Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (15 page)

“It’s nothing. When are you and Josh going
to begin exercising together?” I asked, changing the subject. 

If I wasn’t careful, I’d start tasting the
sand my head was sinking into.

Chapter
Eighteen

After dinner I wandered out to the kitchen
to help Lucy clean the dinner mess. Bottles of salad dressing went in the
refrigerator, along with a few leftovers. I began loading the dishwasher with
dirty plates and glasses.

 “What do you think about the note
someone left with the flowers?” I asked. I wasn’t ready to tell her about the
seams I’d found in the wall yet.

She sprayed the counter top with
disinfectant and wiped it down. “I think we’d all better start paying more
attention to what’s going on around here.”

“It is kind of creepy, although I think it
must be some kind of warped practical joke. Don’t you agree?” I was trying my
darnedest to convince myself, but it wasn’t working.

“Not really. Especially with the odd
little things that have gone missing.”

She was voicing my own thought. “You’re
probably right. I’ll keep a closer watch on the house.”

“And the people in it.” Lucy glanced at me
over her shoulder.

Closing the dishwasher, I turned the knob
to start it. The back door opened and I spun around. I guess our conversation
had taken a toll on me.

“Lucy, are you... Oh, Kelly,” Josh said.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.”

“Don’t mind me, Josh. We’re just finishing
up here. Come on in.” Relief washed over me.

Lucy hung her dish towel over the edge of
the sink to dry. “We’re going for a walk. See you later.” She threw a
challenging look over her shoulder and breezed out the door with Josh, which
made me chuckle to myself. As if I would have stopped her from going for her
walk.

I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to
have the boarders mingling with the help, me included as part of the help, but
I wasn’t about to put a stop to it. It would break half the hearts in the
house. Things had taken unexpected turns at Holt House and the budding romances
warmed my heart, not to mention it helped me think of something other than a
missing shoe and a mysterious note.

I was bending over getting the trash
together to take out when I heard the door open behind me again. I kept working,
expecting someone to say something, but after a second the door closed. Someone
was just looking in, I thought. I turned and found no one there. Lots of people
in the house, and any one of them could have been looking for one of the
others. It was nothing to feel nervous about.

After taking the trash out, I washed my
hands and decided to join whoever might be in living room. I started towards
the door and when I passed the counter I saw a piece of paper sitting there.
Assuming Lucy had left out a grocery list, I picked it up to put it in the
drawer where we kept such things, but when I looked down I saw my name at the
top of the page. It didn’t look like a grocery list. I stopped and took a
closer look. It was another note. This one said, “
I’d watch my back if I
were you. Danger may be lurking around the corner – any corner.”

Now what the heck was
that
supposed
to mean? Was it a warning from a friend or an enemy? It spooked me, no matter
who it was from. It was time for the joke to come to an end. I didn’t like
receiving anonymous notes, and it really wasn’t funny anyway. Two notes in one
night were a bit much. The door opened once more, this time startling me, and I
flinched.

“You sure are jumpy,” Mike said.

“Yeah. You took me by surprise.”

He took hold of my hand. “Let’s go for a
walk. It’s really nice out tonight, and besides, it’s a lot cooler outside than
it is in here.”

One more reminder about installing air
conditioning. Thankfully, the tenants hadn’t complained – yet.

“Okay, but don’t be surprised if we run
into Lucy and Josh.” I nonchalantly stuffed the note into my pocket, deciding
not to mention it to Mike.

“Lucy and Josh? What are you talking
about?”

“Oh! So Lucy doesn’t tell you everything,
huh?” For once I had the inside scoop, not that it really mattered.

“Apparently not. But I would assume from
this conversation that there’s something to tell.”

“Yeah. Ain’t life grand?” I said, feigning
happiness. I didn’t want Mike to see something had shaken me. He was upset
enough about the first note.

“Good for her. It’s about time she got
involved with someone. She needs the companionship. And so do I, so let’s go
for that walk.”

This time I smiled a genuine smile. For at
least the next few minutes all would be right with the world.

It was another gorgeous night with a
partial moon and a sky full of stars. We strolled, hand in hand, toward the
garden. A cloud passed over the moon and it was dark for a few moments before
the cloud moved on.

“Now isn’t this better than being stuck in
that stuffy house?” I asked.

“Sure. That’s why I suggested the walk.
Let’s go sit on the bench in the garden.”

I didn’t say anything, but continued to
walk with him. He picked a rose for me as we neared the bench.

“The owner probably wouldn’t like you picking
the flowers, but I love it myself.” Walking with Mike made me feel safe and
content. Sitting on the bench, I sniffed the rose.

“I like this one rose more than the whole
arrangement you brought me.” The single flower didn’t represent a threat to me and
there was no note attached. It made sense to me, and I hoped Mike understood.

He smiled.

My gaze drifted toward the gazebo where I
saw Lucy and Josh sitting close to each other, talking in quiet voices. I
pointed them out to Mike.

“I feel like I’m eavesdropping,” I
whispered.

“Then don’t listen to them.” Mike took
hold of my shoulders and turned me so I was directly facing him. I looked at
him questioningly. “This way you won’t be tempted to watch them either.”

I thought he meant I wouldn’t be able to see
them because his wide shoulders would block my view, but he bent down and
kissed me. At that moment I didn’t care who watched who.

“Lucy and Josh? Are they around?” The
realization that I’d been waiting for this first kiss surprised me.

