I stifle a laugh. “I couldn’t let you do that. It’s not your family that tarnished Tahoe. And besides, you currently own a house right next door. If I let you tell your new neighbors about the death and murder that occurred within those walls, things would be awkward for you every time you saw them. I mean, I sure as hell would hide from a new neighbor if our first interaction was centered around a discussion of murder…”

  “Hmm, I never thought of it that way,” she chuckles. “I suppose that could be true.”

  “Plus, I will feel so much better being able to chat with them and answer any questions they might have. And after we talk, if they still want to move in, that’s on them. I will be at ease because I know I did my part.”

  Hollie laughs. “I don’t always agree with you, Sar, but I’ll always understand you.”

  “Thanks.”

  After another minute of reconfirming the strength of our friendship, we end the call. I immediately scroll to the phone number that Hollie texted me during our chat.

  “Carly,” I mutter the woman’s name aloud when I see the number. I dial her number and bring the phone to my ear. “Okay, Carly, answer the phone so I can stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life.”

  I wait, impatiently pacing the kitchen for her to pick up, but she doesn’t.

  “You’ve reached Carly Coop. Leave a message.”

  At first, I wait for the beep, thinking I am going to leave a message. But as soon as I hear it, I hang up. I can’t leave a life-changing message on someone’s voicemail. It wouldn’t be right. I’ll try again later.

  Hours pass, and I call again.

  “You’ve reached Carly Coop. Leave a message.”

  Growing more impatient, I try again after another hour. I almost expect to hear several rings before the triggering voicemail automatically clicks on, but I don’t. Instead, the call immediately clears, going directly to voicemail without the chance of ringing.

  Did they seriously just ignore my call? Don’t they know how critical this conversation will be? After my call is ignored again, I’m certain that they’re not going to take my call.

  When I call for the last time, I leave a vague voicemail stating my name and how I was the owner of the house years ago. I ask them to call me at their earliest convenience to discuss some critical matters.

  A week passes without a returned call. It’s all I can think about. I’ve become obsessed with my phone, jumping at every sound it makes. I’m getting all kinds of notifications, texts, calls from other people, but nothing from the Coops. I’ve taken the last three days off work because I can’t focus on anything else right now. I normally have a steady hand, but after I carelessly spilled chemicals on the floor in the lab, I knew I needed to face it head-on in order to get past this.

  “You’re not seriously going out there,” Richard exclaims.

  “I have to.” With my head in my hands and my heart on my sleeve, I need my husband’s support. “I’ll never be settled unless I meet Carly and her husband and tell them everything.”

  Richard and I have circled this conversation for a week. I don’t have to lay out my detailed explanation of why I’m doing what I’m doing. He knows. He doesn’t like it, but he knows.

  He lets out a heavy sigh and rubs his forehead. “Fine. But before that happens, we’re dropping Baby Girl off with Alexis. If you are traveling to Tahoe again, this time I’m going with you.”

  PART TWO: BACK TO TAHOE WE GO

  CHAPTER 10

  Sarah

  Our bodies rock slightly side to side as the rental car’s tires crunch over the loose rocks beneath the snow on the ground when we turn onto Whispering Pines Loop. As we near the house that changed everything, I spot the “For Sale” sign with a “SOLD” sticker stuck diagonally across it in the ground. I take a deep breath and stare out the window as Richard rolls the car forward.

  Here we go again. I can do this.

  Richard makes the turn into the drive and hesitates before continuing the path up the driveway. He turns and gives me a look.

  “Last chance. You don’t have to do this,” he whispers. “You don’t have to put yourself through emotional hell again. You don’t have to reopen this door.”

  Swallowing my fear before it reveals itself, I nod. “Yes, I do. Hollie said the Coops were discussing the moving truck arriving today. I need to meet them here and tell them everything before they unload one household item off their truck.”

  He draws his lips inward. The air in his lungs comes out in a burst through his nostrils. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  The rental car slowly rolls up the unkempt driveway. The snow isn’t plowed, and there aren’t any tire tracks, so I’m almost certain we have arrived before the couple and their moving truck. The bare tree branches stretch out along the sides of the driveway. Their pointed finger-like tips extend just far enough to brush against our rental car’s windows, making a scratching noise. The sharp sound isn’t helping to ease my nerves.

  Darkness began chasing me the minute our plane touched down in Tahoe. Up until this moment, I thought that I had outrun the deeply rooted shadows. But now that we are nearing the house, the wickedness is catching up with me.

  We pass the once dark, now blinding white, snow-covered forest…and there it is. The infamous house that, somehow, keeps calling me back. A small burst of emotion washes through me, and tears threaten to bubble up and fall from my eyes.

  Swallowing the angry knot of hatred I have for this house and everything it stands for, I hold my tears back. I’ve cried too many times over this place when it never deserved a single tear.

  As I stare up at the house coming into view, I realize I’ve seen it in every season except winter. The white banks of snow are piled a foot high on the roof and a foot deep on the surrounding ground. They give the house a fresh look. At first glance…it’s beautiful. The house itself has always been a stunning sight. A person can’t see the ugly within from the outside.

