Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

“Where’s Pauline?” Letisha asked as Maria walked into the kitchen early the next morning.

Sybil noted the dark circles under Maria’s eyes. “Packing. She said she’ll be done in a moment. Are your phones working?”

“No,” Sybil said. “We still can’t get texts or calls out.”

“I can’t either.” Maria’s eyes held a haunted quality. “This is so insane. Do you think the weather is causing this?”

“Seems unlikely,” Sybil said as she tore open a box of breakfast bars and grabbed one. “I wouldn’t think it could affect cell phones.”

Letisha stared out the kitchen window at the weather. The wind howled, sending eerie groans throughout the house and blowing snow in every direction. Light barely filtered through the clouds.

“Hard to tell if that’s new snow or the wind is blowing around what’s already fallen,” Letisha said as she snagged a breakfast bar.

Worry gnawed at Sybil, though she tried to convince herself that they’d be all right. “As soon as we pack our suitcases we can head out.”

Maria didn’t look certain. “I don’t know. Maybe I overreacted yesterday thinking we should get out of here. I mean…the snow is still bad.”

Letisha turned to glance out the window again. “The blizzard has slowed. We might be okay.”

Uncertainty threatened to gnaw away Sybil’s stomach lining.

Letisha’s eyes brightened. She reached into her pants pocket and snagged her phone. “I thought of something. We haven’t had an alarm go off on our phones that said there’s been an intruder in the house or even right outside of it.”

“Right,” Sybil said.

“Last night I was thinking of those dreams we’ve had. It makes me curious.” Letisha did something on her phone.

Sybil and Maria came around to Letisha’s side of the table. Letisha pulled up the security system app and scrolled through time stamps.

“Why are we looking at this?” Sybil asked.

“Wait for it,” Letisha said dramatically. She scrolled until she reached the time after they went to their respective bedrooms. “Boom!” She slapped the table with her right hand. “There it is.”

“You’re kidding me.” Sybil didn’t believe her eyes. She should have thought of this before.

Letisha went through the different angles of security cameras and located the one that showed the staircase. Last night, around eleven o’clock, Pauline had walked down the staircase in the dark. Her barely visible form showed in the semi-darkness between the top of the stairs and the bottom. She made her way along the Great Hall, dressed in dark pajamas that featured a skull and crossbones on the long-sleeved top and jogging style pants. There was no doubt about the identity of the person. Within moments, she’d made it to the cellar door. She opened the cellar door with no problem.

And descended into profound darkness.

The door closed behind her.

“What the actual...” Letisha breathed.

“What’s going on?” Pauline’s voice came from behind Sybil.

Pauline moved into the room and looked over Letisha’s shoulder. Panic crossed Pauline’s face.

“You went into the basement last night,” Sybil said. “Did you wake up this morning thinking you dreamed it all?”

Sybil had always thought descriptions in books of people going pale seemed overdone. In this case, the bleached blonde Pauline was paler than usual. Disturbed and bothered.

Pauline’s throat worked as she swallowed hard. Her cheeks went red. “Yeah. I thought it was a dream. I thought none of this dream or sleepwalking stuff rubbed off on me.”

“Well, that means we’ve all had the dream.” Letisha shoved both hands through her hair. “I can’t believe this.”

Pauline put up her hand. “I don’t want to believe any of this, but at this point, I’ve seen the evidence in black and white. I’ve never heard of several people all dreaming the same thing just because they are living in the same house together. It’s not like synchronized swimming or women’s periods matching because they live in the same house.” She cleared her throat. “So yeah…it has to be paranormal.”

Silence dropped down on them, and Sybil almost held her breath. The house felt heavy, and a deep and abiding fear started to percolate inside her.

“One thing the security system has shown us is that Pauline has butt ugly pajamas,” Letisha said with a straight face.

They all cracked up. Pauline added, “And no one is breaking into the house making weird as fuck lizard tracks.”

