Kellie turned and saw several of their neighbors on their front porches watching them. She waved, and each waved back.
“It’s great to be home,” she murmured as she walked toward Taylor’s front door.
Hunter opened the door, and Rufus flew through the doorway barking and yipping. He leaped through the air, and his weight took Kellie down onto the grass. She began to cry, and he barked, whined, licked at her tears, ran around her, and dropped on top of her again. They rolled around Taylor’s front yard. In a few minutes, she was laughing and doing her best to put the memory of Wills Berner behind her.
#####
The next two weeks passed by in a blur for Kellie and Taylor. The families decided that the subject of Wills was off limits unless either of the young women brought him up.
Peter stayed for a week hovering over Kellie. She enjoyed his company and being around someone who cared.
Taylor took a week off from work, and Hunter kept her company. He followed her everywhere even sitting outside the bathroom door while she showered unless he was in it with her.
The Malone Springs Children’s Charity gave a luncheon in Kellie and Taylor’s honor. They were grateful for the opening of the shelter and that their friends were safe.
Hunter had a client meeting on a cool, crisp Saturday morning. Kellie and Taylor decided it was an ideal day to visit the Chocolate Shoppe. After buying more chocolate than they had ever purchased at one time before, they headed for a quiet lunch.
“I never appreciated how wonderful it is just to be able to walk through a store and eat anything I want for lunch,” Taylor said.
The waitress approached their booth; Taylor smiled at her and said, “I’d like a cheeseburger, fries and double fudge malt.”
“Sounds good,” said Kellie. “Please make that two.”
Kellie and Taylor chatted and laughed on the drive home. They spoke about a lot of things, but not Wills. They had also sworn to do their best to forget about him and their ordeal. They also made a deal to talk if the other needed it.
Kellie pulled into her drive and stopped the car. She turned toward Taylor and said, “It looks as if someone left me flowers.”
A large green cellophane wrapped item sat on her porch near the front door.
Taylor hopped out of the car and squealed, “There’s one on my porch, too. Someone sent us flowers. She ran across Kellie’s front yard, into her yard, and onto her porch. She pulled off the wrapping and lifted a huge bouquet of colorful lilies. She held it up and shouted, “Kellie, look what I received.”
Kellie walked up to her porch and pulled the wrapper off her bouquet. She took a step backwards.
“What’s wrong?” Taylor called running back to Kellie’s.
Both young women stared at the bouquet of beautiful ivory roses sitting on Kellie’s porch.
“Not roses, not again.” Kellie threw her hands over her face. “Who would do this to me?”
Taylor rushed up to the porch to check the card. She shook her head and ran to her porch to check her flowers.
She wrapped her arms around her chest and walked slowly back to Kellie’s staring at the ground.
“What’s wrong, who sent them?”
Taylor handed her one of the cards.
We’re sorry for everything you’ve been through.
Have a happy and blessed life.
William and Eunice Berner
Kellie shuddered.
The End - until next time
Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it. For more information on all my books, future Kellie Conley Mysteries, and short story mysteries please visit my web site Marianne Spitzer, Author, Amazon site Marianne Spitzer on Amazon, my blog Musings Under the Willow Tree., Facebook page Marianne Spitzer, Writer or follow me on Twitter @MarianneSpitzer
The Haunted Tunnel
(A Kellie Conley Mystery Short)
By
Marianne Spitzer
© June 2013
Word travels quickly in a small town. It didn’t take long before townsfolk were discussing Kellie’s ability to talk to the dead. Kellie believed someone at either the local Police Department or the county Sheriff’s Department had leaked the information. She hung up on the obnoxious reporter the third time she called asking when Kellie discovered her unique talent. Twenty murders at Petal Gate Asylum had made the front page, and her name was splashed across the page as the person responsible for solving the nineteen-fifties deaths. The story also piqued the interest of elderly Matilda Scott. Maybe the girl might be the answer to my problem with the voices coming from the tunnel, she thought.
