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

Without reluctance, I wholeheartedly agreed. “Yeah. Let’s go!”

We got out of the house as quickly as we could and hurried off the property onto the opposite side of the road.

My heart was racing again—even more so than when I saw the UFO.

“Do you know what this means?” Sam whispered, frantically.

“What?”

“It means that somebody killed Mrs. Christie!”

“I know that, Sam. Slow down; you’re walking too fast. And try to get yourself together before you attract the wrong attention.”

I know it was easier said than done because I, for one, was scared as hell. I’d never seen a real dead body before, let alone touch one. Yet, despite that, I had to keep my cool so I wouldn’t be turned into a frigging weirdo like everyone else around us.

“Okay. Okay,” she said, trying to compose herself.

Sam was tough. I knew she could do it.

“Hey, wait! Aren’t we supposed to be going for the bikes?” she reminded me.

We were almost back to the distillery when she said it, but we had to turn back. Who can think straight anyway after seeing a dead body?

I decided it was best for us not to split up, considering the trauma we’d both just experienced. We went down the street to my house first, then planned to go around the corner to Sam’s.

My brother Carl was sitting quietly on the porch with his eyes fixated across the street. Sam and I sat down next to him.

“Buddy…” I looked at him.

“Hey, Carl,” she said.

He seemed indifferent.

“Are you okay?” Sam took his hand.

I wondered how he’d react to her doing that, but he was silent.

Sam looked at me and shook her head. I guess we were both hoping things would be different that day.

“Where are Mom and Dad?” I asked him, not really expecting an answer.

I got up and went inside while Sam stayed with Carl.

“Mom! Dad!” I quietly called out to them.

By that time, Mom would’ve been in the kitchen making breakfast and Dad would’ve been outside mowing the lawn. That was their usual routine on Sunday mornings. Carl would’ve been outside playing with Dillinger and I would’ve still been asleep after getting to bed around two in the morning.

I found my folks still in bed and to make sure they were alive, I stood close by and watched to see if their chests were moving. To my relief, they were just asleep.

I desperately wanted to shake them awake, but when I thought of Carl still being under that weird spell, I knew it was no different for them. My eyes landed on the telephone on their nightstand and I quickly went over and picked up the handset. I was hopeful when I heard the dial tone, but after pressing a few digits, I realized I couldn’t get out. This whole thing was getting stranger by the second.

After leaving their bedroom, my mind drifted on Dillinger again.

Where is he? I wondered.

I headed out back for my bike, figuring he must be out there, and was surprised when I didn’t see him. I searched the whole house and there was no sign of him. His absence, however, didn’t seem to affect my family’s odd behavior.

“We need to go,” I told Sam, and she got up right away.

I leaned my bike against the side of the steps and went over to Carl. “If you can hear me from deep down in there,” I whispered to him, “I want you to know that I’m coming back to help you, Mom and Dad snap out of this. You have my word. I love you, bro.”

“See you, Carl,” Sam said.

Carl seemed unmoved as he kept his gaze directly across the street, but I believed deep down he heard me and that’s what motivated me.

8

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Rob was waiting in the gas station yard when Sam and I pulled up on our bikes. Sam’s folks were not at home when we arrived there, so we got in and out.

“What took you guys so long?” Rob grumbled.

“We have to talk,” I said, “but not here.”

“Where then?” he asked.

There was an alleyway adjacent to the gas station, so I felt we could get some privacy there at least for a few minutes. The operations at the gas station went on as usual, except that everybody behaved like zombies with a purpose. They knew what they wanted and got it with little verbal interaction. It made me feel for a minute there like we were in the Twilight Zone—the same place Jase thought his dad had gone for those cigarettes.

We rode over to the alley and finding the coast was clear, got off our bikes.

“Mrs. Christie’s dead!” Sam beat me to the punch. “Someone murdered her!”

“What?” Rob glanced at both of us, utter disbelief shrouding his face.

“It’s true,” I said. “We found her on her bedroom floor.” Then something hit me. “I saw a shadow of a person in her yard last night, but I couldn’t make out who it was.”

“Well, whoever it was must be the killer,” Sam deduced.

“I imagine so.”

“We have to alert the authorities,” she said.

I shook my head. “If the cops are just like everyone else around here, we might be wasting our time.”

“We can’t just leave her dead body rotting inside that house!” Sam rebutted. “They have to get it out of there and an investigation into her murder must be launched.”

“I’m for whatever you guys wanna do,” Rob pledged his support.

“The nearest police station is on Meadows. We’d better head there and see what happens,” I said.

Traffic back and forth on various streets of Eppington was within its normal range, from what I could tell. I couldn’t help feeling that this thing concerning Mrs. Christie was going to throw us off our mission a bit, but I agreed with Sam that it would be inhumane to knowingly leave her body in the house without breathing a word to anyone.

Sam rode up front; Rob was behind her and I trailed at the back. We