Reversal. Chapter five

Reversal

Chapter five

The closer Mitch got to the old Evans place, the more his instincts were telling him something just might be out of kilter. The Ferris’ moved in six months ago, after Peter Ferris secured a position at Leyton Falls elementary where he schooled children a year younger than his daughter.

Anne Morris, the principal there, had always been a very dear friend of Grace Evans, and still visits her at the sanatorium on a regular basis. It wasn’t vividly clear to him, but Mitch remembers seeing something strange at the town fair just after Elizabeth had been found. He saw Anne Morris thrusting Elizabeth’s doll at Peter Ferris and looked to be scorning him. At the time, Mrs Morris being Mrs Morris, he put it down to a, “You should’ve been watching your little girl!” type of telling off, but that doesn’t explain why she walked off with the doll after taking a set of keys from him?

He thought back to the night before he found Grace’s son, Karl, all trussed-up outside the Leyton Falls police station. Mrs Winkle complained about hearing a lot of noise that night, too. She’d said she heard Karl Evans shouting at the top of his voice, something about how his mother had to go ahead with it, and for her to be certain she got the right person for the reversal, or he’d damn well make sure daddy came back to get his revenge.

Mitch was certain at the time Mrs Winkle had been on the booze then also, because Lucas Evans disappeared without a trace three years prior to that night, a day after beating up on Grace and putting sixteen-year-old Karl in hospital. And when Mitch called to the house the following day, he found Anne Morris in the back, burning all Lucas’ belongings. It was she who told him Mr Evans left in somewhat of a hurry after Grace threatened to bring charges against him.

Fifty yards from the house, and just in case Mrs Winkle had heard the Howler boys, Mitch cut the engine so as not to disturb anyone. Rolling to a silent stop outside the Ferris place, they found it in near total darkness, except for a faint blue glow coming from one of the front bedroom windows. The house looked much like Mitch expected it to look on any other night, peaceful. The house was on the left of the street; to their right, Mrs Winkle stood twitching her bedroom curtains.

‘I’ll check on Helen and Pete,’ said Mitch. ‘It’s probably nothin’ anyway. You go have a chat with old Wino Winkle and I’ll be over in a couple o’ minutes.’

‘Are you sure you don’t need me?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, again looking the house over. ‘The place looks quiet enough.’

Danny got out and went over to knock on Mrs Winkle’s; Mitch climbed from the patrol car then dug a flashlight from the trunk and stood looking up at the house. It sure looked quiet, as he’d said, but looks can be deceiving. Quiet doesn’t necessarily mean peaceful, and this place had a history. Mitch didn’t bother to knock, in light of what happened to Elizabeth yesterday, he thought it best if he walked around the property first, just to see if anything was amiss, a broken window, an unlocked door, any sign of forced entry.

After he checked all the downstairs windows, and the front, and the rear, and the side door, everything seemed to be in order. The only thing he thought strange, was the black Ford saloon parked at the side of the Ferris’ 4X4, he assumed they had visitors. Then, peering into the 4X4, he noticed the Ferris’ had packed for a trip, which struck him as odd, if little Elizabeth’s funeral would be in the next few days, why would they be going away?

After pulling on the door handle he found it unlocked, inside were three suitcases, two large, one small. He gathered what the large one’s held, but felt more curious about the small one. He unzipped it to find clothes that would only fit a child, and a child around the same age and size as Elizabeth.

Closing the door again, he walked back to the front of the house and was about to cross the road when Danny came from Mrs Winkle’s, with Mrs Winkle following close behind, and continuingly chattering on about what she’d heard.

‘Now I don’t want to be known as one of them nosey neighbours, sheriff, but somethin’ ain’t right here.’

Mitch looked at Danny with raised eyebrows. ‘No, Mrs Winkle,’ he said, turning to her. ‘You’re just concerned about your neighbour’s business. Now, if you go back indoors, Deputy Walker and I will sort this out.’

Mrs Winkle walked back to her house and opened the front door; she didn’t go all the way inside, but waited in the doorway.

Mitch and Danny turned towards the Ferris place.

‘She seems adamant about what she heard, Mitch.’

‘Mrs Winkle was adamant about giant blue toads comin up through her bathtub plug-hole last year, Danny. Turns out she’d tried a new batch of her own booze in which she’d added some o’ them purple mushrooms. Damn near took her four days to come back down.’

‘Well she seems pretty sober right now!’

‘I ain’t sayin she’s right, nor am I sayin she’s wrong, Danny. But there’s …’ he paused. ‘Here, ya need to take a look at somethin’.’ He walked Danny to the side of the house where he pointed out the suitcases. ‘The small one’s got what could only be Elizabeth’s clothes inside it,’ he said. ‘And if the fact that they’ve packed for a trip ain’t strange enough, why would they pack for a dead child?’

