by Kathi Daley
“And in a week, had you come to any conclusions as to what might have happened to the guy?” I wondered.
“To be honest, my money was on a mid-life crisis.” Mike looked toward the sheet-covered body. “I can see I was wrong.”
Tony walked up behind me. “The coroner is here. There isn’t room up here for everyone, so maybe we should head downstairs and let them do what they need to do.”
“Yeah, okay.” I glanced at Mike. “Tony and I will be downstairs.”
Once Tony and I left and made some room, the coroner headed upstairs with a body bag. Based on the look on his face, I was willing to bet that even he was befuddled by the way things were unfolding.
“Do you remember this guy?” I asked Tony after we’d decided to wait in his truck with the dogs rather than standing around in the main living area of the old house where we’d indicated we’d be. “Mike said he was a volunteer who was here with Grange.”
Tony shook his head slowly. “I don’t specifically remember him, but I do remember Grange showing up with a crew of five or six guys a week or so ago. They fixed the railing on the stairs, a few holes that someone had punched into the walls, the leaky roof, and a few other items. They were just here for one day, so I didn’t really get the chance to speak to all of them.”
I leaned my head back against the seat and looked at the house through the windshield. It was dark, but the lights in and around the house were on so it wasn’t too hard to see Mike and the others moving around inside. “So this guy shows up with Grange, spends the day doing simple repairs, goes home and has dinner with his wife, and then returns after she goes to bed? Why?” I asked. “And who killed him? Did he meet someone here? And if he did, who did he meet and why did he meet them?”
“And if he hadn’t accessed the secret room and the ladder leading from the secret room to the clock tower, how did he end up in the tower in the first place?” Tony added.
“When we found the skeleton in the secret room, I really thought that would be the oddest thing to happen to us during this event, but I guess the skeleton was only the beginning.”
“So, what now?” Tony asked.
I turned my head slightly. “What do you mean?”
“Are you going to cancel the inspection tomorrow? The TV show? The fundraiser?”
I slowly shook my head. “No, not unless Mike makes us cancel for some reason. I’m intrigued by the skeleton, and I think the folks from Haunted America will be too. I’m sorry about the contractor, but a lot of people have donated time and supplies to make this happen, and I really think this is one of those cases where the show must go on.”
Tony turned and looked through the windshield toward the house. “I wonder if there are any other secret rooms or hidden spaces.”
“Maybe,” I answered. “The existence of one secret room does open the possibility in my mind.”
“The house is very unique. The fact that the man who built it would include a widow’s walk or a clock tower is surprising since these aren’t the sort of items you normally find built into houses in this area, but to find both in one house, makes me wonder if there are other surprises that are just waiting to be uncovered.”
I turned and looked out my side window at the large plot of land that came with the house. The place really was isolated, which is one of the things that attracted me to it in the first place. “Do you think we should look for other secret rooms or passages?”
“Maybe, but not until after the inspection. We’re going to have a hard enough time getting the permit we need once the inspector finds out we’ve uncovered not one, but two bodies.”
“Do you think he’ll turn us down?”
Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope not. I suppose he might want to wait to issue the permit until after the police have processed the place. The haunted house is a week and a half away, but the Haunted America filming is in just two days, so even if he feels the need to wait on the permit for the event that will be open to the public, maybe he’ll go ahead and allow us to film the television show.”
“I don’t think we need a permit for that. The television crew isn’t paying us to use the house, and the filming isn’t open to the public.”
Tony opened his door. “Here comes Mike. Let’s see what he has to say.”
Chapter 5
Wednesday, October 16
It had been over a week since Tony and I had found the skeleton in the secret room and the body of Joe Brown in the clock tower, but other than the fact that the house had been processed and released for use, very little progress had been made in either case. The skeleton was still unidentified, and Mike had no idea why Joe Brown had gone back to the house on the night he disappeared, or how he’d ended up dead. Mike did know that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and that the time of death was some point in the overnight hours after his wife had left him watching television.
As I’d suspected, the gang from Haunted America had been thrilled with the discovery of both the skeleton in the secret room and the contractor in the clock tower. The way they’d told it, the deaths were spook related. I sincerely doubted our killer was a ghost, but hey if the rumor that a ghost actually did live in the house sold more tickets to the fundraiser, which we had ended up receiving a permit for, who was I to deny it? I was curious to see what the publics’ response would be when the segment aired this evening. The haunted event was due to open on Friday, and we’d already sold a lot of tickets, but not as many as I’d hoped. Still, once word got out that our haunted house was a real haunted house, I suspected the demand for tickets would exceed the supply.
“It’s going to start in a few minutes,” Bree said after settling in on the sofa next to Mike. It looked like the couple had made up, which I was happy to see. In spite of their differences, they really did seem perfect for each other, and I was pulling for their marriage to go the distance.
“I’ll grab Tony,” I said. We were at his house to watch Haunted America, and he’d wandered off at some point to take a call and had never come back.
“Okay, but hurry,” Bree said. “You don’t want to miss the beginning.”
