Chapter 39
‘So, what do we do?’ Ellis asks.
Sadie stares at her. ‘Talk to Father Miller?’
‘No way.’ Ramona shakes her head. ‘That dude gives me the creeps.’
‘He’s not going to tell a bunch of kids anything,’ Dax says.
‘And he’s going to want to know why we’re asking,’ Ellis adds. ‘Plus, he might tell our parents.’
‘Oh, man. My dad would freak,’ Ramona mutters.
Sadie rolls her eyes. ‘So, what do you want to do?’
They all fall silent. The former excitement has faded. What do they do? Who do they talk to?
‘Maybe we should just take this to the police.’
Ramona shakes her head again. ‘Jerry won’t do shit.’
Sadie has only met Jerry twice, but she would have to concur.
‘Maybe we should just sit on it for a bit,’ Dax suggests. ‘Think about a strategy. I mean—’
He breaks off. The librarian from the front desk is approaching their table. Freya. A waft of sweet perfume billows over them.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she says. ‘But the library closes from twelve today, so I’m going to have to ask you all to leave in a few minutes.’
‘Can’t we stay a little longer, Miss Green?’ Ramona asks. ‘I mean, I work here. I can keep an eye on stuff.’
‘Well, that’s very kind, Ro, honey. But I’m afraid not.’
She smiles lopsidedly and then her gaze falls on the papers spread out on the table. Sadie shuffles them towards her, covering them with her arm. ‘We’re probably done here for now.’
‘No problem.’ Freya nods and pads away again. Sadie watches her.
‘I probably should have mentioned her face, right?’ Ramona says.
‘What, no. I mean, it’s fine. What happened?’
‘Dunno exactly. Something to do with an accident with a kettle.’
‘Right. Well, she seems nice.’
‘Yeah,’ Ellis says in an odd tone.
‘What?’
Ellis shrugs. ‘I don’t know. I don’t really like her. Nothing to do with her face. Just, it’s like she’s too nice.’
‘Ellis doesn’t trust nice people,’ Dax says.
‘Don’t know what that says about us,’ Ramona adds with a grin.
Ellis nudges her in the ribs.
Dax checks his phone. ‘I should head, anyway. I’ve got a shift at the cinema.’
Ramona nods. ‘Yeah. I promised my little sister we’d hang out.’
Ellis checks her watch. ‘Yup. Dad will be making lunch.’
Sadie picks up the documents. ‘So, who wants to look after these?’
There’s a silence. She’s pretty sure everyone is thinking about Frankie and Cash. Both dead.
‘I can take them,’ she says. ‘If you all trust me?’
They exchange glances.
‘Sure,’ Dax says. ‘I guess.’
Ramona nods. ‘Fine by me.’
‘I’ll walk with you,’ Ellis says to Sadie. ‘I’m heading your way.’
‘Okay.’
Sadie shoves the documents in her bag, trying not to feel like she’s just been made the sacrificial lamb.
She strolls with Ellis back through the park by the lake.
‘Sorry I’ve got to desert you,’ Ellis says. ‘My dad just gets a bit needy at times, especially as it’s just us.’
‘What happened to your mum?’
‘Cancer.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah. I was really young. I don’t remember much. I mean, I remember Mum, but I don’t really remember her being ill. I think Dad tried to protect me. But I kind of wish I’d known more. It felt like one day she was there, and then she wasn’t.’
Sadie nods. ‘I get that.’
‘Yeah?’
‘My mum really was there one day and gone the next. She just walked out, disappeared.’
‘Shit. That’s kind of worse.’
‘I’m pretty sure she’s dead. Maybe she killed herself or something. They searched the river nearby, but …’ She breaks off. ‘Dad found it hard to let go. I mean, he’s great. A brilliant dad, but he can be … overprotective. That’s kind of how we ended up here.’
Ellis frowns. ‘Why? What happened?’
Sadie hesitates. She’s not spoken to anyone about what happened with Decker. She clears her throat. ‘If I tell you, promise you won’t tell the others.’
‘Of course. I promise.’
‘Okay. About a year ago, there was some shit with this boy at my school. James Decker. I was invited to a party. I drank a bit too much. Decker, he got me in his room – said he was going to show me his virtual reality headset.’
‘That’s a line.’
‘Yep.’
‘Anyway, he tried to, you know—’
‘Shit.’
‘I pushed him off and got away. Ran out of the house, called Dad.’ She swallows, remembering how she had felt so ashamed, so stupid.
Dad had taken in her dishevelled clothes and red eyes, the finger marks on her arms. Then he had driven her home, made her a hot chocolate, wrapped her in a blanket and waited for her to tell him what she needed to.
When she did, he suggested she go to the police but understood if she didn’t want to.
‘It was my word against Decker’s,’ she says to Ellis. ‘That’s what the police said. And they made me feel like I was wasting their time.’
‘Was this asshole at your school?’ Ellis asks.
‘Yeah. Not in my class, but Dad taught him. He went to speak to the headmaster … but Decker’s parents got there first and demanded I apologize for making false accusations.’
‘Fuck, man. So, what did your dad do?’
Sadie smiles. ‘Punched Decker’s dad in the face, told him to stick his apology up his arse, and also that his son was using ChatGPT to write his essays and he’d be failing him on all his coursework.’
Ellis’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Wow. What happened?’
‘Decker moved to another school and my dad got suspended.’
