Here is Chapter 1 of my yet untitled 4th Alcrest Mystery. Please comment at the end your thoughts. If you haven't read the prologue it is the post just before.
Chapter 1
“This is going to be fun,” Chrys
Alcrest did a double step. Her Steve
Madden boots clicked on the asphalt outside the tourist center.
Spencer Alcrest shoved his hands in
the pockets of his cashmere coat. “How
much is this costing me?”
“I’m paying for it.”
His eyebrows popped up. “You’re paying for the whole crew to go on
this bus thing? Since when do you have
money?” His foster-sister had been
putting in less hours at the restaurant, but was always there to get food. He was starting to understand why.
“You’re a downer.”
“I can leave if you want.”
“No you can’t.” Chrys stepped in front of him to block his
path. The two of them considered each
other blood-related siblings, however over the past few months she had started
to wonder why. He was becoming a real tyrant
asshole. “I’m paying for this. I teach at the dance studio, I’ve been
putting in hours for Hoyt at the locksmiths and,” Chrys stopped herself before
she said anything else to her brother.
She realized half of the staff from The Alcrest Gastropub was right
there pretending not to listen. She
didn’t need everyone knowing what other side jobs she had and wasn’t ready yet
to tell her brother. He was going to be
pissed. “I have more money than you
know, Spence.”
“Then why don’t you pay some of the
bills at home?” He turned away from her
and joined the others, still with his hands in his pockets.
It was almost midnight on a chilly
April night. Chrys had convinced most of
the restaurant’s evening shift to come to this.
All of the servers came – well, there had only been two on, Hanni and
Wylie. Wylie seemed excited about the
ride and even called his girlfriend-at-the-moment to come down. Hanni looked less enthusiastic. Chrys really didn’t want the slooty bitch
there, but she had been working and said she would. All of the cooks came. Gordie was off somewhere probably smoking
something of a questionable nature, Ranger and Morgan were by the door of the
bus with shoulders slouched not talking to each other. Or anyone else. There were other people hanging around
waiting for the tour.
After a minute of deep breaths she
tucked her long chestnut hair, in the dim light it looked black, inside her
jacket and stepped beside her brother.
“Why didn’t Jessie come?”
“She was tired.” Spencer’s voice was absent as if it was just
a stock response.
Chrys stomped her feet on the ground
to get some feeling in them. “What’s
going on with you two?”
Spencer looked up, but didn’t look at
his sister. His eyes caught the gaze of
Hanni. “Nothing,” he said.
“Come on.” Chrys was fearless and often seemed to lack
that little voice that said, shut up. “I
don’t know when she last stayed over. I
may not be her fan, but I thought you guys were something. What’s going on?”
“Nothing, I said. Why don’t you talk about your own life and
leave mine alone?” Spencer and Jessie,
the front-of-house manager at the restaurant, had been an item for years. For almost a year now their relationship had
been extremely strained. Strained enough
that for the past few weeks they had only spoke during work hours. Spencer didn’t know what would happen. He was pretty sure things had gone too far
for anything to be fixed.
“You are such a dick.” Chrys wrapped her arms around her body.
The Midnight in Middleton Ghost Tour
had been a draw for locals and tourists for almost ten years. The motor coach (the sides of which were
painted with a woman in a ghostly white gown walking on a stormy shore) left
the tourist center at midnight and zig-zagged through the streets as a tour
guide told the haunting stories of the cities past. For some it could get spooky, but it was all
in good fun. Near the end the driver
pretended the bus broke down in the wooded park that everyone knows is
haunted. Chrys and her friends tried
camping out there for one night and couldn’t do it. The driver of the tour flicked the light,
pumped the breaks, pretended like the engine shut down and scared the crap out
of everyone. Chrys had been on the ride
three times in the last week and it frightened her every time. The coach tour season had just started with
some new stories added onto the tour.
That was why she made everyone come out.
Chrys took a breath and let it out
slow. She stepped beside a man with a
round belly pushing out his City of Middleton jacket. She put her shoulders back, chest out, chin
up. “Could I have everyone’s attention
please? My name is Chrys and I’ll be tonight’s
guide into the ghostly stories of Middleton’s past. As you come on board please show me your souvenir
ticket and take a seat. You will see a
few reserved seats for a group from The Alcrest Gastropub in the front. You’ll hear more about that later. And nobody sit directly behind the bus driver
unless you want me to sit in your lap.”
There was a snort from a man who
afterward got an elbow from his wife.
Tonight’s customers were a good
assortment of people. A couple of
families with different aged children, couples on dates, some friends out for a
different sort of evening. This was just
the first of things Chrys has been up to that she didn’t tell her big brother.
After the last guest went in the bus
Chrys climbed up the steps. Her eyes
fell on the second seat. Hanni was
beside the window and Spencer right beside her.