I headed toward the kitchen, which was the direction I’d last seen him heading. He was still on the phone, so I waved at him and then pointed toward my arm as if pointing toward a watch, which I was not wearing. He nodded, and I heard him tell whomever he was talking to that he needed to go but would call them back the following day.
“Who was that?” I asked as we headed toward the living room where Mike and Bree were waiting.
“Nona. I’d called and left a message that our trip was going to need to be postponed until after the first of the year and she was just returning my call.”
Hello to the guilt. Tony had been asking me to go to Italy with him so that he could introduce me to his grandmother for months, but I’d been stalling. I loved Tony, and I wanted to meet the one person in the world who seemed to mean the most to him, but I was scared. I knew that Tony put a lot of stock in Nona’s opinion. In fact, he had told me as much on more than one occasion. This made things tricky for me. I mean, what if she hated me? What if all she saw when we met was some skinny white girl who’d never even gone to college? Would her opinion influence how Tony felt about me? Would he break up with me if his grandmother didn’t approve of our relationship? I was way too scared to find the answers to these questions, so every time Tony brought up the subject of the two of us taking a trip to Italy, I came up with an excuse to put it off.
Of course, I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it off forever. At some point, I’d need to bite the bullet and meet the woman, or at least tell Tony why I was hesitant to do so in the first place. Going all the way to Italy seemed intimidating in and of itself. Maybe she could come here for a visit where I could meet her on my turf.
Bree hurried us up once we arrived in the main living area. The music had played, and the intro segment was just about to begin.
“Welcome to H
aunted America where paranormal experts delve into the most haunted places you are likely to find in this great country of ours,” the announcer said. “Tonight paranormal experts, Robert Cobalter and Evan Turner, will explore the unusual happenings at a century-old mansion in White Eagle, Montana.”
The man went on to provide a history of the house, including the fact that it had been built on a cemetery. He sort of made it sound as if they’d built the structure right over the top of the bodies that had been buried there during the nineteenth century, but I supposed that the idea that the bodies were still beneath the foundation of the home provided a spookier feel than an explanation that the bodies had been relocated to another cemetery before the structure was built.
By the time he got to the part about the skeleton in the secret room and the body in the clock tower, even I was sitting on the edge of my seat.
As planned, Robert and Evan had spent the night in the house. During the overnight hours, they’d recorded every creak and groan, every flickering light, and every shadow, whether real or imagined. They actually had me believing that the house was haunted even though, as Tony had assured me, there was most likely a reasonable explanation for every phenomenon we’d witnessed, including the lights that seemed to flicker for no apparent reason.
“Okay, so how did they manage to record that shadow that crossed the wall?” Bree asked as the announcer indicated that there would be a break for a commercial announcement. “It really did look as if they’d captured the movement of a being from another dimension.”
“I’m sure the folks from Haunted America enhance the footage they record to make things look a bit more real,” Mike said.
“Do you think they used computer imagery to create the effect?” I asked.
Mike shrugged. “Maybe, or maybe their lighting guy is just really good and can create the sensation of movement by recording everyday objects from different angles. I’m really not sure how they do it, but I am sure that you don’t actually have a ghost.”
“Maybe not, but we do have a skeleton and a murder victim,” I pointed out, just as the first commercial of the set came on. “Any news on either one?”
“The skeleton, no. It’s been entombed in that room for a long time. In fact, it looks like it might have been placed in the room before the last resident who lived in the house moved in.”
Bree made a face. “Someone lived in a house where there was a skeleton just upstairs and they never even knew it?”
“It looks that way. The last family to actually live in the house was the Jordan family, who lived there from nineteen sixty-two until nineteen eighty-five. After the children left home, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan decided to move into a smaller place in Missoula. They put the house up for sale, but interest rates were crazy back then, so the place never sold. After Mr. Jordan died and Mrs. Jordan moved to the east coast, the oldest son, Alan, put the house up for sale again. He sold it to Jim Smith, who was electrocuted while trying to fix the flickering lights. For one reason or another, no one has lived in the house since the Jordans moved out in nineteen eighty-five.”
“And the skeleton in the secret room?”
“The coroner seems to think the body in the secret room could have been put there as early as the nineteen-thirties or forties, but he doesn’t know for certain. I suppose it is equally as likely that it was placed there much more recently, but the coroner seems to think the body has been in the room for more than fifty years.”
“Assuming the coroner is correct, and the body has been entombed in the room since the thirties or forties, who owned the house then?” Tony asked.
“A woman named Ethel Vandenberg owned the house before the Jordans. She inherited the house from her father, Edward Vandenberg. Ethel was an only child who’d been raised by her overbearing and cruel father after her mother died when she was seven. She never married nor had children of her own. She lived in the house from the time she was born in nineteen eleven until she died under mysterious circumstances in nineteen sixty. The house stood empty until the Jordans moved into it in nineteen sixty-two.”
“So was it Ethel’s father who moved the cemetery and built the house in the first place?” I wondered.
“It was. He actually built the house for his first wife, Elizabeth, in eighteen ninety-seven. She fell from the widow’s walk and died in nineteen hundred and five.”
