Adam's Thorn (3 page)

Besides, she loved indulging
them.  Grinning, Barbie put tins and packets into the trolley, along with two
big bags of kitty litter.  They were her babies, her faithful companions, and
the loves of her life.  She and her cats were a package deal.

As she made her way through the
supermarket several people nodded to her, a few new customers stopped her to
tell her how marvellous they felt after their massages and to book another time
- hadn’t they heard of phoning for appointments? - and several older ladies
eyed her with open curiosity.

Yep, she recognised them, all
right.  She might be relatively new in town, but even she’d heard the gossip when
the Mackay girl had lost her temper in the supermarket and had apparently
wigged out at two of the ladies, a Mrs Swanson and a Mrs Hubble.  Barbie was
wary of gossipers and deliberately kept a polite distance from them, only
nodding and smiling, answering ‘yes’ and ‘no’, and giving nothing of her plans
away.

Though she’d probably blown that
up by telling Gus.  Not that it mattered, who cared if anyone knew she didn’t
plan on staying?  Maybe someone would come forward who was interested in buying
the house and she wouldn’t have to bother with advertising.

Checking the list in her hand, she
continued to move through the supermarket.  For a small town it was pretty
impressive, but then it catered not only to the locals, but also outlying farms,
stations even further out, and passing travellers.  It had everything needed as
well as a good variety of local fresh produce.

One big bonus point for Peeron. 
Two actually.  It was a pretty place, almost quaint, with its many old buildings
and homes dating back to the early nineteen hundreds and older, all mixed in
with newer homes. 

She guessed she’d kind of miss
that, she’d always liked history.

By the time she got to the counter
the basket was half full.  Hallie, the Goth-inspired teenage checkout-chick,
started putting the groceries through.  She smiled slightly at Barbie but said
nothing.

Having met her couple of times
now, Barbie rather liked her.  Goth-inspired she might be, but she had a
fashion sense all her own.  Dark red, almost black lipstick, jet black hair in
a tight braid, a black leather collar around her neck, dark eye make-up, and
black clothes.  But there it ended, her own style appearing in the form of
bright yellow button earrings, a fake jewel stuck to the middle of her
forehead, and pale pink nail polish.  On her t-shirt, right above the grinning
white skull, was a dainty flower brooch.  On her feet she wore gladiator
sandals.  On the radio behind her country music played, and Hallie bopped along
to it when she wasn’t serving anyone, obviously enjoying the music.  Neither sullen
nor morbid, she smiled readily, seemingly finding life amusing going by the
twinkle in her heavily made-up eyes.

Yeah, Barbie liked a girl with her
own style and a sense of humour.

Hallie bagged the last of the
groceries.  “That’ll be a hundred and four dollars, thanks.”

“Hallie!”  Mrs Hubble gasped from
where she’d been standing behind Barbie studying her purchases shamelessly. 
“Does your mother know you got your tongued pierced?”

“She will soon,” Hallie replied without
batting an eyelid.

Barbie grinned.

“What will Adam say?” Mrs Hubble
continued, aghast.  “He’s the local law and your cousin.  He has a reputation
to uphold.”

“No worries, he doesn’t have his
tongue pierced.”

Barbie couldn’t help the snort of
laughter that escaped.

Hallie looked at her, startled,
before smiling slowly.

One glance at Mrs Hubble’s
darkening frown informed Barbie that she’d made a mistake. 
Oops.

“Did I say something funny?” Mrs
Hubble demanded.

“No, Hallie did,” Barbie replied.

Hallie’s smile widened.

“It’s hardly funny for a young
girl to pierce things that shouldn’t be pierced!”

“Could be worse.  It’s just her tongue,
not her clit.”

Even Hallie’s mouth fell open at
that, her eyes growing rounder.

Oops again
.  Cursing her runaway
tongue, Barbie straightened, intending to apologise to an appalled Mrs Hubble,
only to see the older woman walking away in a huff, disappearing into a nearby
aisle with haste.

“Geez.”  Switching her gaze to
Hallie, Barbie shook her head.  “I am sorry.  That was rude of me.”

