The Drifter by Richie Tankersley Cusick

Author:Richie Tankersley Cusick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

14

THAT NIGHT CAROLYN LOCKED HER DOOR.

For a long time she stood against it, listening, not even sure what she was listening for.

The house lay huge and silent and secretive around her. She had just decided to turn in when suddenly she heard Joss’s door creaking. A second later muffled footsteps moved slowly past her room, and something rattled at the end of the hall.

The locked door?

Is he trying to get into the attic?

The noises stopped, and Carolyn strained her ears through the silence. Part of her wanted to go out there and investigate—the other part couldn’t even bring herself to open the bedroom door. What’s he doing? To her growing uneasiness, she heard him retracing his steps, only this time it sounded as if he were pausing outside every bedroom along the way … going inside of it … coming back out again.

Like he’s looking for something … but what?

She heard him go downstairs.

Holding her breath, Carolyn inched open her bedroom door and tried to listen as Joss made his way through the rooms below. Faint tapping sounds drifted up to her, and she could swear that things were being moved from time to time. At last his footsteps faded in the direction of the kitchen, and the cellar door opened and shut. And then the sounds stopped.

Feeling guilty, Carolyn pulled her door closed and berated herself for eavesdropping. He’s probably just working on something down there that needs fixing. He’s probably just going over every inch of this old place like Mom asked him to, seeing what needs to be done.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there. As time dragged on and he didn’t come back, Carolyn finally gave up and got ready for bed.

She threw her jeans over the back of a chair, and the key fell out of her pocket, bouncing off the edge of the rug and onto the wooden floor. Carolyn picked it up and groaned softly. She’d wanted so much to ask Andy about it, but he hadn’t understood what she was trying to tell him. Slowly she placed it on her nightstand and made herself a mental note. Talk to him about it tomorrow.

Her head swam with too many thoughts … too many unanswered questions. Faces and events ran together in a blur—Joss’s arrival … the trip to the village … Molly McClure … Mom’s accident … the trip home from the hospital with Andy … Joss’s comments in the kitchen …

That key …

Carolyn propped herself up in bed and stared at the key on her bedside table. If not a door key, then what? It was so small, it certainly didn’t look important … and yet something about it intrigued her.

Had someone put it there on purpose and then lost it? Hazel maybe? According to Andy, Hazel’s behavior had been getting stranger and stranger toward the end of her life—had she been losing things, too? Hiding things? Or had someone from some other time, some other century maybe, put the key

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.