The two women didn’t get along all the time even though they had each
saved the others life. Chrys didn’t like
the way she was around her brother.
Hanni served at the restaurant and would flirt with anything to get
bigger tips from her push-up gel bras to tight skirts that barely hid anything. Chrys was sure the woman was high on
something most of the time. She liked
doing what she could to make Spencer, the chef and owner of The Alcrest Gastropub,
as nervous and uncomfortable as she could.
Even if it meant grabbing his ass in front of his girlfriend who was
also her direct supervisor.
Chrys shook her head. She didn’t get her brother lately. It was his life. If he wanted to ruin it with sluts then that
was up to him. She put a microphone
headset on and flicked the on switch.
“Can everyone hear me?” There
were some responses. “You sir, in the
back, can you hear me?”
“Yes, I…I can.”
“Okay, welcome everyone to the
Midnight in Middleton Ghost Tour. As I
said, I’m Chrys. Your driver tonight is
Jerry. Say hi, Jerry.” She waited for him to wave. “Tonight we are going to tour the city as I
tell you tales of ghosts, spirits, strange occurrences, dastardly crimes and
cases of murder. The City of Middleton
has a long and colourful past. Some of
these stories are from before Canada was even a country, some are from the last
century and a couple are as recent as last year’s news headlines.”
Spencer’s head popped up. His aquamarine eyes blasted fire at his
Aboriginal foster-sister. He was going
to kill her.
Chrys wouldn’t look down at him. As the bus started to move again she was
still standing holding onto a metal bar.
Even though she couldn’t see all the way to the back she looked
there. She felt her brother’s eyes
burning into her. “I may tell you things
that will shock you. I may tell you
things that will frighten you. Please
note, that every story I do tell you is absolutely, one hundred percent true no
matter how outlandish it may seem. Sit
back as we go into the world of the macabre.”
Spencer had gone on the tour a couple
of years ago with Jessie. It started off
the same way as then at the Aeronautics Museum.
Chrys talked about the World War Two pilot, whose plane was inside, and how
he had been spotted walking the floors.
Also about Wendell the janitor who died there from a heart attack and
still can be heard sweeping the foyer.
Spencer sat with his arms crossed in
front of him. He had things he could be
doing instead of sitting on a bus listening to his sister tell ghost
stories. The restaurant wasn’t in a good
place. They had been losing customers
over the past year. As far as cutting
corners to pay bills, he didn’t know what else he could do. He loved the fact that he made a new menu all
the time depending on what was at the butchers, farmer’s or fish markets,
however if customers didn’t want what he had planned all of that went to
waste. He didn’t want to be one of those
places with the same menu day after day.
He wondered if his dad went through the same thing all the years that he
ran The Alcrest. Too bad he was
gone. Spencer also wondered if his dad
was as angry as he had become. He
remembered his father yelling, but for him it was becoming overwhelming. Being on this ride wasn’t helping.
Spencer felt Hanni’s French tipped nails
running up and down his thigh. Even that
wasn’t helping with his mood. She had a
way of getting him excited to the point of feeling uncomfortable. Only lately it wasn’t uncomfortable that he
was feeling. Not with her anyway.
As the bus slowed Chrys stood and
turned around. She wrapped an arm around
the metal support pole before glared down at her brother for a few
seconds. “Okay everyone, the area of
town we are coming into was, at the turn of the twentieth century, China Town. It is of course now known as Old China
Town. So creative right? In 1908 opium became illegal and as the story
goes the opium and gambling dens moved to tunnels under Old China Town. The story is that …” as she spoke her eyes
continued to drop down to her brother.
Hanni was now whispering in his ear.
He smiled and nodded. What did
that mean? “… As the myth goes that is
why this street is called Butcher’s Alley.
The truth is probably that an important politician at the time was John
H. Butcher, however. We are now going to
head to a brand new addition to the tour and this one is no myth.”
As soon as Chrys was down in her seat
she turned off the microphone and twisted around the back to see what was
happening in her brother’s seat. Even in
the dim light she saw the blond woman was pressed up against Spencer. “What the hell are you doing?”
“What?” Spencer acted all surprised.
Hanni took the moment to put her hand
on-top of his thigh and gave it a squeeze.
“Leave us alone, Chrys.”
“Do you mind? I’m talking to my brother.” Chrys stared at her until she turned to the
window with a flourish of her long hair.
Chrys noticed Hanni’s fingers never left her brother’s leg. “Cut it out, Spence.”
His arms were still crossed over his
chest. “Don’t tell me what to do,
Chrys. And where are we going?”
“A new spot on the tour.”
“Which is?”
“Wait and see.” Chrys turned back to face the front. She didn’t have quite the flourish in her
locks. Hearing Hanni and Spencer laugh
behind her made her entire body shiver.
