Chapter 22
By the time Devon got home that day, she was tired and quite snappy. The kids avoided her, giving her a long look as they seemed to take her measure as soon as she called them for dinner. And they just left her alone again.
Nobody had mentioned anything in the last week that would set anybody off, but obviously all the bombs had already been put into place.
It felt very much like they were just wondering when their mom would get around to changing this so that they could get on with their lives.
Devon hated even the thought of that because it just meant the twins were waiting not just for their mother to come back but for Devon to disappear so Tabitha could take possession of Devon’s healthy body.
She pushed her hair off her face, wishing somebody had something that would make sense here, but there was nothing. She didn’t even know what to say to the twins. Regardless, all three of them were going through the motions, knowing it was a waiting game.
These weren’t the kids she used to know. Not the kids she used to take back-and-forth and go to all kinds of events with. That relationship seemed to be permanently gone, and she mourned it.
She had such a strange sense of everything being wrong that she wasn’t even sure if what they had shared in the past had been authentic, or had they literally been planning for this since time began, and she was the only one who didn’t know?
Frustrated and angry, she stepped out onto the front lawn and pulled weeds along the edge of the gardens.
She needed something to destroy, something that would give her an outlet for her anger.
It was all so frustrating because she had no clue what she was supposed to do about this, and it was too far-fetched for her to even ask anybody.
If she ever mentioned this to any therapist, they would immediately lock her up.
As she worked away, one of the neighbors from the other side walked over with a smile on his face.
“Hey, you’re going at those weeds pretty hard.”
She looked over at him, nodded, and muttered, “Yeah, it’s been a tough day.”
“Hey, don’t mind me,” he said. “I just realized I hadn’t welcomed you to the neighborhood.”
She looked at him again and frowned. “We’ve exchanged waves before.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t terribly friendly,” he clarified, with an apologetic look at her. “And I am sorry about that.”
She shook her head. “It’s all right. I haven’t had two seconds to even think yet,” she shared. “I’m still just trying to get a handle on having a house to look after and everything that goes along with it.”
He nodded. “I didn’t even know it was for sale,” he muttered.
“No, I think it was done very quickly by the new owners,” she told him. “I understand there was some family inheritance transfer-of-wealth type thing, and they just put it up and sold it.”
“Seems as if it’s a good solid home for you.”
“I hope so,” she replied. “I have to admit it’s been quite a shock to my senses to have everything to deal with right now, but that’s okay.” She smiled at the older man. He had to have been in his sixties or maybe seventies. She was a poor judge of age. “Have you been around here long?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I was raised in the area. And then, you know, when it came time to settle, I just wanted to come back to what felt like home,” he explained. “Hence being here.”
She smiled, nodded. “That’s always nice. If the neighborhood was good enough back then, people would want to return to it.”
“It was a great place,” he said, “until …”
She stopped to face him and nodded. “Yeah, it’s that until part.”
“Have you heard about it?”
“Yes,” she confirmed, “but not until after I bought it.”
“Oh, ouch,” he muttered.
She nodded. “Not exactly the highlight of my first real estate purchase,” she noted, “but I took on my best friend’s two kids, after she passed away, and we desperately needed a place to live.
So, options were pretty limited. Even if I had known, I’m not sure I had another choice.
” She shrugged. “Sometimes life is just on the rough side.”
He stared at her and then agreed. “That’s a very valid point. Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do,” he stated. “Hopefully you got it for a good price, and you can handle everything that comes along with it.”
“Yeah, me too,” she replied.
He hesitated, as if he wanted to say more, but just then Camden drove up and parked. She lifted a hand and waved at him. She turned back to the neighbor, but he was already backing up.
With a smile, he added, “I’ll see you around sometime.” And, with that, he was gone.
Nothing was suspicious about his visit, as it appeared to be a typical one-off. Hey, nice to see you. Welcome to the neighborhood. I really don’t plan on talking to you much. This is my one token of being friendly.
She half laughed at herself for that because she didn’t know anything about the person he was, so that perception was just her instinctive reaction to neighbors.
