Secrets of Hallstead House

by Amy M. Reade

  As usual, I sketched first. Using a light touch, I penciled the castle as I envisioned it from my memory. I added islands nearby, including the tiny island I had seen that barely had enough room on it for a small cottage. It took a couple hours of complete focus to get a general idea of the castle forming on the canvas, but the work was good for me. I don’t think I looked up once, except to notice the light changing and shadows shifting slowly around me as the afternoon lengthened.

  I had just put down my charcoal pencil to stretch my fingers and arms when I thought I heard a scuffling noise on the turret stairs. Not wanting to be stuck up in the turret again for several hours, I ran over to the door to catch any would-be perpetrator before he or she could lock me in. I yanked the door open and stared, shocked, at what I saw.

  Alex stood at the top of the turret stairs, her mouth a thin white line of determination and pain. She was breathing heavily and she kept turning around to look behind her. In her hand was a slip of white paper. The paper shook as she held it out to me with trembling hands. I quickly took it from her, shoved it in my pocket, then led her gently over to the sofa, where she sat down heavily and leaned her head back. I helped her lift her feet so she could lie down, but she resisted and kept trying to sit up again. Finally she relented and sank down, bringing her hand to her head.

  “Alex, tell me what’s wrong. You aren’t ready to be climbing stairs. That was dangerous! Thank goodness I heard you.”

  Her voice was small and scared when she answered me. “Macy, I was right. I’ve known it all along.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The note. Read the note!” Her voice rose to a shrill pitch as she spoke, and I quickly took the crumpled paper from my pocket and spread it on my knees. There were only a few words typed on it, but their message made my blood run cold:

  There are no accidents. First Diana, then Forrest. Who do you think will be next?

  I must have read the note a dozen times before I looked up at Alex. She was staring at me with a mixture of fear and anger.

  “Someone killed my daughter,” she stated dully. “All this time I thought it was a terrible accident,” she whispered as she gazed at the sky through the tall windows. “Who would have killed her?”

  I couldn’t answer that. I held her hands in mine as she continued talking.

  “And Forrest. My wonderful Forrest. I knew his death wasn’t an accident. I suppose all this time there’s been a part of me that wanted to believe that I really was hearing things that day, like everyone else thought. But now I can’t indulge that part of myself anymore.” Tears spilled slowly from her eyes, and I got her a clean cloth from the table nearby. She spoke again.

  “This note makes me sad and angry at the same time. Sad because now I’m mourning Diana all over again and because I’m still mourning Forrest. And angry because how could anyone do this to my family? And why?”

  Silence hung in the air. I had no answers for her. Neither of us had mentioned the last part of the note. What did it mean? As if reading my mind, Alex wiped her eyes and looked up at me. She struggled to a sitting position. “And now this—this—person is arranging another accident! I know I’m going to be next! What should I do?” she asked me imploringly.

  I knew then that I needed to stay on Hallstead Island. I couldn’t leave Alex now. I would have to put aside my confusion and hurt in order to help her.

  “I’m going to stay, Alex. We’ll get you through this.”

  “Will you, Macy? Oh, thank you. I should be thinking of nothing but my daughter and my husband right now, but the truth is that this note has me scared to death. I’m scared to be in Summerplace alone. I don’t know who wrote the note, and I’m afraid to die.” Alex had worked herself into a very agitated state. Her voice had risen by an octave, her face was ashen, and her body was trembling. I needed to calm her down before we could talk more about the note.

  “Alex, let me help you downstairs, and I’m going to give you something to help you relax and rest for a while. Then we can talk about this.”

  We walked over to the stairs and I went down first, backward, to help her on each step. Going down those stairs was even harder for her than going up had been. She bravely made it down to the balcony and leaned on me only a few times.

  I thought it best that Alex lie down in my room for a while rather than trying to walk down another flight of stairs to her own rooms. She agreed and let me help her to recline on my bed. After assuring her I would be back in just a minute, I ran down to her bedroom to get the sedatives her doctor had prescribed for her. When I returned, she insisted that I give her only half a tablet so she wouldn’t feel groggy after she rested. Reluctantly, I gave her what she asked for, then settled down in one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace to wait while she slept. I think that my presence helped her to relax a bit, and she was asleep quickly. I spent the next hour, until she woke, wondering again who could have killed Forrest and, apparently, Diana. No one on Hallstead Island seemed to have any reason to kill either of them. Alex rustled the quilt, sitting up slowly.

  “Macy, I think I’d like to eat dinner tonight in the dining room. I’m too frightened to eat alone. Would you join me? Stephan and Will will be there too, so there will be plenty of people around to help take my mind off things.”

  “Of course I will. Alex, how did you find the note in the first place?”

