Chapter 30

Summer vacation was ending in less than two weeks. It was hard for Alexandra to believe Adam would be a senior. She was beginning to feel old.

Standing behind the bar, she reached down and began placing the bottles from the back bar onto the oak bar top. It was Monday morning, and the restaurant was closed. After placing a dozen bottles in a row, she turned on the electric scale, which she had placed on the bar top. Opening the folder containing the liquor inventory, she began taking her weekly liquor count. One by one, she set the bottles on the scale, carefully recording the weight of each one. She was alone. At least, she thought she was.

Placing a bottle of Absolut onto the scale, she heard “Hi, Alex!” and nearly dropped the bottle. Startled, she looked up to see her sister walking toward her.

“Damn it, Kate, you scared the hell outa me!”

“Sorry, kiddo.” Kate sat on one of the tall bar stools and leaned against the bar top, resting on her elbows. “Whatcha doing?”

“How’d you get in here? I know I locked the doors.”

Kate answered by waving a key in the air and smiling. “Tommy told me to give this back to you.”

“I told him to keep it.” Alex went back to weighing the bottles as she talked.

“How come you never gave me a key?” Kate faked a pout.

“Because knowing you, you’d invite all your strange artist friends in for a party,” Alex teased.

“True.” Kate smiled, then placed the key on the bar top and slid it over to her sister.

“What’re you up to, Kate?”

“Wanted to know if you’d like to drive up to Clement Falls with me.”

Clement Falls. Alexandra hadn’t been there in ten years.

“What for?” Alex placed a bottle of Smirnoff on the scale.

“It’s hotter than hell. Thought we could go swimming.” Kate paused for a moment and watched her sister. “What are you doing, anyway?”

“PCs.” Alex glanced up. Her sister didn’t have a clue. “Percentage counts. I’m weighing the bottles to see if what’s missing matches what we sold.”

“You’re becoming obsessive, Alex. I’m worried about you,” Kate teased.

“Oh, what do you know!” Alex laughed.

“So, will you come?”

“If you help me finish the liquor count, I’ll go.” An outing did seem appealing.

“What do I do?” Kate jumped down off the barstool.

“Hand me the bottles, and after I weigh them, place them in a line on the other side of the bar. But keep them in order.”

“You don’t want me to put them back after you weigh them?”

“No, the bartender will clean the glass first and put the bottles away. Let’s get this done. A swim sounds pretty good.”

Alexandra sat in the passenger’s seat of Kate’s Mustang as it drove up the highway leading to Clement Falls. Leaning back in the seat, she watched the scenery, glad she didn’t have to drive.

“What made you think about going swimming at the falls?” Alexandra asked. She was looking away from Kate as she talked, gazing out the passenger window.

“Actually, Tommy made me think of it when he gave me the key to give back to you. Remember when we were in high school and would go up to the falls and skinny dip?”

“You used to skinny dip. I picked berries and wildflowers.”

“You were always boring,” Kate teased. Then she added, “Wasn’t Garret’s cabin at Clement Falls?”

“Sure was.” Alex looked over to her sister while she continued to lean back against the headrest.

“Do you think he still owns it?”

“I don’t know. As far as I know, he’s never been back to Coulson, so I can’t imagine he still owns it. Kind of expensive to own a cabin you never use.”

“He’s a Coulson,” Kate reminded her. “Keeping ten houses they never use would be pocket change.”

“I guess you’re right.” Alex turned her head and looked back out the window.

“He didn’t live at the cabin, did he?” Since Garret had gone away ten years ago, they rarely discussed him.

“No, he had an apartment in town.”

“What was it like?”

“I don’t know. I never saw it.”

“Really, Alex?”

“Really.”

“Seems kind of strange.” Kate shook her head in disbelief. “I wonder what happened to him. Doesn’t Russy ever say?”

“I stopped asking Russell about Garret years ago. I think he wanted to discourage any lingering interest I had in his brother. I imagine he probably found someone, maybe settled down.”

“I could ask Russy,” Kate offered brightly.

“Please don’t,” Alex said firmly.

They were just reaching Clement Falls when Alex called out.

“Turn at the next right, Kate.”

“Why?” Kate asked as she made the turn. But Alex did not answer. Instead, she leaned forward and watched the road.

“There, pull over by that big tree,” Alex demanded. She seemed a bit distracted.

Kate drove the Mustang to the side of the road and turned off the ignition. Her hands remained on the steering wheel as she looked over at her sister and saw that Alex sat, mesmerized, staring out the car window. Kate followed her sister’s gaze, and she could see the object of Alex’s attention. Directly across the street was a neglected log cabin. The weeds were overgrown, and dead rose bushes lined the walkway leading to the cabin’s front door.

“That’s it, isn’t it? Garret’s cabin,” Kate asked.

Alex nodded the affirmative as she simply sat and stared. The logs were in desperate need of oiling and shingles were missing from the roof. It looked like an abandoned cabin.

“Let’s go peek inside,” Kate suggested.

Alex looked around the neighborhood. There were only a few cabins on this street, most owned by weekenders, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. It really wouldn’t do any harm to look.

“Okay.” Alex jumped from the car, and together she and Kate raced across the street. Alex could see the drapes were opened partially in the living room.

Alex peeked through the window.

“Oh, my God!”.

Kate quickly glanced at her sister. Alex looked as if she had seen a ghost. Curious and concerned, Kate looked through the window.

She couldn’t see anything unusual—a big fireplace, leather couch. It looked like there was a chessboard and some game pieces piled in one corner, as if someone had dumped the game and not bothered to set the players in their correct positions.

“What’s the problem?” Kate looked inquisitively at her sister.

“It’s exactly as I last saw it. The day Russell caught us, Garret and I had been playing chess earlier. Well, we sort of scattered the game around the room.” Alex continued to stare into the cabin as she explained. “Anyway, we left the game scattered when we went to the bedroom. The next time I noticed the chessboard was the last day I saw Garret. He had haphazardly piled it in the corner, exactly where it is now.”

“You’re saying that no one has even been here in ten years?”

“It seems that way.”

“Creepy.” Kate shivered.

“Come on.” Alex grabbed Kate’s hand and began dragging her toward the garage.

“Where are we going?” Kate asked as she allowed her sister to pull her along.

“I want to see in the garage.” She walked to the sidewall of the garage and stood on her tiptoes, then looked into the small window.

“I’ll be damned,” Alex muttered.

“What is it?”

“It’s his Jeep. It’s in the garage.”

Kate looked around for something to stand on. Even on her tiptoes, she couldn’t see into the high window. She found a rock and moved it below the window, then stood on it.

There was definitely a red Jeep in the garage. A Jeep covered in an abundance of lacy cobwebs.