The Kettle's Whistle

The kettle whistled, breaking the silence of the morning. The sound continued, screaming down the hallway and towards the bedrooms. Who had even put the water on? How long would the whistle go on for before someone finally turned it off?

Groggy with heavily disturbed slumber, Sarah rolled out of bed, her bare feet touching the cool wooden floor and reminding her she hadn’t cleaned in weeks.

“Jesus Christ,” Her door creaked open, “Would someone turn that god awful thing off!”

Silence answered her exclamation. Her roommate's bedroom sat with the door wide open. The light inside was off and the alarm clock was blinking. In her annoyance, Sarah didn’t notice anything to be amiss.

Sarah reached the kitchen and pulled the kettle away from the stove, steam encircling her wrist. The house was dark. With the absence of the kettle’s screaming, Sarah realized how uncomfortably, quiet and heavy the house was. Had it always been this cold? And who had put the kettle on?

“Rayna?” Sarah’s voice echoed back to her.

She tried to remember if her roommate had said she was going somewhere, but as far as she knew Rayna was staying home. She didn’t go out much, she never had. She was quiet and reserved and a bit of a neat freak. That was why Sarah had wanted to rent the apartment with her and not Lucy in the first place. Lucy. Last night, Sarah had gone to a local pub with Lucy. Hadn’t Rayna been home when she returned? Sarah tried to remember but couldn’t. Nothing seemed amiss though. Her car had been in the front yard, the door was unlocked.

The door was unlocked.

Rayna never left the door unlocked.

“Ranya!” Sarah walked from the kitchen to the living room, pausing when she passed in front of the window. The curtain was drawn, but the window itself was wide open. She didn’t remember that being open the night before. She would have remembered that right?

The hair on the back of her neck rose as she walked towards the window, as she got closer her palms began to sweat. Don’t be such a baby, she told herself. It was just an open window after all and they had lived here for months. She yanked the curtain aside and glanced outside. The sun was just barely rising, creating odd shadows in the yard and blanketing everything in a strange gray blue hue. The yard looked the same as it always did. Nothing was amiss except one of her planters was moved just a bit to the left of where she usually kept it. One of the flowers had been plucked. Maybe Rayna had moved it.

Sarah pulled the window down easily. They really needed to replace the screens. It was an older house and moving in had been their priority. Upkeep had fallen off the list of things to do.

“Rayna!” Sarah called again, walking down the hallway that seemed far too dark now. She felt along the wall for the lightswitch. It had been four months and she still couldn’t remember exactly where it was, but she knew it was close.

Finally, the light blinked on.

She almost wished it hadn’t.

The hallway light revealed a large stain on the carpet in the hallway. She couldn’t tell exactly what color it was or what had caused the stain in the first place, but its presence was enough to increase her already present anxiety. She cursed herself for not bringing her phone, but she hadn’t expected any of this to happen when she got up to turn off the kettle. The question still lingered, who had turned it on?

She was only a few feet away from Rayna’s room, but couldn’t bring herself to walk the final few feet. She was preparing herself to walk towards the open door when the sound of the doorbell rang through the house. Sarah let out a short screech of surprise before turning away from her roommates bedroom and going to the front door.

It was too early to have any visitors and it couldn’t possibly be Rayna. The door was unlocked, she would have tried it before ringing the bell. Could it be Lucy? Had Sarah forgotten something in her friend’s car? She didn’t think so.

Sarah slid the lock into place and then peered through the peephole. The porch light was still on, but the porch itself was empty.

Someone had just been there.

She hadn’t imagined the doorbell chime, it had been loud and clear and completely unexpected. She knew someone had just been there.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she turned back towards Rayna’s room. She quickly stopped in the kitchen, retrieving one of the sharpest knives they owned before continuing on her journey to check on her friend. Again, she passed the window she had just closed and again she walked past the stain that looked eerily like blood. But who would have bled that much in their hallway? And who would have put the kettle on?

Sarah stood just outside of Rayna’s open door, peering in as best she could. Rayna never left her door open. It was always properly closed, even when Rayna wasn’t in it. She liked her privacy and she liked order.

