The Murder Next Door

by Ivy Thorne

  Basil blinked rapidly before unlatching the chain lock. He squinted at her through his oversized glasses. Marla could see age had not been kind to him. The man had been in his sixties when she’d first moved in, meaning he was now in his seventies. Hunched over, Basil shuffled out from his apartment to get a better look at her.

  “Of course,” he said. “You were just a kid then. Now, look at you.”

  “That’s right. I lived on the third floor next to −- “

  “Jessica Morris. Yes, I know.” Basil looked uneasy. “I’ve been too scared to rent out that room since that poor man was killed there. I don’t want anyone to disturb his spirit. I really should call a psychic to free his soul from that room.”

  “His soul?”

  “Oh, yes. I know that Jared lad is trapped in there. That’s what happens to people when they die under gruesome circumstances; their souls are bound to the Earth. Anytime I’ve had to go up there I’ve heard banging coming from that room,” Basil explained.

  “I see,” Marla said. Despite the heat, goosebumps prickled on her skin. This man was giving her the creeps. “I’ve come here to ask if you know where Jessica has moved to since living at this place. I have something of hers that I need to return.”

  Basil gave her a perplexed look. “What would you need to return to her after all these years?”

  “It’s kind of an odd story,” Marla began. The sweat on her palms thickened. She was about to see just how good of an actor she was.

  Intrigued, Basic encouraged her to proceed.

  “When I was living as Jessica’s neighbor, she gifted me a lucky rabbit foot talisman. She’d said it would help me get my life together. Days later, her boyfriend was murdered.”

  Basil’s beady eyes suddenly became wide. He was agape. Marla gave herself a mental pat on the back before continuing. So far Basil was believing her.

  “At the time, I hadn’t made the connection, but recently another man was murdered in the same way as Jared was. I think it’s a sign that I need to return the rabbit foot to Jessica.”

  Basil gasped. “Oh my! That is devastating.”

  “Indeed. If you know anything about Jessica’s whereabouts you must tell me. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you as a result of bad luck,” Marla said.

  The aghast look on Basil’s face was almost laughable. Bad luck was his biggest fear.

  “Yes, of course! I’ll tell you everything I know,” he declared. His face was pink and sweating. “N-now let me think here…”

  Basil took a moment to collect his thoughts before answering.

  “It was a long time ago, so my memory isn’t clear, but I’m almost certain she told me she was going to live with her parents for a while and perhaps rent from her brother later on.”

  “Did she tell you what his name was?” Marla probed.

  Basil removed his glasses and took a handkerchief from his pocket. He dabbed at the perspiration that was trickling into his eyes, his arthritic fingers trembling as he did so. Marla felt a twinge of guilt for putting the man in an anxious state.

  “Yes, yes she did. Let me just think… oh, what was it…” he mumbled to himself for a few moments before exclaiming, “Josh! It was Josh Morris!” A look of relief spread across his face. “That’s all I know, I’m afraid.”

  Marla thanked Basil for his time.

  “Be careful with that talisman!” Basil cried as she was leaving. “You might just have yourself a curse in disguise! If that’s the case, you’ll need to burn it to smithereens whilst dousing yourself in lamb’s blood.”

  “Erm… okay.”

  Marla quickened her pace until she was out of the building and in her car.

  “How the hell did I ever call that place home?” she muttered.

  Marla only ever interacted with Basil on a few occasions while she’d rented from him, and she couldn’t recall them being near as disturbing as this one had been.

  She drove her car around a bend in the road just to be away from the building. After parking in the lot of a sub shop, she used the data on her phone to search for a digital copy of the town’s address book. All she had to do to find where Josh Morris lived was to search for his name to see if there was an address associated with it.

  There was no guarantee the addresses that showed up would be his, as plenty of people were named Josh Morris. Marla also had no way of knowing whether Jessica did live with her brother, as she’d only been told that by Basil, who hadn’t exactly seemed to be in his right mind.

  Marla found several addresses listed under the name, though only one of them was located in Wallsberg. The street name was a highway, meaning it was one of the properties on the outskirts of the town leading into the city. Before Wallsberg ended and the metropolis started, there was a stretch of countryside. Farms, fields, and forests stood between the small town and the large city. It was the kind of driving environment conducive to rumination. When passing through this area, Marla had to be careful not to get too lost in thought. There had been times in the past when she’d been distracted and had neglected to make her turn.

