The Butcher Box Set

by Sian B. Claven

  Luell pursed her lips. “We had an altercation this morning and she stormed out to go spend time with her friends before school.”

  Tatum shook her head. “It’s just an adjustment period; she’ll be back to normal soon.”

  Luell started to clear the dishes from the table. “If she’s not pregnant first.”

  The comment was laced with bitterness and frustration, and Tatum knew that their mother did not need this stress on top of everything. She would try to have a sit down with Kalli when she was feeling up to it and see if she couldn’t sort out something with her.

  Once the plates were cleared, Tatum trudged off to the living room, turned the TV on to the music channel and curled up on the black three-seater sofa, closing her eyes and dozing off immediately.

  The doorbell ringing for the third time was what finally woke Tatum from her deep sleep. She lifted her head rather suddenly and regretted it as her neck twanged in pain from the sharp movement.

  She sat up rubbing the sore spot. “Mom?” she called. “Sylva?”

  The doorbell ringing again drowned out the sound of her voice cracking. She sighed and got up, assuming they were not back from work and school. She went to the front door and opened it to the sight of two police officers standing on the porch. Tatum suddenly became aware that she was still in her pyjamas and probably looked like a wreck from sleeping on the sofa. She blushed.

  “Hi, can I help you?” she asked, trying to smooth down her bush of bed hair.

  The police officers noticed her discomfort. The one on the left was younger and rather cute, which didn’t help matters, and he offered her a charming smile.

  “Hi, I’m Officer Smith and this is my partner Officer Chadsworth.”

  Tatum gave them both a nod.

  Officer Smith continued, “Are you a Miss Tatum Metz?”

  The question raised the hairs on the back of her neck. “Yes, that’s me. What’s happened?”

  Her headache forgotten, her mind geared into overdrive as she thought of Kalli storming out of the house and now possibly murdered, or her mother and Sylva in a car accident or something terrible.

  “Do you know a boy by the name of Roger Kalgrove?”

  Tatum frowned and nodded. “Yeah, he’s a friend of mine.” Her shyness forgotten like her headache, she moved a little closer to the officers. “Is everything alright?”

  “Is your mom home?” Officer Chadsworth cut in, “because we aren’t allowed to speak to you without an adult present.”

  Tatum bit her lip and looked at Officer Smith again. “Is he okay? Is he hurt? I mean, why would you be coming to me if he was okay, right?”

  The three of them turned to look at the car pulling up in the driveway. Luell was home with Sylva and an angry looking Kallista. The officers remained silent while Tatum’s family got out of the car. Kallista reached the front door first, ignored the officers’ greetings and stormed past them and upstairs. Sylva gave them a shy hello before following Kallista.

  Luell looked at Tatum and then the officers. “Hi, can I help you?”

  Officer Chadsworth quickly introduced himself and his partner to her before asking permission to come inside to talk to her and Tatum.

  Luell gave her a quizzical look. “Of course. Tatum, go get changed quickly and I’ll make the officers some tea. Right this way, gentlemen.” She led them into the house as Tatum dashed upstairs.

  She’d kissed Roger; it had made her feel like she would melt on the spot. Then he’d left, and she had wanted to warn him about something. She couldn’t remember though, she couldn’t remember what she had wanted to warn him about. It was as though all her memories from when he climbed into the car to when she woke up this morning were just gone. Maybe she had hit her head or something.

  After she had dressed and put a brush through her hair, she rushed downstairs to find her mother serving the two officers tea and biscuits. She nervously sat down next to her mother.

  Luell sat back and said, “Right, how can we help you, gentlemen?”

  Officer Smith was busy with his tea, so Officer Chadsworth answered, “I’m sorry to inform you, but last night two of our officers found Roger Kalgrove’s car on the side of the highway.”

  Tatum watched him carefully, but it felt like his voice was coming from somewhere far away.

  “Upon further investigation, we found Mr Kalgrove’s body not far from where his car was located.”

  The air around her felt thin and her heart was beating so loud she was sure the officers could hear it. In fact, she was sure it was going to explode out of her chest. Roger’s body. The fact that they didn’t say they found Roger but they found his body meant that Roger was dead.

  “Are you okay? Tatum?” Luell’s hand on her knee brought her back to the living room and she was surprised to find that tears were streaming down her face.

  Her mother and the two officers were all watching her worriedly. Tatum used her sleeve to wipe away the tears and with a shaky voice she did not recognize she asked, “How? I mean, what happened to him?”

  “We aren’t sure at this point, but from what we have observed he was murdered where his body was found.” Officer Smith’s voice was kind and Tatum shivered slightly.

  “How?” she asked again, but he shook his head.

  “I’m afraid I can’t give you more detail than that while the investigation is on-going, but I do need you to answer a few questions. Are you up for that?”

  “Yes, I can help.”

  Officer Chadsworth took out his notebook and took over the interview. “You were out with Mr Kalgrove last night, is that correct?”

  “Yes, we went to the fayre with Darren and Jacqui.”

  “Darren and Jacqui who? Do you know their last names?”

