Zip it, Locket

“Hello, are you Mrs. Ceiver,” the friendly voice asked, standing on the well-manicured porch of 55 Iris Lane. She was tall and thin, most likely underweight for her height and age, and wore a plain, cream colored dress which appeared to be two sizes too big. The woman stood still with a smile on her face, almost as if she were made of plastic, yet her eyes seemed to tell a tale of great pain behind her perfectly put-on facade. For she wanted to play the role of somebody else, to appear faultless despite the coffee stain across her left bosom, and so far, the lady of 55 Iris Lane was buying every second of it. 

“Well, are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Why, Mrs. Ceiver,” the woman in the cream dress giggled. 

“Oh, uh, yes I am,” the homeowner stuttered. “Please, call me Dee.”

The Ceivers were one of the wealthiest families in the Northeast, and although they lived in the small town of Confidence, almost everyone in the surrounding area knew their names. There was Robert, Eliza, Timothy, and Dee, of course, and each member was far more prim and proper than the last. 

The Ceivers were widely celebrated for their good nature and influence, always giving back to the community and assisting wherever help was needed. In fact, Timothy and Dee ran the food pantry down at the local parish, and would always double, if not triple, the final number of canned goods received. 

However, just as with anyone who holds a clean reputation, talk of a possible dark side was just as widespread. There was a rumor which stated that the Ceivers were so rich and powerful, they could get whatever they wanted, even wipe a slate completely clean if they were the ones to soil it. 

“Well hello Dee,” the woman on the porch continued. “Is your family home by any chance?”

Dee called for her husband and children, who quickly joined her in the doorway, though all four members had the same look of confusion upon their faces.

“I’m sorry but, who exactly are you,” Dee asked, “And what exactly can my family and I help you with today?”

“My name is Scarlett Green,” the woman on the porch replied, “And I have some very exciting news to share with you all today! You see, I’m from the town of Justice only a couple hours South. Have you ever heard of the town of Justice?”

“Sounds familiar,” Timothy replied.

“Well I work for the local newspaper there, and we started a new section about six months ago, following the disappearance of a little girl.” 

Scarlett shuttered for a moment before restoring her plastic smile, for she didn’t want to ruin the soon-to-be happy news for the Ceivers. 

“That disappearance, uh, really shook our little community, and we were looking for something to distract the public, shed a bit of light during such a time of darkness. So, us folks at the paper decided we would highlight a family each week for their acts of kindness, and you, my friends, have officially been chosen!”

Dee shook her head back and forth and took a step towards Scarlett, her slender arms crossing in front of her in a highly skeptical manner. 

“But I don’t understand,” she said, “We aren’t residents of Justice. Why would people in your community want to hear about what we do here in Confidence?”

Scarlett paused for a second, dumbfounded by the response, then shifted the position of her body for the first time since standing on the porch. 

“Since Justice is such a small town,” she said, “We decided to open our column to the Northeast as a whole. And besides, EVERYONE knows who the Ceivers are. Now is not the time to be so humble,” Scarlett laughed. 

Dee quickly uncrossed her arms and gave Scarlett a warm smile, as such an explanation made complete sense to her. Timothy put his arm around his wife’s waist and pulled her into his side, proud to hear that the family name was so popular. 

“Oh that’s just perfect,” Scarlett suddenly exclaimed. “You see, all I need from you today is a family photo. What do you say we grab one right here and right now? Everyone looks so wonderful and I happen to have my camera here.”

Scarlett pulled out a tiny digital camera from her handbag, holding it up to her left eye without a word of agreement from the Ceiver family. 

“Okay everyone get real close now,” her finger trembled above the shutter-release. “Eliza, Robert, can you come to the front for me please? 

She began to apply pressure on the button, focusing on the subjects in front of her, her finger stiff as bone as it pushed down on the tiny circle beneath it.  

Then, like the snap of tough, pink bubblegum in a quiet room….CLICK!

“I got you now,” Scarlett muttered underneath her breath.

The once cheerful news woman's demeanor suddenly changed, the smile wiping from her lips as the camera passed like some silly party trick. And just like that, the smiles on the Ceiver’s faces quickly dissipated as well, and suddenly, the lady of 55 Iris Lane no longer believed the woman in the cream dress.

“Who are you,” Dee questioned. 

Scarlett laughed.

“You’re not really from Justice, are you?”

“Oh, I’m from Justice alright,” Scarlett replied sharply. “But we don’t have a local newspaper,” she glared.

Scarlett tipped her body forward now, placing a hand on her stomach, taking a bow for her spectacular performance, one which would change her life. 

“My name is Sharon Wright,” she continued, “Does that happen to ring a bell?”

