The Clockwork House

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘A small boy?’ Ava glanced at her notebook, to the photo just peeking out from its pages.

  ‘Peter Merrick,’ Bunty nodded, ‘the boy in your picture. There was some local gossip that he was her illegitimate son but it never came to anything so I couldn’t say for sure. She opened the house as a school and after that there was no more mention of her mother. She simply ceased to exist in the official records, but Luella… she was a different matter altogether, cool, aloof, many would say hard. She ran that school until the night of the great storm, the night all those children disappeared.’

  ‘And you have no idea what happened to them?’

  ‘None,’ Bunty shook her head, ‘neither did Hari. That was the one part of the puzzle she never managed to figure out. Whatever Luella did to those children remains a secret.’

  ‘Bunty,’ Ava rubbed her forehead tiredly as she tried to assimilate the mountains of information her dead grandmother had managed to compile over the decades. ‘This is all terrible, I mean it sounds like Ephraim Lynch was every woman’s worst nightmare. Edison was dealt a rough hand and it wasn’t fair. Eleanor,’ Ava shook her head sympathetically, ‘I can’t imagine what that poor woman must have suffered. As for Luella, coming from the family she did and being raised in that house… in that environment… I can imagine that she would have been a bit unstable, but it’s all in the past. It’s over. There’s nothing we can do about it, except move on.’

  ‘It’s not that simple,’ Bunty frowned. ‘I know you think I’m crazy and that maybe your grandmother was too, but Ava, there is a darkness inside that house. True evil walked its corridors, a darkness born of violence and hate. Those cruel and heinous deeds perpetrated within its walls left a scar, a stain that birthed something evil, something angry, something terrifying.’

  ‘Oh come on Bunty, that might work for the paranormal nut jobs but it’s crazy. The house is not haunted, and it’s not cursed,’ Ava let out a heavy frustrated breath. ‘I just want a home… my own home, is that too much to ask?’

  ‘Then pick a house and buy one on the island,’ Bunty replied desperately. ‘With what Hari left you, you could afford to buy three or four houses and still have change, but not that house, please not that house. I’m begging you, do what your grandmother could not and bulldoze it to the ground.’

  Ava rose slowly from the chair and picked up her notebook.

  ‘I’m sorry Bunty, I really am but I just don’t believe in all this.’

  ‘Just,’ Bunty sighed tiredly, ‘just take the boxes, they belong to you anyway. Look through them and see for yourself.’

  Ava lay in Kelley’s bed staring up at the ceiling. She didn’t need to look at the neon lights of the clock blinking on the nightstand to know how late it was, or rather how early. She’d heard Kelley come in from the bar in the early hours and collapse on the couch.

  It’d been the same since the first night she’d stayed. He’d given up his bed without a second thought. Despite the fact his couch was not built for a guy his height he’d slept on it without complaint. He’d never once pushed her for something more, even though it had always been there, hanging in the air between them.

  She’d have to be stupid not to recognize the chemistry between them. In fact, if he’d been anyone else, just some random guy in a bar she’d have scratched that itch the moment she met him and probably broken her own rule of going back for seconds.

  The whole time she’d stayed at his apartment they’d had plenty of chances to make something happen, but he seemed content to let her dictate the pace of their relationship and make no mistake, there may not have been any sex as yet but it was definitely a relationship. Something else she’d never experienced before.

  She’d been holding back; she knew she had. It all seemed way too good to be true. He seemed too good to be true, ridiculously good looking, smart, funny and just the right amount of nerdy. She was a goner. She wasn’t aware she had a type, but if she did it was definitely Kelley Ryan.

  If she had any sense, she’d have been cozied up to him naked. Instead she was laying alone in her pajamas pinned to the bed by her heavy half dog, half woolly mammoth, staring at the ceiling, surrounded by stacks of boxes of god only knew what, that Bunty had insisted she took with her.

  Her mind was spinning. She felt like she was stuck on some kind of maniacal merry-go-round, unable to slow down or get off. Her brain churned with facts and gossip and rumors, half-truths and supposition. She didn’t want to think about the Lynches with their dark, dysfunctional issues, or the house which everyone seemed convinced was haunted. She just wanted her brain to shut up for one damn minute.

