by Raven Snow
The pool was behind a white fence. It wasn’t locked or anything. The gate gave no resistance when Dom swung it open. It was probably there for privacy reasons. Fortunately, Shannon wasn’t sunbathing nude when they entered. She was wearing a white one-piece that emphasized how in-shape she still was despite her advanced age. Lady was suitably impressed.
Shannon turned her head when the gate opened. She must have expected one of her daughters, because she immediately snapped to attention. She sat up on her beach chair and removed her sunglasses. She sat them on the table next to her, beside an iced drink sweating condensation. “How did you get in here?” was the first question that came out of Shannon’s mouth.
“You invited me over,” Al said. If Lady had thought Al was cold with her sometimes, the way she spoke to Shannon was downright icy. Lady had to look back to make sure that measured monotone was really coming from the plump old woman. “The gate was open, and Adora let us in.”
Shannon didn’t say anything at first, taking in her guests. Lady was sure she could see the proverbial gears turning behind her eyes. “Right,” she said finally. “Thank you for coming.” She nodded to Lady and Dom in turn. “I didn’t expect you to bring guests.”
Al gave a small shrug. “They came by this morning to deliver me some rain water. I mentioned my plans for the day to them, and they thought they might be able to help. Isn’t that right?” Al turned to Lady and Dom, prompting answers from them.
“Sure,” said Dom. It had to be physically impossible for him to look and sound more indifferent.
“I’d love to help in any way I can.” Lady made a point to try and sound like she meant that. She did, but it felt necessary that she make up for Dom’s tone.
Shannon smiled, though it looked terribly forced. “Well, I really appreciate all of you coming out here.”
“You have a beautiful home,” Lady added. She felt a need to add small talk. Things were too awkward. “I mean, I realize I’ve seen it before.” She wasn’t off to a good start. “I didn’t see back here, though. This is gorgeous.” There. Maybe that had saved it.
“Thank you.” Shannon’s smile really did become more genuine. “This all took some time,” she motioned grandly, indicating the entirety of their surroundings rather than just the pool. “My husband has meetings and get-togethers back here. It was important to him that we be able to host events.”
“Where is he now?” asked Al.
Shannon frowned but only briefly. “Oh, he’s off on business. He’s a busy man. You know how it is.”
“I don’t actually,” said Al. “Do you need to get dressed?”
The frown that passed over Shannon’s face lingered a little that time. “No, that’s all right,” she said afterward, smiling brightly. She grabbed a black and white patterned wrap from the pool chair beside her and tied it around her waist. She donned a wide, floppy-brimmed white hat and her sunglasses as well. “Let’s all move somewhere cooler, why don’t we? Can I get anyone something to drink?”
There was a polite refusal on Lady’s lips, but Al beat her to a response. “Yes, please,” she said.
Shannon picked up her cellphone. “Strawberry lemonade all right?” she asked, looking over everyone and not just Al. “I made some last night. It’s organic and positively delicious.”
Lady didn’t want Dom or Al to have the chance to be rude again. She put on a big smile. “That sounds great, thanks.”
Shannon smiled broadly back at Lady before hitting a button on her phone. It took a few seconds before someone answered. Shannon shifted her weight awkwardly from foot to foot while she waited. “Yes,” she said, finally. “No. No, you really should have been up and about already, Dear. You know what I’ve told you about sleeping in. Well, get your sister up too. I need one of you to bring out three strawberry lemonades.” There was another pause, during which Lady could hear a shrill whine. She couldn’t make out the words exactly, but the whining itself was certainly audible. “I don’t care which one of you does it. I need the both of you out here… Yes, really… This is about last night… Thank you, Sweetheart.” Shannon hung up the phone before giving her guests an exaggerated shrug. “Kids, right? What can you do?”
“They’re adults,” Dom pointed out. “You can kick them out of the house, make them get a real job.”
