Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #4: Books 13-16 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [story read aloud .txt] 📗

“He’s not here. He’s gone.”

“How about Sean? Can we see him?”

She frowned. “I took my meds. But that isn’t always clear. Samuel is dealing with that.”

Dehan said, “May we come in, please, Helen?”

She nodded. “Yeah, that should be OK. I just have to be careful not to let them start.” She stood back and we stepped over the threshold. Dehan closed the door and Helen said, “Talking to me.”

“May we go through to the living room and see your father now?”

“I was in my room. So far, that seems to be OK…” She nodded and made an almost placating gesture with her hands. “But I mustn’t go out because they play tricks on me and I don’t know how to get back. The stairs are OK, and so far my room is pretty solid.”

I smiled at her again. “That’s good news. Would you like us to take you up to your room?”

She nodded. “That’s probably OK.”

We climbed the stairs with her to a long, dark landing that led onto an equally long, but darker passage. At the end, the bathroom door stood open, and a dull, gray light, insufficient to make shadows or contrasts, showed another door, on our left, that also stood open onto a dark room. I pointed to the door.

“Is that your room?”

She nodded.

I asked, “Don’t you want the lights on?”

She shook her head. “No, they told me the darkness keeps it all from cracking. The light has vibrations that make things crack. It’s OK for other people. Samuel is strong, but Daddy is cracking. So for now, I’m playing it safe.” She smiled. “Keeping things tight.”

Two more doors stood closed, and at the far end, opposite the bathroom, a third. She pointed to the door next to hers. “Samuel is there in case they start making problems. I don’t know how they get in, but Samuel can usually make them shut up. He says for now, the way forward is to take the meds, and pray to Our Father. I’m not sure, but I do what he says, for now. Play it safe is what I say.”

I said, “And your daddy sleeps downstairs…”

“Until we can fix the cracks. We’ll have to see how that goes. We’re trying to find the right balance. He used to sleep in that room. But he’s gone now.”

She pointed to the room next to Samuel’s. Which left the one at the end, opposite the bathroom, as Celeste’s. Helen stared at that door for a while. When she spoke, her voice sounded empty. “Celeste took Mom away, and then she went away too. They get sucked through the cracks. We’re trying to make sure Daddy doesn’t get sucked out, but we’ll have to see...” She crossed the landing toward the dark door, speaking over her shoulder. “I better get back. That’s a lot of light for one day. Let’s hope this rain keeps up. Bye.”

And she closed the door.

I followed Dehan back down the stairs into the hall. She snapped on the light, but the overhead bulb, held under a green, plastic shade, only seemed to add to the gloom. She moved to the mahogany living room door and knocked. We heard some grunting and shuffling, then Reynolds’ voice, shrouded with recent sleep.

“Who is it?”

“Detectives Dehan and Stone, Mr. Reynolds, may we speak to you briefly?”

There was silence, then some creaking of bedsprings, then, “Yes, I was sleeping, but come in.”

We opened the door. The room was almost as dark as Helen’s, except that gray light managed to creep in through the window that gave onto the backyard. Outside, shreds of wet washing dripped from a clothesline, and tall, scrubby blades of uncut grass quivered in the cold wind. Sean was up on one elbow.

“I was asleep,” he said again. “Where’s Samuel? He’ll see you.”

We sat without being invited: Dehan in the armchair where she’d sat before, I on the straight-backed chair by the window, where I could see his face better.

“It’s actually you we would like to talk to, Mr. Reynolds. Just a couple of minor details.” I smiled. “No need to trouble Samuel with them.” I glanced at my watch. “Four o’clock. I imagine he’s at work, right?”

He nodded. “More than likely.”

“Where does he work?”

“He’s self-employed. He’s a welder, amongst other things. That boy can turn his hand to anything. Godsend to me: fix a washing machine, fix your car, even fix a leak in the roof.”

“He’s a fixer.”

“He sure is that. What did you want to ask me?”

Dehan said, “Did Celeste have a computer?”

“’Course she did. She was never off the damned thing. When she wasn’t on her damned phone, she was on her computer. I don’t know what it is with kids these days, they always gotta be staring at some goddamn screen. It’s either the damn phone, the damn computer or the damn TV.” He wagged a finger at Dehan. “I tell you this, them damn screens are gonna be the end of decent family life in this country. You mark my words. Separates the family. Breaks people up. Each one in her own room, glued to a damn screen.”

I spoke almost without thinking. “Cracks…”

“What?”

“Cracks appearing,” I said. “In families and society…”

He pointed at me. “That’s exactly it. Family is the basis of society, and there are cracks appearing. I always said so. The Lord guide us, for we have gone astray.”

“Mr. Reynolds, where would Celeste’s computer be now? Did Lenny take it away?”

His eyes became abstracted and he stared into the gloom, as though he was seeing something that wasn’t there. I had seen the same look on Helen’s face a little earlier. “No,” he said, “No, I don’t believe he did.”

Dehan asked him, “What happened to all Celeste’s