#####
“You have to speak to her,” said Matilda as she smacked the table with the palm of her hand.
“But Grandma, what am I supposed to say to her, and how do I approach her with something as crazy as this?”
“Are you calling me crazy, Gabe?”
“No Grandma,” Gabe sat in a wooden chair drumming his fingers on the top of his thighs, “but mom told me you were having a problem with your hearing. If that’s true, how can you hear voices coming from the tunnel? It’s nearly half a mile away.” He stared into the frail face of his beloved grandmother.
“My hearing is just fine. I don’t care what that doctor says. I hear the voices as clearly as I hear you.” She stared back at him causing him to fidget in his seat. He leaned forward and smiled.
“Have you heard anything new?” Her reaction wiped the smile from his face immediately.
She grabbed the coffee pot and poured herself another cup of coffee. The stove burner rattled when she replaced the pot. “Don’t be condescending. No nothing new, I mostly hear them speaking about where they’ll go once the houses are built. The tunnel will be removed, and they won’t have a home.”
“The tunnel hasn’t been used in over fifty years. Grass and weeds have covered the single set of train tracks, and kids play in the tunnel. I think you’re hearing kids. Maybe you’re drinking too much coffee.”
“It’s decaf.” Matilda gave her grandson the look that meant she was not at all pleased with his attitude. “It isn’t kids. I only hear them late at night when it’s quiet. The kids are home and in bed.”
“You’re sure you’re not dreaming.”
She glared at him.
He leaned back in the kitchen chair and dropped his hands onto the table. He closed his eyes for a second and shook his head. “Okay Grandma, tell me exactly when all of this started.”
“It started the night after they tore down the abandoned house. It sat between my house and the tunnel. I think they were in the house until it was gone, and now they live in the tunnel.”
“Who’s ‘they,’ Grandma?” He raised his eyebrows as he listened.
“The voices of course. People said that the old house was haunted. I think they were forced out of the house, and now live in the tunnel.”
“Voices live in the tunnel? I think you’re getting lonely living out here all alone. You don’t have a neighbor for miles.”
“I will not move. I don’t care how much they offer me for this house. Your grandfather and I built this house. Your mom was born here. I will die here. Then you can sell the house.” She leaned back, took a sip of coffee, and crossed her arms. “I don’t care what that cranky real estate man says.”
“Your house and farm land sit in the middle of where they want to build their development. They can’t start until they have your property. You don’t farm any longer. You could sell most of the land, and perhaps they could build their homes around you.”
“No. I never had a neighbor breathing down my neck, and I won’t start now. Everyone can wait until I die, and since I don’t plan on dying for quite some time, they can build their houses elsewhere.” She slammed the cup onto the table.
Gabe knew he would never win an argument with his grandma. He shrugged. “Okay, Grandma, I’ll see if I can find Kellie Conley, and if she’ll talk to me.”
“Finally, you�
�ll help me. She can hear the dead you know. I think these voices are spirits caught in this world. She would know.”
Gabe thought for sure that Kellie Conley would think his grandma was crazy, but maybe it would play in his favor and she would at least speak with her.
#####
Matilda hadn’t told Gabe about the other voices. The ones she heard outside the house at night. She hadn’t told him about the creature that walked like a man, but had the head of a deer. She saw a shadow on the front porch. It had rattled the doors and windows, but couldn’t get in. If it comes back, she will be ready. She had cleaned and loaded her husband’s hunting rifle. She had taken a few practice shots out back before Gabe arrived, and her aim was as good as ever. “Yes, sir,” she said to herself, “my vision is perfect, and so is my hearing. Stupid doctors.”
She’d be ready if the creature came back. She was also sure Kellie Conley would come and help her with the voices in the tunnel. Everyone would believe her then.