Surprisingly, Shannon didn’t frown like she had with Al. It was difficult to tell with her wearing sunglasses, but by the way she cocked her head and bit lightly on her bottom lip, Lady thought she looked sympathetic. “You know, if you ever need a job, I could speak with Dennis.” Lady assumed Dennis was Shannon’s husband.
“I have plenty of jobs, thanks,” Dom said, surprising no one by turning her down.
“I know you have jobs, I just mean if you need a more… stable job. It would also pay more, I’m sure. No offense to what you’re doing now. It’s just that you have connections. Why not use them?”
“Because I’m happy with where I am now. Thanks anyway.” Dom’s thanks didn’t sound particularly genuine.
Shannon didn’t press the matter further. “Well, the offer is always on the table. Come on everyone, this way. Let’s all get out of the sun before we roast.”
Shannon led the way to the pavilion. Lady was disappointed they weren’t going inside at first. It was a hot day and only getting hotter. She had felt how cool it was in the house. Her apprehension evaporated, however, when she stepped into the shade and Shannon flipped a switch. There were fans in the rafters of the pavilion. A box unit even pumped cold air downward. It felt heavenly.
“Take a seat.” Shannon indicated one of the wooden picnic tables with a wave of her arm. “We might be waiting on those drinks for a minute. I’m sure my girls will insist on getting all dolled up before coming out here.”
“So, what is it you called me down for?” asked Al, clearly in no mood to banter.
“Well, let’s see.” Shannon steepled her fingers in front of herself and looked around from where she sat on the picnic bench. “Really, my girls could tell you more than I could, I think. They were the ones who saw it.”
“It?” Lady repeated.
Shannon nodded. “They claim there was an entity, or entities, roaming the grounds last night. Of course, we have security cameras up. I checked the footage myself, around the time my girls say they saw something.”
“And?” prompted Al when Shannon hesitated.
“And I didn’t see anything. Not that that means much, you know. I trust my girls. If they say they saw something, I believe them. Besides, it’s not like everything that lurks in Dark Lake would show up on cameras.”
It was easy to forget that Shannon came from a family that practiced witchcraft. Heck, she lived in an old school that had once been dedicated to teaching the art. For the first time, Lady wondered if Shannon herself had any abilities. Not that it played a big part in things now.
“How many security cameras do you have?” asked Dom.
Shannon hesitated, like she wasn’t sure she wanted to share such private information. “We have four,” she said finally. “I keep telling my husband we need more, but he insisted that four was plenty.”
“Show me where the cameras are before we leave,” said Dom. “I can put my eyes up where the cameras aren’t. If there’s anything skulking around, that’ll catch it a lot better than a security camera would.”
“Oh.” Shannon’s eyebrows rose above her sunglasses. “That would be helpful. Thank you.”
“What did your daughters see?” asked Al. “You said that the cameras didn’t pick anything up, but your girls must have seen something to get so riled up.”
Shannon nodded. “They did,” she spoke slowly. “I would rather they told you themselves, but… They say there was a man outside.”
“Did someone break in?” asked Lady. She couldn’t help herself. She was hungry for answers, maybe too hungry. Shannon looked at her like maybe she felt apprehensive about divulging more in front of her. Lady was trying to fi
gure out who murdered Lucette for her own personal gain. Not that anyone had even murdered Lucette. Lady just hoped they had. Which was a very dark thing to hope for. Lady was willing to admit to that.
“That’s the odd part,” Shannon said at last. “We do get some kids who sneak onto our grounds. I know our security cameras have picked local pranksters up at least twice over the years. I’m sure it’s happened more often than that. Not that we have a theft problem or anything of the sort. Anyway! The curious thing about this was the fact that the gate was open. You say it was open when you arrived as well. I find that curious. I distinctly recall closing it. I’ll have to ask the girls if they left it open when they get out here.”
“So, you think someone came through the front gate rather than sneaking in?” asked Dom.
“Creepy, isn’t it?” Shannon gave an overexaggerated shiver, rubbing her arms for effect. “I’ve seen some creepy stuff in my day, but I’ve never seen a creature in Dark Lake unlock someone’s front gate.”
