The House

The woman talked me through it, trying to settle me down and answer her questions, but I was hysterical and sobbing.

When the police arrived, I refused to go down with them and show them, or even go into the house.

They came out and one was on the radio, talking to someone. "...definite human remains, skeletal and well preserved. I'd say at least 50 years old, maybe more..."

He went on, but he was getting in his patrol car and sound cut off as he closed the door. The other officer came to me to ask me what happened, how I found it.

I haltingly told him, then asked him if he would go back in and bring me my keys to my bike. I did NOT want to go back in there."

He got them for me, but told me I couldn't leave until the coroner arrived and the other specialists. I had to stay until the remains were removed.

I shook my head. "There's a dead body in my house," I whispered.

"Ma'am," the officer told me soothingly. "That body has been there a very long time and it looks accidental. Those old fridges like that, you can't get out from the inside. That man probably got in to play a prank or do something else, then never got out. It happened a long long time ago. Before you were born, probably before your parents were even born. Body in a fridge like that would be well preserved. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. I'm sure nothing bad has happened here. It was just an accident decades old. Zero reason to be afraid."

"I don't want to stay here," I told him, hugging myself and looking at the house again.

"I'll be right here with you until you can leave, ma'am, you have my word. I'm Officer Decklan, my partner is Officer Gilliland. Don't make a Gilligan reference, he's super uptight about it," he smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Is Sunny your real name?"

"Yeah," I whispered, looking around. "I need to sit down."

"Sure, of course. Let's go down here to the steps to the sidewalk. There you go. You cold? I have a blanket in the cruiser if you want it."

I nodded, I was freezing.

"Sit tight," he told me, going and getting in the trunk. He pulled out a blanket from a sealed bag, then came back and wrapped it around my shoulders. "You need anything else? Coffee?"

"You have coffee in your trunk?" I asked numbly.

He grinned. "No, but I totally have a rookie I can call in to bring some out. He'd probably be happy to just to get to see what was going on."

"You really don't think he'd mind?"

"Not at all. Cream and sugar?"

"Black," I whispered, huddling under the blankets.

The rookie was indeed excited to be there. He was allowed to go in and go down and look at the remains as the coroner and other people were removing them. He came out, grinning. "Frasier said the body is turn of the century! The clothes alone date to 1890's, but the remains might've been wearing older clothes. The fridge is late 1910's he said. How old is this house?"

"1800's easy," an older officer spoke up, looking up at the house. "See that detailing there? And those spindles? The gingerbread, it's called by some. The tooling used wasn't an electric lathe, see..." he sighed, then shook his head. "Nevermind. None of you little shits actually care."

"I care!" the rookie said quickly. "When do you think it was built?"

"Late 1800's. Probably 1870 or 80. See that house there that's different from these other smaller victorians? That was a carriage house, for horse drawn carriages. That one back behind is the servants house. Some places had live-in servants, others didn't like them in the same house and had a servant house. The rest of these houses were built a lot later, after the land around this one was sold off. Build shoddier too," the man grumbled, looking around at the houses lit up by the lights of the vehicles. The older cop turned to me. "You want to know about this place, go to the library on Medford. Not the big one downtown, the little one. She has the old maps and the old census records and all the old papers and histories on the older houses like this one."

I nodded, but I had no intention on looking it up. I wasn't sure on the timeline, but I had an inkling who that man might be. My great grandmother's first husband. That was a huge reason I was afraid to stay here, what if he wanted revenge on her family? I didn't actually believe in ghosts, but it seemed like a stupid chance to take after everything that had happened today and it coincidentally being halloween. There was healthy skepticism and there was stupidity.

I would come in of a day and finish fixing it up, but I was staying at a hotel until it was done and I was renting it out again. Then I would find a cute little place and try my hand at a bakery. Mom would have loved that.

I had to sit there for a long while, waiting for them to look over the scene, remove all of the remains, take my statement. Officer Decklan stayed through all of it, talking to me and smiling and joking, trying to ease my mind.

"Deck," a large officer gruffed, walking up. "Weren't you off shift two hours ago?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll backlog my clock out," Officer Decklan called.

The large officer looked at me, looking me over, then snorted and shook his head. "See that you do," he called, walking away.