“There’s a bad thing about that, though,” Maria said as she ran her hands through her hair. “If no one is breaking into the house, then what made the tracks?” When they all exchanged wary glances, she continued. “I guess that’s the least of our worries at this point.”

Sybil’s phone rang, and she started. “Awesome, the phone is working!” She grabbed her phone off the table. “It’s Doug.”

“Doug,” Sybil said into the phone. “Thank goodness the phones are finally working. Was your cell phone working last night?”

Around her Sybil noted the other women were using their phones.

“Yep,” he said. “But that’s not unusual around here. Service can be sporadic. I’m not sure if the weather could influence anything.”

She sagged a little. Maybe the phone situation wasn’t paranormal in nature after all. “Okay. I’m glad it wasn’t just us.”

When she paused a little, he said, “Everything okay? The weather out there is still shitty. I was worried about you guys.”

“We’re fine., but we need to leave this house.”

“What?”

She gave him the details, the sleepwalking incidents and dreams…everything including Taggert showing up while she wasn’t there.

“Okay. This is crazy stuff. Any luck reaching Clarice?” he asked.

“Not last night or earlier, but maybe we can reach her now.”

“Nope,” Letisha said in the background. “The text won’t go anywhere.”

“I heard that,” Doug said.

For a moment Sybil wondered if this would be the moment Doug would check out. Where he’d decide all of them had gone insane.

“Any sign of Taggert on the security cameras?” came Doug’s question.

“No,” Sybil said.

Doug nodded, satisfaction in his expression. “Good. He’s probably left the area if he isn’t in a snowbank somewhere freezing his ass off.”

“Maybe he’s not in the area anymore. I called because I wanted to check on you and also because Clinton called a few minutes ago, and it isn’t good news. They found Deputy Annapolis dead.”

Sybil’s throat tightened, her mind going into a tailspin of disbelief. She sank into a chair. “What?”

Sybil noted the other women had stopped messing with their phones and now stared at her.

“Clinton wanted me to tell you all of this because the police venture to the mansion soon to question everyone there,” he said.

Sybil’s stomach rolled. “Why?”

“Annapolis’s car was found in the woods southeast of the mansion.”

She rubbed her forehead. “Get out.”

“It’s true.”

“I’m trying to visualize where that’s at.”

“Remember the dirt road that heads south just before the lane that you turn on from the highway?”

“I remember.”

“There’s only about two houses on that road, and they’re built on the east side of the road. After that, the road turns into rough forest service dirt track. She took her cruiser there and then found a big enough opening in the forest to drive into it over two miles east, back toward the mansion.”

She still couldn’t imagine what the woman was thinking. “Okay.”

“Here’s the thing. She then walked in blizzard conditions toward the mansion. At least the deputy told Clinton that, based on where they found her body, Annapolis made it within two miles of the mansion. She did it at night, they think.”

Sybil’s mind whirled with questions. “That’s insane. Did she freeze to death? And when did they realize she was missing?”

“She wasn’t missing until yesterday evening. She left her cruiser, dressed like she was going hiking into inclement winter weather, and got two miles away from the mansion.” His voice held an unusual urgency. “She didn’t die of hypothermia. Clinton’s cop friend told him she had crush injuries. Like something had squeezed her to death.”

She couldn’t wrap her mind around that. “Squeezed her?”

He continued with, “Clinton said to take that with a grain of salt since an autopsy report hasn’t been done yet. She left a journal in the police cruiser. Her ramblings were in a language they didn’t understand. They believe it is a language, at the very least.”

Stunned, she took a moment to form a thought or answer to what he’d just told her. The other women’s faces betrayed concern and curiosity.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Doug said when she didn’t comment.

“That’s an understatement. I wonder if Clarice knows anything about this?” Something flashed into Sybil’s memory, a thought that niggled at her only in this moment. “Hold on.”

