A Haunting at Hensley Hall (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery)

by Merabeth James

  “Zack, do you believe in destiny…fate…whatever you want to call it?” she found herself asking.

  He looked at her for a long moment, then replied, “I can’t be standing here next to you and not be a believer.”

  “What does that mean, Zack? Then, again, maybe I don’t want you to answer that. You’ve been a problem since I first laid eyes on you.”

  He moved closer and she took a step back. “Maybe I should tell you,” he mused. “I was hoping you’d find me as unforgettable, as I found you, but under the circumstances maybe that’s asking way too much. But now isn’t the time and this isn’t the place. Or is it?”

  She swallowed hard. What would she be getting herself into, if she allowed him to cross the line and tell her who he really was…how she knew him…and why she shouldn’t have forgotten him? And was all that even something she wanted to know? Probably not. Why stir things up, when she had thought herself safely settled? So, she changed the subject. “You do believe in ghosts now….I mean really believe? You don’t still think Meg’s séance was a lot of hocus pocus on our part, do you?”

  He laughed then. “Yes, I do believe in ghosts, though I never in a zillion years thought I would. Besides the séance, I’ve heard plenty of rustlings, whispers, singing, laughter and God knows what else, since I’ve been here. And there’s a big fluffy invisible cat that's been sharing my bed.”

  “So Cloud's been visiting you, too! Why am I not surprised. He seems to be making the rounds. Anyway, bottom line, Meg and I think Devon is probably staying in town. Who’d recognize him after forty years? And we think Old Thumper, the evil spirit Meg conjured up, .is involved somehow in Brittany’s disappearance. That the past is repeating itself for some reason. We don't think it was Devon who killed those girls. We think it was his father. You read Breanna’s journal, which I would appreciate back by the way, what do you think?”

  “Devon’s love for Breanna was obsessive…possessive, but a killer? I don’t know, as I said earlier, there’s Tommy’s death to consider.”

  “Timmy,” she corrected automatically. “A spirit can’t carry off a grown girl, wouldn’t have the energy for it, or at least that’s what we think. Devon is capable of doing that for his father.”

  “Because? He hated his father, remember?”

  “Yes, hated him and feared him with good reason. What if his father is possessing him? Making him do his bidding? You saw that thing at the séance. That was a very powerful force and I for one would not like to be its prey!”

  Zack raked his hand through his dark hair distractedly, then said, “You’ve got me pretty much convinced, but how in the hell are you going to convince Chief Beasely that a ghost is behind this disappearance?”

  “Or that Devon is still alive for that matter. Let’s get back to the house and give him a call. After that?”

  “Yeah! After that we will do what we can to convince a hard headed cop what even we find difficult to believe.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Meg stuck her tongue out, as she locked the door behind her sister. If she was going to be treated like some child she might as well act like one. “I don’t like being ordered about. Who does?” she asked Freddie, who was more interested in the scraps she was piling in his dish. “What do you think? Not talking, huh. Hey! I think we have enough leftovers here to make a nice breakfast for Annie. She’s always waiting on us, maybe she’d like someone to wait on her for a change?” Freddie woofed once, as he worriedly watched her load the bacon and pancakes he’d been anticipating onto a plate and pop it in the microwave.

  A few minutes later, she unlocked the door and looked around. Just the usual bird sounds…nothing alarming…but she felt guilty as she stepped outside. Freddie tried to go with her, but she nudged him back inside, telling him, “You stay here and be the watch dog I know you can be if given the chance. Tavish is too old for your shenanigans and Annie doesn’t need to be upset.

  She closed the door firmly and slipped through the kitchen garden and past the big brass sundial. Off in the distance, she could hear Charlie and Zack arguing or what sounded like arguing. There was definitely something going on between those two, but she didn’t know just what. She hadn’t had enough time to pry it out of her yet, but she would as soon as things settled down a bit.

  Right now they were still down at the end of the drive and, if she hurried, she could beat them back and not have to endure another one of Charlie’s penetrating glares. She was never just mad. It was always, “I’m disappointed in you”, which was worse than a good old fashioned hissy fit.

