Hidden in Harmony: Danger is Imminent (Harmony Series Book 1) Read online

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  Collin was aghast — it sounded like something off of a movie. It was possible he was telling the truth, but it was probable he was making up a pretty good whopper. He may have quite possibly returned bloody because he had just killed and maybe even devoured someone.

  Collin tried to dismiss the thought. Cannibalism in Clayville? It sounded like the title of a horror flick. He refused to allow himself to even consider that as a possibility. Murder, maybe. Cannibalism, no.

  Abruptly changing the subject, Collin asked, “Brock, after you got fired this morning, did you go anywhere else besides coming home from work?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Have you ever heard of The Creepy Masselli Place down on Spudd Avenue?” Collin asked.

  “Rumors of it have fluttered into my ears. Some of the ruffians at my place of employment have shared its legend. What does that old empty shack have to do with anything?”

  Collin still didn’t want to share any details — especially not the part about he and Remington going through Brock’s things. Instead, he told him some rumors were going around that people had been seen going in and out of that house.

  If Brock had been in there, he was good at covering his tracks. He said, “Why would any coherent individual infiltrate that building? I drove by it the other day just to catch an impression of its majesty because I’ve heard so much speculation about it. The outside was so eerie, I wouldn’t even halt the Jeep in front of it. I expeditiously escaped the scene.”

  Collin wasn’t convinced. Brock was an excellent storyteller. However, Collin had met a host of phonies in his day and he didn’t believe everything that rolled off of another man’s tongue.

  He chose to deal with Brock the way he would normally deal with Remmy if he thought he was being dishonest. Perhaps if he asked the right question, he could trip Brock up and get the truth out of him. “Do you think we should call the police about someone ransacking your room?” he asked.

  “No — definitely not,” Brock replied instantaneously.

  That’s what Collin expected to hear. Why would a serial killer or a serial cannibal or whatever he was want any interaction with the police? Not knowing how to leave well enough alone, he asked, “Why not?”

  Brock hesitated for a moment before answering, “I’m apprehensive of what the barbarians that attacked me might do to you, your helpmeet, or your offspring. Your household has already catapulted through flaming hoops for me. It’s not worth the risk.”

  Spinning his tricycle wheels and getting absolutely nowhere, Collin changed the subject and told him about the happenings on Spudd Avenue. He wasn’t completely honest; he started off by saying, “The real reason I asked you about The Creepy Masselli Place is because I went by there earlier today. I don’t know what came over me, but something compelled me to go inside.”

  Brock listened attentively to every word. This time, he had some questions to ask. “Do you have any idea who attacked you?”

  Collin told him he didn’t have a clue who it was.

  “Did any neighbors see you go in or out of the house?” Brock asked.

  Collin found that question a little on the suspicious side. It sounded like Brock might have been wondering if there were any witnesses. “No, I don’t believe so. Why do you ask?”

  “Well,” Brock paused for a second. “I was just thinking. What if somebody reports you to the police for trespassing?”

  Brock went on to ask Collin if he was sure he never caught even a slight glimpse of his attacker. Several times he questioned if he had contacted the police or if he planned to do so in the near future.

  His line of questioning completely creeped Collin out. However, Collin was a cricket trapped in an empty bathtub — he hadn’t and couldn’t tell Brock about the note he found in his pocket. He couldn’t tell him to leave the house without providing an explanation. He sure didn't want to let him sleep in their house that night, but it seemed there was little to no choice.

  At bedtime, Collin had Remington climb in bed beside Alayna. He claimed he couldn’t sleep and he was going to stay out on the couch for the night. First though, he pulled an old golf club out from under his bed and carried it to the living room with him — at least that would provide some form of protection.

  Collin thought about reading a book, but that would be too distracting. He had to keep his eyes and ears alert. He wasn’t sure if it was Brock he had to watch out for or if it was someone else — or possibly even a whole group of people. He was more frightened than he had ever been in his life.

  By 3 am, Collin’s eyelids had grown so heavy that the toothpicks could no longer hold them open. Unwillingly, he drifted into a deep sleep. Fate has a way of changing things like that at times.

  Shortly after dozing off, heavy footsteps clopping through the room startled him. Sounds like work boots. A man’s work boots. As his eyes opened, the figure of a larger fellow lurking in the shadows shook him up. Those aren’t work boots. Looks like he only has socks on. Forgetting all about the golf club, he screamed like the prissiest of little girls.

  Alayna’s alarm instincts were somewhat different than Collin’s. Grabbing her curling iron, of all things, she charged into the room. She pointed her make-believe gun at Brock as if it was a 9-millimeter and shouted, “Don’t move or I’ll blow your brains to kingdom come!”

  Remington stood just out of sight, peeking his head around the doorway. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he would have given anything to have had a video camera set up. The entire scene was hilarious.

  “My brains are going to be shot to kingdom come — with a curling iron?” Brock laughed. “Seriously, what has possessed the members of this household? I was just going to get a beaker of water.”

