Heartknocks, - [best mystery novels of all time txt] 📗

 

Heartknocks

 

 

Copyright 2018 by Dan Nimak

All rights reserved. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form is forbidden without the express permission of the author.

 

This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real locales or real people are used fictitiously. Other events, locales, names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

 

Published by Rainbug Books

www.dannimak.com

ISBN: 978-1-945015-24-3

 

 

 

Heartknocks

 

 

She died on her fourteenth birthday. At least, she thought she did.

Left…right…left…right.

Her steps were slow and careful. The ground was hard. “Must be a street,” she softly said, though the gray fog prevented her from seeing anything below the bottom of her nightgown.

Left…right.

Her foot tingled, and she knelt down to inspect. Dark green grass grew between the cobbled stones of the road. She jerked the blades that were wedged between her toes and tossed them aside.

As she stood, she noticed the flickering light in the distance that swayed ever so slightly in the cool breeze. “That’s pretty bright if I can see it through all this fog. Maybe it’s not far.” She began walking again and quickly added to her last thought. “I assume that’s where I’m supposed to go. Toward the light?” She took a deep breath. “Why not? Walk to the light, Kaili. Walk to the light.”

She thought of it. She felt inside her nightgown to see if it was still there. It was.

Left…right.

Something tickled. She immediately grabbed the back of her neck. She took hold of it, and it stretched across her shoulders and down her back.

“Hair? Dang, Kaili. You’ve got hair.”

Her pace increased, and she continued to talk to herself – hoping it would give her some kind of comfort or calmness, anything to get her mind off the last thing she remembered before arriving here. “Wherever here is.”

Left…right.

The grass got thicker, and taller, and wilder. It slapped against her as her fast walk turned into a jog. Drops of perspiration fell from her face.

Stay calm, Kaili.

Maybe if I keep talking to myself.

“At least I’ve got hair again. I wonder –”

She shivered, her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground. She wrapped her arms around herself, too afraid to look. She knew that sound. The sound from behind. The sound of someone knocking on a door.

It can’t be. Not here. Not now.

She released the tight grip of herself and rolled over to her hands and knees. “I must have imagined it.” Kaili slowly turned her head.

The fog had lifted.

Behind her, there was no door.

No bedroom.

No home.

No Mom and Dad.

No Logan.

And there was no knocking – including the special knock only Logan used, the knocking sound she thought she had heard moments ago, the last sound she knew she had heard just before she died.

She took another deep breath and slowly exhaled.

And then, their secret signal rang out again.

Knock.

Knock-knock.

Knock-knock-knock.

Kaili jumped up…and ran to the light.

 

The flame inside the glass danced as the lantern swung from the pole on which it hung. On tiptoes, Kaili reached for the lamp, but her fingertips fell just short of touching its bottom. “I guess I don’t need it that bad.” She grasped the lamppost and swung herself around – “Crap! What is that?”

On the other side of the post, three fist-sized buttons faintly glimmered in the night. Each button contained a word. Kaili read the words from top to bottom. “EARLY. LATER. NOW.”

She plopped down and leaned against the post, her head resting just below the bottom button. She knew what she was supposed to do, but she didn’t know which button to push.

“Why can’t there just be heaven and hell buttons?”

She closed her eyes and listened for a sound, a clue; but, she opened them quickly – afraid of what else she might hear.

Kaili pulled herself up. “I can’t sit here all night. I know I’m not choosing the ‘NOW’ button, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t care much for the ‘EARLY’ one either.”

She raised her arm and stared at her shaking hand.

Once again, she thought of it. One hand rubbed inside her nightgown.

Her other hand slammed the middle button.

 

* * *

 

“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Kaili. Happy birthday to you.”

Kaili smiled, took a deep breath, and blew out all eleven candles.

The best part of the party occurred after the cake and ice cream: presents. And Mom and Dad got her what she had hoped for.

“Sorry I don’t have a gift for you,” said Logan. “But thanks for inviting me.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Kaili replied. “You just moved to our block a few days ago, and I didn’t actually invite you until this morning. I’m glad you could come.”

“Well, thanks again.”

Kaili grinned. “You can always get me a gift later.”

“I’ll work on that.”

She grabbed his arm before he walked out the door. “I’m just kidding.”

Kaili slept well that night.

~ ~ ~

The note had been slipped under her bedroom door, early on the morning of her twelfth birthday. Kaili knew it had to be from him. She jumped out of bed, grabbed the note, and read.

Meet me at The Pill’s for your birthday present. Don’t walk. You’ll need your bike.

