"I am beginning to think that's exactly what happened. It all went wrong, and after he stabbed Robert during the struggle, he ran. He got away with it for all those years, until Roman Carrington showed up."
"Carrington's death was kept quiet, I do know that," Steven said thoughtfully.
"Robert feels that the time is growing near for Pamela to return to Blackhawk Manor. She made a promise to him as he was dying that when her time was near, she would come here to die. I also know, from speaking with Pamela's sister, she hasn't been well recently."
"You went to see her sister?" Steven asked.
"Yes, after Robert visited me the first few times. I did some research and found the address of her childhood home. As luck would have it, her family still resides there, a sister, her daughter and the daughter's family."
"So you need to find the murder weapon, after all these years, without old Patterson catching you. You know if this is all true, he may be out to get you next."
"We are well aware of that. That's why this whole plan has to be very carefully orchestrated. I think I know where he may have hidden it, and we have to act quickly. That's where you come in. We need your help and your protection, since you work at the inn and are family friends with the owners. The chances of us getting into hot water are less that way," Hannah explained as she took a sip of her drink.
Steven took a deep breath. "I know his schedule, and I've never known him to return to the grounds at night. What do you have in mind?" he asked.
"I believe the evidence is buried somewhere near the rose bushes in the back of the inn."
"Let me use my family influence with the owners. I can come up with a reason to be in the rose garden. That covers your butts with them. I'll think about it and let you know when we have the all clear from them."
"And if Mr. Patterson catches wind of it, you can say the owners told you to take care of whatever it is you will supposedly be doing out there," Cassie said.
"I think the roses are looking poorly this year, don't you, girls?" Steven asked with a wink.
"Why yes, they are. I think we can do some digging and plant some new bushes, don't you?" Hannah replied with a giggle.
Chad and Alan were silent, taking it all in. Hannah noticed that they exchanged glances a few times.
"I'll take care of this tomorrow and get back to you," Steven said. "Why don't you try to relax and enjoy your dinner? It's on me."
"No, for your assistance, I insist on treating you, Steven. Thank you for agreeing to help. I feel better about this venture, knowing you are friends with the owners of the inn. The last thing we all need, aside from becoming the murderer's next victims, is to get into any sort of trouble with the law," Chad said gratefully.
When Steven drove them back to the inn later that evening, both couples thanked him for a wonderful night. He had introduced them to some of his local friends, and they had spent the rest of the evening dancing and enjoying the local atmosphere.
"I'll talk with you tomorrow," he promised as he walked with them into the lobby. "Stay away from old man Patterson. We don't want him to get suspicious."
Chapter Six
Both girls were anxious the next morning as they waited to hear from Steven. They had told him they would be in the dining room all morning, waiting to hear from him.
Finally, Hannah's cell phone rang, and when she answered, it was he. "Hannah, I've cleared it all with the owners. I know they humor the old guy and let him remain on staff to give him something to do. It wasn't hard to convince them to let me and a couple of my friends do some gardening for them. I'll swing by the nursery and pick up some rosebushes late this afternoon. When Patterson is gone for the day, we'll get to digging."
Hannah excused herself to go up to her room and try to figure out where the man buried the knife, from all that the ghosts had told her. Chad offered to help her.
"I'll find something to keep me occupied. I may take a walk," Cassie said. Looking at Alan, she asked, "Join me?" He nodded in response.
"Just be careful, both of you," Hannah warned.
"I will. The old man has no reason to suspect anything. I was the one who told you to leave that day and quit bothering him," Cassie reminded her.
"Be careful, just the same. If he is truly the killer, he isn't to be trusted. It gives me the creeps to think he's worked here for all of these years and not one person suspected him."
* * *
Cassie walked outside onto the porch and sat down in one of the rockers. Alan attempted to reassure her as he sat in the chair next to hers. They enjoyed the summer breeze for several minutes before getting up to take their walk. They weren't headed in any particular direction, but they soon found themselves walking along the riverside. Cassie stopped at a lookout point and watched the boats on the river, spoke to some other folks who were out and turned to head back toward the inn, taking Alan's hand that he offered to her.
They were just on the edge of the grounds when the hair on the back of Cassie's neck suddenly stood on end. She could feel the presence of someone behind her. Quickly turning, she gasped as she saw old Mr. Patterson standing there.
"Didn't mean to scare you, miss," the man said. He nodded to Alan.
"Uh…it's all right. I wasn't expecting anyone to be here, that's all," she stammered.
"You know, you remind me of a young woman who was a guest here many years ago. She was such a pretty young thing, red hair, green eyes."
"Is that so?" Cassie asked.
"Never saw her again," the old man stated.
"I'm sure that's how it is with most of the guests who come here, unless they're regular visitors," Cassie replied. She instinctively took a step backward.
"Oh, yeah, they come and they go. Well, I have to get back to work. Have a nice day, both of you."
Cassie walked quickly, practically pulling Alan with her, until they reached Hannah's door. She knocked, and they rushed into the room as soon as Chad answered it.