  It didn’t matter that it was 3:00 in the morning. It was time for the entire deck of cards to be sprawled out on the table. Collin told Remington to come out of his hiding place so they could all have a long talk at the kitchen table.

  “I feel like we have all been suppressing our true feelings and fears about things. We are not being honest with one another. I don’t like what is happening in this household. It’s time we change that and I mean change it right now, for good. It’s time we put all of the cards on the table. Any lies or untruths that have been told need to be made right, tonight. Starting right now. Who wants to go first?” Collin asked.

  The room was so quiet a person could have heard a fly struggling to free herself from a spider’s web. Everyone looked around the room, hoping someone else would volunteer to go first.

  Collin couldn’t take it anymore — since the meeting was his idea, he made the first confession, “Brock, the other day when I was at work and heard about Dr. Fennell’s disappearance, my mind instantly went to the allegations that had been made against you. I called the tree nursery and your boss told me you had left earlier that morning; that terrified me. It confirmed in my mind that you had something to do with his vanishing.”

  Alayna jumped in, “That same day, Victoria came by the house looking for you. She said you ran out on her and Scottie one afternoon and they weren’t even sure why you left. She’s planning to come to church tomorrow night to talk with you, but I promised I wouldn’t say anything.”

  Remington interrupted her, “I guess it’s my turn. I heard Mom and Dad talking that night when they thought I was asleep. I decided I was ready to play detective. I sneaked out of bed and came to your room while you were asleep. I went through all of your things to see if I could find any clues as to where you had been that night. Dad caught me —.”

  Collin interrupted him, “And I didn’t do the right thing, Brock. I should have stopped my son. Instead, I helped him go through some papers he found in one of your pockets. You had a mysterious note in there about being at the abandoned house on Spudd Avenue at 11:30 am. After we found the note, I tried to put it back in your room without you finding out about it.”

  “Oh, I get it,” Brock speculated. “So you w
eren’t really sleepwalking? And your son told mistruths to cover up your sins?”

  “That pretty much sums it all up,” Collin said.

  “Under normal circumstances, I would gather my belongings and withdraw myself from the premises immediately. You all started out being exhaustively cordial to me. Now, instead of accepting me for who I am, you interrogate and investigate me; you speak untruths right to my face. That is despicable; I thought you were my friends.”

  The annoying silence filled the room again for a moment. Then Brock continued, “But I suppose I have a few confessions I need to make as well.”

  Brock told them he had lied about his wife leaving him; he was too embarrassed to tell the truth. His father had run out on him when he was three years old and he knew how that felt. He always looked down on parents who would leave their children and on husbands who would leave their wives. He didn’t want to admit to anyone, not even to himself, that he had followed in his father’s footsteps.

  He claimed there was more to Victoria than would meet the eye. Before he met her, she had quite the checkered past. She had been arrested and had served time for grand-theft auto. More importantly, she had been placed on home confinement for violating a restraining order her ex-boyfriend had placed on her. He had broken up with her for whatever reason and she couldn’t accept that. Victoria continuously went to his house harassing him both day and night. One evening, she snapped; she took a long t-shirt of his that she had worn around town on a regular basis over to his house. She soaked it in gasoline, rang his door bell, dropped the shirt on his doorstep, and lit it on fire.

  Victoria had gone through a lot of counselling since that time. She was honest with him about her checkered past and he had every reason to believe she had changed. The only reason he was bringing it up now is because he was beginning to be suspicious about her possible involvement in the things that had taken place.

  There was always a possibility that she had snapped again. After all, Brock had run off on her, which might have brought back the pain she had experienced when her former boyfriend had broken up with her. If she snapped, he didn’t know how far she would go. She may have been the one who went through all of his belongings and destroyed his bedroom — unless whoever did it was not really targeting Brock. After all, it was really Remmy’s bedroom.

  That brought him to another confession. Even though Brock had appreciated the hospitality shown him by the Russells, he needed his own space; he needed a place where he could simply be himself. He needed to be the man of the house, but as long as he was staying under another man’s roof, that wasn’t going to happen.

  One of Brock’s co-workers had told him about The Creepy Masselli Place. He said he knew the guy who owned it by means of an inheritance and that he would be willing to rent it out to him dirt cheap. Brock was supposed to have met the owner there the day before at 11:30 am. After Victoria showed up and he lost his job, he decided to forget it. He couldn’t afford to live on his own if he didn’t have any money coming in.

  Collin had another question on his mind that he just couldn’t let rest, “Brock, you told me before that you hadn’t heard of Dr. Fennell’s disappearance and went so far as to say you had never even heard of the guy. Was that true?”

  Brock hesitated for a moment before saying, “I deceived you purposefully. I had met Doc Fennell several years ago. He diagnosed my mom with glaucoma and attempted to do a surgery, but something went awry and my mom became permanently destitute of her vision.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Collin asked.

  “Presumably for the same reason you failed to inform me about you and your offspring pilfering through my appurtenances.”

  “Listen here, buddy. You can’t always justify everything you do wrong by bringing up another man’s errors. I guess it doesn’t matter why you didn’t tell me before; I’m just glad you told me now. Did you see Doc Fennell on the day he disappeared?”

