After we took care of some rather unhealthy snacks, we pulled out our mats, threw the covers across them and lay down in close proximity to each other, allowing a couple of feet in between the makeshift beds. With hands behind my head, I looked up toward the dark ceiling.
“I’m beat.” Sam yawned. “Are you guys tired?”
“Exhausted is more like it.” Rob rolled over on his stomach.
“This whole thing is enough to make anyone exhausted,” I said. “You two get some sleep and I’ll keep watch for a while.”
“You sure?” Sam raised her head slightly.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m not that sleepy anyway.”
“Okay. Have it your way.”
I realized we didn’t do any more brainstorming before sleep hit Sam and Rob like a log. It probably meant, as usual, I was supposed to do it myself. I couldn’t blame them for being tired. I sure as heck was, but my curiosity to fix the baffling problem kept me alert, if only a little bit. From the floor, I could see the moon and I wondered if it had the answers I needed and if, by chance it did, if it would graciously share them with me. I was desperate and determined; hopeful and afraid. I couldn’t understand my feelings partly and felt lost. As I looked over toward my friends, I knew though unspoken, they were relying on me to somehow fix everything and to get us all through this. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I had to swallow it, nonetheless. They were worth it because they were more than just my friends—they were my family and we were going to stick together, no matter what.
It felt weird not having Jase here with us. He would’ve been up with me devising a plan on how we could possibly get to the bottom of this major mess. But Jase needed rescuing too. After seeing his mom out there in the crowd that day, his concern for her was stronger than his desire to be safe. He would’ve had it no other way; that’s how Jase was.
Maybe when we saw him that night, deep inside the shell of the old him, he was screaming for us to save him and we just couldn’t hear. I’d like to think that instead of believing he was completely out of touch with us whom he’d known for just about his entire life.
Eventually, I drifted off to sleep. The last I’d checked that night, it was 1:25 A.M. I woke up just after three o’clock and Sam and Rob were sleeping peacefully from what I could tell. I felt good about that, considering what we’d all been through the previous day.
I eased up off the mat and strolled over to the window. Looking over our street, I wondered if Mom, Dad and Carl were sleeping well. I sure wished they were. I also wondered about Sam’s family and Rob’s folks. I shuddered to think the Powells were still sitting in their living room at this hour staring at the blank television screen.
So many thoughts had crowded my head all at once and I sat on the bench and just gazed down at the darkness. It was moments later when I noticed a shadow swiftly move along the northern side of the Christies’ house and disappear at the back. I squinted my eyes in hopes of grasping a better look, but it was just too dark, particularly around that part of the house from my view.
Mr. Christie had been out of town for weeks and rumor had it that he wasn’t coming back this time. I don’t know how true that was, but people in Eppington talk—a lot. And sometimes they have no inkling of what they’re even talking about. We’re a close community (and the best way to describe close is a bunch of smiling, two-faced, nosy folk being in everybody’s business). My parents mostly kept to themselves for that same reason. They never could tell from day to day who was their friend and who might’ve been the silent enemy because everyone was so good at pretending. Eppington is my dad’s hometown. Mom moved there to be with him just before they tied the knot, but she’s originally from Kansas.
Further down the street, I saw a dog walking on the left side of the road; looked like a bulldog, but I couldn’t be sure. And several yards down on the right was another. I assumed they might’ve been surveying the area for whatever reason and that there might’ve been more on adjoining streets. I was about to get up to do a check downstairs before returning to my mat when I heard a faint crash that sounded to be coming from the direction of Mrs. Christie’s house. I peered out toward the house for a good half a minute and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. However, I was curious to know what that sound was at three o’clock in the morning. Maybe you think I was one of those “nosy” neighbors too, but I’d say my curiosity was purely out of concern.
I took one of the flashlights Rob had brought along and did a brief check downstairs. Everything was clear and the wood securing the back door was still in place. It was almost impossible for anyone to get through the front door since it had been nailed shut and boarded up. Before going to sleep, I went back over to the window and took one last look at the Christies’ house. Everything was quiet, so I went and stretched out on the mat, switched off the searchlight and soon fell asleep.
7
_________________
The next morning, for some strange reason, Mrs. Christie was on my mind. Maybe because of the crashing sound I’d heard the night before and I told the guys about it.
“Maybe we should go check on her,” Sam suggested.
“It’s probably nothing though,” I said.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Rob commented as he bit into his Honey Bun—the second one for the morning.
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“I watched this movie once where a woman heard a strange sound coming from her neighbor’s house and not wanting to pry, she ignored it. Well, when the neighbor’s son went to check on his mom two days later, the old lady was on the bathroom floor. She’d fallen and couldn’t get up.” He looked at me intently. “Suppose something like that happened to Mrs. Christie? Mr. Christie isn’t here to check on her and they don’t have any kids. The good, neighborly thing to do is for you to check on her; not that she’s old or anything.”
“She does have her lover to check on her,” Sam remarked.
