Black Towers by Cherie Mitchell

Author:Cherie Mitchell [Mitchell, Cherie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-06-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

“I thought we might have found out something more about the Armitage deaths by now,” Crystal grumbled.

“I’m not sure why you ever thought that spending two nights in their old house could tell as any more than the police already know,” he pointed out practically. He backed out of the car, carrying a jumble of discarded trash he’d collected from the floor. Today felt as if a lot of ‘filling in’ time lay ahead and he’d been meaning to clean the SUV out for a while now. He shoved the trash into the breakfast takeaway bags and carried the lot around to dump into the drum beside the garage. He was grateful that the eye-watering stench of dead cat had gone.

Crystal hobbled over to peer through the garage window, setting her foot down right where the dead cat carcass had laid just an hour before. “There are some toys in there. I wonder if they belonged to the Armitage kids.”

“I thought the garage was empty. I looked in there when we first arrived and I didn’t see anything.” He cupped his hands against the glass and looked in, surprised to see a black and white football, a hoop with tape wound around it to fix a break, and a toy truck with only three wheels sitting in the middle of the oil-stained concrete floor. “That’s weird. I honestly didn’t see them there the last time I looked.”

She turned away from the window and adjusted her crutch under her arm. “Maybe you aren’t as observant as you think you are. It’s a well-known fact that women notice more details in their everyday surroundings than men do.”

“Oh, really? Why haven’t I ever heard of this ‘well-known fact’ if it’s so well-known?”

“Max, everyone knows that! Take today for instance – you would never have noticed those new scratches on the door if I hadn’t pointed them out to you.”

“I might have done if you gave me a chance. I was too busy organizing your breakfast, remember?” You didn’t notice the cat.

“What about the crows? I told you about them, too.”

“Only because you went out into the backyard before I did. You’ll have to do better than that, young Crystal.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

He opened his eyes wide in feigned innocence. “Patronize you? Never.”

“And you wouldn’t notice that cat unless I told you it was there.” She was looking past him now, over at the roots of the crow trees, and he followed her gaze to see the scar-face black cat glowering back at him. He stared at it, genuinely unsettled to see the very same dead cat he thought he’d thrown into the root cellar now alive and apparently well again.

“Here, puss puss.” Crystal stooped low and called to the cat in a wheedling, coaxing tone. “Come on, kitty.”

The cat hissed at her before scrambling across the tree roots and disappearing into the tangle of weeds, showing no sign of having any sort of mortal injury. He glanced over at the root cellar but the door was still shut tight, just as he’d left it.

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