“Hey, no worries.”  Hallie grinned
again.  “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

“Well, there’s sticking up, and
then there’s forgetting that the some of the older generation aren’t used to
certain parts of the anatomy being mentioned in public.”  Barbie handed Hallie
the money.  “Man, my tongue sometimes runs away with me.”

“Know the feeling.”  Hallie gave
her change.  “I was brought up to respect my elders, and I sometimes say things
before I think.”

“I hear you.”

Hallie laughed.

Taking hold of the trolley handle,
Barbie started to walk away.  “See you next time.”

“I’ll be here.”

By the time Barbie got home, Fred
and Barney were sitting in the front window watching for her.  Getting the bags
of groceries inside meant locking them in the bedroom she was using so she
could go in and out to the car, leaving the house door open.

By the time she had everything
inside and the car locked, the sun was setting.  Normally she’d lock the security
screen and leave the wooden door open, but tonight she had a case of the heebie-jeebies,
she didn’t know why.

The house was large, two story,
and dated back to the nineteen twenties.  The wood on the outside with the
peeling paint needed sanding back and re-painting, something that was already
in progress, only the workers had already left.  They wouldn’t be back until
Monday, having had a job booked for the next day since before she arrived.  The
veranda and partially enclosed section was dark, the windows had blistering
paint on the frames, and the hallway was dimly lit by a weak bulb.

That, she decided, staring at the
dim hallway, she’d fix in the morning.  No more spooky hallway.  The shadows on
the veranda that wrapped around the whole house had their own unique fear
factor.  One could almost fancy that a killer lurked in the shadows.  Dead
vines stuck out at weird angles while dead bushes pressed up against the posts.

Tomorrow she was going to start
pulling out the dead vines.  It was time to get serious and start doing what
she could do.  She was alone this weekend without the comfort of workers being
around but daylight pushed back the irrational fears.  Even the fact that she
could see the lights of the house next door through the trees wasn’t a
comfort.  Great Aunt Penny’s house stood on five acres, meaning that the
neighbours weren’t just over the fence, they were barely within screaming
distance unless they stood outside.

Though noise did carry at night. 
Small comfort.

She’d always had an overactive
imagination.  Refusing to look up at the blank windows of the second story, Barbie
hurried inside, shutting and locking both the security screen and the wooden
door behind her, and then, feeling silly, she checked through the house,
turning on all the lights as she went.

God knew what she’d do if she actually
met a ghost in the shrouded, dark rooms.  Furniture covered in old sheets, dust
thick in the abandoned rooms, old-fashioned furniture and treasures of the
antique variety.

Trying to take her mind off
ghosts, she decided it was getting close to the time when she needed to contact
Patrick, her friend and antique dealer from the city, see if he was interested
in checking out the household items.  Some of it was old and might fetch a good
price. 

Another job for the weekend - go
through the rooms properly and record the contents.

Decision made, she tuned off the
lights and went down the stairs a whole lot faster than she’d gone up them. 
The second floor was bloody spooky.

In fact, the whole house was
spooky.  Old fashioned, dark, still, as though waiting for the return of its
ghostly inhabitants.

“Shit, stop it!”  Barbie let the cats
out of the bedroom she used, glad to have their demanding meows to divert her
attention.

Relaxing, she smiled at them.  She
was a firm believer that if anything supernatural was in the house, the cats
would know.  While they weren’t worried, neither was she.  Or so she assured
herself.

The kitchen was spotless,
sparkling with the effort she’d put into cleaning away the dust and neglect.  A
vase of sunflowers picked from the neglected garden out the back sat in the
middle of the table.  The wooden cabinets shone, the floor was mopped clean.

Making the ground floor inhabitable
had been her main aim when she’d first arrived.  One room had been cleaned and
had her massage table and oils set up in it, she’d commandeered a bedroom and vacuumed
and wiped everything over, replacing the linen with her own.  Several bottles
of her perfume sat on top of the dresser, along with a tube of lipstick and
mascara, and a small tube of hand lotion.  The bathroom across the hallway had
been scrubbed to within an inch of going through the tiles and now sparkled and
smelled like lemons, helped by the air freshener she’d set on the counter.  The
toilet was next to the laundry, and she’d scrubbed that, too.  The washing
machine was surprisingly modern and had just required a wipe over and rinse.

