The Revenant: A Horror in Dodsville Read online

  “Well, Reed and Randy never did get along,” she continued. “To be honest I quite agreed with Reed’s opinion. Randy--”

  “Wait,” I said, cutting her off. “What did you say his name was?”

  “Randy Beliwitz,” she replied. “Why? You know him?”

  I finished my glass of Kool-aid and placed it on a napkin on the cocktail table in front of me. “Do you know a Detective Pierce?”

  She thought about the name for a moment. “No,” she replied. “Why? Does he have something to do with Randy?”

  “I don’t know. But he’s been giving me a rough time since the first night I arrived--well, since last night. It just seems like longer. And he asked me the first time I ran into him if my name was Randy . . . What did you say his last name was?”

  “Beliwitz.”

  “Yea, that’s the name all right.”

  “I don’t understand what he wants with you,” Julie commented. “Why would he think you’re Randy? Did you say he was a detective?”

  “Yea,” I replied. “He also seems to think I had something to do with some guy’s murder last night. I can’t remember his name though. Don something or other.”

  “Someone was murdered last night?” Tabitha stood at the top of the stairs, surprising me that she made a return appearance so soon.

  “I guess he was knifed,” I replied. “At least that’s what this jerk detective claimed.”

  Tabitha sat at the top of the stairway.

  Julie picked up my empty glass. “I’ll get you a refill,” she said. The color was back in her cheeks.

  “Don’t bother yourself,” I replied. “I know where you hide your refrigerator.”

  “Nonsense,” she commented as she walked away with my glass. “You are a guest in our home.”

  “A minute ago you said I was family,” I called after her as she disappeared into the kitchen.

  Tabitha and I sat in an uncomfortable silence for the minute Julie was out of the room. I wanted to apologize to her, but also didn’t want to upset her about Reed any more than I already had. She stared down at her hands, picking at what I thought an obviously imaginary sliver in her finger.

  We sat like that for a couple of minutes before I realized Julie wasn’t about to come back in the room until she heard Tabitha and me talking. Some things never change in people. Julie always knew how to manipulate everyone into doing what she thought was the right thing.

  So I decided to make the first move: “Can I talk you into coming down here?” I asked. “I know I’m an asshole, excuse my French, but I don’t bite. And I promise to think about what I say before I say it.”

  “It hasn’t anything to do with you,” she replied, still not looking at me.

  Silence ruled for a moment.

  Finally, Tabitha looked away from her hands. She said, “Reed’s last words to me were, ‘You bitch. You deserve an asshole like Beliwitz.’”

  “People say things they don’t mean when they’re angry,” I said. “I’m sure he meant nothing by it.”

  Tabitha stood, and I thought for a minute she was going to run back to her bedroom. But she came downstairs and sat clumsily in the recliner opposite me. “If I don’t talk to you,” she said, “Julie won’t ever come out of the kitchen.”

  “I heard that,” Julie said as she reappeared with my fresh glass of red raspberry Kool-aid. She handed me the glass and sat next to me again. “Now, let’s get this straight. You say a detective questioned you about a murder that took place last evening?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you don’t have any idea why he suspects you?”

  “Right again.”

  Julie took a drink and stared blankly into the glass for a moment, as though she were looking for the answer swirling within its contents. Then her eyebrows shot up and she turned to me and asked, “And he also thought you might be Randy?” She didn’t wait for my reply. “Maybe he thinks Randy is behind the murder.”

  “No,” Tabby shot back. “Randy may be many things, but he’s no killer. Give him that much.”

  “Right,” Julie recanted. “You’re right, of course.” She turned to me. “Where you staying while you’re in town?”

  Good move, I thought. Change the subject.

  I told her I spent last night at Sandy’s Motel. “But I plan on getting a room at the old boarding house on Fifth,” I added. “To save money. I am but a poor teacher, after all.”

  Tabby smiled, for the first time since I got here, as if she knew some secret that I was about to become privy to.

