Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers (36 page)

“I’m fine,” she finally croaked. “I’m OK, I just had a dream about Lola and I had to come.” The girl lied, which now seemed to be an action that was becoming a part of her normal life.

“Oh, honey.” Mrs. Rusher sighed. “Do you want some tea?” Mrs. Rusher asked. “No. Can I go up to Lola’s room for a minute?” Regina asked, skipping the common courtesies and racing to the point. Mrs. Rusher narrowed her eyes in concern.

“Are you sure that is such a good idea?” she asked as her head unconsciously cocked to one side.

“I just need to be close to her for a moment. That’s all,” Regina explained. Mrs. Rusher’s better judgment advised against it, but her heart told her to allow the girl to go to the place that compelled her and she waved her hand up the stairs in a go-ahead to Regina. Unsteadily, Regina began up the stairs.

The phone rang and rang, but there was no answer. At the sound of the answering machine Mrs. Rusher hung up the phone and dialed again, but got the same result.

Ringing penetrated the Dean house, but there was no one there to answer the phone, there was nothing but darkness with the occasional flashes of searing white light that illuminated the house with schizophrenic timing as the storm brooded toward them.

“No answer,” Mrs. Rusher said to her family as they sat in the living room watching her, they looked toward the ceiling where they heard Regina creeping softly into the room of the dead girl.

Regina wrapped her hand around the doorknob and pushed the door open. The room was dark, except for the closet light that gave a dull orange hue. Regina went to the window where she got on her knees and peered out at the same view that Lola had marveled for sixteen years. Regina watched the naked trees sway in a seductive dance that welcomed the rain. She laid across the bed and felt the thick cotton mold to the curves of her back. The closet light drew her eye and seemed to spotlight on the clothes hamper.
Her mind rewound rapidly to the last time that she was in this room and she scrambled over the bed and knocked the hamper to the side, she pulled up the carpet and removed the loose floorboard. Regina pushed through all of the miscellaneous photos, papers, and trinkets until she found what she had been looking for, the journal. She opened the journal and rediscovered the same letters in white envelopes with the crimson hearts decorating them. She opened one of the letters and her eyes moved across the words on the paper in critical analyzes. The words on the paper stabbed her and the blade turned violently every time she came to the end of the letter and read the signature that was anteceded with the same closing each time,
All my love…forever
. She read the next letter and the next and they were all the same; testaments of obsession and worship to the point of idolatry. He had been on the verge of stalking Lola and her best friends had never even known it. In the letters he spoke of how he watched her, followed her, how much he loved her, how much he wanted nothing more than to be with her. This was more than a high school crush, dangerously more. Regina knew no one anymore, everyone was a stranger. She was guilty of so many things and this was another. Lola
had
been trying to tell her something before she died; something that Regina had simply brushed off with a laugh. Regina continued reading through letter after letter of the same adulation. She shoved the letters into her bag and ran out of the room, not bothering to conceal the hiding place. The woman yelled a quick good-bye to the family as she scrambled down the stairs and darted out of the house. Within seconds the only thing in the night air was the echo of Regina’s squealing tires as she shot off into the night to the home of her newest suspect.

T
he land around Barron’s home was murky and haunted by the imaginary shadows that bordering a cemetery usually causes onlookers to see. The rain was just beginning to shower as Regina pulled her father’s car into the cement drive in front of the house. Regina felt her heart beating furiously, her stomach began to cramp with anxiety. In the car she took several deep breaths before opening the door, the girl closed her eyes and sucked as much air as possible into her lungs, pushing the air down through her entire body, and then allowing it to come up out of her mouth again. There were several breaths before she felt the beat of her heart returning to a normal pace. Regina pulled her hood over her head, stepped out of the car and started fast toward the door. As she approached the small cement porch steps in a rapid jog, the door flew open and Barron emerged from the darkness and charged her. She screamed and her body stiffened to a halt. Barron purposely stumbled himself so as not to cause a head on collision.

