Darkness Falls (Darkness Series Book 3) (23 page)

I twisted on the blond wig and checked myself in the mirror. Besides the fact that I looked rather like one of the members of One Direction, it looked fairly good. I answered the door on the second knock.

“Hi, welcome to my home. My name is Seth Connors.” I grinned and let the couple in. “Please look around. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

“Thank you.” The guy extended his hand for a shake, while the woman’s eyes were already scanning the room.

I headed into Mitch’s office and faxed off Emily’s ‘signed’ papers to her mother, along with a letter apologizing for
my
rudeness and saying
I
agreed the house should go.

The buyers seemed more than pleased with the deal we had made for the house. I told them I would be in touch with Dr. McPhee, and that everything should be completed shortly.

After they left, I helped myself to a beer and floated around the house. I felt like I was on top of the world right now. Just for a
touché,
I tucked a pair of Travis’ boxers in with Seth’s laundry. Oh, how I loved to fuck with my puppets. I sank into the couch and turned on the TV to some stupid sitcom. I looked around and felt like under different circumstances I could have been good friends with Seth and Emily. Maybe in my next life. I closed my eyes and smelled the house, or rather smelled my success.

“So that’s him?” I asked as Jims got back into the car after he had scoped out the coffee shop.

“Yup, and that’s his perfect little family.” He pulled out a pack of smokes and started puffing away. It made my nostrils sting. “Three kids and a perfect little wife.” He shook the pack at me.

“No.” I made a face. “I wasn’t aware that you smoked either.” I rolled my window down. I just needed some fresh air.

Jims jumped when a text came through on his phone. “Holy shit.” He looked over at me, and his eyes were lit up. “I got her address.”

I snatched the phone and scanned over the text. “Ahh.” I was lost for words. We’d waited for this moment for a long time. “Should we?”

“Fuck yeah, let’s do this!”

I slammed the car into drive and left the Connors family to continue their Sunday brunch.

We pulled up to the ‘Norman Bates’ looking motel in the heart of Englewood, and I could already smell the filth from where I was. Sirens and screams filled the air with the promise that this wasn’t going to be a positive outcome.

“What’s the number?” I asked as I scanned the numbers on the doors.

“Twenty-nine B.” Jims dropped his cig on the ground, but didn’t bother to snuff it out. I couldn’t deal with it, so I stepped on it myself, only to have him snicker at me.

“Up there.” I pointed and rushed up the stairs and down the long, stained balcony. Pulling my gun, I knocked on the door. Jims shook at my side, his fingers rubbing his nose. I knew he could feel that this place was ripe with cocaine; his addiction was getting worse.

I knocked again, but no answer. Taking a step back, I kicked in the door and rested my flashlight on top of my gun and stepped into the dark room that reeked of stale smoke.

It took only a moment for my eyes to adjust. I scanned the room and heard a small sound from the far back corner. I had to breathe through my mouth because the mix of blood, semen, and rotten food made my stomach turn. The beam from my flashlight fell on a mound, and I squinted to take in her tiny, badly beaten body lying on an old, soiled mattress. I almost gagged. I turned back to Jims, who was kicking a box out of his way.

“Jims,” I whispered before I turned back and dropped to my knees next to her. “Look, it must be her.”

“Shit,” he hissed and rushed to my side.

I held up a hand to show her I meant no harm. She hardly moved, but I saw her eyes open and look vaguely at me through strings of oily hair.

“Three hundred for the night,” she offered in a sloppy voice, “but I don’t do orgies, so your buddy will have to wait.”

A sound outside woke me, and I grabbed my gun and looked around. “Jesus!” I cursed when I realized what I had done. Jumping to my feet, I listened carefully to see if I was alone. I ran to the top of the stairs. I pulled down the attic stairs, and just as I pulled them back up, I heard the front door open. That was way too close.

***

Seth

The next morning, we were awake early, so we decided to head home even before breakfast. I knew Gretchen would be upset with us, but we both had the day off, and I needed to get a handle on what my next move was going to be.

“Coffee?” Emily asked as she removed her shoes.

“Sure.” I headed upstairs, wanting a shower. “Just give me—” I stopped when I saw the attic string with the little red ball on the end swinging back and forth. I froze momentarily, listening, and then stepped into our room. I hesitated to tell Emily to leave the house. She didn’t need any more fear right now. I quietly removed my spare gun from its hiding place, as my work Glock was in a locked box in my car. My thumb cocked it, but something sounded funny. The chamber was empty.
What the hell?
I twisted at a creak behind me, and I raised my gun and scanned around. Nothing.

Every hair on my body stood at attention. I checked each room carefully, avoiding all the squeaky parts of the wooden floor. I moved into the last spare room. Everything looked to be in order other than the wide open window. I knew better than to turn my back to the room to check outside, so instead I backed out and waited to see if anyone emerged from the closet. Nothing, no one was there, but I would bet my life that someone had been. I stopped outside the room and stared at the little red ball. With a hard tug, I pulled the stairs down and slowly climbed the old boards to the top.

I turned my flashlight on from my phone and scanned the attic. It was empty. With a sigh I headed back down, but something still didn’t feel right.

“Em?” I called out and heard her moving about in the living room.

“Yes?”

“Come to the bottom of the stairs.” I tried to keep my voice neutral when she came into view. “Can you set the alarm for me?”

“Sure.” She set it, then looked back at me. “Why?”

“Just makes me feel better with all that’s going on.” She looked at me, but didn’t argue, and went back to the kitchen.

Later, I found Emily in her father’s office with a textbook in hand. I knew she had a lot of work to catch up on, so I kept busy with my own errands.

