by Kathi Daley
“Will you move the items to the workshop you have set up in your home?” Georgia asked.
“That would be the easiest thing to do, but if I remember correctly, the desk in the library is much too large to fit through the one and only doorway. I guess they must have built the room around it. Initially, I thought it might have been assembled in the room, but the bulk of the unit seems seamless, so unless they took out a wall and then replaced it, I have no idea how they got it in there. If the desk is as solid as I suspect, I guess I’ll just work on it there. That’s if I even decide to take it on. If I remember correctly, it’s going to need a lot of work. It’s missing two drawers, but I think between Lonnie and me, we can build something that will work.”
“So if the room the desk occupies is a library, are there books on the shelves?” I wondered.
She nodded. “Hundreds. Maybe thousands, and all at least several decades old. Many are much older than that. If I know you, and I do, you’re going to have a field day looking around in that room alone.”
I did love old books. I loved the yellowed pages, the musty smell, the leather covers, and the imagery of generations of readers passing each volume down. I loved to poke around in old bookstores, although I hadn’t had time to do much of that lately.
“There it is; up on the bluff,” Lacy said.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said as I viewed the single-story structure that spidered out over the landscape.
“It certainly has a large footprint,” Georgia said.
Lacy nodded. “There are tons of hallways that veer off to other hallways. It’s easy to get lost once you’re inside.”
“This is some house for a summer home,” I said. “How large is it?”
“Lonnie said that if you take into account the entire structure, it’s around twenty thousand square feet.”
“Wow. I can’t wait to get a look inside,” I said. “Are there tons and tons of bedrooms, or are we looking at large living areas?”
“Both. The home includes an indoor pool, which Lonnie said was added on in the nineteen forties. It’s empty now and needs repair, but it’s still very impressive. And the library I told you about is huge, oh, and the kitchen, which I suspect has been redone several times, is amazing. I’m willing to bet it’s large enough to service a good size restaurant. Of course, the appliances are dated, and the space needs a major facelift, but in terms of size, it’s really something.”
“So, the house has been added onto since Ozzie Chadwick built it?” Georgia asked.
“The wing that houses the pool and gymnasium was added after the house was built, as well as the three garages, but Lonnie said the footprint for the remainder of the structure is basically the same, although there have been other renovations over the years of one space or another, mainly the kitchen and bathrooms.” Lacy pulled onto a private drive that led out to the bluff. “I’ll try to point out which areas are original and which have been added on as we walk through.”
The house in a word was amazing. It was somewhat dark for my taste, with dark paneling, dark furnishings, and a dark hardwood floor, but the windows facing the bay let in quite a bit of light, and I supposed if Baron wanted a more modern and open feel, he could afford to make any changes needed to brighten the place up a bit.
As Lacy predicted, it didn’t take long to get totally turned around. When you walked in through the front door, there were hallways to both the left and the right as well as a shorter hallway immediately in front of you. The hallway directly in front of you when you entered the home, led to a huge living area, from which additional hallways spidered off toward the kitchen and formal dining area. The hallways to the left and right led to bedrooms and bathrooms, the library, both an east and west parlor, an atrium, the pool room, gym, and other rooms I didn’t have time to explore. Since the house was spread out over a single story, there were hallways veering off to connect the various rooms to others, which resulted in a web of hallways it would take someone with a keen sense of space to navigate.
“So, do you know your way around?” Georgia asked.
Lacy held up a piece of paper. “I’ve been here several times, so I have a general idea of the layout, but Lonnie drew me a map with all the hallways just in case I get turned around. The bedroom with the missing armoire is down this hallway, so let’s start there.”
Georgia and I followed Lacy through the maze as she pointed out the various rooms. Most were at least partially furnished, but all the rooms were dusty and musty and seriously in need of a facelift. When we got to the bedroom with the missing piece, Lacy stopped to take photos and measurements. She was very precise in her measurements, not wanting to waste her time on a piece that wouldn’t fit in the space allotted. Once she finished in this room, we headed toward a hallway that seemed to run along the back of the house, which eventually led to the kitchen. From there, she headed into the dining area to take measurements for the buffet and hutch.
I could see that Georgia was more than just a little bit in love with everything Lacy showed us. I was as well, but Georgia had more of a connection to old furniture than I did. Of course, when we arrived in the library, I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. Now, here was a room I could get lost in.
“Wow, that is a large desk,” Georgia said as she and Lacy approached it while I ran my finger along a wall of hardbound books. “I agree that you’ll never get it out of here. Not only is it much too large to fit through the doorway, but it must weigh a ton.” She ran her hand over the surface of the desktop and then down along the front. “And it does seem as if the thing is seamless. I don’t see how it can be, but I don’t see any screws.”