  Julie said, “You’re crazy if you think you are not staying either here or at my house. The nerve of you, thinking that family doesn’t stay with family while in Dodsville.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” I said, preparing myself for a battle. Once Julie said I was to do something, I usually ended up doing it.

  She was about to give her rebuttal when the door bell rang. “This discussion isn’t over,” she said. “Not by a long shot.” Then she got up and answered the front door.

  From my position in the living room, I could clearly see who it was. Although I had forgotten all about her, the woman from the basement of The Shoe Inn now stood in the entrance to the Price home. Her voice sounded almost frantic as she spoke to Julie, although I couldn’t make out what was being said.

  Tabitha recognized her also. “Friend of yours?” she said to me.

  I shook my head and strained to hear what the woman was saying. I made out a few words, but nothing to piece together the meaning as to why she was here.

  But I was about to find out, as Julie invited her in and they both walked into the living room.

  Julie introduced her. “This is Mrs. Klaus from up on the Hill,” she said, referring to the hill just outside of town, where the mansions were situated.

  “I hope I’m not bothering anyone by my presence here,” Mrs. Klaus added, obviously feeling uncomfortable. “But I don’t know whom to turn to if you can’t help me.” She fidgeted with her hands.

  I couldn’t make up my mind whether she was crazy, insane, or just plain frightened, but my heart definitely went out to her. It must have been those eyes. There were a deep sadness and fear behind them, like the eyes of trapped rabbit. She saw me on the couch and those eyes lit up briefly in recognition.

  Realizing she must have been here to see me, I asked, “You saw something strange written in the fog on your mirror after getting out of the shower, right?”

  Julie’s glance shot to me. “How did you know?”

  “We met once before,” I replied. “Right before I ran into Tabitha.”

  “Please,” Julie said to Mrs. Klaus, “have a seat.”

  She sat in a chair next to Tabitha. Her eyes roamed everywhere except at one of us. I wanted to help her.

  “More than once,” she finally said, “have I come out of my shower to see the name of your club on my mirror. But two nights ago something happened even more bizarre than that.” She looked at her fidgeting hands, but didn’t say what the “bizarre” incident was.

  Julie took the cue to speak: “Would you like something to drink? We just made some Kool-aid. Perfect for a hot day like this.”

  Mrs. Klaus nodded, but quickly looked back to her hands, as if to make sure they wouldn’t run off without her.

  Julie exited to the kitchen and returned immediately with Mrs. Klaus’s filled glass. She took a quick drink, polishing off almost half the contents, then looked up at us. “I really don’t know what I can expect from any of you,” she said. “It’s just that I don’t know who else to turn to. The police checked out the house for me. By now I’m sure they think I’m crazy.” She looked back down at her lap. “You probably do, too.”

  “No,” Tabitha said, before anyone else could reply. “We don’t think that. Not at all.”

  Mrs. Klaus forced a smile.

  “What else happened?” Julie asked. “To make you come to us?”

  Mrs. Klaus played with a ruffle
in her dress. “I saw a ghost,” she said, almost inaudibly.

  Tabitha’s eyebrows shot up and she tightened her grip on the arms of her chair. “What?” she asked in a whisper.

  Mrs. Klaus stood. “I’m sorry,” she said, still looking down so as not to face us. “I should have known better than to come here and bother you people. It’s my problem and--”

  Tabby jumped up and cajoled her to sit right back down. “Now that’s not true,” she said. ”After all, didn’t the message on your mirror read ‘Ghost Hunter’s, Inc.’?”

  “How can we help?” I asked, trying to sound as sincere as possible. There was something about this woman in front of us that reached my heart and I couldn’t help but want to believe her and to help her. “What is there for us to do?”

  She looked me directly in the eyes for the first time, and I noticed that something appeared not quite right with hers. Though I didn’t know what exactly the disparity was. Just something not right. “The writing on my mirror said your club,” she replied. “I just thought whatever is going on in my house might be somehow connected to you.” She looked down again. “I’m not sure of anything, though.”