“Sure,” Rob said. “But it’s Sunday. He doesn’t show up on Sundays.”
“He’s right,” I said. “I’ll go check on her.”
“Want me to come along?” Sam asked.
“Sure. Wanna go now?”
“Yep.” She got right up.
“I’ll wait here,” Rob said. “Haven’t finished eating yet.”
“Leave some food for later, okay?” Sam told him. “We don’t wanna go back looking for food so quickly.”
“There’s plenty here!” he assured us, as we headed downstairs.
If Sam and I didn’t know any better, we’d think it was business as usual in our neighborhood that morning since nothing at all looked out of the ordinary. Cars were going by; a couple of neighbors were either dumping the trash or doing something under the hood of their cars—seemed like a typical day to me. Yet there was absolutely nothing typical going on in our neighborhood.
“We need to venture out to see if the same thing’s happening in other parts of town,” I told Sam as quietly as I could.
“If we’re gonna do that, we may need those bicycles after all. Besides, there’s little Timmy over there on his tricycle.” She pointed with her chin.
“Okay. Are you getting any signal from your cell yet? I left mine at the spot.”
“Don’t know. Haven’t tried it for the morning.”
“Try now. If you can get Rob and tell him to go for his bike, that’ll save us time. After we leave here, we can meet up at the gas station around the corner and head up from there,” I said.
She slid her phone out of jeans and checked for a signal. “Got it!” She smiled.
That was music to my ears.
She told Rob to head home for his bike and where we’ll catch up with him. She said he sounded elated that he wouldn’t have to walk everywhere we went.
“Can you get online?” I asked. “Maybe you can email one of your relatives out of town.”
She checked right away, then shook her head.
“Maybe
I can text though!”
Her fingers moved swiftly across the keys and I held my breath for the good news.
“It bounced,” she uttered moments later with a tinge of disappointment. “If somehow I was able to get this message to my aunt, she’d be down here with major help in a jiffy.”
“You tried. Something will work out.”
I raised the latch for the little black gate which was approximately three feet wide—the same width as the Christies’ walkway, and together we mounted the front porch.
Sam glanced around as I tapped lightly on the wooden door.
“Think she’s home?” Sam asked. I could tell she was a bit nervous.
I knocked again. This time, a bit harder, but not hard enough to attract the attention of anyone that might be nearby.
We got no answer.
“Maybe she went out somewhere,” Sam said.
“I doubt it since her car’s right there in the driveway,” I replied.
“Oh, yeah.”
Deciding to try the knob, I was surprised when the door opened.
“Are we going in there?” Sam asked, reluctantly.
“Follow me.”
We went inside and she eased the door shut behind us.
“Mrs. Christie…” I called out softly and waited for a few moments. Then Sam took a turn, but there was no response.
The living room was rather dark, supposedly due to the red stained cypress wood in the ceiling, which certainly added an air of elegance to the little house. I could see the wood all along the hallway.
“Mrs. Christie…” Sam called again as we cautiously made our way through the house, peeping inside of each room we came across.
It was when we checked the bedroom at the end of the hallway that we got the shock of our lives! Mrs. Christie was sprawled across the floor on her side. She was wearing a light pink and white nightgown and had large foam curlers in her hair.
“Mrs. Christie!” Sam knelt beside her.
I knelt down as well and slowly turned her onto her back. The instant I did that, we saw what appeared to be a knife wound in her chest and a trickle of blood running down the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were fixed wide open as if she’d seen a ghost.
“My God!” Sam exclaimed. “She’s dead!”
I checked her neck for a pulse, then nodded. “Looks dead to me.”
“We have to get out of here!” Sam cried.
Without reluctance, I wholeheartedly agreed. “Yeah. Let’s go!”
We got out of the house as quickly as we could and hurried off the property onto the opposite side of the road.
My heart was racing again—even more so than when I saw the UFO.
“Do you know what this means?” Sam whispered, frantically.
“What?”
“It means that somebody killed Mrs. Christie!”
“I know that, Sam. Slow down; you’re walking too fast. And try to get yourself together before you attract the wrong attention.”
I know it was easier said than done because I, for one, was scared as hell. I’d never seen a real dead body before, let alone touch one. Yet, despite that, I had to keep my cool so I wouldn’t be turned into a frigging weirdo like everyone else around us.
“Okay. Okay,” she said, trying to compose herself.
Sam was tough. I knew she could do it.
“Hey, wait! Aren’t we supposed to be going for the bikes?” she reminded me.
We were almost back to the distillery when she said it, but we had to turn back. Who can think straight anyway after seeing a dead body?
I decided it was best for us not to split up, considering the trauma we’d both just experienced. We went down the street to my house first, then planned to go around the corner to Sam’s.
My brother Carl was sitting quietly on the porch with his eyes fixated across the street. Sam and I sat down next to him.
“Buddy…” I looked at him.
“Hey, Carl,” she said.
He seemed indifferent.
“Are you okay?” Sam took his hand.
I wondered how he’d react to her doing that, but he was silent.
