A Summer with the Dead

by Sherry Decker

  “Apparently, you’ve met Coty already,” Elly said.

  “Who?”

  “I introduced myself as Wayne,” Coty said.

  “Yes, I met Mr. Matheson,” Jennifer said, “but who is that other man in the living room? The man sitting in front of the window.”

  “He’s only here to keep everyone safe tonight,” Elly said.

  “Like a security guard? So, I guess he won’t drink while on duty?” Jennifer asked.

  “Yes,” Coty said. “But mainly it’s because this is my party and he’s not invited.”

  “Where’s your luggage, Mama?” Maya asked.

  “I just brought my overnight case, Maya. It’s on the front seat of my car. I’ll be gone first thing in the morning. Now that I know you’re okay, I’m okay.”

  “You’ll have to sleep with me, Mama, because the guest rooms are empty. Elly sold almost all of the furniture.”

  Jennifer Pederson nodded. “I’m feeling pretty drowsy already. This Black Velvet stuff is relaxing, isn’t it?”

  “Nothing like it, especially on an empty stomach.” Elly chugged the last of her drink.

  “Mama, I’ll take you upstairs now and show you where my room is, and the bathroom. Let me get your overnight case from the car.”

  Coty jumped up. “Allow me.” He returned with the case a moment later.

  Within twenty minutes, Jennifer Pederson was sound asleep in Maya’s bed. Maya plugged her cell phone in to recharge it, closed the bedroom door and hurried downstairs.

  “That was a surprise,” she said. “Mama showing up here.”

  “No kidding,” Elly said. “Jennifer swore she’d never set foot in this house.”

  “We all say things we’re sorry for later.” Coty made eye contact with Maya.

  Maya no longer felt angry with Coty, the way she had earlier. Even now, he smelled like cedar and fresh coffee, and she remembered how his lips tasted like apples. She smiled at him.

  Forgiveness is a good thing.

  *

  It was almost 1:00 AM when Maya checked the lock on the basement door and followed Elly upstairs.

  “I’ll be here at the kitchen table,” Coty said. “Got my laptop and plan to be here all night if you need me.”

  Mr. Withers kept his face turned toward the picture window as they passed by.

  “Goodnight, Mr. Withers,” Elly said. “Please, whatever you do, don’t open the basement door. The basement door is the yellow one in the kitchen. It must remain locked.”

  Mr. Withers made no reply. He inhaled, exhaled with an impatient sound, leaned back in the straight-back chair and crossed his arms. Twenty-five minutes had passed since his last cigarette. His nicotine addiction was probably gnawing at him, Maya thought.

  Maya changed into her nightgown in the bathroom before crossing the hall. She hesitated outside her bedroom door. What would she find on the other side of that door? Would it be Mama in the bed, or that moldy, skeletal creature she had seen on the front porch three months ago?

  She braced herself and eased the door open. Jennifer was a small lump in the bed, taking up very little room. Her mother faced the open window. The curtains waved in and out on the breeze. The closet door was ajar and a slice of pale light angled across the floor. Moonlight turned the white lace curtains platinum.

  Maya locked the door behind her and slipped into bed beside her mother.

  Jennifer rolled over and pulled the blankets up snug to her neck, took a breath and said, “Maya, I must tell you something. I’m homeless.”

  “Homeless?”

  “The house sold and the buyers wanted me out right away. I got a motel room, but felt … just awful there by myself. I tried calling you but …”

  “But I didn’t answer.”

  “And I started imagining all kinds of things.”

  “It’s okay, Mama. We’ll work things out.”

  “I can’t believe I’m a homeless person. I feel ashamed.”

  “We’ll be okay. We’ll both be okay,” Maya said.

  “Maya! Maya! Wake up!”

  Maya struggled to open her eyes. She found her mother sitting at the foot of the bed, staring at the door.

  “What’s wrong?” Maya asked.

  “I heard a man yell, and then it sounded like a scuffle downstairs.”

  Maya grabbed her robe and shoved her feet into her slippers. “Wait here, Mama. Lock the door behind me.”

  “No, I’m coming with you.”