#####
Unable to find a phone number for Kellie, Gabe knew he would have to go to her home. It was a beautiful French Colonial built in the new sub-division in Malone Springs. The same company wanted to build homes on his grandma’s property. He parked on the street, took a deep breath, walked up the drive, and rang the doorbell. He heard a large dog barking and nearly changed his mind.
“Hush, Rufus, it’s only the doorbell.” A beautiful young woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes answered the door. “May I help you?”
“Yes and no. Umm, my grandma sent me. She thinks she hears voices coming from an abandoned train tunnel and believes you’re the only person who can help her. I’m so sorry to bother you.”
Kellie and Rufus walked outside. “Let’s sit on the porch.” She sat in the porch swing. Gabe leaned on the porch railing shifting his weight from one foot to another. He explained everything his grandma had told him.
Kellie swung back and forth slightly in the porch swing and nodded. “You’re not the first person to approach me, and I receive mail from across the county asking me to investigate strange occurrences. Since your grandma is elderly and lives fairly close, I’ll talk to her. I hate the idea that an older person might be traumatized by anything, real or imagined. Could I drop by Sunday afternoon?”
Gabe thanked her shaking her hand vigorously. Sunday was only three days away. His grandma would be fine until then.
“I’ll bring my friend, Taylor. We like to check out mysteries together.”
Gabe thanked her again and gave her directions. He waved on his way to his truck.
“C’mon, Rufus, let’s go inside. I wonder what I’ve gotten myself into this time.”
#####
Matilda rummaged around the barn until she found the cow bells she knew her husband had stored away. Jim never threw anything out that could be used again, she thought. She found quite a few cowbells but only needed eight. She also found two strips of jingle bells Jim would put on the sleigh in the winter. Jim always made life fun for the kids and me. I miss him so much; she thought as she looked for a box to hold the bells. Matilda carried her treasure back to the house.
Matilda tied one cow bell on each of the eight windows in the house and the jingle bells on each of the two doors. If that creature tried to come in a door or window, Matilda would hear it. After dinner, she started a fire in the living room fireplace and sat in the rocker next to it. Jim’s rifle was at her side and his shotgun across her lap. With all the lights in the house turned off, she was ready.
Gabe drove past his grandma’s house and saw that everything was dark and quiet. He was happy she was safe and asleep. His family was worried about Matilda. He hoped Kellie could help her.
#####
Matilda dozed in her rocker. A noise woke her a little after two in the morning. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she was alert immediately. The moon was full, and she saw the creature on the porch again. It rattled the doorknob and banged on the window. She walked up to the window and banged on her side and yelled, “I have a rifle. If I were you, I’d leave.” She heard a deep growl unlike any animal she had heard before. “I’ll shoot you, I swear I will.” Matilda thought she heard hooves run across the porch and then only the crickets. Maybe I scared them away, but how would a creature understand me? She wondered.
Settling back in her rocker, she heard the voices. She heard them discuss their plight.
The female voice asked, “If they take the tunnel away, too where will we go?”
A male voice answered, “We will find a place, please don’t worry.”
“I won’t leave the children. I’ll live outside if I must.”
“We will never leave the children; I promise.”
Matilda could hear a woman weeping, and then silence.
#####
Matilda sat back and rocked in her chair. She knew the voices were real, and the creature was real. She also knew the voices didn’t know about the creature. They were only worried about their children. What children? Drifting off to sleep, she slept until she heard a knock on the front door.
“Hi Gabe are you hungry. I’ll make breakfast.”
“That’d be great, Grandma. I’ll tell you about my visit with Kellie Conley.” He flashed her a big grin.
They enjoyed breakfast and their conversation about Kellie.
“I’ll be sure and have a nice cake for when she visits.”
“I don’t think she’s coming for cake.”
“It’s the polite thing to offer, Gabe. Remember that, always be polite to guests.”
“Yes, Grandma. I’ll remember.” He smiled at her and noticed the cow bells. “What are they for?”
“Homemade burglar alarms. More coffee?” Her tone let him know not to inquire further.
