Willy hurried into the turret room and disappeared from our sight. I stood still as a statue as my mind whirred in confusion. Who was Willy? What happened to him? Did he come back? Now more than ever, I wished that I had told someone about this plan of mine. As the drama of Abigail’s memories played out before me, I wasn’t sure what was actually happening in my own reality. Was I in trance? Was I in fact still sitting on the floor in the turret room as all this played out in my mind or was I really out here on the balcony?
Although it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, it seemed time had stretched much longer and I grew anxious as we waited. I walked to the balcony’s edge and looked toward the cottages. In the dark it was hard to see if they looked the same as I remembered or if I was seeing them as they were forty years ago. Both were in darkness. Even if I wanted to alert Kade, I wouldn’t be able to. I was committed at this point and had to see it through.
The skin along my spine prickled suddenly and as I began to swing around someone grabbed me from behind and held me against a hard body. “Don’t scream, Abby, I’m not going to hurt you.” The soft male voice spoke close to my ear sending shivers along every nerve ending and tripping warning bells in my mind. Nearly paralyzed in fear, I sent out a silent entreaty for Sheila. I hadn’t felt her presence at all tonight and I hadn’t given that much thought until now. Why was she not with me? Just like that day Mike died, she was nowhere near. What did her absence mean?
“What do you want?” The fact that I could speak at all surprised me. But was it me or Abigail talking? The lines of reality were so blurred at this point that I really didn’t know what to believe.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, but I had to get Willy away from you.”
The voice continued to speak in a soft whisper and the arms around me were more a precaution than a restraint. As soon as my body relaxed, the arms fell away and I swung around.
The man who stood there was about the same age and build as Willy only stockier, his hair shorter and a shade darker.
“You scared me to death.” Abigail relaxed slightly for obviously she recognized the man and did not fear him.
Was this Carter? If so, then he had to be dead didn’t he? And Willy, whoever he was, had to be dead too. But the only deaths of which I was aware of were that of Abigail and Nathan. Who were these boys and why was there no mention of them? Since this was Abigail’s memory, they had to have died after her. But how long after? Was that the mystery I needed to solve? “Sorry, but I told you, I had to get Willy away from you.”
“Why?” Abigail was tensing up again and fear shot through me in response.
“He’s dangerous. He killed Nathan.”
Something wasn’t right here. I tried to maneuver away from the parapet and the danger it suddenly presented. At some point Abigail was going over that wall and that moment was rapidly approaching. The young man watching me stepped back as if to show that I had nothing to fear. And then his expression changed as he stared at me, going from amiable to suspicious.
“Why are you out here? Searching for Abigail’s ghost are you?”
The question took me by surprise and jolted me from the trance or whatever it was that I had been experiencing. For a moment I was too disoriented to understand what was happening, but then the world seem to right itself and I realized I was no longer one with Abigail and experiencing her visions. And the man standing before me wasn’t young anymore either. He looked to be in his late fifties, maybe a little older. It was hard to tell and the fear racing through me told me his age didn’t much matter at the moment. A sick feeling washed over me as I realized that I was standing out on the balcony and not sitting on the turret room floor. Even more disturbing, the man who stood before me was as real as I was
“No. Of course not, Abigail is dead.” I decided that the truth had no place in this particular moment.
“I know about you being psychic and talking to dead people. I’m not sure I believe all that stuff but just in case … well … I think something’s gotta be done.” He spoke softly, almost gently, but his eyes were lit with the light of madness as he stepped toward me.
I knew I wasn’t going to get around him. He had only to rush me and I would lose my balance and go plunging over the parapet wall. Praying like I have never prayed before, I stepped toward the sloping roof opposite me and tried to think what I could do to get him talking and thus distracted. I had to delay his obvious intent until I could somehow get myself into a better position of escape. I was pretty sure that I could not outrun him, but I had to try. Oh God, why didn’t I tell Kade about this? Why didn’t I hear the bells I’d strung on the door? Did he come through the secret door? Did it still exist? I could swear there was no sign of a door when we examined the room the other day when Jack and Nancy thought they heard something in the wall. Was it this guy they heard that day? Had he been there listening?