She’d seen enough of them over the years to realize that most of them didn’t want anything to do with anybody either.
There was just something about peace and quiet and privacy that went a long way.
When Camden walked over to see her, she brushed her hair back for the second time, wishing she’d brought a scrunchie out with her to somewhat hold back her auburn hair. But instead, it seemed to have a mind of its own right now. She sighed at him.
“Hey, tough day?” he asked.
“Aren’t they all,” she murmured, as she stared at him, “especially now.”
He didn’t say anything about that but nodded. He glanced at the neighbor, who was even now still walking away. “Did Jerry come over and introduce himself to you?”
“Kinda. I’m not sure he told me his name though. This is the first time I’ve officially met him,” she shared. “I mean, we’ve waved in passing, you know, but I haven’t really seen him much.”
Camden nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that’s a pretty-good description of him. I’ve seen him around a couple times, but I haven’t ever gotten very friendly with him. I don’t know what his story is.”
“I don’t think he particularly cares to share,” she offered, with a smile. “I got the feeling it was literally a case of Hey, this is my pseudo-friendly welcome-to-the-neighborhood visit, and, other than that, see you around.”
He grinned. “I’m sure most would agree with that.”
“Exactly.” She gave him a big smile. “I mean, being friendly is one thing, but being too friendly? That’s definitely frowned upon.”
He laughed. “Did you eat?”
“Yeah, we did.”
“And how did that go?”
“Like living with roommates who don’t like each other,” she stated.
“Very strange. I mean, they come in, they eat, they do what I tell them to do, and then they go upstairs. It’s all about this whole bloody waiting game.
” Fussing with her hair again, she added, “It’s so unnerving, and I don’t get much sleep.
I am wondering about the eldest Herschel girl’s boyfriend though. ”
“Yeah, I am too,” he concurred. “And I did speak to a couple people at the old folks’ home today.
Essentially, although the father was somebody not a lot of people got along with, apparently their marriage was decent.
She was the kind of person who married for life.
I spoke to a woman who was one of her best friends, and she shared that there were some issues with the eldest daughter, only in that the daughter was heading off into boyfriend territory but wasn’t being forthcoming about him.
Mom was worried that the daughter would get into trouble, get pregnant, and all that good stuff.
But there was no confirmation of a particular boyfriend or any particular suspects. ”
He sighed, then continued. “It was a very new romance apparently. And the mom was always trying to keep a handle on her. This eldest daughter was to set the example for the others.”
“Oof, I can’t imagine, especially back then,” Devon pointed out. “Oh, and the mom, she was known for being into tarot, psychic intuition, and all that good stuff.”
“So, you heard about that too?”
“Yes. One of my patients today made a comment about getting readings from Wendy a lot, but she never really trusted it after the murders happened. After all, if the mom had no inside knowledge that something was wrong, Sarah decided it was probably all fake—despite the fact that all Wendy’s predictions for Sarah were correct. ”
Camden grimaced. “It’s interesting because the woman I talked to, Melanie, Wendy’s best friend supposedly, or at least one of Wendy’s friends, shared that Wendy kept getting an answer that she didn’t like with the tarot cards, and Melanie had argued with Wendy about her conflicting rules when it came to tarot.
” At Devon’s frown, he clarified, “Whether operator error or the cards were just wrong. Thus they’d had that discussion a few times. ”
“Interesting,” Devon muttered. “So maybe Wendy was getting messages that were not clear but were worrisome, and she didn’t know how to deal with them.”
“It’s possible. I don’t know. … That’s a question we’re not likely to ever get an answer to,” he noted, with a sigh.
“I also spoke with the cop who did the welfare check. When I pressured him a bit, he had a panic attack and definitely didn’t want to deal with me very much.
I went back to see him a second time, but he’d already gone to his room and didn’t want any visitors.
So, I’ll go back tomorrow to have another talk with him.
One of the things that Melanie told me was about rumors that he had passed out when he saw the scene, and nobody really knows what he may have seen or may have missed because of that. ”
“You mean, he fainted?” Devon asked, frowning.
“Apparently, at least that’s what she was implying.”