The Pill’s wasn’t really its name, or at least, it probably wasn’t. The old restaurant at the edge of town had been falling down for years. Only part of its sign was still readable: the word Grill, and the two letters before it. It might’ve been Bill’s Grill or Mel’s Grill, but Logan had named it Pill’s Grill. For some reason, he liked that name. And ever since then, he and Kaili had simply called it The Pill’s.

On the short bike ride to The Pill’s, Kaili thought about the last twelve months. In a word, they had been wonderful. She looked forward to each and every day. And there was one reason for that. Her new best friend…

“Who is nowhere around,” she said as she pulled up to the rickety building. She was a little concerned as she got off her bike, but her worried expression changed to a smile when she saw the taped note flapping on the rotted window sill to the right of the front door.

“iRde ot hte oPts iceOff. What the heck does that mean?”

Kaili studied the note further. “Ride!” she exclaimed. “I think I got it. Ride to the Post Office. I can do that!”

No note, however, was attached to anything outside the post office. But she knew how friendly their small-town Postmaster, Mr. Clair, was, so she went inside to test her theory. She dialed the combination to the lock on her box and slowly pulled it open. She peered inside and giggled at the small surprise.

“I was right,” she said. “But there’s no Chinese restaurant in this town.”

Kaili grabbed the fortune cookie, cracked it open, and read the note. “Hungry?” She laughed. “Actually, I’m kind of craving Chinese all of a sudden, but that’s probably not the answer.”

Back on her bike, she rode to her and Logan’s favorite place to eat, Pop’s Pizza.

Pop was actually a middle-aged woman named Becky, but she could make pizza like nobody’s business. And today, maybe known by Becky – but maybe not – a piece of paper was being held in place by the windshield wiper of Becky’s car.

“Are you ever gonna get here?” read Kaili. She turned the note over. “Your final clue: 2166.” She thought for a moment. “I know we don’t have any street numbers that high. 2166? What is – I’ve got it!” She jumped on her bike and headed for the edge of town.

Not the edge of town by The Pill’s. She had already been there. But the other side of town had the same sign, the city limit sign, the sign that announced the population of their town, the sign on which Logan leaned against when she arrived.

He sang alone. “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Kaili. Happy birthday to you.”

“Depending on what you’re hiding behind your back, this might just be the best birthday ever.”

Logan brought one hand out from behind his back. Part of a slip of paper stuck out between two knuckles of his clenched fist.

Kaili pulled it out and read. “Stealth.”

Logan smiled.

“That’s it?” she asked. “Stealth? It means sneaky, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe…”

“It’s summer, Logan. I don’t feel like an English exam.”

“Me neither,” he said. “But do you feel like going somewhere…where we’re not exactly supposed to go?”

She grinned as she punched him on the shoulder. “Have me back by dinner?”

“Maybe…”

They rode about three miles outside of town, stopping next to a thick growth of shrubbery. “We’ll hide our bikes under the bushes,” said Logan, “and walk the rest of the way.”

Kaili had a good idea where they were going. “That’s where the stealth part comes in.”

“We don’t want anyone seeing us go to the caves. But it’s not far. Hide your bike, and I’ll grab the rope I left under the bushes last night.”

She had never been to the caves, and it wasn’t just because of the warning signs posted outside. It was the tales of danger that had diminished her interest. But she was younger then. At age twelve, all of a sudden it seemed a little more exciting. Or maybe Logan was the difference.

“Do you think the stories are true?” she asked as they approached the entrance.

Logan pointed to the three signs. “The warnings on the signs? Or the waterfall?”

“Both.”

“I guess we’ll soon find out.”

As they walked past the ‘Keep Out’ sign, Logan tapped it with his fist.

Knock.

He tapped the ‘No Trespassing’ sign twice.

Knock-knock.

Then, the last sign.

Knock-knock-knock.

He knelt down and began tying the rope around the bottom of the third sign. “I sure hope this holds.”

“Our lives on a rope tied to a sign that says Danger. What could go wrong?”

Logan laughed. “Happy birthday.”

“You know, I think my parents would be a little upset if you killed me on my birthday.”

Logan stretched out the rope and walked a few steps toward the hole in the ground. He pulled the rope tight, flung the loose portion of it down the hole, and smiled. “I’ll have you home for dinner.”

Kaili peered down the hole. “It looks lighter down there than I thought it would. But…it’s also a little farther than…than I…”

“It’s only about ten feet or so. And the knots I tied in the rope will help. Do you want to go first?”

Kaili wavered between acting brave or smart. “I guess you can.”

“Great.” Logan took his shoes and socks off and dropped them down the hole. “It’ll help your feet grip the knots better.” He lay flat