Page 19 of Sour Layer

Chapter 11

“Well, are you picking up on anything?” Clark asked.

I rested my hand on my chest as I slowly backed up. “Darkness that changes faces.”

Clark’s brows dipped. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

“Forensics thoroughly went over the room. They didn’t find anything.”

I didn’t have an answer for him. It wasn’t like I could prove what I’d seen. The whole property felt somehow…off. “I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe one of your Bennetts can help. If not, my sisters and my aunt will.”

Clark folded his arm over his chest and rested his elbow on it while rubbing at the stubble on his chin. “Of course, you’d suggest one of them. You want to meet with them again.”

I shrugged. There was no hiding the fact I needed more details to tell my sisters and my aunt. We needed something other than just my word that they did exist and didn’t want anything to do with us. “I wouldn’t mind, but only after I check the rest of the house, first.”

Clark stepped out of the doorway and let me go through the house at my own pace. It wasn’t until we were in the cellar that the darkness returned with a vengeance.

The energy in the room swirled around me, confusing me. Darkness in the bedroom upstairs was nothing compared to what was down in the basement. Clark would think I was crazy to believe that this was some kind of evil I’d never experienced before.

Stone walls surrounded the space.

“I wasn’t expecting everything down here to be stone when the house is a log cabin.”

“The original structure that was here was made from stone. The Lynnfield’s purchased the property from the state a year ago and demolished the original building that was here.”

Could be that I was picking up on some type of energy that had been on the property even before the Lynnfield’s called it home.

“Your family founded this town. What can you tell me about the original building?”

“A recluse who lived off the grid used to own the cabin. Some rumors claim he was a criminal hiding from the law, and other rumors claimed he was just a mad old geezer. He died in the old structure. The towns’ people believed the man was certifiable. He never came into town. He’d shoot at anyone who ventured onto his property, claiming he was protecting what was his. The town assumed he was hoarding riches.”

“He sounds like an ornery cuss.”

“Oh, he was that,” Clark said, moving farther into the room. “There was an explosion three years ago, and we came out to check on him because we were worried about an avalanche. Come to find out, he’d put dynamite in the ground to blow up a space big enough for him to hide a stash of supplies.”

“Wow,” I said, resting my hand on the wall.

“So, what else do you need to tell us what happened?”

“I’d like to see the rest of the property,” I said, following him back up the stairs. “Is that doable?”

He didn’t answer until we’d made it back to his pickup truck. “Can you tell me the reason you want to see the property? Is it just to appease your curiosity, or are you thinking there might be answers the house isn’t telling?”

I hooked my seatbelt over my chest and clicked the clasp into the buckle as I stared up at the house that looked like it could be on the cover of any magazine. There was darkness about the structure. Bones that could be felt. The houses’ energy felt terribly wrong. “There’s something dark about that house. Either the Lynnfield’s weren’t the saints you thought they were or there is an evil lingering from the previous owner of the land.”

“How about we focus on finding the girls?” Clark started the truck and pulled down the long bumpy driveway.

“To get to the girls, I need bones to see how the parents died. I need something to go on.” Aggravation seeped into my voice. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t like not being able to help. “If the other Bennetts can’t track, one of my sisters will.”

“You expect them to drop what they’re doing and fly into the frigid north just because you asked?”

My lips twisted. “Well, yes. Technically all but one. She’s going to die on a plane one day, so she avoids them at all costs, but she would drive, I have no doubt.”

Clark gave a quick shake of his head as if needing time for my words to seep in. “One of your local relatives should be able to help.”

“Really?” I sounded a bit more excited than I should have.

“Yeah, but don’t get your hopes up. He’s not very friendly.”