Souls Of The Innocent

Chapter Nine: Something mysterious is going on...

Amber knocked on the large wooden door, she glanced around her and then towards the door again. It seemed like the Martin’s house was one of the oldest houses around the neighborhood. Though it was well maintained, it looked more like an old fashioned model house compared to the modern ones around it. She noticed the small wind chime made out of recycled things hanging above the old rocking chair which was close to the door. She wanted to reach out and touch it but refrained from doing so. She glanced at the front door and bit on her bottom lip, a feeling of anxiety started to wash over her. They were taking too long for them to open that door. There she was, standing on the front porch of the Martin’s residence ready to start her investigation. She was ready to do the detective work until she would find a logical explanation of what happened to her sister and how she could help her. She had not lost hope that Nora was somewhere out there and that she was still alive. She checked her watch and she wondered if she had not rushed to the Martin’s residence a little bit too early in the morning. But, she had to catch them before they leave for work or school, or wherever they had to go in the morning, plus, there’s no specific time for someone to dig for the truth, Amber said to herself to justify the fact that she was standing there in front of the door of the Martin’s residence at half-past seven in the morning. Maybe I didn’t knock loudly enough. What if nobody is home? , she said to herself as she checked her watch and realized that she had been standing there for the past five minutes. She raised her hand to knock for the third time. This time she will knock a little louder and longer, but she quickly put her hand down when she heard the sound of the front door unlocking. She took in a deep breath before the door slightly opened and a woman stood there peering at her with narrowed eyebrows through the c***k of the door.

“ Yes, how can I help you?”, the woman asked.

Amber wasn’t able to take a good look at the woman, but she was pretty sure that she was Priscilla, Lisa Martin’s mother. Priscilla looked her over from head to toe and then she opened the door a little wider and the narrowed eyebrows were replaced with a serious face. Amber opened her mouth to say something but she was suddenly lost for words. Fear took over her body, she felt like there was a pillow pressed against her mouth and her nose which was cutting off the oxygen from getting inside her lungs. She searched deep within her for a way out of this fear which had engulfed her entire body. She silently told herself to stay calm and to speak politely, that she came here for a reason and a good one. She continued with her inner thoughts, thinking that maybe this woman would understand her plea and she could give her some information that could help her with her investigation. But where does she start? Introduce yourself silly… she silently said to herself as she slowly came back to reality and realized that she was just standing there staring blankly at Lisa’s mother.

“ Hi, my name is Amber Jones. I have a younger sister , her name is Nora. She mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago … Uhm just like your daughter Lisa and I was just wondering if I can talk to you..”, Amber was saying but Priscilla quickly cut her off by shaking her head indicating no.

“ We are not talking to anyone about our daughter anymore. You could be a journalist or a spy coming to disturb our peace..my husband is already sick because of her disappearance, please leave us alone”, Priscilla said as she glanced anxiously over Amber’s shoulder.

Amber was surprised with her reaction, it was as if Priscilla was scared of something or someone. A young man appeared behind Priscilla and Amber recognized Lisa’s brother from the picture on the internet , Gregory. His mother whispered something to him and he glanced at Amber.

“ I’m sorry but I will have to ask you to leave. She gets like that whenever someone comes around to ask about Lisa”, Gregory said.

“ But, I didn’t come to ask about Lisa. My sister also disappeared a few weeks ago and I just wanted …”, Amber was saying when Priscilla glanced at her with an angry face and shouted at her to get off her porch.

Amber stood there and looked at the woman with wide eyes as she wondered what was wrong with her. Why was she reacting like that? Amber realized that she couldn’t stay there even if she wanted to beg her to listen to her, but the look in that woman’s eyes was telling her to stay away. She no longer looked like the fragile little woman who opened the door a few minutes ago, she was looking like a woman ready to defend her family, but from what or from whom ? She was there all alone what could she possibly do to that family? She slowly took a step backward and the woman slammed the door in her face. She slowly walked down the stairs and as she reached the last step she glanced back towards the house. Priscilla was standing there by the windows looking at her as if she was making sure that she was leaving. Amber walked towards the road with so many things going around in her mind. She was sad that she couldn’t hear the story of the Martin’s, it was as if they were scared to talk about Lisa’s disappearance. What could have happened between the day that they gave the interview to the newspaper to now? Amber wondered. She remembered how Priscilla’s hands had trembled as she grasped the door handle. She turned and glanced towards the house, her eyes laid on a young lady who was standing there on the balcony on the first floor looking at her. This must be Farrah, Lisa’s little sister. They have the same curly red hair…Amber said to herself as she stood there for a moment and looked at the girl with narrowed eyebrows. She was wondering why was she looking at her like that. She stood there like a statue staring in her direction. Amber’s heart skipped a beat when her eyes laid on the person standing in the doorway behind the young girl. She squeezed her eyes shut and quickly opened them again.