“Um.” Lady looked around the wooden picnic table. “This might sound dumb, but… What if it isn’t supernatural? What if it’s just a person?”
“Oh, well the gate is very sturdy,” Shannon stated frankly. “I’d be surprised if someone forced their way in.”
“Well, I mean… how sturdy are ghosts?” Call her crazy, but Lady was still more willing to jump to a logical explanation. Not that she didn’t find the idea of a ghost interesting.
“You mentioned a man outside,” said Al, interjecting before things got off topic.
“Right.” Shannon nodded. “That’s what they said. I didn’t see anyone myself, of course. I was out with friends. They were trying to cheer me up. So sweet. Anyway, as I was saying, the girls said there was a man outside. You can ask them more about the specifics. Apparently, he called them on the home phone.”
“Can ghosts use phones?” asked Lady.
Shannon was quick to reply. “I never said it was a ghost.”
“Then can you, like, trace the call or look at the phone records or something?” Lady wasn’t sure if those were things that people actually did. She saw it done on TV, though. There had to be a modicum of truth to it, right? “Do you have a caller id?”
“That’s something else I found curious.” Shannon leaned forward, closer so that there was no doubt they could all hear her. “All the phones in the house are just there for, well, aesthetics. I mean, really, who uses a home phone anymore? We never used anything but our cells so we had the home line cut ages ago.”
“So… The phones don’t work and they…” Lady trailed off. She was beginning to feel a very real chill run up her own spine now.
“They were ringing anyway. Scared my poor girls half to death. They want to go out of town and check into a hotel. I might let them.” Shannon propped her chin in her hand and sighed wearily. “Not that I can join them. No. Someone has to stay and figure out what’s going on here. Never mind all this nonsense going on with my mother. They dug her up, can you believe that?” She suddenly seemed to remember who it was she was talking to. “Well, of course you do Al. Stupid me. I’m sure your son has told you everything.” She smiled when she said that, but it was another odd smile, like the one she had given Dom. Lady wasn’t sure how to read it.
“He has,” Al confirmed, not returning the smile and keeping her tone chilly. “Though there’s a limit to how much he knows. They brought in some people from out of town to have a look at the body.”
Shannon’s muscles tensed like she was wincing. It was difficult to tell behind the sunglasses. “They haven’t told me anything one way or another. I gave them my blessing, but if they found anything, I haven’t heard about it. I doubt they’ll find anything. Mother was in a bad way there at the end. I know it’s not right for me to say, but it was a bit of a blessing when she passed.”
“Oh?” Al’s icy facade cracked a little. Lady saw some of the usual warmth light up behind her brown eyes. “How so?”
“You know how she was. She was paranoid my whole life. It wasn’t so bad when I was a girl. She still went out, mingled with folks. I want to say she took to being a shut-in…” Shannon trailed off, tapping a finger against her bottom lip with a thoughtful, “Hmm.”
“You’d had your girls,” Al offered. “It was a while after that. I remember seeing her around town back then.”
“Oh, yes,” Shannon agreed. “It was definitely well after the girls were born. I want to say they were in high school perhaps.”
“Was it about six years ago?” Lady blurted.
Shannon turned her head to Lady. From the way her eyebrows rose, her eyes might have widened. “That sounds about right. How did you know?”
Lady knew because that was when the will had been written. “Just a guess,” she said, lamely. It didn’t sound convincing, but it was partly true. At least she didn’t have to answer any additional questions about it. Adora and Fabia picked that moment to come from the house.
“Ah! There are my girls!” Shannon raised an arm and waved it, dramatically flagging them down. “Over here, my dears!”
Lady still couldn’t tell the two sisters apart. One wore a thin, floral-print romper. The other wore pale pink shorts and a crop-top. They had both twisted their hair into up-dos and hidden their eyes behind sunglasses. Having seen one of the girls without make-up earlier, Lady could tell they’d at least taken the time to put on foundation and lipstick. Shannon had been correct in her assumption that they would stop to put on makeup first.
