Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (classic novels for teens .txt) 📕

Simon chewed his lower lip. “Do you have anything we could put it in to take it with us?”

“I’ll see what I can find.”

Simon and Ian crouched down and picked through the pile while they were waiting. Simon was of the opinion that it should all go in the trash by the time they’d looked it over, but, as the woman had said, it was Anna’s. She at least deserved the chance to look at it and decide for herself.

“You might as well take these, too,” the old woman informed them when she came out again, carrying several bags that looked like the sort for disposing of garbage and a bowl of some sort of fruits or vegetables that he didn’t recognize.

“What is it?” he asked curiously.

“Damned if I know, but I figured she grew it. She spent all her time in that greenhouse of hers. Nastiest tastin’ shit I ever tried. I cooked a couple, but they was so salty it turned my stomach.”

Neither the smell nor the appearance was really appetizing either, Simon thought wryly, wondering if they were over ripe and rotting. Most of them were pretty banged up. “I guess they rained down in your yard,” he said with a trace of amusement.

“Mine and everybody else’s! Took me the best part of two hours to gather them up. The most food I’ve seen in one place in a while outside a grocer’s. Most of it was squished, though, or burned. I just saved the best lookin’ ones.”

“I’m sure Anna will appreciate it,” Simon said a little doubtfully. “We’ll take these to her, too.”

“I guess you may as well take the seed, too. I’ll get it from my greenhouse.”

“There’s seed?”

“Of course! I told you I collected these all over the place. I didn’t see no sense in throwing the seed away just because the vegetables wasn’t no good to eat. I figured I might grow some myself, but I didn’t have no luck. Couldn’t get it to grow for nothin’. I ‘spect they ain’t no good, but I don’t throw nothin’ away when I ain’t sure, if you know what I mean!”

He was beginning to. He studied her speculatively when she returned with the seed. “I don’t suppose you saw anything … strange the night of the explosion?”

“Course I did! I told the cops, too, but they didn’t never come back. They told me they was goin’ to, but I knew they wasn’t. Kept lookin’ at each other while I was tellin’ them—like I didn’t know they was suggestin’ I was just a crazy old bat! Ignored me when I tried to call and report it before it happened!”

“Would you mind telling us?”

She shrugged. “No, but we’re gonna have to go inside so I can sit down. My joints hurt if I stand up too long. When I sit down too long, too,” she muttered. “It’s hell gettin’ old.”

“You think she knows anything?” Ian asked doubtfully when she’d left.

Simon had been staring at the house absently. At that, he glanced at Ian. “She ran circles around the Water City PD and she can barely hobble,” he said dryly. “There’s at least two pieces of the device used to blow up Anna’s house in this pile. If we can match it to what we discovered at Cavendish’s island, we have a tie-in between the two cases. Let’s go find out what other little treasures Anna’s nosey neighbor has for us, shall we?”

She had refreshments waiting for them when they reached her living room.

Simon and Ian both looked at the little sandwiches uncomfortably.

“You shouldn’t have gone to so much effort,” Simon said.

She waved it away. “In my day, we always offered guests refreshment, even if there wasn’t hardly nothin’ in the house. I’m too old to change now.”

Shrugging, they settled on the couch across from her, studying the sandwiches and the brown beverage she’d served with it a little uneasily. “That’s iced tea,” she informed them. “Don’t guess you have that down under.”

“No, ma’am,” Ian responded, but took a sip. “It’s good, though.”

“What’s this on the bread?” Simon asked curiously.

“Pimentos and cheese. I grow the peppers myself.”

“You said you’d tried to call in a report before the house blew up?”

“Yeah, well. I knew they wouldn’t listen to me. They never do.”

Ian and Simon exchanged a look.

“Don’t you two go actin’ like I’m off my rocker! I ain’t got nothin’ much to do, you know. Ain’t able to do what I want to, so I watch other people. Nosey. Never thought I’d turn into a nosey old neighbor, but I get bored. Got me a spot out near the viaduct where I can see the houses all the way around my place. I don’t sleep too good, so I go out there sometimes at night where it’s cool and quiet.

“Anyway, I was out there that night. Saw that fella come skulkin’ up the waterway and tie up behind Dr. Blake’s place. He didn’t make no move to get out, so I just sat real still and watched him, tryin’ to figure out what he was up to.”

“Did you recognize him?”

“Not right off. He was dressed all in black, like somebody that didn’t want to be seen. My eyes ain’t too good anymore, but after he got out and started across her lawn, I recognized him. It was the fella that had been posin’ as her assistant.”

Simon frowned. “Explain that.”

“Which part?”

“You said he was posing as her assistant? How do you know that?”

“Don’t, but he didn’t look like no scientist type to me.