“ Lisa Martin! She’s alive !!”, Amber mumbled softly as adrenaline flowed throughout her entire body making her heart beat faster.

Without any hesitation, she walked back towards the house shouting Lisa’s name. The little girl who was still standing there suddenly started to shake her head and put a hand to her lips as if she was asking her to be quiet, but Amber didn’t stop ,even if the girl kept indicating to her to be quiet. As Amber approached the house, the little girl quickly ran back inside the house and closed the balcony door. Amber ran up to the front door and started to knock on it as she called out Priscilla’s name.

“ I need answers! Please open the door. I know that Lisa is not dead, I saw her upstairs…”, Amber shouted out loud as she continued to knock on the door.

Priscilla opened the door and stood there with her hands on her hips as she glared at Amber. Amber inhaled and exhaled slowly so that she could calm down for her to speak to Priscilla.

“ That’s why you don’t want to talk about it because Lisa is here! If she came back then she can help me find my sister, maybe the same thing happened to her !”, Amber said and the woman narrowed her eyebrows and gave her the look as if she was telling her what are you on about.

“ She’s crazy! Totally Crazy! Gregory call the police! How dare you come here and say something like that. As if we are hiding my daughter, Lisa disappeared and it is still hard for all of us!”, Priscilla angrily said.

“ That’s good, the police can search the house and find out for themselves that this family had been lying to them! If you are still claiming that Lisa is not here, then who was upstairs standing behind your other daughter Farrah!?”, Amber said as she crossed her arms on her chest and stared at Priscilla.

Lisa’s mother turned and looked at Gregory and they exchanged a look of surprise. It seemed like her words had suddenly made the woman calm down and Amber narrowed her eyes as she glanced at Gregory and then at Priscilla. She wondered why was Lisa’s mother suddenly quiet. The only reason that she could think of was that she was telling them the truth. Amber heard want sounded like police sirens and she turned to see a police car pulling up in front of the Martin’s residence.

Oh s**t! , she silently said to herself.

She noticed that Farrah had walked into the room and was standing next to Gregory. She was looking at her with fear written all over her face and Amber wondered what was going on with the little girl. Amber glanced over her shoulder and realized that it was too late to make a run for it.

“ What’s going on Mrs. Martin?”, the police officer said as he took his hat off and placed it against his chest.

Priscilla informed the police officer that she was disturbing their peace and that she had even told them that they lied about Lisa’s disappearance. Amber glanced at Farrah and she asked herself if that young girl wasn’t experiencing the same thing that she was. Could it be that her sister was appearing to her just like in my case? Amber asked herself. Lost in thoughts, Amber was startled when a hand touched her on her shoulder. She turned and saw that the two police officers were looking at her with a serious look on their faces.

She realized that there was nothing much that she could say, maybe apologize to the Martin’s and then leave with the police and face the consequences of her action. So much for playing Sherlock Holmes! Now I have to face my parents! Amber said to herself as she quietly walked away followed by the police officers. As she took her seat at the rear side of the police car, she turned and looked at the house and she caught sight of the shadow standing by the windows on the first floor of the house. She couldn’t even tell the police officers anything as they would probably think that she was losing her mind or lying. She will rather go to her home than to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

She was driven straight to her mother’s office. Even if she couldn’t hear what her mother had said to the police officer when she had given him her mother’s contact number, she was pretty sure that her mother was extremely disappointed in her. Especially after she promised not to play detective, but will she stop because of what had happened today, the answer was definitely no! She had to change her strategy, there was something mysterious going on at the Martin’s residence and she had to find out what it was. If only she could speak to either Farrah or Gregory, maybe one of them could tell her what happened to Lisa. Maybe it was time to bring in some more people! The girls! maybe I should tell them what is going on. I hope that they will believe me and they are ready to help me to unsolved the mystery of the disappeared girls. I have to be better at this detective thing, a good detective finds the clues and logic a great detective sees further than that. She has to be clever, know how to control her emotion and don’t get caught , that’s for sure ! …Amber silently said to herself.

“ Amber Jones!”, her mother’s voice brought her back to reality.Anna stood there with her hands on her hips as she looked at her daughter with a serious face.Amber awkwardly walked towards her mother and refrained from looking at her.

“ Thank you, officers, accept my sincere apologies. I will call that family and apologize for what my daughter did this morning. I’m so sorry once more”, Anna said with all sincerity.

The police officer told Amber that she better listen to her mother and then they turned and left mother and daughter standing there in the office in silence. It was as if one of them was waiting for the other one to speak first. It was Anna who broke the awkward silence in the room.

“ Amber Jones, you’ve got some explaining to do!”, Anna said with a serious tone and then added,

“ regardless of your explanation you are not allowed to go out of the house for anything else apart from going to school. Did you hear me?!”.

Oh boy! Now, what will I do? Just when I had another plan, Amber said to herself.