Obviously the man didn’t want me talking to Abigail. Alright then, so be it. “I haven’t been able to contact Abigail. I’m not even sure it is her that is haunting the place.” I managed another step away from the wall. If I could get to the sloping roof, would I be able to brace myself there and fend him off while I screamed for help? Would anyone hear me?
He watched me as if I were a specimen he was studying under a microscope. “Who else would it be?”
I shrugged and took another step, just a small one. “I have no idea. I don’t believe we’ve met?”
“I don’t think that’s important right now, do you?” He took a step toward me. “I can see you don’t trust me. Why don’t we go inside and talk? I’d like to hear about all this talking with the dead that you do.”
The cobweb tingle covering my face made me close my eyes in relief although I wasn’t sure what Sheila could do at this point. I didn’t care if she did nothing, just the fact that she was with me was comforting. But that didn’t stop me from asking her for help. I took another step toward the sloping roof. “That sounds fine to me. Why don’t we go inside and talk?”
“Not so fast.” He stepped in front of me, blocking my way. “I’d like to know what you’ve learned so far. I might be able to help. I know a lot about what happened back then.”
Startled, I looked at him and wished I were the kind of psychic that could read minds. “Is your name Carter by any chance?”
It was his turn to look surprised. “Where did you hear that name?”
“Just a guess. I know that a man named Carter used to work for Mr. Quartermaine.”
He shook his head. “Well, you got it wrong. My name is Hank Williams. I’m ground maintenance.”
Hank Williams? How could that be? He had to be lying. Why and to what purpose? Was this man as dangerous as I believed him to be? Why couldn’t I sense it and know the answer to that question? Well, perhaps I did. I didn’t feel safe. I felt threatened and his telling me his name was Hank Williams just escalated that fear. There weren’t two Hanks working here.
“Don’t believe him, Tess. His real name is Carter Davis.”
I looked behind the stranger before me to see the man I knew as Hank Williams standing in the turret doorway. Though I should have been relieved to see him, I did not feel that way. I was now more frightened than ever. “How do I know what to believe? Why is he using your name, Hank?”
The stranger raised an eyebrow in surprise and swung around to look behind him. After a brief pause, he turned back to me and narrowed his eyes to slits, his expression sly. “The man you see is Carter. You shouldn’t talk to him. He’s a liar and he’s crazy.” He held out a hand to me. “Trust me, I’m not going to hurt you.”
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. But what was I missing? Who did I trust? Hank stood in the doorway and looked as innocent as a lamb. This new guy did not look like someone I could trust. But what if, by some slim chance, this stranger was telling me the truth? What if Hank was the real danger? He’d been around the nights Nathan and Abigail died. He had been around
the area long enough to make it look like the resort was haunted, probably in an effort to keep the truth about their deaths from coming to light.
Hank stepped away from the door and to the left of the man who called himself by the same name. “Carter killed Nathan, little lady. He was in love with Abigail and he didn’t want them running away together. He’s afraid Abigail is going to tell you the truth and he’s going to hurt you.”
The man, who I could only label as “stranger” for the moment, was watching me closely, almost with a fascinated curiosity. “You’re listening to him aren’t ya, when you should be listening to me.” He took a small step towards me, his hands raised up to show he meant no harm though I was hard pressed to believe him. “He killed Nathan and Abigail. And now he is out to kill you.”
That last made my breath hitch. Although I understood the danger I was in, I always had it in the back of my mind that I was somehow going to get out of this alive. Now, suddenly, I wasn’t so sure. I came here tonight expecting only ghosts and so did not believe myself to encounter any real danger. How wrong I was. I looked from one to the other of the two men. They both looked sincere but the stranger had a light in his eyes that I didn’t quite trust. “I would rather you both just back away. We can go inside and talk about this. I don’t want to stay out here in the cold.”
