Rancor: Sinister Attachments, Book 1 Read Free

Marina.” The wrinkled woman stopped talking long enough to cough and then continued. “My daddy once said Carl killed a man out there on the water, right there in front of Lake Shore Sanatorium—all liquored up on Scotch, he was.”
    Maggie could not believe what she was hearing, or seeing. An old lady's daddy was talking about Mr. Zimmerman? Had to be Mr. Zimmerman's father. The old woman did not know what she was talking about; she had to be senile.
    “That place is cursed,” the old woman blared as Maggie pushed her cart of groceries out the door. “Don't go back there or you'll regret it, girly.”
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    THREE
     
     
    Maggie finished putting away the food, opened a can of pop, and then placed the laptop from her backpack on the dinette table. She plugged it in and opened the top. This would be a good place to work, she thought as she looked out the kitchen window next to the table. A far off sailboat floated in the haze of the distant horizon while a flock of seagulls flew down toward the beach. A little distracting, but she could handle it.
    She took a sip from the cold can while replaying in her mind what the women at Lenny's Grocery had said to her. They thought no one was living here; she whispered as she watched the laptop wake up. No one here? Of course there was. Mr. Zimmerman was here, and there was a car in the parking lot. 
    Then she heard an apartment door open. She quickly got up and tiptoed to the door's peephole. She saw a woman with a headband and wearing a paisley print dress leave apartment 21B with a child at her side. There, proof she was not the only one in the building.
    Having been unnerved by the women in the grocery store, she decided to prove them wrong and introduce herself to her new neighbor. She opened the door and walked into the hallway. She smiled and said, “Hi.”
    The woman took the young girl's hand and stopped at the top of the stairway. She looked at Maggie, seeming a bit surprised due to the fact she did not say anything for a moment while she studied Maggie's face. “Hi, did you just move in?”
    Maggie left her door open and walked toward the woman and child. “My name's Maggie, I just moved in today. This sure seems like a nice place.”
    “My name's Debbie and this is my daughter Susie. It's nice to meet you,” she said, extending her hand in greeting. “And yes, I agree, this is an excellent place to live.”
    “Have you been living here long?” Maggie asked, releasing her hand from Debbie's overly firm handshake.
    “We've been here a long time. So has Bruce,” Debbie said, pointing toward apartment 20A. “He's a cool head.”
    Cool head? Maggie was not sure what that meant; must be a throwback saying from the 1960s. She smiled and nodded. Then she said, “I know Mr. Zimmerman is on the third floor, is there anyone else in the building?” Maggie needed to know the place was full of life and not dead empty.
    “Downstairs is Ethel. She calls herself a seer. I think she uses that crystal ball as a ruse, I wouldn't trust her. She keeps to herself; she's out of her tree,” Debbie said, rolling her eyes. “Her apartment would be directly below yours. We don't talk to her much though.”
    Maggie felt better knowing she was not alone. She turned her attention to the girl standing next to Debbie. Her hair was long and scraggly; she wondered when it had last been brushed. Maggie held out her hand. “It's nice to meet you too, Susie. How old are you?”
    The girl looked up at Maggie through strands of dark hair, partially covering her face. She did not say anything.
    “She's ten, and she’s a little shy,” Debbie said. She cocked her head and asked, “So what do you do for a living?”
    “I'm an author,” Maggie said. Even though she had been writing full-time for a couple years, it still felt strange to say it. Her old identity as a nurse was still hard to shake.
    Debbie smiled a big, broad smile. “So, does that mean you're