Page 128 of Serenity Falls

He barks out a short laugh. ‘In Serenity Falls? No.’

‘It’s just … my daughter. She thought she saw lights on over there.’

Jerry stares at me. ‘What sort of time?’

‘Around two a.m.’

Jerry looks uneasy. ‘All the empty houses are well secured. I doubt anyone would be able to break in without us knowing. But I can take a look.’

‘Right. Well, thank you.’ I hold out my hand.

After a second, he shakes it.

Cash

Garth was waiting for me when I clocked into work the next day.

‘Hey, Cash. Can I have a word?’

‘Well, I should really get out on my rounds.’

‘You can stand to be a few minutes late.’

That’s when I knew something was wrong. Garth was a stickler for timekeeping.

‘Okay,’ I said, and headed into his office.

Garth moved behind his desk. He gestured to the chair in front. ‘Take a seat, Cash.’

I swallowed. This felt bad, wrong. But I sat. Because I always did what I was told.

‘So, you have a good day off yesterday?’

‘Yes, thank you, sir.’

‘What d’you do?’

‘Oh, nothing much.’

A pause. It seemed to last a long time. Garth stared hard at me. ‘Well, that’s funny because I have it on good authority that you were out in your uniform yesterday telling people you were delivering mail.’

Good authority. I immediately wondered who had told on me. The newcomers. Mr Bryson. Or maybe just someone watching through their curtains.

‘Furthermore,’ Garth continued, ‘I heard that you were visiting some of the ghost houses.’

I didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure I was meant to.

He sat back in his chair. ‘I thought to myself: why would Cash be doing that? And then I thought about the job I gave you the other day – to mark off Carrie’s house on the log. So, I checked back, and I found someone printed something off my computer that day.’ He stared at me. ‘Now why would you do that, Cash? What the hell got into you?’

I opened my mouth. I shut it again. I was sweating. I took out a handkerchief and wiped at my face. I could have lied, but I’ve always been a terrible liar, and I’m not exactly gifted with a great imagination, so truth was my only real option.

‘I’m sorry. I started looking at the log and some things just didn’t seem right.’

‘In what way?’

I took a deep breath. ‘It’s the ghost houses. There’s so many, and people have just disappeared or had accidents, and someone is moving into Carrie’s house already, and she only just died.’

Garth looked down at his desk and then back up at me. ‘Well, accidents do happen, and people move.’