Sarah used the knife to flick on Rayna’s bedroom light before walking inside. The side table that had held the alarm clock, that was now laying on the ground blinking, was flipped over and its contents strewn across the floor. Sarah froze in place. The bedroom was completely empty. Rayna was nowhere to be seen. There was no one. Sarah had been alone this whole time, or at least her roommate hadn’t been there.

But someone had turned on the kettle. It only took fifteen minutes for it to reach temperature. But how long had it been going off before Sarah finally awoke to turn it off? She couldn’t be sure. Did it really matter? Someone had been there. She wondered if it was Rayna or someone else.

Without thinking about it too much, Sarah returned to her bedroom and threw on the first clothes she could find. The house wasn’t safe, that had become obvious. She pocketed her cell phone and prepared herself to go outside. The car wasn’t too far from the front door. But someone had rang the doorbell. She stood with her hand on the doorknob, debating if it was really safe to go outside. She couldn’t sit and wait.

Instead she dialed the police station.

“Dispatch, what is the emergency?”

“I’m not sure. I think there was a murder. Or an abduction. I’m not sure.”

“Ma’am where are you located?”

“972 East Court Street.”

“Are you in danger?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Are there signs of a struggle?”

“Yes. Please send an officer over. I think someone is still here.”

“There’s two officers in the area. They will be right there. Do you want to stay on the line?”

In response to her question, Sarah’s phone beeped signaling her dying battery. “No, I will wait. If they’re not here soon, can I call back?”

“Absolutely.”

Sarah hung up the phone and then plugged it into the charger after moving the charger to the living room. She would wait by the door. Surely, it wouldn’t take an officer long to get to her.

Every second seemed like an eternity and the silence stretched on. She almost missed the sound of the kettle screaming. Almost, but not quite.

Finally, there was a knock at the door. “Officer Johnson, please open up.”

Sarah exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and then swung the door open. One officer stood on the porch and she could see another walking around to the side of the house. Two police vehicles were parked in the lot, one said “K-9” on the side.

“May I come in?”

Sarah nodded and moved out of the way.

“You can put the knife down. I just want to ask you a few questions. Our dispatch said you think there was a murder or an abduction.”

“Yes.”

“What makes you say this?”

Sarah relayed the events from the past few hours. The sun was now turning everything a yellow-orange outside.

Sarah brought Officer Johnson to Rayna’s room and stood awkwardly in the doorway as he investigated. He didn’t move many things, but she watched him take pictures with his cell phone. As he stared at the overturned side table, Sarah’s mouth went dry.

“The drawer is missing.”

“What?”

He pointed towards the empty cavity in the table. “The drawer is gone.”

She hadn’t noticed. What could it mean? Was it used as a weapon?

“There’s a flower here, weird.”

Sarah looked at the purple petals, it was the missing flower from her plant on the porch. “It’s from the porch.”

The officer glanced at her. “How do you know?”

“I noticed a flower missing this morning.”

The officer nodded and continued moving slowly around the room. He took a baggy from his pocket and tweezers. Sarah watched as he deposited the bloom carefully inside.

“What do you think happened?”

She could see the officer debating with himself. “I can’t quite say. What can you tell me about your roommate?”

Sarah opened her mouth to answer just as the front door swung open. “Sarah!”

Rayna.

Rayna was here.

Sarah rushed out of the room, meeting her roommate in the hallway. “You’re okay!”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I told you I was going to the mo-” Rayna’s words cut off as the police officer walked out of her room. “I saw the police vehicles in the driveway. What’s going on?”

“I have no idea.”

“Miss, did you do this to your room?”

Rayna stepped past Sarah to get a glimpse of her bedroom. “Oh my god. No. No I didn’t. I haven’t been home since yesterday afternoon.”

Sarah didn’t say anything. She knew Rayna was lying. Rayna had been home when Sarah left to go out with Lucy. Why wasn’t she telling the officer the truth? And what were the marks on her arms? Sarah took a step back away from her roommate, suddenly unsure.

“Do you know who would do this?”

Rayna shrugged.

“Your ex?” Sarah offered and Rayna shot her a warning glare.

“I think he’s out of town.”

Sarah met her roommates cold stare, thinking but we just saw him. He had been knocking on their door constantly and then running off before they answered. They only knew it was him because they caught him on the security cameras. The security cameras! Why hadn’t she thought of that before? They surely would have caught who was coming and going. But as she stared at Rayna, she wondered if she really wanted to know what had happened.