  Balancing Annie’s breakfast carefully, she sprinted across the open area and into the shadows, then up the stairs to Annie’s apartment. She could hear Tavish whine on the other side of the door. “Annie!” she called, knocking at the same time. There was no answer so she called and knocked even louder. “Annie, it’s just me! I’ve made breakfast for you. Your recipe. Please let me in. I’m beginning to get really worried about you!”

  She was about to leave, when she heard “Tis open. Come on in, if you must.”

  She opened the door and slipped around Tavish, who wriggled his pudgy brown body in greeting. “Hi, Tavish,” she told him patting his white muzzle. “You may be having some of this, if Annie won’t eat it. But, to be perfectly honest with you, it won’t do your figure any good.”

  Meg carried the plate to the table and looked around. Neither she nor Charlie had been up here since Annie moved in. It was spotless but surprisingly austere. Somehow she had expected more bric a brac. Pieces of Annie’s life…family photos and such. “Annie, are you all right?” she called, looking down the tiny, dark hallway. “Do you mind if I come back and check on you? You might be sicker than you think and need a doctor?”

  There was a long silence and then she heard, “Come on back, Meg. I should have known you’d come pesterin’ an old woman.”

  “Well, I won’t be but a second and then I’ll leave you alone,” Meg called as she made her way down the hall and opened the door. The blinds were pulled and the room quite dark, but she could see the mound on the single brass bed. “Honestly, I won't be pestering you long. I just need to make sure you don’t have a fever,” she said as she crossed to the bed. “Annie?”

  The door closed behind her with a solid bang and she whirled to see why. A man was standing there in the shadows, then moved with a cat-like grace across the floor. His salt and pepper hair was clubbed back in a long ponytail and his torso was bare. “If you’ve hurt Annie I’ll…I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do but you won’t like it,” Meg told him, balling her hands into fists.

  He laughed then and said, “Go see to your Annie, since you’re so worried about her.”

  Afraid to turn her back on him, she edged along the wall and drew back the blankets with a tremulous hand. “Annie?” she began and gasped. Under the blanket was Annie’s dress and sensible shoes. Her wire-rimmed glasses lay on the pillow along with two bushy gray eyebrows.

  Meg’s eyes rounded in horror. “What have you done to her?”

  “Perhaps I melted her like the witch in the ‘Wizard of Oz’, remember?” he told her. Moving to the window, he opened the blinds. “Saints presarve us.would I be harmin’ old Annie?” he mimicked in ‘Annie’s’ Irish brogue.

  She stared at him in fascination. Fleetingly, she remembered telling Annie that she ‘could be pretty’. The man in front of her was all of that! He was beautiful…an older masculine version of Breanna. She was stunned. Of course, he was Devon, who else could he be?

  She opened her mouth to scream, but he was too quick for her. Clapping his hand over her mouth, he pushed her onto the bed and threw his weight over her. His face was inches from hers, when he whispered, “I knew you’d come. I counted on your kind heart. Do Charlie and Zack know you are here?”

  He took his hand away from her mouth so she could answer. “Yes, I told them I was bringing you…Annie…breakfast,” she told him, trying to avoid his eyes.


  “You’re lying of course. Something you don’t do very well. I saw them head down the drive. Where were they going, Meg?”

  “To find out what happened to Brittany. What happened to her, Devon? Why the masquerade?” Meg asked. “We trusted you! You were part of our family!”

  “Ah, yes! The Ravynne family. I wish, with all that’s left of me, that could have been true. But I’m one of the cursed Hensleys…my soul damned forever because of what I’ve done…what I’ve become. You are my heart, Meg. I meant that. I lost mine along with my soul years ago.”

  She looked at him with a mixture of absolute horror and fascination. “The white roses! You are my secret admirer! Then why are you doing this to me? This is sure a funny way to show your admiration. Just let me go and I will find a way to help you. But Brittany needs help first…”

  “I’m going to tie you to the bed, but I won’t gag you unless I have to. Do you promise not to scream?”

  She nodded, but knew she would if the opportunity arose.

