I fetch a rope from the shed and feed it through the ring. We pull hard together and almost fall to the ground when the lid opens with a groan and a screech. Exited and a little nervous I peek into the hole. It’s a pitch-black, a musty smelling hole in the ground. No ghosts are jumping out, not even rats are scuttling away. I’m disappointed. Such an anticlimax. A rickety old ladder leads down into the dark hole.
“I’m sure they kept potatoes, carrots, and pumpkin in it over winter.”
Scott holds me back. “Not for a long time. Wait here for me, I’ll check how brittle the ladder is. These old things can be dangerous.”
A chord of love chimes through my heart. My knight in shining amour. We’ve met eighteen months ago and I’m still amazed someone shows care for me. His love wraps around me like a protective shield.
He climbs down step by step, testing each rung.
“It seems safe, but be careful it’s dirty and there are lots of cobwebs.”
I don’t mind dirt, but cobwebs are a different story. Eek. I’m almost at the end of the ladder when his torch dies and everything turns dark except for the bit of light coming from up the ladder.
I shriek and cling to him. Thank heavens he’s at my side. The dark belly of the earth reaches for me … I struggle to keep panic at bay. Scott uses his lighter and swings it around. The room is not large, roughly two yards by three. Along the sides are stacks of crates that once might have held vegetables.
Then I see something white peeking out from behind the crates to my right and all of a sudden a ghastly sound of horror fill the space. It takes a moment until I realize it comes from me. My feet want to run but won’t.
Scott drops his arm with the lighter when he sees the skeleton lying behind the crates. Pieces of faded fabric still cling to some of the bones.
He puts his arm around me and presses my head to his chest. “Don’t look.”
I bury my face into his shirt but I know I have to take another peek.
“Oh my god, it’s Auntie Mandy.”
“Are you sure?”
Shaken I nod. “It must be her going by the shreds of material. That’s the dress she wore in the photo we found of her in the notebook.”
“Come on, let’s go. We have to call the police.” He leads me to the ladder and helps me up. My knees are shaking and my mind struggles to comprehend what I saw. Only when we reach the kitchen and sit down with a cup of coffee does my heart stop racing.
“Gosh, you are as white as a bedsheet. Have a coffee and I’ll grab two of your lamps and take another look at the cellar.”
“I’m okay, you don’t need to protect me. I’m a big girl. It’s no news that auntie is dead. And now we know why there is no grave.” I’m still shaking and my voice is not even half as calm as I’d like to sound.
“You may be okay but there are lots of little people inside who were attached to your aunt. Give me a few minutes. I’m back in no time.”
I sit at the table and stare ahead. One of these days I’ll tell him that I’m it, that the tribe is—with a few exceptions—not much more than an echo in the back of my mind. I have an idea and I’m sure it comes from Mikey. We should have another look at the cellar. Auntie always hid things as if she knew she was in danger.
But how did she end up in the cellar? Maybe she fell in and broke her neck? But that’s impossible. The cellar didn’t look like anything you’d use daily. And to be clear, dead people don’t close trap doors after them and cover it over with dirt.
In my mind’s eye, I see the bones in the corner behind the crates. It didn’t look like someone accidentally fell into a hole and died. The bones would have been more spread out. It wasn’t an accident. She must have died kneeling or sitting in the corner. My mind is reeling with possible scenarios.
How come everyone thought she died in an accident somewhere in the bush? It must mean she was killed. Dead people don’t drive their car thirty miles into a deserted bush and leave it there. This smells foul from every angle.
About ten minutes later Scott comes back, limping with a pained face.
“Did you hurt yourself? Let me see.”
“It’s nothing. I misstepped and rolled my ankle.”
He put an envelope on the table and beamed at me.
“Did you find this in the cellar?” I pull the envelope toward me.
“I did. This was hidden underneath the bones. It poked out.”
“I want to read it but shouldn’t we leave it for the police?”
“Leaving it is teasing. One thing is clear, she didn’t die in a car accident. She died right there in the cellar. Bloodstains showed on the leftover bits from her clothes and someone smashed the back of her skull with something like the sharp end of the shovel.”
Listening to him, my whole body comes alive, as if an army of fire ants is crawling over me. I wince and shake. Who’s so depraved as to harm a woman who never hurt a single fly?
Scott puts an arm around me and pulls me to his chest. “Shh, it will be all right. You’re not alone.”
My head is buzzing like a beehive while he’s on the phone talking to the police. Adrenaline is racing through my blood as my mind trying to make sense out of the way auntie died. Although what had happened, happened many years ago, I can’t stop thinking I lived here for over a year with
