Day Six - February 6th 1998
I wake up and look at the clock next to my bed, it’s just past three and I’m wide awake. I lay on my back and close my eyes again, wondering if I should get up and have a look at those notebooks or the map. It’s so dark tonight, no moon in the sky, I can see smatterings of stars through the window, scattered in small groups, not a cloud in their path. I look out the window trying to figure out what constellations I can see. I decide to leave everything to the morning, close my eyes and go back to sleep.
When I wake up again the sun is beginning to stream through my window, making a pool of orange light on the varnished wooden floorboards. I pull the blankets aside and slide out of the high bed, my short legs dangling over the edge before they reach the floor. I open my wardrobe and pull out some fresh clothes, get changed and stand in front of the mirror, dark circles are under my eyes, I look pale, sickly. Something isn’t right, I look at my face, I turn my head to one side, I sweep my hand through my hair, strands come out, woven between my fingers. My hair is falling out. I rifle through my drawers, throwing things on the floor, so I can see what else is in there. I finally find an old woollen hat, it’s hideous, red with crocheted yellow flowers, I put it on. I grab my backpack and gather all the documents, throwing them inside, along with the map and notebooks, everything me and Maida have found minus the tape.
I stop in front of my door, a note has been slid underneath it. The paper is folded into three, I pick it up and a key falls out. I unfold the note and pick up the key.
Going to follow a lead, didn’t want to wake you. Won’t need the car today. Feel free to use it. Catch up tonight. - Maida
I walk briskly downstairs, looking at the note and putting the key in my pocket. I decide to sit down and have breakfast for the first time in days, maybe a decent meal will help me look a bit better. I enter the room and sit down opposite my mother.
"That hat looks ridiculous." She says, grabbing pieces of toast from the middle of the table.
“I haven’t seen you down here for a while.” Agnes says. “Are you okay? You don't look great. Eat a bit extra, that’ll help.”
“Thanks Agnes.” I smile back. I heap my plate with pancakes and strawberries. I stare at the big pile of food, my stomach feels uneasy but I force the food down.
“That’s an interesting hat.” Agnes says sitting next to me.
"It definitely is." I say, holding a forkful of food.
“What’s that?”
I hadn't realised I'd left Maida's note on the table. "Maida left me a note, she said she had to do something and gave me the keys to her car.”
“Really? She trusts you with her car?”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Eat up.” She says, patting my back and going back to the kitchen.
I finish everything quickly and say goodbye. I pick up my backpack and head to the car. I’ll go into town, it beats staying here with the cameras, knowing we might be getting watched is making me feel paranoid. The backpack is getting heavy and I’m glad to throw it into the passengers seat next to me. I get inside and look at the steering wheel in front of me. Unsure what to do.
It’s very strange being on this side of the car, I can’t remember the last time I had to drive somewhere. I start the car, put my foot on the accelerator and jerk out of the driveway and onto the road. I forget to look to see if anyone is coming. How do people do this all the time, driving is terrifying. I look at the speed, I feel like I’m going too fast, I put my foot on the brake and slow to a crawl, that’s better. Now I feel in control, nice and slow. Nobody else is around so I can go as slow as I like. I creep along the road at a snails pace, everything seemed much closer when Maida was driving. A car appears behind me, honking, it’s going way too fast. I’m not sure what to do, I look into the side mirror, it’s fast approaching. I decide to turn off onto the side of the road but there's nowhere to stop, it's just trees. I begin to speed up but the car is getting closer, barrelling towards me, honking again. Another car is coming towards me on the other side of the road, I’m trapped. I see a side road, quickly veering off the main road, the vehicle is directly behind me now, they drive past and clip the back of Maida’s car knocking the car to one side. I try to hit the brake, failing a few times before I find it. I sit there for a second, feeling as if my heart is beating too fast, even though it isn’t beating at all. I unbuckle my seatbelt and get out of the car. I look at the back bumper, a large dent is now next to the back taillight, the plastic broken.
After a few minutes I get back in the car and continue into town, hands shaking on the steering wheel. I’ll tell Maida about her car later. I’ll tell her tonight. I drive a little bit faster now, the less time spent on the road the better. I turn into Main Street, a sense of relief washing over me, it’s almost over. I get to the library and park out the front, I grab the backpack and fling it over my shoulder, lock the car and walk into the building. I wave to the librarian and heave my backpack onto a table in the middle of the room. It makes a heavy thud. The librarian shushes me. I sit down and drag the contents of the bag out onto the table. I sort things into piles. My dad’s will can go back in the bag, all I need are the notebooks and the map. I find them and put them off to the right, shoving everything else back in the backpack.
