Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers (12 page)

“Michelle, such a dirty little mouth! I’m starting to believe all of those high school football team rumors about you.”

Michelle gave Nikki the finger in a silent reply.

“Maybe, but I am going to need about twenty cups of coffee with Bailey’s for that.” Nikki sneered sarcastically.

“Ah, yes, now I recall it was Lola who was the nice one.” Michelle stated.

“Oh it’s just playful banter.” Nikki squeezed her face in an embellished smile directed at Michelle. Michelle eyed Nikki carefully before brightly returning her attention to the rest of the group in a complete change of expression that was flawless.

“Looks like you’re only missing Natalie. I’m sorry about Lola. Absolutely sick what happened to that girl. She didn’t deserve that.” Michelle said and everyone nodded in reflective agreement.

“So what does sheriff think?” Regina abandoned all subtlety in her quest for information. Michelle took a long and calculated look over both of her shoulders. In a flash of expression, Regina thought she recognized what could only be described as genuine terror in Michelle’s eyes. After deciding that no one outside of the chosen group inside the booth was listening, Michelle leaned into the table so that she could whisper. The booth of enthused listeners leaned forward; all sets of eyes were close and upon Michelle as if she was telling the most intriguing ghost story in a tent at a childhood camp-out.

“I am only telling you guys this because you were her friends,” Michelle informed them. Regina listened intently. There was an isolated silence at the table, with the noise of the diner far away, smothered under the pounding of their hearts.

“Well, as you know …” Michelle turned her head to one side in a downward tilt, her gossiping position. “Her body was found buried on the outskirts of the DeFrank estate. From the initial review of the remains it appears that she was stabbed, among other things.”

“Stabbed?” Both Regina and Nikki interrupted at the same time with the same inquiry.

“Yeah, stabbed …” Michelle answered, frustrated at the interruption.

Barron raised an eyebrow. “How can they tell that she was stabbed after all of this time? Wouldn’t she just be bones?”

Michelle became more peeved at their lack of forensic knowledge.

“There were cuts on her bones. It is possible that some of the cuts were caused during the dismemberment, but it’s possible that she was stabbed before she was mutilated. Whoever did this was pissed. Whoever did this hated Lola. Some of the stabs that pierced her body hit bones and the marks are still there. Blunt force trauma to the head, and then placed into two black garbage bags. Someone really did a number on her. Because of all the trauma to her body I even heard some talk of a ritual killing, but that’s just a theory.”

“How did the Madsen boys find her?” Regina had already heard one version of the story, but wanted to know everything that Michelle knew.

Michelle took a deep breath and peered over both of her shoulders once again before revealing more secrets.

“Jonathan Madsen and his two brothers were out there playing around. If you remember, the Madsen farm borders the DeFrank land. While they were playing they crossed over onto Glen DeFrank’s land as they have many times before, I’m sure. Jonathan Madsen spotted the top of the plastic bag sticking up out of the ground. They thought that they found a buried treasure so they went back to their house, got a shovel and dug up the bag. You can imagine their surprise when they opened that bag expecting to find rubies and gold or whatever it is that ten-year-old boys expect to find in treasure, maybe a library of dirty magazines or something, but you get what I am saying. They found bones and shoddy scraps of her clothing. They told Old Man Madsen and he called my uncle.” She finished as she observed the scowls of awe and disgust that were creased into the faces of every member of her audience, which gave the storyteller in Michelle a sick delight.

Several seconds, which registered as minutes on the consciences of every member of this country diner horror group, passed before anyone could say a word.

“What about suspects?” Nikki asked.

Michelle shrugged quickly as if that were a silly question to ask. “Well, right now they are thinking Glen DeFrank, unless it is some great coincidence that she was buried there.”

“It doesn’t have to be a great coincidence. With all of that land that they had anyone could have buried her there.” Carter reasoned.

“Sure, but you know that before he died he had become very strange. If you ask me, that’s one heck of a coincidence.” They all looked to Carter for his rebuttal and, though it was hardly a slam dunk case, he had to relent that it did seem strange. He tangled his mouth in an arch of begrudging defeat.