  “There’s one of Elly’s old robes in my closet, but there are no slippers.”

  Moonlight had turned the hallway’s pale walls a stainless steel blue. Maya and her mother ran past the bathroom and empty guest rooms. Elly’s door stood open. Her bed was empty. Maya and Jennifer tiptoed down the stairs. Mr. Withers was not in his straight-backed chair beside the living room window. In the kitchen, Coty’s laptop glowed on the table. His chair was upturned.

  “That yellow door is open,” Jennifer said. “Is that the basement?”

  The basement door stood wide open and a man’s voice rose from below.

  “Help!” His voice sounded muffled. “Help!”

  Maya ran to the door. The feeble light above the washer and dryer emitted a sickly yellow glow in the black basement air. At the foot of the stairs Mr. Withers struggled with mismatched, chalky-white arms and legs, a foot attached to a wrist. A lump of thigh wriggled and flexed by itself in the dirt while a pale hand protruded from a collarbone. The white hand squeezed Mr. Wither’s face. His eyes bulged. “Help!” he screamed again.

  “What is that … thing, fighting with him?” Jennifer Pederson asked.

  Maya closed the yellow door and locked it.

  “Maya?”

  “What did it look like, Mama?”

  “Mr. Withers was being attacked.”

  “By?”

  “It was a … thing. I don’t know what it was.”

  “Something impossible, Mama?”

  “Yes. Something impossible.”

  “A thing that can’t exist? It’s just your imagination, Mama? Because, what else could it be? That kind of impossible thing?”

  “You never told me you saw such things, Maya.”

  “Yes I did. That’s when you dragged me to see Dr. Conover.”

  “But what should we do now? What about Mr. Withers?”

  “We do nothing. It’s too late to help him. I told him not to go down there.” Maya stepped toward the pantry. “Coty! Coty, where are you?”

  “Here.” Coty appeared in the entrance to the skylight room. He leaned against the wall with a frown.

  “Mr. Withers went into the basement,” Maya said.

  “To do what?” Coty asked.

  “He’s wrestling with something that defies description,” Jennifer said.

  “Like the something you saw in the barn,” Maya said.

  Jennifer nodded, “I saw it too.”

  Coty staggered across the kitchen. “Someone clobbered me from behind.” He turned on the kitchen faucet and held his head under cold water. Red water swirled in the bottom of the sink.

  “The back of your scalp is split,” Maya said.

  Footsteps ran up from the basement. Something crashed against the yellow door and Coty reached toward the t-shaped lock.

  “No! Coty! Don’t open it!”

  The sound of another pair of feet plodded up the basement stairs, the old wood steps groaning under the weight. The black enamel doorknob frosted over and long, sharp islands of ice formed on the yellow paint.

  “Wait,” Maya whispered. “Don’t touch the door.”

  Coty stepped away from the door without a word. From the basement side of the door came the sounds of bones snapping and a man’s single, painful scream.

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-ONE

  MORNING. THROUGH THE BAY window beyond the fields, a pink cloud appeared trapped in the highest branches of the trees. The sky around the cloud was the palest blue.

  Coty turned his
kitchen chair upright and sat down. “I heard Withers talking to someone before I was hit. I think he was on his cell phone. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to turn my back to him. Stupid!”

  “Did you hear what he said on the phone?” Maya asked.

  “I heard him say ‘sheriff’ and the word, ‘basement.’ At the time I didn’t think it was important but apparently it was.”

  “Elly and I both told Mr. Withers to not open the basement door. He must have thought we were hiding something down there.”

  “Is Elly hiding something down there?” Coty asked.

  “Not Danny,” Maya said. “If that’s what you mean.”

  “What in the world are you talking about?” Jennifer Pederson asked. “It’s like you’re speaking in code.”

  “It’s a long story, Mama. A story you don’t want to hear.”

  “Who is Danny?”

  “My nephew. He’s been missing for six months and I’ve been searching for him,” Coty said.

  “Maya, when this is all over and you’re back home safe, I want you to tell me everything,” Jennifer said. “Everything.”

  “You won’t believe some of it, Mama.”