Hank’s pale blue eyes looked sad. “Little lady, I am not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you. I wasn’t sure, not completely, if Carter had killed Abigail until now. I wanted to believe he wasn’t capable of something like that.” Hank paused and then said quietly, “He’s my brother and I wanted to believe him innocent.”
That last part surprised me. I looked at the stranger to see if he would confirm this last revelation but the man just stood there watching me and said nothing. “It’s true then? Are you brothers?” In response to that, the stranger seemed to deflate somewhat, his shoulders slumping. He walked over to the parapet and sat down. “Okay, I’ll admit my name is Carter.” He looked at me with an earnest expression in his eyes. “I’ve been covering for Hank all these years, pretending to be him so no one would go looking for him. But the time for lying is done. We need to let the authorities know that it was Hank who killed Nathan and Abigail.” His face tensed with concern. “Hank wants you now. He’s afraid that you’ll make contact with Abigail and she’ll tell you what he did.” Carter’s gaze was steady on mine as if he could will me to believe him. “Those ghosts you’ve been chasing, they are scared of Hank. They know you are in danger and that’s why they’ve been trying to scare you away.”
“Scare me away?”
“Yeah, you know by destroying the turret room and pushing that old lady.”
Hank looked at Carter and shook his head, his craggy face sad. “How could you have killed Abigail, Carter? She was the sweetest girl.” His eyes gleamed with unshed tears as he looked at me. “I tried my best to protect you and all the other girls, make sure he didn’t hurt any of you.”
“What other girls, Hank?” My heart began a slow, heavy pounding. A kind of pounding that told me I was finally going to get some answers.
“All the other young ladies that have come here to stay. Carter has a thing for young girls, you see. I knew he’d hurt them too unless I did something.”
I stared at him, incredulous and a little frightened. “You’re the one who has been causing all the trouble around here?”
Hank’s kind face scrunched in sudden worry. “You are in danger, little lady. Carter is going to kill you. I think you should start screaming … now!”
I wanted to but my vocal cords weren’t cooperating. I had no idea what to do. Two men, two strong men, stood in my way of getting to the door. I truly didn’t trust either one of them. Though my instinct was to trust Hank, I had a very strong feeling that something was very wrong about him.
“I won’t let Hank hurt you.” Carter stood from the parapet and stepped close to me, a hand stretched out in supplication, his face soft with concern. “We’ll go back inside together. We’ll get Nancy and Jack and we’ll put all this to rest tonight just as you’ve wanted.”
“How? How are we going to put this to rest?” I wanted to trust him because I wanted off that balcony. But I had to be careful. If I gave my hand to the wrong man, I was going to end up in the same place as Abigail.
“Once the truth is out, then it will all be over. Isn’t that right? Haven’t you ever heard that the truth will set you free?”
He spoke sense. But what about Hank? I glanced at him and he shook his head. “Don’t believe him, little lady.” But Hank continued to stand in front of the door blocking my way. What was that supposed to mean?
“You still don’t believe me? Why don’t you ask him if he loved Abigail,” Carter said.
I looked at Hank. “Did you?”
Hank nodded sadly. “Yes, I did. We both loved her. But she didn’t care for Carter the way she did for me. Carter hated that and he hates me. My father married his mother when I was nine. He was ten at the time and he resented me right from the beginning. Carter was a bully, smart and sneaky. His mother took a shine to me and he hated that.”
I glanced at Carter whose eyes stayed glued to my face. Was he still trying to read me, guess whether or not I believed what Hank was saying? “Is any of that true? Did you always hate Hank?”
Carter’s eyes widened. “Hate Hank? Of course not. Hank was a skinny little sissy when my mother married his father. He needed my protection and I gave it to him. I’ve always been protecting him. But it stops tonight. It’s time the truth came out.”
Hank must have sensed that I was thinking about trusting Carter for his face suddenly filled with alarm as he rushed toward me. “Don’t let him touch you, little lady!”
