Jodi Lee - Ante Mortem

Isaac paused this time, thinking about the nervousness in his friend’s voice, trying to make sense of his apparent anxiety. “Evergreen Development? Didn’t they build those condos, The Legends, out west of town?”

“Look, that’s all I can say. We should get together some time, okay?” The phone went silent as Jarrod ended the conversation.

Isaac drove home and watched Anne disappear on his computer. The police possessed the original, but he had copied the file onto his hard drive. He watched at regular speed, he watched in slow motion, and he watched frame-by-frame as she vanished into the concrete. He watched Anne disappear every night.

Over the next few days, Isaac called Evergreen Development’s corporate offices at least five times. No one who ranked higher than receptionist would speak with him. He walked around Springdale a great deal over that time, passing the playground, and tearing down every flyer he found. Jarrod called after a few anxious and frustrating days, and he arranged to meet Isaac after sundown at the playground.

Isaac walked, trying to push Anne’s memory aside and forget the strange video that lived in his computer. He didn’t have the courage to delete the file—something about that short clip was sinister and unreal, but it somehow told Anne’s story.

Jarrod stood on the sidewalk adjacent to the basketball court. He paced slightly while smoking a cigarette. When he saw Isaac approach, Jarrod dropped the butt and ground it with the heel of his shoe.

“I didn’t know you smoked,” Isaac said when he was in range.

“I haven’t seen you in a few years. A lot has happened since then.”

Isaac pointed to a large manila envelope that Jarrod clutched under one arm. “What’s that?”

“Evidence. Something for you, after we talk.” Jarrod looked at Isaac and shook his head slightly. “Anne wasn’t the first one you know.”

“First one? What are you talking about?”

“The first one to vanish here.” Jarrod looked at the slab.

“I never said she vanished here… how did you know?”

Jarrod patted the envelope. “I know. You called, asked about the playground job. Anne was gone. Cops probably told you she just left, adults do that kind of thing, right?”

Isaac nearly staggered back, away from his old friend. “Yeah…”

“Don’t you think it’s a little weird that no one is out here after the sun goes down? Hell, not that many people use the playground during the day.” Jarrod watched Isaac for a moment, reading his face. “Two other people disappeared here. One was a kid, a little girl about nine. Her folks were on a walk, pushing a stroller with her little sister around the corner.” Jarrod pointed to a nearby intersection. “She ran away, started to cross the playground, cut the corner. Poof, gone.”

“Gone?”

“Gone. They took their eyes off her, and she vanished. Whole town went nuts for months. That was about a year ago.”

Isaac looked at the playground and scrutinized the slab. “I saw something about it in an old paper at the library. I didn’t make any connection.”

“Yeah, well, who really would? I learned the town doesn’t get so excited when an adult vanishes. It happened about six months after the girl. She was a nurse up at the county hospital, not from around here. Nick showed me the video. He was kind of a perv. Always watched the women from the security room after they left the store.” Jarrod stopped for a moment and brought one hand to his mouth. His voice cracked as he said, “she just vanished… right there… in the middle of that goddamn court.”

“Did you know her?”

Jarrod’s shoulders slumped as he nodded. “We were sort of dating. Nobody said anything. The cops wouldn’t believe the video, called it a hoax.”

Isaac took a few steps onto the slab. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either, man. But I know what’s under that slab. Goddamn Evergreen.”

Isaac turned and looked at his old friend.

“Do you remember that creepy spot out west—we called it Diphtheria Hill or whatever?”

“Yeah, the legend. Kid’s stuff. We scared our girlfriends in high school, brought them out there to make out. The story was that a bunch of pioneer kids were buried out there… they all died of diphtheria… a sort of mass grave on top of the hill. Nobody ever found anything, like gravestones.”

Jarrod took the envelope in one hand. “Where do you think The Legends was built, huh? And the graves weren’t on top of the hill, Isaac. They found them, all these little bones—dozens of bodies, maybe hundreds—right where Evergreen was digging foundations for the condos.”

Isaac frowned, looked back at the court. “I still don’t…”

“Look, what would happen if somebody found out? Evergreen would lose the land—historic location and all that. Red tape out the ass, Isaac. They had to do something with those bones, and they found a lot of them. They pledged a new playground to the city council that week.”

Isaac’s face bleached white.

“I was there, man. I helped pour the cement over those bones, no questions asked.” Jarrod’s voice broke, and he stopped for a moment, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. “I don’t know how, there’s a lot of crazy shit in this world I don’t understand, but three disappearances in one year—something is not right about what we did. Something isn’t right about this goddamn playground.”

Isaac backed onto the sidewalk.

Jarrod handed him the envelope. “Here. You take a look. Do what you want with this shit. I’ve had enough of it.” He turned and walked into the darkness.

When Isaac tore open the envelope, a pile of papers and even a few photos slipped out onto his kitchen table. Most of the papers were copies of emails sent from executives at Evergreen to a foreman at Conco— Jarrod . The text of the emails verified Jarrod’s tale about the bones. The pictures looked like they could have come from an archeology site, not the ground work for condos. Isaac collapsed on his bed, trying to understand anything and pushing any wild thoughts of what could have happened to Anne from his mind. He lay in bed until dawn forced through his blinds.

In the morning, he reviewed the video again, pausing on the frame just before Anne seemed to sink into the concrete. Jarrod’s story stabbed at his brain. Isaac squinted at the monitor, studying the strange blurs at Anne’s feet. The realization hit like cold needles jabbed into his neck. Those small blurs looked a little like hands. Something—Isaac shuddered to think what—had pulled Anne into the solid concrete slab.

Isaac called in sick to work and composed a letter to the Kansas City Star . He wanted the story told, wanted people to know about Evergreen’s destruction of a historical site and the attempted cover up. He wanted somehow to tell the world about the impossibility of what happened to Anne, the nurse, and that little girl. No one would believe that story, but he could at least blow the whistle on Evergreen’s fraud. After packing the letter, Jarrod’s emails, and the pictures in a large envelope, Isaac walked to the post office and sent it all away.

But he couldn’t send Anne away. She was out there, yanked down by those tiny fingers.

Anne.

Isaac sat at his computer and watched the video one last time before deleting the file. He leaned on his hands and cried until his body ached. Utterly spent, he floated to his bed like a ghost, collapsed, and fell asleep.

He slept most of the afternoon. As the sun slipped beyond the horizon and his room darkened, Isaac rose, put on his shoes, and grabbed his jacket and the small jewelry box resting in a desk drawer. He left the apartment, not bothering to lock the door, and walked into the night.