Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery

by Marja McGraw

  Mike groaned.

  Lucy fixed lunch for Mike.

  They told us they hadn’t found a thing, not a single clue. I wasn’t really surprised, but I had hoped for some results.

  “What about Richard’s room?” I asked.

  “The police have already gone through his things,” Mike said. “There wasn’t much there anyway. You need to pack his stuff up and get it out of there.”

  “I know. I’ll do it soon. What do we do next?”

  Mike picked up his sandwich. “I’m not sure. I’m going to talk to Josh tonight. One thing though, I think we’d better search those passages again.”

  I pushed my chair back and stood. “Why don’t we do it now? All of the boarders are out for a while.”

  “I want Josh to see it with me,” Mike replied.

  “By the way,” David said, “isn’t this supposed to be your day off Lucy?”

  “My days off fell during the holidays, so Kelly is letting me take Friday off to make up for it.”

  “See you later,” I said to no one in particular. “If we can’t search the passages, then I’ve got to finish the laundry.”

  Chapter Thirty-six

  As I left the room I heard Lucy ask if the guys would do a repeat performance for her. I couldn’t hear their reply, but I knew by the tone of voice that it was probably a threat.

  The rest of the day passed quietly, and I was thankful. I was coughing again and needed to rest. Mike hung J.T.’s game board and challenged David to a dart game. They were pretty competitive, which somehow didn’t surprise me, but they had a good time. Lucy and I, having folded the towels and put them away, spent the afternoon lounging around.

  Fried chicken and mashed potatoes were on the menu that evening, so Lucy and I started preparing dinner around four o’clock. Sharon came in from work and commented on how lucky we were that we didn’t have to drive into town.

  “It’s not too bad right now, really, but the clouds are building up again. We must be breaking some kind of record for snow this year,” she said.

  I glanced out the window. “I know. It seems like every time I look outside, all I see is white. It’s monotonous.”

  Lucy and I told Sharon about the new “detective” show Mike and David had put on. She thought it was pretty funny and planned to get a lot of mileage out of the story.

  Marion was due back on Friday, and Mrs. Banks had called and said she’d decided to stay on in New York for an extra few days. Somehow I had a feeling that when she returned she’d be giving notice on her room. It was just a guess, but a good one. I was sure she probably missed her old home and friends.

  When I finally got to bed that night, I slept well. I found no notes in my room, and I still didn’t feel completely well, so sleep came easily.

  Thursday was another welcome quiet day. Lucy and I got our chores out of the way, after which we drove to town to do some shopping. The sky looked ominous with snow clouds, so we decided we’d stock up while we could. There’s nothing worse than being stuck out in the country without enough supplies.

  Mike and his crew were out on a job. It had reached a point where they could work indoors.

  Thursday and Friday were David’s days off, so he talked Sharon into taking the day off and they drove into town to talk to the minister about their impending wedding plans. They were intent on a February wedding. They weren’t wasting any time.

  As Lucy and I finished our shopping and headed for the car, it began to snow lightly. By the time we pulled into the driveway at home, it had stopped.

  We put the groceries away and I went to my room to put my purse away. I opened the door, walked in, and yelled. I’m not a screamer, so the most I could do was yell, and I did so with gusto.

  “Lucy! Come here quick! Luuucy!”

  “What’s all the ruckus about?” Lucy asked breathlessly, running into my room. “What’s wrong? You scared me half to death.”

  I pointed at the large mirror on the dresser. This time the note was definitely the work of someone trying to terrorize me. Written in what I thought might be eyebrow pencil across the mirror was a new quotation.

  “Amelia,

  ‘Three things are ever silent—Thought, Destiny, and the Grave.’

  Bulwer-Lytton

  Harold Bk. X, ch. 2

  You shouldn’t have done it to me, Amelia”

  Lucy grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room.

  “Stop pulling on me, Lucy,” I wailed.

  “Don’t look at it. Leave it for Mike and Josh. And David. This is really sick – really and truly sick.”