His sudden rush towards me terrified me into action and I ran into Carter’s arms. “Keep him away from me.”
Carter’s hands squeezed around my arms tightly, pinching my skin. I thought his tight hold was a protective response but then he was swinging me toward the parapet. “Sorry, dear, but it’s time you met Abigail.”
Oh God, how could I have made the wrong choice? Time stopped and then began to move again though it did so in slow motion. Such an effect was probably due to my brain, which was operating at lightning speed. In that instant, my whole life flashed through my mind. My entire life––all twenty-five years of it––reduced to mere seconds. And in those brief seconds everything was so crystal clear. Surprisingly, I did not feel the terror I would imagine myself to feel. A steady calm descended over me. Reacting purely on impulse, I put out my foot and did the one self-defense move I knew. A friend who taught Tae Kwon Do shared the maneuver with me in exchange for a reading. I had never had to defend myself until now. Carter went down so easily that I was shocked at first that it actually worked. Although he was much taller and heavier than I, his momentum had worked against him.
Stunned to be lying on his back, Carter groaned, shook his head to clear it and grabbed my ankle as I tried to step over him. I reached for Hank’s hand. “Hank, help me!”
Hank, looking pale and sickly, sagged against the slanted rooftop. “Can’t … sorry. Help … coming.” As I struggled to free myself from Carter’s biting grip, I could only look at Hank in helpless panic. Was he having a heart attack? Oh, God, were we both going to die out here on this roof? I kicked at Carter with my one free foot and almost slipped free, but his other hand managed to grasp my kicking foot and then he yanked hard sending me off balance. Just as I fell back against the parapet, Kade and Jack rushed through the door.
“Tess! My God, Tess!” Kade skirted Carter and grabbed at whatever he could get hold of which happened to be my sweater. Before he could get anything more substantial, Carter suddenly became determined to do this one last thing. He gave a mighty yell and heaved with all his might sending me tottering over the edge of the parapet wall. Kade clung to my sweater, which rode up my back as I slipped over the wall and hung precariously in the air. At first I was too t
errified to do anything. But then my mind began racing wildly, too fast for me to even keep up with it. With extreme effort, I pulled my scattered wits together and dredged up as much strength as I could muster to twist around and grope blindly for something to hold. The parapet’s ornate edging gave me that something to grasp and I clung with all my might. Complicating everything were the visions clouding my mind. It was an odd feeling to be experiencing two events at the same time. Those last few moments of Abigail’s life flashed with clarity through my mind even as I struggled to stay alive and not go plunging to my own death. Abigail and I clung desperately for a hold but Abigail’s grip was slipping and I knew she wasn’t going to be able to hold on. I felt her body sliding away and as I looked up, I saw Carter as he was that night, young, terrified and desperate to save her.
“No, Abby, no! Take my hands!” He tried; he really did try to pull her to safety. His hands covered hers and he tried to hold her but she slid slowly from his grasp and fell into the dark night.
Abigail’s scream rent the air as I hung there, my own hands slipping from their hold.
Was I to follow her after all? Not quite ready to die, I closed my eyes and prayed for strength. Kade was doing what Carter had tried to do for Abigail but instead of grasping my hands, he had hold of my sweater. The problem was, it was beginning to slip over my head and I knew I would eventually slide right out of it. Kade didn’t dare let go to get a better hold on me and those few terrifying seconds were the worst of my life. And then a breeze blew from below and seemed to lift me up, holding me there until Kade’s arms managed to slide around me and pull me to safety. I clung to him with no intentions of ever letting him go. It was then that the tears came.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming up here, Tess?” Kade kissed my temple, my tear soaked eyes, my wet cheeks and finally my mouth. “Be still, my love. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
And though it was Kade speaking, I could hear Mike’s voice whispering those very words. And I said them back to him in silence. “You can be still, my love. I’ll be okay. You go on into the light and someday I shall see you again.”
Be Still, My Love Page 33