Sam looked at me and shook her head. I guess we were both hoping things would be different that day.
“Where are Mom and Dad?” I asked him, not really expecting an answer.
I got up and went inside while Sam stayed with Carl.
“Mom! Dad!” I quietly called out to them.
By that time, Mom would’ve been in the kitchen making breakfast and Dad would’ve been outside mowing the lawn. That was their usual routine on Sunday mornings. Carl would’ve been outside playing with Dillinger and I would’ve still been asleep after getting to bed around two in the morning.
I found my folks still in bed and to make sure they were alive, I stood close by and watched to see if their chests were moving. To my relief, they were just asleep.
I desperately wanted to shake them awake, but when I thought of Carl still being under that weird spell, I knew it was no different for them. My eyes landed on the telephone on their nightstand and I quickly went over and picked up the handset. I was hopeful when I heard the dial tone, but after pressing a few digits, I realized I couldn’t get out. This whole thing was getting stranger by the second.
After leaving their bedroom, my mind drifted on Dillinger again.
Where is he? I wondered.
I headed out back for my bike, figuring he must be out there, and was surprised when I didn’t see him. I searched the whole house and there was no sign of him. His absence, however, didn’t seem to affect my family’s odd behavior.
“We need to go,” I told Sam, and she got up right away.
I leaned my bike against the side of the steps and went over to Carl. “If you can hear me from deep down in there,” I whispered to him, “I want you to know that I’m coming back to help you, Mom and Dad snap out of this. You have my word. I love you, bro.”
“See you, Carl,” Sam said.
Carl seemed unmoved as he kept his gaze directly across the street, but I believed deep down he heard me and that’s what motivated me.
8
_________________
Rob was waiting in the gas station yard when Sam and I pulled up on our bikes. Sam’s folks were not at home when we arrived there, so we got in and out.
“What took you guys so long?” Rob grumbled.
“We have to talk,” I said, “but not here.”
“Where then?” he asked.
There was an alleyway adjacent to the gas station, so I felt we could get some privacy there at least for a few minutes. The operations at the gas station went on as usual, except that everybody behaved like zombies with a purpose. They knew what they wanted and got it with little verbal interaction. It made me feel for a minute there like we were in the Twilight Zone—the same place Jase thought his dad had gone for those cigarettes.
We rode over to the alley and finding the coast was clear, got off our bikes.
“Mrs. Christie’s dead!” Sam beat me to the punch. “Someone murdered her!”
“What?” Rob glanced at both of us, utter disbelief shrouding his face.
“It’s true,” I said. “We found her on her bedroom floor.” Then something hit me. “I saw a shadow of a person in her yard last night, but I couldn’t make out who it was.”
“Well, whoever it was must be the killer,” Sam deduced.
“I imagine so.”
“We have to alert the authorities,” she said.
I shook my head. “If the cops are just like everyone else around here, we might be wasting our time.”
“We can’t just leave her dead body rotting inside that house!” Sam rebutted. “They have to get it out of there and an investigation into her murder must be launched.”
“I’m for whatever you guys wanna do,” Rob pledged his support.
“The nearest police station is on Meadows. We’d better head there and see what happens,” I said.
Tr
affic back and forth on various streets of Eppington was within its normal range, from what I could tell. I couldn’t help feeling that this thing concerning Mrs. Christie was going to throw us off our mission a bit, but I agreed with Sam that it would be inhumane to knowingly leave her body in the house without breathing a word to anyone.
Sam rode up front; Rob was behind her and I trailed at the back. We were riding at a decent speed and saw a couple of others out riding their bikes as well. After we entered the subdivision adjacent to ours called Kensington, which we needed to pass through on our way to Meadows, we noticed the strangest things. Dogs were up and about the neighborhood, dressed in clothing humans would normally wear. A Border Collie and what I presumed was his pup were outside on the lawn of one of the residences playing catch and he was applauding the pup for every time he caught the ball. Another dog, a Scottish Deerhound was dressed in a red blouse, and white shirt and got behind the steering wheel of a blue sedan. A canine couple were on a front porch sitting at a small outdoor table sipping a drink; and a scruffy looking one near the end of the corner was downing wine straight out of the bottle. Rob almost lost control of his bike and swerved a little. I was praying it wouldn’t be the end of us because dogs were everywhere in that neighborhood. What’s also alarming is that we saw absolutely no people and I wondered if they were all inside the houses or off to work while their animals took over their properties.
When we turned right onto a quieter street, I picked up a bit of speed and asked the guys if they were okay.
“Yeah,” Rob replied, catching his breath. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at what I saw back there though.”
“I thought I was gonna have the runnins like you did last night, Hewey!” Sam exclaimed.
“At least we know now it’s not just our neighborhood that’s affected,” I said. They both nodded. “Anyway, let’s keep our cool, no matter what. We have to make it to the station.”
The Hewey Spader Mystery Series (The Complete Trilogy * Books 1 -3 ) Page 4