Secrets of Skin and Stone

by Wendy Laine

  “Sometimes.”

  “Is that why you’re interested in Piper?”

  Finally. A question I could answer honestly. Somewhat honestly. “I’m interested in Piper because her smile lights up a room. She’s sweet and the smartest girl I’ve ever met.”

  Her mother was much easier to charm if the brief pause in her hand-wiping was anything to go on, as well as the flushed look of pride.

  “And that’s why I’m worried about her. This thing with her dog…most people wouldn’t think of killing something as a prank, not normal people anyway.”

  She nodded. “You might be right at that. I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t want people staring Piper down and asking her questions. Reckon we should’ve had the sheriff come, but I wondered if that’d be making a spectacle of Piper’s sadness.” Her hands worried the dishtowel, twisting it back and forth. “The timing made it suspicious. Piper is, as you said, smart, but some of the locals don’t appreciate it. She was taking this test again, even though her score was much higher than everybody else’s in Hidden Creek, and everybody, including Piper, had already sent their scores off. There was no reason for her to take it again, but she got it in her mind that she wanted to. She said she knew exactly where she’d gone wrong on the previous test. She even used her own money to retake it. People were talking, but Piper insisted…and, well, you’ve met her—you know how she can be.”

  I definitely knew how she could be.

  “And I shouldn’t say this, but I imagine you’ll find out soon enough, being what you are. People around Hidden Creek are superstitious. Animals get killed and everybody around here wants to blame it on something supernatural.” She pointed at me. “I’d appreciate it if you could prove this wasn’t supernatural.”

  Piper‘s mother had the lay of the land all right. They hadn’t called the sheriff because the situation with Phil Laramie already had people in Hidden Creek eyeing Piper. This would’ve added fuel to the fire. “It wasn’t. I know it wasn’t already. But can you think of who might’ve done this to Jester?”

  She swallowed. “If you saw it, you couldn’t imagine—you couldn’t imagine anybody you’ve ever met doing that. It must’ve been a prank, a bet, a…drunken fool, somebody high on something. I think some drugs can make you do things you normally wouldn’t. I don’t know. You just can’t imagine the blood. It was everywhere.” She looked on the verge of gagging. Piper had mentioned her retching in the bushes.

  “Maybe it was somebody her age? We ran across some of the boys from the school and they were…” How did one put this?

  “Damn fools?” she supplied, startling a grin out of me.

  “Some of them.” Maybe she was right, and I was looking for a bigger plot with the dog. Though the grave-robbing on top of the dog killing and the curse pouches seemed like too much to be coincidence.

  Then, there was Trina’s disappearance.

  Hell, there were too many unknowns.

  “Yeah, well, the boys ‘round here haven’t really won her heart that’s for sure. Sometimes I get the feeling she can’t wait to graduate and get as far away from here as possible. The only colleges she’s considering seriously are west coast ones. That was even before this thing with Jester.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that.

  “Piper hasn’t received any threats before, has she?”

  She paused and bit her lip as she stared at me. Piper and her mom were so cagey. I respected that, even if it was aggravating me to no end. “No, not that I know of—we would’ve called the sheriff if she had. I didn’t even know where to start with this. There’s been some vandalism. She says it happens to everybody, though, and, even then, she isn’t one for talking about such things. Maybe you’ll find out more and be able to keep my baby safe.”

  “I will. I won’t let anything happen to Piper. And I’ll find out who did this to her dog.”

  “She did go to lunch with you, and she’s never given the fools around here the time of day.” Which was her way of saying that her daughter didn’t think I was dangerous or an idiot.

  But, Piper didn’t trust easily. In fact, I should’ve realized that. Why had I assumed Piper would trust me when I was there last night with next to no explanation? I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I couldn’t with Piper’s long legs right there. I needed to concentrate on Piper and rein in these, uhh, needs.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to that,” her mother said. It froze me until I realized she was referring to my work, not my lust for Piper.

  “Much obliged, ma’am.” I stood respectfully and nodded as she left the room. She was still rubbing her hands on that dishtowel.