  She crawled out of bed, careful not to disturb Bailey and slipped silently out of the room. She’d intended to head into the kitchen for a glass of water but instead she’d stopped dead, watching Kelley as he splayed out on his stomach, half hanging off the couch.

  ‘Are you just going to stand there and ogle me? Because I can get naked for your viewing pleasure,’ his sleepy voice rumbled in the near darkness.

  An unexpected laugh bubbled from her chest.

  ‘I’m sorry I woke you,’ she replied.

  He grunted and rolled over onto his back, propping his bare feet on the end of the couch.

  ‘Doesn’t matter, was thinking about you away,’ he murmured.

  ‘Really?’ she stepped a little closer.

  ‘Constantly,’ he rumbled.

  She could feel the warmth spreading through her chest at his sleepy heartfelt admission and before she could give herself a chance to second guess, she crossed the space and crawled on top of him, pressing her body against him until there wasn’t an inch of them that wasn’t joined.

  ‘Am I dreaming?’ his arms wrapped around her, anchoring her to him.

  ‘No,’ she replied, her face so close to his, he could feel her smile against his lips.

  She yelped in surprise, followed by a giggle, when he somehow managed to roll them, sliding her underneath him without them ending up in a heap on the floor.

  ‘Is it my birthday?’ he breathed against her mouth.

  ‘Yes,’ she grinned, ‘it’s your birthday.’

  She arched as his hand grazed up her ribcage, sliding underneath her shirt to cup her naked breast, his thumb skimming her nipple and his face pressing into the curve of her neck as he breathed her in.

  ‘Will there be cake?’ his voice was slightly muffled against her skin.

  She tilted her head back and laughed. Whatever it was that was coiled in her stomach instantly loosened and the tension drained out of her, replaced by genuine happiness and contentment. She didn’t know how he did it, but whenever she was with him everything just seemed right.

  She slid her fingers into his thick wavy hair and dragged his head up, pressing her lips to his as her hands trailed down his sides and grasped the hem of his t-shirt, pulling it up and over his head.

  With a lot of wriggling he managed to draw hers up her body and over her head, tossing it aside carelessly as they pressed together in the darkness, skin to skin, the burning heat of him to her soft lush inviting curves.

  He was drowning in the scent and feel of her arching beneath him. Her lips parted on a sigh and he tasted her, her lips soft and yielding.

  She felt his fingers burning a hot trail down her skin as they hooked into her pajama pants and drew them over her hips. She wriggled once again and kicked them away, leaving her free and gloriously naked beneath his aching body.

  ‘Kelley,’ she lifted her arms, wrapping them over the side of the couch behind her, arching helplessly as his fingers pressed between her legs and stroked her maddeningly.

  ‘Are you sure this is what you want,’ he breathed against her lips, his body burning against hers.

  ‘I want you,’ she whispered.

  His lips crashed down on hers, his kiss devasting as he drove her to an orgasm so loud, her dog started barking in the other room.

  He chuckled against her mouth as she caught he
r breath, coming down from her high. ‘She probably won’t let up until she knows you’re okay.’

  ‘Tough,’ Ava whispered against his mouth, ‘I’m not done with you yet.’

  He felt her fingers pop the buttons on his jeans and slide them over his hips before her hand closed firmly around him.

  ‘Thank god,’ he muttered against her mouth as they sunk down into another kiss.

  She shoved the jeans further down his legs until he kicked them to the floor. Then he sank into her slowly. For one brief second it was like the whole world slowed down and stopped. She drew in a deep sharp breath, her heart pounding against his as he watched her, vivid green eyes in the darkness.

  Then he rocked against her and the world restarted. She wrapped her legs around him, his arms snaked underneath her, and they held on for dear life. Tangled together and so lost in each other it was tough to tell where one ended and the other began.

  Nothing else existed but the two of them, and when she finally arched and shattered, tightening her thighs around his hips, she dragged him down with her, into sated oblivion.