  “Jacqui Gardener,” she said, racking her brain for Darren’s surname. “And Darren … I think his surname is Black … hood or wood … he goes to our school. He was Roger’s friend.”

  “Were there any fights while you were out? Any tension or arguments?”

  “No, we had a great time until we went to the haunted house.”

  Officer Chadsworth made a note before looking up at her with piercing eyes. “What happened at the haunted house?”

  “I saw this stupid woman dressed as a skeleton and it terrified me and I got upset so I wanted to go home.” Tatum was fighting off crying again.

  “And then?”

  “Then Roger dropped us all off. I was last.”

  “What time was that?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “What time did he drop you off?” Chadsworth asked.

  “Around ten, I think. I was really tired and didn’t really look at the time.”

  “Was he agitated or worried about anything? Did it look like he was nervous?”

  Tatum burst into tears at this point and all she could do was shake her head.

  Luell pulled Tatum into a warm hug and stroked her back. “I heard her come upstairs around ten and she went straight to bed.”

  She didn’t mention that she had witnessed the innocent kiss between her daughter and Roger; she didn’t want to bring that up now he was gone. Tatum simply cried into her mother’s shoulder.

  Officer Chadsworth nodded to Smith and they both stood. “Thank you for your help. If she thinks of anything else, please contact us immediately.”

  Luell nodded and took the card he was holding out. “Before you go, how did you know my daughter was with him last night?”

  Officer Smith looked at her. “There was a ticket stub in the car with her name written on it in red ink. We checked with the local electronic school registries and found your address.”

  Luell nodded and tucked the card away before wrapping her arms around Tatum again.

  The officers saw themselves out.

  “Here you go, love,” Luell said as she sat back down next to Tatum on the sofa, offering her a steaming mug of hot chocolate. “I’m so sorry that you lost your friend.”

  Tatum
sniffed in response and took the mug, balancing it on the arm of the sofa so she could hold the handle without burning herself.

  Luell knew she should say something to comfort her daughter, but she just didn’t have the words. They were slowly starting to get over the death of her husband, and now this.

  “Perhaps we should make an appointment with the school psychiatrist, honey, so you can get some tools to cope with everything that’s happening.” Luell stroked her firstborn child’s hair from her face and bit her lip. “Hmm?”

  Tatum shook her head. “I don’t want to see a shrink, mom,” she said. “I just need time …” She blew her hot chocolate and took a sip.

  Luell caressed her back. “Well, I think I’m going to give you one of those mild sedatives to help you sleep. You need to rest or you won’t be properly equipped to deal with everything.” She stood up to go to the kitchen.

  Tatum sat on the sofa, looking out the window at the spot where Roger had kissed her, where he had finally kissed her. Why couldn’t she remember what happened after that? She closed her eyes and pushed herself to remember. The kiss, it had made her melt, and then? Then Roger had gotten into his car and driven off. Whenever she remembered that part it felt like something was missing, like a puzzle piece, and whatever it was, it made her scared and she had wanted to warn Roger about it.

  She gave up. It was probably one of those things that, once she stopped thinking about it too hard, it would come to her. Roger, however, was still gone and she felt like her heart was broken. She sipped her hot chocolate.

  Kallista came into the living room and threw herself onto the sofa; she had her phone in hand and was furiously texting away. She looked over at Tatum and snorted, going back to her phone and saying, “What’s your problem?”

  Tatum looked at her angrily and then just ignored her, looking at her hot chocolate instead.

  “Can you believe Mom won’t let me out again? She cancelled all my plans for the rest of the weekend and said I needed …” Kalli paused for dramatic effect. “… family time. As if I need to spend time with you all. All you do all day is mope and study.”

  Tatum sighed audibly and bit her lip, not in the mood for Kalli’s prima donna attitude right now.

  Her sister knew it because she sighed as well. “Yay for family time.”

  Luell came in just then and gave Tatum two tablets. “Take them and go on up to bed, okay, darling?”

  Tatum nodded and used the rest of her hot chocolate to swallow the pills.

  She stood up from the sofa and glared at Kalli. “Not everything in this whole world is about you, Kalli. Some of us live in the real world and have real problems. Why don’t you just grow up?” She stormed off towards the stairs.

  She could hear Kalli asking her mother what Tatum’s problem was, but Tatum didn’t care; she got upstairs and slammed her bedroom shut, going to her bed and sitting on it. She picked up her phone from where it was charging next to her bed and looked at it. She had what looked like hundreds of messages from Jacqui and a few other people from school.

  Tatum scrolled through them resentfully. She sent a quick message to Jacqui to let her know she was okay, and that she had taken a sedative and was going to sleep. She scrolled through the rest of the messages until she got to the last one. It was a message from her phone carrier notifying her that she had a voicemail from Roger. It was left last night after she had supposedly gone to bed.

  Her hands shook as she looked at the time of the message. Half an hour after he had dropped her off. She didn’t know what to do, she wasn’t sure if she could survive listening to Roger’s voice, but at the same time, it might give her clue as to what happened to him.

  Tatum curled up on her bed and dialled her voicemail. She put it on speaker and after following the voice prompts she heard his voice, and felt a piece of her die.