  But looking a little closer, it’s easy to see the flaws are still there.

  The tree that once leaned over the house has officially fallen onto the house from the weight of the snow piled on top of it. The damage to the house looks minimal. A few shingles kicked off the roof, and the house gutters have been severely bent out of shape, but overall, the house is still standing.

  Richard parks the car near the garage and turns off the GPS on his brand new phone. Thank goodness his new phone was ready for pick up before we left; his old phone battery would have fried from using the maps on this drive. He slides his hand into mine, giving it a small squeeze. Without taking my eyes off the house, I squeeze back.

  I’m so glad Richard is here with me.

  “I guess now we wait,” Richard says as he rubs the tops of his thighs back and forth, warming his hands. A moment later, he cranks the heater up.

  “The house looks a little different, but it still feels the same,” I say softly under my breath.

  Richard rubs his thumb over the back of my hand, and while it comforts me to know he is there for me, I’m still emotionally wrecked by the mere sight of this house. It only takes five minutes of idling in the driveway before the harsh weather is noticeable inside the car.

  “It’s freezing out here.” I clutch my hands into a fist and blow hot air into them before tugging on the pair of gloves I brought with me just in case. “I should at least knock on the door. What if they are here and we’re just sitting out here waiting to become an icicle? They could have gotten here a long time ago and parked in the garage or something.”

  He furrows his brows. “You honestly want to get out in this snow to check if they are home?”

  He looks left, and his eyes fall on the house’s front windows. Without curtains or blinds on the windows, I see that the inside is empty.

  “The house looks pretty dark to me, babe.”

  “We don’t know for sure,” I argue. “For all we know, the couple could have spent night one in their new house on a blow-up mattress on the floor.”

  Richard lightly lifts his hands from the wheel. “Okay, okay. I was just trying to save you from the cold, but if you insist on us going up there—” He reaches for the key in the ignition.

  “Actually, I think it’s best if I go up there by myself.” Richard swivels his head in my direction, but before he can say a word, I continue. “If they are inside, we don’t want to intimidate them by both of us standing on their porch. Let me knock on the door. If they answer, I’ll chat with them and wave you inside when they invite me in.”

  He scrunches his face, mulling over what I just said. “Fine. But I’m not taking my eyes off you for a second.”

  “Deal.” I smile and lean over to give him a quick peck on the cheek before gripping the door handle with my gloved hand and exiting the car.

  Even though the house has many visible changes on the outside, the eeriness of walking toward this house still lingers after all these years.

  And I don’t think that feeling will ever go away.

  The first change I note is the front doors. When I first saw them fifteen years ago, the doors were a vibrant red, and the color drew me in. Then six years after that, the drifter who broke in had painted them purple. So bold and enticing.

  But now, nothing is striking about them.

  The doors have been completely stripped of their color. They are a faded shade of black, with light spots where the paint has chipped. The dark color of the doors should make the once shiny gold lion door knockers stand out, popping against the contrast. But I barely notice the door knockers. The fake gold has tarnished and worn off completely, revealing a dull silver color, giving the whole house a modern-vintage vibe.

  Stepping onto the creaky porch, I inch closer to the front door, ready to knock, when something catches my eye. I quickly turn my attention to the left side of the house, where I could have sworn I saw something moving.

  An animal, maybe?

  After a quick examination of the space, I see that I’m wrong. There is nothing there.

  Please don’t let that be another hallucination, another symptom of the MWD starting to take over my body.

  Despite trying to hide it, I won’t be able to for much longer. The symptoms of MWD have been appearing more frequently in my life, getting stronger each time. I’m fighting it the best I can, but how long can I keep this up? I’ve been close to creating the cure during trial experimentations at work when I’m alone in the lab, but I’ve never actually gotten it right…yet.

  Reaching up toward the knocker, I lift the metal ring. I hold back, glancing one more time to my left just to double check that there wasn’t anything moving close by. Instead, I notice something near the shed just off the side of the house.

  “Is that a car?” I say, under my breath.

  I let go of the metal ring quietly and walk toward the end of the porch to take a better look. It’s a white car, hardly noticeable under the pile of snow, but it is in fact a car. I’m not sure why it would be parked here if it didn’t belong to one of the owners.

  Looking back at Richard, I point toward the car. He rolls down the window, and I call out to him. “I think someone is here. The new owners, maybe? They must have gotten here well before the snow started falling.”

  Clomping along the porch, I’m back at the door. I knock once using the knocker…but no one comes to the door.

  I knock two more times using my knuckles.

  Nothing.

  Peeking into the window, the house is dark except for a slightly dim light coming from down the hallway. If I weren’t looking for it, I would have missed it.

  That dim light is coming from under the basement door.

  CHAPTER 11

  Richard

  “Oh, who cares if they opened the door or not? All that matters is that you’re here,” Hollie says, waving a hand casually, then raising her third mimosa. “I’ve been trying to get you two to vacation with us out here for years. And finally, you’re here!”

  I watch Hollie’s eyes shut unintentionally when she smiles at Sarah. She is completely sloshed.

  At least one of the four of us is having a good time.

