The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor

by Amy Reade

  The next few days were a whirl of work and play. Between taking Lucy to and from school, playing with the dog after school, and working on the walls in the ballroom, I had no time to stop for a breath. I was close to completing the prep work on the walls.

  Heath came over after dinner one evening and invited me to the carriage house again. I accepted happily, and Evie watched Lucy after I put her to bed.

  Sipping cold drinks, Heath and I talked in the dim light of his patio. He was funny and interesting, and I loved his stories of growing up on the farm with Evie and Harlan. He walked me back to the main house a couple hours later.

  We walked side by side through the darkness. Twice his hand brushed mine and each time I felt a little thrill in the pit of my stomach.

  “Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow?” Heath asked suddenly.

  “Sure,” I told him with a smile.

  He squeezed my hand when he dropped me off in front of the manor house. “I’ll pick you up here at six,” he said as he turned to walk back home.

  I smiled to myself as I walked into the entry hall and I fairly skipped up the stairs to my room. It had been such a long time since I had had such a comfortable feeling in the presence of a man.

  Evie was reading in my room while Lucy slept. “I thought I heard you coming up the stairs,” she whispered. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

  “Nothing in particular,” I answered, grinning.

  “Yeah, right.” She smiled knowingly and I knew she was happy for me.

  The next day I worked on the walls of the sitting room until lunchtime, then Evie asked me to take a break to go shopping with her in Charleston. “I’m going to Atlanta this weekend,” she explained. “Boone and I are going to a charity event. I need the perfect dress. We can shop until it’s time to pick up Lucy.”

  I agreed to go with her as soon as I got a shower and changed my clothes. When we got to Charleston, Evie knew exactly the place she wanted to start hunting for her dress. We parked my car in front of an expensive-looking boutique on a street full of expensive-looking shops. We went in and Evie tried on dress after dress until she finally decided it was time to look elsewhere. We went into another shop two doors down.

  “What’s wrong with the shop in the middle?” I asked.

  “Nothing. It’s a great little store, but Heath’s ex-wife, Odeile, works in there and I can’t stand her.”

  “Is that where she works? Heath told me she worked in a clothing store in Charleston, but he didn’t tell me the name of it.”

  “She’s awful.”

  “Why didn’t you ever mention that Heath was married?”

  “I made a pact with myself never to talk about her.”

  “How grown-up of you,” I said with a smirk.

  “Maybe so, but I just couldn’t help it.”

  Luckily Evie found a dress in the third shop we visited. It was an adorable lime-green sheath with bright white tropical accents. She also found some chunky white costume jewelry and a matching handbag. She would be the belle of the ball in Atlanta. We still had some time before picking up Lucy, so we decided to stop at an outdoor café for a cup of coffee. We were chatting when Evie’s phone rang. “It’s Harlan. Let me get this,” she said before speaking into the phone. “Hello?”

  Her brow furrowed. “Hello? Harlan?”

  She put her hand over the speaker and said quietly to me, “I can hear some noise, but Harlan’s not talking.”

  “Harlan? What do you want?”

  She put the phone on speaker so we could both listen.

  “Please, please. No.” It was Harlan’s voice. It sounded strange.

  “Harlan! This is Evie. What’s the matter?” she asked urgently.

  A different voice, lower, came across, but we couldn’t hear what was being said. Harlan replied to the voice, “I’ll tell you everything. I promise. Please put that away.” He spoke calmly, but there was a tension in his voice.

  “Harlan! I’m right here! Put what away?” Evie asked tensely.

  His voice issued from the phone again. “Yes. Just put that down and I’ll tell you exactly what happened. I did go into her bedroom that night. I was dressed in one of his suits.”

  The other voice said something. Harlan answered. “Yes. I wanted to get her to agree to my investor idea. I showed her the business card because I wanted her to think that he approved of the idea.”

  The other voice again, more urgent. Then Harlan again. Evie was yelling his name into the phone and people were staring at us.

