Chapter 27
It’s impossible to miss the cinema (or ‘movie theatre’). Art deco, white and mint green with a large, curved marquee advertising the movies showing inside. Like everything else in Serenity Falls, it’s heavy on the retro pastiche. Even the films are caught in some kind of time warp:
She pushes open the double doors and lets out a sigh of appreciation as the cool air washes over her. She seems to be the only customer in here. To her left, the ticket booth is empty, and she can only spot one figure, with his back to her at the popcorn counter.
She walks up. ‘Err, excuse me. Are you open?’
The figure turns. ‘Yeah, sure … oh, it’s you.’
Dax. His straggly hair is scooped back into a small ponytail, and he wears a baseball cap and green-and-white uniform. Sadie is starting to think there are only about two dozen people in this town and she’s met them all.
‘You work here?’ Sadie asks.
‘Nah, I just dress up like this to get free popcorn.’
‘Okay. Stupid question.’
He shrugs. ‘I do some hours here in the school holidays. Most people want to be outside. Me, I’m happy in the cool.’
‘Me too,’ Sadie agrees fervently.
‘So, what are you here to see?’
‘Back to the Future.’
‘Classic. I got that one put on the bill.’
‘You couldn’t get anything newer?’
‘Believe me, I’ve tried. But the bosses like the old feel-goods. If you want something new, or violent or scary, you can drive out of town. People here – they’re kind of old-fashioned.’
Sadie rolls her eyes. ‘Yeah, I’m getting that feeling.’ She takes her card out of her wallet and then remembers her bracelet. ‘Can I pay with this?’
‘Yep. It gets added to your dad’s account. Under eighteen; you got a limit, though.’
‘Guess I won’t go on a spending spree. I’ll take a large popcorn and a Diet Coke.’
Dax fills up the popcorn and drink and then wanders back over with a card machine.
‘So, Ellis says you’re coming to the fair tonight?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Thought we might have scared you off?’
‘Not yet.’
‘But you don’t believe us about Frankie.’
Sadie thinks back to her chat with Stella. A puncture wound. Only ever seen one like it before.
Dax seems to take her hesitation as doubt. ‘Well, maybe reserve judgement till after tonight.’
‘Maybe I will.’ Sadie suddenly remembers something Ellis said. ‘You know quite a bit about Serenity Falls, right?’
Dax scratches at his head under his hat. ‘I guess.’
‘So, you know about the ghost houses.’
‘Ye-ah.’
‘You know the house across from ours. Home and Spry?’
He frowns, and then recognition spreads across his face. ‘You mean Cruellen’s house?’
‘Cruellen?’ Sadie queries.
‘Yeah, that’s what the kids used to call her, because she was mean – and her name was Ellen.’
‘How was she mean?’
‘Oh, just always complaining. Tried to ban balls in the park, have the curfew cut back to seven p.m. for teenagers. A real bitch.’
‘What happened to her?’
‘She just disappeared.’
‘And no one tried to find her? I mean, what if something bad happened to her?’
He gives her an odd smile. ‘In Serenity Falls? Nothing bad happens here.’
She stares at him, an echo running through her mind.
‘Nothing bad happens here. Not by accident.’
‘But you don’t believe that?’ she says.
Dax leans over the counter and lowers his voice. ‘Something Frankie said to me before he died – “If there’s never been a murder in Serenity Falls, that must mean everyone here is perfect, right?”’
‘Or?’ Sadie prompts.
‘Or someone is committing the perfect murders.’
He raises his eyebrows. She stares at him, and then they both jump as the cinema doors swing open, emitting a buzz of street noise. A young mum and a little boy walk in.
Dax straightens, hands her a ticket and says in a louder voice: ‘Screen 2 is to your right at the end.’