The day went by quickly, and I got a lot done outside. I wished I could say I felt better, but I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling someone had been in the house. After an hour more, Emily brought me out a beer and told me she was close to being finished, then she’d start dinner.

Resting the shovel at my side, I sat and enjoyed my drink. I tuned into all that was around me. An odd noise caught my attention, and I scanned the perimeter while I reached for my gun and checked the forest line. Something moved in the bushes, and I focused in that direction. Whatever it was stopped, but the branches still moved slightly and it gave away its location. I checked everywhere but found nothing. It only proved my theory; something or someone was out there.

Every piece of my training came roaring back to me as I studied the shape in the woods. It had to be human. The black figure was much too large to be an animal.

“I know you’re out there,” I whispered. “I can smell you, feel you, hear your breath shooting out past your teeth as you narrow your sights on me. I might be your target, but right now you’re prey and I’m the
fucking
predator.”

The black figure sank backward into the darkness. I almost wondered if he wanted me to know he was there.

I locked the door behind me and reset the alarm. Making my way into the laundry room, I started a load, separating Emily’s things from mine. I stopped when I come across a pair of male underwear…and they were
not
mine.

“Em?” I called. “Em?” I called again. I hoped to hell these were Pete’s. She didn’t come to the laundry room, so I poked my head out and found her on the phone. She glanced at me, and I could see she was crying. I mouthed ‘what’s wrong?’ The look on her face told me I was in some kind of trouble. I waited for her to hang up before I asked again.

“So is that why you were late last night?” she whispered.

“What are you talking about?”

She tilted her head back to stop her watery eyes. “You don’t like living here, do you?”

I shrugged and wondered where this was coming from. “There are things I don’t like, one being we are surrounded by three quarters woods, and given our history, it doesn’t make me feel overly easy, but I—”

“Fine!” she suddenly snapped. “But how could you, Seth? This is my home. You had no right!” She came at me as sobs ripped from her throat, and her fists pounded my chest. “My only memories of my father are in the house!” I grabbed her hands and hauled them above her head so she couldn’t move. “How could you do such a thing?” she repeated. I turned her around and wrapped my arms around her middle.

“Instead of yelling and hitting me,” I hissed in her ear, “tell me what the hell I did.”

She bucked under me but didn’t break my hold. “You signed my house over to my mother, and now the paperwork is going through! She’s selling my house!”

“What?” I let go, completely stunned by her news. “You think I’d do that to you?”

“The buyer said she met you, she described you to me, you were here. What else is there to say?”

“Look,” I held her shoulders so she’d look at me, “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’d never do that to you. You should know that. You are just reacting with emotion, so stop with this shit and think.”

She wiggled out of my hold and rubbed her stomach. “I really don’t know what to think anymore, Seth.”

I tossed the random pair of underwear at her feet. “Yeah, I guess I could say the same.”

She glanced down and back up at me. “Whose are those?”

Shaking my head, I went back into the laundry room. “Seeing that we’re not trusting one another anymore, I’d say you have some explaining to do too.”

“You think I slept with someone?” she huffed back at me. “Or maybe I just kissed them and ‘pushed them away’?”

My blood boiled as I turned around to see her bloodshot eyes. “You know what, Em, I think we should just cool off a bit before one of us says something we’ll regret.”

“I’m going to Pete’s,” she tossed back.

My hands flexed at my sides. “Or you could stay and not run to Pete’s whenever the going gets rough.”

“We’re way past rough, Seth.” She picked up her keys. “I think we really need to decide if all of this is worth it.”

“Stay,” I whispered. “Let’s figure out what’s going on.” I showed her a raw moment inside my heart. I needed her to see how much I
didn’t
want to do this.

She shook her head, and I could see she needed more time. “I’m just going to go to the store. I’ll grab us something for dinner.”

With that, she left. I knew better than to force her to stay. She’d come back, and maybe she’d have calmed down a bit so we could get to the bottom of whatever she was talking about regarding her mother and the house.

The attic door was directly above me, and I yanked on the string and pulled down the stairs. Now that I was alone, I wanted a better look.

Slowly, with my gun drawn, I headed up into the dimly-lit attic. Once at the top of the stairs, I found the light switch, which revealed trunks, buckets of old vinyl records, a box marked ‘wedding dress,’ and other boxes that were labeled ‘baby clothes’ with various ages indicated neatly on each one. I pulled out my phone to use as a flashlight again and panned it around the further corners of the room. It wasn’t until I moved a few boxes that I found a sleeping bag tucked into a corner. Squatting down, I examined the bag. Nearby, I found a crumpled wrapper for a Mars candy bar. I turned off the light and sat down where I thought someone would sit and listened, trying to get a sense of the person. It was eerie to think someone could be here and watching and listening to everything that went on in our private life. Or maybe this was nothing? Maybe this was Emily’s. Perhaps she came up here to get away from her mother when she visited. My sense, however, was that this would explain everything I had been feeling lately.

The doorbell rang, startling me. I reached for my gun and headed back downstairs, but not before I noticed the attic window was wedged open. What really had my skin uncomfortable was the markings in the dust. Someone has recently been up here, and my guess would be it wasn’t Emily.

“Oh, hey, Riley.” I tried to shake my paranoia as I looked him over carefully. I stepped back to let him come inside. “How are you?”

“Umm, not so great, actually.” His posture agreed with him. “I really need to talk to you about something. I planned to come by last night, but then this happened.” He handed me a piece of paper. “I found this the other day, thought you might want to know.” I scanned the page and felt like I just got punched in the stomach. At the bottom of the document was my name, signed in handwriting that wasn’t mine. But it was familiar.