The Lady of Dark Lake Read online

  “Why have me clean it then?”

  “Do you want to spend the night or not?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “I’ll go get you a light.” Ms. Poole turned on her heel and left the hallway.

  Lady was left alone in the shadows, standing at the entrance of the storage room. At least she had Lion with her. He sat at her feet, his tail swishing as he waited beside her. “Creepy, huh?” Lady asked him quietly. She stared into the darkness some more, trying to will her eyes to adjust. First Ms. Poole had trusted her with a large envelope of cash, now she was trusting her to clean her valuables. It didn’t make sense.

  An orange blur caught Lady’s attention. She looked down just in time to see Lion walk into the storage room. “Lion!” she hissed after him. “Get back out here.” She clicked her tongue against her teeth when he didn’t respond. “Come on. Come here, boy.”

  Something clattered to the floor inside the storage room. It was loud and reverberated for a while, like someone had hit a gong. Lady felt a wave of cold jolt through her. “Lion!” she hissed with more urgency, praying Ms. Poole hadn’t heard that. When her cat still didn’t respond, she stepped into the room herself.

  There was a feeling that hit Lady all at once when she stepped over the threshold of the storage room. She wasn’t sure how to place it. It wasn’t something she had ever felt before. It was like a chill, a kind of menthol tingle that started from both inside and out and met somewhere in-between. There was a bang. Lady jumped and spun. There was only a sliver of light on the floor behind her. The door to the storage room had closed. Her heart pounded in her chest as she rushed to it. She grabbed the handle and jerked it, but it was no use. The door wouldn’t budge. Lady wanted to yell for help, but she stopped herself, trying to keep her emotions in check. Calm down. The door probably isn’t even locked. You’re just panicking. She told herself all those things and took a deep breath. She was about to try the door again when someone said her name.

  At least Lady thought someone was calling her name. The closer she listened, the less sure she was that anyone was speaking at all. It was whispers perhaps. Someone was whispering to her, calling her closer. Lady had taken a step further away from the door, further into the darkness when she caught herself. What the heck did she think she was doing? She watched horror movies. She knew better than this. Never go toward the creepy voice!

  The voice said something again, calling Lady’s name with no sound at all. It’s fine, it seemed to be whispering. Come here. Lady took another step and then another. She shouldn’t be doing what she was doing. Common sense told her she was being a moron, but she moved forward anyway. She held a hand out to make sure she didn’t run headlong into anything and found that the tingling began to intensify. It was like her hand had fallen asleep and now there were pins and needles in her fingers. One more step. Right here. I’m right here.

  The door to the storage room opened and dim light flooded in. “What are you doing?” demanded Ms. Poole.

  Lady found her fingers mere millimeters away from the spine of a book. She dropped her hand to her side and spun to face Ms. Poole. “Sorry. I, uh…” She looked down and found Lion sniffing at a metal urn on the floor. “Lion went in and knocked something over and I went after him and—”

  Ms. Poole waved a hand like she didn’t care to hear the rest. “Pick that up.” She pointed to the urn before moving to unscrew the dead light bulb in the ceiling and plug a new one in.

  There was a lot in the storage room, though it wasn’t a very big space. It was nearly half the size of the room Lady had been sleeping in. She picked up the urn and put it back on a dusty shelf. Looking around at the contents of the storage room, there didn’t appear to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to them. It was similarly difficult to tell whether or not any of the stuff was even valuable.

  There were clocks, mirrors, more urns, a couple of creepy porcelain dolls, a musical instrument Lady didn’t recognize. The book Lady had been about to touch sat on a row of identical books. They all looked to be leather and, as far as Lady could tell, didn’t sport a title of any sort. “What are those?” she asked, pointing.

  “Books,” Ms. Poole said, flatly.

  “Right.” Lady felt stupid, not sure what kind of answer she had expected. She brought an arm up and coughed into the crook of her elbow. Now that she had been standing in the room for a while, she was beginning to realize just how dusty it was. Her throat and eyes both stung. “You know, I’m not sure I’ll be able to get all of this done.” It didn’t seem fair to expect her to get it all done either. This was a way bigger job then one more night at an inn. She chose not to mention that part, though. “I actually… I was hoping to go somewhere around nine.”