Without giving any indication of what she planned, Sybil walked out of the kitchen, through part of the Great Hall, and into the octagonal-shaped entrance. She turned to look at the woman in the portrait that she’d spotted the first day she’d entered the house and hadn’t thought about again until this moment.

“Wow,” she whispered.

“What?” Doug said.

“This is crazy as hell. I’m standing in the octagonal entryway. You know those portraits of people hanging on the walls? Did you take a look at them while you were in here?”

“A passing glance.”

“There’s a portrait of a blonde woman. She looks exactly like Deputy Annapolis. Exactly.”

“You’re kidding. Do you think she’s related to Clarice’s family?”

“What else it could be? I’m not talking about a family resemblance that is vague. She looks like this portrait one hundred percent. Down to every feature.”

He sighed. “I planned on calling Clarice about Deputy Annapolis being found dead so close to her property. When I talk to her, I’ll ask about the portrait and Annapolis. She might know if there’s a relation.”

Sybil turned to one window next to the front doors and noted the snow coming down in heavy flakes again. “I wonder if Annapolis knew she was related to the family when she came into the house? If she even saw the portrait. If she didn’t know or she hadn’t seen the portrait, you’d think she would’ve at least commented on it.” She heaved a sigh. “Look, whatever is going on, I think we need to leave the mansion. With what happened to the deputy and Taggert being in the area, I don’t think it’s safe.”

“Right. With the weather, though, it could be extremely dangerous.”

“What other choice do we have?”

“If you have to leave the mansion, you could all come to my place. You wouldn’t have to drive all the way into Estes Park. Weather says the blizzard is going to stop and start for at least a day or two more.”

She groaned. “Damn. Okay, let me talk with the ladies and see what we want to do. I’ll try and call Clarice, too.”

“Good. Call me when you’ve decided the plan. And Sybil…”

“Yeah?”

“Stay safe, all right? Anything looks or feels wrong, please call me, okay?”

Appreciation slid through Sybil, and she caught herself smiling. “Thanks, Doug. One other thing before you go. Have you looked at the security tapes lately?”

“No. Why?” His voice turned concerned again.

“It looks like all of us in the house have been sleepwalking.”

“What?”

“I know. It’s creepy as hell. Just look at the recordings. All of us have admitted to having these dreams, including me...until we realized it’s not a dream.” She sighed. “Okay...we’re having a unique experience in our heads when we do the sleepwalking. But...oh my God, it’s so complicated.”

“Okay, got it. I’ll watch it.”

They hung up, and she headed back to the others to give them the tragic news about Deputy Annapolis and tell them about Doug’s offer to stay at his cabin.

She exited the octagon room just as the others came into the Great Hall.

“Everything okay?” Letisha asked.

Sybil quickly gave them all the details about Annapolis and Doug’s suggestion.

“Holy crap,” Pauline said. “What the hell is happening around here?”

“I still think we should go to Estes Park,” Maria said, her eyes wide. “The storm be damned.”

Letisha held up her phone. “My phone is sort of working but a call or text to Clarice isn’t going out. Pauline and Maria still have issues with their phones.”

Pauline stuffed her cell in her pocket. “Doug is right. Safer to go to his place.”

Letisha chimed in with, “I’m good with that if he is.”

A tight band of frustration squeezed Sybil’s head. “And if we aren’t here at least this house can’t mess with us.”

“Time to bring the rest of our bags down here so we can load things up in the van,” Pauline said.

Sybil knew how she felt, but she said, “Let’s take the vote. Go to Doug’s cabin or head to Estes Park.”

“Doug’s cabin?” Letisha raised her hand.

Pauline and Letisha raised their hands along with Sybil.

Maria sighed and raised her hand. “Okay, I’ll go along with it. Anything to get out of here.”

“Good.” Letisha said. “Let’s grab our stuff and bring it down.”

“I’ll call Doug,” Sybil said.

