Page 130 of Serenity Falls

‘Where did Frankie get all this stuff?’ Ramona shuffles furiously through the stack of papers.

‘Slow down,’ Ellis says. ‘There’s a letter on top.’

They crowd round to read it. Sadie feels her heart jolt as they get to the end.

‘Take care, Cash Leonards.’

‘I know that name.’

‘You do?’ Ellis asks. ‘How?’

Sadie takes a breath. ‘Okay. I ran into Stella, the coroner, the other night. I asked if there was anything weird about Frankie’s death. She told me it was possible he’d had an allergic reaction to a sting before he went in the pool. She said she’d seen something like it years ago – a mailman called Cash Leonards, who also died in a freak accident.’ She pauses. ‘Cash rented a room from Frankie’s grandma.’

‘Shit!’ Ramona’s eyebrows shoot up. ‘Frankie’s been staying with his grandma. So maybe he found this stuff in the room, hidden somewhere.’

‘Holy fuckeroonie!’ Ellis grins at Sadie. ‘I’m so glad I invited you on to our team.’

Sadie blushes. To hide it, she picks up some of the papers Ramona has discarded. Against each house number, in neat, childish writing, a name and occupation are written, and then, either ACCIDENT or LEFT/DISAPPEARED. Next to some there’s further detail – Bike crash. Electrocuted. Fell downstairs. A few names have been circled in a different-coloured pen.

‘These must be all the ghost houses,’ she says. ‘And it looks like these are notes about what happened to the occupants.’

They all study the list. There must be over fifty houses. Dax whistles through his teeth. ‘That seems like a lot of people.’

‘I wonder why these have been circled.’ Ramona points at the list.

Owen Green – kid. ACCIDENT (fairground)

Wendy Molton – Sheriff’s clerk. SUICIDE?

Dean Hatchett – Sheriff. LEFT

Malcolm Gravelot – coroner. ACCIDENT (gas explosion)

Carrie Sanderson – reporter. ACCIDENT (shower)

Malcolm Gravelot. Sadie frowns. Stella’s father, maybe?

She starts to sift through the sheets of paper again. Beneath the list of names and addresses are several copied pages – newspaper stories. The ones Frankie must have been looking up on microfiche.

‘Wait. Where’s the list of dates?’ Dax asks.

Ramona pushes the list across the table.

‘Okay.’ Dax reaches over and starts to place the newspaper stories in date order. ‘So, this is the first one.

ESCAPE FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH!

Beneath the headline is a picture of the lake and a blurry picture of a teenager with long blond hair and glasses.

A local teenager is in a stable condition in hospital after he was attacked by an alligator on Saturday evening. It’s believed that Milo Miller had stolen a boat for a prank when it overturned and the alligator pounced.

Ellis points at the date on the newspaper. ‘The 29th of October. The paper comes out every Monday. So, if this kid was attacked on the Saturday—’

‘That makes it the 27th,’ Sadie finishes, looking at the list: 27th October 1991.

‘So, now we’re getting somewhere.’ Dax picks up a pen and adds the name next to the date.

‘What’s next?’ Ellis asks.