  Ms. Poole finished screwing in the light bulb. She pulled the string next to it, fully illuminating the room in harsh yellow light. Her eyebrows were raised in mild surprised. “You made plans with someone?”

  “I guess.”

  “Do what you want. I’m not your mother.” Ms. Poole pointed at her feet where she had sat down a bucket of what appeared to be cleaning supplies. “If I were you, I would remove everything from the shelves and dust those first. Afterward, clean the objects one at a time and place them back on the shelf.”

  “Some of this stuff looks kind of complicated to clean.” Lady pointed to a clock as an example. “What if I damage—”

  “Use your best judgement.” Ms. Poole turned to leave once more.

  “Hey—I mean, excuse me.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Did Otsuya come back? I left with her, but we got separated.”

  Ms. Poole kept walking. “I wouldn’t know. I’m not her mother either.”

  And with that, Lady was alone. She had Lion, at least. So, maybe she wasn’t completely alone. Not that he was going to be much help. He picked a corner and sat down, his swishing tail gathering dust as Lady went through her bucket of cleaning supplies. Geez, where was she even supposed to start with this mess?

  Lady found her gaze first drawn to the bookshelf. The book she had been so close to touching the spine of was the third from the left. She moved to take it from the shelf. It wasn’t like there was anything in the room she wasn’t allowed to touch. Ms. Poole wanted her to take everything off the shelves, so why not start with the book.

  The tingling in Lady’s fingers was gone, but her chest was still pounding. She pulled the book out and hefted its considerable weight into her arms. It was big like the books at the library had been big. She flipped open the cover and—Nothing. She turned a page. Nothing. She flipped through several pages. They were all blank. The entire book was full of paper that had never been touched with even a drop of ink. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” She dropped the book to her feet and began to remove the rest. She wanted to work fast. She wasn’t sure how much Ms. Poole actually expected her to finish, but she had a feeling it was a lot.

  ***

  There were curious things in the room. Lady had to fight the urge to inspect everything she picked up to clean. It all presented something of a mystery. Why did Ms. Poole need dozens of blank books? Why did she save dolls with cracked faces and dark stoppered bottles full of mysterious liquids? Ms. Poole didn’t seem like the type to hoard things.

  It was difficult to gauge the passage of time. An hour and a half had passed by the time she had carefully cleared off all of the shelves. Cleaning each object individually was much more time consuming. She was polishing the face of a clock when a familiar shape appeared in the doorway.

  “Well, look who it is.” Otsuya crossed her arms over her chest and leaned a shoulder against the door frame. “I can’t believe you ditched me at the library.”

  Lady put the clock down and sat back on her heels. “I ditched you? I left the library and you were gone!” Lady wasn’t mad. Frankly, she was relieved to see Otsuya again. She had been a little worried what with that weird Dom guy hanging out behind the church.

  “You were taking a while, so
I went for a walk.” Otsuya smiled and dropped her folded arms with a shrug. “So, you’re staying another night, I take it?”

  “Looks that way, huh?”

  “She’s got you scrubbing out a room down here.” Otsuya grimaced like she didn’t pity her the job. “That’s rough.”

  “What kind of storage room is this?” Lady picked up what looked for all the world like a taxidermy mouse. “Like this. What is this? Why is this?”

  “Probably better not to ask.” Otsuya inclined her head, inviting Lady out of the storage room. “You hungry? Dinner is ready.”

  “Dinner?” Lady looked around for her phone. “What time is it?”

  “Why?”

  “There’s somewhere I have to go at nine.” Phone in hand, Lady stood and looked down at herself. If she hadn’t been a mess before, she was now.

  “Somewhere to go?” Otsuya raised an eyebrow, her mouth twisting into the slightest of frowns. “Where do you have to go?”

  “Some club. A girl invited me out. She seems nice.” It occurred to Lady then that it was rude not to ask if Otsuya wanted to come along. It also occurred to her that it wasn’t really her place to extend an invitation. She wasn’t sure what to do in these sorts of social situations.

  “Oh.” Otsuya turned with a small huff. “I don’t do clubs. Didn’t even know Dark Lake had one.”

