Read Finding Susan for Free Online

there, but its legs weren’t.   Maybe they were in the dining room proper.   She could imagine rats deciding that the table didn’t belong in the kitchen, and starting to move it piece by piece.   Good for them.
    A light switch was on the nearby wall.   Kate flicked it on, not expecting much.   Why would there still be electricity, after all?   She’d packed a couple of camping lanterns to use out in the car.   But the lights came on for a second, then something sparked and they shut off.   Kate could hear sizzling along the wall, and she slapped the light switch back off.
    “Note to self – stop doing anything,” she said aloud.   Her voice sounded weak and small inside the massive house.   It felt like the entire place was built for its belittling effect – the ceilings were too high, even here in the kitchen, and it looked like the counter was built at an odd height.   Oh well – it was Kate’s house now, she could do whatever she wanted with it.  
    And the first thing she wanted to do was leave it and go grab a room in a motel.   Preferably one far away from Whispering Pines and big old annoying Blake Spanner.  
    The more she thought about the time they spent together the more irked she felt.   He wasn’t even cordial! She wasn’t some twelve year old brat trying to best him at everything anymore.   He was better left ignored, she decided.
    Then why was she spending all this time thinking about him? That was another question to leave alone, but she knew she wouldn’t.   It was part of being a lawyer that she could never let go: questions had to be followed to their logical conclusions, even if she didn’t like the answers.   Information was there to be processed and understood, and she didn’t understand why Blake Spanner kept coming to mind.  
    Maybe because the house was so depressing.   She stopped in the downstairs bathroom and turned on the faucet as a test.   After a few seconds of it chugging like an old motor giving up the ghost, some black stuff masquerading as water sputtered out, and then some brown.   Once the leaves came out Kate was bored with the novelty – she just wanted water.  
    After a solid minute of spewing filth, water, clean and good, finally did start to pour.   This meant that the showers upstairs and down should work, though she wasn’t certain whether the water heater would.   She went back to the front room, ducking twice under complex meshes of webs, and kicked at the knee high pile of mail that had been placed there.   She tried to ignore the sound of tiny little insect feet scuttling from their hiding places inside the pile, and looked for a gas bill.  
    It was resting next to its friends the phone bill and the electricity bill.   Bright red letters were printed on all the envelopes, saying things like “Final Notice” or “Repossession Imminent”.   Funny that most things still seemed to be working.   Still, it was comforting to know that she would still have to pay for all the utilities, even if things didn’t work.   Aunt Gladys had left behind a healthy sum of cash as well as the house, but most of it had gone to pay off the inheritance tax.   If she wanted to actually get this place up and running, she’d have to dig into her own coffers.  
    Kate sat down on a small pillow of junk mail on the floor and shone the light up on the high ceiling.   A light fixture was there, but she wasn’t about to try and turn it on.   The whole place might go up.   She would need an electrician, maybe a plumber, a gas man...   and she hadn’t even given any consideration to her accommodations.   Maybe she’d be right here on the floor with the bugs and the mail.   She opened the front door to let the last rays of external light shine in.
    There was precious little illumination out there, but it did brighten the gloom a little bit. It also gave Kate a good view of her car.   It was a cute little PT Cruiser she’d bought just a couple of