  Piper and her mom were something else.

  I heard a low murmur as Mrs. Devon called on the phone in the kitchen. Then, her voice rose slightly in volume as she tore into Dick. Hopefully she wouldn’t return anytime soon to toss me out of the house.

  In the meantime, I opened my laptop. I needed to earn Piper’s trust. I’d exposed some of her secrets without doing the same. I sat on the perfectly-matched couch and stared, unfocused.

  My screensaver came on. A gargoyle slid up and down across my monitor. Gargoyles or grotesques once marked places that would welcome a Watcher’s presence. A gargoyle on a building meant that a Watcher lived there or could be contacted through them. Eventually, they’d become a decoration. Now they were a part of history linked with superstition.

  Few knew of us today, but we were known. We were still needed and well-paid. The world would always have its dark spirits that we could see, hear, and kill. Fiends outnumbered our reach, but they had a huge population to feed from. Tortured souls were everywhere.

  I wasn’t noble, though. I couldn’t lie and say I was. The satisfaction I felt after killing a fiend, when its heart dripped through my fingers…it was monstrous.

  There was a duality in me. I could command the darkness to kill. I killed to save. Watchers were among the most deeply religious people on earth—while not being typically religious at all. We believed in evil. We had to. Light. Dark. Evil. Good. I contained it all inside this body that shifted from flesh to stone.

  I was a creature encased in human skin.

  I pressed a key, and the gargoyle disappeared. He was the myth. It was time to deal with my reality.

  Chapter Ten

  Piper

  The library had one of the few remaining pay phones in Hidden Creek right outside of it, and this wasn’t the sort of call I could make at home. I shifted from foot to foot as the phone rang. This was the first time I’d felt the absence of a cell phone. Mama had talked about getting me one, but who would I call? And I didn’t exactly want everybody being able to get a hold of me. The thought made me feel hunted. I rolled a shoulder at the fifth ring. Anytime now.

  If the place Phil was staying changed staff at a typical time, this would be the most chaotic moment. A breathless voice answered after the sixth ring.

  “Yeah, I was hoping to visit my uncle Phil Laramie tomorrow. What time are visiting hours?”

  “Uh.” I could hear the click of keys and then she covered the phone to talk to somebody else.

  “He said that I couldn’t come when he was eating lunch. He hates when people watch him eat. It’s one of those things of his,” I said. “I don’t know that I’d want people eating while I watched either, though.”

  “Well, I…”

  “And I’m not supposed to wear any perfume either ‘cause he said it made his eyes water. He said that y’all had a policy about that. That it was a fragrance-free facility and we’d both get in trouble, but I figured that was just him saying that. Is it fragrance-free?” I was hoping to overwhelm her with information so she’d slip up. It was kind of mean…the sort of thing I might need to cut myself for.

  “No, but we do encourage people not to wear fragrances if at all possible.”

  “I knew it! So, when can I come see him?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Rachel Laramie.”
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  “Your name isn’t on our list for him, so I can’t give out that information.”

  “Oh. Okay. I’ll have my daddy call instead. Thank you.”

  I hung up. I’d call that a confirmation that Phil was still being watched. They wouldn’t let him out to go kill a dog.

  I thought it over on the drive home. I’d covered everything. I was making progress. So, why didn’t I feel as accomplished and successful as I normally did?

  Getting out of my car, I looked in our side yard for Gris’s bike—which was silly and stupid. His bike wasn’t on the side with our RV or the other side with the shed where I’d found Jester. It was just after five o’clock, and he wasn’t lurking about hoping to catch me. I’d blown him off.

  I was in control. I was always in control. I wasn’t an emotional wreck waiting around to get my heart broken into pieces. It was better to feel this sting now as opposed to in a week when he’d done his good deed and moved on, leaving me this exposed bleeding lump of pain wearing all my secrets on the outside. And he would move on, make no mistake about that. Boys like Gris didn’t beg to be with girls like me.

