by J A Whiting
Shelly turned and leaned back so she could see which house it was. Her throat felt parched. She poured more tea into her cup and gulped it down. “What did she look like?”
“Sort of like us. Similar height and build, athletic, long hair … darker though, almost black.”
A shiver of nervousness ran down Shelly’s back. “I thought I noticed a young woman who matched that description walking up the street right before you came over.”
“Yeah, that’s Meg’s older sister, Maria. She came up when Meg was found and took her home for burial once the body was released. She returned recently to clear things out of the house. Maria isn’t very friendly, but under the circumstances, it’s understandable.” Juliet shrugged a shoulder. “I offered to help her in any way I could. She declined. She told me to butt out, she said those very words. I keep my distance.”
“How awful,” Shelly muttered, taking another glance at the house where Meg used to live. “No one at the diner or bakery mentioned it.”
“It was the only thing that anyone talked about for a month, then the subject faded away. At first, people seemed a little suspicious of each other, but then things went back to normal.”
“Did the news of the murder impact the resort? Have tourists canceled their reservations?”
“A few did, not many though … and a few days after the news broke, reservations actually increased.” Juliet rolled her eyes. “I guess some people love murder mysteries.”
“Are there any theories about what happened to the woman?”
“Not really. An idea floated around that someone she’d known might have followed her to town and killed her. Maybe a rejected boyfriend, someone who was angry with her over something. Nothing panned out.”
“Did you know her at all?” Shelly asked, unease poking at her. A young woman, close in age to herself, had come to Paxton Park for a job and rented a cottage on the same street. The situation was too similar to her own.
“I introduced myself, but we never got together,” Juliet said. “Our work schedules didn’t mesh. I saw her in town a few times, we talked, nothing seemed to be out of the realm of normal.” Juliet added, “I was out of town when it happened.”
“How about the people who live on this street? Are most renters?”
“Only a few houses are rentals. The rest of us own.” Juliet looked over at her house. “I rented my place when I first got here. After the second year, I approached the owner and asked if he wanted to sell. He did, so I bought it.”
“Are you friendly with the other people who live here?” Shelly was feeling suspicious of the residents.
Juliet sipped her tea. “For the most part, the people are pleasant.”
“Anyone you don’t like?”
“Not really. Some don’t say much, stick to themselves more.”
“Did anyone else move in around the same time Meg Stores did?” Shelly couldn’t shake the worry that the killer might be living on the same street.
“One guy. He lives at the end of the road. He does maintenance at the mountain. I only know him to wave to.” Juliet smiled. “Trying to figure out who did it?”
Shelly let her eyes wander over the houses. “Just wondering if there’s anyone in particular I should be concerned about.”
“Don’t worry. If I hear anything, I’ll be sure to warn you.” Juliet followed Shelly’s gaze out over the neighborhood. “I felt the same way when it happened. Everyone I saw, I wondered if he or she was the killer. I guess it’s only natural. I didn’t like the feeling that I couldn’t trust the townspeople. The feeling has sort of waned.” The young woman checked the time. “I’d better get going. It was nice chatting.”
Shelly thanked Juliet for the pie and the two made arrangements to meet early Saturday morning to hike the mountain trails and visit the crooked trees.
“Take care.” Juliet waved as she went down the porch steps and headed for her house.
A shiver of unease washed over Shelly as she wondered if moving to Paxton Park had been a huge mistake.
3
With the early morning light filtering through the leaves and tree limbs, Shelly and Juliet moved along one of the trails on the south side of the mountain. Some mist rose off of the lakes and the small meadows giving the wooded space a mysterious atmosphere. Juliet told Shelly some history of the area. “Western Massachusetts was originally settled by Native American societies like the Nipmucs, Mohawks, Mahicans and then English settlers made their way out here. The soil is good for farming and there are tons of rivers so the area was attractive to the settlers. Artists, musicians, and writers have flocked out this way and now the area is known for having a vibrant artist colony. A short drive away will bring you to Tanglewood, the famous music venue.”
Juliet went on, “Park Mountain is part of the Berkshires and the Appalachian Mountain range and in the winter, the resort runs forty-eight ski trails. In the summer, along with the outdoor activities, we have the alpine super slide and the mountain coaster. Families love those. You need to try them, they’re so much fun.” Juliet laughed. “I sound like an advertisement playing on television.”
“Well, if I hadn’t already moved here, I’d jump on the train and head to Paxton Park.” Shelly hadn’t quite regained her stamina after the accident and needed to stop to catch her breath on the steep part of the trail. Juliet had taken her past beautiful clear lakes and streams, to a lookout trail with a fabulous view over the countryside, and to see the resort’s windmills on the slope that generated power for the resort facilities.
“You okay?” Juliet looked back to where Shelly was leaning on a tree trunk. “Is your leg holding up?”
“I just need a little rest.” Shelly smiled. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”
“We’re almost to the flatter section of the trail.” Juliet pulled her water bottle from her pack and took a long swig. “We can take a swim at the base lake when we get back and then use the hot tub.”
