Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (20 page)

He had the prettiest golden-red fur, with
a white belly. He finished eating and looked up at me with gold-colored eyes.
Big eyes, the kind that made my heart melt. I watched him and knew we were
meant to belong to each other.

“Oh, Mike, look at those eyes,” I said,
melting under his gaze. “I’m going to keep him. Let’s see. I’ll have to go to
town and get some puppy food and a little bed, and a collar and leash, and…
What am I going to name him?”

“Slow down. We’ll take care of everything,
but there are two things you’d better think about.”

“Like what?”

“Like maybe he already has an owner. We
don’t know for sure that he was dropped off out here. He could have wandered
off from someone’s home. You’d better put an ad in the paper. Also, don’t you
think you should make sure the boarders are agreeable to having a dog around?”

“One look at those eyes and they’ll fall
in love with him, too.” I reached down and rubbed the dog’s ear.

I heard a car pull in and looked up to see
Lucy, Josh and Marion.

“Come and see what Mike found,” I called,
motioning them over.

The three of them walked over to see what
all the fuss was about. Lucy was a little dubious, but that didn’t last long.
Marion cooed over the dog, and Josh immediately started playing with him. Three
down. I hoped the rest of the boarders felt the same as Josh and Marion. They
really did have a say in the matter since they were paying me to live at Holt
House. I’d worry about that later, just like I seemed to worry about
everything
later.

“I’m going to call him Jem.” I smiled,
knowing the dog wouldn’t be going anywhere soon, no matter what the other
boarders said.

“Why Jem?” Marion asked.

“Because my favorite book is
To Kill a
Mockingbird
, and one of the characters was named Jem.”

Lucy ignored my naming ceremony. “Who’s
going to housebreak him?”

“I am,” I replied. “He won’t be in the
house that much anyway. He’s an outdoor dog. You can tell by looking at him.”

“Uh huh,” she said, skeptically. “Have you
ever owned a dog before?”

“No, but I can figure out what to do.”

“Sure you can,” she replied. However, she
and the others did agree to put in a good word with the rest of the boarders. I
was sure those big golden eyes had hooked them.

By five-thirty everyone had arrived home
from work. I trapped each one as they came in and told them about the puppy.
They all agreed he could stay, although Richard English was reluctant.

I made a special trip up to Ted’s room
because he hadn’t been downstairs since he’d returned home that afternoon. I
knocked on his door, but he didn’t answer. Looking down the hall, I saw that
the bathroom door was closed and I thought I heard the shower running. I’d
catch him after dinner.

Dinner! I’d forgotten all about dinner
again. I raced downstairs and into the kitchen, tearing through the
refrigerator to see what I could fix in a hurry. Luck was with me and I found I
had just what I needed in the way of leftovers to make a fast, tasty goulash. I
called anything made up of leftovers
goulash
. One day I’d have to find
out what goulash really consisted of, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be
leftovers.

Sharon walked into the kitchen and
immediately the doorbell
bonged
.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm
myself. “Sharon, would you watch dinner while I get the door? It’s a lady who
wants to look at the rooms.”

“Sure, go ahead. I’ll get the salad
ready.”

“Thanks!”

I ran to the door, feeling rushed, and
stopped to compose myself before opening the door. “Mrs. Banks?”

A tall woman stood on the porch, a polite
smile in place on her face. “Yes. You must be Miss Sanders.”

“Yes. Please call me Kelly. Come in,” I
said, moving away from the door.

I gave her the whole spiel while I showed
her Ruth Bell’s old room. She was satisfied with all Holt House had to offer
and said she’d take the room. I felt I owed it to her to be honest, so I
explained that the last boarder had been in a fall and died.

“You can take this room, or there are more
rooms on the third floor,” I said.

“This one is fine,” she replied.
“Accidents happen. Besides, I’d rather only have to climb one flight of
stairs.”

I was somewhat surprised, but relieved at
the same time. I showed her to the living room where we made arrangements for
her to move in the following Friday night.

She seemed to be a pleasant woman. She
told me she had recently lost her husband and had moved from New York to get
away from the memories. Her reason for answering my advertisement was similar
to Mike’s. She’d started a job as a pharmaceutical saleswoman and did business
in all of the surrounding towns and cities. She loved the idea of living out of
town, and Holt House was centrally located for her.

She was an attractive woman in her
mid-forties, tall and slender with short brown hair, and her brown eyes were
slightly slanted, giving her an exotic appearance. She was pleasant but
businesslike, and somewhat reserved. I had the feeling she was probably quite
good at her job.

Ted came down the stairs as I was saying
good-bye to Mrs. Banks.

“Mr. Fernley,” I called out. “May I speak
with you for a moment?”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Well, uh, there’s this puppy that
wandered into the yard today, a stray. If I can’t find his owner, I’d like to
keep him, but only if all the boarders agree to it.”

“It’s very thoughtful of you to ask,” he
said. “I don’t mind as long as he stays downstairs and away from the kitchen
and dining room. I feel it’s unsanitary to have animals around eating areas. Of
course, you’ll see that he has his shots, too.”

“Of course, and I agree with you about
keeping him out of the kitchen, so that’s no problem. Most of the time he’ll be
an outdoor dog. I might let him inside during a few of those cold winter nights
though, but he’ll be in my room, not the kitchen.” I sounded like a twelve-year-old
trying to convince a parent I’d take care of the dog.

“Fine.” He didn’t really seem all that
interested and left me standing alone in the entryway, which worked for me. I
now had all of the boarders behind me. Any future boarders would have to accept
Jem or look elsewhere for a place to live.