  Tabitha’s eyes were riveted on Mrs. Klaus’s, almost as if she were spellbound.

  “That club was just for a couple of children a long time ago,” I said. “I just happened to have been--” I was about to say that I was the only surviving member, but quickly realized the error of my ways.

  Mrs. Klaus’s eyes appeared to grow a full size bigger. “You were a member of the club?” There was now an added tension to her voice.

  I nodded, not knowing what to say.

  “Are you serious about wanting to help me?” she asked.

  Tabitha replied before I could even start to mouth my answer: “Of course we are.”

  “Then would you consider staying at my house?” The tension of only a moment ago had taken on the added edge of anxiety. “I would be willing to pay you--handsomely. And the house would be all yours while you’re there. I have a swimming pool, sauna, tennis court, weight room, and many other--”

  “Wait a minute.” This was happening too fast for me to digest properly. “Are you serious? Why would you allow complete strangers to--”

  “I know it sounds crazy,” she interrupted. “But I don’t know what else to do. The place would be yours, like I said. I won’t be there. If you would just stay there for a week, I would be willing to pay you a handsome amount of money.” She thought a moment. “How does five thousand sound?”

  “But what would our staying there accomplish?” I asked, now beginning to be interested, but still confused all the same.

  Julie just sat on the couch not saying anything, and I, for one, was counting on her to bail us out of this mess. She definitely wanted to say something. I could see her fidgeting around, trying her utmost not to crack. Tabitha, likewise, looked like she was ready to bust. She definitely wanted to say something. I decided to talk before she had the chance.

  “We’re hardly qualified to exorcise a haunted house,” I said. “No matter what my club claimed to do.” Not that I would have minded spending a week in a semi-paradise situation up on the Hill, but we were obviously dealing with someone who played with a few cards missing from her deck.

  On the other hand, Reed would have loved this challenge.

  “We’ll do it,” Tabitha blurted out, obviously unable to keep silent any longer.

  I looked at her, dumbfounded.

  Tabitha noticed my glare and what it meant. “Think about it,” she said, as if I would see the light of some great mystery of mankind. “Just think about it a minute.”

  “Hold on now, Tabby,” I said, preparing my words in my brain in order to talk sense to this obviously overwrought person. “We should talk this out first. Discuss it rationally. Right, Julie?”

  Julie, the one person who could bring Tabitha back down to earth, where she had dropped her common sense, finally spoke out: “Sly would love to join you two.”

  Not the words I had hoped for.

  I slapped my forehead in disbelief. “Will you people think about what you’re saying?”

  Julie replied with a glare meant for only my viewing. “What harm can it do to spend a week out on the Hill?”

  That was it; I was outnumbered.

  She continued, “One of two things will happen. If the house is haunted, we can verify that fact for her. At least, then, she wouldn’t think she’s going crazy. And if the house is not haunted, but someone is playing tricks on her mind, then we can find that out also. Either way we can settle this for her once and for all.”

  Mrs. Klaus didn’t say anything while this discussion went on. She just turned from one speaker to the next, wringing her hands harder and harder with each spoken sentence.

  Julie and I glared at one another. I was about to give one last argument about how ludicrous this was, but Julie cut me off as I was about to speak.

  “That’s the least we can do for her,” she said.

  I did want to help her, that much I did know, but I was here to pay tribute to an old friend. Again, however, the thought that Reed would have loved this situation crossed my mind.

  Tabitha added, “You’ve hunted ghosts before. You and Reed even claim to have run into one.”

  I wished very much she hadn’t said that.

  Mrs. Klaus turned her attention to me, staring at me with wide open, hopeful

  --dreadful?--

  eyes. She was grasping at straws, and she knew that I knew she was grasping at straws.

  I looked down at the floor, thinking for a minute. Even if there was nothing but imagination running wild at her home, she believed in what she was seeing. That was a given. No way would she be here right now if there was any doubt left in her mind. And what Julie said did make some sense. We could find out one way or the other what was going on out at the Hill. And the way she had glared at me when she gave her reasoning, I knew she had other motives than the ones spoken.

