“Oh that,” said Richard, straightening, his expression unreadable. “That was my father’s house, the first house built in Virgo Bay, as it happens. There used to be a path through town to his front door, but it’s become overgrown over time.”
“Who lives there now?”
Richard paused. “Now? No one. It’s been vacant for years. I wouldn’t go venturing out there, if that’s what you’re angling at. It was already fairly ramshackle when I was a boy; I would bet it’s deteriorated into a real death trap by now.”
Death trap. That was certainly one way to put it. “But there was smoke coming from the chimney,” Nora said, almost in spite of herself. She needed answers; she had no way of saving Charlie without them. That meant she had to ask questions, no matter the risk. She hated all of this.
“Nora, your grandmother says you’ve been asking about her life before Virgo Bay. I understand you’re curious—you’ve just discovered this whole facet of your past you never even knew existed. And I’d like to answer as many questions as I can. But we’ll take things one day at a time, okay? Life out here…it’s complicated. Now, what has your grandmother told you?”
“What we tell everyone, dear.” Ruby appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down at her husband. “That Virgo Bay is a special place.”
Nora looked between them. Her tiny, fleece-cladgrandmother had just silenced Richard with a single sentence. Richard offered Nora a tight smile and went to the hallway to put on his boots.
“You have a lot of questions,” Ruby said as she walked down the stairs and joined Nora in the living room.
“And you have answers,” Nora said. “Why don’t you want to tell them to me?”
Ruby’s face softened into what almost looked like a sad smile. “Some things require patience, Nora. Stay here long enough and you’ll understand.”
* * *
By the time Charlie woke up, their grandparents were already well into their daily walk. Nora had Charlie’s file open next to Ruby’s on the kitchen table. She was bouncing back and forth between the two when Charlie stumbled in, scratching the scruff on his face.
“Any idea what’s killing me today?” he asked.
“Look at this,” Nora said in place of a response. She jabbed a finger at the “cause of death” section in Ruby’s file. The space was blank. “And then yours.” She pointed to the inky blob on Charlie’s file. “Ruby said she was supposed to die by heart attack, but her cause of death is empty. That means something happened to erase her cause of death, right? Possibly the same something that’s happening to yours. She’s still alive and it’s been decades. I think that means you can live too. I just need to figure out how. She’s keeping secrets, Charlie. And so is Richard. Hell, this whole town seems to be. And a lot of them are about that house in the woods.”
Charlie took this all in quietly from the chair beside her.Finally he said, as though it were obvious, “So we go to the house, then.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Seems simple enough. If there’s something about that house that nobody here wants us to know, then we gotta go know about it.”
“Charlie. Jesus. You have the self-preservation skills of a lemming. We can’t just go to the house of secrets in the middle of the woods that everybody wants to keep us from.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Charlie. That’s how you die. We go there and the killer is waiting and then you’re dead. You know, that thing we’re trying to avoid?”
“If nobody’s talking, then how else are we gonna get answers?” Charlie asked.
Nora deflated. He was right. He was dumb, but he was right. If their family had anything to say about it, whatever was hiding in that house would remain hidden. The only way to learn what it was, and what it had to do with saving Charlie’s life, was to go there and find out for themselves. No, not themselves.
“I’ll go,” said Nora, fighting every risk-averse cell she was made of. “If there’s a killer there, you need to stay away.”
“Because you’re killer-proof?”
“No, but as of right now I don’t seem to be a target.”
“Breaking into a killer’s house might change that.”
Nora knew that. Of course she knew that. She’d already run through three different scenarios ending in her murder before Charlie had finished his sentence. But what other choice did she have?
“I’ll be fine,” Nora lied.
Charlie gave her a look that said, “I know you’re lying, but I appreciate it all the same.”
“All right,” Nora said, already regretting it, “I’m going now, before I realize what I’m doing. Stay put, and stay away from…I guess everybody, if you can.” She grabbed a small, serrated knife from the block on the kitchen counter and stuffed it into her coat pocket, just in case. Charlie stood and looked as if he might try to stop her from leaving, but the resolution on Nora’s face forced him back into his seat. Nora didn’t know if it was the sleep deprivation or sheer desperation allowing such wanton recklessness, but she vowed not to examine it too closely until she was safely back in the little red house with answers, and a way to save Charlie. If she was ever back in the little red house again.