That was the moment I realized Officer Decklan was flirting with me and not just being nice. I glanced at him again, both horrified that he was flirting right now and curious. He was handsome in a very clean cut militaristic way. His grin was crooked, his teeth not perfect and that was a bit endearing considering how perfect the rest of his face was. He also had a scar over his left eye that ran from his forehead, across his eyebrow and down to the corner of his eye. It didn't detract from him, it made him more interesting and less intimidating as far as his hotness level. He was cute, and that threw me too. Usually the guys that flirted with me were a lot older and sort of skeezebags. They liked shorter, slighter girls and wanted them to roleplay for them. This man wasn't that type, and he was looking at me like a woman with definite interest. I looked down again, my face heating. I wasn't in a place for dating. But maybe for a fun fling? Something to distract me and get my mind off of things? Make me feel better if only for a night?

I started talking to him a bit more, letting him distract me and flirt with me. I even offered him smiles and his grin made his face light up.

The large officer came over. "We have everything we need, ma'am, you can go back in if you want. All of the remains are gone and I made sure my boys cleaned up after themselves."

"Thank you sir, but I'm not staying. Umm... do you think someone would mind locking the place up? My bike is in the garage so I don't need back in there."

"If that's what you need," the large man nodded, sounding confused. He went back to the house to lock it up.

"It's awful cold for a bike," Officer Decklan said quickly as soon as the man was gone. "I could give you a ride to wherever you're going."

"It's ok, I'll want my bike to get around tomorrow. I'm just going to a hotel. Do you know where there's a hotel around here?"

"A hotel? You sure? I... I know I probably shouldn't offer, but I have an extra bedroom? And I can go in and get your clothes and stuff for you?"

"Umm... I don't actually have a change of clothes, I was going to the laundry mat tomorrow. I don't have much by way of clothes right now. Umm... I'm here because my house burned down with all my stuff. This house is what I have to work with and I've been focused on making it live-in ready."

"Explains the paint smell," he smiled. "That settles it. I'm giving you a ride and you're staying the night at my place. In the morning, breakfast at Denny's and a bit of retail therapy. Whad'ya say?"

"You don't have to work tomorrow?"

"This is my Friday night. My name is... and no jokes please, Dash."

"Dash? Like the punctuation?"

"Short for Dashiel. It's a family name."

"That's not so bad," I shrugged.

"Maybe for someone named Sunny," he grinned. "I bet you're used to the comments too."

I glanced at him, blushing. "Actually, you'd be the first," I told him, feeling a little insulted. "Usually people like my name, those who bother to learn it."

"I didn't mean offense! I just meant it's unusual too."

"My mom named me," I told him, thinking about my mom. "She said when she was pregnant, I would get really active and I just wouldn't quit moving. Middle of the night I was doing somersaults and my 'Jane Fonda' as she called it. She started singing to me, but the only song that ever worked was 'You are my sunshine'. I would always go still through the entire song and if she sang it long enough, I would fall asleep and she could sleep too. So she named me Sunny."

"That's sweet. Sorry if you thought I meant offense. I catch hell from the guys all the time. It's such an old fashioned name and it fell out of circulation completely. Now people only know it from that cartoon movie."

"I think it's cool."

"So, ride back to my place?"

"Don't you have to go clock out?"

"I was going to get you settled into the extra room first so you could get some sleep. C'mon," he smiled, standing and offering me a hand. I let him help me up and lead me to the cruiser. His partner was in the passenger seat, sleeping and didn't wake up until Dash got in the front and slammed the door.

The man jerked and sat up, looking around. "Fuck. Finally man. Dude, I get ALL the fucking wingman points tonight, you owe me. You at least get her number?"

Dash chuckled and pulled away as I sat in the back wide eyed.

"Is that a yes or a no? You ask her out? She say yes? She must've, you're too goddamn giddy. Fuck. It's fucking late, man. Fucking speak, dude, did she say yes or not?"

"I didn't ask her out," Dash laughed.

"Did you get her number at least?!?"

"Nope."

"Dude, what the fuck? All that time wasted? I guess you know where she fucking lives and you can check in on her. How fucking messed up was that? Finding a fucking body while cleaning house? She's fucking cute, though. If you like short and waify. Exactly your type. Why do you like the short chicks so much, man?"

