They sat there watching cartoons together until Cate called them into the kitchen for dinner. By that time, Blair’s stomach could almost be heard over the television. They eagerly raced to the dining table and tucked into their meal, promising themselves they wouldn’t forget to eat ever again.
Too engrossed in their meals to make conversation, Cate broke the silence first.
“I found out what James’ key opens.”
Charlie looked up, surprised. “What is it?”
“It’s a bank key - it opens a safety deposit box. I’ve made an appointment to go down to the bank tomorrow and see what James has hidden away.”
“How did you work it out?”
“I was talking about it to one of my girlfriends at the party. She wanted to look at it, to see if she recognised it. Straight away she said that it was a safety deposit box key. Her parents have one at the same bank, they use it to store all their important documents. They apparently don’t trust any living soul with anything, including their daughter.”
“Cool. Do you want me to go with you?”
“If you have time, it would be good. I have no idea what James would use a safety deposit box for. All his documents were in his study - at least I thought they were. His will was with our solicitor, so it couldn’t even be that.”
“All will be revealed I guess. Oh, that reminds me, I have to make a phone call,” Charlie placed her empty plate into the dishwasher and hurried out to the foyer . She found Harold Munroe’s telephone number on the notepad where she had left it and dialled. The phone picked up after several rings.
“Hello?” A male voice answered.
“Hello, is that Harold Munroe?”
“Speaking.”
“My name is Charlie and I currently live in Sage Manor. I understand you were the previous occupant here?”
“I was. What can I do for you Charlie?” His voice had a friendly tone, it was encouraging.
“I was wondering if I could come and visit you, talk about the history of the house. I’m doing some research on its background for my sister.”
“Sure, I’m always available for visitors. I don’t live in Pickerton any more though. Next town over.”
“Not a problem, I don’t mind a drive. Would you be available tomorrow?”
“Not tomorrow, I have an appointment with a lady friend. How about the day after? Say 10 a.m.?”
“That would be great.”
“Okay, it’s a date then. My address is 16 Frost Street, Calliton.”
“We’ll see you the day after tomorrow. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, see you then.”
“Bye.”
She hung up the phone. Harold had surprised her with his demeanour. From the stories Mrs White had told her, she had expected some grumpy guy that was only interested in himself. She was happy to be wrong for once.
* * *
Lying in bed, Charlie couldn’t get to sleep. She had insisted they now sleep with the light on at all times. The darkened room could hide too many things. Blair had grumbled for a few minutes but eventually relented and agreed not to turn it off. Despite his claims to the contrary, he was very much able to get to sleep - even with the lights on.
To make things worse, she was not only paranoid about having another one of her nightmares, she was also paranoid about Alice being there in the room with her. Rahni’s message about the dress had spooked her. Before, she had thought Alice only visited Rahni and stayed with her - now she knew she can be anywhere in the house at any time. Alice must have been in the attic with them earlier in the day and watched them. She watched as they found the chest and then watched when she had tried on the old dress. It was enough to give her goose bumps.
And what did she mean anyway? To say that she looked just like her. Who the hell is her? There must have been a dozen girls living in the house, which one was she referring to? Her heart told her it was the one that was murdered but her mind wouldn’t let her believe it. It was too creepy to be true, she shouldn’t let an invisible and possibly dead person scare her.
She tried to calm her mind and clear it of all the thoughts that were currently swirling around but it was impossible. She lay there, staring up at the ceiling until well into the morning hours.
* * *
“Mrs Sinclair, right this way please,” the perky bank teller said as she led Cate, Charlie and Rahni down a short corridor and past a security door. The bank may be only a small local branch but it had all the security features to rival any other. The teller guided them into a small booth and produced a metal box with no remarkable features except for a small engraved plate with its number - 435.
“I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be just down the hall when you’re finished.” She smiled politely and disappeared back behind the security door.
Cate stared at the box for a moment, unsure whether she had the courage to open it or not. There could be anything inside the safety deposit box. Sure, it could be something predictable and boring - but what if it wasn’t? She already knew James was keeping secrets from her, which she would never have thought him capable of before. Why not have hidden objects too? Why not have a hidden stash of something so valuable to him that he needed to pay to have someone else keep it for him?
Charlie saw her sister’s hesitation and placed her hand on her shoulder for reassurance. She didn’t need to say anything to convey her thoughts. Rahni sat on the stool and watched intently.
“You do it, I can’t,” Cate shoved the key in Charlie’s hand and stepped back, wringing her fingers. Charlie looked her in the eyes to make sure it was what she truly wanted, she nodded and put her head down to stare at the floor.
Carefully, as if it may attack at any moment, Charlie slid the key into the latch and opened the lock. She pulled the draw out of the box and took a first look at the contents. Sitting like a lonely parcel was a small gift wrapped box. Underneath lay an envelope. She picked up both of the items and handed them to Cate.
“What do you think it is?” She asked nervously.
Cate hesitated, “I don’t know. I’ll take it home and open it later.”