  “I had called Vali and asked her to bring some tea to my sitting room. I was getting tired and I needed a little lift. So when she brought it I sat in there for a short time, just drinking my tea on the sofa. When I went back into my office, there was an envelope on my desk. It just said ‘Alexandria Hallstead’ in typed letters. I don’t think it had been there earlier, so someone must have gone into my office from the porch outside. Anyway, when I opened the letter I panicked immediately and didn’t know who to talk to or where to go. I couldn’t stay in my office. You were the first person I thought of. I called for you downstairs, and when you didn’t answer, I managed to get upstairs and I called for you up here too. When you still didn’t answer, I took a chance that you were up in the turret rather than outside. So somehow I got myself up those turret stairs. I’m so lucky I found you.”

  “Have you discussed the note with anyone else?”

  “Not yet. I wanted to tell you first. Do you think we should tell people?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “I hate to say it, but I think you should tell everyone on the island. They might be in danger. I think we should tell the police, too.”

  Alex nodded grimly. “You’re right.” She looked at me with haunted eyes. “Why is this happening?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  “How do you think everyone will react?”

  “I honestly don’t know. What about you?”

  “I think Stephan will insist that I move back to New York for my own good. I lived there years ago. But I don’t want to do that.”

  “What about Will?”

  She sighed. “I can generally count on Will to do the things a doting nephew should do, like pulling out my chair for me at the table or holding a door for me, but I’m never sure how much he really cares. I think he might pay me some lip service and feign concern if I told him about the note, but in his mind he would probably shrug it off as some kind of joke. He tends to be rather mocking sometimes, and I don’t care to be on the receiving end of that.”

  “How about Pete?”

  She shook her head. “I hate to drag Pete into these things. He works so hard around here and he’s so good to me. It’s not fair for me to burden him with the problems of my family.”

  Now it was my turn to sigh. “I know you don’t want to tell Pete, but I think you have to. He’s entitled to know since he may be in danger, too. You should know that I have discussed with Pete what you told me about hearing voices right before Forrest died. I just had no idea what to do with that information.”

  “I understand, Macy. Let’s go down to dinner. Stephan
and Will should be in the dining room by now, and I have to tell Vali to set a place for me.”

  Slowly, gingerly, we walked down the stairs together. When we entered the dining room, Alex made a visible effort to appear strong and self-assured, but I could feel her fingers trembling on my arm.

  “Alex!” Stephan exclaimed when he saw her. “I’m so glad you’ve decided to join us tonight!”

  She smiled at him as Will asked solicitously, “Aunt Alex, can I get you something to drink?”

  “No, thank you, dear,” she replied. Vali must have heard us enter the dining room, because it took only a moment for her to bustle in with another place setting for Alex.

  It wasn’t long before we were all seated around the big, elegant table with Alex at the head and the rest of us seated at her sides. Vali served a delicious meal of trout with rice pilaf and brussels sprouts, followed by a dessert of sliced fruit. Conversation throughout dinner was light, as Stephan and Will entertained Alex with personal reviews of some of the new shows that had opened on Broadway. I listened, curiously uninterested in the talk of New York. At one point Will asked me, “Macy, don’t you miss all that?”

  “No, I really don’t,” I answered honestly, surprising myself a little. Will raised an eyebrow at me and grinned slyly. “I can’t imagine what’s got you so uninterested in New York all of a sudden.”

  I looked at him blandly and ignored his remark.

  As dinner came to an end, Alex looked at me questioningly. I nodded in encouragement and she started to speak.

  “I want you both to know that I received a note in my office today that confirmed that Forrest did not die from an accidental fall. He was killed by someone.”

  “What?” Stephan and Will asked together.

  “Let me finish,” Alex stated. “The note also said that Diana’s drowning was not accidental either, and that someone else will be next.”

  “What are you talking about?” Stephan asked incredulously. “What note? Who’s next?”

  “It was an anonymous note that I found on my desk. I showed it to Macy right away, but no one else knew about it until now. And it doesn’t say who’s next.”

  “May I see it?” Stephan asked.

  The note was still in my pocket. I handed it to Stephan, who read it slowly with a growing look of confusion and surprise. Will held out his hand and Stephan handed it to him. They looked grimly at Alex when they had read it.

  “Alex, I think it would be in your best interests to move back to New York,” Stephan said gravely.

  “I knew you would say that, Stephan. I want to stay here. This is my home,” Alex explained.

  “Are you sure this isn’t some kind of a joke?” asked Will.

  “I really don’t think so. I don’t know of anyone who would play a joke like that.”

  “You don’t know of anyone who goes around killing people, either,” Will pointed out.

  “I think the best thing for me is to stay here at Hallstead House and make sure that I spend as little time alone as possible. Macy will be a big help with that. No one is going to hurt me with another person in the room.”

  “Alex, if you’re determined to stay here, we’ll make it work so you stay safe. But I’d still feel better if you moved back to New York,” said Stephan.

  “I appreciate that, Stephan, but I would be lost in New York.”

  “Let us know if there’s anything we can do, Aunt Alex,” said Will.