  “Evie, be quiet and listen to what he’s saying,” I told her. “You can’t help him if you can’t hear him. You don’t know where he is or who he’s talking to.”

  She fell silent. She had missed Harlan’s last remark. He was speaking again. “I got it from a friend of mine who’s a chemistry professor. I took it from his lab. I just gave her one dose in her tea one night when I was at the manor. You’re right. I wanted the thallium to work before she got a chance to change her will, but she had a heart attack first.”

  Then, “Please! Please don’t!”

  We heard a faint popping sound. Evie stared at me and shrieked into the phone, “Harlan! Harlan! Are you all right? What happened? Harlan!”

  No answer. Silence. Then a shuffling noise, then nothing.

  “We’ve got to get home, Carleigh. We’ve got to pick up Lucy right now and head back to the manor. We have to find Harlan!”

  She dialed the phone. “Daddy? Have you seen Harlan? He just called me, but he wouldn’t talk and he was talking to someone else and I couldn’t understand them and I think something terrible has happened!”

  He must have told her to slow down and speak so he could understand her. She took a deep breath and relayed the conversation she had just heard. “Okay. We’ll be there as fast as we can.”

  She hung up and looked at me. “Daddy’s going to look for him. He’ll call Heath, too, and Heath can look at Harlan’s office. We have to go back to the manor. Right now.”

  We hurried back to the car and made a beeline for Lucy’s school. I raced in and, after hurriedly explaining to her teacher that Lucy needed to leave a few minutes early, we left together. I picked her up and carried her to the car. Something very ominous was happening, and I needed to get home and make plans for Lucy to go away.

  I broke every speed limit driving back to Peppernell Manor. Lucy remained silent in the backseat, seeming to understand that it was not the time for chatting. Evie said nothing on the way home, just staring out the window. When we arrived at Peppernell Manor, I screeched to a halt in front of the house. Evie ran in through the front door and I whisked Lucy upstairs. I shut the door behind me.

  “Lucy, how would you like to go visit Grandma June and Grandpa Silas?”

  “Yay!” she cried, clapping her hands.

  I gave her a coloring book and crayons and, promising to find her a snack very soon, I picked up my phone and dialed my parents, who lived in Florida.

  My mother answered.

  “Hi, honey. What’s wrong?” Moms always know.

  “Nothing,” I lied. “I was just wondering if you’d like to have Lucy stay with you for a while. I’m pretty tied up here with work, so it would be a big—” My mother agreed to take Lucy, with great enthusiasm, before I even finished talking.

  We made plans to drive to Florida the next day. I would alert the school that Lucy would be out for a while, and she would stay with my parents until she could safely return to Peppernell Manor. I ran downstairs for a snack for Lucy, as I had promised her. Before I returned to our room, Evie came looking for me in the kitchen.

  “Mother and Daddy can’t find him, and Heath is on his way here. Harlan wasn’t in his office,” she told me breathlessly.

  “I’ll help as long as someone can watch Lucy for me. Shouldn’t someone call the police?”

  “Daddy doesn’t want to call them until we know where Harlan is. I’ll just go ahead and call them myself if we don
’t find him soon.”

  Ruby came into the kitchen just then, carrying a plate. “I’m going to make a pie,” she said. Then she noticed Evie’s drawn expression. “What’s the matter, Evie?”

  “Aunt Ruby, have you seen Harlan? I can’t seem to find him anywhere and I’m afraid he’s hurt.”

  Ruby shook her head. “I haven’t seen him. Why do you think he’s hurt?”

  “It’s a long story. I just think he is. Would you come find me if you see him?”

  “Yes.” Evie left and Ruby turned her attention to making a pie crust. I took Lucy’s snack upstairs.

  Not long after Lucy finished her snack, Evie knocked on the door. “I’ll watch Lucy for you. Would you mind moving your car? I think I’m going to call the police, and I want them to be able to get their cars up to the front of the house. And an ambulance, too, if we need one.”

  I grabbed my car keys and ran outside. I pulled the car slowly into the garage.

  That’s when I saw him.