“I was in bed, you know,” complained one of the girls as they both unloaded glasses filled with a red liquid onto the table.
“You were both asleep until a little while ago from what I hear. Sounds like I’ll have to start waking you up earlier myself.” Shannon patted the empty spot on the bench beside her. “Sit. Tell these nice people what you saw. They came all the way because of you.”
“We didn’t ask you to call anyone,” complained the girl in the romper. “We just told you. We didn’t know it’d be… a thing.”
“Well, it’s a thing.” Shannon motioned emphatically to the bench. “Sit, sit.”
Both girls sat. There was a glass for everyone on the table and they both took one for themselves. Lady took one as well. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until she took her first sip. After that it was a struggle not to down the whole glass. A strawberry nearly choking her stopped that from happening.
“There are real strawberries in the lemonade,” explained Shannon.
Lady had realized that a little too late. She coughed. “Delicious,” she choked out.
“I agree.” Shannon took a small sip of her own. “Well, go on girls. Let’s not waste their time. Tell them what you saw last night.”
The girl in the romper looked to her sister. “Fabia saw something first.”
“I didn’t see something,” said the girl who must be Fabia. “I heard it first. There was a weird sound outside. I was in my room on my computer, and I thought I heard someone moving around outside.” Like her mother, she gave an over-dramatic shiver. “I called Adora and asked if she had heard anything.”
“You called her?” repeated Al, like that part hadn’t been in English and needed to be translated for her.
“Yeah, I called her. I didn’t want to walk all the way to her room, so I called her cell.” Fabia exhaled sharply. “Anyway, she said she hadn’t heard anything. Though, I’m not sure how she would have. She was blasting music.”
“I wasn’t blasting music,” Adora shot back in her own defense. “How could you hear a weird noise outside if I was blasting music?”
“Don’t argue,” warned Shannon, in a level tone of voice that said this sort of thing happened often. “Go on. What happened next?”
“I told Adora to come to my room and I looked out the window myself,” continued Fabia. “I was looking out the window when I hear a weird noise. Once it was a… what did you call it, Mom? A possum?” Fabia didn’t wait for an answer f
rom her mother. “Have you guys ever seen a possum?”
Lady looked to Dom and Al, not sure if Fabia was being serious. “Yes?” ventured Lady.
“I think everyone here has seen a possum,” Dom concluded for her.
“Creepy, aren’t they?” Another shiver from Fabia. “There weren’t any shiny little eyes looking up at me this time. There was a light.”
“Like a flashlight?” asked Lady, immediately jumping toward the most probable explanation again.
Fabia opened her mouth but no words came out at first. “That’s what I thought. I was about to call Mom and ask if there was supposed to be anyone outside working on the house.”
“Someone working on the house at night?” Lady found that hard to believe.
“I don’t know. I guess. Some people work all hours.” Fabia snapped when she spoke, giving Lady a clearer sense of the nasty girl Destiny said she and her sister could be. “That’s just what I thought it might be at first. I got a clearer look after that. It was someone glowing.”
Lady couldn’t help but think back to the graveyard, back to the luminous figure trudging along in the rain. “Where was it?” asked Al.
“Outside my window,” Fabia said, like the question was dumb.
“Where outside?” Al paused to take a sip of her own drink. “There’s a lot of ‘outside’ where you live. Can you be more specific? Was the thing you saw right under your window? Was it in the driveway?”
That question gave Fabia pause. “It wasn’t in the driveway. It was in front of the tree line but behind the bushes so that it was sort of hard to make out.”
“If it was hard to make out, how can you be sure it wasn’t a person with a flashlight?” asked Lady.
If Lady had to guess, she would say Fabia was glaring at her behind her glasses. “I know the difference between a flashlight and a… a glowing person, thank you very much.”
“If you say so.”
“Did you see anything?” Al asked Adora.
