Latham's Landing (3 page)

“
My aunt told me a lot. She said she
hired a private investigator, after my cousin disappeared. He
talked to a lot of the locals, and after more than a little money
he came back to her with no explanation, just a lot of these old
stories.”

Great
. “Have other people disappeared
here?”

“
Henry’s the only one that’s
documented. But a lot of people died here, Tina.”

I gaped at her. “Who? Fred said no one has
died out here—”

“
Latham killed himself here. His wife
died somewhere in or on her way to the sea room—”

“
What happened?”

“
It was night time, that’s the only
thing known for sure. Some stories say she was meeting a lover to
run off, and they both drowned when their boat sank in a sudden
storm. Some say she was pregnant, and she went into labor and died
in childbirth, along with the baby. And the most horrible story
says she had already birthed the baby—that it was some kind of
monster, and so she killed it and then flung herself off the
bridge.”

“
Who else died out here?”

“
Some tourist had a heart attack here,
not long after they first opened it to the public. He died on his
way to the mainland. A young girl fell off the docks and almost
drowned, but she was saved. But one of the men who jumped in to
save her hit his head on a rock and drowned. That’s
all.”

That was plenty. “You sure you want to do
this?” I said seriously. “We both thought it was weird, what
happened yesterday.”

“
I’m not going to be scared because I
saw some dishes. Come on, Tina.”

We tied up the raft, again getting our feet
wet. Today, for some reason, the water was cold again, even though
the sun was as bright and hot as yesterday. Must be those tides
Fred had mentioned…

We walked up a series of granite steps to a
small shed. To my surprise, there was a small car there. I turned
to Sandy, who’d produced a key.

“
Why is there a car here on this
island? There’s not even an acre of land above water.”

“
It’s faster than walking to the Sea
Room,” she said, as she got in and started the engine. “We’d take
two hours walking that stone bridge, round trip. I still don’t know
why Latham made it so long. It must have cost a fortune to
make.”

“
Latham didn’t have a car here, did
he?”

“
I can’t say. Fred handed me the key
last night and told me to be sure to use the car when we went to
the Sea Room. I asked him why, when the bridge wasn’t that long.”
She paused. “He told me that a round trip to the Sea Room by foot
is four hours, repeating that stuff about time passing differently
out here.”

“
But how did the car get here?” I
persisted.

“
He asked the historical society to
donate one a couple years ago, when he got to be seventy. As he’s
the only person that will agree to come out here to check on the
place, they caved and got him this little Beetle.” Sandra looked at
the bridge and the shed, then out into the water. “A bigger boat
must have delivered it and craned it up here somehow.”

I watched her start the car, worried. What if
it didn’t start for us on the way back? I wanted more and more to
be gone from this place with every passing minute.

She noticed my hesitation. “Get in. The
quicker we get there, the sooner we’ll be done.”

I swore but got in the car.

The ride there seemed to take only a few
minutes. As we rode, I wondered, again, why a man would build a
place for him and his bride so far away from his house. Maybe
because rich people were never alone, because they always had
servants around? Maybe because they liked the water?

Maybe because he didn’t want anyone to hear
her scream? Shudder.

I blinked, then turned to Sandra. “You never
answered me yesterday. How did you get permission to come
here?”

“
I lied,” she said, her eyes on the
road.

“
Tell,” I said flatly.
“Now.”

“
I bribed the bed and breakfast woman,”
Sandra said defensively. “That’s why she only made a token effort
to stop us coming out here. I don’t know what she told
Fred—”

“
How—?”

“
Some money I’d saved for grad school,”
Sandra admitted. “The woman didn’t need a lot. She’s desperate.
They don’t get a lot of visitors here since the tours stopped, and
the island became off limits—”

“
Why?”

“
I have to know,” Sandra said
stubbornly, stopping the car. “Come on.”

As we walked up to the door, I stopped,
glancing back at the car. I considered asking Sandy to turn it
around, so it was facing back toward the main house, but
irrationally feared that we’d come out and find it facing back the
other way.

God, I was losing my nerve! Sandy was right.
This was just an old house…

“
Tina, come on!”

I went through the door. There wasn’t much
here, the basement-like first floor composed of a walk-in coat
closet, some stored broken furniture and not much else.

I followed Sandra up some stairs, and then
saw why Latham’s wife had loved it so much. The Sea Room was made
almost entirely of glass and some kind of mirrors, and it was in an
oval shape, with a rounded ceiling like a half globe. We were
surrounded by water. The sun was shining on the water, making
reflections, the wraparound windows holding the light in a prison
of prisms. Even on this blustery windy day, the air in here seemed
warm and inviting.

“
It’s beautiful,” I said in
wonder.

“
Apparently some mainland kids think
so, too,” Sandy said sarcastically. She nudged a bottle of soda
with her foot. “Look at this mess!”

She was right. There were two stained
mattresses on the floor, and some debris here and there. Some of it
was odd debris. Why would anyone leave a flashlight here switched
on? Why leave a book that looked almost new, or a pair of shoes and
socks?

“
I’m calling the bed and breakfast.
They should know about this.” Sandy grabbed a wall phone and began
dialing.

As I watched her, I realized the phone she
held looked familiar. I looked down at my feet. There on the side
of one of the mattresses was a similar phone. No, not similar.
Identical.

“
I’m getting a busy signal,” she said,
exasperated. “Damn it, Fred said that the phones out here would
work, even if cells didn’t!”

The phone was busy, something not uncommon.
Yet my gut was telling me that it was busy because that phone at my
feet was off the hook, that someone or several someones had come
out here looking to have some fun and found something more than
they bargained for. Before they could call for help or use the
flashlight to find their way out, something had happened to them.
Something bad.