“What’s his name? It may be best to look into it.”

“Scott Crossfield,” Rayna waved her hand, “He flies under the radar. Doesn’t do much wrong, just is a little heart broken. It’s normal after a breakup.”

They had been broken up for four years. The way he was continuing to hang on was not normal. Sarah stared at the ground, debating what to say. If she should even say anything. This was wrong. Rayna had done something. If she hadn’t destroyed her room this way, then who had? And why didn’t she seem to care?

“Is anything missing that you can see?”

Rayna laughed. “Not that I can see. I don’t really have anything worth taking.”

The officer nodded, looking between the two girls. He was forming his own hypothesis now, reading their body language. “Sarah, was anything else missing in the rest of the house?”

“No, but the kettle was on.”

“I left it on. Woops.”

The officer titled his head to the side. “I thought you said you were out all night?”

Rayna opened and closed her mouth again, searching for words that may make sense. “I was.”

“Then how did you leave the kettle on that long?”

“I would have noticed when I got home last night if the kettle was on,” Sarah said quietly, not meeting her roommate's gaze.

“I would like to take you down to the station for questioning.”

“I didn’t break into my own room.”

Officer Johsnon shook his head. “No, but you did something.”

“You can’t take me into questioning unless you can tell I actually did something. You’re being ridiculous.”

At that point, the second officer entered the building, his gun razed. Sarah backed into the wall, utterly confused.

“Hands on your head.”

Rayna glanced back. “What?”

“Hands on your head. You’re under arrest.”

“For what?”

“Murder.”

Sarah felt her cheeks go hot. Rayna laughed, but put her hands on her head all the same. “You have no proof.”

“There’s a body in the woods!”

Sarah gasped, lowering herself to the floor. How had she not noticed anything? Who was the body in the woods?

Officer Johnson helped the other officer snap the cuffs into place, his mouth a grim line. “Never a dull day.”

The 2nd officer led Rayna out and Sarah watched, still processing what had just happened. Her roommate was arrested. For murder. The calm and quiet roommate who was so meticulous about everything. Murder. Could it be?

“What’s going to happen now?”

“An investigation. You’ll be taken in for questioning. You can drive yourself, but I would recommend staying with a friend. This is now a crime scene.”

A few days later, details of the event started to come to light. While Sarah was out that night, Rayna’s ex boyfriend had again stopped by to visit. She had been outside when he arrived and invited him in. He had presented her with a flower he had taken from Sarah’s plants. She made him dinner and while she was washing the dishes, a solid plan had formed in her mind. By this point, she had grown tired of the constant harassment. She had wanted to talk it out with him, but talking had gotten them nowhere in the past. In the end, he was stabbed to death.

Rayna had to cover her tracks; she buried his body in the backyard, as deep as she could. The area was known for being rocky. She destroyed her room as quickly as she could, especially the drawer that he had hit his head on when he fell.

There was no explanation for the kettle though, or for the open window. Rayna couldn’t explain away the ring at the door either. In the middle of the night, she had driven to a bar across town to create an alibi if Scott was ever reported missing. She really hadn’t been home. She hadn’t been anywhere near the kettle.

The security cameras had all been unplugged. There was no explanation, leaving Sarah baffled. Had she turned the kettle on in a drunken stupor? Even if she had, what had happened with the doorbell?

While the investigation was underway, Sarah was able to get out of her lease. She found a new apartment across town where nothing ever seemed to happen. But still, the sound of kettles whistling set her on edge. She wondered if she would ever figure out what had happened at their apartment that day. Had someone been trying to warn her about Rayna? Who else would have known what had happened? And why hadn’t they come forward themselves?

It was late one Wednesday night when she heard it. A kettle whistling.

Her scream of terror mixed with the kettle’s warning. It was too late.

Katrina Thornley is a nature poet and novelist that resides in Rhode Island. She has two poetry collections currently published, a novel, as well as a short story anthology. Her poetry collections "Arcadians: Lullaby in Nature" and "Arcadians: Wooden Mystics" were inspired by a local park and life in her small rural town. You can find them on Amazon now!