Spencer knew exactly where they were
going. They had already crossed into the
part of Middleton called Fontana. It was
mainly a residential area. There were a
lot of smaller, family owned businesses.
Pretty soon they’d be heading up Pearson Street. He was pretty sure the address they were
going to was 3231 Pearson between Gillies and Scoble. He was going to throttle his sister.
Hanni screeched. She leapt away from the window almost climbing
over Spencer’s lap. Morgan
screamed. Chrys let out a little
yelp. Others in the bus yelled and
flinched away from the left side windows.
It took half a block before Chrys had
her microphone back on. She chose not to
stand. Her knees felt week. “Everyone have a little scare there? That has become the latest Middleton
Mystery. Two or three nights a week
people have reported seeing a mysterious clown on random street corners.” Tonight he had been standing on the opposite
side of the street almost staring at the bus as it went by. He was dressed in a baggy suit of yellow,
blue and white with large red puff-balls down the front. His face was all white except a painted on
smile, red nose and blue around the eyes.
In the street light his wild hair looked orange. For Chrys the creepiest part was that the
three balloons he held in one hand didn’t move in the wind. She continued, “Some of the younger crowd
have now made it a game trying to find the clown so they can get their picture
with him. Nobody knows why he is out there
or where he came from.”
“Who the hell would do that?” Hanni was much louder than she needed to
be. Her entire body trembled. She had always been terrified of clowns. She never said why.
“There are a few theories floating
around social media,” Chrys said over the loud speakers. “Lunatic escaped from a mental hospital. A college student trying to prove
something. A demonic creature. Some have even said that it may be more than
one person and that is why he is so hard to catch on film.
“Here we are at our next stop. A favorite meal spot in Middleton, The
Alcrest Gastropub, has now become more well-known because a brutal murder which
had one of its cooks headless body burned to a crisp in the restaurants very
own oven just last year.”
The only thing that had changed to
the front of the faded brick building since back in the day when it was a pub
was the large bay window with the restaurant’s name etched on it. It had to be replaced last summer. Beside the front door, imbedded in the wall,
was a polished rectangle of black granite with Alcrest carved in script. Above that was a protruding white lion
head. The lion was picked as the family
crest because nobody knew what the actual crest was. This lion was either snarling or smiling
depending on how you looked at it.
Spencer thought about getting up and
demanding to be let out. He and his
sister shared the apartment above the restaurant. If his truck wasn’t half-way across the city
he would have done it. Instead he stared
up at her with distain.
Chrys wouldn’t look down at him. “Some of the employees at The Alcrest swear
they have felt or seen a ghostly presence late at night.” All of the people in the first few seats looked
at each other. They were all the staff
and none of them knew what she was talking about. The truthful parts of this tour were
questionable. “Now, sit back and relax
as we head to more places of horror.” She
sat down as the bus started again.
Spencer leaned around the seat. “What the hell was that?”
“Advertising.”
“By telling people about the body in
the oven? You missed where we found her
head. This is going to drive people
away, not bring them in.”
“You underestimate the power of a
spooky story. What if they want to see a
ghost?”
“They’ll be disappointed.” This was ridiculous. Why was his sister always doing crazy
things? Why was he always picking up the
pieces? Spencer couldn’t hold his
thoughts any longer. “From now on keep
your hands and schemes away from my restaurant.
I’m barely surviving as it is.”
Chrys moved back a moment. “I thought it was The Alcrest restaurant, not
Spencer Alcrest’s restaurant.”
“This is all I’ve got, Chrys.”
“And what do I have, Spence? This is my future too. I’m trying to help.”
Spencer felt his staff watching and
listening. He didn’t want to be the
center of attention. What he should have
said was that Chrys had her dancing and modelling and that she was going to go
places. She didn’t need the restaurant. That was what he should have said. What he actually said was, “You’re not an
Alcrest.”
Chrys stared at his eyes. When she was three her mother didn’t pick her
up from daycare. She disappeared. Chrys went to live with the Alcrest
family. She became part of them. She was an Alcrest. She thought her foster-brother felt the
same. Chrys flicked on her microphone
and said, “Fuck you!” Her words came out
of all of the speakers inside the bus.
She turned back to face the front.
She didn’t want to cry. Screw Spencer. She didn’t know what was going on with
him. He had never said anything like
that to her before. They had always
treated each other like a real brother and sister would. They fought now and then, but were always
there for each other. Chrys didn’t know
if it was like that anymore. She wiped a
tear from her cheek.
She knew people had always looked at
them with strange expressions when the family was out. Here was this white Caucasian family with a
little girl the colour of creamy coffee.
Three blond people and a girl with chestnut hair, right. She knew people always saw her as a special
case. She didn’t think her own brother
thought that way. The next tear she let
run down her face and fall from her jaw line.