  Maybe he thought he had some big secret, but it was probably just something to do with the way he got rid of whatever was in my room—some kind of ghostbusting thing—if there even was anything in my room, besides all those weird bags.

  My brother’s laughter greeted me as I slid off my shoes near the door and carried them to my bin in the front closet. There were shoes in the guest bin. Probably one of Dale’s friends. His friend had big feet for a thirteen-year-old. ‘Course my brother’s feet doubled in size every year. I put my backpack in my room before walking into the dining room.

  “Sorry I’m late. I got held up at the…”

  Gris was at the table. With my family. Eating supper.

  What the heck?

  My mouth hung open.

  “Close your mouth—you’ll catch flies.” Mama nodded at my chair. “Sorry we started without you, sugar. Your daddy has a meeting tonight and has to run.”

  Gris stood as I approached and pulled out the chair beside him for me. He was being all polite, and he was here. This wasn’t the plan at all.

  I sat down and stared at my plate.

  “Gris was just telling us about a sea monster in a pond in Virginia,” Dale said, shoveling food into his mouth.

  “A sea monster in a pond?” I repeated. He was here. Gris was here.

  “It turned out to be a publicity stunt.” Gris sat down beside me. I could smell either his aftershave or cologne. The scent had a sharp, tangy bite to it that I liked, and he hadn’t drowned himself in it, like boys sometimes did.

  I looked from my plate to his. Gris’s plate was empty, too. He’d waited for me to get home to eat. This was certainly not the plan. Should’ve known Gris wouldn’t follow a plan.

  Why did he have to smell so good? It wasn’t fair. I didn’t wanna follow the plan now, either.

  Gris started dishing up food while he told the story. “There was a new restaurant opening right on this lake, and they wanted word of mouth to spread just a smidge faster. So, they’d rigged this thing on a timer. It was rubber, stretched cross a metal frame. It looked like a mix of a walrus, a tiger, and a giraffe.”

  Dale burst out into snorting laughs.

  Gris scooped mashed potatoes onto his plate before passing them to me. There was a jolt inside me when Gris’s arm brushed my shoulder.

  I met his eyes.

  Gris smiled at me, and our hands brushed on the serving spoon. Zings shot down my arm and straight to my stomach, where they jumped around.

  “Hey,” he mouthed.

  My breath caught. Such a simple thing. But the way he looked at me was complicated. It was as if he was searching my face for answers, even as he was trying to tell me something. All that was in a single look. I was in over my head.

  “The sea monster?” my brother prompted.

  Gris looked away and I breathed easier. The cat had lifted its paw and the mouse had run off. Not that he scared me—no, I was scaring myself. I felt too much. Gris eroded holes in my walls.

  “Problem was,” Gris said, “they hadn’t quite worked out the buoyancy versus the aerodynamic structure in time before the sightings started. They’d figured leaving valves for water to go in and out would make it easy to drag underwater after a short up and down appearance. Well, the air would get dragged in the front as it was coming up from the water, and so, when this sea monster dove, it would shoot air out the back making a loud and rather crude sound.”

  I knew what story Dale would be telling tomorrow at school. He was barely breathing from laughing so hard.

  Gris shook his head with his lips firm as if fighting a smile. “In some ways it worked—word of mouth spread. Unfortunately, this restaurant was going for a family dining atmosphere, but they were serving Mexican food, and they had some difficulty turning off the sea monster, even after the restaurant opened. The whole first week it was open, the restaurant’s monster would spray mist from its back end at anyone seated on the deck while letting out a monster of a sound.”

  I was glad I hadn’t started eating as I covered my mouth with my hand and laughed.

  …

  “How are you?” Gris asked.

  The others had left the table, though Dale downright vehemently protested his exile to his room for homework.

  “I’m fine.” I was eating the last of my food. Eating with a boy around was a slow process. I kept running my tongue along my teeth to make sure nothing was stuck. Then, I couldn’t spill, and my hand felt shivery from having him around. Jem had spilled her cup, but it was okay for her to be excited about Gris being there. I’d just gone without drinking. Now everybody else was gone, and I’d never taken this long to eat, and I was dying of thirst.