Sybil tried twice but a call to Doug wouldn’t go through. She sat down on a couch in the Great Hall and glared at her phone. Another call worked.

When he answered she told him everyone wanted to bunk at his cabin.

“Good,” he said. “I tried calling Clarice but couldn’t reach her either. I’ve been looking at the news. Annapolis’s death is all over the Denver news stations.”

“Well, maybe Clarice will see it,” she said.

“I’ll keep trying to call her and let her know what’s happening,” Doug said.

“I’ll text you when we’re on our way over.”

They hung up, and she couldn’t deny the warm fuzzy talking with him gave her. Her interest in him felt genuine and intense. Not, as her last therapist had said, co-dependent or needy. She didn’t need Doug, but she respected and liked him from everything she knew of him so far. Even trusted him. Which, for her, was an enormous deal.

It didn’t take long for Letisha to return to the Great Hall with her personal luggage, and a moment later Pauline and Maria did the same.

Wind battered the house, sending a whistling sound around the big home. The wood around them groaned in protest under the blizzard’s brutal force. A creaking above made Sybil train her gaze on the chandelier in the Great Hall. It didn’t move.

“God, I can’t wait for this winter to be over already,” Pauline said with a huff. “I need a vacation on the beach.”

The knocker on the front door banged, and they all started and exchanged glances.

“Wait, Doug didn’t say he was coming over, right?” Pauline asked.

“No. I told him we’d text him before we came over,” Sybil said.

Everything in Sybil tensed with uncertainty. “Let’s check the security camera’s.”

Sybil brought up the camera for the front door, and her mouth opened in surprise. “It’s Clarice. At least I think it’s her. She’s bundled up.”

“What the hell?” Letisha said. “She drove all the way from Estes Park in this shitty weather?”

“See,” Maria chimed in. “That means we can make it to Estes Park.”

Sybil and the others headed to the entryway.

Sybil opened the door, eager to bring the elderly woman out of the blizzard.

The petite woman, who couldn’t be more than about five foot two, wore a winter parka. She drew off her black fleece-looking bucket hat, scarf and gloves as she stepped into the foyer.

A huge smile spread across Clarice’s mouth. “Finally, I get to meet you all in person.”

Letisha went forward to greet the woman. “Come in out of this weather.”

Clarice fluffed her short silvery blonde hair, her blue eyes sparkling and warm. “Letisha? It’s so wonderful to meet you.”

Introductions went all around. Clarice clasped Sybil’s hands and pressed them with the warm affection of a grandmother. Behind Clarice’s stylishly large, framed glasses, her eyes held genuine warmth.

“It is wonderful to finally be here,” Clarice said as she walked into the Great Hall and they followed her. “I can already see that your entire crew has done an amazing job.”

“Thank you.” A warm glow started in Sybil. She gestured to the other women. “But these ladies are the ones you should thank. They’ve pulled a lot of the weight.”

Clarice’s gentle laugh held friendliness. “Oh now, don’t be too modest. I think you’re a force to be reckoned with, Sybil. And Doug likes you and trusts you, so that is a gold star in my book.”

Heat rushed to Sybil’s cheeks. Before she could speak, Maria asked, “Would you like something hot to drink? You must be freezing. It’s terrible weather out there.”

“No, thank you,” Clarice said.

“I’m impressed. How on earth did you get here?” Pauline asked.

The older woman beamed. “My SUV is four-wheel drive. Very reliable. It isn’t as bad in Estes Park as it is here. Amazing what about two thousand feet altitude difference will do for the weather.”

Sybil couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed at the woman turning up on their doorstep without an announcement, but Clarice owned the place. She could do what she wanted.

“I’m sorry I came unannounced.” Clarice looked right at Sybil. “I tried calling, but I kept getting a busy signal on the house phone. Plus, I tried calling you Sybil and you Letisha. It would never go through.”

Sybil snagged her cell phone. “We’ve been having the same problem with our phones. But I got through to Doug recently.”