  “I don’t know if I’m shaking because of anger or fear,” I said. I was trembling so hard my teeth were almost chattering. “Sick is too mild a word for this character. You realize, of course, that he’s getting closer – to making his move, I mean. I thought I’d have more time than this.” I had a fit of coughing.

  “He’s become awfully bold,” she said. “I think you’re right. Let’s get out of here. Come to the kitchen with me. I’ll fix you some hot tea.”

  I didn’t move.

  “Obviously he came back while we were out shopping. When we left, there was no one around to see him,” I said. Somehow I felt the need to explain this to her.

  “Unless he was hiding,” Lucy said, tentatively.

  “But all the cars were gone,” I reminded her.

  “He could have hidden his car and then come back.”

  “I suppose. Oh, I wish Mike would come home early.”

  “Come on,” she said, gently pulling on my arm. “Let’s go out to the kitchen. I’ll fix you that hot tea.” She seemed to think tea would be a cure. Maybe she simply needed something to do to make her feel useful.

  No one came home early, and I sat and stewed all afternoon. David and Sharon were the first ones to arrive. David was angry and Sharon was horrified when they saw the mirror.

  Josh was the next one home. He’d been in town all day, trying to get more information about the boarders from the local police. They hadn’t been much help, but they were trying.

  Lucy told him about the mirror. He and David hurried off to my room to take a look.

  Following them, I stood outside the door and listened to their conversation.

  “David,” Josh said, “This fits with what I found out today.”

  “I thought you couldn’t get any information,” David said.

  “I’m not ready to say anything in front of Kelly,” Josh replied.

  “What did you find out? Do you know who’s doing this?”

  “Not yet, but I’m getting closer, and it looks like my timing couldn’t be much better. I found out that the hospital the Holts were paying was a mental hospital in California where they treat the worst scenario cases.”

  “What do you mean by ‘worst scenario cases’?” David asked.

  “I mean the ones where there isn’t much hope. The people who’ve really gone off the deep end, the dangerous ones included.”

  “And what this guy has done fits into that category. He’s killed twice already, and I think Kelly might be next. The way he calls her Amelia is weird. I mean, I know Kelly looks like Amelia, but she’s not Amelia. Doesn’t he understand that?”

  “Apparently not,” Josh said.

  “Notice how he underlined the words ‘the Grave’,” David continued, “and the word ‘Destiny’. Maybe he thinks it’s destiny, and Amelia has actually come back from the grave.”

  “Maybe he wants to put her back in that grave,” Josh said miserably.

  “Let’s get out of here,” David said.

  After overhearing their conversation, I went through anger, fear, and back to anger again. I didn’t want them to know I’d been eavesdropping, so I hurried back to the kitchen. He – whoever he was – wanted to put me back in the grave? I tried to unclench my teeth, but it was a lost cause.

  Mike arrived about an hour later. He stomped back to my room and returned to the kitchen in a state of near apoplexy
. He was furious. After several statements I wouldn’t even try to repeat, he turned to the group and waved his arms, taking them all in.

  “I don’t want Kelly left alone for even one second. Understand? Not even one second. One of us will be with her constantly. She’ll be so sick of our faces that she’ll never want to see any of us again. Does everyone understand?”

  There was a general assent from our small group in the form of mumbles and lots of nodding.

  “Mike,” I said. “What about checking the passages again? He’s becoming bolder, so maybe he’s being careless, too.”

  “I know it’s got to be done, but carefully,” he replied. “It’s obvious he’s close to breaking. We’ve got to catch him before he can get to you. We’ll do it tomorrow while J.T. and Ted are at work.”

  “For tonight,” David added, “we’ll stay close to you.”

  I coughed a long, hacking cough.

  “There you go. You’re still sick and you need us by your side,” David said triumphantly. I guessed he thought he was coming up with a new idea.