"They always have bigger personalities and adorable tempers. Plus, I just think it's sexy as hell. And yeah, she's cute."

"So why didn't you get her number? You didn't think she'd be up for fucking yet? Playing it slow and being all understanding and all that shit?"

Dash laughed again, amused greatly by his friend shoving his foot deeper down his throat. "It never came up. You could try being a bit more understanding and nice yourself you know. Might make it past two dates if you were."

"Whatever, girls love assholes and they love men in uniform. What's the point of more than two dates anyway as long as they put out? Fuck I'm tired. Where the fuck are you going?"

"My place."

"We have to clock out and do paperwork asshat."

"I'm dropping her off first," Dash grinned. "Tucking her into the extra bedroom at my place." He motioned his head back and the other guy finally turned around and looked at me, his look incredulous.

"Jesus fucking christ, asshole, you could'a said something!"

"What was the fun in that?"

"Do you know what the Captain will do if he knows you brought her to your house?!?"

"He won't find out. Don't worry about it man, this is my call. Even so, I think he'd understand, she's had a shitty day and a hotel all alone will not help."

The man looked back at me again, looking embarrassed. "Sorry," he grumbled. "Derreck."

"Sunny," I offered softly.

"Cute," he answered, turning a little more in his seat. "Really though, if I'd known you were here I wouldn't have said all that."

I shrugged. "I've heard worse. My best friends were all hockey players, I don't think anyone could say anything that would shock me anymore or offend me. They sort of made me immune."

"I can see that. Not a lot of hockey around here?"

"I'm from up north. Came here to see the house I'd inherited and clean it up a bit."

"Sorry about that. Bet that sucked. Still, you don't have to be afraid to stay there, you know. That corpse has been there for decades and never bothered no one. People die every day, it's nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm sure you understand if it spooked me a bit and I wanted to spend tonight of all nights away."

"Oh, right. Halloween. You know that's just superstitious nonsense, right?"

"I know that, and logically it makes sense. Logic doesn't help much when I'm all alone in a huge old mansion where I just found a body in the basement that might be related to me. Your mind can get the better of you in those cases, no matter how logical it all sounds in the daylight."

"Related?" Dash asked. "You never mentioned that he might be related?"

"Well... the house has been in my family for a long time. It was my great grandmothers, then my grandmothers and now mine."

"That will change the paperwork a bit and if it's alright we'd like to get a sample of your DNA? To see if it's a match?"

"Sure," I shrugged.

"So, we're gonna go ahead and go into the station and get that done right away so the Captain doesn't know I fucked up," he laughed, turning at the next street. "I should have thought to ask if it might be a relation. I guess I just thought, you know, young as you are you just came into the house buying and selling. Not a lot of people inherit a house that old through family that long ago, you know? So many lose it to taxes or whatever, especially a place like that. Historical societies usually try and put pressure on owners as well to have those houses declared and put on a registry."

I shrugged. "No one has contacted me and I've owned it since my Gramma passed a few years back. I let the tenants stay until they moved out and it's been empty since the last renters moved out. That's why I'm here."

"That's what you said, your house burned down where you were?"

"Yeah."

"You had no family close?" Derrick asked.

"My mom was in the house when it burned down," I told him softly.

"Shit!" Dash winced. "I'm so sorry! Geez, you're really having a shit month! I feel like a shitheel now!"

I shrugged and decided to be completely open and blunt so he didn't get the wrong idea. "Don't feel bad, sometimes even women need to just forget about shit for a while and just have a good fuck to feel something else, even for a night."

Derrick's eyebrows shot up as he looked at Dash and Dash's mouth opened slightly as he turned the rearview mirror to look at me.

I gave him an unapologetic smile and shrugged. "That is what you were wanting, right? A quick fling? A fun night with an easy target?"

Derrick laughed, shaking his head. "Oh, Darlin' if that's what you want you have the wrong guy! Why don't you come home with me instead? Dash there'll have a ring on your finger in a week. He's a hopeless romantic and wants the family life."

"Shut up Derrick," Dash scowled. "If she only wants a night of fun, I can do that too."