"What is wrong with you?" Hannah asked from the bed, where she was sitting with a notebook and pen in her hand.
"Th-that old man…h-he started talking to me…said I reminded him of a young woman with red hair who stayed here a long time ago."
"Pamela had red hair," Hannah said thoughtfully.
"He was nice, just freaked me out, knowing what I know," Cassie replied.
"Yeah, the old geezer even told us to have a nice day," Alan added.
"We need to steer clear of him. We don't want him to suspect that we are on to him. He'll be leaving at five, and we're supposed to meet with Steven shortly after that," Chad said solemnly.
"Are you sure you really want to go through with this? What if we're in the middle of digging up the ground in the back rose garden, and for some strange reason, old Mr. Patterson decides to come back?" Alan asked.
"Why would he?" Hannah asked in reply.
"Maybe he knows we're onto something. Maybe that's why he talked to me today," Cassie said.
"Now, whose imagination is running wild?" Hannah asked. "This is something I feel I need to do. Robert and Roman said they think fate sent me to help them. What if that is true, what if I am the person, who, after all these years, is able to solve the mystery? I…we…need to take care of this before Pamela returns here to die. I think that time is very near. Don't you feel it, too? They all need closure."
"I agree that all signs point to the fact she will return soon, if she is able to, but I don't know if you are meant to put your life at risk for a legend," her friend replied in a serious tone. "This could prove to be very dangerous…for all of us."
"We have to be careful, that's all," Hannah said. "Why don't you sit down, and I'll make us a pot of tea? We have some time before we have to meet Steven."
"How did you know Pamela had red hair? I don't remember reading that, and the newspaper photos were in black and white," Cassie said later as she accepted a cup of tea from Hannah.
"I don't know how I knew that. I really don't. N
o one has mentioned it, and you're right about the photos. Even the pictures in her sister's house of her were in black and white. I just knew…when you said Mr. Patterson mentioned a red-haired woman from years ago…I just knew."
"Another eerie piece of the puzzle, why do you suppose you are so in tune with all of this?" Chad asked.
"I don't know. I've always been interested in stories of this kind, but I never knew why. I guess I do have some sort of connection, especially since I can talk to the spirits," Hannah answered grimly.
"Two of them, anyway," Cassie said as she sipped her tea. "It's like we really were led here. When we were planning our summer itinerary and all the trips, this place just sort of came out of nowhere."
"I had read about the legend, so I suggested it. I also knew there were several quaint little shops in the area and things to do nearby. I went online and researched the area, along with other places on our list," Hannah reminded her.
"The other places we plan to see this summer are well-known tourist attractions, though. We are planning a trip to the Smoky Mountains next month, and later in the summer, the Myrtle Beach trip. Why this place?" the red-haired girl mused.
"It was not far away, I don't know, I just felt I wanted to come here first."
"It's funny how our trip just happened to coincide with the anniversary of their wedding and the death of Robert," Cassie reminded her.
"That is a coincidence, I'll have to admit, but I didn't plan it that way," Hannah told the rest of them.
"It's been fifty-one years," Cassie remarked.
"Yes, kind of makes you wonder why this didn't all happen on the fiftieth anniversary, but nothing about any of this has been normal," Alan surmised.
"It's almost five; I guess if we're going to go through with this, we should get ready," Chad said after looking at his watch.
They waited for the call from Steven. At precisely five-thirty, he called Hannah's cell phone and told her to meet him in the rose garden.
"This is it. I only hope my hunch is correct, and that I didn't misunderstand Roman's meaning, when he said I knew where the evidence was hidden. This was all I could come up with," Hannah said as they stepped into the hallway.
"We'll find out soon enough. Let's get it over with," Chad answered.
Steven was already in the rose garden at the back of the inn when they arrived. A pickup truck belonging to the inn sat, parked, nearby, and the bed of the truck held two rosebushes. The young man had already started digging.
"Over there," Hannah said as she approached him. "That was where we were when we spoke to Mr. Patterson the other day."
"Okay," he replied. He moved to the spot she said and began to dig again. "I'm not finding anything, should we move to another spot?" he asked after several minutes.
"No, not yet, I have a feeling. Just keep digging," Hannah said. The others stood by quietly, waiting to see if her hunch was correct.
"Okay, whatever you say, you're the one with the weird powers around here," he teased. He rested briefly, wiping his brow, before going back to the digging. "This will be a good spot to put in one of those bushes, anyway."
"I'll go get one of the bushes. If nothing else, you can at least get it planted." Cassie ran to the truck to pull one of the bushes from the back. Alan and Chad followed her. It was heavier than she had thought it would be. Alan and Chad laughed as they picked it up effortlessly and made it back to the spot where Steven was still digging.
"Here it is, are you ready to give up and just plant the bush yet?" she asked.
"Not…just…yet…oh my God," Steven exclaimed as he threw down the shovel and fell to his knees. He reached into the ground with his hands and pulled out what appeared to be an old cigar box. He slowly opened the lid, with both couples peering over his shoulder. "We've hit pay dirt!" he shouted.