  They lay there, breathing ragged, sweat drying on their heated skin, and hearts pounding, like the survivors of some kind of wreck, and this time when they closed their eyes, they both slipped easily into dreams.

  19

  ‘Did you move in without me realizing?’

  Ava glanced up from her cup of coffee.

  ‘The boxes in the bedroom?’ Kelley smiled.

  ‘Oh those,’ she shook her head as he walked into the kitchen, freshly showered, and poured his own cup. ‘I finally went to see Bunty yesterday. She gave them to me, I’m sorry I just dumped them in there. To be honest I didn’t know what else to do with them. I couldn’t leave them in the truck or the RV.’

  ‘What are they?’

  ‘Part of the whole sorry Lynch family mess,’ she blew out a resigned breath as she stared aimlessly down into her cup.

  ‘Hey,’ he moved closer, ‘what is it? What did she tell you?’

  ‘A whole bunch of stuff,’ she looked up at him. ‘Apparently Ephraim Lynch was a serial rapist with a liking for teenage girls. He spent years mentally and emotionally abusing his crippled son while he physically and sexually abused his daughter in law, and then ended up fathering his own grandchildren, one of which died and the other may or may not have been a pyscho killer.’

  ‘Holy shit.’

  ‘Yeah,’ she muttered sourly. ‘Those boxes are everything my grandmother managed to track down over the years, ledgers, journals, letters, photos. I had a look at them briefly last night but…’ she shrugged, shaking her head.

  ‘You’re struggling to read them?’ he guessed.

  ‘Most of the time I manage okay, but the style of handwriting and the dated language makes it harder,’ she frowned.

  ‘I could help if you like?’

  ‘Be my guest,’ she waved her hand toward the doorway. ‘To be honest I’m not even sure what I’m looking at half the time, there’s so much stuff there. Just… whatever you find out, keep between us, okay? After discovering those bodies, I’m not ready to stir up the reporters’ nest again. Sooner or later they’ll find out what a sick bastard Lynch really was, but I’m not ready to deal with it yet. Not when I’m still trying to get my head around it.’

  ‘Ava,’ he stroked the length of her arm soothingly, ‘you can trust me.’

  ‘I do trust you,’ she replied, ‘otherwise I wouldn’t be here with you, but do you know what I just don’t get?’

  ‘What?’ he sipped his coffee as he looked down at her.

  ‘I mean I get that the Lynch family was a nightmare and that it would be embarrassing for my grandmother or my mom to be related to them, but what’s with all the dire warnings about the house? I don’t know why everyone is so obsessed with the idea that it’s haunted.’

  ‘I suppose, it’s the mystery,’ Kelley replied thoughtfully, ‘all the unanswered questions. We all grew up with the legend of Luella Lynch and the story of the missing children. It sort of lends itself to a ghost story.’

  ‘Yeah, I get the local gossip, but Bunty was deadly serious. She doesn’t want me to have that house, she practically begged me to demolish it.’

  ‘She’s an old woman,’ Kelley shook his head, ‘and from what you’ve said, both she and Hari were studying the house and the family for years. I guess it’s just deeply ingrained now. She’s convinced herself its real, or maybe it is real, who knows?’

  ‘Your overactive imagination again?’ her mouth twitched in amusement.

  ‘Hey, it’s overactive imaginations like mine that are gonna pay the bills from what I hear,’ he replied. ‘Killian mentioned yesterday that you’re going to make the house into some sort of local attraction?’

  ‘Oh,’ Ava chuckled, ‘that… Drew had this idea that I have the house restored to its factory settings and open it to the public. He thought it would bring in loads of crazy ghost hunters and boost the island’s economy.’

  ‘He’s probably not wrong,’ Kelley mused thoughtfully.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she frowned. ‘At first I was really excited. I thought it was a great idea and in addition to that I could open a little cafe or restaurant space in the house, but now…’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Knowing what I do I’m not sure if I want to make it public knowledge.’

  ‘Ava,’ Kelley told her softly, ‘you don’t have to air any dirty laundry if you don’t want to. You control the spread of information; trust me people would flock to the house regardless. Just the local legends and the fact you found bodies in a hidden room deep beneath the house would ensure visitors flock to the house.’

