The streets were filled with people out for the night. By the time they arrived at the restaurant, there was a small queue to join. Obviously the good people of Pickerton enjoyed a night out occasionally. They stood in line for only a few minutes before being seated in the back of the restaurant, next to the kitchen’s swinging door.
The waitress took their order after a few minutes of deciding what they were going to have. They all opted for the Chef’s daily special recommendation of a roast dinner, complete with baked potatoes, pumpkin, and a drenching of home style gravy. The smell coming from the kitchen was making Blair hungry as he waited for the meal to arrive.
“Cate, I forgot to ask when you got home - did you find out who Melanie Lucas is?” Charlie started the conversation.
“No, I looked in the local phonebook and all the other phonebooks the post office had but there was no-one listed under that name. The poor girl working behind the counter, I had her going through everything she had. I think she was glad to see the back of me.”
“So there were no listings whatsoever?”
“No, so I’m a bit lost now.”
Blair hadn’t been filled in on the details, confused he asked: “Who is Melanie Lucas and why are you trying to find her?”
Cate answered first, “James had a lot of appointments with her in his day planner, including one on the day he passed. I was curious about who she was so I’ve been trying to find out.”
“Did you try the internet? You should be able to find anyone online.”
“I didn’t think of that. I’m not very up with all the computer stuff. James was the technology buff of the family.”
“I can help if you want. We can do a search on the name, it will definitely bring up some results. Whether they are the right ones or not will just be a case of wading through them,” Blair volunteered.
“Thank you, I might take you up on the offer. Not that I really care who this woman is, it’s just that I hate not knowing something, you know? James and I didn’t keep secrets so I know it’s nothing terrible but I’d still like to know. It’s nagging at me.”
The dinner arrived and was served on the table. For a few moments the conversation was lost while everyone ate their meal. It was a generously sized serving of thickly cut roast beef and baked vegetables. Even Rahni, who is usually fussy about the food she eats, happily tucked in.
“This is good,” Blair commented
“Sure is. Cate, did you try out the key?” Charlie steered the conversation back on topic. She looked at Blair to fill him in. “We found a key in the study and didn’t know what it opened. It was kept in a little box so it looked a bit special.”
“I tried it out on the front and back doors and it didn’t open either of them. It’s a completely different looking key to the house keys too. I compared it to all the keys on my key ring and it didn’t resemble any of them. Once again, I’m back to square one. It would have been so much easier if James had just labelled his keys like I do.”
“You label your keys? You’re not meant to do that, you know. That way if someone finds your keys they don’t know what they’re for. If there’s a label on them then they can go straight for the treasure,” Blair interrupted.
“I’m not that stupid, I don’t put full addresses and things on them. I use code, like ‘F’ is front door, ‘C’ is for the cellar door and so on. I also colour code them to make them easier to distinguish. In a house like Sage manor and all the locks involved, you have to label them somewhat, otherwise you’d be there all day trying every single key before you go anywhere.”
“And it’s always the last key to try that works - Murphy ’s Law. So the key doesn’t look like it’s for any of the doors in the house then?” Charlie asked.
“Nope. It has to be something else. I should have asked Anne today if it’s for the office for something. His office door had a lock on it, maybe it’s a spare one for that. I’ll have to go back and ask. If it is for the bank, they’ll probably want it back.”
“I imagine so, I’m surprised they didn’t ask for it already if it is for his office. I would think they would have a pretty strict policy on keys at a bank. I don’t know why.”
“Yeah, it’s not like they have vaults of cash lying around or anything,” Blair joked. “They could have been trying to be respectful and not make a big deal about getting it back. It wouldn’t look very good for them if they forced you to hand over a key right away after everything you’ve been through. Or maybe they just forgot.”
“Maybe. I’ll do the right thing anyway and go back to the bank tomorrow. It will be good to know what it’s for. Once again, I just need to know to satisfy my curiosity. How’s your dinner Rahni? You’re being very quiet tonight.”
Rahni looked up from her dinner plate where she’d been staring. “It’s good.”
“Is anything wrong, Honey? I don’t think you’ve said two words all night.”
“Nothing. I just don’t have anything to say,” came the reply as she turned her attention back to her dinner. Cate thought about pursuing the real cause of her silence but decided against it. Rahni could be like that sometimes, you can feel like you’re speaking to a brick wall.
They finished dinner and decided against dessert, the meal had been more than enough to satisfy their empty stomachs. They went for a walk down the main street before returning to the car and driving back to the Manor. The roads were completely dark, the only source of light coming from the vehicle’s front lights. Street lights were few and far between out on the country roads, mainly only marking intersections. It created an atmosphere of complete isolation. Besides the few lights coming from the odd farmhouse now and then, you couldn’t see anything except what was directly in front of the car. Cate liked it that way, you could have your own little piece of the world where no-one else can bother you. Charlie was the opposite, she needed to know that people were around, you never knew when you might need them.