Danny shook his head. ‘Makes no sense.’

Mitch hitched up his trousers. ‘I think it’s time we knocked.’

The knocking got them nowhere, Danny stepped back from the porch and shouted for them up at the bedrooms, but still no one answered.

‘No signs of life at the back?’ asked Danny.

‘No, nothin’. You need to go back over, get Mrs Winkle to phone ‘em.’

‘What if she doesn’t have their number?’

‘I’ll be very surprised if she don’t.’

When Danny went back to speak to Mrs Winkle, Mitch had his ear pressed against one of the windows, listening for the phone. Sure enough, it rang. Thing was, it rang and rang and rang, nobody bothered to answer it. If the Ferris’ were sleeping, they sure slept soundly.

‘Did they answer?’ Danny asked on his return.

‘No.’ Mitch went back to the patrol car. ‘Looks like we’re gonna have to force our way in,’ he said, returning with another flashlight. ‘Here, Stand back.’

The door didn’t prove to be much of a barrier for a man of Mitch’s size, after two solid kicks, it gave. Mitch and Danny moved either side of the doorway in case shots were fired at them, after a few seconds, Mitch peeped around the door, and once he felt it safe to enter, he did, with Danny following.

‘Peter, Helen, can you hear me?’ Mitch shouted.

‘Mrs Ferris … hello,’ called Danny. ‘Mr Ferris … are you there?’

Before them ran the stairway with a front room located on either side, Mitch nodded to the left and Danny peeled off, disappearing through an open doorway. Mitch was about to go right when he heard a scream coming from upstairs, followed by a single gunshot. The scream was that of a child.

Even being a tad overweight, Mitch ran up the stairs four at a time, managing the landing within seconds. Danny followed, stopping one step below. Looking to his left he saw two doors, one on either side, putting one room at the front of the house, the other at the back. Another door stood directly in front of him, and on his right, two more, mirroring those to his left. He flicked a switch beside his shoulder and the light bulb illuminated for a fraction of a second before exploding into a thousand tiny fragments, which did nothing for his nerves.

After composing himself, he walked along the landing and opened the door to his immediate left. With guns and torches outstretched; he and Danny entered. The room, apart from a treadmill in the centre of the floor and a rowing machine leant against one of the walls, was empty. The second room, the one facing, was open. Apart from clothes of all descriptions strewn over the floor, there was a single bed under the window and two empty wardrobes on the side wall, both with doors lying open. Someone had obviously packed in a hurry. They moved to the room directly facing the top of the stairs, Danny pushed on the door and Mitch entered first; a bathroom, no one there.

They moved over to the room adjacent the bathroom, another bedroom, this one holding a double bed, and two larger wardrobes than the other room, and again, both lying open and half-empty, with more discarded clothes lying on the floor.

That left just the one remaining room, the front right bedroom. Its usual occupant stuck a drawing on the door of a petalled flower, below the flower, in different coloured capitals, were the words, “ELIZABETH’S ROOM, PLEASE KNOCK!” Mitch didn’t bother to, taking a single back-step, he kicked flat-footed and the door swung open.

Both Mitch and Danny stood at the entrance to the room. It was semi-dark, but light-enough to see something liquid-like, running down the window. Below the window laid Helen Ferris, a large dark stain over her abdomen, and a small dark spot in the centre of her forehead. To Helen’s right, lay Mr Ferris, his wounds looked almost identical to hers. But their eyes were drawn to something they hadn’t expected to see. In the centre of the room stood a little girl, a little girl who, only a few hours earlier, drowned at the town fair. They both lowered their weapons, neither of them sure quite what to say or do.

‘Holy fuck!’ was all Danny could think of. And if Mitch wasn’t looking at what he was looking at, he’d have told his deputy to watch his mouth.

Elizabeth raised her left arm. ‘Help me!’

Both men looked at one another as they holstered their weapons; they looked back to see Elizabeth Ferris aiming a gun at them. Mitch was about to speak when the gun went off and Danny fell back, a perfect round hole in his forehead. Before Mitch could fathom out what the hell just happened, he felt a sharp pain in his neck, he made a grab for his throat then dropped to the floor.

Through his fading vision he saw Elizabeth still pulling the trigger, the gun, thankfully, only producing clicks. Taking out his own gun for the first time in six years, he aimed, cocked the hammer, then looked at Peter and over to Helen under the window, his hand started to tremble as he began to squeeze the trigger. He had Elizabeth in his sights, but he couldn’t fire, not on another child.
Something started to change; the light in the room began to flicker.
‘Well, sheriff,’ said the little dead girl standing before him. ‘Looks like I gotta go, but I’ll be back, you can count on it.’
Mitch had no idea what she meant by that, and then she did something totally unexpected. She ran at one of the mirrors and disappeared into it, half a second later; her lifeless body fell from the facing mirror.