Looking for Wildflowers

Chapter 13

By the time they got back home, it was completely dark. Riley somehow managed to convince Taylor to wait and talk to her mother the next day, after they had gotten some rest.

"Riley, I'm telling you, something happened." Taylor insisted as she braided her hair and Riley finished up in the shower.

"Maybe, but we can't go around pointing fingers, at least not yet. I mean, what do you really think happened?" Using a towel, he dried his hair and then wrapped it around his waist, stepping out of the tub and onto the bath mat.

"It looks like my grandma was killed." Taylor said after a few minutes. "That would explain the smell of death, the missing knife, the red-brown stuff on the fridge."

"Who would want to do that?" Riley placed a small amount of toothpaste on his toothbrush and began brushing.

"Obviously, my mom. She said they had a disagreement, maybe it got out of control." Taylor was staring at herself in the foggy mirror.

"So what's your plan? Just ask her if she did it?" Riley asked with a mouth full of foam.

"No, I'm not stupid. I'll just ask where she thinks Grandma went. After I talk to her, we can go back and look around some more. I have a feeling we missed something."

Riley stayed silent as he knew Taylor had a good point. It didn't look good, but they weren't detectives.

"Shouldn't we just go into town and report her missing?" Riley asked.

"I mean no disrespect, but the police forces we have in the two towns closest to her house are all jokes. They aren't prepared for something like this." Taylor argued.

The next day, Lindsey and Taylor were the first ones awake.

"Hey, mom. I went by Grandma's yesterday and she was nowhere to be seen. Do you have any idea where she could have gone?" Taylor asked as her mom made a batch of pancakes for the three of them.

"No, she must have gone into town." Lindsey didn't even bother looking in Taylor's direction, almost like the answer was clear.

"But her horse was still there, so she had to have been home, right?"

"Then maybe she went for a walk in the woods. You know your grandma, Maria loves the outdoors."

Taylor sighed. Lindsey did have a point, but the house just felt empty. Like the person left it for good, not just to go on a walk.

"That's alright, I'll just have Riley take me again when he wakes up." She saw her mom pause for a quick millisecond before continuing.

"You're going to get yourself in trouble. I told you, Maria doesn't want visitors."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take. I have to make sure that grandma's alright, and I won't be convinced until I see her face to face." Taylor left the kitchen, heading back to the bedroom.

She softly threw a pillow toward Riley. He groaned but rolled over, looking at Taylor who was already putting her pants on.

"Get up and get ready. We're going back to my grandma's." She left no room for questions or debate.

"Tay, I'm sure she's fine."

"I think something happened."

"Like what?" Riley was becoming irritated. He just wanted to go back to sleep.

"I don't know. But I think my mom had something to do with it. She avoids talking about grandma completely."

"They had an argument, she's still upset, that's normal."

"No, it's like she's hiding something."

"Taylor, you're reaching for something that isn't there. Just come back to bed." He tempted her with his raspy voice and messy hair, but Taylor was determined.

"Either you take me, or I'll go alone."

"You can't go alone." Riley didn't like the idea of Taylor going on long trips by herself. Just her going into town was too much. He insisted they stay together, just for safety's sake.

"Watch me. I'll just leave you here with my mom." Taylor started heading toward the door but stopped when she heard Riley jump up out of bed and quickly start getting ready.

"Don't ever say that to me again." His tone was serious, but Taylor had a small smile as she found it funny when he got all worked up over nothing.

The two headed out and began the trip, once more, to Taylor's Grandma's house. Once they arrived, nothing had changed. The horse was even still tied to the same spot.

"Doesn't this place just feel empty, to you?" Taylor asked as she jumped off the horse and headed to the house.

"Yeah, but maybe she just went on a vacation."

"My grandma is seventy-two years old and widowed, I assure you, she's not going anywhere for more than a few hours." Taylor knocked on the door, waiting for a response.

"What the f**k is that smell?" Riley asked as he began looking around the porch. The smell was slightly stronger this time.

"I don't know." Taylor shrugged as she knocked again and hollered for her grandma.

"It smells like... death." Riley scrunched his nose up as Taylor unlocked the door once again and they entered the house.

Nothing had been moved or touched since they had last been there. The doors stood in the same spot, and a light layer of dust was beginning to lay over everything. Taylor went back into the kitchen and began looking around some more, trying to gather something for answers.

"The smell is worst in this room." Riley complained as they entered the kitchen.

"Well, there's nothing here. Let's go look around back." Taylor stood up from the floor and headed out the creaky back door into the overgrown yard. The smell was worse back here than it was in the front, but only by a margin.

"Taylor, honey, I love you but there's nothing here. I don't know where your grandma went, but she's not living here anymore."

"Why would she leave her horse?"

Riley threw his hands up. "I don't know. Maybe she met some rich farmer and they ran off together." Taylor rolled her eyes but stayed silent.

As she made her way to the house, shoe laying in the grass near the grate that kept cats and other animals out from under the house. As she got closer, she noticed that the grass by the grate had been disturbed.

"Riley." She froze, too afraid to move. If she moved the grate, would she really find her grandmother? The thought paralyzed her.

Riley walked over and was able to put it all together.

"You stay here, I'll go check." He placed a light hand on her shoulder as he walked toward the grate and got down on his knees. Taylor stayed where she stood, gripping the shoe for any sort of hope to appear.

Riley took a screwdriver out of his pocket and began undoing the screws on the grate.

"Why do you keep a screwdriver in your pocket?" Taylor asked, trying to distract herself.

"I had it in there from yesterday, and just never took it out. Works out better for us though, without it we wouldn't be getting under here." He explained as he unscrewed the last screw and sat them to the side, pulling the rusty grate away and shining a flashlight he had found inside, down under the house.

There wasn't much under there, a few bones from various dead animals, dirt, and spiders, and in the far back there was something else.

"Stay here, I'm going to go in and get a better look." He instructed Taylor who felt tears forming in her eyes as she watched him slide into the small hole.

It wasn't long before he returned and began dusting the spiders and dirt off his clothes.

"Well?" Taylor demanded, although his silence answered her question.

"You were right." That was all Riley could get out before Taylor broke down sobbing. Her grandmother was dead, and all signs pointed to her own mother.