They pulled into the curb and drove up the driveway to the front entrance. They got out of the car and proceeded into the house. Charlie was the last to enter, she was afraid of what might have happened inside while they were out. If there really were robbers in the house earlier, they might have come back and seized a second opportunity. If there was something else in the house that had made the mess, then they might have also used the empty house while they could.
Cate flicked on the lights and the foyer lit up. She crossed to the living room and did the same. Charlie followed, letting out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. The house was in the same state that they had left it. Nothing was out of place, not even the living room cushions.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted. I think I’ll go straight to bed,” Blair yawned as if to reinforce his point. He looked at Charlie. “You coming?”
“Yeah, I’ll meet you up there in a minute.” She watched her boyfriend climb the stairs to the second floor and disappear around the corner and out of sight. “Cate, do you want me to put Rahni to bed for you?”
“Sure, thank you.”
Charlie ushered Rahni upstairs and down the corridor to her bedroom. She turned on the light and helped her niece find some pyjamas before tucking her into the cool sheets. She had an ulterior motive for offering to see her to bed.
“Rahni, do you ever see anything a bit different in the house besides Alice?”
“Sometimes it gets really cold all of a sudden, Alice told me it’s because the others are around. But she keeps them away from me so I don’t get scared.”
“Have you told your mum about any of it?”
“Just about Alice but she doesn’t believe me. So I don’t tell her about anything else. Alice said that people are scared of things they don’t understand so it’s best not to tell. She told me that mum wouldn’t believe me but I told her anyway.”
“Alice sounds like a wise person. If I showed you a picture of someone, do you think you would be able to tell me if it’s Alice or
not?” Charlie was formulating a plan, just in case she really wasn’t going crazy. If she could find out who Alice was, maybe it would lead to the others within the house walls.
“Probably. Do you really believe me about her then?”
“Of course I do. And they don’t scare me, I understand what you’ve seen. You can tell me anything about them and I will believe you.”
“That’s good. I’m really tired. Good night Auntie Charlie.”
“Good night Rahni, sleep tight.” She turned off the light and closed the door half-way. She walked down the hallway to the blue room and opened the door. Blair was already showered and in bed.
She took off her clothes and stood underneath the shower, letting the water wash away her thoughts. She was going to have to deal with whatever was in the house, if not for her sake but for Rahni’s. Alice might be able to keep the others away from her, but she might not be around forever. If there was something that was going to hurt Rahni or Cate, she wanted it stopped before they had a chance to. How she was going to explain this to her boyfriend and sister was a problem for another day.
She stepped out of the shower and changed into her pyjamas before sliding into bed next to Blair. She moved over and he placed his arm underneath her neck and around her shoulders.
“Everything alright?” He asked.
“Everything’s fine. Dinner was nice tonight, wasn’t it?”
“Indeed it was. It will prepare us for a big day tomorrow. We’ve got to make up for not getting anything done today.”
“So we’re working on the balcony then? It sounds very exciting.”
“Balcony it is, my apprentice. Make sure you get some sleep tonight, okay?”
“I’ll try. Goodnight. I love you.”
“I love you too. Goodnight.”
Chapter 4
The daylight shone through the window of the blue room and cast a ray of light across the bed at sunrise. It awoke both Blair and Charlie far earlier than they would have liked. However, unable to return to sleep, they decided to get an early start on the day. They were downstairs and finished with breakfast by 6 a.m.
Rahni and Cate were still in their rooms when the pair were on the balcony and starting their repair work. They tried to keep the renovations as quiet as possible. They didn’t have to worry about the neighbours but they didn’t really want to wake their hosts either.
For three days straight they worked on the balcony. They discovered it wasn’t just one corner that was dangerously rotting away, it was most of the balcony. They replaced plank after plank of wood with new treated pine. They went through hundreds of nails, each one hammered in the old fashioned way. They lost count of the number of times they had accidentally hit their thumbs. Cate had to do a band-aid run into town at one stage, they had used the entire box.
Charlie was relieved for the distraction. What had been even better was there had been no other ‘incidents’. Rahni hadn’t passed on any other messages, there had been no other nightmares or disembodied footsteps. Everything at Sage Manor had returned to its peaceful calm existence, as if nothing had ever happened in the first place. It had been so uneventful, in fact, Charlie had convinced herself it was just all in her mind. A few coincidences and she had jumped to wild conclusions. She was glad she hadn’t spoken to Blair or Cate about it beforehand.
Rahni had even changed, she was back to being the girl she had been before her father had passed away. She would play in the back garden every day while they worked on the balcony. They could easily keep an eye on her from their viewpoint. Not that they really needed to. Cate had even cheered up somewhat, she would tend to her garden nearby. At every lunchtime she would make a picnic and they would all eat in the garden underneath the shade of a beautiful old jacaranda tree. They were perfect summer days, even with the hard and exhausting work.
