Page 30 of You'll Be Sorry

According to the Collinses, Mr. Man—if the dog already had a name, Raquel was definitely losing that war—had magically appeared out of the blue just this morning. Seemed to know his way around the house and property.

“Don’t you think he looks like…” Theo fished.

Mandy refused to either confirm or deny. Mostly because to consider this dog might have something to do with that Dog hurt her head.

They’d taken him to the vet.

Bought up half a pet store, Raquel inserted.

Brought the dog back home and gave him a bath.

Obviously, Raquel added dryly.

Then the dog disappeared. Theo infused the statement with just enough alarm, while his wife sighed heavily. So of course they searched for him.

Raquel had spied the dog digging in the field that stretched out behind the shed. By the time Theo had jogged over, the dog—good boy!—had exposed what appeared to be some kind of wooden cover.

Mandy passed her flashlight over the pile of jumbled planks. “Those boards?” She drifted closer, eyeing the remnants. Definitely on the decaying side and peppered with crude irregularly shaped nails that jutted out ominously. “The wood looks like pine.”

“Too heavy. I’m thinking hemlock.”

“Hemlock?” She eyed Theo in surprise, while Raquel’s expression mirrored her own.

“Back in the day, farmers used it for structures that needed to withstand the elements; it’s a particularly dense and durable wood.”

“And you know this…?”

“I did some reading on the subject. I did just buy a two-hundred-plus-year-old New England farm, you know.” Theo regarded her and Raquel as if they were the ones being obtuse. “Check out the fieldstone pit. I’m thinking it’s an old well, given the approximate depth. Fifteen feet isn’t much compared to today’s drilled wells, but given this was most likely hand-dug a couple of centuries ago, that’s pretty impressive. The top was completely covered by several inches of sod and vegetation. Anyone could’ve walked right over it and never known.”

“Except for the dog, apparently. You’re saying he came straight here, didn’t tear up the garden, play in the mud for a warm-up act?”

“He seemed to come straight here.”

“Shit.” Mandy knew about hand-dug wells. The forests around these parts were dotted with remnants of settlers past. Most of the abandoned pits featured crude walls of stacked boulders. In comparison, this well’s construction appeared nearly refined, the walls comprising smaller, evenly shaped stones fitted tightly together. The top rim was capped with flatter granite slabs, a detail she’d never encountered. But most disturbing…

The other abandoned wells had become lush, verdant gardens, nature taking back what was once hers. While this one—the walls appeared nearly black, slick with some kind of fungus or mold. There was a whiff of something in the air as well. Rot. Decay. Despair.

She had no idea what had possessed Theo to rappel down into such suffocating gloom. She didn’t even want to peer into it. She already knew she wouldn’t like what she would see.

The night felt hushed, suspended. The dog whined low in his throat, as if willing them to continue. They must see this. Someone, after all these years, must finally know. And then?

Deep breath. Mandy grabbed the portable light closest to her and angled the lamp to shine deep into the murky depths. Theo had left a flashlight glowing at the bottom of the pit, which mostly created a slice of mottled shapes and shadows. With the RDLs added to the show, however…

It took her a minute to process.

“What the hellisthat?”

“The perfectly round object sitting directly in the center?”

“Yeah.”

“Some kind of crockery, maybe earthenware.”

“Crockery?”

“Exactly. But that’s of secondary importance. Take a closer look at the ground around it.”

He adjusted the light, and she just bit back a gasp. What she’d initially viewed as an uneven dirt floor suddenly resolved into focus.