EPPINGTON: THE GUARDED SECRET by Tanya Taylor (red queen free ebook TXT) 📗

at three o’clock in the morning. Maybe you think I was one of those “nosy” neighbors too, but I’d say my curiosity was purely out of concern.

I took one of the flashlights Rob had brought along and did a brief check downstairs. Everything was clear and the wood securing the back door was still in place. It was almost impossible for anyone to get through the front door since it had been nailed shut and boarded up. Before going to sleep, I went back over to the window and took one last look at the Christies’ house. Everything was quiet, so I went and stretched out on the mat, switched off the searchlight and soon fell asleep.

7

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The next morning, for some strange reason, Mrs. Christie was on my mind. Maybe because of the crashing sound I’d heard the night before and I told the guys about it.

“Maybe we should go check on her,” Sam suggested.

“It’s probably nothing though,” I said.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Rob commented as he bit into his Honey Bun—the second one for the morning.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“I watched this movie once where a woman heard a strange sound coming from her neighbor’s house and not wanting to pry, she ignored it. Well, when the neighbor’s son went to check on his mom two days later, the old lady was on the bathroom floor. She’d fallen and couldn’t get up.” He looked at me intently. “Suppose something like that happened to Mrs. Christie? Mr. Christie isn’t here to check on her and they don’t have any kids. The good, neighborly thing to do is for you to check on her; not that she’s old or anything.”

“She does have her lover to check on her,” Sam remarked.

“Sure,” Rob said. “But it’s Sunday. He doesn’t show up on Sundays.”

“He’s right,” I said. “I’ll go check on her.”

“Want me to come along?” Sam asked.

“Sure. Wanna go now?”

“Yep.” She got right up.

“I’ll wait here,” Rob said. “Haven’t finished eating yet.”

“Leave some food for later, okay?” Sam told him. “We don’t wanna go back looking for food so quickly.”

“There’s plenty here!” he assured us, as we headed downstairs.

If Sam and I didn’t know any better, we’d think it was business as usual in our neighborhood that morning since nothing at all looked out of the ordinary. Cars were going by; a couple of neighbors were either dumping the trash or doing something under the hood of their cars—seemed like a typical day to me. Yet there was absolutely nothing typical going on in our neighborhood.

“We need to venture out to see if the same thing’s happening in other parts of town,” I told Sam as quietly as I could.

“If we’re gonna do that, we may need those bicycles after all. Besides, there’s little Timmy over there on his tricycle.” She pointed with her chin.

“Okay. Are you getting any signal from your cell yet? I left mine at the spot.”

“Don’t know. Haven’t tried it for the morning.”

“Try now. If you can get Rob and tell him to go for his bike, that’ll save us time. After we leave here, we can meet up at the gas station around the corner and head up from there,” I said.

She slid her phone out of jeans and checked for a signal. “Got it!” She smiled.

That was music to my ears.

She told Rob to head home for his bike and where we’ll catch up with him. She said he sounded elated that he wouldn’t have to walk everywhere we went.

“Can you get online?” I asked. “Maybe you can email one of your relatives out of town.”

She checked right away, then shook her head.

“Maybe I can text though!”

Her fingers moved swiftly across the keys and I held my breath for the good news.

“It bounced,” she uttered moments later with a tinge of disappointment. “If somehow I was able to get this message to my aunt, she’d be down here with major help in a jiffy.”

“You tried. Something will work out.”

I raised the latch for the little black gate which was approximately three feet wide—the same width as the Christies’ walkway, and together we mounted the front porch.

Sam glanced around as I tapped lightly on the wooden door.

“Think she’s home?” Sam asked. I could tell she was a bit nervous.

I knocked again. This time, a bit harder, but not hard enough to attract the attention of anyone that might be nearby.

We got no answer.

“Maybe she went out somewhere,” Sam said.

“I doubt it since her car’s right there in the driveway,” I replied.

“Oh, yeah.”

Deciding to try the knob, I was surprised when the door opened.

“Are we going in there?” Sam asked, reluctantly.

“Follow me.”

We went inside and she eased the door shut behind us.

“Mrs. Christie…” I called out softly and waited for a few moments. Then Sam took a turn, but there was no response.

The living room was rather dark, supposedly due to the red stained cypress wood in the ceiling, which certainly added an air of elegance to the little house. I could see the wood all along the hallway.

“Mrs. Christie…” Sam called again as we cautiously made our way through the house, peeping inside of each room we came across.

It was when we checked the bedroom at the end of the hallway that we got the shock of our lives! Mrs. Christie was sprawled across the floor on her side. She was wearing a light pink and white nightgown and had large foam curlers in her hair.

“Mrs. Christie!” Sam knelt beside her.

I knelt down as well and slowly turned her onto her back. The instant I did that, we saw what appeared to be a knife wound in her chest and a trickle of blood running down the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were fixed wide open as if she’d seen a ghost.

“My God!” Sam exclaimed. “She’s dead!”

I checked her neck for a pulse, then nodded. “Looks dead to me.”

“We have to get out of