Behind Lies

Chapter Eleven

“What is this place?” I had driven for two hours and now we’re in Brisbane. We ended up in a place that had the same kind of feel when I was doing a job in the Bronx. We entered a large abandoned building. It had wooden planks covering all the windows and doors. Phoenix and Chase kicked in one of the windows until it was smashed open. It was dark and creepy inside.

“My dad used to bring me here when I was a kid, it was a puppet theatre but the floods destroyed it.”

“And now it’s a creepy doll museum?” Chase snorted.

“I guess you could say that.”

“Why are we here?” I asked.

“Your brother said to you, there is no place like home. The Wizard of Oz was my favourite show. Every time they would show it we would always get up early to be the first ones at the door.”

“Your point is?” Chase was obviously tired, I was preparing myself for a long night of smart ass comments.

“There is cupboard out back that they used to keep the dolls and props in. The one prop they wouldn’t take out was Dorothy’s ruby slippers.” We were dodging puddles, broken bits of glass and dolls parts. “My dad told me when I was nine that one day when I was old enough he would bring me back and explain the importance of the shoes.”

“Which is…?”

Phoenix stopped and eyeballed Chase. “Let’s assume for the rest of this field trip that I know just as much as you do. We clear?”

We reached a door, its hinges were rusted and mould was growing over the handle. Phoenix stared at the door momentarily before opening it. Inside lye a chest with a lock wrapped around it appearing as though the chain was endless.  “Great we needed a key.” Chase said impatient already.

“No we don’t. the lock wasn’t clicked in, it’s just sitting there.” I said.

“Why would someone do that though?” Phoenix asked.

“Because someone wanted you to find it.” Mid-sentence Chase had approached the box and began to unravel it already. 10 minutes in and the chain lay spread out on the floor. We eyeballed each other, and in the silence Chase reached to open the box. “no, please, let me.” Chase nodded to Phoenix and then he slid his hands under the old, rickety frame. He lifted the lid and dust flew everywhere. My eyes took seconds to adjust and when they came into focus my heart skipped a beat. A body that had almost finished decomposing lay in there. The stench hit and I could feel the bile work its way up my throat.

My hand flew up to my mouth, my index finger lying smooth underneath my nose. I breathed in the smell of my skin, hoping it had some affect in blocking out the smell of corpse. Without hesitation Chase took out his phone and started taking photos of the offending sight. “Who do you think it is?” Phoenix asked.

“She’s female; you can tell by the structure of her pelvic bones, she had obviously given birth.” I kept staring at the Jane Doe and what was left of her face. There was something sticking out of her teeth. The skin had rotted away from the side of her face leaving her teeth on full display. I grasped the paper in my hand and it easily came out. It was a photo. It was clearly a photo of the girl in front of us. By this time, my nose had adjusted to thee smell and it wasn’t the thing my brain was focusing on.

In the photo she didn’t look that much older than us. In fact she only looked in her early to mid-twenties. “I don’t get it, why would he send us here if this was all we were going to find.”

“She had the same gift as you.”

“What?”

“It makes sense now, the longer I stare at the photo the more I see you and your mom.”