36.

~ Romero had every intention of visiting Norma that evening, but things never go as planned in White Pine Bay.

"What was your daughter wearing when she disappeared?" Alex asked Sherry Harper.

The worried mother of three wiped her face dry and took a moment to think.
"What she always wears. Jeans and a blue shirt with a panda on it. She got it when we went to the zoo last year. It's her favorite shirt. I always make sure to wash it for her first thing." Mrs. Harper said and tried not to cry again.
"How old is she again?" Romero asked.

Other police officers were looking over the house while he was taking the statement from the parents. The three of them were huddled in the living room of the working class home. A home that, like Norma Bate's home, was clean, inviting and comfortable. Evidence of a well cared for little girl with brown hair and glasses were littered all over the house. From art work on the fridge, to Disney movies in the VHS boxes on the bookshelf. Even the child's rain boots, red swampers with ladybugs on them, sat in the foyer as if expecting the girl to come home any second.

The missing girl's father answered for his wife who couldn't hold back tears.

"Gemma is eight. She's in the second grade now, but she's been the advanced class since last year. She's very smart. She started reading when she was only five. She's a good girl, to. Always does what she's told. She knows to come home as soon as it gets dark and today, she never did." Mr. Harper told Romero.
"Did you call her friends? Kids might have lost track of the time if they were playing." Alex offered.

Both parents shook their heads.

"No, I know all her friends and I have their numbers." the girls mother insisted. "And Gemma knows better than to not call us. She's a good girl, Deputy. She's really very well behaved."

"I know she is." Romero agreed sadly.

Alex looked at the recent school picture of the missing girl her parents gave him. She was a plain little creature with oversized glasses that were probably made for an old lady. It was unfortunate how they obscured her small face. Gemma smiled back at him from her photo with a crooked overbite. Her naturally curly brown hair was pinned back in a pony tail revealing large ears. But all her oddities would no doubt change over time. Her glasses, teeth and hair were temporary hindrances to her looks. Gemma Harper was the kind of little girl who looked funny today, but would become a stunning young woman tomorrow.

He scribbled some notes before asking the harder questions.

"Is there any custody disputes in progress? Relatives or caregivers who might have taken your daughter? Anything like that?" he asked.

"What? Why would anyone think they have custody of Gemma?" Mrs. Harper questioned. "We're her parents."

"We just need to explore all possibilities." Romero said in his always trusted stoic voice.

"You have to find our daughter, Deputy." Mr. Harper insisted while his wife dissolved into tears again. His own voice was breaking apart now as he tried to bargain for his daughter to come back. "She's an only child. We… we need her to come home. She just needs to come home so… so we know she's safe."

"We're not mad at her." Mrs. Harper said once she'd composed herself. "If she thinks she's in trouble for not calling us, she's not. You make sure she knows that. We just want her to come home."

Alex nodded.

"We're doing everything we can." he said.

A horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach made him think there was nothing that could be done for Gemma Harper now.

~ Norma woke up early for work. She called the hospital to check on Norman and the nurse even let her talk to her youngest child, her little boy seemed happier today. He told her, in his own broken words of a three year old, that he wanted to come home.

"Soon. Really soon, honey." Norma promised.

If she didn't have to go to work, she would have been there for him all day. But she was still having money troubles and couldn't afford to miss another day.

"Is Norman still sick?" Dylan asked.

"We don't know if he's sick or not." Norma told her oldest.

She was getting him ready for school and her mind was so occupied by Norman's medical problems, she had completely forgotten Alex had never come by last night. It wasn't until the sight of his SUV pulling up that she remembered him at all.

She was about to leave the house when Alex stepped down from his patrol SUV and walked up to meet mother and son.
"How's Norman?" he asked.

Norma saw that his face looked especially drawn and worried. He seemed nervous and his eyes were sadder than usual.

"He sounded a lot better when I talked to him this morning." Norma offered after she looked the Deputy over.

"That's good." Alex agreed.

"Are you okay?" she asked suspiciously. She felt something might be wrong with him and it made her uneasy.

Alex looked away.

"I need to talk to you and Dylan for a second." he said soberly.

~ Norma sat down at her kitchen table with Alex and Dylan.

"Sorry I didn't call or come by last night." Alex said quickly.
"It's okay." Norma said. "Do you need some coffee or something? I can make you something to eat."

"No, it's fine." he shook his head.

Alex looked at Norma's oldest.

"Dylan, do you know a girl named Gemma Harper? She's two grades ahead of you, but she's in your advanced class." he asked. He pulled out a school picture of a rather plain girl with big glasses.

"Yeah." Dylan said eagerly. "She's really weird. She likes lizards. Girls aren't supposed to like lizards."

"Do you know if anyone, was scaring her? Did she ever talk to you about people she didn't like?" Romero asked.

"Alex, what happened?" Norma asked. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Romero shook his head.

"Anyone in your advanced class make you or Gemma feel uncomfortable?" he asked.

Dylan shook his head.
"No. Everyone likes Gemma, sometimes the mean girls laugh at her." the little boy said.

"Who are the mean girls?" Alex asked.

