Page 149 of Serenity Falls

She debates with herself. She promised the others she would keep Frankie’s documents safe. But she didn’t explicitly promise not to let anyone else see them.

‘I need to show you something.’

They sit at the breakfast bar. Dad stares at the newspaper story about Milo Miller and the gator attack. ‘So, he does exist?’

She nods ‘And now he’s Father Miller, the priest at the chapel. I met him when I was looking for Davey’s grave.’

Her dad frowns. ‘It could be a different Milo?’

‘Maybe, but I mean, it’s not a common name.’

Dad looks back at the other pieces of paper. Sadie has already talked him through Frankie and Cash, the ghost houses, the list of dates and the newspaper articles Frankie looked up.

He shakes his head. ‘So, Miller was attacked by a gator when he was a teenager. Four years later Davey Junior drowns in the pool and Miller saves him, or tries to save him. But what does that have to do with these other stories?’

He spreads them out on the breakfast bar, frowning. He taps the article about Weeping Wendy. ‘This picture. She looks familiar.’

Sadie shrugs. ‘Not to me. And I don’t know what links the stories. That’s why we should talk to Father Miller.’

Dad barks out a brittle laugh. ‘No, we shouldn’t. This … whatever this is … has gone far enough. And I’m not very happy about Ellis and her friends dragging you into it.’

‘But you were fine dragging yourself into Hailey’s drama.’

‘That’s not the same. I was trying to help her.’

‘And I’m trying to help my friends find out who killed Frankie.’

‘Sadie, this is not some TV show. We don’t know that anyone killed Frankie. And we’ve got enough to worry about. Someone is dressing up to scare us and tampering with our security cameras, weird ice-cream vans are following you, you’re getting strange phone calls in the middle of the night. Shall I go on?’

‘You usually do.’

‘Fine. Well, there’s also the whole thing about Grandma leaving us this house – I think she knew Harold Winsom.’

‘Grandma?’

‘Remember that video?’

‘Yeah. All the stuff about the flood.’

Dad gets up and goes to one of the kitchen drawers. He places a card on the breakfast bar in front of Sadie. ‘I found this in Grandma’s things. In the video of Harold Winsom, there’s a menu on the table. Same logo.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘She worked a lot of jobs when I was small. It’s possible she worked at this club and their paths crossed.’

‘You think that’s why she bought this house?’

‘Bought, acquired … there are no legal documents in any of her things. Only the deed of ownership the lawyers showed me.’

Sadie lets this settle. If Grandma had some connection to Winsom, it might explain the house. It didn’t explain why someone was targeting them.

‘So, what do you want to do?’

‘I think we should leave.’

‘Leave?’

‘Just for a few nights. Get a motel somewhere. Just till I feel sure we’re safe here.’