  “Maybe it’s not a club. Maybe it’s more like a bar.”

  “Well, I don’t do those either.”

  “I don’t either—Not normally anyway.” Lady brushed the dust from her pants and hurried after Otsuya. “I hate to bother you, but can I use your shower? My room doesn’t have one.”

  ***

  It was hard to tell whether Otsuya was mad or not. Maybe “mad” was too extreme an emotion. She didn’t appear mad, but she did appear to be feeling something. Lady couldn’t put a name to it, but she could see it in her eyes at times.

  At least Otsuya was kind enough to let Lady use her shower. She was also kind enough to loan her some clean clothes. “You look like you’re about my size,” she had said, opening her closet door wide.

  Lady wasn’t sure that was true. She had a feeling Otsuya was a few sizes smaller than she was, but there were still a few options in the closet. “Do I look like a hooker in this?” she asked, shuffling out of the bathroom in a burgundy bodycon dress. It was terribly low cut and the skirt was so tight it pressed her thighs close together when she walked.

  Otsuya was back in her kick around the house clothes. She was sitting on her bed with Lion, tearing apart and eating a roll she had snatched from downstairs. “Sort of,” she said around a mouthful of bread. “But you look like a pricey hooker, like I could take you to a black tie event and make all the married people jealous. That kind of hooker.”

  “Does it look appropriate for a bar?”

  “You look like the kind of hooker I could definitely take to a bar.”

  “Seriously.”

  “You look fine.” There was that look. It was in Otsuya’s eyes for a moment, just a moment. It was a dark look, a weary look, like she wasn’t enjoying Lady’s company anymore. “I’d loan you some of my heels, but I don’t think they’d fit. Your feet look bigger than mine.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got big feet.” Lady held up her Mary Janes by their straps. “These will have to do.”

  “The dress says, ‘Take me home, big boy,’ but the shoes say, ‘But do it quick because my curfew is eight.”

  Lady mimed throwing one of the shoes at Otsuya which got a smile from her. “You know…” Lady trailed off, hesitant. Maybe it wasn’t proper protocol but, darn it, she liked Otsuya. “You can come, if you want. It’s not like a date. It’s just a girls night out type thing. The more girls, the better, right?”

  Otsuya’s smile softened. She looked down and kept petting Lion. “Speaking of curfews, it’s past mine already. I’ll stay here. Like I said, bars aren’t my thing anyway.”

  Lady went to stand at Otsuya’s vanity. She held up a silver paddle brush and held it up, waiting for a nod from Otsuya before she raked it through her blonde hair. “What’s the deal with that anyway? The curfew, I mean?”

  She flopped back on her bed and groaned. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s stupid. You’ve got chores you have to do to earn your rent here. I have chores I have to do to earn my rent here.”

  “You have a better room than I do.”

  “I also have a curfew.”

  “Is it worth it?”

  “Not really.”

  “Then why don’t you quit and go somewhere else? You said you travel, right?”

  “Sure.” Otsuya obviously didn’t want to elaborate, which only made Lady more curious. She didn’t press the matter, though, letting Otsuya change the subject instead. “Who is it you’re going out with anyway?”

  “Andrea. She was here when I woke up. Blonde, tan, works at the marina. Do you know her?”

  Otsuya sat back up, arms stretched out behind her to prop herself up. “I don’t think so.”

  “I figured this town was so small that everyone would know everyone.” Lady finished fussing with her hair. “Anyway, her boyfriend is missing, and she’s stressed out about it. They’re sending out divers to look for him, actually. She’s trying to distract herself, I guess. I can’t really blame her.”

  “They’re sending out divers?” Otsuya sat up straight. That part in particular had clearly caught her attention. “Is this where the kelpie nearly drowned you?”

  There it was again, Otsuya being weird. “It’s where I nearly drowned,” said Lady, restating events sans the kelpie part. “I reported everything to the police, and now they’re sending out divers just to be safe. I feel kind of stupid now, honestly. It probably wasn’t anything. I’m making a fuss and inconveniencing everyone for nothing.”

  “So, someone is missing.” Otsuya was looking into the middle-distance, a thoughtful frown on her face. “Do you know his name?”