Running her arm over her forehead, Shelly wiped some beads of sweat from her skin. “I’d love that.” She didn’t want to admit that her leg was aching and the idea of swimming and using a hot tub sounded like a great way to alleviate some of the discomfort in her limb.
When Shelly indicated she was ready to go on, the girls moved up the winding path through the forest with the scent of pine trees floating on the light breeze and the babbling rush of river water like music in the air. The effort of climbing the hill amidst the natural beauty filled Shelly with exhilaration and it had been a long time since she’d felt so good. Reaching the flat part of the trail, the young women had room to walk side by side.
“We’re coming up to the crooked trees,” Juliet said. “They start just around the bend.”
She didn’t know why, but a flutter of unease ran through Shelly’s chest. Although the oddly-shaped trees interested her, every time Juliet mentioned them she felt anxious.
When they rounded the bend in the trail, Shelly came to a halt. A path meandered through a grove of pine trees that were bent and twisted just as Juliet had described. All of the trees’ trunks on the left side bent slightly to the right pointing in the direction of the path and the trees on the right side, bent a little to the left giving an impression that the pines were like arms gesturing the visitor forward. Light filtered down between the branches giving the space a golden glow. Many of the trees seemed to be the same distance apart as if someone had deliberately planted them in the unusual arrangement. Shelly expected to see about twenty trees in the crooked collection, but the odd pines stretched out before her like a hundred sentries guarding the section of forest by keeping a traveler to the path.
“What do you think?” Juliet asked.
“I think it’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. Maybe the weirdest.” Shelly stepped closer to one of the trees to get a better look at the bent trunk and she ran her hand over the bark. “Did someone plant these and bend the trunks?”
“No one knows for sure.” Juliet
followed Shelly as she walked between the pines. “It would take an awful lot of work to manage the bending of all these trees.”
“What do you think caused it?”
“I’ve read about them and the different ideas given by townspeople, plant biologists, anthropologists. No one has come up with a definitive theory. I really have no idea.” Juliet walked around one of the larger pines. “It’s good we came so early. I think it takes away from the first sight of the trees when the tourists are buzzing around.”
“I agree.” Shelly stood still and then turned in a circle gazing at the odd configuration. “It’s equal parts weird, eerie, and cool.” Giving Juliet a look, she said, “I’m still going with the suggestion that aliens did it.”
Juliet chuckled. “Like Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, and the statues on Easter Island.”
Shelly kidded, “I didn’t know aliens were responsible for those things, too.”
“Some people will believe any crazy idea.” Juliet walked along the path. “Want to go a little further? There’s a small lake up ahead with fields of wildflowers around it. It’s really pretty.”
Shelly agreed and the two set off making their way between the crooked trees until the area opened up and the trail curved past two meadows and all the while they walked, she couldn’t push thoughts of the woman’s murder from her mind. “Where was Meg Stores’s body found? You mentioned she was discovered not far from the crooked trees.”
“There’s a narrow path up ahead that veers off to the right. She was found down that way by some hikers.”
“That had to be an awful discovery.” Not wanting to appear ghoulish, Shelly didn’t ask if the body was found in a pond like she’d seen in her dream. Letting out a breath of relief, she was certain she must have read or heard about the murder and that her dream must have pulled at the pieces of information that had been stored in her brain.
The crystal, blue lake spread out before them and the branches of weeping willow trees hung gracefully over the edges of the water. Wildflowers bloomed in the fields around the perfect body of water and there was a sweet scent of berries or flowers on the air. The girls followed a tiny path around the lake and then headed back towards the crooked forest.
“I haven’t walked this much for a long time.”
Juliet gave Shelly a look of concern. “I shouldn’t have dragged you so far.”
“I’ll be sore tomorrow, but I wouldn’t have missed it,” Shelly said. “It’s been a great morning … and I’m looking forward to that soak in the hot tub.”
Shelly swung her backpack from her shoulder, unzipped it, and reached for her water bottle. The cylinder slipped through her hand, hit the ground, and rolled down the hill with the young woman chasing after it. The bottle veered to the right and came to rest in some underbrush beneath a tall oak tree. Shelly bent to pick it up and her hand froze in mid-air as something at the corner of her peripheral vision caught her attention. Kneeling on one leg, she blinked at a spot about thirty yards away as Juliet came up beside her.
Something red stuck out from under the long branches of the thick bushes and Shelly narrowed her eyes trying to make out what it was.
It looked like a red athletic shoe.
Juliet followed her new friend’s gaze. “What’s that over there?”
As the young woman headed to see, a rush of worry flooded Shelly’s body and she said to her companion, “Wait a second. Maybe you shouldn’t….”
Shelly stood up and approached just as Juliet poked her toe at the red thing. In less than a half-second, a high-pitched, ear-splitting noise like a siren pierced the air.
It was the sound of Juliet’s scream.
4
It was late afternoon before Shelly put the key in the lock of the cottage door, went inside, and sank onto the sofa, shell-shocked and exhausted. Luckily, there had been cell phone service on the mountain hiking trail so their emergency call could be placed to the police.