Clarice shrugged, a good-natured smile on her face. “I was concerned about all of you up here with that deputy’s murder. Horrible business.”

Clarice took off her outwear, hanging them over a nearby chair. She’d worn practical clothes. Thick sweater, jeans and boots. Yet Sybil still couldn’t believe she’d driven all this way out here in a blizzard.

Clarice settled into a chair, and the rest of them did as well. “Poor woman. What could’ve possessed the deputy to poke around in the woods like she did?” Clarice’s expression changed to reflective. “I’ll admit I wasn’t entirely forthcoming about Deputy Annapolis before. She is distantly related to my family. Very distantly related. She came to me some time ago and mentioned...well, it’s scandalous. Very scandalous.”

Sybil smiled at Clarice’s almost Victorian turn of phrase.

“Why don’t we sit somewhere more that’s more comfortable? The parlor maybe?” Letisha eased her chair back. “If that’s agreeable to you?”

Clarice nodded emphatically. “Of course.”

They all went into the parlor and settled on the couches and chairs.

Clarice settled on a chair near the fireplace. The chill in the air made Sybil wish the chimneys were safe for a fire. Or at the very least, that the furnace worked better than it did.

“One thing I wanted to look at again is the printout you sent me on the repairs the house still needs,” Clarice said. “I forgot it at home, though.”

“I’ll grab it from the office,” Letisha said. Moments later, she came back and handed the multi-page document to Clarice.

Clarice examined the list and sighed. “Well, you warned me. I will finish all of this before I list the house. I’m excited about it, though. This house would thrive with a big family with lots of kids. Fresh blood.”

Why would a young family with kids ever want to live here?

Sybil glanced out the window. “Clarice, I hope you’re not thinking of trying to drive back to Estes Park? The weather is looking even worse than when you got here.”

Clarice threw Sybil a smile. “Oh, no. I’ll take one room upstairs. I’ve got an overnight bag.”

Sybil couldn’t ignore the underlying discomfort now that Clarice had arrived, and the time had come to explain why they wanted to leave early.

Sybil cleared her throat. “You noticed our luggage stacked here in the Great Hall?”

Clarice looked around. “Yes. What’s happening?”

Letisha heaved a big sigh. “We hoped to reach you and explain everything, but when we weren’t able to get through by phone…” Letisha shrugged.

Clarice’s eyes narrowed, and guilt for leaving this house early hit Sybil. That twinge of shame came from thinking that perhaps she’d been to blame for everything going sideways on this job. She knew that wasn’t logical, but she also understood complex post traumatic stress tricked her brain into reacting as if she was culpable for many things she wasn’t.

“Clarice,” Sybil said, taking the plunge. “We were preparing to leave the house when you arrived. Some things have happened since we’ve been here that are just....” How did she say this? “Strange.”

Clarice tilted her head to the side and looked genuinely perplexed. “Strange? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Letisha started in, explaining the sleepwalking and dreams. Sybil’s anxiety level eased at little as her friend gave the details. Letisha didn’t leave anything out, and to Sybil’s amazement, Clarice seemed to take it all in stride.

When Letisha finished, Clarice’s expression had lost the bewilderment it had started with. “I see.”

Letisha winced. “We were worried you’d think we were nuts or trying to rip you off somehow by not finishing the job.”

Clarice nodded, her lips compressed a bit. She sighed. “I’m surprised all of this happened so quickly. I would’ve expected it to take longer and given you plenty of time to finish cleaning the house before things progressed.”

Sybil exchanged a confused glance with Letisha.

“What do you mean?” Pauline said into the momentary silence.

Clarice smiled. “Perhaps I should give you some background before I explain further. Let’s talk about the deputy that was killed.”

Sybil blinked, wondering why they had segued in this direction. “Okay.”

“What relation is the deputy to your family?” Letisha asked.