Once again, I’d forgotten dinner. I made a
beeline for the kitchen and found Sharon had everything well in hand.

“I did tell you in the beginning that I’d
cook on Lucy’s days off, you know, but you always seem to beat me to it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you were
here tonight though.”

Sharon picked up a bottle of salad
dressing. “Help me carry the dishes out to the table and we can call everyone
for dinner.”

The meal was delicious. Sharon had added something
I couldn’t quite place to the goulash, and it tasted better than mine would
have. I quietly thanked her and told her she could help out any time she
wanted.

She laughed. “Aren’t you the generous
one?”

After dinner Mike told David he needed to
talk to him, and he and Sharon met Mike and I out by the gazebo late in the
evening.

Chapter
Twenty-five

Mike and I told David and Sharon about
what we’d found in the secret passages and they agreed to help us keep an eye
on Richard.

“Bet you wish you’d known what you were
getting into when you bought this place,” David said. “I’d like to see those
passages.”

Sharon’s reaction was a little different.
“I’m going to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom tonight. I’m going to move
the bed against the wall where the dresser sits now. With the big headboard he
won’t be able to come through the secret door, and he won’t get suspicious
either.”

I cringed and gritted my teeth. “Sharon,
I’m sorry. I’ve been meaning to ask you if you’d ever looked behind the
dresser. You’re right about moving the furniture though. I think I’ll do the
same. Rearranging furniture is a normal thing we women do. He’ll never give it
a second thought – other than the fact we’re both doing it on the same night.
No, even that’s not too suspicious. We could have talked about it first.”

Sharon smiled. “We
did
talk about
it and decided tonight was the night. I can’t believe it, but I never looked
behind the dresser. I didn’t think there was really anything wrong. Maybe it was
just wishful thinking on my part.”

I didn’t smile in return. “You know, one
night I had a dream that someone was in my room. Maybe it wasn’t a dream after
all. It did seem awfully real.”

“You never told me about that,” Mike said.

“I forgot about it until now. First I
dreamed that someone was searching my room, and then I dreamed that someone was
standing over my bed watching me.”

“Was this recently?” David asked.

“No. Actually, it was quite some time
ago.”

“You seem to have a faulty memory.” Mike
looked at me accusingly, like I’d been hiding things from him on purpose. I
guess I had. “I’m going to help you move your furniture tonight.”

David turned to Sharon. “Same here. And if
you need anything during the night, just scream.”

Sharon rolled her eyes at him. “Not funny,
David.”

I shivered. “Have you noticed that the
nights are beginning to cool off already? It feels like summer has flown by.”

Sharon rubbed her arms. “Fall’s on its
way. It is getting chilly. I’m going inside.”

We talked for about another five minutes
before we returned to the house. On the way in I picked up Jem and took him to
my room with me. He’d been tagging along behind me ever since we’d gone out to
the gazebo. He knew we were meant to be together, too.

“I thought he was going to be an outdoor
dog,” Mike said.

“One night inside won’t hurt anything.
Besides, he’s just a puppy. It’s
only
one night.”

“Right.”

Mike helped me move the furniture, with
Jem constantly under his feet. After we moved the heavy bed and headboard in
front of the secret door, I put the dog outside one last time so he could do
his business, and Mike and I adjourned to the living room. Surprisingly, there
was no one around.

We sat down on the couch and Mike looked
up at the portrait over the fireplace. “It’s strange the way you and Amelia
Holt look so much alike.”

“Amelia? I’ve been wondering what her
first name was. How did you know it was Amelia?”

“I stopped in town to see if they had any
floor plans of the house. I figured it was worth a shot, but they didn’t have
them – they were lost in a fire several years ago. I wanted to see if the
passages showed up on the plans. Anyway, there were some other papers on file
that the Holts had signed when they bought the house. Their names were Amelia
and George Holt. I thought you knew.”

“Surprisingly, her name isn’t on anything
I’ve seen. His was, but hers wasn’t. I guess in those days they figured the
husband was the only one who mattered. How archaic.”

“Yeah, archaic. I found some papers
showing they’d taken a loan against the house to pay for some kind of hospital
bills,” Mike said. “Apparently they were footing the bill for a relative who
was in a hospital.”

“That’s interesting. None of the rumors
I’ve heard mentioned any relatives,” I said. “Of course, that doesn’t mean
there weren’t any.”

“You know, to look at her picture, you’d
think ol’ Amelia was a real angel. She was gorgeous, wasn’t she? And she
certainly doesn’t look like she might be nuts.”

“Thanks Mike,” I said, grinning.

“For what?”

I stood up and walked over to the
fireplace, standing near the portrait.

“For saying she was gorgeous.” My grin
turned into a smile.

“Uncanny,” he said, looking from the
portrait to me.

“Besides, the idea of Amelia being
unstable is just a rumor. No one really knows what happened the day the Holts
died. By the way, what is a mentally disturbed person supposed to look like?”

“Good point,” Mike said. “You could be a
raving lunatic and I’d never know it by looking at you.”

I laughed. “Thanks a lot. I could say the same
about you.”

The clock resting at the end of the mantle
chimed ten times.

“I guess I’d better get upstairs,” Mike
said. “I’m going to have to get up around four o’clock tomorrow morning. Did I
tell you we’re starting a new job?”

“No.”

“It’s a big one, and we’re going to try to
get it done before the weather turns too cold. As it is, it’s going to take us
a couple of months to finish the work. I’ll be putting in a lot of overtime, so
we won’t see as much of each other as we have been lately.”

I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. “Oh.
And I was just getting used to having you around. Oh well…”