Page 83 of Eldritch

“Shit.” She’d forgotten to ask Clarice about an electrician to work on the cellar lights. She texted her and hoped Clarice would reply soon.

* * *

“He what?” Pauline said as they sat around the large kitchen table and ate salad for dinner.

“Taggert put a tracking device on the van,” Sybil said for the second time.

Maria pulled an angry face. “That asshole.”

Sybil hurried to explain and ended with, “We’ll see if Doug’s cop friend and Clinton have ideas of what to do about the guy.”

Letisha’s fork clinked as she stabbed at her salad. “I think you should call the sheriff’s department again and tell them what Taggert did with your car.”

Sybil frowned. “I want to see what Doug finds out.”

Pauline took a swig of her soft drink. “Well, don’t fall into an old pattern.”

Sybil stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth, surprised by one of those left hook statements that triggered primitive emotions inside Sybil.

Tell her off. Tell her off. Go ahead and let it hang out. Don’t be a coward.

Sybil threw a disgusted look at Pauline. “What are you talking about?”

Pauline stabbed a tomato. “It appears like you’re falling right into a relationship with Doug where he’s helping you with all the things. You could get dependent on a guy like that.”

Self-recrimination mixed with anger, and a surge of emotion flooded Sybil. She took one deep breath. Two deep breaths.

Keep it together.

Sybil kept her tone even as she forced herself to catch Pauline’s gaze and hold it. “I appreciate your concern. But I didn’t ask for your opinion about my personal life. Let’s just stick with work from now on, okay?”

Pauline’s mouth flopped open. She looked a little stunned, then her gaze dropped to her salad bowl. When Pauline looked up a moment later, her glare held ice. “Wow. You don’t need to come at it like that. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

The anger lifted a notch inside Sybil.

“People always say that when they mean something by it,” Sybil said. “Always.”

Sybil didn’t look at anyone else to gage their approval or disapproval. Just continued to stare at Pauline, hoping her glare was boring a hole in the woman.

A moment later, a creaking sound above them caused them all to look up.

The elaborate light fixture swayed. Enough to see, but only a whisper.

“What the…?” Letisha said.

Alarm bells chimed inside Sybil. Oh Sybil. Sybil. You’ve done it again, haven’t you? Spoke your mind.

“Earthquake?” Maria asked.

Sybil rolled her shoulders and eased the tension. She put down her fork as the light stopped moving. “No. I don’t think so.” Despite that, Sybil pulled up an official earthquake app on her phone. “Nothing showing on the earthquake tracker.”

Letisha looked at the ceiling again, then back at Sybil. Her mouth was tight. “Maybe we should have someone come in and look at the integrity of the house. There could be weird stuff going on Clarice isn’t privy to.”

Sybil nodded, forcing a smile to her lips. “I’ll text Clarice about it.”

Sybil sent off the text right away.

“So...” Letisha said casually as they waited to see if Clarice would respond. “Let’s make a game plan for how to tackle the rest of the cellar and the remaining cleanup we have. That way, it’ll go faster tomorrow.”

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