  “Okay,” Josh said, “let’s all go our separate ways and try to act natural, if that’s possible. He’s got to know we’ve all seen the mirror. He’ll be waiting for us to react. I hope it doesn’t set him off more when we don’t react the way he thinks we should.”

  “I’m ready to react,” Mike said, clenching his fist at his side.

  Josh had more to say. “Also, I should be getting more information about the patient from the mental hospital, hopefully tomorrow. The police aren’t happy about how much information we’ve withheld from them, but when I commented on how long it would take them to get out here if anything happened, they relented a little. Not much, but a bit. It didn’t hurt that I used to be a homicide detective.”

  “I didn’t know you were with the Homicide Division,” David said, sounding surprised. “Interesting.”

  We all went our separate ways and tried to act normal, just like Josh told us to do. We weren’t very good at it. Lucy and Sharon stayed with me all evening, and I slept in Sharon’s room that night. I didn’t want to go back to my own room.

  J.T. and Ted had seemed perfectly normal at dinner, which made me wonder if there really was someone else in the house whom we weren’t aware of. Someone could certainly hide in the passages without us knowing it.

  Sharon and I arose early the next morning, around five o’clock, and had coffee. Neither of us had slept well. No one else was up yet, so I let Jem outside and we were able to enjoy some good old-fashioned girl talk. Friend to friend stuff.

  She talked about David and I talked about Mike, but we kept reverting back to the elephant in the room – the killer. We couldn’t come up with any solutions, no matter how hard we tried.

  Sharon called work and told them she was sick.

  “I’m not leaving you alone,” she said.

  I squeezed her hand across the table.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Sharon and I began fixing breakfast around six o’clock. Lucy put in an appearance at six-fifteen. I reminded her she was taking the day off.

  “Son-of-a-gun,” she said. “I almost forgot. Too many things on my mind, I guess.” She looked as tired as I felt.

  “Well, you go do whatever it is you have to do, and we’ll call you for breakfast as soon as it’s ready,” Sharon said.

  “You’re such good little girls,” Lucy said, pinching Sharon’s cheek.

  “Get outta here.” Sharon rubbed her cheek.

  David wandered into the kitchen shortly after Lucy disappeared. He helped Sharon and I carry the food out to the dining room, and then he, Sharon and I sat down and ate together in the kitchen.

  “You look tired, David. Although actually, everyone seems to look tired this morning.” It had been a long night.

  “Mike and Josh and I sat up talking most of the night,” he explained.

  “I don’t even want to hear what conclusions you guys came to,” I said. I wanted to block everything out for a while. Goodness, but that sand was getting deep. My head was just about covered.

  Jem scratched at the back door and I let him in.

  “Hungry?” He stared at me intently as though wanting me to read his mind. I took that as a yes.

  I filled his food and water bowls and placed them in the laundry room, which is where I’d begun feeding him after the weather had grown wet and cold.

  Returning to the kitchen, I glanced out the window. “It’s beginning to snow again.”

  “So what’s new?” Sharon sighed. “I’ll go call Lucy for breakfast.”

  Sharon and Lucy returned to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Jem finished his breakfast and I let him back outside.

  “Have you seen Josh?” Lucy picked up her fork and began to eat scrambled eggs.

  “Not recently,” I replied.

  “Oh. We’re going into town for the day,” she said. “Now how could I have forgotten it was my day off when I made plans with Josh? They say the memory is the first thing to go. Oh, well, I can think of worse things.” She glanced out the window and sighed. “It’s snowing again.”

  Lucy finished her breakfast and we walked out to the dining room together. Josh and Mike were just starting to eat, so we sat down to keep them company.

  “Kelly,” Mike said, “I’m going to run a couple of errands this morning, but I’ll be back by noon. Will you be okay while I’m gone, or do you want to go with me? Maybe you should come with me.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I replied. “Sharon and David will be here. Are you going to Serenity or Waverly?”

  “Waverly. You can go with me you know.”

  “No, really, it’s fine. You go ahead and I’ll see you around noon.”