‘Oh.’
‘I didn’t find out right away. I thought he was just taking some time off. But yeah. That’s why we had to make the move here. No money, no job, no home.’
Ellis nods slowly. ‘That’s rough. But … I think it’s good you’re here.’
‘You do?’
‘Yeah. We need more freaks here.’
Sadie laughs. ‘Right.’
‘And I mean that in a good way.’
They stare at each other. They’ve reached a shaded part of the path, quiet. Ellis moves a little closer. It feels like a moment … and then Ellis’s phone buzzes.
‘Shit.’ She fumbles it out of her pocket. ‘Sorry,’ she says apologetically, lifting it to her ear. ‘Hi, Dad! Yes, I’m on my way back. Okay. Yeah. Burritos sound good. Great. See you soon.’
She pockets the phone. ‘I’ve got to go—’
‘No worries. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Yep.’
Ellis jigs on her toes, looks as if she’s about to say something else, then suddenly turns and skitters away. Sadie watches her go and grins.
She checks her own phone. No messages from Dad or anyone else.
She adjusts her rucksack. The documents inside rustle.
Part of her really wants to talk to Dad about them, but that feels like she’s betraying Ellis and her friends.
Of course, not telling Dad makes her feel bad for hiding stuff from him.
If half of what the group suspects is true, then it’s crazy shit. Murder, people disappearing. Dad would have to take it seriously, and maybe they could leave. She knows that Dad thinks this place is a freakshow too. He just doesn’t want to admit it.
Because he doesn’t want to fail you again, Sadie. This is his chance to make everything right, and he can’t admit it’s a bust.
Sometimes, Sadie thinks, the worst part about growing up is understanding that your parents are just as shit scared of everything as you are. They have no plan, they’re just bumbling along, pretending they know what they’re doing.
She wanders up the path, out of the park. She looks around. The street is deserted, almost eerily so. No people, no cars. She supposes it’s midday, hot, a lot of people will be in work. But still.
Then she realizes she can hear something.
Music. She looks to her left. There’s an ice-cream van parked a short distance up the street.
Identical to the one she saw the other night.
Pink cones poking out the front like horns, bright cartoon characters along the side.
The music is tinkling out of a speaker on the roof.
It takes her a moment to place the tune:
Stars shining bright above you,
Night breezes seem to whisper, ‘I love you,’
Birds singing in a sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me.
For some reason a chill snakes down her back. The windows of the ice-cream van are dark. She can’t see if there’s anyone inside. No one is queuing for cones. The van simply sits there, music tinkling out in that tinny, distorted way.
She swallows. It’s stupid, irrational, but she doesn’t want to walk past it. So, instead of turning towards home, she walks in the opposite direction, away from the town. She tells herself she’ll double back when the van is out of sight.
At the corner of the street, she glances back.
The ice-cream van has pulled off, heading in the same direction as her.
She walks a little faster, crosses the road and takes a left along another residential street.
She can hear the tinny music behind her.
Okay. She stops and waits for the van to pass.
She looks back. It’s stopped the exact same distance away.
Panic starts to clog her chest. She hurries along, thinks about knocking on the door of one of the houses, but what’s she going to say – I’m being stalked by an ice-cream van?
Plus, the residential streets are starting to dribble out, replaced by business premises and apartments.
And there’s still no one else about. The tarmac wavers under the glare of the sun and the white buildings shimmer in the heat, like a mirage.
She spots a set of pedestrian lights ahead.
She hurries up to them and hits the button even though there’s no traffic.
The van crawls towards her. The lights change to red.
The van slows and stops. Sadie takes her chance and sprints down the street and around the next corner.
There’s an alleyway between two apartment buildings on her left.
She darts in and crouches down behind a large green industrial bin.
She hears the music from the van grow louder as it drives past and then slowly fade away.
She waits, trying to breathe through her mouth to avoid the sour smell of the rubbish bin.
Eventually, she can’t hear the music any more.
She straightens and walks to the entrance of the alleyway.
She pokes her head out and peers up and down the street. Empty. The ice-cream van has gone.
She lets out a breath. Shit. Sweat coats her body, her clothes are sticking to her like clingfilm.
What the freaking fuck was all that about?
She steps out of the alleyway. She doesn’t even know where the hell she is.
She gets out her phone to call her dad. It goes to voicemail. Jesus. Of course. Just perfect.
She looks around. Across the road is a two-storey building painted tastefully in light grey with bright flowers in tubs outside.
A sign hanging above the door reads: Serenity Funeral Care – here for you in your time of need.
There’s a second door a little further along.
A much smaller sign reads: Coroner’s Office and Morgue.
Stella. Her van is parked in a bay outside the building. She could go and talk to her, Sadie thinks. Maybe even call Dad from there. Get him to come and pick her up.
She’s about to cross the street when the door to the coroner’s office opens and a man steps out. Instinctively, or maybe because she’s still a bit twitchy, Sadie steps back into the shadows of the alleyway.
The man’s back is to her, but she can see he’s wearing maintenance overalls and a baseball cap, blond hair poking out from underneath.
No, it can’t be.
Stella places a hand on the man’s arm, says something and closes the door. The man turns and ducks his head to light a cigarette, face shadowed by the cap. Sadie holds her breath. Look up, she thinks, show me your face. And then he does, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
Fuck.
Nothing in Serenity happens by accident.
Larry Broom.