Page 7 of The Sister's Curse

Lights and motion blazed around me, and I felt myself receding from the churn and voices. I needed a moment to gather myself. Tonight had rattled me, and I felt myself mentally pulling away from the scene.

Gibby took my hand gently in his teeth and led me away to the quiet dark.

—

I drank coffee, sitting on the back patio of the house, with Gibby at my feet. Crickets sang, but the bullfrogs were silent. Gibby’s ears were pressed forward, and he stared at the pond. I couldn’t look away from it, either. My eyes followed each rill as if I expected the boy to climb out of it, whole and unharmed. Only a full moon danced on the surface. The morning news had reported that the summer solstice was tonight, the shortest night of the year. It felt far too long already.

I was scared. I was afraid of that green flash I’d seen, and of the memory of my mother that had come bubbling up from my subconscious. Here, in the dark, I felt as if I was in that liminal space that belonged to dreams and visions of my father: his mutteringsof dark gods, his prolific murders, and the terror I felt when trying to make sense of it all.

I wasn’t going back there, I vowed. I wouldn’t.

“Lt. Koray.”

I looked up. Deputy Detwiler, a fresh-faced guy who looked to be all of twelve, handed me another coffee. I took it gratefully.

“They’re questioning Leah.” He hooked a thumb through the French doors to the kitchen.

I nodded. I’d changed clothes, and I had dried off enough that my hair wouldn’t drip on the travertine floors. I followed him into the kitchen, gleaming with stainless steel appliances and with a chandelier hanging over a granite island larger than a dining table. The house was at least a century old, but the interior had been gutted for modern amenities, the ceilings lifted with stylish beams. But there was still original plaster in places, and I could feel spots in the floor that weren’t perfectly level. My initial impression was that the Sumners were the type who would build new, all-custom designs and bear none of the headaches of old construction blistering through copper pipes and horsehair plaster. I wondered what had drawn them to this place. Sentimentality?

Leah sat at a bar stool before the island, hands clasped in front of her. She twisted a small pearl ring on her left hand. Her tears dripped onto the granite. A bit of eyeliner had smudged beneath her eye. Poor kid.

Monica sat beside her, patting her back. “Deep breath. Just tell me what happened.” She wasn’t going to tell the girl that everything was okay, because there was no way it was ever going to be.

“Mason was playing with his Spider-Man in the living room.” Leah sniffled, gesturing to the living room, where a whole bucket of large blocks had been dumped on the hardwood floor. A Spider-Manaction figure lay in the center of the explosion of blocks. “I had to go to the bathroom, so I went down the hall…”

Light streamed from a half bath beside the kitchen. I peered into the bathroom. Water speckled the bottom of the glass vessel sink, and the hand towel was damp. That checked.

“I was only in there for maybe five minutes, tops.”

“Did you have your phone with you?” Monica asked. Time flew if you were texting.

“Um. The family has a no-phones-except-for-emergencies rule.”

“What if you need to call for help?”

“I did. They just tell me to put the phone on top of the refrigerator.”

I made a mental note to check phone records to verify.

“What happened then? You were in the bathroom?”

“Yeah. I was washing my hands, and I thought…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

“You thought what?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Nothing is ever stupid.”

Leah’s brows drew together. “I thought…I heard someone calling my name. From outside.”

“From the driveway?”

“No. I don’t think so. I heard it through the window.”

I ducked into the bathroom to inspect the window. It was too high for a young child to reach, but it was slightly open at the bottom. It hadn’t rained recently, but the sill was wet. Not soaking wet, like after a storm, but there were droplets on the outside sill, and on the screen. Beyond the window was the pond.

“I got kinda creeped out and went to check on Mason. I cameout to the living room and didn’t see him. I called his name, thinking he was playing hide-and-seek.”