  “Is my cousin ever mean to you?” he asked right as I finally took a drink of water.

  I nearly spit all over. “Pardon?”

  “Your mom said she thought maybe your dog’s death was in retaliation for you being so smart and surrounded by idiots. Being as I’m related to an idiot, I figured I’d ask.”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t spoken to Danny for a good long time, not since he graduated for the most part. He avoids me.”

  After I’d turned him down when he’d asked me out, Danny just frowned at me every so often and never spoke to me again. He wasn’t as much a bully as his friends. Hank was worse. Hank sometimes tripped me, and he constantly pushed books out of my arms.

  Gris was almost finished with his third helping of food. I’d never seen anybody eat so much. He must have some kind of a metabolism.

  “My mama said that? About it being somebody trying to get back at me?” I asked when he went back to eating as if his plate was about to be snatched away.

  He nodded.

  He’d talked with Mama about Jester. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  I set down my fork and clutched my fingers in my lap. What now? He was here. I was here. We were here.

  “Let’s go for a walk.” Gris picked up both our plates and carried them into the kitchen.

  Down the hall, Jem squealed as she took her nightly bath. My brother had music blaring from his room while “working” on his homework. Everything seemed normal. This was our routine every night. Supper together. Jem took a bath. Dale did his homework under duress. It was the same pattern, and that was comforting. It made sense. But tonight a boy who’d eaten supper with my family now wanted to go for a walk. This was all something that happened to normal people who led normal lives. Not Piper Devon.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as he rinsed our plates and put them in the dishwasher.

  “It’s not right?” He gestured at the dishwasher. “I thought I had it figured out.” He tilted his head. “It seemed a straightforward pattern.”

  “It’s all in the right spot, except…” I reached in and flipped the knife, point down. “She swears that it dulls the blade, but somebody could
slice their wrist open reaching for it. She’ll probably change it back before she starts it up. It’s not sensible, but it is what it is.” Mama and I were in a constant silent war over whether the knives should be put into the dishwasher up or down. I was right.

  “Walk?” Gris repeated, grabbing my hand and pulling me from the kitchen. He was holding my hand. This felt normal and healthy and sorta wrong on account of that.

  “It’s getting dark.” It was that brownish part of the day when the sun was fading fast, but it hadn’t reached the gray hour of dusk.

  “I know. We won’t go far. Your mom might scold me if she thought I was stealing you away. You can grab a flashlight if you’re worried.”

  I ran to my room.

  Mama popped her head out of the bathroom where she’d been singing a song to Jem about her boat and duckies. “I like him, sugar,” she whispered. She glanced down the hall at Gris. She had this gooey “my little girl has a boyfriend” look stuck on her face. It was plain frightening. Hopefully she wouldn’t say anything. Who knew what she’d say to Gris now if they were ever alone. I had to make sure that never happened. Ever.

  I followed her gaze. I liked Gris, too, but I wasn’t about to admit it.

  Gris studied a family picture on the wall at the end of the hall with a smile crooking his lips. Did he think I’d looked funny as a kid? Well, I had, but he wasn’t supposed to notice that.

  “We‘re going for a walk,” I told Mama.

  “Don‘t stay out too late.” She reached out to squeeze my hand. “He’s nice, Pips. Polite and sweet.”

  My heart wanted to agree. It thumped and burned in my chest. Trusting it—that was a whole other matter, but I nodded at Mama before heading toward Gris.

  “Ready?” he asked when I stood beside him.

  “What were you smiling at?”

  He’d been staring at a family picture taken seven years ago in a studio. I hadn’t quite made it out of my awkward phase where my teeth were too big for my face. Plus, I was wearing socks with Mary Janes. It wasn’t a good look.

  He pointed at Dale. “I like how your brother looks like he’s gonna bolt, and y’all have him pinned. It looks like a group hug and not like y’all trapped Dale.”