  CHAPTER 11

  I slammed on the brakes. Harlan lay crumpled on the floor of the garage, a pool of blood collected around him. I jumped out of the car, screaming for someone, anyone, and ran toward Harlan. I knelt on the floor of the garage next to him and reached for his hand. His eyes were closed and blood radiated from a small hole in his chest. I fervently hoped Harlan was still alive, but I knew instinctively that he was gone.

  I could hear people running toward the garage, yelling my name. I couldn’t answer. I was too horrified to speak. I couldn’t think clearly.

  A moment later strong hands were gently guiding me away from Harlan. I looked up into Graydon’s face. His skin had a chalky pallor. Vivian was behind Graydon, screaming, and Evie was running from the front of the manor. Graydon stopped her before she entered the garage.

  “Evie, don’t go in there.”

  “Why not?” she demanded. “Why is Mother screaming?” Her voice had risen an octave.

  “Harlan’s in there,” Graydon answered grimly. “I don’t want you to see him.”

  “I have to see him!” she yelled. “Let me go!”

  “Evie, I am your father,” Graydon told her sternly. “You will listen to me and do as I say. Go back into the house this instant and call the police. On the house phone.”

  He wanted her away from the garage. That’s why he told her to use the house phone instead of her cell phone, which she no doubt had with her. My mind was slowly starting to work again.

  Just a moment later Ruby came running from the house. “What’s going on in there?” she asked me.

  “I found Harlan,” I answered. “Graydon and Vivian are in the garage with him and Evie went back into the house to call the police.”

  “Is he okay?”

  I shook my head. Vivian had stopped screaming. I could hear her retching in the garage.

  Heath drove up to the front of the manor just then and jumped out of his truck. “Did someone find him? Evie called my cell and I could hear it ring but couldn’t find it. It was under the front seat.”

  “Yes. I found him. He’s in the garage.”

  Heath ran into the garage. I heard nothing, but he came out a few minutes later with his arm around Vivian. He walked with her to the front door of the manor and hugged her before she went inside and shut the door. He walked slowly back to where I stood, his eyes downcast.

  “Harlan didn’t make it,” he said hoarsely. Ruby gasped nearby, her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide. Heath went over and hugged her. When he held her away from him, her eyes were moist. She used a handkerchief to dab at the tears that were starting to flow.

  “I’m so sorry, Heath. I wish we could have found him sooner,” I replied.

  “So do I.”

  Evie came back outside and stood with us. Heath told her that Harlan had died, and she stood silently, shaking her head ceaselessly, tears coursing down her cheeks. She put her hand over her mouth. Heath put an arm around her shoulders and I held her other hand. It wasn’t long before a police car, followed closely by an ambulance, came up the driveway. Two police officers got out of the car and ran over to the garage. I could hear them ordering Graydon out of the way. Graydon stepped backward out of the garage, then stood at the doorway with his hands clenching and unclenching, helpless and watching. One of the officers came to the door and put yellow police tape across the doorway. Two paramedics then pushed a stretcher to the garage and under the police tape. It was several moments before they appeared again, this time with Harlan’s body, covered entirely by a white sheet, on the stretcher. They placed Harlan carefully in the back of the ambulance and left slowly, lights flashing, but without a siren.

  The three of us watched it until it turned onto the main road, then Heath put his hand on Evie’s shoulder. “I’m going inside,” he told us, wiping tears from his eyes. “I’ve got to see if Mother’s okay.” Evie stared at him as if she couldn’t comprehend what he had said.

  Ruby had stood by herself a short distance from us. “Heath, can I get you anything?” she asked.

  He offered her a half smile in appreciation. “No thanks, Aunt Ruby. I’ll be all right.”

  She shook her head as she watched him walk away. “That poor boy. To lose a twin. I can’t imagine what that must be like.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t either.”

  “Are you all right, Evie?” she asked. Evie shook her head in reply and Ruby hugged her as their tears mingled.