  Lady had to think for a moment. “Riley? Yeah, that’s it. Riley.”

  “I don’t know a Riley, but I bet he’s down there.” Otsuya threw her legs off the side of her bed and jumped to her feet. “I bet the kelpie got him and used his form to try and pull you down too.”

  “Well, we’ll see what they find.” Lady didn’t really want to encourage any of Otsuya’s crazy ideas. Fortunately, she didn’t have the time to. On the bathroom counter, her phone rang. Lady hurried into the bathroom and answered it. “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s Andrea. You still up for tonight?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Great! I’m headed that way now, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Sounds good! I’ll see you in a few.” Lady hung up and turned to Otsuya. “I need to get going. I’ll see you at breakfast.”

  “Sure, sure.” Otsuya wasn’t interested in Lady anymore. She was at her bookshelf, too busy browsing the titles there to pay her any mind.

  Lady went to the bed and gave Lion a scratch on the head. “You be good while I’m out,” she told him. He swished his tail like he knew what she was saying and didn’t approve of it. “Don’t be grumpy. Tomorrow we’ll pack up, leave, and find ourselves somewhere we can call home. How does that sound?” Lion just swished his tail some more.

  Chapter Nine

  Andrea whistled when Lady opened the passenger side door of her pastel purple sedan. “Look at you, Hot Stuff.”

  Lady could feel her face heating up. She was overdressed. She had been afraid of that. Andrea was wearing shorts and a pink halter-top. She didn’t look all that different from how she dressed to work at the marina. “I didn’t have any clean clothes left,” Lady admitted sheepishly. “I had to borrow these. This was the only thing that fit that—”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, girl.” Andrea gave Lady a wink and a punch in the arm when she sat. “You look good. I’m serious. Everyone will be looking at you—Again, in a good way.”

  “Not sure I want that.”
Lady didn’t plan on sticking around, and she wasn’t the one night stand type.

  “Then I’ll fend everyone off for you. Unless you change your mind, of course.” Andrea laughed and pulled onto the road. “So, how is old Ms. Poole?”

  “I don’t know… Weird?”

  “I bet.”

  “How are you holding up?” Lady knew that tonight was supposed to get Andrea’s mind off of Riley, but she felt compelled to ask.

  The smile slipped from Andrea’s face. “I’m… okay. I don’t know. Nothing has changed. I haven’t heard any news or anything. Right now I’m just trying to get by.”

  “Fair enough.” Lady decided not to mention it again.

  ***

  The bar they were headed to wasn’t far. It was called The Albright. The name of the place flashed in blue neon letters above a strobing picture of a fisherman’s knot. It looked like a dive to Lady, an old rectangular building plopped down in the middle of a big gravel lot. There were a lot of cars parked outside, forming rows even through there weren’t lines marking parking places. “Looks crowded.”

  “It’s a Saturday night and just about the only thing to do in town.” Andrea had a smile on her face again. “It’s bound to be crowded.”

  Lady was having second thoughts. She didn’t like crowds and she didn’t like bars. Why couldn’t she and Andrea just have done a movie marathon or something? What was so wrong with a girls night in?

  “Come on. Don’t be shy.” Andrea had sensed her hesitance. She motioned her along. “No one is going to bite. You’ve been staying with Ms. Poole. You’ve already met the scariest person in Dark Lake.”

  Lady followed Andrea to the door. She could already feel the music. The muffled lyrics of old hair metal came through the walls and windows. She could already feel the rhythm of the bass in her bones. Andrea opened the door and the music grew exponentially louder. It was paired with the sounds of dozens of people all shouting as they conversed with one another, trying to be heard over the music.

  As crowded as the place was, some heads turned when she and Andrea entered. Lady noticed some nods in their direction as bar patrons pointed them out to other folks in their party. It was hard to tell whether they were pointing at Andrea or Lady. Lady was new in town, but Andrea was the one with a missing boyfriend. Both of them could very well be the subjects of a lot of Dark Lake gossip. Again, Andrea seemed to notice how nervous the attention was making Lady. “They’re just staring because you look so good,” she half-whispered, half-shouted into her ear.