  J.T. strolled in, cheerful as ever, and ate with Mike and Josh. Ted showed up a few minutes later and took a seat after dishing up his breakfast.

  “How are you this morning?” I asked him.

  “Oh, just fine, thank you,” Ted replied. “I see it’s snowing again.”

  “It started a couple of hours ago.”

  Lucy and I chatted while the men ate their breakfast. Ted dripped some jelly on his shirt, muttered something unintelligible to himself and seemed irritated.

  “Excuse me. I’ll have to go change my shirt. It would never do to appear at work in soiled clothing. Do you think it will come out or do you think it will stain?” he asked me. He was dabbing at his shirt, making the spot worse.

  “I think I can get it out,” I said. “Leave the shirt on your bed and I’ll pick it up when I make the bed. I’ll wash it before the jelly has a chance to set.”

  “Thank you, very much.” Ted left the table, heading for the stairs.

  “Such a clean freak,” J.T. said. “I’d have sworn dirt wouldn’t have the nerve to touch that man. He’s sort of spooky, if you ask me.”

  We all chuckled politely, but didn’t respond. Even if we agreed with him, we weren’t about to say so.

  “Well, Lucy, if you’ll get your coat, we can leave for town.” Josh placed his napkin on the table and stood.

  Lucy also stood. “By the way, what time are we supposed to pick Marion up at the airport?”

  “Her plane should be in around six o’clock tonight. Assuming it’s on time, that is,” he said, disgustedly. “The last time I flew, my plane was cancelled and I didn’t get home until the next day.”

  Five minutes later Lucy and Josh left for town, with J.T. and Mike right behind them. Ted came down the stairs wearing a fresh shirt, finished his cold breakfast, and left for work. I’d offered to heat it up for him, but he said he’d be late if he didn’t hurry.

  Sharon helped me with my housework while David cleaned up the breakfast dishes for us. What a sweetheart.

  “You know,” Sharon said, “I want to see those passages, too. I think everyone has seen them except me.” She was dusting Ted’s room while I made up his bed.

  “Fine with me, although David and Josh haven’t seen them yet,
” I said. “Since Josh has to pick Marion up at the airport, David and Mike are going to look through them when Mike gets back. No reason why we can’t look with them.”

  “It just blows me away when I think about this old house having secret passages. Can you imagine?” Sharon said.

  “I know. I keep thinking of Nancy Drew creeping through a cavern with her trusty flashlight. I think I must have read every Nancy Drew mystery ever written when I was a kid.”

  “I know,” Sharon said. “You loaned them all to me when you were done with them.”

  “I always loved a good mystery, but I never expected to be right in the middle of my own.”

  “Maybe we should have paid more attention to Nancy’s techniques,” Sharon said, chuckling.

  We finished cleaning the second and third floors, and trudged down the stairs to the living room. I sprayed the jelly stain on Ted’s shirt and left it on top of the washer.

  “I’m pooped,” Sharon said.

  “Pooped? We didn’t do that much. Lucy keeps things pretty well cleaned up.”

  “Well, I thought maybe I’d get a little sympathy, but apparently not.”

  “Sorry,” I said.

  We walked out to the kitchen where we found David trying to figure out how to use the dishwasher.

  “This is really tough, David, so watch carefully and learn.” I flipped a lever, pushed a button, and the machine whirred into action.

  “Show off,” he said.

  Suddenly the lights went out and the dishwasher stopped running.

  “What the – ” My nerves were on edge and this didn’t help.

  “It’s the wind,” David explained. “It’s been building up all morning.”

  I shrugged, and as I did so, the lights flicked back on, and the dishwasher went back into action.

  “It’s liable to do that all day long,” David said. “According to the weather report the winds aren’t going to let up until tonight.”

  Jem scratched at the back door and I let him in. I sat down on the floor next to him and scratched behind his ear. He wagged his tail in that funny way of his and almost purred like a cat.