  “I believe there is a creature in the basement of this house, made up of severed, detached body parts, a creature that travels … somehow. I cannot have seen that, but I did, so I guess I can believe anything,” Jennifer said.

  “Detached body parts?” Coty repeated.

  “I’ll tell you about that, Coty. Later though. Right now we need to make plans for noon.

  Elly told me we’ll find Danny at noon, ‘when the sky is light’. I think that means we need to be in the skylight room, at noon.”

  “Let’s check out the skylight room right now.” Coty shoved his kitchen chair back.

  “We won’t find anything,” Maya said. “It’s always noon when Danny appears.”

  “Appears?” Jennifer said.

  “I wonder where Elly is,” Maya said. “She’s not upstairs.”

  “I think it might have been Elly who hit me,” Coty said.

  “Why would Elly hit you?” Maya asked.

  “To get past me, and to make sure I didn’t see where she went.”

  “Why did the basement door freeze over?” Jennifer asked.

  “Because that thing you saw down there is pure evil,” Maya said.

  “But, I’ve been in the basement,” Coty said. “Several times, and I’ve never seen anything like what you just described.”

  Maya said. “Were you ever there late at night, or before dawn?”

  “No, only in the middle of the day.”

  “I think I hear a car outside.” Jennifer crossed to the kitchen window and parted the curtains. “It’s the sheriff’s car.”

  Maya checked the time. 7:40 AM.

  Coty opened the back door and Sheriff Wimple stepped through. “I got a call about an hour ago, from Withers. I need to talk to him.”

  “He’s in the basement,” Jennifer said.

  “Who are you?” the sheriff asked.

  “I’m Jennifer Pederson, Maya’s mother. I arrived last night.”

  Sheriff Wimple opened the yellow door and aimed his flashlight down the stairs, cutting a wedge of white through the black air.

  “Withers! You down there?”

  “I saw him at the foot of the stairs,” Jennifer said. “Just a few moments ago.”

  Maya nodded. “Mother woke me after she heard someone shouting and the sound of a scuffle. We came downstairs and heard Mr. Withers in the basement, but we’re uncomfortable going down there.”

  Sheriff Wimple said, “Withers said he found something in the basement and for me to get over here, pronto. Any idea what he found?”

  “He didn’t say anything about that to us,” Maya said. “All we know is someone hit Coty on the head.”

  Sheriff Wimple glanced at them one by one, with suspicious, narrowed eyes. He turned and entered the basement. He strode along the concrete path into the shadows. Maya closed and locked the door behind him.

  “What’s he going to find down there?” Coty asked.

  “Old graves,” Maya said. Maybe Benson. Maybe Angel. Maybe the woman or the two men in the grave with her.

  “How many graves?”

  “Not sure. Elly said four people. She didn’t say how many graves exactly.” And the numbers have grown since then.

  “Not Danny’s?”

  “Elly said Danny isn’t down there,” Maya said. “Wayne is a private investigator, Mama. Wayne C. Matheson.”

  “Oh, like Rockford?”

  “No.” Coty said. “Nothing like Rockford.”

  Something sounded like an explosion in the basement, followed by a second explosion a few seconds later.

  “That’s a shotgun blast,” Coty said.

  Maya yanked open the basement door. “Elly?” Maya called.

  “Don’t come down here, baby girl. Do you understand?”

  Maya heard the sound of shoveling. She closed and locked the door again.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Coty said. “Sounds like Elly shot Sheriff Wimple. I don’t want to even think about who she’ll shoot next.”

  Jennifer headed for the stairs. “Come on, Maya.”

  “I’ll grab some things and be back to get you. We’ve got to get the hell out of this place,” Coty said. “Hurry.”

  Upstairs, Maya dragged her trunk from the closet and tossed everything important inside, her medical journal on top. She grabbed her prescriptions from the bathroom medicine cabinet before she and Jennifer headed for the stairs lugging the trunk. Maya halted beside the morning glory window. Her watch glistened on the floor at her feet.

  “That wasn’t there before.” Maya picked it up, looking left and right, hoping to see the transparent gray shadow of her father one last time. She didn’t.

