Page 36 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“I guess anything is possible.”

“Right. But what do you think?”

“I couldn’t say. She didn’t seem violent to me, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Neither did Violet. Sally insinuated that something had happened in this house though. Something bad. “Did you renovate when you moved here? Or was the floorplan already like this?”

“We knocked down a few walls. But I promise it's all up to code.”

I ignored her and walked toward one of the rooms off the foyer. I ran my thumb along a deep gash in the molding around the double glass doors. “What happened here?”

“That was there when we moved in. This is some of the only original molding left down here. We converted the living room into my office and put in a few doors. But the molding is the same. I thought the mark added character. I assume it was the previous owner’s dog or something.”

It didn’t look like just any ordinary animal scratch. It was too deep and thick. The mark was also too high, unless the dog was some kind of giant monster breed. I let my hand fall back to my side and then noticed a similar marking in the wooden floor. The gashes didn’t necessarily mean anything bad had happened here like Sally had suggested. Furniture being moved around the house could have nicked the wood like this. I tried not to shake my head. But the gashes were so deep. Like something was driven into them with a lot of force. But what? And why? I looked back up at Rosie. “Did you ever meet the previous owners?” Violet's mother and stepfather.

“No. We were new to the area and moved here from out of town. We fell in love with this neighborhood and this was the only house for sale. It had been vacant for quite a long time, apparently.”

“Why was that?”

“The community just seems really tight-knit, which we thought would be a nice change of pace from…”

“Not why you fell in love with the place. Why was the house vacant? Such a prime location…surely there was a reason.”

“I’m not one for stories. All I know is that we love it here.”

She was literally a writer. How could she not be one for stories? This woman was the opposite of Sally. It was refreshing and frustrating at the same time. “Do you remember the previous owners’ names?”

“Their last name was…Jones I believe? Or Johnson or something pretty common with a J. Definitely Johnson. I’d have to look up their first names. But I have the document somewhere if you’d like to wait.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s okay.” I was hoping their last name would be Clark. The house must have been through a few owners since Violet lived here. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything here to find. The gash in the molding was unsettling. Like someone had hit it with something sharp. And I doubted it was an accident. My mind was leaning toward a struggle. Alarms were going off in my head. I imagined whatever had made this mark slicing through skin instead. What had happened here? “Have you remodeled the upstairs too?”

“Only the master bedroom and bathroom. The rest of the bedrooms and hallway bathroom haven’t been touched. They’re our next project.”

“Do you mind if I take a look around upstairs?”

“Um…why?”

“We believe that Adeline was good at hiding stuff.”

Rosie gasped. “In other people’s homes?”

Sure. “Yup.” I wasn’t trying to scare her, but I needed to look around those rooms. One of them had belonged to Violet when she was younger. I needed to see if there were any more signs pointing toward violence in the house. And what better place than a childhood bedroom?

“By all means then. I don’t even think she was ever in my house though.”

“She was a very sneaky woman.” I honestly didn’t know anything about Adeline. Or care. It was like the upstairs was calling to me. Like there was a secret waiting to be found.

Rosie nodded.

“I’ll be right back then.” I turned and walked up the stairs, even though I felt like running. The room at the end of the hall caught my attention right away. There was a huge window, spilling light into the hallway. When I walked closer, I realized it was a view of the woods out back. I pushed the door open further. Violet loved the woods. Was this why? I walked closer to the window. In the backyard I could almost make out a trail leading straight into the woods. It would be easy to follow that later. For now I only had a few minutes to scour this room.

I stepped away from the window and started looking around. There was nothing unusual jumping out at me. No more gashes in the door frames or floor. The floor. I thought about the loose floorboard

in Violet’s current bedroom. I got down on my hands and knees and started feeling around for floorboards with a little give to them. There weren’t any at the foot of the guest bed in the room. But Violet’s furniture probably hadn’t been arranged the same way. I continued to crawl around on my hands and knees. Two planks of wood in front of the bedroom door were worn out. Almost like something had been dragged across the floor. I glanced to the left, the worn wood continuing until all of a sudden it stopped. Something had been repeatedly moved back and forth in front of the bedroom door. A dresser or desk maybe? A makeshift barricade.

Violet had been scared of something. I thought about the rumors swirling around town. She needed help and no one was there for her. I crawled over to where the wood continued to fade. And that was when I found it. A board with a little wiggle to it. I pried it open and stared down into an empty hole. Nothing. My excitement immediately vanished. Violet had hidden something here, but she had taken it with her. Damnit. Another dead end.

I was about to throw the floorboard back down when I felt an indent on the bottom of it. I turned the board over in my hands and stared down at the carvings inside of it.

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