A. Renee Art

The teens waited inside the cabin for Janet. Merc went to the basement with Lydia to look around Scott’s room again, but they quickly returned to the others.

“We can’t get into Scott’s room,” Lydia said. “The door’s jammed.”

“Something probably fell over on the other side,” Merc assumed.

“It’s fine,” Maddie said. “We have everything we need.”

The others looked at her carefully.

“Maddie, did you figure out something,” Caylix asked.

“Actually…” She began to shake but then calmed down. “Remember that I said I found Steve Moss’s glove compartment key near the well outside the cabin?”

“Yeah,” Lydia said. “It makes sense. Maybe he eventually figured out that Sofia was put in a well, though it was the wrong one.”

“I guess I should show you. Come on.”

“Fine with me,” Connor said. “The August heat’s making the cabin unbearable. Though the outside is no different.”

They approached the well, encircling it. Then Maddie pointed to a certain spot on the side of the well. Converging on the spot, they made the realization.

“Is that blood,” Connor asked.

“You and Merc found some in the morgue, right,” Lydia reminded him.

“We…we did,” Merc said.

“Maddie,” Caylix started. “You don’t think…”

Maddie looked at the rusty padlock on the well lid. “There’s a pair of garden shears in the basement.”

The group hesitated before Merc volunteered to go get them.

Soon, he was back and cut the padlock. As soon as he and Connor lifted the lid, the smell was unmistakable. Though it had been two years, there was a stench of decay in the water.

“I’m not going down there,” Merc said. Covering his mouth and pointing a flashlight, he came to what appeared to be an oval-like shape and what looked like wet hair on top. To be sure, he searched other parts of the dark space with the light and found light-colored, wet, muddy clothing. He let out a gasp.

“Maddie, what do you see,” Lydia asked her.

Maddie knew exactly what she meant by “see” and gave her a slight nod.

“Is it really,” Caylix started to ask.

“It is,” Merc said.

“Yamamura…Sadako,” Connor said, shaking.

Caylix let out a squeal. They stepped back from the well and fell to the ground one-by-one.

“Wha—What,” Lydia hesitated. The bloodstain was enough but seeing a dead body made things too real, even for her. “What do we do?”

“You kids gonna call police or what,” a voice said from behind them.

They turned, startled to see a man in his mid-20s. He seemed to appear from nowhere. Caylix screamed.

“Who are you, dude,” Merc asked for the group.

“Wait, you’re—” Lydia started.

“Scott Brooks,” the man answered.

Everyone but Maddie appeared shocked.

“Where’d you come from,” Connor asked.

“I hid in my old basement room. I was already there for almost thirty minutes before you all arrived.”

“That’s why we couldn’t get back in,” Lydia said. “How did you get into the cabin at all? We had the only key.”

“Never heard of a break-in?” He held up a lock-pick. “Well, what are you waiting for? Call the police now!”

“I got it,” Merc said, reaching for his cell.

“Now I saw another car near the old sheriff’s office. Is there someone else here or are both those cars yours?”

“We’re here with an investigative reporter for The Hartford Times,” Lydia said.

“Thought so. Where are they?”

“She’s on her way back here to meet us,” Connor said. “She might be at her car after seeing Andrew’s house.”

Maddie looked away.

Janet Kelly had been looking up and down different roads at the storm drains. Recalling the note from the glove compartment of Steve’s car that Maddie read, the one about him leaving a key in the sewers, and combining that with the paper found in the morgue, Janet now believed that he left a key in one of the sewer storm drains.

The problem was, which one?

Just earlier, she had indeed figured out who the killer really was, just as Maddie thought she would. All there was missing was hard evidence. Janet was betting that it would be with the killer, who had come back to Painscreek, someone who had been watching Janet and the teens all weekend.

She took a breath, and Steve Moss came to mind. She thought to herself to think like him.

If he was on the right track, hot, as he put it…and if the killer was on to him, he would have to get rid of the key he was holding in a hurry. That meant that the key was in a drain close to where the killer once lived and that he hid it there after encountering the killer and identifying him as such.

She quickly raced back to the road near the old farmer’s market. There was a drain, but she could see nothing there. She tried the drain on the other side of the road and there in the sun, something gave off a hint of light. Something shiny.

She took out the wrench and undid the screws. Lifting the drain and clearing away a few washed away leaves revealed…

“The key.”

The design looked old, but it was somehow modern. She looked up to see where she was. In front of her was The Painscreek Trinity Church sign. Its last scheduled service was listed from 1996. The sermon’s title “The Truth Shall Set You Free.”

Janet moved to the right side of the sign. There was another walkway. On the other side, were some stone steps. The church sat in stony silence a few yards beyond that.

“The case really is ending now, isn’t it,” Janet sighed.

She began making her way to the church.