“Michelle! Unless you’re interviewing the queen over there can I get you to deliver some of these sausages?” Michelle’s younger brother yelled out of the food window from the kitchen.

“Sausages; her specialty.” Nikki cracked unable to bear the intensity of the situation any longer.

“Hold your horses!” Michelle yelled to him. “Christ!” she bellowed, turning back to the table. “Lemme get orders.” In a rush, Michelle took the orders of the table, three coffees and one with a shot of Bailey’s.

Nikki wasn’t kidding
, Regina thought to herself as she listened to Nikki’s order.

“Got it!” Michelle left the bunch and hurried into the kitchen. Regina could not wait for her to get back with her coffee; the details of her friend’s murder had filled her from the inside out with ice. Everyone at the table studied everyone else, wondering how to feel, what to say, but nothing would change what was and what had been. Longingly, Regina gazed out the window and watched the families stroll up and down Main Street. Everyone else was happy and Regina spotted the twinkles of carefree joy that glinted in the eyes of the children, heightened by the coming of one of the town’s most favored holidays.

Barron invaded Regina’s thoughts, “So do you guys think Glen did it?” he asked in what was almost a whisper.

“Yes,” Nikki answered without hesitation, barely allowing Barron to finish his question, then sitting back and folding her arms against her chest in a satisfied manner.

Michelle appeared with four cups of coffee.

“This one is yours.” She placed one of the coffee cups in front of Nikki. Also, on her tray was an enormous slice of chocolate cake with four forks.

Barron wasted no time, snatching up a fork, gormandizing the layers of chocolate.

“The cake is on me.” Michelle winked. “Thank you” Regina said before taking a long sip of the coffee. It ran down her chest warming her whole body and she reluctantly returned to the conversation and the reality that she now wanted only to escape.

Barron shoved another gluttonous forkful of milk chocolate into his mouth and Regina rolled her eyes playfully at the fact that Barron had always been able to eat whatever he wanted without any regard to his weight. In high school he worked out, he was not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but he never encountered problems with weight after devouring an entire pizza, candy bars, or an entire piece of chocolate cake and Regina was jealous to no end that he had apparently been able to preserve this gift into adulthood.

Theatre was Barron’s trade and he was skilled at his craft. The dynamics of popularity had begun to change when they were in high school, where at one time it was the all American football player that was the star of the campus, it was now the talented actors and singers that claimed the high school notoriety and Barron harvested the fruits of that shift in social status. Just as Barron had always dreamed, he moved to LA right after high school and was still working on blazing a trail to stardom.

“I don’t know,” Regina said finally taking her eyes off of Barron. Regina leaned forward, resting her arm on the table and placing the side of her head against her palm.

“There are just so many possibilities.” She explained her hesitation to jump on the bandwagon of believers. Desperately, she longed for someone to fill the empty space with words, but when no one did, she had no excuse not to divulge the things that weighed heavily upon her.

“I dreamt about her last night.” Regina blurted out nervously before she had time to decide whether it was something that she should have disclosed. Her three friends eyed her strangely.

“I’ve dreamt of her before, but this was different. Frightening. It’s like she wants me to know something,” Regina guessed, trying not to sound too freaky.

They watched each other nervously.

“I know it sounds crazy,” Regina stated as if getting to the punch before anyone else would somehow take the sting off.

“What happened? Did she say anything to you?” Carter asked.

“She said my name, that’s all, but it was not like a regular dream. It wasn’t some smoky montage of scenes. It was as if she was there; I experienced her with all of my senses. I could see her, hear her, touch her…I could even smell her.” Her voice had degraded into a tortured whisper.

Barron’s eyes went wide with excitement at the grotesque detail. “What did she smell like?” he asked.

Regina moved her eyes to focus on Barron in a dull and scolding manner. Two words.

“Not funny.” Regina told him.

She noticed Nikki fingering the gold crucifix, a confirmation gift from her mother that hung around her small neck.