Spencer stared at the back of her
head. How dare she do this? She never thought about what she was
doing. He ignored Hanni’s hand gripping
his inner thigh.
As Chrys stood and faced the back of
the tour bus she focused on the black shadows of people farther back. The light which spotlighted her showed a
glistening on her cheeks. As she started
to speak her voice cracked. After a
pause she started again. “In 1922, Leigh
Park was the site for one of Middleton’s most infamous mysteries. Even today, almost one hundred years later,
the police still consider this an open case.
It is the case of the twin boys found murdered in woods. Their killer remains at large. Their identities are still unknown.”
The bus drove below a rot-iron
archway with, Leigh Park, spelled out above the road. It was a provincial park in the North-west
corner of the city. It was almost
completely surrounded by water – the Pacific on one side and Winchester Bay on
two others. To protect the park from the
changing tide the Middleton Seawall had been built around the outer edges
almost around the same time as the twin boys had been found. Thousands of people visited it to run, walk
or bike every day. Most of the 1000-acre
park was made of dense West Coast rainforest that was hundreds of years
old. Every once in a while a wind storm
ravaged parts of the park, but the resilience of nature always came back. There are hiking trails, beaches, a small par
3 golf course and an aquarium. The
Alcrest family had gone there every Canada Day to listen to live music and
watch the fireworks get set off in the bay.
The aquarium was still one of Chrys’ favorite places to spend a
day. She had been taken to different
parts of the park many times on dates.
“It was a rainy August day when one
of the men working on the Seawall walked into the woods to do his
business.” Chrys paused for the usual
chuckle. “It was then that he came upon
the most terrifying thing he had ever seen in his entire life. Two boys, almost identical lay beneath a
giant redwood holding hands. Their
bodies were half covered by dead leaves and branches in an attempt to hide
them.” The bus continued driving into
the towering forest as she spoke. “It
was reported later that one had been beaten with a rock and the other stabbed
in the heart. They were dressed in their
Sunday best. Each one’s hair was cut
nicely, nails trimmed. Except for the
dirt and blood on their clothes they were dressed like high society
children. Their pictures and
descriptions were printed in every newspaper from Anchorage down to Seattle and
as Far East as Calgary, yet nobody ever came forward to claim their
identities. They became known as the
Leigh Twins.”
The bus lurched to one side. The light focused on Chrys flickered off and
on. The thin road they were on had
towering dark trees on either side.
Looking out the windows the tour customers only saw black and
shadow. Someone near the back gasped.
Chrys let out a nervous laugh. “It looks like even the driver is getting
afraid. Everything alright, Jerry?”
He gave her a nod.
“There were no other clues besides
the boy’s bodies and soon the mystery was forgotten as it faded into myth. Night hikers in the woods have reported many
strange things. Children’s laughter in
the wind. Dancing lights amongst the
trees. The ghostly-white image of two
boys walking through the forest holding hands.
Whatever happened to their killer?
Why did this happen to them? Will
the Leigh Twins ever get to rest?” She
glared down at Hanni. “Was the killer
the clown that now wanders our streets?”
The bus reeled forward. Chrys was ready for it. One hand held onto the metal pole as she
lunged toward the dashboard then pulled herself back. The bus bounced from one side to the other as
if something was terribly wrong. It was
all part of the ride. They were going to
pretend the bus broke down. Jerry would
get off to fix it and everyone would sit in the dark waiting. After a few minutes people usually began to
question where he was. Meanwhile outside
Jerry would play the sound of children laughing. A couple more minutes and he’d run on the bus
startling everyone.
The light on Chrys flashed off and on
again. The bus bounced. Hanni let out a little noise. Fucking whimp, Chrys thought. Jerry played with the headlights so they were
flickering. He’d come to a stop right on
the corner. The bus started the
turn. He turned the headlights off. His foot pushed the brake pedal hard. He turned the lights back on.
Hanni let out a banshee wail. Spencer flinched back from her.
It was up until that moment that she
had been having fun. Her hand was on
Spencer’s leg. She was whispering things
in his ear that obviously made him uncomfortable. She had been playing this game for a couple
years and was getting close to the end.
She was never satisfied once she got what she wanted. She was about to move her hand again, then
she looked out the front window.
“Hanni?” Spencer stared at the woman beside him. Her nails dug into his leg. Her blue eyes were wide as saucers. “Hanni, what is it?”
Another scream erupted from near the
back of the bus. Jerry swore. Morgan screamed. Chrys turned and looked out the
windshield. She suddenly stumbled
back. Spencer reached out and caught
her.
The headlights had fallen on objects
hanging from a tree. All of them had once
belonged to a human. As the head spun
its dead eyes fell on the bus. Arms and
legs swayed in the wind around it as if they were just floating there. This was not part of the tour.