  Tatum …

  His voice was so shaky and scared.

  I think I’m being followed. There’s this car that followed me from your place. I can’t see what make because he has his brights on. I’m going to try to take a different route …

  She could hear the rumble of his engine and the wind whistling in his window. She wondered why he hadn’t called the police and then realised he had probably hit whatever number was first on his list, or maybe he wasn’t thinking rationally because he was scared.

  I’m on the R94 highway going towards the other side of town …

  The phone started cutting out and she could only hear words here and there.

  Car … pushing … off the road … call for help … call police … help me …

  There was a bang, which Tatum could only assume was his car being hit, either by the other car or maybe his car driving into something. There was the sound of metal, like a door being forced open and the huffing of a man’s laboured breathing between the call cutting in and out. Then there was nothing. The call hadn’t been hung up, but there was no sound.

  Suddenly a sound of static filled the room and a woman’s raspy voice came over the speaker.

  Death comes to those who do not see.

  Then the sound of Roger screaming before the voicemail eventually cut off because it had reached its maximum time.

  Tatum sat staring at her phone, her body cold from what she had just heard, yet her palms were sweaty with fear. She stared at her phone for the longest time, just staring at the screen as the voice prompts asked if she would like to save the message, if she would like to delete the message, or if she would like to listen to the message again.

  She looked up from her phone to see the skeleton girl standing in her bedroom, her hands above her head clasped together, and her eyes staring at her.

  The sedatives kicked in and she fell back into her bed, into a dreamless sleep.

  Chapter Five

  Four weeks had passed since Roger’s funeral and life went back to as normal as it could be. A memorial was set up for him at his locker for his friends to pay homage. Police had still not released any details to the public about his murder, and rumours were therefore flying around.

  Most of the student body at Tatum’s school said that someone from the fayre had snuck into his boot and, when on a long stretch of empty road, managed to climb through the back seats and had murdered him. Those who didn’t believe that scenario said it was some sort of axe murderer that had probably escaped from a psychiatric facility and was preying on teenagers.

  Only Tatum knew there was more to the story than that.

  Whoever had murdered Roger, followed him from her house, and forced him off the road and murdered him. He obviously had a female accomplice because she definitely heard a female voice on the voicemail. Strange though, when she played it again the female’s voice was gone, but Tatum knew she had heard it clear as day.

  Death awaits those who do not see.

  She had spent the last four weeks trying to figure out what that could mean. Was it a clue? A warning? A threat?

  She didn’t know, but she also knew she couldn’t share the voicemail with the police. She didn’t know why, but felt that handing it over to them would make her look bad, especially after she waited so long to do it. Besides, they wouldn’t be able to get much from the voicemail. She listened to it though, every single day, hoping to pick up some minute detail she had missed.

  Tatum’s school work started to suffer, but her teachers gave her a reprieve after her mother explained why she was so badly affected by Roger’s death. She knew it wouldn’t last forever and that she should pull herself together, but she just couldn’t find the energy.

  Then there was the blond girl with the face painted like a skeleton. She saw her at the fayre with Roger and again in her room before the sedatives kicked in, and Tatum was sure she had also seen her at the party and in Mr Wild’s garden. She didn’t know why, but she was certain the girl had something to do with Mr Wild’s stroke and Roger’s murder. She didn’t have any evidence to support her suspicions.

  Jacqui tried to be the
best friend she could, especially after Roger’s murder, but Tatum could see she was wearing her friend down with her silence. When she did talk, she spoke of death and the skeleton girl. Having remembered a few nights after Roger’s death why she had tried to phone him, Jacqui was the only one Tatum told, but Jacqui kept saying that her mind was tricking her because there was no way someone could have been in Roger’s car with him.

  One Friday afternoon they decided to go to the mall after school to hang out. Jacqui had convinced Tatum to try and get out of her head and her obsession with Roger’s murder and have some fun. The mall wasn’t far from their school, so the two friends walked together down the street once the last bell had sounded.

  At first, it was awkward. Tatum realised that she had been so fixated on Roger’s death that she didn’t have anything else to talk about. Jacqui, sensing her friend's discomfort, hooked their arms together and started chatting about prom. She described the dress she wanted to wear and the shoes she thought would match. Tatum listened and gradually started to advise her what makeup would best suit that kind of dress and how she should do her hair. It wasn’t normally the kind of conversation they would have, but it broke the ice and soon they were chatting more easily about other things happening in their school and community.

  Once at the mall, they started at the food court. They bought some fries and milkshake to share and sat in the middle of the food court, chatting about the latest movies and whether they should bother to go watch them or wait for them to come out on cable.

  Tatum was just beginning to relax when she looked over Jacqui’s shoulder and saw, sitting behind Jacqui, the skeleton girl. Jacqui didn’t notice her friend freeze and continued to talk animatedly about how hot the new actor from the new Batman movie was.

  After a few minutes, Jacqui looked up and said, “Tat? Tat! Hello, are you even listening to me?”

  Tatum shook her head and whispered, “Do not look now, but the skeleton woman is right behind you.”