Page 56 of The Silence of Hell

“How can I help Detective Hawthorne?” I asked.

“Ma’am, call me Lio. You had a car accident a month ago?”

“About five or six now, but yes,” I replied.

“The garage has just been in contact with the police. As you know, the car was totalled and written off, so the garage did not look for a cause. But one of their mechanics is a curious sort and knew your car should have handled the weather better than it did. He discovered, ma’am, that your brakes had been partially cut,” Lio explained, holding my gaze.

At first, I didn’t understand what he was saying, and I blinked in confusion. My brakes were cut?

“Which meant that every time you touched the brakes, Lavender, you made the cut worse until the brakes failed completely,” Chatter added.

“Are you saying someone tried to kill me?” I asked.

“Ma’am, it looks that way. Is there anyone…” Lio began to say, and I choked on a bitter laugh.

“Oh, they’re lining up to kill me, it appears!” I replied hysterically, and Chatter’s gaze held mine in sympathy. “Please leave me alone to talk to the detective.”

“We’ll be in the kitchen if you need us,” Phoe said, touching my arm.

I nodded, as I didn’t trust my voice to speak.

???

An hour later, I showed Lio out and headed for my room. I didn’t want to speak or see anyone right then. I slipped into my bedroom and froze. On my bed was a bunch of wildflowers, but it was what was next to them that held my gaze. A broderie anglaise dress.

My hands began to shake as I stared at it. I remembered that dress. It came with a large straw hat with flowers, and I used to wear it as a kid. A memory surfaced of me running through the gardens with Aunt Aggie laughing behind me. I’d worn the dress, and she’d used a couple of belts to hold it off the ground as it was for an adult, not a child.

“This is my wedding dress, Aunt Aggie!” I cried.

“And you’ll be a beautiful bride, Lavender!” Aunt Aggie called back.

The memory faded, and I reached out to touch it. It was the same one. What the hell was it doing here? What did the flowers mean?

I was so engrossed I didn’t hear my door open, and I screamed as someone placed their hands on my shoulders.

“It’s me!” Chatter said, quickly stepping away and putting his hands up.

“Sorry you startled me,” I murmured, my eyes returning to the dress.

“That’s pretty. It looks old,” Chatter replied, following my gaze.

“It is from the nineteen twenties. As I child, I used to play dress up in it. I’m not sure why it’s here,” I whispered, looking around.

“Is there a secret passageway in this room?” Chatter asked.

“No. So how the hell did it get here, and nobody sees it? And how would anyone know what this meant to me? I’m starting to get scared,” I admitted.

“Lavender, I’m going to admit, I do not like a lot of what’s going on. I got a plan to regain the trust I destroyed, but I am not leaving you tonight. You’ve had a massive shock, and things keep happening. Too much, and you’re overloaded. I’m going to let everyone know you’re taking an afternoon off, and we’re gonna curl up and make your plan. Then I’ll order takeout, and we’ll watch a movie,” Chatter said.

“I can’t—”

“Lavender, you need a break. A chance to relax and chill out,” Chatter insisted.

My eyes on the dress, I slowly nodded. “I need a vase for the flowers.”

“You don’t know why they’re there or who brought them,” Chatter exclaimed, sounding almost outraged.

“The dress isn’t a threat. It has good memories attached to it. Somebody left it here for me to remember that. The flowers… Aunt Aggie and I used to pick a posey together and pretend they were my wedding flowers.”

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