Dead End High

Adam stood outside Drake’s house, surveying the fancy red BMW parked in the Radnor’s driveway.

‘What do you think?’ Drake patted the roof of the car. ‘Feel confident?’

‘Yeah, no worries.’ Adam felt his legs go weak. He tried to sound as confident as possible, but inside he was terrified. He’d never driven without his father sitting in the passenger’s seat beside him.

‘Relax.’ Daisy rubbed his shoulder. ‘This is gonna be great.’ Her face then turned grim. ‘Don’t you dare try to pull out now, this was your idea, remember?’

‘Of course not.’ Adam didn’t even consider it. He tried to tell himself there was no danger in driving to Opanake. He’d take it easy, he wouldn’t drive too fast. There was no reason why he should crash it as he’d never crashed when taking driving lessons, so why should he now?

‘Glad you caught up with us first,’ Drake said. ‘Wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun.’

‘Didn’t think you would.’ Adam didn’t want to admit he was relieved he didn’t have to go alone. ‘Anyway, I needed a car if we’re gonna get there without anyone knowing.’

‘Yeah, well, as you can see, I can supply the car.’ Drake turned his eyes down. ‘But I can’t drive at the moment because I stuffed my wrist at rugby practise last night.’

‘Well I guess I can handle it.’ Adam stepped up to the car, anxiety building up even more inside him. ‘Are you sure we should take this one? I’d hate to ding it by accident.’

‘Well we have no choice. Mom and Dad have their runabouts at work. So it’s either this one or we walk.’

Adam breathed deeply and climbed in at the driver’s side. Daisy and Drake both took the backseat waiting for Adam to muster up the courage to start the engine. Adam turned the key and the BMW gunned to life. The car grinded into reverse, but he managed to keep from stalling it. He pulled out very slowly, scared he might hit something, but breathed easy once they were out on the road. ‘We’re away,’ he announced to his passengers in his most cheerful voice. But he was still scared stiff. This was the craziest thing he had ever done and he was far from sure they would get away with it.

It was a quiet and uneventful journey to Opanake. Daisy and Drake seemed too absorbed with each other to do much talking. Adam felt his heart sink when they started making out. ’Damn it,’ he thought to himself. ’I really thought Daisy was starting to like me.’

He put his foot down a little on the accelerator, attempting to relieve his frustrations. He tried not to look in the rear vision mirror at them, but it was difficult. When he realised how fast he was going, he eased off a bit. ’Remain calm, Adam, Remain calm’.

They arrived at Opanake half an hour later and found Godfrey Rd with a street map. The 145 address was a small country cottage down a meandering driveway, sheltered by pine trees. They stopped the BMW on the side of the road.

‘What if someone’s there?’ Daisy climbed out. ‘I don’t know if this is such a good idea now.’ She clasped Drake’s arm as she peered through the trees.

‘Relax.’ Drake patted her arm. ‘Nothing to worry about.’

‘What do we say if somebody’s home?’

‘Depends who’s there.’ Drake peered towards the property. ‘If it’s strangers, we just say we’re looking for Miss Crazy.’

‘If it’s Miss Crazy?’

‘She’s at school.’

‘But what if she stayed home today?’

Drake sniggered, ‘We’ll say we’re here to find out why she’s not at work today.’

Daisy gave him a friendly slap on the arm. ‘You have got to be kidding me!’

Drake just smirked.

‘What if it’s one of her two buddies?’ Adam looked at Drake with concern.

‘We’ll play it by ear. Don’t worry, I can handle them.’

Adam didn’t doubt that Drake could put up a good fight, but against two adults? Nevertheless, there was no going back now. Like it or not, Adam had to go through with this, so he puffed himself up and tried to put on a brave front for Daisy’s sake. He felt a lot more at ease knowing Drake was there with them. ‘Let’s go. But quietly. We don’t want anyone to see us.’

They advanced up the winding driveway towards the house, close to the line of trees to remain as invisible as possible, but stopped at the last tree and peered into the front yard. If anyone saw them, nobody made it known.