I unfold the map in front of me and flatten the creases. It shows a birds eye view of Ridgemont, buildings are drawn as little rectangles with numbers in the middle. I can see my house far up north surrounded by masses of drawn on stick figure trees. I find the library I’m sitting in right now. There are crosses marked on the buildings that my father owned. What was his plan here?
The librarian walks over, pushing a cart. “What have you got there?” She asks.
“It’s just a map, I found it yesterday.” I reply.
She makes a hmm sound and gets closer, leaning over the map, one hand on the table.
“You know, I’d always wondered why your father was buying up so much real estate. At first I thought he wanted to develop the town, but you know, I don’t think that’s what he was doing.”
“Why do you think he was doing it?”
“I don’t think it was the buildings, I think it might be what’s underneath them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come with me.”
I grab all my things and throw them back in the bag, carrying it by the handle, I follow the woman who leads me to the computer we'd used before.
“You know, when you came in the other day, I remembered an article I read years ago and something just clicked. It took me a day to find the thing.” The woman logs in and then types in a web address. We wait for the page to load.
Oil Found in Ridgemont
A Ridgemont resident believes he discovered oil in a local reserve last Saturday. Mike Hosking was hiking with his two children when he discovered oil seeping to the surface by the hiking trail. He’s convinced that he’s found oil and told the Ridgemont Tribune that he plans on “going home tonight and digging up my backyard. Who knows what’s back there!” Authorities have declined to comment.
“You think my dad was buying up the land for oil?”
“That makes the most sense to me, he was paying people well above market value, maybe partially to get them to sell, but also possibly because he felt a bit guilty.”
"Are there any other articles?"
"That's all I could find but you're more than welcome to have a look."
I thank the librarian and she goes back to work, dragging the cart back to her desk. I search for more articles but she's right, there doesn't seem to be anything. I sit in front of the computer and pull the notebooks out of my bag. I flip through them, my writing is messy, I can barely read some of it. They appear to be a diary of my investigation, the date written on the top right of each page.Most of what’s written in them I’ve already learned. There's nothing useful. I think about what the librarian just showed me. If my dad was buying the land for what was beneath it, what was his plan? What was he going to do with that money? I throw everything back in the backpack and leave the library. I get back to the car and sit inside, turning the heater on to warm up. There’s a tap at my window. I look up and see my brother. I wind down the window.
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“Hey.” I greet him.
“Where’s Maida?” He asks.
“She’s looking into something.”
“She didn’t tell you what it was?"
I shake my head.
"Does she know you're driving her car?"
“She said I could.”
He laughs.
“What?” I ask.
“It’s just, you’re probably the worst driver I know. You always go half the speed limit.”
“Could you do me a favour?” I ask.
“Sure. What is it?”
I hand him the backpack. “Can you look after this stuff for me? I feel like it would be safer with you and I don’t want to have to keep lugging it around.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“It’s just the papers I’ve found, the will and some other stuff. You can look through it if you want, maybe you can find something in there I’ve missed.”
“Okay, no problem.” He takes the backpack from me as I pass it through the wound down window. “Did you find the videotape?”
“Nah, I think that thing’s gone for good.”
“Do you think there was anything on it that could help figure this whole thing out?”
“Just a boot.”
“A boot?”
“Yeah, it looked like there was someone standing out of the frame, you could just see their boot.”
“Well, that’s helpful.” Michael says sarcastically. “They weren’t in any of the other frames?”
“Not that we could see. Crazy they could sneak around the house without the camera catching them again.”
“They probably edited the tape.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Why wouldn’t they just get rid of the tape?”
“Well, it makes Nick look guilty, right?”
“Who would have access to that stuff in our house?”
“Pretty much anyone who came there, they’re not really under lock and key. We’ve had plenty of people go through our house over the years.” My brother looks down at his watch. “I have to get back to work, I’ll talk to you later.” He waves goodbye and walks off with the dainty blue backpack in hand. "Hey what happened to your taillight?"