"The fourth grade girls. They're really mean and Gemma wishes they weren't. But we don't see them because they aren't in the advanced class." Dylan explained. "Is Gemma okay?"

Alex didn't answer at first. Norma looked him over again. Saw his jaw working back and forth from clenched teeth.
"No, Dylan." he said carefully. His voice grave and his words coming out slowly. "Gemma Harper never came home last night."

~ Alex knew Norma would be upset. He didn't want to compound her problems with her youngest with the news that a little girl was missing from Dylan's school.

"God, Alex. It's so scary." she breathed once they were done talking in the kitchen. The two of them stood outside on her porch. It was a wet morning, rain was hovering over them in thick grey storm clouds.

Dylan didn't know the names of the 'mean girls' and couldn't think of any adults who would want to hurt Gemma. The fact was, Gemma Harper just didn't seem the type of girl who would go missing. She was smart enough to know not to talk to strangers, and there didn't seem to be any domestic problems in the family. Her natural parents were still married and they both doted on the only child, giving her their full attention in all things. A girl like Gemma was the least likely child to just vanish.

"Most of the time, in these situations, it's a custody dispute." Alex said reassuringly.

"Do you think that's what it is?" Norma asked skeptically. Her upper lip going into a sneer of doubt at the idea that it was so simple.

"No." Alex admitted bitterly. "Make sure Dylan stays in the house when the two of you get home today, okay?"

"Okay." Norma agreed quickly. She looked back at him hopefully and nodded in agreement.
"In the house with the doors locked. No playing outside, not even in the back yard." Alex reminded her. He was a little surprised she hadn't argued against his orders. It was always her way to be combative with him, or anyone else; about everything.
"Yes. We're going to stay in the house. I promise." she said submissively.

"Good."

Perhaps it was the feeling that he'd won an argument with her for the first time ever, but Alex decided it was time to celebrate the victory. As if he'd done it a thousand times before, he leaned over and kissed her. He could feel how soft and delightfully defiant her lips were at being kissed without warning.

He made their first kiss efficient and without the passion or promise of something more. Perhaps it was how quickly it was over and not the kiss itself that made Norma look so surprised. Her eyes were wide and were the color of a clear summer sky when he pulled away.

"I'll come by tonight." he said matter of factly. She nodded and didn't appear to be angry, just slightly taken off guard.

He leaned down and kissed her again, just to remind her he'd won this round, and felt her lips give into him a little easier. When he pulled away, she still looked shocked and embarrassed.
"Alright?" he asked.

She nodded quickly.
"Yeah." she said. Pretending as if nothing too important had happened.
"See you tonight." he said and turned to go. He waved to Dylan who was already waiting in the car. Dylan waved back and Romero climbed back into his SUV and started the engine. Alex's own lips felt strangely energetic from finally kissing the sun.

~ All anyone in town talked about was Gemma Harper's disappearance. The school had a mandatory meeting about stranger danger, and Sheriff Wilson even held a press conference about parents keeping their children indoors. The little girl had just vanished from her own neighborhood and no one knew what happened to her.

Search dogs were brought out to go over the places she was known to go. Sheriff Wilson and Deputy Romero were pessimistic about finding Gemma Harper alive and well.

"Stranger things have happened." Alex commented. He was driving Sheriff Wilson from the court house where he'd just given the press conference. "It might be that she's perfectly safe and hiding at a friends house. Maybe she thought it would be a good prank on her parents and now she's scared to come home."

"If that's all there is to this, I'll be a happy man, Alex." Wilson grumbled darkly. "But we both know how this is likely to end."

"We can't think like that Sheriff." Romero shook his head.

Wilson looked at his Deputy as if he'd suddenly sprouted an extra head.
"What?" Romero asked.

"Since when did Alex Romero become so optimistic?" Wilson asked.

Alex refused to answer. He knew perfectly well why he wasn't his normal grumpy self this morning.

"I was just glad to see the sun this morning." Alex sighed.

"It was cloudy and over cast this morning." Wilson said accusingly.

"Sheriff, we were talking about finding this girl." Romero said wanting to change the subject.

"Well, as I was saying, we can hope for the best, but we need to plan for the worst." Wilson said. "It's very likely that Gemma Harper isn't going to be found alive at a friend's house. Was the parent's home secure?"

"Yes. I spoke to them for over an hour while crime scene went through the bedrooms looking for any evidence of foul play." Alex admitted sadly. He hated to be apart of the diversion that allowed other Sheriff's deputies to basically sneak around the home of a missing child and look for anything that might indicate the parents in her disappearance.

"We always look at the parents first." Wilson said as if reading Alex's thoughts. "In cases like these, it's almost always someone the child knows intimately. Someone they trust not to hurt them. We can't just ignore the parents."

"I know but I don't see it in them." Alex confessed. "I've met violent murders, Tom. I've looked them right in the eyes. They always blame everyone else for what they did. They don't feel sorry for their victim, they're only sorry they got caught. In the beginning, they love the attention the police give them while investigating. Love to help us as much as they can. I didn't get that from the Harper's at all. They just want her back. I mean, it was like they needed her back home."

Wilson looked skeptical.