  Ever since setting foot in Tahoe yesterday, it’s been difficult for Sarah to relax. She wasn’t even going to tell Hollie that we were in town because she insisted that our trip was not a social visit. “We aren’t staying longer than it takes to open the eyes of the new homeowners,” Sarah had said before we left. “There is a killer on the loose again, for goodness' sake.” She shook her head, almost disappointed in me that I would even suggest meeting up with her best friend since we would be visiting a place that was literally right next door to Hollie’s vacation home. Sure, I could have sat back and gone with my wife on this one. But every once in a while, Sarah needs to be nudged out of her comfort zone, and I love being the one who does it.

  Now we are here.

  Bundled in snow jackets, we sit around a fire pit on the patio of a restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. I couldn’t convince my wife to take a moment to relax, but I knew her best friend could. It only took a few text messages to Hollie letting her know Sarah was in town to make the bottomless mimosa brunch with Hollie and her husband happen. There was a short message exchange to explain to Hollie that the texts were coming from me. This new phone of mine came with a new number when the phone store, for some reason, couldn’t transfer my old number to my new phone. Regardless, once Hollie knew it was me texting, she hounded Sarah until she agreed to meet up.

  Sarah needed this more than anyone.

  Hollie removes her snow jacket and hangs it on her chairback. Wearing just a thin scarf and a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, I shiver for her. These mimosas are good, but not so good that I’d be willing to risk frostbite by taking my jacket off. Hollie is crazy to unbundle while surrounded by all this snow. As if Sarah and I were thinking the same thing, she says, “My goodness, Holl. It’s freezing out here. Aren’t you cold?”

  Hollie doesn’t respond right away. She gazes at us from the other side of the firepit. At first, it seems that Hollie’s face is the same shade of glowing orange reflecting from the flickering fire that everyone else’s face is. But a careful observer can see there is more to it. Hollie’s face is more of a shade of red. The glowing red shade that one turns when their insides are burning from alcohol intake.

  I chuckle to myself. She’s not cold at all. Those drinks must be hitting her hard now.

  “I still don’t know why you two insisted on getting a hotel when you could have just stayed with us,” Hollie chimes in before taking a sip of her drink. “We just had the entire back half of the place completely renovated. We now practically have an entire guest wing in our vacation home. You two could have been occupying a luxurious, spacious room with amazing nearby house guests.” She gestures toward herself and winks. “But instead, you’re sharing a tiny, cramped hotel room. Doesn’t make sense.”

  I have to agree with Hollie on this one. It would have been a good idea to stay with Dwayne and Hollie. Not only would it be fun to stay with friends, but there’s more safety in numbers, and we’d be locked inside a home rather than a one-way-in-one-way-out hotel room.

  For many reasons, Sarah did not feel the same about the idea. Too close to her old house. Didn’t want to sleep anywhere near her old street, especially not with a killer out there, potentially lurking in the shadows somewhere.

  Sarah obviously won this little argument.

  As Sarah and Hollie switch topics, discussing a favorite TV show of theirs, I turn to Dwayne and force an awkward grin. It’s not that I haven’t been around him before, but every time we hang out with Hollie and Dwayne, we mostly have group discussions rather than individualized ones. It’s always a little uncomfortable to chat with Dwayne one-on-one.

  The guy is socially awkward. I’m not sure how much he knows about Sarah’s past with Tahoe, and I’m certainly not going to be the one to tell him if Hollie hasn’t shared the information with him. I'd better stick with a neutral topic.

  Keeping our conversation at the surface level, I ask, “So, how’s work, man?”

  “Same shit, different day,” he responds with a laugh.

  “What is it that you do again?”

  “I’m the Master Electrician at B-Power Electrical. I’m the one licensed and responsible for the company’s electrical work. A walking liability, as Hollie puts it.” He laughs. “Almost twenty years with this company, if you can believe that.”

  “That’s awesome, man. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. I really can’t beat the unlimited rollover paid time off benefit. Saving up for twenty years is how I’m able to travel for months at a time with my wife. I figure I might as well use it up before I leave. Retirement is just around the corner. Then, I don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll do something crazy like join the FBI and use my hidden lock-picking skills.”

  I laugh. “Hey, now. There’s an exciting idea. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to let it all go. What else is there to do in retirement? Inspire me,” I chuckle.

  “To be honest, I always imagined it would be just me and my pet ball python passing time in a small house somewhere off the beaten path. Chandler is already twenty years old and has lost his sight, but snakes can live for a long time.” He shrugs. “I figured he’d eventually outlive me.”

  I didn’t see it before, but the more I watch Dwayne’s facial expressions, the more I can visualize this guy as a snake person. It feels right.

  He continues, “However, ever since I met Hollie, my plans have drastically changed. We own multiple properties. We travel. We try new restaurants. We are living the life I never knew I wanted, all thanks to Hollie.”

  “Good for you, man.” I sip on my Moscow Mule.

  He nods. “Thanks. Hollie is great, isn’t she?”

  I give him a tight-lipped smile. “Uh-huh. She and Sarah are two of a kind.”

 

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