Chapter 19
The next day and on the following days, the kids went straight to their rooms, basically ignoring her when they came home from school or practice.
They ate and did anything she asked, but they seemed automated somehow, with everybody just going through the motions, waiting for something specific to happen.
It was driving Devon crazy. They were polite, but not friendly. They were here, but not really.
She didn’t even know how to talk to them anymore, or what to say, because the bombshells had been so huge that they would be forever emblazoned in her brain.
She wasn’t sure what anybody could expect out of her in this scenario.
Yet she had to do something, and the only thing she could really do right now was focus on the family who had been here before.
When her phone rang, and it was Madeline, her Realtor friend—or so she thought. Devon stepped out onto her back deck and answered, her tone hard, “What the hell?”
First came silence, then Madeline rushed in. “Look. I got your messages, and I can explain.”
“I sure as hell hope so.”
But the explanation shocked her into silence.
“What the hell!” she yelled. Devon couldn’t even form more words into a logical sentence.
“You’re saying that Tabitha told you about the house months ago?
That it was part of her extended family and that it would go cheap to me if I got there quickly?
Yet she couldn’t guarantee her family member would honor their agreement, but she hoped, given the circumstances, he would? Really?”
“Yeah, that’s about it. And sorry that I didn’t get back to you right away.
My mother was in a car accident, and I didn’t have much time for anything else.
I knew you were in the house already, and it was a hell of a good price.
So I figured that all was good on your end.
Honest to God, because of what Tabitha had told me previously and how quickly the deal went through, I didn’t think anything about it except to be so happy for both of you. It was a hell of a thing she arranged.”
“And you didn’t know about the murders?”
“No, of course not. I did check with the other Realtor, representing the sole heir, and she didn’t know either. Neither of us asked too many questions as it was a deal between family members.”
After that call, Devon texted the information to Camden, while her mind went around in circles.
At the end of the day she wanted more information on the family.
A lot more. But try as she might, it was incredibly hard to get any information on them.
She even went down to the library to investigate any of the microfiche and old newspaper records they had about the crime.
As it was, the librarian was almost as old as the building itself, and she remembered the crime. When Devon told her that she was looking for more personalized information, such as, what the family was like, the librarian stared at her for a long moment.
She finally responded, “That is not a name most people talk about.”
Devon continued. “I just found out … that the house I bought is the one that they were murdered in.”
The librarian stared at her in shock, and then quickly came out from behind the desk. “Oh my.”
“Exactly, so now … I’m trying to figure out if it’s safe, yet that makes me sound off my rocker.”
“No, not at all,” she replied. “I would be very hesitant to live in that house too. It’s always had bad vibes—or whatever you want to call it,” she muttered, with a nervous laugh, as she glanced around, almost as if she were afraid one of the ghosts of these murdered people might be here.
“Do you know anything about the murders?” Devon prodded.
“I lived here at the time,” the librarian noted, “so in a sense I do. Yet all I know, and all anyone could say at the time, was that the family was found dismembered, and nobody was ever caught.”
Dismembered. “Did they have any suspects?” Devon asked.
“I think the son, who supposedly didn’t live there anymore, was a prime suspect, but they had no proof. I know he spent a lot of his time alone, protesting his innocence, but he’s gone now too.” She looked at Devon and asked, “How did you get a hold of the house?”
“My Realtor reached out to me about it. I had just taken on the care of my best friend’s children,” she explained, “after she passed away from cancer. I agreed to take on her twins, but I was living in a small one-bedroom apartment. So, I was rather desperate for a more suitable place to hold all of us,” she added.
“My Realtor contacted me, told me it was a hell of a deal, but I would need to jump on it quickly if I wanted a chance at it. If I had known back then that it was the scene of some horrible multiple homicides,” she shared, her voice rising, “I probably would have passed.” She winced and whispered, “So, now here I am, and I’m a little freaked out. ”
“Yes, of course,” the librarian agreed, staring at her. “I don’t know that we have anything here on file about any of it,” she stated, glancing around, then back at her. “The internet would probably give you as much information as anything.”
