I entered Aunt Poppy’s house and called out for her; she didn’t immediately respond. I ran up the stairs in a panicked frenzy, only to find her watching her television and drinking tea.
“Jeez! Aunt Poppy, I didn’t need that cardio. You could have responded, you know?”
“Oh! But I had food in my mouth. You didn’t give me the chance, dear.” She set down her cup of tea and looked at me suspiciously. “How was Annie?”
My eyebrow furrowed for a few seconds, then remembered that I’d said I was going to visit Annie. “She’s… okay,” I intoned.
Aunt Poppy nodded. I had a stupid thought she knew I was lying, but I ignored it. “Did you talk to Lucas?”
“Who’s Lucas?”
“Detective Lawrance, he likes to be called.” Lucas Lawrance… sounds like his parents hated him.
“Yes, I did.”
“Well, don’t meddle in police business, and also,” she picked up her cup and took a sip of the tea. “If you’re going to lie, come up with a better one. Annie was here a few minutes before you got back. She said you weren’t at her house today. I figured you were somewhere you weren’t supposed to be.”
“I’m…” Did she expect me to apologise? But what for? For lying to her, or was there supposed to be another reason?
“No. You’re an adult. You can do whatever you want and I can’t stop you. But be safe and make my life a little easier, that’s all.” She sounded far from angry, almost gleeful; like she was proud of me. I nodded and stood to take my leave; when she said, “Oh! And your mother called, she said you wouldn’t pick up your phone. Don’t worry, I said nothing about the murder told her you’d made a friend.”
“Thanks, Aunty.” And with that, I prepared myself for a much-dreaded call with my mother. She’d hyperventilate if I told her there’d been a murder, so I omitted that part.
“Angie Honey!” Was her shrieked greeting. I could feel my hearing die. Only ghosts of it stayed.
“Hi mom,” I said, more calmly and more cultured.
“How’ve you been, dear? Your Aunt told me you’d been to see a friend? Who was it? How was it?”
“It was a girl called Annie, and she was nice.” Then I realised what I’d done.
“Oh. Annie, I remember her. She and your…”
“Yes, she and Olivia were friends. I know that mother, it’s no use tiptoeing around the subject now. Olivia’s gone, and the best we can do is move past it.” I said. “I don’t mean forgetting her, we should get used to the fact that she’s been gone five years now.” It was when I was done venting out my frustrations, I heard my mother cry on the other end. My blood pressure seemed to rise plenty, and I heard whooshing in my ears; the sea. And then I thought I’d pass out, but I didn’t. That was rather unfortunate because had I fainted, I would have had a plausible reason to hang up.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I thought… thought since it was so much harder on you when it happened, you wouldn’t want to be reminded…”
“I enjoy remembering all the fun things we did together. If that’s what you mean by being ‘reminded’ then you all shouldn’t worry about it. I remind myself every single day. She was- is- my sister. We grew up together; we did things together, we lived together. You don’t forget someone you were attached to that’s easy.” Well, we did things together until she met Chance, which is when everything fell apart.
“I’m sorry, honey. I really am.” She whimpered into the phone. I almost hung up but realised that I wasn’t the only one grieving about my sister. I wasn’t the only one who had suffered from what had happened, we all were. My mother and I. My mother was her mother, my mother had birthed her and watched her grow. This was probably as hard for her as it was for me; or even harder.
“I’m fine mom, how are you doing though?”
“I’m okay. I miss you.” She sounded shocked to be saying those words. “I knew I’d miss you, you’re my daughter, but I miss you.”
“Now, I’m offended.” I laughed.
“You shouldn’t be, it means you’re fun to be around. I wish you’d make more friends so they could enjoy your company too.” She said.
“But I made a friend today, two actually,” I said, deciding to throw Tanya into the lie. “I met a girl named Alison, and another called Tanya, well Tanya’s older but still a friend.”
“Oh, I don’t care about their ages.” My mom gushed out. “I’m so happy for you dear, now you need even more friends.”
My mom and I talked about random things for the next twenty minutes. I hung up, saying I needed to do something for Aunt Poppy. After that phone call, I thought of calling Lauren but decided against it. I am not a desperate human being. I may be friendless, but desperate isn’t me. So, now with empty hours at my disposal, I couldn’t help but think of the woman.
“Aunt Poppy,” I found myself in front of my Aunt’s room. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.”
We talked about nothing in particular for a few minutes as I conjured up enough bravery to ask her vague questions;
“Hey Aunty, do you know Tanya’s husband?”
She gave a suspicious look and put down the Bible she was now reading. “Yes. He’s a… was a police officer. Not a very… amiable man. Why?”
“Oh. Curiosity.” She didn’t believe me but let it slide. “Do you think he could have…?”
“Have killed the woman?” My aunt asked. “No. Now, I’m tired. Could you be so kind and leave me now?”
I smiled, kissed her goodnight and then left her to sleep. I knew the problem was that she didn’t want to talk about any dead women and… maybe I was a tad bit too irritating. I tried to go to sleep, but images of dead women floating on the waters kept me up. Then I had a thought;
Had the woman washed up onto the shore, or had they put her there with the pretence of having washed up there? They might have killed her, put her on the shore, drenched with the water, and then left there. To anyone’s eye; it would pass as what they expected it to; a dead body washed up on the shore.
The next morning; I opened my eyes and smiled. It was a beautiful day, but then I remembered the dead body and the day had suddenly shattered. Groaning, I grabbed a dressing gown and went to the kitchen. On the way there, I passed the bathroom, back trekked and cleaned up my face. Now I was ready for a good, big breakfast.
Aunt Poppy’s breakfast ready, my duties accomplished, I was all set to leave and do a bit of sleuthing. But the very first person I ran into was the last person I wanted to bump into; Lucas. He didn’t look ecstatic to see me, but he also didn’t look disgusted, so I suppose I looked decent.
“Good day, detective.” It wasn’t morning anymore, it was midday. “How are you today?”
“Great, thanks for asking.” He continued walking away in the other direction; I turned and chased after him.
“Wait! Could you slow down, please?” I said when I finally caught up with him. I bent over and tried to catch my breath, but the idiot didn’t stop; he didn’t even slow down. He kept on walking, even increasing the length of his strides. “I don’t need the workout,” I mumbled, then ran some more to catch up. When he realised that I wasn’t going anywhere soon, he stopped.
“What is it now?” He didn’t sound at all enthralled.
“Did you figure out who the woman is?” I asked.
“Yes, but I don’t have to tell you, do I?” I shrugged; he didn’t have to, but I could get him to.
“Fair enough. But can you at least tell me this…” I thought of an… educated way of asking the question. “Did she wash up on the beach, or was she put there?”
“She was drenched.”
“Oh. But that doesn’t mean she washed up on the beach, does it? Because I can pour buckets of water on you and you’d be drenched. It wouldn’t mean that you were swimming, or you almost drowned, would it?”
“Go on.”
“What if they killed here her in this town, by someone we already know? Then he or she placed her on the beach and made her wet as an illusion.”
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