Meadowview Acres (14 page)

She also remembered something else. She remembered Eli and Hunter passing a shiny silver box back and forth to each other. She knew that they hadn’t had the box with them going into the woods because she had watched them. All they had with them was the backpack Hunter was wearing. Where had they gotten that box? What did they have in it?
Also super weird.

Then, just a few days later, Heather Andrews had an aneurysm. That’s what most people were saying had killed her. At about the same time, Hansen died from his throat swelling. They were saying he had an allergic reaction to something. Bug felt bad for the Andrews family, and she was still trying really hard to feel bad for Hansen.

All in all, the last week had been very curious, and if there was one thing Bug Hamilton needed the most – it was answers. It was almost like some puzzle that she needed to solve, and Bug knew that she was up to the challenge.
Knowledge is power.

She already had her first clue. Shasta had come to see her Monday, and they had talked about Mr. Jackson. Bug had asked Shasta for as much information as she knew about Mr. Jackson’s previous health problems. Was there any family history of stroke? Had he been feeling anything out of the ordinary? Shasta had tried to answer, but just didn’t have that kind of information. She did have some other information, though. She told Bug that Hunter had a theory that there was some type of chemical in the woods that the construction people had used to help kill vegetation and ward off animals. Bug slipped that bit of information into her iron-clad memory.

Next up was research. Bug searched online for any widely used chemicals that could be used in clearing vegetation that could trigger health problems. That was futile. Almost every chemical on the planet can trigger health problems. Next, she researched Gary Sam Construction and Oakwood Homes. There wasn’t anything in either company’s history that pointed to a similar occurrence. Then Bug hit a wall. She didn’t know where to go next.

That was, until Wednesday. Bug had been watching a documentary on the ecological ramifications of forest clearing when she first heard the commotion. Someone was yelling outside. She went to the front room and looked out the window to see who it was. The yelling was coming from further down the street, so she opened the front door and stepped out.

The scene was in front of Clara Stagg’s house. There was a Jeep parked on the street, and she could see a man getting out. Clara was there and her boyfriend, Hansen, was yelling at her. Bug was about to go back inside when she saw Hunter running across the street. She gasped as she witnessed Hansen first grab then yank Hunter’s backpack off of him. Bug, feeling a little ashamed for watching but unable to stop, sat down on the front step. Hunter was yelling at Hansen, and Hansen was unzipping the backpack. He reached inside and pulled out something.
What is that?
To Bug it looked like a piece of concrete. That’s when things went from bad to worse. Even from her house two houses up the street, Bug could see Hansen’s face getting red. Bug was suddenly afraid. Her instincts told her to go inside, and she listened.

Once inside the safety of her house, she decided to keep an eye on things. She peeked out of the side window that faced the opposite end of the street and had a clear view of Clara’s sidewalk. Clara and Hunter stood side by side. They were looking at the large, still form of Hansen sprawled out on the lawn. The man in the Jeep was on the phone. Bug saw Hunter turn away from Clara and throw up on the sidewalk. Then, he grabbed his backpack up off the ground, went over to where Hansen had dropped the rock, scooped it up and put it back in the pack. Once Hunter had zipped it up, he said something to Clara and then ran back across the street and down his driveway. Bug lost sight of him after that.
Super curious. What’s that piece of rock thing? Why’s it so important? Was that in his backpack on Friday going into the woods – or was it in that box?

That was about the time the first ambulance showed up, and Bug got worried. She was worried because it didn’t stop at Clara’s house. It went to the Andrews’ house. Bug called her dad. He had been home within minutes, followed by her mom an hour later. By then, the neighborhood was crowded with people talking in little groups. Family members of the Andrews’ started arriving at their house. Hansen had been taken away in the second ambulance, and Clara’s house was relatively quiet. The man in the Jeep was gone. Bug didn’t know what was going on with the Reynolds family since Hansen’s house was further down Meadowview Drive.

Bug’s parents had quizzed her endlessly about what she had witnessed. Then she had been allowed to go with them when Mark and Ann ventured out to join one of the groups of neighbors discussing the events. That had been disappointing to Bug. No one knew any more than she did.