  “Thank you, dear. I will. I should be fine with Macy.” Will shot me a look of scorn; I ignored him. After dinner, Alex and I went back to her sitting room. I asked her if she wished me to continue packing her clothes for the move to Pine Island, but she didn’t answer. Her thoughts seemed far away, and I suspected she wasn’t interested in packing tonight. I didn’t have to ask what was troubling her—I knew she was scared to be alone in her room all night.

  “Alex, would you like me to sleep on the sitting room sofa tonight?” I asked gently.

  She heaved a sigh of relief. “Would you, Macy? Oh, I would so appreciate that.”

  I ran upstairs to get my things and was back in a few minutes. Poor Alex. She hadn’t moved while I was gone. She really was paralyzed with fear, and my heart broke for her.

  She let me help her into bed that night, I think because she was so physically and emotionally exhausted. I told her we would go easy on the exercises the following day since going up and down the stairs today had been such a strenuous activity for her. She readily agreed.

  “Still,” she said to me, smiling, “I did a good job on those stairs, didn’t I?”

  “Yes.” I laughed. “But please don’t do it again without warning me first!”

  Alex had asked me to stay in her bedroom until she fell asleep. I wasn’t in there long, because she fell asleep so quickly. I wish I could say the same for myself.

  I lay down on the sofa in her sitting room and tossed and turned for what seemed like hours. I tried going into the library to find something to read, but for once I wasn’t even interested in books. I lay down again and eventually drifted off to sleep, only to find myself swirling in an eddy of roiling water underneath the branches of the leaning tree. The river current was strong and swift. I was drowning. Though I was gasping for air and flailing my arms wildly in an attempt to claw my way onto the shore, I knew my efforts would be in vain. In a twisted reversal of roles, my parents watched me from the shore. They wanted to help but couldn’t move. Alex was there too, trying to save me. I swallowed a mouthful of the water, its iciness burning my lungs. As the water closed over my head again and again, my eyes focused with shock and horror on a sight far below me. Diana’s grotesque, lifeless body hung suspended in the river, her limp hands reaching toward me.

  I think it was the sight of Diana that finally woke me up. I was sweating, panting, and utterly terrified. My blanket was wrapped around my legs and I couldn’t remember where I was. I sat up straight and looked around in the darkness, but it was several seconds before I realized that I was in the sitting room. I didn’t know if my thrashing had made much noise, so I got up and tiptoed to Alex’s bedroom door. No sound. I peeked inside and saw that she was still sleeping soundly. Breathing a sigh of relief, I went back over to the sofa and sat down. My heart was beating too fast and my hands shook a little. I was still scared. The depth and immensity of the water had seemed so real. And I would never forget the terror of seeing my biological mother floating in the water, reaching for me.

  Gradually my heart rate slowed and I was able to calm down. I nestled into my blanket once again and tried to go back to sleep. It took quite a while but, surprisingly, I was able to sleep again that night, albeit fitfully.

  The next morning I woke up a little late. I could hear Alex dressing in her bedroom, so I knocked on the door to let her know that I would be back after a shower and breakfast.

  I ate breakfast with Stephan and Will in the dining room. They were engrossed in a conversation about a transaction that would be closing in the next several days, so they didn’t pay much attention to me. I ate in silence, wondering how I would go about helping Alex find out who killed Diana and Forrest. I didn’t even know what questions to ask, or to whom I should speak. I needed to talk to Pete, whose levelheadedness I could use right now. He deserved to be warned about the note Alex had received.

  When I returned to Alex’s rooms, she was working at her desk. She, too, was involved in the transaction that Stephan and Will had been discussing at breakfast, and I was glad to see that she had work to do that would keep her mind busy.

  Not that she had forgotten the events of the previous day. I noticed that the door to her private porch entrance remained locked and chained this morning, something that was unusual for her. She generally left that door unlocked to allow Stephan, Will, and any other visitor easy access to her. The intruder who had gotten into her office yesterday with the note must have known that Alex’s private entrance was usually left unlocked.

  But that didn’t
help me much. Probably everyone on Hallstead Island and even the people on the neighboring islands knew that her door remained unlocked.

  I told Alex I would need to talk to her later, then went into the library to continue packing up some of her books while she met with Stephan and Will in her office.

  A couple of hours and two large boxes of books later, I went in to help her with her exercises. I proposed that we take a short walk, in part because it was a beautiful day and in part so that we could speak together alone and away from Summerplace.

  I talked to Alex about my concerns once we were outdoors. I hated to dredge up memories that would undoubtedly be painful for her, but these issues had to be addressed if I was going to make any headway. Strangely, I never worried about danger to myself at the time. I was focused on helping Alex, and my concern was for her.

  “What else do you remember about the day Forrest died?”

  She was quiet for a long time. I was beginning to think she wasn’t going to answer my question when she spoke.

  “I don’t remember anything other than what I’ve already told you,” she answered, shaking her head. “I’m trying, but I just can’t think.”

  “Do you remember who else was on Hallstead Island that day?”

  She thought again. “Well, besides Forrest and me, Pete was here. He’s the one who called the doctor. And Will was here. And Vali and Leland. I remember seeing all their faces staring at me.”