Devil's Lair by Sarah Barrie

Author:Sarah Barrie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

CHAPTER

20

Callie woke up to the sun shining brightly through her window. She’d slept later than usual, which probably had something to do with the wine she’d had, mostly to stop Paisley demolishing it all herself. She supposed that could also be responsible for why she still felt tired. If there was anything reliable about Paisley, it was that she’d deal with stress by drinking herself into the ground. She yawned, blinked and caught an image in her mind of pretty china dolls twirling to music. Ava’s stone. A giant wind that roared and blew them all away, replaced them with darkness. Okay … too much wine. Too much talk of dead children and mysterious dolls.

Paisley’s hushed voice floated in but Callie couldn’t make out the murmuring so she got up, draped her dressing gown around herself and walked out. Paisley was sitting at the table sipping coffee, phone to her ear and a scowl on her face. On the table in front of her was a music box.

She must have made a noise, because Paisley looked around and smiled. After muttering something into the phone she ended the call.

‘Morning!’

‘Morning. What’s this?’ Callie moved to the table and picked up the music box. It was ornately designed, circular, decorated in purple and gold carousel images. A little gold plaque on the lid read Ava. When she opened it a familiar yet unnameable melody flowed as a ballerina twirled. ‘I’ve heard this before.’

‘It’s Mozart’s Lullaby. You haven’t seen this?’

Callie studied it carefully. ‘I don’t think so … I know the tune, I just didn’t know what it was called. Why?’

‘I thought you must have left it here.’

‘Me?’ Then another thought had her heart skipping a beat. ‘Did it turn up during the night? Because that’s what happened with the doll.’

Paisley raked her fingers through her hair. ‘I’ll ask Dad and Ned. But I don’t know how they would have found them.’

‘There is a big clean-up going on.’

‘Yeah but … Mum used to run a support group here for mentally ill outpatients and their families. While the meetings were on, the kids would play around—we’d just be left to entertain ourselves. One of the teenage boys used to enjoy teasing Ava. He was horrible, would break all her toys, used to think it was funny. So she took to hiding her most treasured possessions whenever there was a meeting coming up. She called them her secret spots. When she died, we couldn’t find them. We searched everywhere.’ She took the music box and set it carefully back on the table. ‘The doll and the music box were two of them.’

‘How old was she?’

‘Not quite five. God …’ Paisley drew in a deep breath and it trembled back out. ‘It’s like someone’s trying to punish me, to remind me.’

‘Paisley.’ Callie sat and smiled with sympathy. ‘What happened?’

‘She drowned. I was supposed to be watching her on one of those meeting nights and I fell asleep. She went down to find the other kids and ended up in the river.

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