Clarice eased back in her seat and clasped her hands demurely. “I looked into my genealogy a little closer. My great-grandfather had an affair with two women outside of his marriage. There’s definitely a family connection between Annapolis and my family. The deputy was related to one of those women.”

That unease rippled up Sybil’s spine, but in a way, she found it oddly exciting. Like a campfire story. “Oh?”

“Interesting.” Letisha’s voice sounded hushed as she leaned forward. “What do you think she was doing in the woods?”

“I’m not sure,” Clarice said. “The one and only time I talked with the deputy, I told her that a strange forest like this makes people believe a lot of hogwash. Rumors are started about isolated families living in a forest with these enormous trees. When I was a child people whispered strange things about my family. My father and mother weren’t particularly friendly types, so the isolation was intimidating. Well, not for me, really. I loved it. Plus, everyone believes old houses are haunted, and this one categorically is. Still, it is very odd about the deputies murder. Very odd indeed. I can’t imagine what she was doing heading off into that forest.”

The silence that dropped on all of them hung there for a minute.

“You never had a dream like the ones we described in this house? You never went sleepwalking?” Maria asked.

“No.” Clarice sagged in her seat almost as if a weight had settled on her. “I’m so sorry you’ve experienced these strange things, ladies. Very distressing.”

“We’ll get over it.” Sybil recognized the hardness in her voice.

Get over it. Get over it. Her mother’s voice echoed in her mind.

Shut up, mother.

Wind battered the house again, and everyone looked toward the windows.

Sybil said, “Still, we are very sorry. But we can’t continue with the strange things going on.”

Clarice cleared her throat. “I understand. How much did you have left to finish?”

Letisha outlined what they hadn’t finished, which included the attic and cellar. “We won’t leave this hanging forever. We can come back soon and finish. But we also need to take care of the Taggert problem.”

Sybil launched into an explanation of what had occurred with him and then asked Clarice, “You didn’t see a truck out there anywhere, did you?”

Clarice’s eyebrows rose. “No, I didn’t see another vehicle. Perhaps no one else is as demented as I am coming out in this weather.” She eased to a standing position. “Ladies, please don’t worry about any of this. Especially with this horrible Taggert man. I can see why you want to leave.”

A huge weight dropped off of Sybil’s shoulders. “Thank you.”

“But you can’t go out now.” Clarice gestured toward the windows. “The weather is even worse than when I arrived a short time ago. We have the security system and locked doors and windows. You must reconsider.”

Sybil explained about the plan to head over to Doug’s. “He’ll be expecting us.”

“What if he comes over here? Surely we’ll all be safe with that young man here,” Clarice said with a smile. “If the weather eases in the morning, you could leave then. I think you’ll be fine for one more night.”

“That might make sense,” Pauline said. “We could keep doing a bit more work today, and if Doug was here…” She shrugged. “I’d feel very safe.”

Sybil knew she would, too, but didn’t plan to echo it. “All right. I’ll try and message him now.”

“Good. I think I need a lie down after all of this.” Clarice turned to Maria. “Dear would you be a dear and help me bring my suitcase in? It’s out in the car.”

Maria agreed and off they went into the snow.

After they’d left earshot, Pauline turned to Letisha and Sybil.

“Her showing up like that…maybe she thought she’d catch us doing something wrong? An inspection?” Pauline asked.

Sybil typed out a text to Doug which looked like it was going through. “I don’t want to think that, but it could be.”

“She seems too mild mannered for that,” Letisha said. “It’s a bit weird she needed Maria to lug her suitcase, though. How did she get it in her car if it was too heavy for her to start with?”

“Good question,” Sybil said. “Maybe she’s just tired after the drive.”

“I think we should try and convince her to go with us to Doug’s,” Letisha said.

“Yeah and if we can’t get a note out to him we should put Clarice in the van and head over to Doug’s place,” Sybil said.