The lounge was dark and
depressing, and after a thorough dusting, wipe over with furniture polish, and
a good vacuum, she’d finally hired a carpet cleaner and had the carpet in both
the lounge and bedroom cleaned.  At least then she could walk in bare feet upon
it without cringing, and it got rid of the musty smell.  The heavy curtains had
been to the dry cleaners and looked marginally better, but the room was still a
touch drab.  She’d attempted to brighten it up with vases of flowers and some
scented air fresheners.  Several bright cushions on the old sofa and it was the
best she could do.  In the corner of the lounge was a small table upon which
her laptop sat.  Thank God for WiFi, though she was surprised that it was even
available out in the back of beyond.  She was equally glad that Great Aunt
Penny had obviously liked television, because there was a large, surprisingly
modern one.  The radio/CD player in the kitchen gave good background noise when
she felt the quietness pressing in on her and craved the sound of human
voices.  Plus rocking to music while working was a favourite past time.

Flicking across the curtains, she
shut out the dark of the night, glad to have her cats near.  Their calmness was
soothing.

“As soon as this place is fixed,
we’re going home,” she told them.

It couldn’t be soon enough.  If it
wasn’t bad enough that Adam was in the town, she’d crossed him several times
already, and the house was spooky, she’d also pissed off one of the local
gossips.

No doubt Mrs Hubble would be sure
to inform Adam of what Barbie had said, adding another black mark to her name.

As if she’d care.  Adam Moor could
take a running leap off a long pier.

Hell, she’d even give him a
helpful shove.

So much for having control.

~*~

“Mrs Hubble,” Adam said patiently,
“I can’t arrest someone for saying something you consider rude.”

“Offensive,” Mrs Hubble retorted. 
“It was
offensive
.”

“I don’t think an anatomical word
can actually be termed offensive,” Brandon, one of Adam’s fellow cops, stated.

“It might help if you actually
told me what Ms Declan said.” Adam sighed inwardly.  Just as he thought, Barbie
was already offending people, though, to be fair, it didn’t take much to get
Mrs Hubble’s dander up.

Blushing a little, Mrs Hubble
glanced around.  “Must I?”

“It’d help.”

Taking a deep breath, she squared
her shoulders.  “Maybe it’s not such a big deal.  After all, Hallie didn’t seem
offended.”

He stiffened.  “Hallie?”

“Yes.  I spoke to Hallie about her
tongue piercing and-”

“Hallie got her tongue pierced?” 
Jesus.  Really?  Her tongue?  That had to hurt.

“I knew you’d be upset.” Mrs
Hubble smiled triumphantly.  “Even though Miss Declan laughed at the suggestion
that Hallie’s mother would be upset.”

Adam frowned.  “She laughed?”

“Not good for discipline.”  Mrs
Hubble shook her head.  “Teaches disrespect.”

That last bit had him again stiffening. 
Shit.  Hallie was a good kid, she didn’t need someone teaching her bad ideas,
and Barbie had been full of them.  It sounded like she still was, worse luck,
though he should have guessed.

“What, exactly, did Ms Declan
say?” Brandon asked curiously.

“It’s not for your ears, young
man.”

Amused, Brandon stuck his thumb in
Adam’s direction.  “How about his ears?”

Mrs Hubble blushed again.

That alone had Adam’s suspicions
surging to the surface.

“She shouldn’t have said it in front
of Hallie.”  Mrs Hubble lifted her chin.  “I can’t possibly repeat what she
said, but it wasn’t meant for a young girl’s ears, never mind saying it in a
public place.”  She shook her finger at Adam.  “I’m not laying charges, but you
better have a talk to this new woman in town.  I don’t like her ways or her
flippant use of bad language in front of young, impressionable girls. 
Disgraceful is what it is, and you need to nip this in the bud before we have a
full on debauchery happening.”  With that, she turned and walked out of the cop
station.

Watching the door swing shut
behind her, Brandon tapped the desktop.  “Okay, now I’m really curious.  Ring
Hallie.”

Adam was already on it, his finger
tapping the keys before his friend had finished speaking. When there was no
answer form Hallie’s phone, he tried her home, only to get an answering
machine.