Riddle Me This?

Chapter 5

The sun burst out of the thick cloud covering as it moved across the sky, and I closed my eyes as the trampoline pressed warm against my bare legs and arms. The light dimmed again as another bulbous cloud drifted across the sun.

A door popped open, squeaked, and shut again.

That will be Matt. I closed my hand around the flashlight at my side.

I sat up. Had his dad been angry? I swung my legs under the metal railing. "So?"

He shrugged. "I explained. Dad's pretty much cool with it. Dent's actually not that bad."

"And your mom?"

He shrugged, a smile playing at the edge of his lips. "Not home."

"How do you think she'll take it?"

"Same as always." He leaned against the trampoline. "Conspiracy theories, talking about being careful, worrying."

"Like when Tim moved?"

"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "I remember that conversation. 'You'll dry up like a piece of leather' were her words, I think. Then she went out and bought him a whole bunch of that thick cream."

"Maybe it won't be that bad in this case."

"Eh, well." He smiled up at me. "You mentioned a certain house?"

"Yes!" I hopped down. "I really just want to go get the letters and leave. Promise."

His face went still. "Yeah. I really think someone's staying there at night."

Safety lecture. "It's not night time, and that's why I said we wouldn't be there long. Come on."

"Yes ma'am."

"Hush."

The old trees loomed over us, casting shadows as we hurried through the brush.

Why have I never poked around back here before? "So what do you figure the letter meant?"

He kicked a pinecone out of the way. "Well...what do you know about Gavin Dupree?"

"Nothing." I twirled the flashlight in my hand. "I don't even know how he's related to me, just that he's some guy in our family who might've done something really bad."

"Anyone you can ask?"

No one who'll give me answers. "I have. My dad was the one who brought up the guy's name when he saw it in some family records, but my granny straight up refuses to say anything about who he was."

"You should check the library."

"Yeah, probably." I shrugged. "I didn't think of that, so...yeah. If it was bad enough, old papers'll have the story, right?"

"I guess."

The second story side window stared down like an empty eye. I pulled my gaze away and edged to the front of the house.

"Coulda been just an animal in there that we heard," I whispered. Like the house can hear you? Really?

"In, out, and home, okay?"

I elbowed Matt softly. "Chicken." I didn't move.

You'll never do this if you don't do it now.

I stepped ahead of Matt, but he followed close behind. Up the too-new, impossible front steps, onto the porch. I pulled the door more open than it already was and slipped through.

Sunlight from another window attempted to fill up the still dim house as I stepped through the hall and into the parlor.

The piano keys, so filthy just the night before, gleamed from across the room, and the bench hid halfway into the shadows. Tidy. Goosebumps on my arm flared up. I moved toward the instrument to touch one of the tooth-white keys.