Page 66 of The Whisper Place
The girl swayed. “I dunno where he is.”
“Did he go out?” I tried to see past her, to sense anyone else inside the house. Silas didn’t seem like the type to let someone else do his talking. Maybe he was gone. But something stuck in my head as the girl kept muttering and swearing at us. Her lethargy bubbled and rolled, the anger piercing through a cloud of fuzzy euphoria. This girl wasn’t tired. She was high.
Charlie sensed it, too. Thank god for drug dealers. He switched his approach and pulled a joint out of his pocket. “I’m sorry to bother you. Here, take this for your trouble. We just want to know a few things about—”
A scream tore through the morning. Jerking, I spun around, trying to see where it came from.
“Did you hear that?” But the look on Charlie’s face gave me the answer. The scream was in my head.
Max.
Leaving them gaping, I sprinted around the house and across the dirt yard. Outside the low outbuilding, Silas stood on top of Max with a shotgun shoved practically down his throat.
“Stop!” I had no weapons, no backup, and no chance of getting there in time if Silas decided to pull the trigger. I pulled my phone out and hit the camera button. “Silas! I’m recording this, okay? Max isn’t trying to hurt you. He’s not stealing from you or damaging your property. We’re just here to—”
“Trespass. Breaking and entering. I should shoot you both right here.”
The camera shook as I got closer. Max was sprawled on the ground, his face bright red. Behind me, Charlie and the girl caught up, both panting and gripped with sudden dread at the scene in front of them.
“Grandpa, what the hell?”
“Get in the house.”
“But—”
“Maybe you’re the ones who’ve been stealing from me.” He shoved the barrel of the gun hard into Max’s face, his finger poised on the trigger. “The other night when you came, my pills were gone. You’ve been pretending to look for his girlfriend, thinking it would get you on my property to take what’s mine.”
Max tried to deny it, but the gun pressed harder on his face, turning his argument into mangled sounds. A flush of guilt swelled behind me, a hot flash of adrenaline, and everything clicked into place.
“We’re not stealing from you, Silas, and neither did Kate.” I grabbed the girl by the arm and dragged her forward. “You need to talk to your granddaughter.”
The girl protested as sweat beaded over her face. Her eyes darted everywhere and her heart felt like it would fly out of her chest.
“She’s an addict,” I told the old man, who started blustering and defending her.
“She took the money you blackmailed from Charlie. It’s not the first time your meds have gone missing, is it? Have you lost other stuff? Jewelry? Valuables?” The Xanax shielded me from the worst of the garbage as I combed through the girl’s head. “A watch. Gold, right? She pawned it for drugs.”
“If you know about the watch, then you must’ve taken it.” But Silas’s energy shifted, became less sure.
“When did the watch go missing?” Max asked, able to speak now that he wasn’t eating a shotgun barrel.
“Long before Kate disappeared and we got involved. This stuff only happens when she’s staying with you, right?”
“Grandpa, you’re not going to believe strangers over me,” the girl whined, getting desperate.
Silas’s face worked, his jowls trembling and pulling tight. He stared at his granddaughter like he’d never seen her before. “You . . . after everything I’ve done for you?” His face twisted. “How could you do this to me?”
The girl’s energy shifted like quicksilver. All supplication vanished, replaced by a deep, scorching anger. Apparently the temper was genetic. She tossed her hair and her dilated pupils flashed pure venom. “How could I? After you’ve talked for years about how women are evil? What did you think was gonna happen after you told me exactly what you thought of me? Fuck you.”
The girl shook me off and ran for the house. Silas looked like he’d aged years during the last several minutes. Max took the shotgun from him and stood up, emptying it of ammunition before leaning it against the building.
“There’s nothing here,” Max said. “Let’s go.”
We dropped Charlie off at his house, promising to keep him updated, and were heading back to Iowa City when Valerie finally returned our calls. Her phone had gone dead and she hadn’t realized it. Max put her on speaker so I could relay the dream one more time.
“We just checked out Charlie’s neighbor. It’s not him. Whoever this is, Kate knows him. He said she deserved this.”
“She’s in a small, dark—” she cut off and Max and I glanced at each other, wondering if the call got dropped.