“I don’t know,” he said, kissing me again,
this time more passionately. “You know, if it hadn’t been for Lucy I never
would have come out to have you sign those contracts. I would have sent someone
else. That’s what I usually do.”

“What did Lucy have to do with it?” I
asked.

“She called me after our representative
gave you the estimate and said she’d put in a good word for the company if I’d
make a point of coming out here in person. You know how she is. She didn’t
really ask me, she told me. At the time, I thought she just wanted to see me.”

“I know how she can be. Pushy is a good
word. I’m always kidding her about being too pushy, but in this case I’m glad
she was.”

“Me, too.”

He put his arm around my shoulders and we
sat for a few minutes without saying a word.

“Let’s go for a swim.” Mike stood up and
held his hand out to me.

“Okay, but let’s wait until everyone goes
in the house. Right now they’re all out on the patio. In the meantime, could we
go to your room?”

“What?” His eyebrows shot up and the
surprised expression on his face was comical.

“No, no, no. I want to see your dresser.”

“My what? My dresser? Why would you want
to see my dresser, of all things?” Poor guy. He probably thought I had a screw
loose.

After a moment of hesitation, I explained
about the doors being left open, the three dressers being moved and the seams
in the wall. I also told him about the small things that were missing.

“Let’s go. Between that and the note you
received, I’d like to find out what’s going on around here. I’ll pull out the
dresser and we’ll see if there’s anything there.”

“Oh, yeah, one more thing.” Since I was
blabbing, I might as well jump in with both feet.

“Uh oh. What else?”

“Well, a few months ago, when I was
checking out one of the bedrooms, someone threw a pillow case over my head.”

“
What?
Why didn’t you tell me
before? This is sounding worse by the minute. What else haven’t you told me?”

“Josh knew about the pillow case incident,
but I swore him to secrecy,” I replied, ignoring his question. I wasn’t ready
to tell him about the second note yet.

“I’ll be having a talk with him,” Mike
said.

“No, don’t. Believe it or not, at the time
it didn’t seem that important. I thought I’d surprised a burglar or something,
and it was a few months before anything else happened. Of course, Josh doesn’t
know about any of the other things that have been going on or he probably
wouldn’t have kept quiet.”

“Huh! Let’s go.” He took hold of my hand
and pulled me up.

We returned to the house and sneaked up to
Mike’s room. I insisted we sneak because I didn’t want the other boarders to
get the wrong idea. Fortunately, they were all outside when we entered the
house.

“Okay, let’s see if there’s anything
here,” Mike said, pulling out the dresser.

I watched his face closely while he
examined the wall. His expression rapidly changed from doubt to surprise.

“Well, I’ll be,” he said, running his
finger down a seam. “It
does
look like a door.”

“I wonder how it opens,” I said. “There’s
no handle or anything.”

“There are doors that open by putting pressure
against the side. If you push, they just pop open.”

“Try it.”

“I was about to.” Of course, he was.

“Sorry.”

He pushed on the right side and nothing
happened. Nothing happened when he pushed on the left side either. He ran his hand
slowly up and down the right side again, then stopped and punched the door
right in the middle. It opened with a quiet whoosh and Mike looked at me in
astonishment.

“I didn’t really expect that to work,” he
said.

I was a little startled myself. “What is
it? Have you got a flashlight?”

“I don’t know what it is, and no, I don’t
have a flashlight.”

Chapter
Nineteen

We stood and stared at the opening in the
wall for a moment.

 “I’ll get the oil lamp,” I said.” I’d
placed a decorative oil lamp in each of the rooms in case the electricity ever
went out, so I retrieved the one from Mike’s nightstand.

Mike lit the lamp while I stood by the
opening.

“You know,” he said, thoughtfully, “this
is an old house, built around the time of the Civil War. Some of the houses
from that time period have been known to contain hidden passages. Slaves were
able to hide in them.”

“But there wasn’t any slave activity in
this area.”

“Maybe they wanted to be prepared in case
things got hot out here.”

“Well, whatever the reason, this is
definitely a secret passage,” I said. “I wonder if this leads to someplace in
particular or if the house is riddled with passages. There have been a couple
of times I thought I heard noises, but I thought it was just the house
settling.”

“Looks like you were wrong,” Mike said.

We only walked a short distance into the
passageway and we couldn’t tell how far it went. I was about to walk further
into the space when Mike put a restraining hand on my arm.

“Wait,” Mike said, “Let’s not explore this
until Monday. Obviously someone’s been using it, and I think we should wait
until everyone is at work to see what this is. Don’t forget the note you found.
We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

I knew it was time to ‘fess up. “Mike, I
got another note tonight,” I said, grimacing. “And how can we do this on Monday
when you have to work?”

“I’m the boss and rank has its privileges.
I can get away from the project if I want to. But that’s beside the point. Why
didn’t you tell me you got another note?”

“I figured you were upset enough about the
first one. I didn’t want to make things worse, but suddenly it seems
very
important.”

“I want to see the note. Where is it?”

I patted my pocket. “Let’s get out of here
first. I don’t want anyone to find us.”

We backtracked out of the passage and
closed the door, and Mike pushed the dresser back into place. I pulled the
crumpled note out of my pocket and handed it to him. He read it and put it in
his own pocket.

“Monday morning,” he said through tight
lips. “We’ll explore it Monday morning. Something is really wrong here.”

“Let’s get back downstairs before we’re
missed.”

We’d just sat down on the couch when J.T. and
Richard came in. They were ribbing each other about their earlier tennis match
and didn’t pay much attention to us.