“I didn’t realize there was access to the widow’s walk,” I said. “It looks as if it is strictly ornamental.”
Mike answered. “I’ve not found access to the structure, and it does seem as if it was added as a decorative feature, but if Elizabeth did actually fall from the dang thing, there must have been access to it at one point in time.”
“So what happened after Elizabeth died?” I asked.
“From what I can tell, Edward remained single until he married Ethel’s mother, Barbara, in nineteen hundred and nine. Ethel was born in nineteen eleven, and Barbara died in nineteen eighteen due to a fall down the stairs which resulted in her breaking her neck.”
“Two wives who both fall to their death. Seems suspicious,” I said.
Mike nodded. “I agree. If Edward was still alive and the deaths were more recent, I’d definitely dig into things a bit.”
“So if the skeleton we found was walled into the secret room in the nineteen-thirties or forties as the coroner suspects, then Ethel’s father, Edward, must have put it there,” Bree said. “I suppose Ethel might have, but it seems as if the father is a more likely suspect.”
“It is my impression at this point that it was Edward Vandenberg who is responsible for the body being in the secret room,” Mike confirmed.
“So the guy was probably a psycho killer who killed both his wives, plus this unknown woman,” Bree added.
“The skeleton belonged to a male,” Mike corrected.
“The show is back on,” I said hushing everyone. As interesting as this conversation was, and it was interesting, I didn’t want to miss anything the folks from Haunted America had to say. I had to admit that the hosts who narrated the segment really did a good job of leaving the choice to believe in ghosts or not up to the viewer. They didn’t try to convince you that the house was haunted as a lot of similar shows did. They just presented the facts, or at least the facts according to them, and then let the viewer decide.
After the show ended, Tony offered everyone dessert. I’m not sure how I’d ended up with a boyfriend who was not only a genius with a computer but was also a genius in the kitchen, but I considered myself lucky that I had. I would most likely have gained a ton of weight since Tony and I started dating if not for the fact that my job required me to walk miles and miles every week.
“So what’s going on with the contractor in the clock tower?” I asked Mike as we enjoyed our apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream and hot cinnamon topping.
“I still can’t explain how he got to be there since it doesn’t appear he, or anyone, had accessed the secret room at the time he was left in the clock tower. The only explanation I can come up with is that Joe met someone at the house and both he and the person he met accessed the clock tower using a ladder to get onto the first story of the roof and then climbed up from there.”
“Seems like a risky venture.”
“It does, but I can’t really think of another explanation. I figure that once Joe and the individual he met were in the tower, the person with Joe hit him over the head with a blunt object which resulted in Joe’s death. The killer then climbed down the ladder, taking it with them when they left since a ladder was not found at the house or in Joe’s truck.”
“So you found Joe’s truck?” I asked.
Mike nodded. “I tracked it down to a wooded area not far from the Vandenberg house. I’m not sure if Joe parked it there when he returned to the house to prevent it from being seen from the road, or if the killer moved it after he’d left Joe’s body in the clock tower.”
“Your theory sounds like it might have merit,” I agreed.
“Although it is a tall house, so the ladder used would need to be pretty tall as well, even to get to the first story.”
“Joe did work as a contractor,” Mike reminded me. “I’m sure he had access to all sorts of ladders. The questions in my mind are: who did Joe meet, and why did he go back to the house in the first place?”
“Maybe Joe found something while he was at the house working on the repairs,” Bree suggested. “Maybe something of value, such as a piece of jewelry a previous owner might have left behind. His plan might have been to access the house through an upstairs window. Maybe a window he intentionally left unlatched. He might have needed help, so he called a friend, but once they got here, the friend turned on him.”
“Seems like as good an explanation as any,” Mike agreed, which made Bree smile proudly.
“Actually, it’s not a good explanation,” I countered. “Why would Joe need help retrieving a piece of jewelry? In fact, why wouldn’t he just put it in his pocket at the time he found it?”
“Maybe it wasn’t jewelry,” Bree defended. “Maybe he found a hidden safe, and he went back to try to get into it.”
“That makes more sense,” I agreed. “But Tony and I have been over every inch of that house and haven’t come across a hidden safe.”
Bree blew out a breath. “Okay, so maybe it was something else. The point is that maybe Joe went back to the house to retrieve something he found earlier in the day and he asked someone to meet him because he knew he would need help retrieving whatever it was he was trying to retrieve.”
“Okay, say that’s right, and Joe asked someone to meet him at the house. How are we going to figure out who Joe met?” I asked. “Given the fact that he seemed to have returned to the house late at night, there are most likely not going to be any witnesses.”
Mike took a sip of his coffee and then answered. “I’m not sure how I’m going to figure this out. If someone he asked to meet him at the house killed Joe, then motive, or at least the normal motives I would look at in a murder case, don’t seem to come into play. If Joe had been left for dead in a ditch, or in the alley behind his house, I’d looked for people with a grudge against the guy, but it seems unlikely that Joe asked someone he was having a problem with to meet him at an empty house in a deserted location in the middle of the night.”