was still difficult to think about, to talk about. So how in the world could Fiona have known?

  “The point I’m trying to make, CJ, is that some things we can’t explain. We can’t explain how Fiona knew that. And we can’t explain why you’re hearing the voices of…of a presence in the Wicker house.”

  “Ester Hogan was, as Fiona put it, quite mad,” CJ said. “Yet she had powers. Powers that, you’re right, we don’t understand. Did Fiona have powers too? Could she sense things? Read my mind? Yours?” She pulled to a stop in front of Lizzie’s trailer. “I’m a little scared, Paige.” She smiled. “Okay, I’m a lot scared. I think whatever is in that house is trying to help us, not hurt us. But it’s…it’s almost more than I can comprehend. And if it gets out, to Howley, to anyone, that I’m hearing voices, then I think my career is seriously in jeopardy. Especially after Hoganville.”

  “We’re working the case based on the evidence, CJ. You found chalk. We found locked doors where they should not be. We’ve got a forensics team coming. We’re just working the evidence, that’s all.”

  CJ opened her door and got out, the rain from earlier having stopped completely. She looked at Paige across the bed of her truck.

  “We’re both ignoring the real issue here,” she said.

 
“What’s that?”

  “That I’m going into a haunted house and…and I’m not just hearing some young girl talking to me. I’m hearing running up the stairs. I feel cold air. I felt a touch on my neck, my face. I can hear—visualize—Mr. Wicker beating his daughter before throwing her to her death.” She took a deep breath. “That is more disconcerting than a young girl telling me to open the door and look down the chute.”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say, CJ. When this is over with, do you want to see a therapist or something?”

  CJ snorted. “Oh, hell no.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with seeing a therapist,” Paige said.

  CJ shook her head. “Been there, done that. After the thing with my father, after Cathy died, I had to go weekly for over a year. The school set it up. And all the kids made fun of me.” She gave a quick smile, even though the memory was still painful. “I’d just as soon not have to relive all that again.”

  Paige nodded. “I understand.”

  “Come on. Let’s go see what else we can get out of Lizzie.”

  After the rain, the temperature was bordering on cool and now Lizzie had her front door open again, letting in fresh air. CJ knocked on the edge of the screen door.

  “Lizzie? FBI again,” she called.

  She heard the squeaking of Lizzie’s chair and soon saw her shuffling toward them.

  “Edie still hasn’t come back,” Lizzie said, then she broke into a smile. “You brought your pretty partner with you. Come in, come in.”

  CJ stepped back, letting Paige go in first.

  “Sorry to bother you yet again,” Paige said. “You must be getting tired of us by now.”

  “Oh, no, dear. I love company.” She went back to her chair, her stooped shoulders seeming to weigh heavy on her today. “I do get lonely sometimes. But I have the TV.”

  “We’ve been at the Wicker house today,” CJ said.

  “Oh my. Inside?”

  “Yes,” Paige said. “And we saw no ghosts,” she added with a smile.

  “I’ve been told there’s still furniture in there,” Lizzie said.

  “Some, yes,” CJ said. “Listen, we wanted to talk more about the four boys.”

  Lizzie nodded. “Yes. So sad still. Why, I talked to Allen yesterday. Markie Poole’s grandfather,” she clarified.

  “Yes. We interviewed him the first time we were here,” Paige said.

  Lizzie nodded again. “He said talking to you brought back memories of Markie, like it was only yesterday.”

  “We know Butch Renkie picked on Eddie Krause,” CJ said. “And you said Markie Poole did to.”

  “Yes. Eddie was fair game. So small and frail he was.”

  “What about Paul Canton? Did he pick on Eddie too?”

  “Paulie lived on the second loop, not too far from where the Pooles lived. Those four boys hung together. Butch was the ringleader, probably because he was so much bigger than the others. Bradley Simon, if I recall, was the same age as Butch. They were a grade ahead of the others.”

  “So all four of them picked on Eddie?”

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “But they weren’t the only ones. Even some of the older kids picked on him. Why, I recall one time, some of the high school boys tied poor Eddie to a tree and left him there.” Lizzie shook her head. “I’ve never seen Edie so mad. She called the sheriff’s department out, but they didn’t do anything. Little Eddie was too afraid to name names.”

  “And the accident when Eddie died, he was in the first grade?” Paige asked.

  “Yes, I believe so. He was just six. Oh, Edie took it so hard,” Lizzie said. “Like I said, she just wasn’t the same after that.”

  “And you haven’t seen her since yesterday?” she asked.

  “No. Her car was gone when I got up this morning.” Lizzie clutched her hands together. “I can’t imagine where she’d go, what with the rainstorm and all.”

  “You mentioned her cousin before,” Paige said. “I believe you said her name was Donna.”

  “Donna Parks, yes. Haven’t seen her since she moved.”

  “And that would have been last year when Edith moved back here?”

  Lizzie nodded. “Is Edie in some kind of trouble?”

  “No, no,” CJ said. “We’re just trying to piece everything together. Fourteen years is a long time ago.”

  “Do you remember when you spoke to the FBI back then?” Paige asked.

  “Sure do.” She glanced at CJ. “Dressed in suits and ties, they were.”