“Regina?” he called as he squinted his eyes, trying to see clearly in the night. “Barron, I need to talk to you.” she yelled to be heard over the gentle shower that was quickly mutating into a roaring storm. Behind him, a girl came tumbling out of the door in a yellow rain coat. Regina realized that it was not a girl, but a woman.

“Regina,” Barron’s mother smiled at her.

“Mrs. Forte,” Regina offered a weak smile.

“I have wanted to see you, but I can’t talk now or I’ll be late for work.” Mrs. Forte gave her a quick squeeze and scampered off toward her truck.

“Open the door, Barron, and hurry up.” Mrs. Forte yelled back to him. Barron pointed a handheld black device toward the truck and then Regina heard a clicking sound.

“Just go inside and wait for me. I have to drop my mother off at the hospital and I’ll be right back.” Barron told her. She wanted to yell, “No! Stop!” but everything happened so quickly that Regina barely found the time to nod her head. She ran up unto the porch and into the lightless house.

Regina fingered the walls looking for the light switch in the living room. She ran her palms against both sides of the entryway to the living room, but still the switch escaped her. In the flashes of lightning, she was able to make out a lamp, she went over and turned the little black knob, which washed the room in depressing amber light. Regina couldn’t help but smile remembering all of the fond memories that had been created in this house with Barron. Endless nights of being sprawled out across this floor, claiming to do homework, but really just flirting for hours on end. Regina noticed that Mrs. Forte had gotten new carpet and furniture, but the wood paneled walls remained. Regina peeled off the wet sweater that stuck to her skin. She sat on the couch and thought of turning on the television, but decided that the incessant, brainless chatter of that idiot box would only make her more nervous about the confrontation that lay ahead of her. How could she tell Barron that she thought his little brother might be a murderer?

A persistent rain pounded the tired earth now and she worried about Barron and hoped that he would be OK and even more importantly, that he would return quickly. She was cold and beginning to get frightened by the strange familiar surroundings. As the shadows began to play hide and seek among the knick knacks and books that covered the shelves, she realized that she had never been alone in this house. Creaking floorboards whined in the hallway, her breath froze dead away inside of her throat and she held it so as not to make a sound. She saw movement in the dark hallway; something was bobbing up and down, a long object, brown; a bat. Her breath expanded inside of her throat choking her as she tried to scream. In the next moment, Carter’s face came into the light and he drove straight toward Regina holding the weapon high above his head. Regina jumped upon the back of the couch
and threw up her arms to protect her from the tremendous blow that was about to land on her head.

“CARTER NO!” she screamed as she lost her balance, falling off the back of the couch and into the window frame that was just behind the sofa.

“Regina?” she heard him call out. Her eyes popped open and she saw Carter standing only inches from her, the bat lowered.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, his features tightened in irritation, his eyes tired with sleep. “Barron is not here, he took my mother to work.” Carter informed her.

“I know,” she said, finally able to regain her breath. “I saw him as he was leaving. He told me to come inside and wait for him.”

“Well I’m glad someone told me.” Carter added sarcastically. “I was about to kick your ass.” Carter held out his hand and pulled her back onto the couch.

“Sorry,” Regina responded meekly. “I didn’t know you were here,” she told him. He sat down and let the bat fall to the floor, it rolled around aimlessly and seemed harmless compared to the lethal weapon it had been just moments before.

“What are you doing here?

“I needed to talk to Barron.”

“About what?” Carter inquired. Regina could feel the heat rising up in her face and she felt uncomfortable with Carter being so close to her. Regina clutched the bag that held Carter’s idolatrous letters a little more tightly to her body, trying her best to keep him from noticing that she was treasuring the bag.

“I just need to talk to him.” Regina restated.

“Is it about Lola?” Carter asked, intrigue filling the lines of his young face.

Regina studied him, but he was blank and it worried her.

“Lola? Hmm…well …” Regina was stalling for time to think, but it was useless, her throat was dry and her eyes felt as if they had been rubbed with beach sand.

“What have you found out? You know something, don’t you?” Carter asked.

“Nothing,” Regina lied. “Nothing.” She lied again.