  “I won’t hurt you unless you leave me no other choice, is that understood?”

  She nodded again and he drew a coil of nylon rope from the dresser and tied her securely to the brass posts, then drew up a chair next to her. Outside she heard Charlie calling her and groaned. He was too close for her to get away with even making a peep. She looked at him and he smiled…Annie’s smile. It was so uncanny, it made her flesh crawl.

  He seemed to know what she was thinking. “You’re wondering how I got away with it all this time…being Annie. First of all, people tend to see what they want to see. I became what you were expecting, an old Irish cook and housekeeper…an animal lover just like you. I modeled myself after Mrs. Poole our cook here at Hensley Hall. She let me sit in the kitchen with her for hours and taught me a lot about cooking…things that I passed on to you, Meg. If my dialect slipped from time to time, I had hoped you wouldn’t notice.

  “I was worried I’d have lots of competition for the job, so I used Tavish who’s really been my dog for over a year.”

  Meg gasped, “Used Tavish? What did you do to him?”

  He smiled. "I saw you at the Town Hall, when you first came to town. You and Freddie. You brought him water in a Styrofoam cup and took him for a walk behind the bushes. You loved dogs, so I gave Tavish a sleeping pill…had to guess at the dose…and added a bit of fake blood from a novelty shop. The rest you witnessed. I’ll bet I was hired before I even drove off.”

  Meg muttered, “You could have killed him! We fell for it hook line and sinker!”

  He smirked and rocked back in his chair, “Of course you did. And all the rest. Tavish was a good excuse to get this apartment, too. Here, I didn’t have to be on-stage all the time. I could let the Annie character go and be myself. Wearing all her extra padding is hot and irritating, not to mention her hideous shoes.”

  “Why did you come back here? I’d have thought this would be the last place you’d want to be. And who’s buried in the mausoleum…the Devon look alike?”

  “What a stroke of luck that was! He was a stranger on the train I struck up a conversation with. He had no family who would miss him, was headed for a new job, and looked enough like me. I switched wallets after the crash and went on to pick up his life. And ‘presto’ I was no longer a wanted man. As, to why am I back here? I needed to come home, though that’s more of a feeling that a real explanation. Would you believe I entered that damned contest over and over again? And you won! How many times did you enter it?”

  Meg muttered, “Just one, actually. It was Charlie’s idea.”

  “I see. Fate. I wanted to come home and I couldn’t just appear and claim my inheritance, could I? There is no ’Statute of Limitations on murder. As things were, I was dead and buried in the family crypt, but I wanted…needed to be near Breanna again. She’s here somewhere. Father never told me where he buried her. They’ll be looking for you, so I haven't got much time

  "I’m sorry, Meg, but I know you won’t be able to resist calling for help so I have to tape your mouth shut. Don’t struggle. I don’t want to hurt you any more than necessary.”

  But she did struggle and tried to scream, but he was fast and he was strong. She was gagged in moments,

  ***

  “Meg! Meg! Where are you? Why was the kitchen door unlocked? Please answer me. I’m sorry I was so bossy. Meg, please,” Charlie begged, but there was no answer and Charlie felt a coldness nibble its way to her heart.

  “You don’t think there is any chance she might be hiding…trying to teach you a lesson?” Zack offered, knowing it was more than unlikely.

  “Meg would never do such a thing to me. Maybe I do treat her like a child sometimes, but she would never hurt me like that!” she exclaimed vehemently, not wanting to think of the other possibility, which was far too horrific to even consider. She ran then, through the house, flinging open doors, checking every room her sister might be in and a few she wouldn’t. Like the cellars. She hated the cellars. Freddie ran with her, barking excitedly, thinking it was all a game of some kind.

  Zack searched on his own until he was satisfied she was nowhere in the house. He was waiting for Charlie in the kitchen, when she finally gave up and he pulled her into his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder and allowed herself a moment of comfort, before she said, “I can’t imagine she would go outside, but we have to search the grounds. She might be at Annie’s. That’s the only place I can think of that she might go.” Without waiting for him to answer, she pushed free of his arms and was out the kitchen door, running down the drive and calling for Meg as she went. Zack went after her with Freddie close behind.