  Filled with ambiguity, Marla typed the address into her GPS. She had no idea if she’d find Jessica, but it was the only lead she had. Pursuing it was her only option, even if it turned out to be a waste of time. Besides, what did Marla have to lose?

  Despite having a small population, the town of Wallsberg was geographically big. Some of the land within the town was conservation land, meaning no one could develop it. There were campgrounds and cottages where tourists flocked to during the summer months.

  When Marla was a child, she’d often visited her grandfather at his cottage. The place had been like something out of a fantasy. It was an old stone building heated by an old-fashioned wood-burning furnace. The light switches weren’t switches but two buttons stacked vertically: the top was on and the bottom was off. Staying in the cottage had made her feel as though she’d been living in a different time.

  After her grandfather’s death, her mother had decided to sell the cottage due to its expensive upkeep. Because it was an old building, it had needed lots of repairs. This had saddened Marla greatly, as the serene atmosphere of the cottage had served as an escape from the city where she’d lived.

  It was the memories Marla had of her grandfather, the cottage, and the quaint town of Wallsberg that had convinced her to move there when she was only seventeen. The nature of this decision had been due to her parents not approving of her lifestyle. At the time, Marla had been bringing boys home, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and living a life with no direction. Her parents always had been strict, so it was only natural that she’d acquire a taste for rebellion. She’d wanted the freedom that came with living on her own.

  Due to Marla’s astonishing memory, she’d skipped ninth grade and gone straight to tenth. The jump had made it difficult for Marla to fit in. She’d been too young to be accepted amongst her peers. Not only that, but Marla also always had been fascinated with dark topics. These topics ranged from famous serial killers to occultists. She found that this morbid curiosity wasn’t one that many people entertained. For the most part, she’d sat alone at lunch, reading books about conspiracy theories and strange diseases, while everyone else compared test scores, complained about teachers, and talked about their celebrity crushes. Marla had craved acceptance, so she’d started doing things to make others like her.

  For a while, she dressed in tight-fitting goth-style clothing to show off her figure and attract boys. The romance never had felt real to Marla because she’d never really been her authentic self with the people she’d dated. The relationships came and went, leaving Marla just as unfulfilled as she if had been single.

  Next, she’d figured out that if she had something that other people desired, then she too would be desired. Teens always were looking for ways to score alcohol and cigarettes. So, Marla had started dating older guys to get her hands on these commodities. Once people had learned that Marla could get them the
substances they desired, she was well-liked.

  Marla always had had the sense that people only liked her for her ability to get them what they wanted. She’d known her personality hadn’t been a factor in her relationships. For this reason, she’d always considered herself a freak −- doomed to hide her true self from the world.

  All this had changed when Marla moved to Wallsberg and started working at an ice cream place that was only open during the summer months. It was there that she’d met a girl named Sydney.

  What initially had attracted Marla to Sydney had been her multi-colored hair and her plethora of tattoos. In a conservative town like Wallsberg, this sort of look was not common. People were bound to have adverse reactions to her appearance. But yet she’d continued to get tattoos and color her hair. She’d embraced being different. It was for this reason that the two of them had become good friends. Sydney had taught Marla to be herself, regardless of the consequences. It was far better to have people dislike her for the way she was than like her for someone she wasn’t.

  Sydney had been the one who’d consoled Marla after she’d been through the trauma of discovering Jared’s murdered body. After she’d been questioned by the police, she’d contacted Sydney in need of emotional support. Being five years older than Marla, Sydney had been of legal drinking age, while Marla wasn’t. Alcohol was never a good coping strategy, but back then Marla hadn’t quite learned this yet. Even to this day, she used alcohol to improve her mood, though much more sparingly.

  Unfortunately for Marla, Sydney had moved to the city later that year for a job. The two remained in touch, but the close relationship they’d once shared was no more. Sydney now had a two-year-old boy to look after and Marla had a career. They’d both grown up substantially in the last decade.

  There were times such as this one when Marla would reflect heavily on a period of her life when everything and everyone she knew was different. The struggles she’d experienced in the past were not the same struggles she had now. Some of them now seemed trivial to her when they’d once felt like impossible barriers. This was a sign to Marla that she’d lived and grown as a person. If she’d been able to overcome the problems of her past, she could overcome her present problems.

  “Dammit!” Marla yelled when she came to an intersection she knew was beyond the road she’d needed to turn down to get to Josh’s house.

  She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts, she hadn’t even heard the prompt from the GPS to make the turn.

  God, I’m such a space cadet! she thought.

