Haunted (Michael Bennett 10)

“Don’t be. You didn’t have anything to do with it. She overdosed. But we did use to live in your house.”

“The one we’re renting on the lake?”

“The same one. The Ghost House.”

From the front seat Sandy said, “So you’ve heard it called that, too?”

Sadie giggled. “I’m the one who started the name. First I came up with a rumor that it was haunted to keep people away, then I made sure everyone called it the Ghost House in town and at school.”

I smiled and said, “You used to live there?”

“My mom and I squatted there when it was abandoned. By making up the name and rumors, I kept people from bothering us. It was pretty nice for a while. Just my mom and me. She was hooked on heroin by then, and I picked up the habit, too. That’s what caused my stroke. I just got too high one night, and it happened. Turned out I was the lucky one. My mom OD’d down in Brunswick. No one even held a funeral for her.”

“What are you going to show us tonight?”

“Some of the things I saw when I was high. When no one thinks you’re paying attention. When people look right past you like you’re just a piece of furniture.”

“Does it have anything to do with Dell Streeter?”

“Anything about drugs has something to do with Dell Streeter. My mom used to call him the devil on earth.”

Chapter 59

As we pulled off the highway onto one of the side streets, Sadie sat up and gave directions to Sandy. She had us turn onto an unpaved road and then into a clearing in the woods.

There was something about this odd young woman. Almost a feral quality that made me interested in what she had to say. The thought crossed my mind t

hat she was leading us into some kind of trap. But only for a moment. I’d made my career out of reading people. This girl had nothing left to hide.

It didn’t really matter at this point, because I was willing to do just about anything to find the missing teenagers. The fact that I went into the woods and looked over cliffs should’ve been enough to convince anyone that I was serious about this.

We stood by the car for a moment and got acclimated to the dark. There was almost no moon in the sky. There were no towns to produce any serious ambient light. It gave me the chance to look up at the stars and see them in a new way. They were bright and bold and not washed out by city lights.

I turned to Sadie. “You watched us last night when we were looking for Tom-Tom and Tricia, didn’t you?”

She smiled. “I see everything that goes on around here. No one sees me.” She pointed toward the woods and said, “This is something I’ve never told anyone.”

I still had the Kel-Lite Sandy had given me so I could search the woods for Tom-Tom and Tricia. Sandy had a handheld spotlight that illuminated the woods for a hundred yards. It was like daylight had come at ten thirty at night.

The bright light only made the rest of the woods seem darker and spookier. My Kel-Lite barely poked a hole in the darkness.

I turned to Sandy and said, “How far are we from Dell Streeter’s junkyard?”

“Maybe a mile as the crow flies. Just under two miles if we had to take the roads. Why?”

“I wouldn’t want to run into any of his lackeys by mistake.”

“Why not?” I could see her smile even in the darkness.

“We didn’t do so well this afternoon when we knew we were running into them. Don’t worry: I haven’t forgotten what happened. I just don’t want it to happen again.”

We stood in a clearing and scanned the dark woods with our lights one more time. I didn’t like the gloom beyond the edge of my flashlight. It felt like the forest was alive with creepy growls and screeches.

Sadie wasn’t discouraged or scared in any way. She limped away from the clearing into the woods. I was surprised by how fast she moved. Sandy and I both hustled to keep up as she slipped through the darkness, barely touching the tree limbs.

Sandy whispered to me, “Is this crazy that we’re just following her?”

“My instinct says to do it. She seems to have an inside track on everything.”