The morning of the fourth day started just like all the others. The only difference being they were now used to waking so early. Blair and Charlie were rising with the sun and being so exhausted by all the manual labour that they were usually in bed by 9 p.m. They were on country time now.
They had decided the night before that since the balcony was now repaired, they would get back to their painting tasks. Today they had plans to paint the upstairs living room. It was right beside the blue room they were occupying. It spanned the whole side of the house and wasn’t used very often. It contained the piano and a lounge suite. Besides that, it was almost empty. Cate had placed the piano there picturing the whole family gathered around, listening to her play, enjoying the music and each other’s company. She still maintained the vision, it just hadn’t happened yet - not even once. Hopefully by repainting the walls and adding some more furniture it might bring the thought to life.
After breakfast, they were in the living room taping up the edges of the wall in preparation for the paint. Charlie took a sheet and laid it over the piano, making sure it was completely covered. She didn’t trust Blair to be painting near it, he was too messy. She did the same with the lounge suite.
“I’ll go and get the brushes from the conservatory. I won’t be a minute,” she said and headed downstairs to the back of the house. She had left the brushes on the bench after washing them thoroughly. They were painting the room a peach colour, the yellow paint from the conservatory would have distorted the colour so she had worked on the brushes for ages to get them completely clean. She had left them on the bench so the sun streaming in through the conservatory window would dry them.
She approached the bench but there were no brushes there, only the newspaper that they were sitting on. She searched around the room, trying to find them. She even looked underneath the newspaper, logically telling herself they couldn’t be there. She got down on her knees and scanned the floor all around the room. The brushes were nowhere to be found. Frustrated, she hurried back upstairs to the second living room.
“What did you do with the brushes?” She stood in front of Blair who was still taping up the skirting boards on the floor.
“I didn’t touch the brushes. Can’t you find them?”
“No. I cleaned them and left them in the conservatory. You watched me do it. You must have moved them.”
Blair finished with the tape and stood up, he could tell that Charlie was getting angry at him - quickly. “I didn’t move them, I swear.”
“You had to have done. They were there yesterday.”
Blair was starting to get annoyed at her reaction. Maybe it was tiredness, but he was over it. “So you’re saying that I lied about moving the damn paint brushes. You’re basically calling me a liar.”
“I’m saying that no-one else would have moved them.”
“Have you even asked Cate? Or Rahni even?”
“They didn’t know they were in there. Only you knew where they were because you saw me cleaning them,” her voice was quickly rising to a yell.
Blair’s voice mirrored hers. “I didn’t move the bloody brushes. And if I did, do you really think I would hide that from you? You probably moved them and just forgot about it.”
“You always do that! You always put it back on me, like you couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong. It must be hard being so perfect all the time.”
“I’m perfect? No, you are Little Miss Perfect. You think that you can never do anything wrong. Me? I’m the poor chump that has to live with it.”
“You don’t have to live with me then. You can leave at any time, it’s not like I’ve got you chained up in the basement as my slave. If I’m that terrible, maybe you should leave.”
“Maybe I should, at least then I can stop being accused of things that I didn’t do!”
“Great, but before you abandon me and my grieving sister can you please just tell me where the brushes are.”
“You never trust me, you never just take my word for anything,” Blair was getting frustrated.
“I do so. I’m always trusting you.”
“Yeah? Give me one example where you just
explicitly trusted me. A time when you didn’t question me or check up on me.”
“You really want me to list all the time when I’ve trusted you?” Charlie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She didn’t think they were talking about paint brushes anymore. “I trust you every day, you idiot.”
“No you don’t! You think I’m just some fool you have to supervise twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
“I trusted you to go away on that boy’s weekend with all your mates, even though I knew there were going to be other girls there.”
“Yeah, so that’s the only time where you have trusted me. And even then I got the third degree when I got back. How does that say ‘trust’?”
“So maybe I’m protective of you. I’m sorry but I happen to love my boyfriend and don’t want him to be with some floozies for the weekend doing God knows what,” Charlie rolled her eyes. “Gee, I’m sorry I’m such a horrible person.”
“Ever consider that boyfriend of yours is more than happy to be with you and wouldn’t even look at another woman. Hence trust!”
“Look, I’m not having this conversation. Just tell me where the brushes are!”
“I don’t know where the brushes are!”
“You have to!”
“I’m telling you I don’t know!”
“Fine! I’ll find them myself,” Charlie stormed out of the room, furious at Blair. It had been a long time since they had had an argument like that. In fact, they hadn’t fought, really fought, since they had first started dating. Blair had complained that Charlie didn’t spend enough time with him, that he didn’t fit in with her schedule. They had argued about her priorities but Charlie knew Blair had a valid argument. She had been so busy with studying, classes, and her part-time job that he really didn’t fit in around everything else. She had made the commitment to make time for him which she followed through with. Any arguments since then had only been minor.
As Charlie descended the stairs, she was still fuming. She found her sister in the study and tried to be civil, despite how she felt inside.
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