AUNT JENNY’S CELL PHONE RANG AGAIN. “I’M SO SORRY. IT’S this research I’m doing. It’s getting to be more complicated than I thought. Please excuse me, I have to get this. You two explore some more. I’ll be right here.” She answered the call.
Leah grabbed Amanda’s hand. “Let’s look around the village. I saw a hat I’d like to check out in one of the shops.”
The girls strolled down a narrow street, past lush green hedges, rustic stone walls, and charming old cottages that looked like they should be on a cookie tin. Amanda loved the painted shutters on the windows and the cute letterboxes beside each door.
“It would be fun to live in a place like this, wouldn’t it?” asked Amanda.
Leah shrugged. “It’s pretty and quaint but too quiet for me.” Her face lit up as she pointed. “There’s the shop I saw when we arrived.”
Umbrellas, mugs, and T-shirts decorated with Monet’s lily pads adorned the front of the shop.
Leah faced a floppy straw hat perched on a mannequin head. “May I try this one?” she asked the shopkeeper.
“Oui. But of course.” The woman removed the hat from the mannequin, gently placed it on Leah’s head, and directed her to a mirror. “It looks fine on you, non?”
Leah grinned from ear to ear. “It looks smashing!”
“You rock that hat! You look like a movie star,” said Amanda.
“I really do think I must have it.” Leah took out her wallet, pulled out some euros, and paid the clerk.
“Would you like me to put it in a bag, mademoiselle?”
“No thank you, I’ll wear it.”
“Oui. But I must remove the tag.”
Amanda bought a notebook for her mom and a fridge magnet for her great-aunt Mary.
Happy with their purchases, the girls made their way back to the gardens. Amanda was taking pictures of the houses when a little black dog ran out from behind a bush. It ran straight up to Amanda and wagged its tail non-stop.
“Do you know this dog?” asked Leah.
“I’m not sure.” Amanda patted the poodle’s head. “She looks a lot like Philippe’s dog, Fifi.”
“How do you know he has a dog?”
“I saw him walking Fifi in the park at Place des Vosges.”
The little dog ran toward a house and then back to Amanda. “What do you want? Are you trying to tell me something?” She looked at Leah. “I think we should follow her.”
Leah slowly shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Amanda paid no attention to her friend and followed the poodle to a stone cottage with blue shutters on the windows and ivy growing up the side. Leah reluctantly followed. As the girls got nearer they heard a faint moaning sound.
“Someone might be hurt. We need to see if they need help.” Amanda tried the door. It wouldn’t budge. “I wonder how we can get in.”
The poodle jumped like an uncoiled spring and ran around in circles, all the while barking little squeaks. Amanda felt around the doorway. One brick wobbled. She grabbed on it and tugged. The brick popped out, revealing a key with a tag. Amanda took it out and read, “Boîte aux lettres, what’s that in English?”
Leah checked her phone. “It means letterbox, according to Google Translate.”
Amanda tried the key in the red letterbox beside the door. To her surprise, it opened. Inside was another key.
“Honestly! This one better open the door.” Leah grabbed the key and inserted it into the lock on the door. The key didn’t fit. “Let’s just forget it and go back to the gardens.”
The dog was going crazy, jumping around. The faint moaning continued.
“Wait,” said Amanda, cupping her ear. “I think the sound might be coming from behind the house.”
They crept around to the back. No one was there. The dog ran to a low rectangular door and pawed the ground in front of it. Amanda tried the key in the lock, and the door swung open to reveal steps leading down into a cellar. The pup scampered down the stairs into the darkness. The muffled moaning became a bit louder.
Amanda’s eyes grew large. “Someone is down there and probably hurt.” She moved toward the steps.
Leah pulled her back. “Are you daft? You cannot be thinking of going into that dark cellar. I’ve seen enough scary movies to know that is not a good idea.”
“We have a light on our phones, so it won’t be totally dark.” Amanda turned on her light and aimed it at the stairs. “Come on.”
Leah hesitated, then followed as they crept down into the darkness together. Once at the bottom, Amanda shone her light around. Shelves lined the musty cellar, some piled high with dusty boxes and suitcases, others with wine bottles covered in spiderwebs. Amanda could feel Leah shiver beside her.
Slam!
The door to the cellar closed.
Leah gasped. “Now what? I told you it was a bad idea coming down here.”
Amanda heard scratching. She swallowed and bit her lip. Her chest tightened. She didn’t want Leah to know she was scared. What if there were rats in the cellar?
“Hold on. There must be a way to get upstairs.” Amanda shone her phone around the room. “There, over there. I think that might be a door leading to the main floor.”
Leah clung to Amanda’s shoulder as they inched their way to the other side of the cellar. Amanda hoped the door didn’t require another key. With a shaking hand, she turned the doorknob. The door swung open, revealing a set of steep stairs. The panting poodle almost knocked them over as it shot up the stairs. The girls followed and entered a dimly lit room at the top.
“Listen!” Amanda held her breath.
A long moan and a slurping sound came from nearby.
Leah walked over to a set of shutters and pulled them open. Sunlight from the backyard flooded the room, revealing Fifi licking the face of Philippe Lawrence, gagged and huddled in a corner.