“I know, but I was just hoping for something a little more personal than that. I mean, there would have been the usual write-ups, but, like, were the kids in soccer? Were there any hockey teams back then? I don’t even know why it matters, but it feels, if I’m living there, that somebody should care. ”
The librarian stared at her and then shuddered. “I’m certainly not against that attitude,” she said cautiously. “I just think you must ensure that you don’t end up going down that same road.”
She stared at her and swallowed. “You mean that I may get murdered myself?”
The librarian winced. “I never used to be superstitious,” she began, “but I have gone down that street, by that house a couple times, and the last time? I swear to God, something was chasing me, and I really had no clue what it was. However, it freaked me out so much that I haven’t gone up that street since. ”
“Oh gosh, I had no idea. I moved in, and it just seemed, I don’t want to say weird, but it just feels as if something is wrong there—and that’s before I heard about the murders.” Devon glanced around to confirm nobody heard them.
“Yeah, absolutely,” the librarian declared.
“Something is wrong. That whole house is something wrong,” she muttered.
“It should have been razed to the ground, but another family member inherited it apparently and then eventually sold it to you. I don’t know if it sat there empty as long as that or what. ”
“When I moved in, it didn’t seem that it was all that old. It’s like,” she hesitated and then whispered, “it’s preserved.”
The librarian winced and whispered back, “That’s an odd way to put it.”
“I agree. So do you know anything about the family?”
“I remember people saying that something was weird about the father. He was very controlling. I think he used to work at the mill, but I could be wrong there,” she added.
“You can’t quote me on that, but my understanding was that the kids were all bright, friendly, happy, and cheerful.
It was such a huge loss when people realized that everybody had been wiped out.
That’s what got to us. I mean, an entire family just wiped out, and nobody even knew why or how. ”
“And yet it couldn’t have been the father,” Devon muttered, frowning.
“No, he was killed too. We often wondered if he was the cause of it, as if he, in his less-than-stellar way, had pissed off somebody. Then what may have started off as punishing him ended up with a much bigger problem. Maybe the wife tried to intervene, and she got killed, and then the kids came home from school. It’s hard to imagine an entire family …
” She stared off in the distance. “All I can tell you is that it was absolutely a horrific time.”
“Of course,” Devon agreed. “How old were you at the time?”
“I was young. This was around fifty years ago,” she explained, “so I would have been about thirteen or fourteen at the time. And that was bad enough, but it’s all anybody would talk about for a very long time.
Suddenly an arrest would be made, and everybody would gather around it all over again, trying to figure out who the killer was.
Then the suspect would end up being released, either because it may not have been them or there was no proof.
We all assumed that it would end up being the son. ”
The librarian sighed. “He’d been the only one not there that day, and it was a well-known fact that he and his father didn’t get along very well.
Their father would send the kids to work various jobs, then take most of their paychecks when they got home.
For a young man growing up with that kind of family life, it would have been very rough. ”
“Yes, I can see that.” Devon winced. “It doesn’t seem that their home was filled with love, does it? Not if that is how he treated his own kids.”
“Exactly. How little love was there,” she muttered.
“That’s a good way to put it, and yet there had to be something holding it all together because the kids were still at home.
They were all still living there. Well, except for the one son maybe.
The girls were still going to school, and, for the most part, it seemed to everybody else that things were fine at home.
” She paused, then corrected herself. “However, I don’t know that they were fine.
That’s where we run into trouble because nobody really knows what happened before or after that event. ”
“Which is obviously quite scary too,” Devon murmured.
“Yes, exactly. There was just so much that we didn’t and still don’t know, and it ended up becoming a famous cold case. Normally I wouldn’t even discuss this, but the fact that you’re living in the house?” she noted in muted horror.
Devon winced again and nodded. “Yeah, imagine how I felt when I found out.”