I looked over at the edge of the mattress.
There was something there…

“
Tina, I’m going to check outside.
Maybe a wire came loose—”

I picked up the object. What was it? It was
so familiar, yet my mind wasn’t giving me any information.

“
Wait here, okay?” Sandy
said.

Oh shit, this was a…

“
Let’s go!” I said loudly, letting the
cool piece of metal fall from my hands. I ran over to her and began
propelling her toward the door. “Forget the damned
phone!”

We went back to the car, me shoving her and
her protesting. When we were on route back, I told her.

“
You can’t have found a filling, Tina.
The windows in there were soldered together, some of them. It must
have been a bit of lead—”

“
I know solder and lead, and this was
neither, this was silver. And there was a little tooth chunk stuck
to it!”

“
So some kids were fighting, and one of
them got in a lucky punch. It’s nothing.”

“
I don’t care!” I shot back. “I’m
leaving!”

We rode the next half-hour in silence back to
the landing, relief washing through me when the little house of
glass faded from view. When Sandy pulled up to the garage, I hopped
out, and opened the overhead door, hurrying down to the raft. I
began untying it, as Sandy parked the car and shut the garage
door.

She was just walking down the granite steps
to me, and I was imagining how good a hamburger was going to taste
when she stopped.

“
I heard something,” she said, turning
to look back at the main house.

“
I heard nothing, Sandy. Let’s get
going.”

“
Hey, what if some of those kids are
here, Tina? That soda bottle wasn’t that old. This is a historical
site.”

“
They can wander around then!” I
shouted. “I’m not going to chase after them!”

“
We left the door open yesterday!” she
shouted back. “What if the kids light the house on fire or
something? It’ll be my fault! I had to sign a paper to get the
key!”

“
We’ll go back and get Fred! He can
come look for them!”

“
He’s gone until tonight! He won’t be
able to look until morning! And we’re right here.”

“
Fuck it, I’m leaving! You can stay
here if you want!”

“
After all Fred’s done for us, I’m not
going to leave here without checking it out.”

She turned and bolted up the stairs, running
for the entrance.

Fuck! I retied the boat and ran after her.
When I got to the entrance, Sandy was nowhere in sight.

I got inside and let my eyes adjust to the
gloom. By my watch, either we’d lost time again, or the time we’d
spent at the Sea Room had taken longer than I’d thought. It was
about two pm.

I walked the first floor, the second floor,
and the third floor, following Sandy’s steps and my own from
yesterday. I didn’t see anyone or any signs of anyone being there
but us.

I walked back downstairs, wondering if I
should check outside, when I heard a noise. I turned, and out of
the corner of my eye, reflected in a broken hall mirror, I swore I
got a glimpse of a young man in a red plaid shirt and jeans, his
arms flailing wildly as he shouted soundlessly. But when I whipped
around, there was no one there. Darting a look back at the mirror,
I expected to see nothing. Instead, I saw the man there, looking
back at me from the mirror, grinning at me, his eyes tinted
yellow.

I let out a shriek and ran for the front
door. I got as far as the stairs, then stopped with a whimper.

There was a young boy on the stairs in front
of me.

“
Father, I’m so glad to see you,” he
said gratefully, his innocent face breaking into a smile. “I looked
for you, and couldn’t find you!”

“
I’m not your father,” I
whispered.

The boy came closer, his light blue eyes
shining. “I’m so glad you’re here. It seemed like such a long time
I’ve been looking for you.”

“
Where is my friend?” I grated out,
making myself get closer. “What are you?”

The boy tilted his head and studied me, but
didn’t reply.

I took another step closer. “Get out of my
way.”

“
Stay,” the boy said, his voice no
longer grateful.

I lost it. I grabbed hold of him, expecting
him to fade into smoke or disappear, but instead it was like
reaching into ice water. I gasped in shock as my hands clasped onto
bony arms, and the boy let loose a snarl, his eyes narrowing to red
pinpricks as he bared his teeth and tried to sink them into my
hand.

I began to pray desperately to God, and the
boy shrieked, trying harder to bite me. I threw him from me, out of
my way, and he slammed into the wall and vanished, raising a puff
of dust.

I ran for the front door, threw it open, and
let out another scream. A girl stood there who couldn’t have been
more than sixteen. She was swaying, her eyes crazy.

“
They’re gone,” she said in a singsong
voice. “They’re all gone.”

I led her outside, shut the door, and sat her
down on the stairs. “Who are you? Who’s gone?”

“
They’re all gone.”

“
Who’s gone?”

She didn’t answer.

Try something else. “Can you show me where
they went?”

“
They went into the house. And now
they’re gone.”

I let her go and looked toward the sun. It
was still high, but clouds were rolling in now, and the waves were
beginning to be choppy.

“
Can you show me where they
went?”

“
They’re gone!” she shrieked
loudly.

I hauled off and slapped her hard, knocking
her to the ground. “If anyone’s having hysterics, it’s going to be
me.”

She seemed a bit better after the slap, so I
helped her up.

“
Now listen,” I said. “We have to go
back in because the only boat is on the other side of the house.
We’d have to swim otherwise, at least for part of it, and I don’t
know how safe that is. If there’s an undertow out here, we’d be
goners.”

“
I don’t w-w-want to go back in!” she
stammered, tears leaking from her eyes.

“
Me neither,” I said heartily. “But we
have to. So let’s get going before we decide we’re better off
killing ourselves trying to walk back on those rocks.”

She grabbed hold of my hand, and I followed
her inside. I debated locking the door behind us, but the only lock
was the padlock, and I didn’t see a way to do it.