"Bullshit," Derrick laughed. "You never would have turned on the charm if you didn't want more! Darlin', this one is not for you! You'd chew him up and spit him out and he'd be pining and moping for a month! Over one night!" he guffawed.

"Maybe you should take me to a hotel," I told Dash, looking out the window and refusing to be embarrassed.

"No, it's fine. We don't have to sleep together or date for you to stay the night in a comfortable, warm bed that doesn't have bedbugs or gross DNA everywhere. And he's just being a dick. I'm up for whatever you need."

"He says that, but he's hoping he does you so right you never wanna leave his place!" Derrick wheezed, still laughing.

"Maybe he will," I told Derrick, wanting to shut him up. "Or maybe I'll do him so right he won't allow me to get out of bed for a week, or out of the house until I swear to say yes to him. You never know. As much as I love to give oral, he may not be coherent for a few days anyway, I'll be able to slip out while he's passed out from exhaustion."

"Fuuuuuck," Derrick laughed. "I HATE you!" he told Dash, who was blushing furiously.

I could see right away, Dash was not my type. So incredibly shy about that sort of thing and if Derrick was right, he was too emotional and clingy. I was only in for a night of fun, not a relationship. Still, I didn't have to make him uncomfortable in front of his friend.

"I'm just teasing," I told Derrick, though I wasn't at all. "About all I'm up for is a long shower before I pass out. If Dash has a t-shirt I can throw on after a shower?"

"Yeah, of course," Dash answered quickly. "Ok, this will be a fairly quick in and out here. We only need to swab your cheek and fix the paperwork, then we're good. Ok?"

"Got it," I nodded, feeling a lot more calm now. Dash was a sweet prude, he wasn't going to put the hard moves on me or pressure me. Not that that would have bothered me, I had no problems saying no when I wanted to, but I usually didn't want to. I liked to be told what to do and bossed around and controlled. It was hot as hell for a guy to handle me roughly and use a little force.

I'd never really been in a long term relationship, but I'd had sexual partners that lasted a long while. Friends with benefits, so to speak, and one enemy with benefits. We hated each other, but we loved to fuck. He was rough with me and loved to punish me and force me to do things and I reveled in it. It was an understanding we had, no feelings, just fucking. The day he came up to me in the dining hall and put an arm around me, kissing my neck in public, I ended it. I was good with benefits, but not with more, especially not with him. He really was an asshole, so when he came at me with PDA and softness, I moved on quickly. Fun flings, no commitment. It made things easier.

The DNA swab was easy, it was harder to sit and wait on Dash to finish his paperwork. I was half falling asleep at the chair next to the desk where he was working.

"You're here late," a woman called, moving close.

"Yeah, the body over in old town just wrapped up."

"You stayed for all of it?"

"Yeah. You're overnights now?"

"Only for two weeks while Donovan is on paternity leave. Why, miss me?" she teased with a bright smile.

I glanced at her, then Dash. She had it bad for him and he was trying hard to pretend he didn't know it. "Always miss you when you're gone, Lisa! Who else can put Derrick in his place like you do? It's always fun to watch."

"This is your Friday, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Saturday now," he laughed.

"You probably won't be up when I get off work then. If you are, I'm going to head to Denny's on my way home, have breakfast. You should meet me there."

"I have plans," he told her quickly. "A date."

"In the morning?" she asked, confused and a little offended like she thought he was lying.

"Yeah," he nodded, still focusing on his work. "Breakfast and a bit of shopping."

"Retail therapy," I corrected. "And we are NOT getting up that early. By the time I'm done with you, we'll probably still be up, but we'll be sleeping past noon after."

The woman went still, looking at me in surprise. Dash didn't look up as he focused on his paperwork. "Ladies choice," he shrugged, though he was blushing. "If you'd rather, I can just make you breakfast in bed?"

"Mmm, pancakes and strawberries?"

He laughed. "We'd have to go out for that, I can make scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs."

"Tough choice," I smiled, then looked at the woman. "Hello. I'm Sunny, Dash's girlfriend."

"Oh... I didn't know he was seeing anyone. Umm, Lisa. Nice to meet you."

"You know Dash, he's not one to kiss and tell or talk about his personal life. He was out late and had to swing by and pick me up, my bike broke down."

"Like... motorcycle?"