  “Come on, Maya!” Jennifer looked up from the landing. “I hear Coty calling you.”

  They hurried down the stairs and through the dining room as Coty appeared in the kitchen doorway. He tossed Maya’s trunk into the back of his truck.

  From the basement came the sound of a third shotgun blast. The explosion rattled the kitchen window. Maya and her mother climbed into the truck and Coty dropped behind the wheel. He headed down the driveway and didn’t slow down until they reached the parking lot of the River Lodge Café.

  Inside, the place was empty of customers and the waitress told them to sit anywhere they wanted. Maya chose a booth near the window where the morning sun drew warm squares on the plank floor.

  “Coffee,” Coty said. The waitress nodded.

  “What are we going to do?” Maya asked. “Should we phone someone?”

  “I already did,” Coty said, “When I woke up with a bloody scalp.”

  “Who?” Maya asked.

  “A friend of mine at the F.B.I. He and his men will be here in an hour.”

  “It’s almost ten o’clock.” Maya said. “You should eat something, Mama. You didn’t even have dinner last night.”

  Jennifer grimaced and shook her head as if the thought of food was revolting.

  The waitress set four mugs and a full carafe on the table. Jennifer grabbed a mug and sipped, eyes closed. “I never imagined,” she whispered.

  “I’ve got to go back to the farm,” Coty said. “This isn’t over until I find Danny. I’ll leave here at 11:30 and go straight to the skylight room. I’ve got to know.”

  “I’m going with you then,” Maya said. “Elly won’t hurt me.”

  “How do you know that?” Jennifer asked. “That woman is deranged. I’ve always said so.”

  “Elly told me I’m the only person she cares about, Mama. I’m her only blood kin.”

  “That doesn’t mean she won’t try to take you with her, wherever it is she thinks she’s going.”

  “She won’t hurt me. I know it. Mama, I want you stay here and wait for us.”

  “Oh, Maya. I’m so scared for you.”

  “W
e know our way around that farm,” Coty said. “We know what to expect.”

  Maya felt a flutter in her stomach and tasted something sour on the back of her throat. She wished she hadn’t told Elly about Wayne being a private investigator searching for his nephew. If anything happened to him it would be her fault.

  “All right, I’ll wait here,” Jennifer said. “But I’m going to be a mess until I know you’re safe, Maya. You’ll have your phone with you this time, right?”

  “Yes, but don’t phone me, Mama. My phone might ring when I don’t want Elly to know where I am. Understand?”

  Jennifer nodded. “But you’ll phone me as soon as you’re safe. Right?”

  “Yes.”

  They drank the entire carafe of coffee and a second carafe in the next hour. The waitress brought them three cheese Danish. “On the house,” she said. “I warmed them up for you too.”

  “I didn’t realize how hungry I was,” Jennifer said after she finished eating.

  “It’s time, Coty.” Maya slid from the booth and she and Coty exited.

  “I’m going to park at the new cemetery,” Coty said. “There’s a trail that leads straight through the woods to the back of the farm.”

  A wind had picked up and overhead the giant maples rustled their leaves. The rows of granite headstones appeared first silver and then black as dense clouds dragged shadows across the lawns. Coty headed for a gap in the trees on the far side of the graveyard and Maya entered the woods on his heels as a light rain began to fall. Under the canopy of trees the rain never reached the ground. Fifteen minutes later they came out of the trees behind the shed. They stood under the overhang, catching their breath and eyeing the house. The kitchen door stood wide open. Everything appeared calm. It was silent.

  Coty checked his watch. “It’s eleven-fifty. Let’s go.”

  They entered the kitchen. The yellow door was closed.

  “But … it isn’t locked,” Maya whispered.

  “Leave it. If Elly’s down there she’ll hear you turning the lock. And let’s avoid the pantry too. It’s too close to the basement stairs. She’ll hear us.”

  They tiptoed through the dining room, through the living room, and into the skylight room. Sunlight blinked through the skylight as clouds raced overhead. A sunny square appeared on the carpet in the center of the room. Seconds later the room turned dark, the sunny square gone.