Drake stepped out into the open and marched towards the main entrance. This urged Adam on and Daisy tailed after. ‘Want the honours?’ Drake asked, reaching the door first.

Adam knocked and held his breath. Seconds ticked by and they heard no sound of anyone. He started to breathe a little easier. He knocked again, louder. There was still no reply. Finally, he tested the door. Locked.

Daisy let out a deep sigh. ‘Well I guess that’s it then.’

‘Let’s take a look around back,’ Drake said. ‘Maybe there’s another way in.’

There was a small garden shed - bolted shut. The backdoor was locked, but there was a window slightly ajar. Drake didn’t hesitate for a moment and hauled himself through with ease. Adam went next and was about to assist Daisy, but Drake got there first, helping her in.

Once inside, Daisy scanned the room with wide eyes. ‘Well someone lives here I guess.’

They stood in a bedroom. A few boxes sat piled in the corner and an old sewing machine table stood next to them. The trio began to explore the rest of the house, finding each of the rooms well furnished. One of the bedrooms contained a double bed and dresser, with a lot of women’s things, like perfumes and cheap jewellery. There were a couple of framed photographs of people that they didn’t recognise. One other bedroom appeared to be a young boy’s. It contained a bed with a Bob the Builder duvet, a chest of draws, a few plastic boxes of toys, Mickey Mouse curtains, and lots of cars and trucks. There was a stale odour about the place, but Adam couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

‘Smell that?’ he asked his two friends.

‘Yeah.’ Drake nodded. ‘Smells like the insides of a rubbish bin.’

In the lounge, the smell was stronger, but apart from a thin layer of dust on the shelves and fireplace mantelpiece, it appeared to be clean; no rubbish lying around and no loose objects. What stood out most of all, were the professional portraits on the wall of a woman and a four-year-old boy.

The woman was Miss Crazy.

‘Well, well,’ Adam breathed. ‘It seems Miss Crazy still lives here.’

‘Or at least sometimes lives here.’ Drake wiped a coating of dust off the frame with his finger. ‘Wonder what happened to the kid?’

‘With his father maybe?’

‘I guess. Or maybe in day-care while she works?’

‘I don’t get it.’ Daisy glanced around the room. ‘Why would she move to Pungaru and yet leave all her things here? Does she come back here on weekends or something?’

‘Well that’s a possibility.’ Drake continued to study the picture. ‘But some people commute long distances to work all the time. She probably returns here most nights. It’s only half an hour’s drive… although she doesn’t seem to do much in the way of cleaning if she does.’

Adam walked around an old three-piece lounge suite towards a computer desk against the wall. ‘I want to find out who this woman really is.’ He switched it on, but there was no power. He checked the switches on the wall, but they all seemed in order. ’Funny… If she still lives here, why is the power off?

Adam opened a desk drawer and rummaged through some papers. He found many letters addressed to Tania Casey and a bank account statement dated up until three months ago. The only thing that caught his eye was a fortnightly direct credit from ‘Benson’s’. He tried to rack his brains as to what or who Benson’s might be, but drew a blank.

Drake hovered over his shoulder, studying the same statements. ‘Benson’s doesn’t sound like the name of a school.’

‘That’s what I was thinking.’

‘Oh my gosh!’ Daisy’s voice called out. ‘Guys, come and look at this!’

Drake and Adam hurried into the kitchen, immediately greeted by a gut-wrenching odour. The freezer was wide open and Daisy stood there with her nose and mouth covered. There was rotting meat, completely thawed. She opened the fridge to reveal decaying vegetables and all manner of fuzzy bacterial growth. She shut it again and then kicked the freezer door shut. ‘Oh my God, that’s so gross!’ She rushed to the sink to wash her hands.

‘So that’s what that strange smell was.’ Adam covered his mouth and nose with the tip of his shirt.

Drake looked at Adam with an eyebrow raised. Adam could tell they were both thinking the same thing. Why would Miss Crazy switch off the electricity with all the food in the fridge?