  CJ smiled at her. “Doing fieldwork like we are, suits and ties aren’t really practical,” she said.

  “They were handsome, if I recall,” Lizzie added.

  “What kind of questions did they ask you? Did they ask about the boys’ relationship with Eddie Krause?”

  “Oh, no. They never asked me about little Eddie. I don’t know why they would have. He had already been gone a year by then. Why, they mostly wanted to know if I’d seen any strangers around and if I’d seen anyone acting peculiar.” She nodded slowly. “They talked to nearly everyone in the neighborhood, I think.”

  “And after Bradley Simon went missing, that’s when Edith and her husband left?”

  Lizzie nodded. “Yes, I believe they left shortly after that. Edie said it was just too much for her.” She folded and unfolded her hands several times. “It was a scary time here, that’s for sure. Not just Edie and Herbert that moved. Lots of families packed up and left. Can’t blame them, really.”

  “No. I guess you can’t,” CJ said. She glanced at Paige and motioned to the door. “We should probably get back.”

  “Yes.” Paige stood, smiling at Lizzie. “Thank you for your time.”

  Lizzie pushed herself out of her chair. “You’re not going back to that house, are you?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so,” Paige said.

  Lizzie’s thin lips pursed together. “It’s an evil house. It makes people do evil things,” she said. “You should stay away.”

  CJ wanted to agree with her so she hoped her smile wasn’t condescending. “We’ll be fine. We just have a few things to check out.” She paused before leaving. “You’ll call if you see Edie?”

  Lizzie nodded. “Yes, I will.”

  Back in the truck, CJ said what she assumed Paige was thinking as well. “I don’t think Edith Krause is coming back, do you?”

  “Maybe it’s time for a BOLO on her car,” Paige said.

  CJ pulled away, shaking her head. “Why didn’t they connect Eddie’s death with the four boys?”

  “I don’t know. It seems obvious now, doesn’t it?”

  “They were looking for a serial killer,” she said. “But with Edith Krause, she had motive, she had opportunity. She was exacting revenge for her son’s death.”

  “We still have no evidence,” Paige reminded her.

  “And where the hell is her husband?”

  “Maybe Ice is right. Maybe she killed him too.”

  “Why?”

  “Maybe he had no clue she was the killer. Maybe he found out,” Paige said.

  “He found out, so she killed him. And then she fled to Midland. The disappearances stopped.” CJ nodded. “I’ll buy it.”

  “Yes. But her husband’s disappearance makes no sense. I mean, surely he had family who would miss him. Parents, siblings.”

  “There wasn’t anything in Howley’s report about family. He just disappeared.”

  “So maybe he had no close relationships. Or maybe Edith contacted them, pretending to be Herbert.”

  “We have a hell of a lot of maybes,” she said.

  When they pulled into the driveway at the Wicker house, Ice jogged out to meet them.

  “The team is already inside,” he said. “Sheriff’s department brought in some lights and a generator.”

  “Did you get the door opened in the kitchen?” she asked.

  “Billy’s in there now,” he said.

  CJ grinned. “You still want no part of it?” />
  “Well, it’s not quite as scary with so many people in there, but yeah, I thought I’d supervise out here.” He raised his eyebrows. “You get anything new?”

  “Lizzie confirmed that all four boys were known to pick on Eddie,” she said.

  “Damn. So Edith was getting revenge?”

  “That’s our theory.” She watched as Deputy Brady walked out of the house. “You get with him yet on the new case?”

  Ice scowled. “Hell, I don’t trust him. Said he took a trip out to the nursery, drove up the forest road. Said Thompson wouldn’t talk to him.”

  “So it’s obvious he’s not working the case. Do we want to speculate as to why? Is he lazy? Doesn’t care?”

  “I put a call in to Thompson myself,” Ice said. “His daughter said he was out in the back and she’d have him call me.”

  “We’re all in agreement these two cases aren’t linked, right?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I talked to Howley while you were gone,” he said. “Told him we’re not getting any cooperation in this new case. I think he’s so giddy that we might bust this cold case that he’s willing to hand this one back to the locals.”

  “So the boy’s killer will never be found,” Paige said. “That sucks.”

  CJ and Ice stared at her, both smiling.

  “What?”

  “I think that’s the closest I’ve ever heard you come to cussing,” Ice said.

  “Just because I don’t have a potty mouth, doesn’t mean I don’t curse,” Paige said. “I say ‘hell.’ I say…‘damn.’”

  CJ laughed. “‘Cuss,’ not ‘curse.’”

  Paige stared at her and smirked. “Damn. Hell. Shit.” She arched an eyebrow. “Fuck.”

  CJ and Ice nearly howled with laughter, causing curious stares from the officers standing about.

  “God, you’re so juvenile,” Paige said as she headed into the house. “I can’t believe you made me do that.”

  CJ was still smiling. “Man, I needed a laugh,” she said. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”

  Ice nodded. “Yeah. Cute as hell. You’re lucky.”

  “Luck has nothing to do with it. I’m charming. And I’ve been called cute myself,” she said. “She couldn’t resist me.”

  “Yeah. And you’re so humble too,” he said with a laugh.