  ***

  Meg heard Charlie and Zack calling her; they were getting much closer. Devon heard them, too, and moved swiftly, twisting his hair back into its familiar bun and pasting on his bushy gray eyebrows, then donning a floor length flannel robe that hid his sudden lack of bulk and the Adam's apple his high necked dresses usually concealed. She watched the transformation in awe. He really was Annie O’Leary! Until that moment she hadn’t completely believed it.

  He smiled, winked and ‘shushed’ her with a finger to his lips. Slipping out the bedroom door, he closed it behind him, just in time to answer Charlie's knock. Meg moaned. There was no way her sister could even begin to imagine that she was only a few feet away, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey.

  ***

  Opening the door, Annie looked at Charlie in surprise. “What’s goin’ on? I heard you hollerin’ like the banshee loud enough to wake me from me sleep!”

  Vaguely, Charlie registered the thought that Annie didn’t look quite like herself. She was pale and drawn…and, well….keyed up, but she had no time for her now. Only Meg! Freddie began barking, excitedly and tried to push past her, but Charlie grabbed his harness and held tight. “Have you seen Meg, Annie? She’s missing and I'm frantic with worry!” Charlie's throat tightened in fear. More than anything she dreaded what, somehow, she knew Annie was about to say.

  Shaking her head vehemently, Annie’s eyes grew wide with horror. “No! Lord knows I wish I could be sayin’ otherwise. I’ll be gettin’ meself dressed and helpin’ with the search. I’ll not rest quiet till she be found safe and sound, the wee lamb.”

  Murmuring her thanks, Charlie left and and Devon returned to Meg. He was smiling when he told her, “It seems Charlie and Zack are quite distressed at your disappearance. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen your sister in such a state. I’m going to get dressed and help them with the search, seeing as how I’m so worried about you.

  “I want you to lie quietly here and get some sleep. No? I knew you would say that so I have a little something that will ensure you do just that. You can either take the sedative I’m going to give you, or I will have to conk you on the head,” he told her in a matter of fact way, as though he was discussing the weather. He peeled off her gag so she could answer him.

  “Is there a third choice? I don’t want to be conked and I don’t want t
o drink some vile concoction. Can’t you just chloroform me like they do in the movies?”

  He laughed with real amusement. “What you’ve seen in the movies and read in books is strictly ‘artistic license’. It doesn’t work that fast or last that long. So, it’s one or the other, Meg. And make it fast. I’ll have to stay with you till the sedative works.”

  “Sedative,” she mumbled resignedly, before he regaged her.

  He left her and she could hear him stirring about in the bathroom…the opening and closing of drawers…water running…and then he was back. He supported her head and unstuffed her mouth, then held a glass to her lips. “Drink it all, Meg. Remember the alternative.” She did as she was bid, because there didn’t seem anything else she could do. Devon was a madman…someone you didn’t argue with if you wanted to stay alive.

  He sat by her side, watching her carefully. Slowly, her eyes lost focus. As though from a great distance, she heard Tavish whine and then she slipped into nothingness.

  ***

  Leaving Annie to dress and join them, Charlie looked for Zack and found him looking through the carriage house below. It was filled with bits of old carriages, rusted wheels, mouse chewed buggy seats and cast off furniture from the house that wouldn’t fit in the cellar or attic. “Nothing here,” Zack told her. “I called Chief Beasely and he is on the way. Let’s keep searching the grounds until he gets here.” But Charlie was already out the door and headed towards the lake.

  The sound of a siren, brought them back to the house. Chief Beasely had brought two deputies with him. A tracker dog was in the back of the second car. “My sister is missing,” she told him. “Disappeared from the house. We’ve been searching for her.”

  The Chief smiled. “Now calm down, Miss Ravynne. Your sister is just fine. We don’t usually have them go missing two at a time around here.”

  Charlie wanted to fly at him and scratch that irritating smile off his face, but Zack caught the back of her shirt and pulled her to a stop.