I say nothing and wind up the window. I think about the video some more, who would have access to our house and be able to edit a video tape? I doubt Agnes or my mother would be able to do that. Nick would. Did he know about the cameras though?
I sit in the car for a while, watching people walk by, smiling and having fun. I look out the windscreen as little pieces of white fill the sky, snow. I used to love the snow as a kid, getting to rug up and going ice skating on the lake with Esther. I don’t want to go home yet, so I get out of the car and go to the diner. I walk quickly, my hands jammed in my pockets, feeling much lighter now that the backpack was safe with my brother, one less thing to worry about. I reach the door and push it open with my shoulder, it's much warmer inside, I strip off my jacket and find a booth to sit in, scooting to the middle of the seat. When I look up I see Talia walking over.
“Hey Ellie, you look freezing. I’ll get you a hot chocolate, on the house.” She winks and walks away. She's back a couple of minutes later, a mug and saucer in her small hands. She places it in front of me and sits in the booth to my left.
“How are you doing?” She asks.
“Yeah, I’m good. What about you?” I ask in reply.
“Oh, yeah I’m doing well. I hate this weather though.”
“I’ve always liked the snow.”
“It’s pretty and all, but way too cold. My house is always freezing. Whenever it starts all the usual customers disappear from here too. Look at this place, empty! You’re the only one in here.”
“Yeah, the locals always go and hide in their houses.”
“I swear, people must spend half the year just waiting the weather out. The only people outside when it’s snowing are the tourists.”
“They’ll be here later. How’s Esther?”
“She’s fine, she just gets in moods, you know what she’s like.”
Talia and I chat for a while, nobody else comes in. Before I realise, it’s become dark outside. A woman walks in dressed in a waitress uniform. She waves at Talia.
“I guess my shift’s over. I better get home. Hopefully Esther has turned the heater on. Take care, okay? And say hi to that friend of yours for me.”
“Ok, I will. Bye.” I wave halfheartedly, I’m going to miss Talia.
She walks over to the other woman and they go back towards the kitchen. I leave the diner and get into the car. It’s snowing relentlessly, the whole town blanketed in white, it’s hard to see. I slam the car door shut, snow flakes following me into the car. I turn the key in the ignition. The lights in the dashboard don’t seem to work, I’m relying on the street lights to see the different knobs and buttons. All of a sudden it’s black. Pitch black. I look around me, every building has gone dark, along with the street lights. The power's gone out, my eyes strain in the darkness. I lock the car's doors, spooked by the whole thing. I feel around until I find the key and turn it, I fumble around trying to figure out how to turn on the headlights, finally finding the right switch, throwing a weak beam of light ahead of me. I put the car into reverse aggressively, the engine revs, I’ve left the handbrake on. I find the handbrake and push it down. I press down on the accelerator and the wheels slip on the snow. I reverse far too quickly, turn, brake and slide. I put the car into drive and head back to my house.
The darkness is terrifying, I see nothing beyond the snow in front of me, a sea of white against the dark sky. I have a reason to drive slowly now, but don’t want to, I just want to get back to the big old house and talk to Maida. Back to lights and people. Luckily we have a generator back there. I remember the power going out constantly when I was younger, sometimes for days at a time. It was always worse when it snowed, the power company had a hard time getting up here. I turn too quickly off Main and down Sycamore, I slow the car back to my usual speed and try to relax. I make the painful crawl back home, I'd never been so happy to see the house, the windows are lit, the generator's working. I turn the car and park near the front doors, I get out and rush towards the house, thankful to be walking through the heavy doors. I run upstairs two steps at a time and knock on Maida’s door. I’ll fill her in on what I found out today. I want to know what she was looking into. I wait a moment and then knock again. "Maida?" There’s no answer. It feels wrong to open the door without asking her permission but I turn the knob and push it open anyway. I poke my head in and look inside. No Maida. I look around the room, the bed is made, the room is spotless. As if nobody is staying here. I don't see any of her things. I wonder if what I said to her the other day had sunk in. Maybe she thought about it, packed up and went, taking all her stuff with her. But without her car? That didn’t make any sense. I close the door and walk back downstairs.
I see my mother sitting by the fire in the living room, she looks up briefly and cordially says hello.
“Have you seen Maida?” I ask.
“Not recently. I saw her leave this morning.” My mother answers, not looking up from her book.
“She hasn’t come back yet?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe she decided to go home?”