  Chapter 15

  There was no mistaking Josh’s address for another. Apart from a farm up the road, his place was the only house visible as far as Marla could see. It was a quaint place, a white house with a black roof. A potted plant hung near the doorway. If this was where Jessica was living, Marla could understand her choice to move here.

  There were a couple of cars in the gravel driveway. One was a Jeep, while the other appeared to be a vintage-looking Escalade. Someone had to be home.

  Not wanting to bring too much attention to herself, Marla chose to park down the highway, off the road, on a patch of gravel. From where she was situated, she could see the property.

  If this is where Jessica lives, I can’t just march in there without knowing what I’m going to ask.

  Marla never had been the kind of person who’d been able to phrase things carefully. She tended to state things bluntly, which didn’t always go over well. The last thing she wanted to do was offend Jessica by sounding accusatory. Marla would be relying on Jessica’s compliance to share information.

  Why would she be open to discussing the murder of her boyfriend with someone she’d barely known? Marla needed to make sure her tone was soft, like Mr. Oswald’s. She would start by introducing herself and explaining her purpose for stopping by. Hopefully, Jessica would be understanding and willing to talk. If not, Marla would have to move on.

  The moment Marla stepped out of her car she could smell the manure in the air from the farm property. Knots formed in her stomach as she approached Josh’s house. She could hear the sound of chickens clucking. This led her to believe there was a coop located around the back of the house.

  The closer she got to the house, the more tempted she was to flee. A piece of her hoped Jessica didn’t live there, just so she wouldn’t have to attempt the conversation. It took every bit of Marla’s willpower for her to walk onto the patio and ring the doorbell.

  Marla waited. Her gut turned with unease. She heard the yapping of a dog from inside the house, followed by the sound of a disgruntled woman telling it to be quiet.

  Oh crap! Marla panicked. It’s her. It sounds like her.

  The door opened to reveal the tall, brown-haired woman who’d once lived next to Marla. Other than some weight gain, a few extra wrinkles, and the addition of a pair of glasses, Jessica appeared quite similar to how she had all those years ago.

  The shock of seeing her inches away − only separated by a screen door − made Marla speechless.

  “Can I help you?” Jessica asked, puzzled by Marla’s gaping silence.

  “Uh… yes,” Marla answered. She cleared her throat and straightened her posture to appear more composed. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I lived in the apartment next to you for a while. My name is Marla.”

  Jessica squinted through her glasses, studying Marla’s appearance. The moment the look of recognition came to her eyes, pain followed. She took a step back from the door.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, fear in her voice. “You were that girl who called the police when − ” Jessica stopped herself from completing the sentence. “How do you know where I live?”

  “The landlord, Basil, told me,” Marla explained. “I don’t mean to be a bother. I’ve just recently found myself in a difficult position and was hoping you’d be able to answer a few questions about what happened back then.”

  “Oh, God!” Jessica groaned. “The whole reason I moved out here was to escape this crap!”

  Marla apologized. From her experience, apologizing when a person appeared upset was a way to appear sympathetic.

  “The thing is, it’s happened again,” Marla stated. “A man named Reggie was murdered in the same way.”

  “What does that have to do with me?” Jessica questioned. “That’s the sort of thing the police deal with.”

  Marla nodded. “The police think this man was murdered by a copy-cat killer,” Marla explained. “They suspect me because I knew Reggie and am connected to the last case. I’m trying to prove my innocence.”

  Jessica huffed. Her body had tensed considerably since the mention of murder. Her reaction seemed an indicator that Jared’s death had been a huge source of trauma for her. Could this mean she hadn’t had anything to do with his murder?

  Jessica removed her glasses and pressed her fingers over her eyes. She stood like this for a moment before slipping on a pair of flip-flops and joining Marla on the patio. Gesturing for Marla to follow her, she took up a seat on a wicker chair.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked in a tired voice.

  Marla positioned herself on the other wicker chair. The woven basket-like seat made a delightful crunching noise as she pressed her weight on it.

  Just as she was about to ask her first question, a tall man appeared from around the side of the house. Marla assumed he was Josh. In his hand was a basket filled with eggs. He was whistling casually and adjusting his cap. He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed his sister sitting on the porch with someone he’d never seen before.

  “Who’s this?” he asked.

  “Marla,” Jessica called back. “She’s an acquaintance of sorts.”

  Josh narrowed his eyes at Marla suspiciously. He seemed to be a great deal older than Jessica. His skin was tanned; it was clear he spent a lot of his time under the sun. The darkness of his skin was a stark contrast to his pale blue eyes.