She was tempted to tell him about the creature, but if she did, he’d make her leave and then she’d never be able to find out about the voices.
Gabe left, and Matilda watered her flowers. She also looked around the soft ground for any hoof prints. Positive she heard hooves the night before, she found two and then they disappeared in the thick grass on the front lawn. She took a picture of the hoof prints and then brushed them away. Not ready to share what she knew about the creature, she was ready to kill it.
#####
The creature didn’t return Friday or Saturday night. Matilda was up early Sunday morning baking an apple and raisin coffee cake for Kellie’s visit. Gabe arrived a little after one, and Kellie and Taylor arrived shortly after he did. After introductions had been made, Matilda told Kellie her story.
“I’m not sure if I can help you, Mrs. Scott, but I’ll go to the tunnel and see what I can find.” Kellie patted the elderly woman’s hand.
“Thank you, dear. If anyone can, I’m sure it’ll be you.”
Gabe drove Kellie and Taylor across the field to the abandoned tracks leading into the tunnel. The countryside was beautiful, but the abandoned tunnel was foreboding. It was long enough that very little light could be seen from the other end.
Kellie turned on her lantern and stepped into the tunnel. Taylor was right behind her. Gabe brought up the rear. About thirty feet in; Kellie stopped.
“I feel a presence. Hello is someone here? I’m here to help you. The lady who lives in the house across the field says she can hear you. If you talk to me, I’ll listen, too.”
A light breeze blew past. It was too dark to make out much in front of them.
“Are you here? You must have a reason, let me help you.”
A male voice answered, “We are not leaving. We will never leave.”
“Will you tell me who you are?”
“Hubert Porter. My home was near this tunnel, but my nephew sold it after all of us died. My wife and I stayed because of the children. Now they have torn down the house, and we will stay here at the tunnel near the children.”
Gabe and Taylor felt the soft breeze but didn’t hear the voice. Gabe furrowed his brow as he listened to Kellie speaking to th
e air.
“What happened to your family, Hubert? Why won’t you and your wife leave?”
“We moved here in the early 1900s. We were here when the flu came. It first took our baby girl, Annie. Two weeks later, our two-year-old son, Andrew. My wife nearly lost her mind. We buried them behind the house. I made white wooden crosses for their graves.”
Kellie could hear quiet crying.
“Is that your wife?”
“Yes, she cries a lot. She doesn’t want to leave the children.”
“I understand that. Is there more to your story?”
“Yes, my wife became ill from caring for the children. She finally succumbed to her illness, and I buried her next to them. I built a small fence around the area. My nephew found me two weeks later. I had died. He buried me next to my wife. He then sold the house, but the new owners promised to keep our burial site behind the house intact. It has been that way for over a hundred years. Now, they have torn down the house and will build more over where my family is buried. We will not leave or let them build there.”
“I understand. I’m not sure what I can do, but perhaps I can find a way for the houses to be built without disturbing your burial place.”
“Oh, please try.” A soft female voice pleaded.
“I promise to try, and I will return when I know more.”
She felt the soft breeze circle her and disappear.
She filled Gabe and Taylor in on her conversation with Mr. Porter. Gabe drove them to the yard where the old house had been. They walked around to the back of the demolished building.
“How do we find a burial plot after all this time?”
“Maybe someone kept it up, and there is a trace,” Kellie said. “Also, I think the Porters will guide me.”
Kellie walked straight to a spot about fifty feet behind the house. A few broken boards could be seen lying on the ground, and the leaves began to swirl around the area.
“It’s here. I’m going to the mayor’s office tomorrow morning. I’m sure I can convince him to have the ground checked for human remains, and then I’ll convince the builders to build a lovely brick enclosure and plant flowers in it. Maybe they can call it the Porter Memorial Garden. If not, I’ll call the paper. No one will buy a house that might be built on a burial site,” Kellie said with her hands on her hips.
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