“Without her car? Did she have anything with her?”
“You know what the weather does to visitors here, they know the reputation this place has. They get the hell out before they get snowed in.”
Could she be right? Had she panicked and left? Had this all become too much for her and the thought of being trapped here was the final straw?
“On top of all that it’s the anniversary of the first Ridgemont Butcher killing. That always makes people crazy. There are two types of people that visit this town in February. There are the folks that brave the long drive here to check out those murder cabins. Or, there are those that come here for the snow. You can tell the difference.”
“I don’t think she’d just up and leave. She would’ve said something.”
“You haven’t known her long, have you? You don’t really know what she’s like. She probably just couldn’t get in touch with you. Who knows, she could be on her way back right now? I wouldn't worry about it.” My mother stands up and puts her book on the coffee table in front of her. “Agnes is making dinner, it should be ready in a few minutes.” She walks past me towards the dining room.
I follow her to the and sit at the table, Agnes is busy placing bowls and cutlery for three.
“You look stressed, are you okay?” Agnes asks me.
“Have you seen Maida today?”
“No, I haven’t seen her all day actually. Don’t worry, she’ll be around, people get lost here all the time when it’s snowing.”
“I’m going to go out and look for her.” I stand up and start to walk away.
“No, you are not.” Agnes reaches for my arm and pulls me back. “Sit down. It’s dangerous out there in the dark when it’s like this. We’ll all go out later, after dinner, okay?”
“Alright, thank you.” I sit down begrudgingly and pick up my fork.
The three of us sit and eat our meal. Agnes and I briefly discuss a plan of attack for the Maida search. I eat quickly, I’m not hungry, I’m never hungry. After dinner we get dressed for the ghastly weather, even my mother is willing to help. Agnes calls some of the other staff members who live on the property and asks them for their assistance. We all meet outside the front doors minutes later and come up with a plan of attack. We’re joined by some of the garden staff and my mother’s driver. After our brief discussion we split off in pairs. I join forces with Agnes, my mother is with the groundskeeper I met the other day, Luke. The driver and remaining garden staff going off in twos. We all walk in opposite directions, Agnes and I head north into the forest. We trudge slowly through the thick white snow, crunching under our feet.
“I know why you wouldn’t talk to me.” I say to her, when we’re out of earshot of the others. "The cameras."
“I hate them.” She says.
“I saw footage of the house. The night my dad was killed.”
“Ahh. That was a shame. He was such a good man.”
“Was he? Didn’t he steal people’s money?”
“He didn’t know what his brother had done until right before he died. He was just doing what he thought was right at the time.”
“How do you know that?”
“I looked after your father when he was a boy, we always stayed in touch. He’d write me letters, I worked overseas for a while, would send him postcards from different countries. We were good friends. When he died I came back here and went to his funeral. I spoke to your mother and she said that they needed a new housekeeper. I said I would be happy to fill in temporarily. I didn’t expect to stay this long. He spoke so fondly of you and your brother, I felt like I knew you both before I’d met you. Trust me when I say I want to find out what happened to your father as much as you do.”
We search through the forest behind the house, I look at my watch, we’ve been out here for over an hour. We keep moving deeper and deeper into the woods. It’s so dark out here, with every passing minute it seems to get a little colder and a little darker. I look up at the sky, it’s barely visible through the thick branches of the trees, slivers of stars peek through the treetops. An owl hoots above us, startling me.
“I don’t think she’s out here.” Agnes says.
“Me either. We should go back, maybe the others have had more luck.” I respond.
We turn around and walk back towards the house, we can’t see it from this far out. After a long, slow hike back, I begin to see a dim light, shining out of one of my house's upstairs windows. We’re almost back. I see beams of light crisscrossing up ahead, scanning the area for clues. We reach the gardens again and walk towards the group.
“Did you find anything?” One of the gardeners yells towards us.
I shake my head. “No, nothing, you?”
“Nothing.” He says, disappointed.
We all gather back at the front of the house, no sign of Maida. Everyone has searched high and low. They’ve looked in the forest, on the grounds and through the outbuildings.
“We even started looking through the house.” My mother says, “We couldn’t find any sign of her.”
“We’ll have to wait until the morning, I guess.” I say. “Maybe, you’re right mother, maybe she just went home.”
We all go our separate ways, I go up to my room and get into bed. I don’t sleep.