"This is it! What do we do now?" Cassie asked.
"We need to call the police right away," Steven said. "Let me, since they know me."
Hannah looked at the box, now lying on the ground. The contents of the box were overwhelming, to say the least. There was a knife, covered with dried blood, some photos of a young woman and a powdery substance in a plastic bag.
"Don't touch anything. The police will be here in a few minutes," Steven said as he returned.
It wasn't long before the inn was swarming with police vehicles. Several of the guests at the inn were gathering around to see what was happening.
"What have you got here, Steve?" one of the officers asked.
"I was digging to add some rosebushes to the garden, with the help of my friends here, when we discovered this box buried in the spot I was preparing for one of the bushes. When I opened it, I figured you'd want to see what was inside."
"You know what this could be, don't you?" the young officer asked. "It could be the missing link to that murder that happened all those years ago here at the inn."
"That's exactly what popped into my mind," Steven said.
"I'll take it in. I'll need all of you to make a statement, and I'll give Jim a call. He'll need to be there, too. I'd plant those bushes in another spot if I were you. We want to leave this area untouched. I'll have one of the boys rope it off."
"Let me finish up here, and we'll meet you at the station," Steven said.
"Sure, you go ahead. I'll be making several phone calls when I get back to the station. If this is what we think it is, it's big news."
While the police roped off the area, Steven hurriedly planted the bushes in the area he had first begun to dig. "Just to make it legit we were planting roses," he told the others quietly.
"Who is Jim?" Hannah asked.
"Jim is the current owner of the inn," the young man explained as he finished his work. "There, that didn't take long. Let me get washed up, and I'll drive us all over to the station."
When they arrived, there was mass pandemonium in the small building that housed the local police station. Several people were already there, the owner of the inn, some members of the media and other officers.
Steven made his way through the crowd. "We're ready to make our statements."
"Come in here, where we can have some privacy. The FBI is on their way."
The man led them into an office and told them to have a seat. "Okay, let's start by getting your names. Then I want you to tell me again how you came to find the box."
One by one, the five young people told their story to the officer. Hannah was careful to leave out the part where she'd been conversing with ghosts.
"What will happen now?" Steven asked.
"The FBI will take it from here. They'll most likely try to run some DNA tests on the blood and also see if they can pick up any old prints on the knife. The woman in the picture will need to be identified, of course, and they'll run tests on the substance in the bag to see what it is."
"I would guess it's a drug designed to cause death by slowing and eventually stopping the heart," Hannah said without thinking.
"What makes you say that?" the officer asked.
"I've done a lot of research on the death of young Robert Thorndale and also the death of an actor who was staying at the inn at the time of his death. If the killer is still in the area, and he suspected someone of finding out his secret, perhaps a death believed to be accidental wasn't accidental at all."
"So you are implying that the actor may have found the box before you, and he was killed. The killer reburied the box, and he is still around, after all these years? Who is the woman in the photo, if you know so much about this?"
"I didn't get a good look at it, but I would not be surprised to hear that the woman in the photo is Pamela Sue Thorndale," Hannah told him in a calm voice.
"Miss Stone, I'm going to ask that you stay in town for a few more days, is that possible? It appears that you know a great deal about this case."
"I can stay. I do know quite a bit, given the fact I have read everything I could get my hands on about it. I'm very interested in legends and myths of
this sort."
"The death of Mr. Thorndale is hardly a myth. It really happened, and his murderer was never caught. If there truly is a connection between this box, the murderer and the death of another of the inn's guests, we'll find out. I'm going to place some officers at the inn outside your rooms for your own protection until we can get some answers. I don't like the idea of the killer still being alive and in the area. If that's true, he's going to hear about the box being found. He's killed before, and he's capable of doing it again."
Hannah, Cassie, Chad, Alan and Steven returned to the inn. Jim insisted that Steven stay in one of the rooms, under police protection, for the time being.
"Wow, that's just all I can say at this point," Cassie said as they pulled into the parking lot and waited for the police guard to escort them to their rooms through the back door of the inn.
Chapter Seven
They spent the next few days quietly in their rooms. Alan and Cassie stayed in their own room, which gave Chad ample time alone with Hannah. She soon found out that he was as good as his word about turning her over his knee.
"Hannah, I think we should have a discussion about all this, now that things are coming to a conclusion," he said one evening as they finished dinner. The staff sent meals to their rooms now.
"What do you mean, baby?" she asked as she looked up at him.
"Sweetheart, you took some mighty big chances with your life, as well as Cassie's, with this whole thing."
"I was careful."
"Hannah Sue, just listen to me for a change. I get that folklore and legends interest you. There is nothing wrong with that, not in the least. But when you actually start to become involved in an old, unsolved murder, it lends a whole new aspect to that interest. Didn't you, even once, stop to think about possible consequences? What do you think would have happened if old man Patterson realized that you were on to his secret, just like that actor? He could have easily killed you, maybe Cassie and the rest of us, too."
Hannah's Horror: A Romantic Mystery Page 5