“I don’t know about too mild mannered, but maybe she’s tired after the drive,” Sybil said. “Damn it. The text to Doug didn’t go through.”

Maria returned with Clarice’s small suitcase and Clarice close behind her. Sybil crossed into the octagon room and locked the front door.

“Is something wrong, dear?” Clarice said.

“Just thinking about Taggert in case he’s nearby,” Sybil said, hoping he was long gone from the area. “I really think you should go with us to Doug’s rather than stay here.”

“Do you think this Taggert fellow is that dangerous?” Clarice asked.

“Yeah. Taggert is a misogynist. He thinks women should be barefoot and pregnant and cooking his dinner,” Sybil said.

“Oh, my.” Clarice gestured to the fireplace and the couches. “Please, do you have a few moments to sit down and tell me what we’re up against?” She glanced at the other women. “Is it all right if they’re here?”

Sybil glanced at her crew. “Of course. They’ve heard this before. But first I’ll text Doug again.”

“Of course,” Clarice said.

Sybil tried calling Doug, and this time it went right through.

“Sybil,” he said. “Is everything okay? I figured you’d have texted and been on your way over by now. I was about to come over and see if you guys were okay.”

“About that,” she said, and proceeded to give him the details of Clarice showing up.

“Look, why don’t I come over there. Shouldn’t take too long. See you shortly.” They hung up, and straightaway Sybil wished she’d warned him to be careful.

“He’s coming here, isn’t he?” Clarice asked with a smile as they all headed toward the fireplace in the Great Hall. “He’s such a dear young man.”

Sybil smiled. “He’ll be here as soon as he can.”

They settled on couches that faced the fireplace.

“Are you sure you want to hear this right now?” Sybil asked Clarice.

“Yes. Please tell me. You see, if there’s one thing I don’t like is a man mistreating a woman. There were many people like that in my family in the past. Many of them met an untimely end.”

“I didn’t realize that.”

“Oh yes. They realized that they should have listened to their wives’ advice.”

The ladies all chuckled, but Sybil detected in the uneasiness in the sound, and she felt an unspecified uncertainty within herself..

Sybil hesitated to ask for clarification, sensing that this conversation could become lengthy. Instead, Sybil gave her a quick and basic rundown of how she’d met Taggert and the way the relationship had progressed.

Clarice leaned back on the couch cushions. “It sounds horrible being anywhere near him.” Her mouth curled in disgust. “He deserves...”

When she didn’t finish and stared into the fireplace, Sybil said, “To be kicked in the balls.”

A sharp laugh burst out of Clarice, and her eyes sparkled. “Well put, my dear. Well put.” Clarice sighed. “I swear men were put on earth to be a thorn in our sides.”

“All men?” Pauline asked.

“Oh, of course not. Doug, for example. Now he’s an upstanding, honest guy. Nice as can be. Has he told you what happened to his wife?”

“Yes,” Sybil answered.

“What happened to her?” Maria asked, eyes wide.

Sybil shook her head. “I don’t feel comfortable talking about that without his permission.”

Clarice nodded and said, “Terrible thing indeed. Though I can’t say I feel bad for her.”

“Very sad for her family and friends regardless,” Sybil said in reaction.

Clarice’s eyes turned thoughtful. “Very true. I’m eighty-eighty-years old. Something it took me a long, long time to get through my head was that if I didn’t speak my truth, it would eat me alive from the inside out. I realized who I was very young. Can’t say that I have made no enemies, but I can say I’ve outlasted all of them. I’m still here. They’re not.”

A little confusion and a lot of curiosity made Sybil sink deeper into that subject. “I’ve met people who say they’re being honest when they’re really being cruel.”

Clarice’s eyes brightened. “Sometimes, yes. But not to bully. Never to take away someone else’s power. Although I have one very huge failing.”

Sybil’s curiosity upped a notch. “Oh?”

“Injustice makes me furious.”

“How is that a failing?” Letisha asked.