Bug was lost in thought as she sat in her puffy chair at the funeral home. She had initially gone in to show her respects to both families. She saw Heather laid out in her casket. She was plastic looking, and Bug didn’t think that they did her hair the right way. When she had seen Heather before, her hair was always curled into a bunch of loose ringlets that fell down her back. Whoever styled her hair for the last time had made a bunch of jumbo curls that lay awkwardly around her shoulders. Bug thought Heather would be upset about that.

She hadn’t bothered to look at dead Hansen. She had had enough of him while he was alive. “Oops,” she thought, “don’t think ill of the dead.” She tried hard to think of something nice about Hansen. Finally she had it and went up to Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds and said, “Hansen was the biggest one on the football team. I’m sorry you lost your son.”
There! Super job!

She was still in her puffy chair and lost in thought when Clara came up to her and said, “Hey, Buggie. How are you?”

“Oh! Hi Clara,” Bug replied. “I’m fine. Sorry about your boyfriend.”

Bug noticed one of Clara’s eyebrows twitch up when she said, “Yep, poor Hansen. Hey, have you seen Hunter? I thought he’d be in Heather’s room with Eli, but I didn’t see him.”

“No,” Bug said. “He hasn’t come in yet. I’ve been sitting here for at least an hour and a half and he hasn’t passed by me yet. Why do you want to talk to him? Is it because he was there when Hansen died?”

Clara looked shocked at Bug’s question but recovered quickly. “Uh, no. I wanted to talk to him about something else. Well, I’ll see you later, Buggie.” She turned and started back down the hall to Hansen’s room.

As soon as Clara went into the room with the Reynolds family, Eli came out of the room where Heather was. He looked tired to Bug. He saw her looking at him and made his way to the foyer.

“How’re you doing with all this, Bug?” He asked.

“Oh, I’m doing fine. I’m sorry for you, though, Eli. I think Heather was the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. She never talked to me at all, but she was nice to look at.”

Eli grinned at that and replied, “You know, Bug, I think hearing that would have made her happy.”

“Do you have to stay here all day?” Bug asked.

“Yeah, I don’t want to leave my mom. Dad’s here, too, and that’s kinda awkward. He’s acting like he’s all broken up over it, but he hadn’t even talked to Heather in weeks. I wish he’d leave.” Eli sat down in the puffy chair next to Bug’s.

“Clara was just out here looking for Hunter. Is he coming?”

“Yeah, that’s why I came out. He just texted that he and his folks are on their way. I’m going to wait for them out here and give them the head’s up about Dad. Mr. Massey has been pretty mad at my dad since he left us, and I want to warn him.” He paused, then said, “Why does Clara want to see Hunter?”

“She didn’t say, but I think it’s because he was there with her when Hansen died. I don’t know for sure, though.”

“Huh,” said Eli.

“Can I ask you about something, Eli? Not about Heather or anything. About last Friday.”

“Sure, what is it?” Eli was happy to talk about anything other than Heather. He was fighting the guilty feeling that he had caused her death by having the box in their home. He had been struggling with that every moment since she died.

“What was in that silver box that you and Hunter had at the construction site?” Bug watched Eli’s reaction.

Eli’s head popped up with a look of shock and guilt on his face, and he stared right at Bug. “What do you mean? Why? Why do you want to know?” All of a sudden, Eli was on his feet and pacing the small foyer. “It was nothing. A toolbox. That’s what we keep our tools in.” He stopped pacing and looked at her.

Bug felt bad having caused him to get upset, especially today. She thought this could all wait a few days.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “I just thought it was something else. Oh, look! There’s Hunter.”

She had managed to divert his attention and calm him down at once. He still looked agitated, but she didn’t think he was angry anymore.

The Massey’s came in, and Eli hugged them all. He told them about his dad and let them know how his mom was doing. Mr. and Mrs. Massey went on into the room with Heather while Hunter stayed behind with Eli. They were a little farther down the hallway and Eli was talking in whispers. Bug saw Hunter’s eyes get big and he looked over at her. “Bingo”, she thought. “We have a super clue.”

Not long after, Hunter and Eli disappeared into Heather’s room. Bug was turning ideas over in her mind about what could be in the box when Shasta and Darren arrived at Peaceful Hearts. It was probably pretty tough on Darren since he was just there for his dad’s funeral Monday.