  Then Tabitha said the one thing that pushed me into it. “Do it for Reed,” she said. “You owe him that much.”

  “Tabitha!” Julie’s patented glare was now directed at her sister.

  Tabitha’s face softened. “Sorry, Stephen,” she said, contritely. “That was uncalled for.”

  Before I replied I knew somehow that I would live to regret my decision. “All right,” I said. “One week.”

  Mrs. Klaus immediately sighed and slumped back in her chair. If I had any doubts about whether this was a practical joke or not, the look behind her eyes washed them away.

  We set to working out the details. Tomorrow night after Reed’s funeral, Tabitha, Sly (who I discovered was Julie’s boyfriend), and I would begin a one week stint in a reputedly haunted mansion on the Hill. At the end of the week we would receive a check for five thousand dollars to divvy up in any manner we saw fit. If we could prove the house was indeed haunted we could leave at that point during the week and still receive the full amount. It was as simple as that. But, if so, why did I still hold the feeling that this was all one big mistake?

  I learned from the discussion that Mrs. Klaus was recently divorced. As soon as I heard that I thought, Well, that could be the reason behind her hallucinations. And she did have that one daughter living with her. Even if she were only four years old, she could be the one writing on the mirror.

  As the discussion of the details of our mission wound down, I began to feel an excitement, as though I had suddenly gone back in time and I was eleven years old again and Reed and I were going on one of our notorious quests. But with the excitement there was at the same time a fear—a subtle but noticeable fear building in the pit of my guts.

  Mrs. Klaus reached into her purse and pulled out a set of keys. She handed them to Julie and said, “I’ll give these to you now, but I’ll be out at the house when you arrive tomorrow evening. That way I can give you the grand tour and show you what key fits what lock. If you need to get hold of me before then,
I won’t be found at home.” She took a pad of paper and a pen and wrote something on it. “If you need to get a hold of me before then, for a change of plans for instance, you can try me at this number. Otherwise, I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow. And, again, thank you so very much. You don’t know what this means to me.”

  We stood on the front porch and watched her get into her Mercedes and drive away. Then we went back inside and plopped down on chairs in the living room without uttering a word. What just transpired needed to settle a bit, I guessed.

  About two minutes went by before I finally broke the silence: “This is really stupid, you know.”

  Tabitha excused herself and left the room.

  Julie waited until she was gone. “You did notice how excited Tabitha got over this deal, did you not?”

  “Yea, so?”

  “Well, you haven’t been here to experience it, but she’s been a pressure cooker ready to blow. Too damn much pressure. I was really getting worried about her. She blames herself for Reed’s drowning.”

  “You don’t believe she might be suicidal, do you?”

  “No,” she replied, with a vehement shake of her head. “She’s not gone that far. But she could find herself in a rut. A rut so deep it would take years to work her way out.” She got up from her chair and sat next to me. “You have to see how a week on the Hill would help to prevent that.”

  I nodded, but didn’t reply. I didn’t want to tell Julie about my gut feeling that going out to that mansion was a mistake. I couldn’t tell her, because I didn’t know why I felt that way. The fact Mrs. Klaus claimed her residence was haunted might have been reason. But, somehow, I felt it was more than that. The look in Mrs. Klaus’s eye, maybe. There was a glint there that was more than fear. Though I couldn’t discern what it meant. Not yet, anyway.

  Tabitha came back into the living room and sat down. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

  She does need something to take her mind off Reed, I thought.

  The front door opened, followed by the entrance of Mr. Price. He still had that lost look on his face, and it brought back the reason why I was back in Dodsville in the first place. I didn’t feel guilty, somehow. Reed would have dreamed about spending a week in a haunted house when he was eleven. He, at the same time, would have insisted we pay Mrs. Klaus for the opportunity instead of the other way around.