“It needs a lot of work,” Lacy said, biting her lip. “But it really is something special. I’d need to get a sitter for Maddie if I refurbished it here, but Baron seems to be willing to pay for all my expenses, including a babysitter, so maybe. It would be fun to come to work with Lonnie a few days a week, and I could work on the drawers at home, so that would help.”
“It sounds like you want to do it,” I said.
She grinned. “I really do.” She opened one drawer and then another. She took her time measuring and photographing every inch of the piece. She took detailed notes, which I assumed described the damage that would need to be repaired. It looked as if we were going to spend much longer in this room than we had in the others, which was fine with me. I turned away from the desk and back toward the shelves that lined each wall from floor to ceiling. Oh, those books. Those wonderful, glorious books.
I carefully pulled out random volumes. I was afraid of damaging the oldest of the collection, so I moved slowly and with care. It was a shame that the books had not been treated with the respect they deserved, but the library was windowless and the house cool, so I supposed the environment could have been worse.
As I made my way to the section with the oldest books, I lovingly brushed a finger across each of them, stopping every now and then to pull out a volume and open the cover. Most of the books were printed in English, but there were quite a few in this particular section that had been printed in Latin. I found a few printed in Italian and several in French. Had the residents of this majestic old home had the ability to read all these languages? I supposed if they were educated or had traveled widely, they might have. Of course, traveling widely back then would have required long and tedious ocean voyages.
“I think I am going to take all the drawers that still exist with me,” Lacy said. “There are two missing completely, but I think I can make something to match since I have the originals to use as a pattern.” She opened another drawer. “We’ll need to find a box for the contents. Even empty, these drawers are going to be heavy.”
“I saw some empty boxes in the parlor,” Georgia said. “I’ll run and get one.”
“Don’t get lost,” I called after her.
“If I do, I’ll call you, and you can come and rescue me.”
Lacy continued to make notes, and I continued to
look at the books after Georgia left. Many of the volumes contained beautiful artwork and several featured inscriptions. Maybe Lacy could talk to Baron about a glass case with climate control for some of the oldest volumes.
“Look at this,” I said aloud, after pulling a random book off the shelf.
Lacy looked toward me. “What is it?”
“It looks like a journal of some sort. The interior pages are penned in ink.”
“Can you tell whose journal it is?” she asked.
I shook my head. “It’s in French. I can read a few words here and there, but not enough to make sense of it. I’d love to know what it says. Do we know anyone who can read French?”
“Tanner can speak French, so maybe he can read it as well,” Georgia said, returning to the room in time to catch my last comment.
“Tanner can speak French?” I asked. “Why?”
Georgia shrugged. “I’m not sure. I just know he can. I guess he might have taken it in school, or perhaps he traveled there at some point in the past. I never asked. We were on a date, and when we overheard a couple in a restaurant speaking Italian, I made a comment about what a beautiful language it was, and that’s when Tanner shared that while he didn’t know Italian, he was fluent in French.”
I looked at Lacy. “Do you think we could get permission to either remove the journal from the house or have Tanner come here and take a look at it?”
“It never hurts to ask. I was going to call Baron after I finished my assessment anyway. I’ll bring up the journal and see what he has to say. I found some old blueprints in one of these desk drawers I’d like to take a closer look at as well. It looks as if there might be a room on the set of blueprints in the desk that isn’t on the map Lonnie drew for me.”
“A secret room?” I asked, suddenly intrigued.
She shrugged. “I’m not sure.” She laid the old document across the surface of the desk. “I think we’re here.” She pointed to a room on the blueprint.
I took a moment to consider the other rooms around the room she was pointing to. “Yeah, I think you’re correct. Here’s the parlor.”
“And here’s the bedroom where we looked at the antique rocking horse,” Georgia added. “I remember it looked out over the little cove.”
“Okay, so we’re here,” Lacy said. “The question is, what’s here?” She pointed toward what looked to be a room behind the library.
I picked up the map Lonnie had drawn. According to his map, the far wall of the library was an exterior wall, and there was nothing behind it, but the old blueprints clearly showed a room between the library and the patio area, which overlooked the sea.
“I think that might be a secret room,” I said. “This room is windowless, and the extra room looks to be windowless, so from the outside, you’d never be able to tell the difference.” I looked up from the blueprint. “Maybe it’s some sort of panic room.”
“Or maybe it was used for storage,” Lacy said. “I’m not sure people built panic rooms into homes when this house was built.”
“So, how do we access it?” Georgia asked.
We looked around. The entire room was covered in bookshelves. Every wall from top to bottom. The room featured a single doorway leading out to the hallway, but other than the opening for the doorway, every single inch of wall space held books.
“There must be a wall that opens,” I said.
“Or maybe you access the extra room from somewhere other than this room,” Georgia offered. “It might be accessible from the exterior of the home or maybe from the hallway here.” She pointed to a spot where a doorway could conceivably be located.