‘Bizarre.’ Drake shook his head. ‘You guys keep looking around. I’m going to see if I can get the electricity back on so we can check out that computer. I think we can relax a little though. No one’s been here in yonks.’

Adam returned to the computer desk. What he found next made his eyes widen. A copy of Miss Crazy’s CV.

He opened it up to her work history and there he stared for a few moments. Miss Crazy was no teacher. In fact nowhere in her CV did it say she had ever worked in a school. There was no record of any Teacher’s Training College. Her current listed job, according to her resume was as a receptionist at Opanake’s Gymnasium – Benson’s. Her only job experience before that was office and customer services.

So Mr Vennie had been lying about her work history.

Daisy came back into the lounge. ‘Most of the stuff in the cupboards is old. Potatoes have gone to seed… the onions have sprouted... Doesn’t look like anyone has eaten here in ages.’

‘Miss Crazy is definitely no teacher. Look at her CV.’

He held it up for her to see.

‘My gosh.’ She stared. ‘Looks like you were right all along, Adam. This looks more and more suspicious all the time. I think Miss Crazy just may be responsible for all these disappearances after all.’

‘And probably Mr Vennie too. I didn’t want to believe it, I didn’t even want to consider it, he’s such a cool guy, but he lied about Miss Crazy.’ He didn’t mention all the other accusations Mr Bryce had made about him. After all, they couldn’t really take the rantings of a mad man seriously… could they?

‘But he’s so nice. Maybe he was really desperate and took her on even though she had no qualifications? Maybe he just doesn’t want anyone thinking he would hire unqualified staff?’

‘I dunno.’

‘Mmmmm. Maybe you’re right. You know, you’re actually quite smart. Gosh, if you can prove Miss Crazy is responsible, you’ll be the town celebrity. Just you make sure I’m there to help take some of the credit.’ She gave him a lovely smile.

They continued to rummage through papers on the desk, looking for anything to connect her to the two men or Mr Vennie.

Adam looked up. ‘I wonder if Drake has found the power supply yet.’

‘Hey Drake!’ Daisy called out. ‘Hurry up!’

There was no reply. A look of concern came over her face. ‘I’ll go look for him.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

They expected to find him in the garage, which connected to the house, but he wasn’t there either. The electricity board was closed shut. They checked the locked shed outside, but there was no sign of him.

’Drake!’ Daisy yelled. ‘This isn’t funny, come on out!’

There was still no reply and Adam started to worry too.

The Radnor’s BMW was still parked where they left it. They searched the length of Godfrey Rd. They checked the paddocks around the property, half expecting him to be lying in the long grass. But he wasn’t.

’Where is he?’ Tears appeared in Daisy’s eyes, which she desperately tried to hold back. ‘Adam, what if he’s gone? Miss Crazy! She must have known he was here. She’s taken him.’

‘But... But she didn’t know we were coming.’ Adam stared at her. He wanted to tell her she was wrong, but he wasn’t certain of anything. ‘She would’ve come in and confronted us.’

‘Maybe she knocked him out and took him away?’ Her tears began to overflow.

‘There’s no signs of any attack or scuffle. No blood. We definitely didn’t hear anything, you’d think we would have.’

‘Not if someone attacked him by surprise. Maybe whacked him over the head or something.’

‘We… We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.’ He resisted the urge to wipe away her tears and tried to sound confident.

‘What do we do?’ Daisy pleaded, taking his hand. ‘Do we call the police?’

‘And tell them we were breaking into Miss Crazy’s house?’

‘We’ll just say we were near the house when he went missing.’ Daisy sunk down to the ground, burying her head in her hands. ‘I can’t believe it. He’s gone. I thought they’d never get him. He’s so smart and nobody gets the jump on him. If they can get him…’ She looked up at him, her eyes wide, ‘they can get anyone they damn well please!’

She burst out crying.

Adam knelt down to gather her in his arms and smoothed her hair – relaxing when she didn’t push him away. He felt like a knight in shining armour.