Дмитрий Леонтьев – Terrible (страница 5)
“The story is unbelievable,” he said and continued driving.
At one point Charlie pulled out his mobile phone from the pocket and dialed Spencer’s number.
After a series of beeps, Charlie heard a voice, “Hello!” At that moment, he turned on the speakerphone and said, “Hello, Mr. King. It is Charlie.”
“Hello, Charlie! How are you?” said the voice. “How is your moving going?”
“I am fine!” replied Charlie. “Everything is okay,” he added.
“I am so happy!” said Spencer. “How is your new home?”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” Charlie said. “If I remember correctly, the deal was that the seller leaves the furniture in the house.”
“Yes, that’s right,” interrupted him Spencer. “Did they not?” he asked.
“No, no,” Charlie said “They left it but, apart from the furniture, they left everything else – all their stuff actually.”
“What stuff?” Spencer asked him.
Charlie hesitated then said, “It seems that they were in a hurry when they were leaving the house, or something made them leave sooner than they wanted and they left some things behind! Do you know anything about them? Or what could have happened to them?”
“No idea!” said Spencer. “I saw them last about two weeks ago and I didn’t notice anything strange in their behavior then. Well, you also were here two weeks ago and saw them.”
“Yeah, sure,” agreed Charlie. “But I was busy examining the house not them. I vaguely remember Mrs. Evans. Do you happen to know where they are now?”
“Of course not,” said Spencer. “It’s none of my business.”
Charlie was disappointed. He really hoped to get some answers to his questions about the former owners of the house from Spencer. Now he was getting even more nervous because of what Thomas had said about them.
“Thanks anyway!” Charlie said. “Thank you for the opportunity to work here and live in my own house.”
“My pleasure,” responded Spencer. “If you need anything, call me.”
“Ok, thank you! Bye!” Charlie said.
“Bye, Charlie!” Spencer hung up and Charlie heard long beeps from the speakerphone.
“What happened to that family? Where are they now?” Charlie asked himself. Soon he was already parking the car in his new driveway.
CHAPTER 9
“Booo,” somebody shouted to Emma from behind and touched her.
It was so unexpected that Emma let out a scream and quickly turned around.
“Christina! Never do that again! You scared me!” Emma gasped out.
But Christina was happy with what she had just done and only burst out laughing.
“Come on,” Emma said relieved that her daughter was alright. “Breakfast is ready.”
“Sorry, Mummy!” Christina stopped giggling at last and added, “I will never scare you again!”
“I felt my heart drop,” Emma said. “Ok, come on downstairs.”
Emma and Christina went into the kitchen where Danny was sitting and playing with the sandwiches.
“Oh my gosh!” Emma saw the ruined sandwiches. “It means that I will have to make a new breakfast,” she looked at Danny.
“Danny, what have you been doing?” she said nervously and began to remove the leftovers from the table surfaces.
“So, children,” she said suddenly “Let’s go to the bathroom at once and wash up.”
After a little silence, Emma said loudly, “Now!”
Danny came out of the table with a guilty face. He and his sister began moving to the bathroom.
At the same time, Emma removed all the leftovers and ruined sandwich slices from the table and picked up some from the floor.
“Well,” she said. “I have no other choice except cook fried eggs.”
Emma opened the door of the fridge, took several chicken eggs, then carefully broke each egg and began to fry them.
“We are ready,” Danny ran into the kitchen looking funny. He immediately sat down on the chair to show that he was ready to have new breakfast. Some time later, Christina slowly walked into the kitchen almost dragging her feet.
“Christina,” Emma said. “Take out the fruit drink from the fridge, please.”
Christina opened the fridge and took a jug with red liquid.
“Sit down, please,” Emma said. “Breakfast will be ready in a couple of minutes.”
Emma took some plates from the kitchen cabinets, put the fried eggs on each plate and then poured the fruit drink in two glasses.
“Don’t play with your food,” Emma told Danny. “Otherwise, you will have no breakfast today,” she added and stroked his hair back from his face.
Right at this moment, Emma heard the sound of a car in the driveway.
Emma quickly went into the guest bedroom and looked through the window.
“Charlie,” she said and immediately started walking to the front door thinking that her husband was early.
Emma went out of the house to welcome Charlie.
“Hey,” she said when she saw him.
“Hey,” he said blankly.
“What happened?” asked Emma puzzled.
“Never mind,” answered Charlie and closed the car door.
“Well, are you feeling a bit under the weather?” asked Emma and stood right in front of him blocking the way to the house.
Charlie looked at Emma and then said, “You know, Emma, we moved here only yesterday but I am starting to feel a premonition that something bad can happen to us.”
“I can’t understand you! What are you talking about?” asked him Emma.
“I was in the hospital and talked to Thomas, he is my new boss…” Charlie began telling.
“Does it have anything to do with your job?” Emma interrupted him worryingly.
“No, with regard to my job everything is okay, in spite of one thing – I am starting work tomorrow…” announced Charlie.
“So, what is wrong then?” Emma interrupted him again.
“Thomas told me about Lara Evans and her daughter Brenda, if you remember, Lara is the former owner this house,” Charlie said and threw a glance at the house. “Well, he told me something mysterious about them…”
“What is it?” asked Emma not letting him finish the sentence again.
“Lara Evans also worked in the local hospital but she was a nurse and, of course, Thomas knew her. About a month ago Thomas noticed that something strange had happened to her. She had changed beyond recognition. She was scared of everyone and looked really nervous. Then, they noticed multiple bruises on her skin. When somebody tried to ask her about what was going on, she just bottled up her emotions, she had always been introvert. If they insisted, she began to shout and wail at the same time without explaining anything,” Charlie said.
“You know, Charlie, now that I start thinking about it,” Emma said, “I remember that when we first came here two weeks ago to look at the house, you were too focused on its inspection but I noticed that she kept throwing weird looks at different places as if expecting to see something. Then, it seemed to me that she was searching for something or someone. But now I think she must have been afraid to see something. And, you know, now her behavior scares me a little,” Emma said.
“But the strangest thing here is the fact that she and her little daughter disappeared so fast and nobody knows where they are now,” Charlie said and looked at Emma.
“Well, if I remember correctly, they wanted to move to the city,” Emma said.
“Yes, this is true but Lara didn’t sign any resignation letters and for three days before their moving she hadn’t been answering the phone and didn’t show up for work. And, I found out that the police reported her and her daughter missing,” Charlie said looking very concerned. “In light of all the above, this mess in the house looks to me like a sign of something disastrous,” he added.