"And they never spoke about Gemma in the past tense either. Murders use past tense even if their victim hasn't been found, or has just died. Innocent people never accept death that quickly." Alex pointed out.

"I hope it's not the parents." Wilson agreed. "But it's apart of our job isn't it?"

"Yeah." Alex agreed soberly.

"We'll need to interview her teachers and friends." Wilson said.
"I already talked to one of her classmates." Alex said. "Norma Bates's son Dylan is in the same advanced class. He knows her a little and didn't think anyone was bothering her. I mean, aside from bullying classmates."

"Probably because she's one of the smart kids." Wilson said. "If Dylan is in the brainiac class, you'll need to teach him to fight, Alex."

"I'm sure Norma would love that." Romero said sarcastically.

"Well, it's an important skill for a boy to learn." Wilson told him. "How is Norma anyway?"

"Her son is in the hospital in Portland under a three day observation." Alex said. Wilson looked upset. "Some kind of sleeping problem since the accident. I think she worries too much, but you never know. Hopefully it's nothing and she just over reacted." Romero said.

"Well, hopefully that's all it is." Wilson agreed. "I've raised three kids of my own and it's a mother's job to over react if she thinks there's something wrong with her child."

"I know. I've just…" Alex let out a long sigh. "I've never been involved with a single mother before. It's a bit of a learning curve."

"Very true." Wilson agreed.

"Sheriff, we haven't had a child go missing for twenty years now." Alex said changing the subject. "I mean, drug dealers, adulterers, con men, sure. But a little girl from a working class household? Who's parents aren't associated with any of the families, or drug trade"

He drove to Gemma Harpers neighborhood where search and cadaver dogs were going from house to house.

"Yeah that unpleasant business at the old Summers house. I read the file a while back about the last kids who supposedly vanished." Wilson said. "Your dad worked that case. You knew one of the victims personally, didn't you?"

Alex nodded and watched the dogs hunting for a girl that was most likely dead.

"Yeah, I knew Brian. He was the oldest. We were in the same grade. He was nice." Romero admitted.

"Terrible thing." Wilson sighed. "How a mother could do that to her own children. Poison them. Force each one of them to drink drain cleaner. Then, burry their bodies in the basement and call them in as missing persons."

"Joyce Summers enjoyed the attention." Alex said bitterly. "She had a lot of people fooled."

"How old were you when it happened?" Wilson asked.

"I was Gemma Harper's age." Alex said softly.

He remembered the case very well. Remembered how Joyce Summers had claimed she woke up and her house had been broken into while she slept. All her children were missing from their beds. The Old Bear Romero hadn't believed her for a second. But he had been smart enough to pretend to go along. To listen to her. Pretend to feel sorry for her. To feed the woman's need for attention from police and neighbors. Giving her just enough rope to hang herself with.

Hang herself she did, and confessed through tears that her children were dead. His father helped pull five body bags out of the basement floor of the old Queen Anne style home on the highway. The guests at the motel below were shocked at seeing the police lights and the horrific sight of small body bags being wheeled out. The local paper taking pictures as the Sheriff and his men were forced to take each child's body down the long, concrete steps to the waiting coroner van below.

Alex grew up with the horror stories the other kids at school told him about Joyce Summers' haunted house. That the ghosts of the Summers children were there in the basement. It had been a terrific dare to sneak into the Summers house and especially the basement to try and summon the spirits.

The Old Bear got tired of being called by the family whenever teenagers decided to go ghost hunting. He'd arrest anyone who trespassed on the property after a while.

Soon, the once grand old house became the eye sore it was now. It's exterior paint was washed out from too many winters and summers of neglect. The trees and gardens were all dead. It looked every bit the haunted house Romero was sure it was.

"Yeah, Joyce Summers was Keith Summers aunt, right?" Wilson asked.
Alex nodded.

"Yeah, but no one lived in the old house after the murders." Alex explained. Romero couldn't shake the idea of those five children might still be haunting the beautiful old Queen Anne. He still believed what he'd heard in the fourth grade; from the bigger kids who sneaked into the house at night. The children's eyes glowed in the dark, and they wanted visitors to come to the basement with them.

"Joyce Summers killed herself in prison, right?" Wilson asked.

Alex nodded.

"She used bedsheets from her cell." he said.

"I only bring it up because your dad knew then that we can't overlook anyone just because we don't want to believe they're capable of something so awful." Wilson said. "No one wanted to believe Joyce Summers killed her five children. She was thought to be a good mother from a well to do family and she loved her children. No, they wanted to believe some intruder or motel guest came into the house and kidnapped the innocent while they slept. No one wanted to believe she buried them in her basement either. She said she put them there so that they would always be with her. No one wanted to believe any mother would do such a thing, but murder them she did. She brought them, one bye one, to the kitchen and forced them to drink drain cleaner. One after another without a second thought. So even if you don't want to believe the parents had anything to do with this disappearance, you have to suspect them. Everyone has it in them to destroy the thing they love the most, Alex. Never forget that."

Yes. The Queen Anne house is the Psycho house. I wanted it to be a scary house with a sordid history in this story. The glowing eyed children in the basement is from "The Conjuring 2". I love creepy ghost children!