“Sounds bad, but it was just a dream, Regina. You’re in Black Water now, where the two of you spent so much time together and you are dealing with trauma, so it is not surprising that you are dreaming about her.” Barron said finally taking Regina seriously.

“Yeah,” Nikki spoke one word of agreement before excusing herself to the bathroom.

Barron looked at Regina unable to hold back the question anymore.

“… And just what drug is she off to the bathroom to do?” he asked.

“Not drugs. Just the drinks, I believe.” Regina sighed as she corrected the man. Barron looked into Nikki’s coffee cup, shaking his head after seeing that it was empty. “She probably has mini
bottles in her bag or something.” Regina gave him the most honest answer that she could.

“I should have gone with her, I need a drink too. All this talk about ghosts and murder is not good for my mental health,” Carter injected himself into the conversation.

“I really don’t know. She still seems pretty functional and she doesn’t look
that
bad, so maybe it is not too hardcore, you know?” Though she couldn’t explain why, she needed to rationalize her friend’s bad habit.

Barron shook his head disapprovingly again.

Ten minutes later Nikki returned to the table appearing more relaxed.

“You OK?” Regina asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nikki responded quickly, the next-best thing to brushing off the question altogether.

“Is Natalie coming back?” Regina asked, changing the subject.

“Natalie?” Nikki spoke as if Regina had asked a ridiculous question.

“She’s been back for months now.” Nikki told them as she picked up a fork and dug into the miniature mound of cake that Barron left on the plate.

“What? I thought that she was a teacher or something in Cedar?” Regina questioned.

“She was, but you guys remember how Mrs. Weston started getting ill years ago?”

Everyone nodded with a flare of indifference.

“Mrs. Weston had been suffering all of these years and last year she became bed–ridden.

At first Natalie hired a nurse for her because she didn’t want to come back, but I guess it just got to the point where she couldn’t afford it full time anymore and she had to come back and help.” Nikki finished her story and the rest of the cake in the same breath.

“Did they ever figure out what was wrong with her mother?” Carter asked.

“Not for a long time, but they are now saying that she has some rare form of cancer or something. I don’t know. They don’t think that she will make it much longer,” Nikki added.

“Any more good news?” Regina asked dryly.

“Wow, things just keep getting better and better in Black Water. Everything on the outside seems perfect, but it’s when you get into the cracks of the foundation that you see that everything is coming apart at the seams.” Barron added.

“Are they having any visitors?” Regina asked. “Let’s go see Natalie and find out if she needs anything,” Regina said to Nikki.

Nikki scoffed sarcastically. “Regina, if you want, I’ll go with you, but she doesn’t want to see us. She wants nothing to do with us.”

“She wants nothing to do with
us
?” Regina’s disbelief was apparent in her tone. “Why?”

Nikki sighed and began the second part of her story. “When she first came back to Black Water, I was ecstatic. I went to see her, but she was as cold as ice. I hugged her and it was like hugging a freakin’ mannequin, she had absolutely nothing to say to me. I don’t know why she’s so mad at us or maybe it was just me. It’s like we all just fell apart.” Nikki reflected mournfully on the childhood bond that she thought could never be broken.

“Ouch” Barron interjected. Regina shot him a dirty look.

“Well, we need to get going. We told our mother we wouldn’t be long, if we don’t hurry up and finish her entertainment center we’ll never hear the end of it.” Barron and Carter began gathering themselves to leave after dropping a crumpled ball of money on the table.

“Thanks. I guess we should go too.” Regina agreed.

“You guys off to see the ice queen?” Barron asked, causing Regina to give him a playful but hard punch in the shoulder. Regina looked to Nikki to get the answer to Barron’s question.

“I guess it can’t hurt to try.” Nikki reasoned reluctantly.

As they walked outside, Regina huffed at the sight of the bikes and massaged her temples. She had forgotten that they had been traveling by this childhood mode of transportation and she
noticed for the first time that her vagina was on fire from being perched on a hard seat for so long, just as Nikki had predicted.

Barron called to her as the girls were straddling their bikes.

“You wanna do something tomorrow?” he asked.

“Like what? Cow-tipping?” Regina joked.