  Two more police cars then drove up to the house, and four officers got out and went directly to the garage. I turned to Ruby and Evie. “Lucy’s alone in the house. I need to get back upstairs.” They nodded in reply.

  I raced up the staircase inside the manor and practically flew to my room. Inside, on the floor and surrounded by dolls, sat Lucy.

  “Hi, Mama. Where were you?”

  “Putting the car away.”

  I chatted to Lucy for the next several minutes with the door closed so she wouldn’t hear the crying from down the hall. It was Evie. I wished I could be there for her, but I needed to be where Lucy was. I was scared for her. She was blissfully unaware of the sadness and violence that had visited Peppernell Manor, but I was acutely mindful of it and afraid. I decided not to wait until the next morning—I wanted to pack her up quickly and leave for Florida that evening, as long as the police would allow me to go.

  I called my parents again and told them of the change of plans. We would be arriving sometime the next morning, and they couldn’t wait to see us. Then I called Brad. I didn’t want to tell him about the events that had transpired, so I told him instead that I needed to take a short trip for my work. He surprised me by graciously agreeing to let Lucy go to Florida. I would have taken her even without his consent, but it was nice to have it. I hurriedly packed Lucy’s clothing, including (as Lucy reminded me) her bathing suit. She loved swimming at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. It took me quite a while to pack her bags, since I didn’t know how long she would be staying in Florida. I ended up packing most of the things that we had brought with us from Chicago.

  My packing was interrupted when Evie knocked on the door to whisper that the police needed to see me downstairs. She stayed with Lucy while I went to the drawing room to be questioned for the second time since arriving at Peppernell Manor. The police wanted to know all about the phone call from Harlan, my actions after hearing the phone call, how I found Harlan, and what I did after I found him. They were apparently satisfied with my answers and gave their permission for me to take Lucy to Florida, as long as I provided them with my cell phone number, license plate number, and my parents’ address. They advised me to be back within forty-eight hours. I was grateful to leave them to the rest of their questioning.

  Twilight had arrived by the time we were ready to leave. I found Heath and Evie in the kitchen and told them good-bye. It was then I remembered that Heath and I had made plans for the evening; the plans of course had evaporated the minute Evie received the phone call from Harlan. Ho
w I wished the evening had unfolded as originally planned. I had packed a meal for Lucy; we told everyone good-bye and then I helped her climb into the car with Cottontail.

  It was a ten-hour drive to Florida, and I had some trouble staying awake. I pulled off the interstate twice for large cups of coffee, thinking ruefully that as much as I wanted to be spontaneous, this trip to Florida was not what I had in mind. Lucy fell asleep shortly after we ate our dinner, and amazingly, she slept soundly for most of the trip. I was completely exhausted as she was waking up, full of energy, and we pulled into my parents’ driveway at dawn.

  My mother and father appeared together on the front steps.

  “Grandma! Grandpa!” Lucy shrieked as she tried to wriggle out of her car seat. “Mama, help me get out!”

  My mother laughed and came around to give me a big hug, and my father followed suit. I helped Lucy out of her seat and she threw herself into my parents’ arms. I don’t think she stopped talking for the next two hours, as my parents showed her where she would sleep in their house and helped her unpack her things. After the four of us had breakfast together I finally told my mother that I needed some sleep.

  “Dad and I will take Lucy out this morning. She can go swimming, too,” she said. “You rest as long as you want. If we get home and you’re still asleep, we’ll either be quiet or leave again and go somewhere else.”

  Lucy was jumping up and down. “Swimming! I want to go swimming! Can Cottontail go?”

  My father smiled at her. “Of course Cottontail can go. I don’t think he should swim with you, though.” He was very indulgent of Lucy and would have taken Cottontail even if the little rabbit had weighed a thousand pounds.

  Lucy looked at him very seriously. “Cottontail doesn’t know how to swim.” He patted her head, laughing.

  Knowing she was in good hands, I practically fell into bed. I don’t know how long I slept, but the sun was making its way westward when I woke up. Lucy and my mother were coloring in the kitchen.