“You can’t do that - open it now. Make it quick, like a band-aid - it’ll hurt less. Or, look on the positive side and it might be something great. Either way, at least you’ll know.”
Cate nodded again and unwrapped the small parcel. Her hands were shaking. Inside was a jeweller’s box, she slowly lifted the lid. Nestled proudly in the navy blue velvet lining was an eternity ring. Upon closer inspection, Cate counted six sparkling diamonds set in rose gold. She turned the box around to show Charlie.
“Wow, not really what I was expecting. Open the envelope.”
“It’s so beautiful,” she closed the lid and placed it back on the table. She slid the envelope open and pulled out the card that was inside. It was a birthday card with a picture of a vase full of vibrantly coloured flowers. She flipped it open and read the inscription.
My Dearest Catey,
Here’s to many more birthdays and wonderful years. You are the light of my life and I am thankful every day that God made you just for me. Keep smiling, you have my heart eternally.
All my Love
James xo xo xo
Tears started to well in her eyes, it wasn’t going to be her birthday for another couple of weeks, she couldn’t believe James was ready for it months in advance. It seemed like something he’d do though, he was a boy scout through and through. She handed the card to Charlie who read it eagerly. Soon, the two women were crying together.
After wiping away the tears, Charlie picked up the jewellery box and took out the ring. She placed it in Cate’s hand.
“You should wear it.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“He wanted you to have it, it’s yours. Honour him by wearing his eternity ring.”
Cate slipped the ring onto her wedding finger. It fit perfectly around her rose gold wedding ring. She laughed, despite the tears.
&nbs
p; “He always had good taste.”
“Well, he chose you. I think that shows the best taste of all. We Lane girls are quite the catch.”
“I’ll remind Blair of that next time you have a falling out.”
“Please do, he forgets sometimes. Now, what do you say we get out of here?”
“Let’s go.”
They thanked the teller and left the bank to head back to Sage Manor. Much to Rahni’s disgust, they didn’t stop for chocolate mud cake today, Cate insisted they had work to do at home. Charlie suspected it was more likely that Cate just wanted to keep busy so she didn’t have to dwell in her grief. She was on Rahni’s side with the chocolate cake issue but never said a word.
Blair greeted them at the door, dying to know what they had found at the bank. Charlie filled him in and he looked disappointed. For the second day running he had been excitedly anticipating some secret treasure and found nothing to interest him.
Rahni went straight to the television and switched on a movie about a talking cat. Cate went directly upstairs and returned after only a few minutes, dressed in overalls.
“I’m going to work in the garden for the afternoon, do you think you’d be able to help? I have some weeds to dig up.” Both Charlie and Blair nodded and changed into some clothes that could handle a bit of dirt. They met out in the back garden. Cate distributed a shovel to both of them.
They dug out weeds underneath the hot sun for a few hours. Blair and Charlie tried to keep the mood light, joking as much as they could. Cate barely said a word but her violent digging actions spoke volumes. She was angry at the world today, or maybe just angry at James for leaving her - it was hard to tell. Either way, she knew that taking it out on the dirt wasn’t going to bring him back but at least it got all of the frustrations out of her system.
Blair thrust his shovel into the ground for the hundredth time that afternoon and hit something hard. He bent down to push away the loose earth, try to see what had stopped him so sharply. He had expected to find another large rock like the previous time but instead found concrete. He used his hands to follow the strip of cement, it went in a straight line for a metre before he stopped.
“Charlie, take a look at this.”
Charlie pulled her shovel out of the ground and joined him in squatting over the garden.
“What is it?” She asked.
“It’s part of a foundation.”
“Like a building?”
“Yeah,” he looked up at Cate, “Do you know if there was a building here before, Cate?”
She stopped in mid swing and looked at him. “Maybe, I don’t know. It’s an old place. Why?”
“I think I’ve uncovered a foundation of some kind of building. It looks old, but that could be because it’s been buried.”
“Don’t know, sorry,” Cate went back to her digging, leaving the two of them to it.
In a lower voice, Blair spoke only to Charlie. “If this is another building, we may have been digging in the wrong place the other day.”
“You mean these foundations may be for another room on the back of the house? Like another day room?”
“It’s a long shot, but maybe. Over a couple of centuries, who knows how this building has evolved? We should go to the council and see if they have any plans or development applications.”
“You’re not just a pretty face, are you? I’ll give them a call this afternoon, see if they keep records like that.”
They continued their digging for weeds until it was starting to get too dark to continue. Charlie went straight inside to the telephone and looked up the number for the Pickerton County Council. She hurried to make the phone call before Cate caught up with her.
A female answered the call. “Hello, Pickerton Council. Lisa speaking.”
“Hello, I was wondering if you have property plans dating back to the early eighteen hundreds?”
The woman laughed, leaving Charlie with a sinking feeling. It had been a long shot after all. “Our records only go back to the 1970’s. Anything before this date was done through a centralised body in Sydney. If you are looking for anything back then, you will have to speak with them, sorry.”
“Okay, no worries. What is the name of the place in Sydney?”