Juliet’s scream caused Shelly to scurry back so quickly that she lost her balance and fell onto her backside where she ended up staring through the thin branches of the bushes to see a body on the ground under the shrubs. When Juliet had poked the red shoe with her toe, she saw it was attached to a leg, and her eyes, peeking between the leaves, traveled up from the limb to the person’s form lying in the dirt beneath the underbrush.
It was so unexpected and so unreal that it took Juliet’s mind a couple of seconds to process the scene and when it did, it triggered a loud, piercing shriek that nearly froze Shelly’s blood.
Jumping to her feet, Shelly had grabbed Juliet’s arm and the two huddled together for a few minutes horrified by the discovery until one of them … neither could remember who suggested it … made the call to the police.
It seemed an eternity before law enforcement and the emergency medical personnel arrived. Shelly and Juliet had moved a hundred yards down the trail away from the body to sit on a fallen log and wait. Even though neither one’s gaze had lingered on the dead body, they both knew it was a young woman.
“Did you recognize her?” Shelly had whispered.
Juliet shook her head, and then they remained quiet and pensive during the endless minutes until help finally showed up.
Officers questioned them over and over. The body was briefly examined by the paramedics. The medical examiner arrived. Investigators combed the area searching for clues. Juliet’s sister, Jay, arrived and the two hugged for a long time. Juliet let some tears escape from her eyes as she told her sister how they’d found the young woman under the bushes. Pushing a loose strand of hair from her eyes, Juliet remembered that Jay and Shelly had never met and she hastily introduced them. “I can’t even think straight,” she apologized.
Shelly understood the feeling. It was as if she was walking through a dream – a nightmare, really, where everything seemed foggy and unclear. Sounds seemed muffled, her vision swam, and she felt like she was watching the goings-on from outside of her body.
Jay, short for Jayne, in her early forties with chin-length brown hair, was tall, stocky, and strong-looking – her build the opposite of Juliet’s – and was a twenty-year veteran of the police force. She escorted them down the trail to her waiting police department SUV and took them to the station to speak with a detective. After two more hours, they were free to go. Shelly’s body felt charged and wired, but when she slumped down and rested her head back against the plump couch cushions, her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep.
A soft, incessant cry roused her from her dreamless nap and she stirred trying to determine where the noise was coming from. Sitting up straight, she rubbed her eyes and turned her head from side to side. Shadows filled the room and glancing to the window, she noticed it was getting dark outside. I must have slept for hours.
A mewing sound floated through the living room window screen causing Shelly to get up and open the front door. There on the porch sat a small calico cat. It looked up at Shelly and mewed.
Shelly was about to step onto the porch, but the kitty scooted inside, stood on its hind legs, stretched its paws up, and placed them on the young woman’s leg. Mew.
Chuckling, Shelly bent to scratch the cat’s cheeks admiring the white, orange, and black color pattern swirled in the fur. “Where did you come from, sweet girl?” Shelly knew that a calico cat was rarely a male.
The cat’s purring filled the air as it rubbed its head against Shelly’s hand.
“What’s this? A visitor?” Juliet came up the porch steps to the open front door.
Shelly looked up with a smile. “She was mewing at the door. Do you recognize her from the neighborhood?”
“I’ve never seen her before.” It was Juliet’s turn to scratch the friendly animal’s cheeks. “She’s so distinctive, I would have noticed her roaming around.”
They both sat on the wood floor allowing the cat to move between them, rubbing her head against the two women and purring.
Juliet said, “Did you know that in some cult
ures, calico cats are thought to bring good luck?”
“I didn’t know that.” Shelly made eye contact with her neighbor. “Maybe it’s a good thing she showed up.”
“Jay came by.” Juliet’s face looked tense. “They’ve identified the body. There was a driver’s license in the back pocket of her shorts.”
“Was she from town?”
Juliet shook her head. “Her name is Jill Murray, twenty-nine. She came to interview for a teaching job and had been in town for about a week, scouting out the area, trying to decide if she wanted to move here if she was offered the job. She loved the outdoors.”
“So….” The cat had settled in Shelly’s lap and she moved her hand over its soft fur. “Two women, not from the area, one a recent move-in and the other one considering a move to Paxton Park.” Shelly raised an eyebrow. “Someone doesn’t like newcomers?”
“There are lots of people who are new to town. New ski instructors arrive each winter and then leave in the spring. Waitstaff changes all the time. New employees arrive in summer to run the attractions, act as guides. Graduate students and professors come in all seasons to do different kinds of research. People come and go all the time in a resort area.”
“I’m a newcomer.” The corners of Shelly’s mouth turned down. “And I’m similar in age and appearance to the two women who have been murdered. Not exactly a welcome to the mountain.”
Juliet looked down at the cat. “I think everyone needs to be on guard, newcomer or not. Especially young women. Make sure you lock your door. Jay suggests we carry pepper spray.”
Letting out a sigh, Shelly said, “A return to Boston is looking pretty good right now.”
“Don’t leave.” Juliet looked sad. “It’s nice having you here.”
“I won’t make any decisions yet.” Still perched on Shelly’s lap, the cat purred loudly as it closed its eyes. “What should I do about this newcomer?”