  Brock lowered his eyes toward the floor. He struggled to find the words, “Yes. Yes Sir. I did.”

  With a lot more questioning, Brock admitted he had been holding a grudge against Dr. Fennell ever since his mom had lost her vision. On the day he left work to go to the library, he saw the doctor acting somewhat irrationally. There weren’t hardly any cars on the road for whatever reason. Brock claimed Dr. Fennell looked worried and had been somewhat out of breath. He said Fennell had tried to flag him down.

  Brock admitted that for a moment he thought about stopping to help him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had too many hard feelings. He convinced himself whatever was going on, Doc Fennell could handle it himself.

  “So when you saw Doc—” Collin began to question before being interrupted.

  Brock answered his question before he could get it out of his mouth. “I have no idea what kind of shoes he was wearing,” he said.

  Brock said he heard about the disappearance a couple of hours later. On the radio, the disc jockey asked for anyone with any information about the disappearance to call the local sheriff’s department. Brock said he couldn’t do that; he couldn’t withstand another investigation. He couldn’t handle being the last person to see Doc Fennell alive. The rumors would start up all over again. When they started investigating him and his alibi, they would undoubtedly find out about the former allegations and investigations and he would be done for.

  CHAPTER 20 – PAYBACK TIME

  Several hours after their “all cards down” session, Collin had Brock get in the Jeep with him. Collin had to go to work and Brock had to find another job immediately.

  As soon as they left the driveway, he gave Brock quite the talking to — reminding him that the agreement was for him to stay three months while he was getting on his feet. Brock was supposed to be earning an income and saving up money so he could afford his own place. Getting a job was a wonderful thing, but he had to learn to maintain steady employment.

  “If you want to continue living under this roof, you have to have another job within the next seven days,” Collin said firmly. “And you must remain employed full time for the remainder of the three-month term we originally discussed.”

  Brock, with a worried countenance, said, “I understand, Sir.”

  “Good. Now that we’re clear on that, there is a new rule that we’re going to put into place as well.”

  “I’m not a wee youngster,” Brock mumbled. “I don’t require an abundance of guidelines to adhere to.”

  “Whether or not you believe you need rules is irrelevant. If you want to stay under someone else’s roof, you have to abide by their wishes. I’ll tell you the rules. If you like them, wonderful! If you don’t like them, then you have to decide whether you’re going to follow them anyway or if you’re going to hit the road.” Collin meant business and Brock knew it.

  “Until further notice, I don’t want you to ever step foot in this house unless I am present. If something happens and you have to leave work early for any reason, you must find a phone and call me at work or come over to the store to tell me in person,” Collin said.

  Brock looked annoyed, but what could he do? He didn’t want to be back on the streets again. He simply nodded his head to indicate he had heard the rules.

  “One more thing,” Collin added. “Violation of these additional terms will force our agreement to be nullified and will bring about an immediate eviction.”

  The rest of the trip to work was fairly quiet. Collin got out at Just Right and Brock took the Jeep, as he had in the past, to find another job.

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  An extremely irate Nikki looked as if she had been doing nothing but waiting for Collin to walk in just so she could pounce on him. She had been pacing back and forth so quickly it was surprising she hadn’t worn a hole in the carpet. As soon as she saw Collin, she stopped pacing for a second and rolled her eyes back in her head like a crocodile would do before attacking its prey. She took a deep breath, put her hands on her hips, and resumed pacing.r />
  Collin knew why she was upset — he had told her he was coming in to work late Tuesday, but he never showed up; she had to do his job in addition to her own. There was no reason to ask what her problem was. Collin walked past her and punched the time clock.

  “Well poop on my boots if you dare to think, even for one hot second, that you can tip-toe in here all quiet and everything and that all will be forgotten or forgiven. Yesterday was the half-off sale, remember?”

  Poop on your boots would probably make them look nicer than they do right now, Collin thought.

  Nikki was furious, “That’s why you skipped out, isn’t it? You knew we would be slammed and you were afraid of breaking a nail — so you thought it was okay to just chill back at your crib? Before you inherited that house, you wouldn’t have missed a day’s work for anything. But now that you don’t have to pony up the dough for rent, you think those big boy pants you put on make you better than the rest of society that has to work to earn a living — is that it, Collin?”

  The half-off sale always brought in a truck load of customers. While Collin was out, Nikki had to deal with lines practically going out the doors. Babies had been crying, older children had been fighting with their siblings, teenagers had been trying to shoplift, and adults griped and complained. Collin was the one absent, causing the lines to be longer and the service to be slower, but Nikki was the one who had borne the brunt of their customers’ wrath.

  Collin knew from past experience what kind of day Nikki had had. Instead of exploding back at her, he practiced being the master of patience. He just stood there, looking at her with an apologetic expression on his face.

  “Why isn’t anything shooting out of that pie hole of yours?” she yelled.

  Nikki wanted a fight. She wanted Collin to justify his actions just so she could really put him in his place. Collin, on the other hand, had no intentions of falling into that trap.