30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Wilder Lee
I ’d need a degree in forensics to understand the language used in the report. I’m sure after perusing this for twenty minutes, that more fodder for my spells won’t be a good thing. I’m still recovering from the one I had in the kitchen this morning. A massive bruise is forming on my hip where I struck a drawer pull.
“It’s too bad that we never got to see what Carlotta had gathered together. Her ‘proof’.” Knowing that Grady is hiding something, bothers me. His own aunt thought he could be responsible for the drownings.
Remi stops giving rubs to Droolius looking up at me from where she’s squatted next to him. “Hemminger had said a false conclusion regarding cause and manner of death with the drownings would not be uncommon. That deaths associated with natural bodies of water can be particularly challenging due to the constantly changing environment of lakes.”
Homicidal. If Susanna Ross was killed, the likelihood that Sara and Katie were is high.
A knock at the door makes me wonder if I’ve conjured Grady by thinking about him as much as I have. The fucker has gotten under my skin. I’m relieved that it’s Ceily, my one-woman welcome committee, still delivering meals almost daily. “Here, let me help you.” I take the sagging aluminum pan covered with foil. Giving her my arm, to help her step over the raised threshold of the doorway. “What did you whip up today?”
I’m almost afraid to ask.
Ceily realizes that Remi is here, she presses her hands to her chest in surprise. “Sweet girl, look at you today.” She raises her eyebrows. “You have such a flair.” Then she turns back to me, I set her new concoction on the counter. “I made you gumbo, but I put my own spin on it.” Mhm, I’m sure she did.
We listen to Ceily as she tells us that her bowels have been giving her some trouble. “... it’s that silly group of old ninnies at quilting that have them all bound up.”
Remi looks ready to burst with laughter as she asks, “I thought you enjoyed your Wednesday morning quilting at St. James?”
“It’s changed since Carlotta doesn’t go. Just a bunch of flapping mouths engaging in character assassination. Instead, I’m starting a book club. We’re going to meet at Lakeside Park during that time. I’d love it if you joined me… both of you. You’re a reader, too, right, Wildchild?”
I’m spared answering by Remi, “He gets sick at Lakeside Park, from the vortex thingie. Could we do it at Hidden Treasures? We could clear out an area of the storage room.”
It’s hard not to notice the sweet way Remi is with Ceily. Their mutual adoration. Ceily spots the report scattered on the table, glancing at a few of the pages. She lowers herself into a chair, face going pale. “Carlotta could not stop asking questions about the drownings. I know it rubbed some people the wrong way but that was Lala, she caught wind of an injustice, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.”
That same persistence that Remi shares.
“Do you know why she started to look into them? Did she ever tell you?” my adorably tenacious girlfriend asks her.
“It all started when the Ross family came back to Lake Hollow a couple of summers ago. She helped them find a cabin rental on the southside. Spent a lot of time with Mary, Susanna’s mom. I can’t say beyond that.” I hadn’t been back to Lake Hollow since graduating three years ago, my past here was a stain on my psyche whether I wanted that or not. If Carlotta Marlow picked up on something odd, she’d look for answers.
What was it?
If it was the necklace, it doesn’t feel like enough. How does that point towards Cal, Charlie, or Grady?
Remi shows Ceily a trick she taught to Droolius, while I open a window, placing a fan near the dish she delivered, to push the fetid smelling air away. “Hey Ceily, did you know Jeremy Eiler or Mark Tullery?”
Those names only vaguely ring a bell for me. Eiler was four years older, Tullery three. I can’t picture their faces, and their names only mean something to me because they drowned in Lake Hollow.
Ceily answers, “Not personally. Jeremy worked at the Funpark; I remember that because the Gibsons did a water safety initiative in town after that. Mark Tullery? Mark…” She gives a shake of her head. “No, the name I’ve heard, but I just can’t remember anything else.”
They discuss a large collection of salt and pepper shakers that Ceily won in an estate auction, while I collect the pages fanned out on the table, trying to avoid looking at the autopsy photos.
Remi tells her all about the frogs Charlie and Cal gave her. Barely stopping to breathe… on and on. “... they have honest to goodness butt cheeks.” She claps her hands together in glee while Ceily chuckles.
Shuffling along to where I stand, Ceily extends her hands to both Remi and I. “Let’s pray.” Even though I take her hand out of respect for her beliefs, I’ve been agnostic for a while. Finding organized religion distasteful. I must be making a face since Remi jabs me with a finger to my back. Mouthing ‘no laughing.’ With our heads bent, each holding one of her hands, Ceily continues, “Lord, father, be with us on our paths, give us protection, enlighten what is dark in us, mend what is broken, strengthen what is weak, heal what is sick…” Her words lull me as Remi inches closer to my side, repeating the prayer to herself under her breath.
Before Ceily leaves she snaps her fingers, and announces, “I remember now, Tullery. I’m pretty sure he was a star on the high school baseball team.”
Loss. Grief deep enough to drown in.
A voice in the distance “... stop him. You have to stop him.”
I turn to see Remi at the end of her dock. Her face is confused.
Then I notice… the fear in her eyes
Hands go over her mouth.
“Stop him. Stop him.” I have to strain my hearing to understand, the feminine voice is repeating it like a chant.
Opening my mouth to yell for Remi, I’m not able to. Nothing comes out.
Crawling to the bathroom, I get sick in the bottom of the shower.
This vision is new. Terrifying and ominous. Remington is in danger. If I can put merit in the way it felt, and still feels after it ended. We’re going to lose her.