Chapter 4

"Hello again. It's Mrs. Dennison isn't it?" asked the lovely blonde behind the counter.

"Lynette, please," smiled the mother in return.

"And I'm Marissa, Marissa Worthington," said the twenty-eight year old, her soft blue eyes radiating warmth. "Did your daughter find the material she was looking for in those books she checked out?"

"Yes, they -- and you were quite helpful. Thanks."

"Back for more?"

"I'm not sure. I ... well, I'd like to find out a little about the background of our house."

The tall, slender librarian smiled. "So you've heard the stories already."

"What stories?"

"Oh, I just thought that maybe someone had told you some of the interesting tales about the house you just moved into."

"What tales?"

"Marissa motioned Lynette over to a quiet corner where they would not be overheard. "We have newspapers and other records that go back well over a century. I can pull the pertinent ones for you."

"That would be nice, but what about these tales?"

"Well, understand, they are just that -- tales. No one knows how much of it is true, how much just interesting stories."

"I'd like to hear them just the same."

"All right, I'll tell you what I know or, at least what I've heard. The house and land is called the Crowley place, named after William Crowley, a sea captain and his wife Sarah. They settled here in the late nineteenth century and built the house. William was said to be an especially cruel man who beat his wife and their children, Simon and Martha unmercifully."

Lynette gasped. Those names, Simon and Sarah were ones she had heard her abusers use with each other.

"What is it?" asked Marissa.

"Oh ... nothing. I just thought I'd heard those names before."

"The father's abuse was ... excessive," continued Marissa.

"You mean... ?"

"Yes, so the stories go, he raped his own daughter repeatedly and it was said the mother not only knew of it, but helped even to the point of holding the girl down while the father ... oh, it's just too gruesome.'

"No, I'd like to know. Please."

"Well, after several years William was lost at sea, but the boy, Simon, had become so warped by watching his father's perversions that he simply took up where his father had left off."

"You mean... ?"

"Yes, he began sexually abusing his sister while his mother continued to help keep her captive in the house."

"What happened to them?"

"The sister died and that's where it gets really creepy. The locals tell of girls and women disappearing -- runaways and visitors to the area. The stories say they were lured to the house where Simon and his mother Sarah would hold them captive and rape and torture them for years. When one captive died they would lure another. Finally Simon died in a fall from a horse and his mother followed within a few months"

"Wow, that's quite a story."

"Oh, it gets better. After the mother died the local police went in looking for a young girl who had been missing for over a year. They found human bones under the floor, but back then they had no way to know whose they were so the mystery was never solved."

Marissa noted the look of concern on Lynette's face.

"Now there I go, telling these atrocious stories and upsetting you."

"No, I wanted to know. Thank you for sharing them with me."

"Would you like to see some of the newspapers and other materials from back then?"

"Yes, please."

Marissa pulled out the microfiche files (the small rural library had not yet been computerized) and loaded them onto the reader. Minutes later Lynette was deeply into the history of the area and especially everything she could find on William Crowley and his family. She found some vague references to police investigations but nothing as frightening or explicit as the story Marissa had told. She did find that the house had been sold a year after the mother's death and while no explanation was given as to why, the house had apparently changed hands a number of times since, the last owner before Lynette being a young couple who had moved in some ten years ago. The newspaper account reported the young wife had soon suffered a mental breakdown and the couple had moved from the area. The house had been sitting vacant since until Lynette had seen it on an internet listing. No wonder, she thought, that the price had been so reasonable.

"Find what you wanted?" asked Marissa as she saw Lynette had brought the research articles back to the front desk.