Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
I took the rocky footpath that led to their front door. The stairs of the porch creaked with my weight. Wind chimes let off a gentle tinkle as I gave the wide porch a once-over. Two wooden rocking chairs, potted flowers, random ceramic figurines that never made any sense to me. Why did people need gnomes, frogs, and angels around the outside of their houses? To each their own, but I just never understood it.
I ignored the thought and stepped on their welcome mat, giving the doorbell a ring. There were a few thuds, rapid footsteps, a pause, and then the locks on the door clinked. The door opened halfway to reveal a petite woman with weathered brown skin and gray, shoulder-length curls. She wore a sky-blue dress with tiny black flowers on it and a pair of house slippers with winking eyes. Her hands shook as she pulled the door open a bit wider.
“Can I help you?” she asked. Her voice wavered but was also meek, like she was the shyest person on the planet.
“Hi, Mrs. Abbot. I was just at Eddie’s house next door. He told me your name. I’m Rose Gibson. I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”
She glanced past me, blinking her glassy eyes a few times before asking, “What kind of questions?”
“I just want to know if you’ve seen a certain person recently. She was staying in the rental across the lake.”
She stared at me.
I shifted on my feet.
“I can show you a picture,” I offered, breaking the silence. “Of the person I’m looking for.”
She seemed to hesitate, but then nodded and opened the door a little wider. I pulled out my phone once again to show her the image I’d just shown Eddie.
She grabbed her glasses hanging from a string around her neck and placed them on the bridge of her nose. “Oh, yes.” She smiled and her whole face seemed to light up. “I saw her a few days ago. She was a really nice girl.”
“You did?” My heart raced a bit faster. “Do you know how many days exactly since you’ve seen her?”
“I saw her Thursday morning,” she said, nodding. “Thursday, September fifth.”
I made a mental note that was the day before she stopped answering her phone.
“I remember because I grocery shop on that day every week. She helped me pick up my groceries when I dropped one of the bags.”
That sounded like Eve. She could be selfish, but she was also attentive. She cared for others but had a weird way of showing it sometimes. One thing I knew about Eve was that she respected her elders the same way I did.
“Why are you looking for her?” the woman asked, eyes sliding up to mine.
“Because I haven’t seen her in a few days. I’m going around to gather information so I can figure out where she is.”
The woman studied me a beat before looking past me again. What was she looking for?
“You can come in for a cup of tea. I’ll try and answer any questions you have but we’ll have to be quick. Okay?”
“Of course, yeah. Thank you.”
I wanted to ask why we had to be so quick, but judging by the way she kept peering past me, like she expected trouble, I figured it was best not to. The last thing I wanted was to get mixed up in the crossfire of someone else’s drama. The faster this happened, the better.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“I saw her when I parked, and I remember wondering why she was on this side of the lake.” Selma placed a teacup on a saucer in front of me with unsteady hands. She’d told me her first name while heating the kettle. Her shakiness wasn’t from fear or worry. It came with age, as something she couldn’t control.
“But she was wearing the gear all the young girls wear now,” she went on. “You know, with the sports bras and leggings that make their behinds look bunched up and bigger?”
I huffed a laugh. “I know exactly what you’re talking about.”
She slid a bottle of honey my way, sugar packets, and a small dish topped with chocolate chip cookies.
“Why do girls wear things like that?” she asked, smiling a bit and revealing dentures. “My mother would have flipped in her grave if she’d seen me in something like that at her age.”
“Fashion trends, I guess,” I said, shrugging.
“Anyway, I think your friend Eve was taking a walk that morning. She saw me when I was collecting the groceries from the back seat of my car. One of the paper bags was a little wet at the bottom and the groceries fell everywhere. Fortunately, it was packaged and boxed things, not my good fruit from the farmer’s market.” She cleared her throat before sipping her tea.