“I guess I’ll ask Baron when I call him,” Lacy said. “He might know about the room. He seems to know a lot about the house.” She looked at her watch. “We should go. Go ahead and start taking the drawers out to the car, and I’ll call and ask about the journal and the secret room.”
As it turned out, Baron was fine with us taking the journal from the house as long as we were careful with it, and we provided him a translation. He didn’t know anything about a secret room, but as we were, he was intrigued. Lacy promised to have Lonnie look at the old blueprints she found. As a contractor, he had a good eye for how things fit together spatially. Baron gave Lacy permission to poke around a bit after she assured him that if she found a way to access the room, she wouldn’t touch a thing until he could make the trip out to take a look himself.
Chapter 10
When we returned to the inn, Georgia needed to jump in the shower and then head over to the inn to start the prep work for dinner. Jeremy had spent the day working in the garden. Now that the snow had melted on the sunny side of the house and the days were warmer, he had cleanup to do. I think Jeremy much preferred working outside than inside, but he did whatever was required of him and never voiced a single complaint.
I made myself a glass of iced tea and then took the dogs out onto the deck behind the cottage. They ran around a bit and then settled in for a nap in the sun. The temperature was mild today, but certainly not hot, so with jeans and a sweatshirt, it was actually quite pleasant. I actually enjoyed these first days of spring even more than I enjoyed the summer. Not that the summers weren’t gorgeous in Holiday Bay, but they could be hot, and since I wasn’t the sort to want to spend a lot of time at the beach or in the water, I preferred milder temperatures.
I did enjoy the garden in the summer, however. By the time June rolled around, I knew the perennials would be in full bloom, the deciduous shrubbery would be lush and green, and the annuals Jeremy planted to provide a burst of color would be in full bloom.
Last year, we’d still been building the hardscape and planting the beds, but once the cleanup was done this year, Jeremy and I both planned to spend some time working on the artistry that could only be achieved by blending the perfect shrubs with the perfect flowers.
I picked up my phone and stared at it. I hated to interrupt Colt if he was busy, but I was curious and anxious to find out what, if anything, he’d learned about Alvin Connor’s murder. I settled on a text asking him to call me with an update once he had some free time. I didn’t have to wait long before my cell rang, alerting me that I had a call.
“So how was your trip to Lonnie’s new project?” he asked.
“It was so awesome. I mean, really fantastic. How did you know that I went out to the house today? Lacy called after you left.”
“I talked to Lonnie earlier, and he told me what you were all up to. Based on Lonnie’s description, it sounds like it’s quite the mansion.”
“It really is fantastic,” I agreed. “There are all these old books I could spend a year or two looking through if I had the chance. I can’t believe they’ve been left in an empty house for decades. What a waste. I know that Baron just recently inherited it, but surely he could have visited if he’d wanted to. I wonder why he didn’t.”
“I don’t know. I guess if you meet him, you’ll need to ask him that.”
“I guess I will. So how are things going on the murder case? Any news or leads?”
“Actually, I do have news. It turns out that Alvin died due to the insertion of a large dose of a paralyzing drug via a needle to the neck. According to the coroner, his heart would have stopped, and death would have come almost immediately after the drug was administered.”
“So Alvin must have gone out to meet with someone who then injected him with a lethal dose of a drug and then stashed him in the shed.”
“That’s exactly how it looks.”
“Why stash him in the shed? The killer must have known he’d be found in a relatively short amount of time. Why not dump him in the ocean or bury him in the forest?”
“The only explanation I can come up with is that the killer didn’t have the strength to move the guy once he’d passed out or a vehicle to move him elsewhere.”
“It is true that no one in the pre-wedding party has access to a vehicle. Do you have any idea which of the ten it might be?”
“I pulled Alvin’s phone records, and according to those records, Alvin was on the phone for much of the evening, as Lisa indicated. There were seven calls to an unregistered number. I’m trying to find out who owns the number, but so far, I’ve run into nothing but dead ends. There was also a call from Naomi Arlington, who called him at two-fifteen.”
“Why would Naomi call Alvin? They were both here at the inn.”
“Were they? According to what everyone told me today, Alvin was alone once Jordan and Stephanie turned in at two. Maybe Alvin went out at that point.”
“Maybe, but Naomi said she went up to bed before Jordan and Stephanie, who said they turned in at two,” I reminded Colt. “I suppose she might not have gone to sleep, but she is sharing a suite with Willa, who, according to Mike, was already asleep. It seems unlikely she’d be making phone calls from the room. I suppose Naomi might have come back down from her room to find Alvin, and when he wasn’t there, she might have called him. But why? The whole thing makes no sense.”
“I don’t disagree. Has the group returned from their day at the resort?”
“No. They aren’t expected to be back until seven.”
“Okay, I’m on my way over. This is the perfect time to take a look around for the syringe that was used since no one is around to ask questions or get in the way.”