Саманта Сильвер - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

“Yeah but one of those houses is abandoned,” Charlotte chimed in. “Remember? The one across the street?”

The house across the street from Andrea’s had been abandoned since before I was born. I had never remembered anyone living there before. There were all kinds of stories about the house that I heard growing up, and why it was abandoned. One rumour was that a man lived there with his girlfriend in the early 80s, and when he proposed to her and she said no, he killed himself, and no one wanted to live in that house since. We’d also heard it had been a crack den, where the local addicts went to shoot up, until the state took over the property and had it boarded up, but didn’t do anything with it afterwards. I’d also heard that ghosts live there, that everyone who had lived at that property was cursed, that it belonged to a soldier who was killed in World War 2, and basically every single other story you could possibly imagine.

“Fine. So three houses then. Still, that’s three neighbors.”

“What about the cops? Don’t you think they would have done that like, first thing? If there was anything important there we would have seen it when we were in the police station.”

“Yeah,” I argued, “but what if someone was too scared to talk to the cops? What if they were afraid they’d be next? You know there’s things we tell each other that we would never, ever tell the cops.”

“Like how you used to smoke weed in high school?” Sophie asked with a grin.

“You say that like you totally didn’t join me,” I replied, rolling my eyes. Sophie and I actually had a secret spot in the woods behind our property back in high school that only we knew about. It was just a couple plants, enough to supply the two of us and no one else. It had always been far enough away from the house that we could plausibly deny it was ours, especially since at that point we lived with Lisa, and not in the bungalow.

“You guys never told me that!” Charlotte said, her eyes wide and her mouth stern with the disapproval only a 4.0 GPA student can give.

“That’s because we knew you both wouldn’t approve and wouldn’t want to join in,” Sophie replied.

“Plus we knew you would so tell Lisa if you knew,” I added.

“I would not,” Charlotte said, jutting out her chin.

“In fact, I wouldn’t put it past you to still tell her now,” Sophie continued, and I laughed.

“Oh you guys are ridiculous.

“We are not, but we are getting off topic,” I replied. “I think we should go talk to the other people on that street. If someone else saw Kelly near Andrea’s place, or better yet, go inside it, then we’d have even stronger evidence against Kelly.”

“But if she went inside her house, wouldn’t it be easier to kill her there than wait for her to go out in broad daylight?” Charlotte asked.

“Well, yeah, but Andrea used to walk Sprinkles at the exact same time every single day. Seriously, those old ladies had a more precise schedule than we do, and they were all retired. If Kelly was at her place when it was time to walk Sprinkles, then she would have had to go with her aunt.”

I could see Sophie and Charlotte thinking.

“Fine,” Charlotte finally said. “There’s nothing to lose by doing it, anyway.”

“For sure.”

“Good. Because I want to go out tonight.”

“Really? But it’s almost nine,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah, but it’s summer, so it’s still pretty much light out. And I want to settle this. I’m sure Kelly did it, I want us to have as much proof as possible when we go see Chief Gary. Who’s coming with me? Sprinkles, do you want to go for a walk?” I called out, and the dog came bounding out like he was fresh as a daisy.

“I can’t,” Sophie said. “Taylor’s coming to pick me up in about half an hour, we’re going to go catch a late movie at the theatre.”

“And I have to be up at 5 tomorrow, since I have my stupid early class,” Charlotte said. “So I’m pretty much going to go to bed now, like an old person.”

“Fine. You guys suck, I guess it’s just Sprinkles and me,” I said.

“Yes! I am totally up for another walk,” Sprinkles announced. “You’re so nice! I love walking!”

“Awesome. It’s just you and me, little guy. Are you ok if we go see Andrea’s neighbors? I need to ask them important things.”

“Yes, that’s fine. I’m getting better at going to where she lived. It’s not as sad anymore. It’s still sad though.”

“I know, little buddy. I’m sorry,” I told him, giving him a scratch behind the ears. “But it’s important, to help find the person who hurt Andrea. If we go out tonight, we might just be able to solve this case.”

“I’m sorry I can’t help,” Sprinkles said. “I just can’t remember. I just remember being scared.”

“It’s ok,” I told him. He’d still repressed the memory. Poor Sprinkles.

I grabbed his leash and he jumped at the door as we went out into the evening.

Chapter 18

The evenings in June were my favourite time of the year. As the summer solstice approached the nights were so long, even though it was bordering on nine o’clock there was still some light in the sky. The air began to cool, but the heat from the pavement still kept everything warm enough to be comfortable. A light, warm breeze swept over my skin and gently rustled the leaves of the trees as I walked down the street with Sprinkles towards Andrea’s house.

Yup, this was basically the perfect evening. I made a mental note to take dinner to the barbeque outside for tomorrow, some grilled zucchini boats and fresh fruit would make for an amazing dinner on the balcony tomorrow night.

“What are you trying to find out?” Sprinkles asked as we walked down the street.

“I’m looking for anyone that lives on the same street that Andrea did,” I told him. “I want to ask them questions about who they saw there that morning.”

I desperately wanted to ask Sprinkles if he remembered anything at all from that morning, but the poor thing was so obviously traumatized, the last thing I wanted to do was pressure him and make things worse. Besides, the way things were going, it looked like the three of us had solved the mystery without Sprinkles having to spell it out for us anyway.

This was all about the details.

From the smell of barbeque wafting up from a house down the street, it was obvious that I wasn’t the only person who decided to spend this gorgeous evening outside, which made me hopeful that I’d find at least one or two people on Andrea’s street who may have seen something.

Sprinkles and I walked towards his old street. Pine Road was a short, straight road that backed onto a forest that led to the road leading out of Willow Bay towards the highway for Portland. To access it from the east you had to go up Oak Street, where Andrea’s body was found. For access from the west, which is where Sprinkles and I came from, you had to go up Birch Road. Whoever came up with the street names in that part of Willow Bay wasn’t exactly the most creative type.

Pine Road had four houses on it: Andrea’s was on the side closest to Birch Street, with the abandoned house right across from it. There were two more houses on the Oak Street side. They were right by the intersection with Oak Street, around 200 yards from Andrea’s house. These were the houses where I held the most hope that someone might have seen something. After all, Elise still lived quite a ways from where Andrea’s body was found; if someone closer to her home was around they may have seen something even more important.

Sprinkles sauntered along next to me as we made our way up Birch Road towards Pine. In the distance I could see one of the edges of the old abandoned house.