a cold summer

Chapter Six ~ Some Intriguing Homework

I walked as fast as I could over to the glass building. I still didn't know what it was called so I referred to it as the glass building. It was by far the most interesting looking building on the island.

I opened the doors and was immediately greeted by Geoff who was serving Barry coffee and laughing heartily. This seemed like such a great place to work. I decided that if I ever opened a marine research facility, I would model it off this building.

"What can I get for you?" Geoff asked enthusiastically.
I took a minute to look at the menu. They did indeed have sausage rolls.
"Can I get a sausage roll please?" I asked.
Geoff smiled. "Sure thing."

With my sausage roll in hand, I entered the main office with Barry and Geoff. Xara and Stella were already inside, deep in conversation.
"Ah, Rain. Welcome back," said Stella, who was polishing off a croissant.
"Shall we go through then?" asked Xara.
"Through where?" I asked.
"To the main research office," Barry answered.

Stella gestured to a room on the right which I hadn't noticed before. We followed her quietly.

Inside the room was a large conference table with multiple proper chairs surrounding it. This room had a different tone to the rest of the building. It felt more serious; this at least gave me hope that these people knew what they were doing. The table was covered with a substantial amount of photos, maps, files and random pieces of paper. I was surprised at how much research they had compiled in such a short space of time.

I sat at the end of the table and took a bite of my sausage roll. It truly was delicious.

Xara sat at the other end with Stella next to her and Barry and Geoff sat at either side.
"Let's begin then," Stella announced.

Stella picked up an old photograph of a house and a garden next to a loch. In horror, I realised it was my house.

"We usually start by looking into the history of the location," Stella began. "The house was built in 1887 as a summer home for two extremely wealthy socialites - Crawford and Angelica Astor. They liked how this area had sunny spells in both summer and winter."

I looked at the photograph. There was a man and a woman standing in the garden with two children who seemed familiar. I gasped. The two children were the same we had seen running off into the dark forest when Xara and her team were inspecting Jesse and Isa's bodies. I also noticed in the photograph that the dark forest wasn't there. Instead I could see that both sides of forest looked like the emerald forest, despite the picture being in black and white.

"We saw those children," I stammered. "In the forest."
Xara still looked deeply disturbed. "I know."

Stella continued. "The first time they visited the house was actually in winter, to hold their kids birthday party. That's when this photo was taken. But the trees are evergreen trees which is why they still look green. And if you look closely, you can see some snow on the ground."

Sure enough, there were lumps of snow scattered around the garden. I stared deep into the photo but couldn't wring any more information from it.

Barry then unfolded a map next to it. "This is the original plot of land. Both of the forests as well as the loch were actually part of the house and were owned by the Astors."

I looked at the map. I found it amazing that the entire vicinity was owned by just one family. If the land boundaries were still the same today, I would own both forests as well as the loch itself.

"Anyway," Geoff continued. "As we said before, the Astors first came to the house in order to celebrate their kids birthday. But it didn't end well." He pointed to a newspaper clipping with the headline 'Astor Children Found Dead at Birthday Party'.