Clarice sat back on the couch, a petite woman swallowed by the plumpness of the cushions. “Take this Taggert man. Obviously, he’s treated Sybil horribly. He’s been treating women dreadfully before he met you and since you dumped him. He’s got so many people fooled into thinking he’s the wronged one and stomps around in his cowboy boots and leather and maybe a self-righteous attitude that says he’s a good old boy with all the answers. Does he have a lot of flags and political statements on his vehicle?”

Sybil snorted a laugh. “Wow. It’s as if you’ve seen him and met him.”

“I’ve met many men like him. Sometimes they come clean cut and wearing suits. They might be soft-spoken and with what I call God hair.”

The other woman laughed.

“Slicked into a perfect cut,” Clarice said. “Usually short and conservative. Prim and proper. Stick up their pious asses.”

The ladies laughed again, and a surge of appreciation for the older woman’s insight hit Sybil. “I know just who you’re talking about. They don’t brag about their awfulness the way Taggert does. But they say the same thing differently.”

Clarice sighed. “It’s all the same toast. Some with a little more jam and butter. They’re all the same animal.”

“Haven’t people accused you of being a man hater before?” Sybil asked, confident she could ask these types of questions of Clarice.

Clarice’s eyebrows went up. “Yes.” She leaned forward, her eyes relaying her interest. “You’re quite perceptive. What about you? What do you think about the subject?”

A grain of satisfaction started inside Sybil. People didn’t ask her these types of questions often. “I agree with what you’ve said. But there are also women who spend their lives undercutting other women. Women have treated me more poorly than men have. Taggert and my father...” She drifted off. “They were awful men. But I’ve met at least as many awful women.”

Letisha snorted. “Me, too.”

Clarice nodded, even if she didn’t speak for a minute. “I’d heard of your father before I hired you. Then when Doug did his security check for me...well, it confirmed what I already understood. And that your father was the first one to treat you as less-than. Wasn’t he?”

Sybil’s mind went to the fact she’d gone straight into this trap of being more open than she wanted to be right now. Clarice was great at leading people where she wanted to go in a conversation.

What the hell? Might as well let it out.

Sybil said, “Definitely.”

“It probably honed your skills with people. If you didn’t trust your mother or your father, right?” Clarice asked.

Sybil hadn’t heard it put that way, but she couldn’t deny that hard truth. “You hit it on the head again. I have a great B.S. meter.”

Clarice laughed, the sound warm and assured. “So do I. Women have to play so many games to survive, don’t they? Leveling the playing field, when it happens, feels so gratifying.”

“That’s for certain,” Pauline said with a big but sarcastic smile. “One of my old aunts used to say it was a woman’s life to bare all the hardships put on her by men and other women who were trying to crawl their way out of the primordial ooze. I’ve done that a million times, and the few times I’ve gotten my revenge it’s felt so good.”

Clarice pointed quickly at Pauline. “There you go. Someone who is willing to admit it. But my question to you is, has all of your revenge been a fantasy?”

Pauline frowned, her normally youthful expression altered by confusion. “Fantasy? No. I’ve seen people get theirs.”

“Not just a revenge fantasy filled with things you couldn’t admit to wanting to see happen?” Clarice asked. “Revenge you’ve personally delivered. Because that’s the most satisfying kind.”

The wind outside roared and battered the house. Sybil shivered, more uncertainty flickering inside her for a reason she couldn’t quite put her finger upon.

Pauline shrugged, defensiveness flickering over her face. “I’ve done my fair share of damage.”

Sybil noted Clarice’s wide smile but couldn’t say for certain if the older woman liked Pauline’s answer or simply found it amusing. Sybil also observed something drastically different about the older woman. Talking about revenge had turned Clarice’s expression gleeful. Along with the sparkle in her eyes, her skin had smoothed a little, the dark circles less prominent, the color in her cheeks supplanting the paleness.

The doorbell rang.