Fairwood (a suspense mystery thriller) by Eli Yance

time, in which he’d been able to have some terrible food and suffer some terrible smells. Now he had to return to work, to his terrible boss.
     
     
    11
     
    The path that Dorothy suggested they take took them around the back of town, through a wash of green that decorated the bountiful landscape. It was like a different country, a land far removed, rather than a little town on the outskirts of Yorkshire.
     
    They viewed the town from the back, taking a path that overlooked the backs of a line of houses. They were separated from the back gardens by a tall wooden fence, through the slits of which they could see the peaceful, well maintained gardens.
     
    A young boy watched them from the second floor window of one of the houses. He was standing by the window as if waiting for them to pass. He stared at them, didn’t flicker when they smiled, didn’t falter when Pandora gave him a wave.
     
    “Why is everyone here so creepy?” she asked Dexter as they passed, keeping her voice low.
     
    Dexter shrugged. “We’re outsiders, I guess,” he reasoned. “This is the sort of place where everybody knows everybody else's business. They don’t welcome strangers.”
     
    “You’d think they’d need us,” Pandora noted. “We could probably dilute their gene pool a bit, phase out a bit of that inbreeding.”
     
    Dexter grinned at her, and then gestured for her to be silent, nodding towards the fence. They were out of sight from the little boy in the window but, a few houses down, through the slits in the fence, they saw the face of a young woman watching them, her rosy skin and her blonde hair visible as she poked her face close to the wood.
     
    “Hello there!” Dexter said loudly, letting her know she’d been seen.
     
    He expected her to back away shyly, to apologise or make up an excuse, but she didn’t move. Pandora gave her a smile as well, flashed another little wave, but still the woman didn’t budge.
     
    “Creepy,” Pandora hissed under her breath, lowering her eyes to the floor self-consciously as they passed the staring woman.
     
    “We’re new,” Dexter said when they’d left the muddy path that stretched the length of the fence. They crossed onto a pre-trodden path of grass, a shortcut to a river that ran silently ahead of them; its thin, weaving banks set deep in the lush green landscape, snaking off into the distance. “Give them time.”
     
    “I will,” Pandora said brightly. “I like it here, don’t get me wrong. It’s creepy, but it’s peaceful and Dorothy more than makes up for all the weirdoes.”
     
    Dexter nodded. “I used to live not too far from a village like this,” he told her. “In fact the village was where we went for some excitement.”
     
    Pandora grinned teasingly. “Sad, sad man.” she said slowly.
     
    “Yep.”
     
    “What did you do for fun?”
     
    He shrugged. “We used to spend our pocket money at the local shop, on sweets mostly. Hide and seek. Maybe ride our bikes--”
     
    “Penny farthings?”
     
    He gave her a displeased frown. “We had proper bikes.”
     
    “And what about on a night time,” she pushed, a slyness in her smile. “When all the chores were done. Did you all gather around the radio, play some cards?”
     
    He gave an amused nod. “Actually, we played a lot of cards.”
     
    “You were a kid in dire need of a Gameboy.”
     
    They stood by the river, watched the clean water rock gently by.
     
    “Should we go to this quiz thing tonight?” Pandora wondered, suddenly solemn as she stared at her reflection in the water.
     
    “I don’t see why not.”
     
    “Lot of people there, lot of chances to get noticed.”
     
    “I don’t think anyone here will notice us.”
     
    She turned to him, bemused. “What makes you say that?”
     
    “Have you noticed any newspapers, any televisions?”
     
    She gave it a brief thought. She had only been inside the bed and breakfast, but had seen nothing of the sort. It was standard to