“Hmmm,” Carter reflected upon his own mysterious thoughts before he rose from the couch and bent to pick up the bat. He turned to face Regina eyeing her meticulously as he tightened and loosened his grip on the handle of the wooden stick.

“Well, I’m going back to bed. I have not been feeling good since the wake,” he said as he lumbered out of the room. Regina let out a deep sigh, instinctively she put her hand to her chest and she could feel her heart pounding relentlessly. She sat silent and still for several seconds anticipating Carter’s climactic and violent return. When she heard nothing, she grabbed her bag and sweater and shot out for the door when it burst open and the wind of the vespertine storm howled into the house.

“It is crazy out there,” Barron announced as he struggled to shut the door behind him with a pizza box in one hand.

“What took you so long?” Regina asked impatiently.

“The roads were a mess and I stopped to get food. What’s wrong?” Barron asked. Regina looked up the stairs into the complete black of the second floor to see if Carter was there glaring down on her angrily, but he was not.

“I’m fine.” She sighed, forcing herself to calm down. With Barron there, she felt safe. He followed her into the living room where they sat on the couch, he flipped the pizza box open and grabbed a slice of the thin crust pepperoni pizza and drove it into his mouth. He finished his first slice before he spoke again. Barron grabbed a napkin and began wiping his hands.

“So what is so important? Did you find out anything new?” Barron asked. Regina sighed and pressed her fingertips into her eyes lightly.

“Barron, I don’t even know where to begin. I have heard Nikki’s explanation about the picture with Glen DeFrank, but it still freaks me out. I have never fully retired all of my suspicions about Natalie and today we went to the site on the DeFrank estate where Lola’s body was found.” She told him. Barron nearly spit the garble of chewed pizza that he had in his mouth unto the coffee table. He swallowed hard to finish what remained.

“What?” He spat. “You went there alone? I can’t leave you alone for a minute!” He sounded upset.

“No.” Regina moaned as she sank unto the couch next to him. “I went with Natalie and Nikki and guess who we saw?”

“Lola,” He responded mischievously.

“Barron!” Regina shouted. “This is not funny!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Barron said, but unable to wipe the grin away from his face fully.

“Eden,” Regina told him.

“Eden? Who?” he questioned.

“Eden DeFrank,” Regina confirmed.

“She was DeFrank’s sister, right?” He said.

“She
is
DeFrank’s sister and she told us that she knew about what her brother had done to us, but she defended him against the accusations about Lola’s murder. She said that he was a lot of things, but not a murderer,” Regina explained.

“Well what do you think she is going to say, Regina? Hi, my name is Eden and my brother is a child molester and a murderer? That’s only a good icebreaker if you’re attending an AA meeting. She is going to say whatever she has to say to defend that monster of a brother of hers,” Barron explained to Regina.

“But why? He’s dead. Why would she come back to confront us now if she didn’t feel so strongly about it?” Regina wanted to know.

“And I think she is the person that has been following me and the person that attacked me yesterday.” she added.

“What? You think it was her? We need to go to Sheriff Handow.” He stood up.

“No, no, please. I can’t prove anything, she didn’t actually say that it was her, I just feel that it was and besides I am still not ready to get the sheriff involved.”

“But if she is dangerous …”

“No, please, Barron.” Regina cut him off. Defeated he retook his seat on the couch.

“Why did she come back now just to tell us that?” Regina persisted.

“Regina, who knows? She’s probably a psycho like her brother; psychosis is genetic, you know,” he told her. Regina wanted to tell Barron about the things that she had discovered about the Waterford explosion, but she thought better of opening up an entirely new topic of events that would just make the situation more complicated. Already, Barron must have thought that she had become odd over the years and since it did not lead to helping directly solve any of the immediate problems, she decided that it was probably best to keep the story of the voodoo gas, as Natalie called it, to herself for now.

“I suppose,” Regina stated.

Regina’s palms were dampening as she tried to muster the courage to confront Barron with the true reason for her visit. She cleared her throat as she reached into the bag that rested in her lap and pulled out the handful of letters that she had stolen from Lola’s secret stash and tossed them on the table next to Barron’s pizza.