“There she is.” Shasta went directly to her little friend and gave her a big hug. “Waiting for your folks?”

“Yup,” replied Bug to Shasta. “Hey, Darren.” She looked at the big young man and smiled.

He returned the smile but didn’t say anything. Bug knew from Shasta that he was the strong, silent type. Bug was happy that they were together again. She had never seen Shasta so happy.

Shasta turned to Darren and said, “If you don’t mind going into the Reynolds’ room on your own, I’ll stay here with Bug. Then we can both go to see Eli.”

“That’s fine. I know there’s no love lost between you and Hansen. I need to say something to his parents, though. They’ve been helpful to Mom this week.” He gave her a quick kiss and left them.

Bug was happy to have Shasta to herself. Shasta was smart, too, and Bug thought that she might have some insight into the mystery.

Shasta sat in the puffy chair that Eli had vacated and looked at Bug. “I see those wheels turning,” she said. “What are you thinking about so hard?”

“I have a theory,” Bug started. “A theory about these deaths. I think they’re all connected.”

Shasta’s eyes narrowed as she said, “Bug, you have to be careful here. A lot of people are really upset right now. This might not be the best time to start on a conspiracy theory. We know for a fact what killed all three of them.”

“Do we?” Bug said. “I don’t. Take Mr. Jackson. He was a perfectly healthy man of fifty-one. I overheard my mom talking to Agnes Jackson when we took a cake over last Sunday. According to her, this was a surprise because he had no family history of stroke or any medical condition that could cause this. He wasn’t on medication for anything, either. There was no trauma, he was sitting in his bulldozer fine as could be, then WHAM! Out of nowhere! He’s dead. Also, the amount of blood at the scene was remarkable – it said that in the autopsy report.”

Bug looked over and could tell that she had gotten Shasta thinking. “Now look at Heather, a perfectly healthy girl of fifteen. According to my dad, she had an aneurysm. Once again, no family history or medical condition. She took no medications. There’s only a two to three percent chance of an adult female having an aneurysm, and she was too young to be in that category. There’s an even less chance than that in kids. She had none of the risk factors like hypertension or diabetes, and she didn’t have any symptoms. It happened fast, just like Mr. Jackson.”

Bug stopped again to let Shasta absorb the information, then continued, “Then there’s Hansen. He had an allergic reaction to something? What? He wasn’t eating or drinking anything. I saw him. I saw him reach into Hunter’s backpack and pull out a rock type thing. Can people be allergic to rocks? According to my research, it’s extremely rare. I know there’s more to this, Shasta. I’m going to find out what it is. And there’s one more thing. A big thing.”

Shasta listened to Bug and was curious in spite of herself. Bug had a way of making things sound so plausible. She made a lot of sense. “What big thing?” she asked.

“Eli and Hunter went into the woods that night with only a backpack on Hunter’s back. When I caught up to them in the clearing, they had a silver metal box with them. It had a bunch of chains around it with locks. I just asked Eli about it right before you got here, and he was super jumpy. Whatever is in that box has something to do with all of this.” Bug, feeling somewhat lighter now that someone else was burdened with this load, sat back in the puffy chair.

“Okay, Bug, you’ve sold me. But what do we do from here?” Shasta was reluctant to get involved with this, but the journalist inside of her was intrigued.

“Well, I think the first thing we need to do is more research. I think we should go to the newspaper offices and look through the archives.”

“And what exactly are we looking for?” Shasta asked.

“Any unexplained deaths that have occurred within the same type of time frame. You know? Super close together for no apparent reason. Sometimes, things like that get overlooked. We’ll start with the most newsworthy ones and go from there. Are you in?” Bug smiled at Shasta. She was eager to get started.

Shasta thought for a moment and decided it was worth looking into. Then she smiled back at Bug and said, “I’m in”.

CHAPTER 18

Clara

C
lara hadn’t had to use her popular girl smile in days. It was so nice to just be Clara again – Clara without Hansen. She really felt badly about how that day had gone down with Hansen, though. She’d had no idea what would ultimately transpire once she had broken up with him. She remembered saying the words, “We’re over,” and watching his expression change from one of surprise to hatred. That’s when she had gotten scared.