“It’s the Department of Commonwealth Development. They have a website, you’re probably best looking at that before you do anything.”
“I will, thank you. Do you have the address by any chance?”
“No I don’t. Just search for it, I’m sure there’s only one department in Australia called that.”
Charlie thanked the women and hung up the phone. She looked up at the clock, it said 4:15. She could hear Blair and Cate talking in the kitchen and crossed the foyer to join them. Cate was cracking an egg on the side of the frypan.
“Bacon and eggs for dinner alright? It’s too late to put anything more substantial on,” Cate said.
“Sounds good to me. It seems so much later than it actually is,” Charlie stated as she pulled the plates out of the cupboard to set the table.
“What time is it?”
“Only a quarter past four. I could have sworn it was about six. We mustn’t have been having any fun out there.”
“It has to be later than that,” Blair checked his watch, certain that Charlie had misread the time. The dial confirmed that it was only just past four. “That doesn’t seem right. The sun is going down, it has to be wrong.”
“Call the national time line then, but from every clock here it is only four.”
Rahni, hearing everyone return from their gardening duties, came into the kitchen and took a seat next to Blair. She waited patiently while Cate poured her a glass of water.
“So, Rahni, what you have been doing this afternoon while we’ve been outside working hard?” Blair asked.
“Watching television. ‘Sarvo was just on the Nickelodeon channel and they had a snake. It was a big green one and it was sitting on their shoulders. We wouldn’t have any snakes around here, would we?”
“Snakes? Nah, they wouldn’t dare come anywhere near here,” he reassured. “Is ‘Sarvo still on?”
“No, it’s finished. SpongeBob is on now.”
“Doesn’t ‘Sarvo finish at 6?”
“I think so. Mum usually puts the boring news on afterwards.”
“It can’t be four o’clock then. I’m calling the time line.” Blair pushed his chair back and hurried into the foyer to the telephone. He dialled the national time line. An automated voice told him that it was currently 6:21pm daylight savings time. Satisfied he had been correct, he returned to the kitchen.
“It’s 6:21, not 4:15. The clocks are all wrong,” he declared.
Cate turned from the stove to look at him. “How can all the clocks be wrong? One, I’d accept, maybe even two. But all of them?”
“Well, they are. I’m going to check the other clocks in the house,” with that said, Blair went around each room of the house and looked at every clock he could find. He raced up the back stairs and even checked all the upstairs clocks. They all registered the same time - 4:21 now, two hours too early. Feeling justified, he ran back downstairs.
“Every single clock in this house is two hours behind the real time. Rahni, did you change all the clocks when we were outside?”
She shook her head, ‘No’.
“How could all the clocks change at the same time?” Cate asked, perplexed. Charlie shot Blair a look, a warning not to say anything about the possibility of paranormal intervention.
“I don’t know. Must be some kind of magnetic vortex or something,” he offered, just as he caught himself about to mention the recent events of the past few days.
“Well, whatever it is we’ll have to change them all back again. Otherwise we’ll be two hours behind for everything. Everyone ready for dinner?”
They all nodded eagerly.
* * *
“Blair, I told you. I am not fooling around with you in this house. You never know who’s watching
,” Charlie knocked down her boyfriend’s advances, paranoid the walls had eyes.
“The whole summer? The whole summer we are not even going to lay one hand on each other?” He said tersely.
“Not unless you can guarantee there isn’t a dead woman named Alice watching.”
Blair started to protest again but gave up, he knew better than to argue when Charlie was being stubborn. He’d never met anyone like her, when she had made up her mind about something, there was nothing in the world that would change it. Besides, he was tired and his arms ached from the perpetual shovelling they did that day. He rolled over and closed his eyes, trying to block out the light.
Almost an hour later Charlie had just drifted off to sleep when she started to dream.
* * *
She was outside on the lawn to the side of the Sage Manor house. It was a beautiful idyllic day with the sun shining and a gentle breeze bringing the scent of flowers to her nose. She looked down at the ground and saw the lawn as green as a tree frog. Her dress was billowing with her steps, it was long and pink - the same one she had tried on in the attic. She kept walking towards a tall and sprawling tree in the distance. It was old, probably older than any of the residents in the area. She considered it may even have been around with the dinosaurs, it looked that old.
She kept walking and the tree grew closer and closer. There was no-one else around that she could see. However she didn’t feel alone. Even though there was no-one in sight, she knew someone was there. She didn’t know whether they were behind her or in front of her, but they were there nonetheless. She strained to hear a sound but only a few stray birds could be heard calling in the distance.
The tree’s branches were like a big umbrella, making a canopy of shade for anyone who took shelter underneath. It felt good to finally reach the coolness and be out of the overbearing heat of the sun. At first, it had a warming effect, but now it just felt stifling. Charlie turned around and lent her back against the rough bark. Through the layers of fabric, she could still feel the prickly edges sticking into her skin. They were going to leave little red marks when she finally moved. A small price to pay for the relief of shifting her weight to the tree.
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