  ‘But how do I explain the creepy mortuary and the sex bed in front of the coffins… that’s just nasty.’

  ‘You don’t explain it,’ he laughed. ‘Trust me, their overactive brains will fill in the blanks. Half the fun is to keep them guessing, but equally, its entirely up to you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.’

  ‘What if I want to?’

  ‘Then I’d say there’s nothing stopping you,’ he shrugged.

  ‘Except I don’t have the first clue how to run a business.’

  ‘People will be there to help Ava; you don’t have to do this alone.’

  ‘It’s not just that,’ she chewed her lip.

  ‘What then?’

  ‘I just,’ she chewed restlessly at one ragged fingernail.

  Kelley calmly moved her hand from her mouth as he watched her patiently.

  ‘I just… will you do something for me?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘Sure I will,’ he moved her hand again when she unconsciously began to chew her nail once more. ‘Tell me what you need sweetheart.’

  ‘I um… can you help me get my high school diploma?’

  His mouth curved into a wide smile.

  ‘I’d love to,’ he replied genuinely. ‘There’s a couple of night courses we can enrol you in at the school, or if you’d prefer something a bit more private, I can tutor you. I’m a great study buddy. I don’t like to brag,’ he grinned, ‘but all my lab partners in high school aced their final grade.’

  ‘You really think I can do it?’ she asked nervously.

  ‘Sure you can,’ he set his coffee down, ‘plus you have a teacher all to yourself, for one on one learning.’

  ‘And what does this one on one learning entail?’ she smiled as he leaned against her, pinning her against the counter and cupping her face with his hands.

  ‘All the things I could get fired for,’ he smiled against her mouth as he sunk in and kissed her.

  She felt that kiss all the way down to her toes, heating her blood and flushing her skin. She wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him in closer, and as he lifted her easily and set her on the counter, stepping between her legs and sliding his hands under her shirt, she found herself hoping for a replay of the night before, this time hopefully involving a bed and a lot more maneuver
ing room.

  She was dimly aware of a strange buzzing somewhere nearby, and the counter beside her thigh seemed to be vibrating slightly. She ignored it and threw herself back into the kiss until Kelley pulled back slightly.

  ‘Ava,’ he murmured between kisses, ‘your phone.’

  She blinked and glanced down at her phone on the counter next to her. She still hadn’t quite gotten used to it. Picking it up she glanced at the screen.

  ‘It’s Drew,’ she murmured as she hit connect and raised the phone to her ear.

  ‘Tell him to get lost,’ Kelley replied as he kissed his way down her neck.

  ‘Tell Kelley I heard that,’ Drew responded by way of a greeting.

  ‘Hey Drew,’ Ava laughed pushing Kelley away slightly, ‘what’s up?’

  ‘I’ve found out some stuff about the house,’ his signal kept cutting out. ‘I’m on the ferry now, can you meet me at Rosie’s diner? It’s down on the waterfront.’

  ‘Sure?’ she glanced down at her watch. ‘When?’

  ‘My ETA’s about half an hour.’

  ‘Okay I’ll see you then,’ she hung up.

  ‘Problem?’ Kelley asked.

  ‘No, he’s on his way over to the island. He says he’s found some information about the house.’

  ‘The missing blueprints?’

  ‘He didn’t say,’ she hopped down from the counter. ‘He wants me to meet him at Rosie’s diner.’

  ‘Good choice,’ Kelley nodded, ‘great pancakes.’

  ‘You wanna come?’

  ‘I wish I could,’ he glanced down at his own watch, but I’ve got a delivery for the bar coming in this morning that I need to sign for, then I have a stock check. Rain check on the pancakes?’

  ‘Sure,’ she nodded.

  ‘You going up to the house later?’

  ‘Yeah, the building work has resumed so I’ve got hungry mouths to feed. Today its smoked chicken samosas and mango chutney.’

  He knew it would be something amazing as all her prep work was currently chilling in his refrigerator, and every time he opened the door it smelled mouth-watering.