Dee’s eyes grew wide with fear as if she had just seen a ghost. 

“Ahhhh you see that, now THAT’S the response I was looking for, " Sharon gestured towards Dee with a guilty finger. “I know what you did to that little girl from Justice,” she accused. “I know what you did to my daughter!” 

“Now wait just a second here,” Timothy began, but Sharon was sure to cut him off before he could speak another word.

“Olivia Wright, 9-years-old, missing since July 6, 2022, just two days after her favorite holiday in the entire world. I dropped her off in Confidence the afternoon of July 1st, where she would be staying with a friend for the week, only a few doors down from the beloved Ceivers,” Sharon sneered. “But, when I came to pick my daughter up on July 6th, nobody knew what had happened to her. Not her friend, not the parents, no, not even the police. People had told me she ‘left already’’ that she was ‘picked up by her father’, but Olivia’s father has been dead for about 5 years now. 

The Ceivers stood frozen. 

“My daughter had virtually disappeared, at least that’s what the town of Confidence wanted me to believe, but Olivia is all that I have left and I could simply not accept that. So I started doing some digging around town, trying to solve the case on my own, when one day, I found myself at a coffee shop down the block. And do you know who came walking into that shop after school that day?” 

Sharon slowly pointed a guilty finger towards Eliza now.

“You see, Olivia had a special locket, she wore it every day, and I could recognize that locket from a hundred miles away. I saw Eliza wearing my daughter’s locket in the coffee shop that day, just as she is wearing it right now in front of me,” Sharon’s voice trembled. “I don’t know what happened when I left my daughter in this town, but I DO know who is responsible for her disappearance. I will NOT allow this secret to remain in the dark any longer, and now, with this precious family photo, I have all the evidence I need.” 

Sharon shook the camera in front of Dee’s face before stepping off the porch. She grabbed her keys from her handbag and began making her way towards her car. 

“Wait,” Dee yelled from the doorway, her voice loud and clear. 

Sharon turned around to see the lady with her head in her freshly-manicured hands. 

“We always wanted to tell the truth, we just didn’t know how, " she cried. “But I’m ready to make things…right.” 

Sharon walked up the driveway once more, stunned but still skeptical, as this was the moment she had been waiting to occur for the last six months. 

Dee crept forward now and smoothed her crisp, cotton skirt, “I’m ready to tell you the truth, Sharon.”

“Olivia and her friend had knocked on our door on the afternoon of July 3rd, asking if Eliza wanted to come out to play, since she is the same age. Instead, Eliza invited the girls inside to play with her, but only Olivia was interested in doing so.” 

Dee took a deep breath. 

“They were upstairs in her room for hours, I could hear them giggling,” she continued, “but before I knew it, Eliza came running downstairs in complete hysterics. I couldn't even understand what she was saying at first because her words were completely slurred. That’s when she took me upstairs to see what had happened. 

“It was just an accident,” Eliza interrupted, seemingly apologetic.  

Sharon gasped and held her chest as she learned of her daughter’s fate. 

“We panicked when we found out that Olivia was from out of town, so we called the cops and asked to make a deal,” Dee explained.

“A very expensive deal,” Timothy added with a smug grin. 

Dee smacked her husband across the chest with the back of her hand. 

“We were even able to pay off Olivia’s friend, as well as any other witnesses,” Dee continued. “It was, well, just like you said. Like your daughter had disappeared off the face of the earth.”

Sharon stood completely still yet trembled in place, like her body was stuck in a block of ice with enough room to simply shiver. She took a step towards the Ceiver family before falling to her knees, the camera hitting the ground beside her with another loud ‘CLICK’. 

Dee walked over to the crumbling mother, “There, there,” she whispered. “How about we get you inside for a nice, cold drink, and then we can all head down to the police station and sort this out.”

Sharon remained on the ground in her block of ice, motionless and mute. 

“Timothy, can you give me a hand with our friend Sharon here,” Dee called. 

The couple surrounded both sides of the mother, placing an arm on each of their shoulders, walking her back towards 55 Iris Lane, though her feet dragged across the pavement. 

Dee then leaned into Sharon’s right ear, her lips practically pressed against the skin, “Everything is going to be alright again,” she gravely whispered.  

Just a few weeks following Sharon’s visit, the Ceivers did in fact make it in the paper, front page as one would expect for such large and notorious doing. Yes, the Ceivers had decided to quadruple the number of cans in the food pantry this year, landing them the cover spot of the well-loved Confidence Chronicle. “Ceivers Strike Again” the headline simply read, which was paired with a darling family photo of the group in front of their home. However, readers were shocked to see Dee looking a little less prim and proper than usual, as the lady was wearing a cream colored dress with a coffee stain across the left bosom.