Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (25 page)

“Okay, folks, that’s all for now,” he
said, taking his coat down from the coat rack. “I’ll be back to talk to
Fernley. None of you will be leaving the area anytime soon, right?”

There was a mumbled assent from the group.

“Uh huh,” he said, slipping his arms into
his coat.

It had turned into a near blizzard
outside.

“It looks pretty bad,” I said, walking to
the front door with him. “Drive carefully.”

He smiled at me indulgently. “I’ll be in
touch.”

Detective Hardy wasn’t a handsome man by
any means, but he did have a certain animal magnetism. He had a sort of swarthy
look, a rugged appearance. There was a small scar over his right eye which
added to the rugged look. He wasn’t very tall, maybe 5’7” or 5’8”, but his
demeanor made him seem like a big man. I found myself comparing his dark hair
and coloring to Mike’s light hair and blue eyes. Mike won the mental contest,
hands down. Of course, I was in love with Mike, which meant he’d have won no
matter what the comparison was.

As the weekend wore on, my cough grew
worse and I developed a sore throat. My chest hurt every time I had a bout of
coughing. By Sunday evening I went to bed early, with no intention of getting
up for anything. My fever was high and I slept a lot. Each time I woke up,
coughing, I saw one of my friends sitting in the rocking chair. 

Chapter
Thirty-one

On Monday morning I dragged myself out of
bed and got dressed, knowing I needed to call the doctor’s office as soon as
they opened to make an appointment.

It had stopped snowing, but the sky still
looked menacing. Mike insisted I bundle up far more than I wanted to. The drive
into town was slow because the roads were still covered with snow, and I slept
part of the way. During those moments when I awoke, I noticed Mike glancing at
me.

We were in the waiting room at the
doctor’s office when I remembered it was Christmas Eve. “I don’t want to be too
sick to enjoy Christmas Day.”

“Maybe the doctor can give you a shot and
get you started on medication so you’ll at least feel good enough for tomorrow.
It’ll work out, honey.”

“Right.” I was miserable. I ached all
over, my head hurt and my eyes were burning, not to mention I felt like there
was a concrete brick sitting on my chest. It didn’t even perk me up when I
realized Mike had begun calling me honey.

“Kelly?” the nurse called from across the
room.

I stood and followed her.

 “You look terrible,” she said. “How
long have you felt like this?”

“I started coughing a couple of days ago.
I’ve never had anything hit me so hard or so fast before.”

“Well, let me check your temperature and
blood pressure, and then Dr. Warren will be in to see you.”

Dr. Warren had been my doctor since I was
a child. I waited for only a few minutes before he stuck his head in the door.
“Good morning, Kelly. You sure picked a fine time to get sick, didn’t you?”

“Believe me, it wasn’t my choice.”

He checked my throat and ears, and
listened to my chest with his stethoscope.

“I hear you had some excitement out at
your place,” he said, picking up my chart. “What happened?”

“Someone pushed one of the boarders down
the stairs, and he died. Funny how simple that sounds when you say it out loud.
It’s almost like saying someone fell and skinned their knee. Too bad that’s not
what happened.”

“Wasn’t there another death out there not
too long ago? Someone said a woman fell out of her bedroom window.”

“Yeah, it’s been… I don’t know, it’s just
been a mess. I’m surprised the boarders haven’t started moving out. I won’t be
surprised if there’s a mass exodus after New Year’s Day. Of course, initially
they all thought Ruth Bell’s death was an accident.”

“Wasn’t it?” he asked.

“At this point, your guess is as good as
mine.” I didn’t want to go into details. Besides, talking was making me cough.

“It’ll work itself out.” He stopped
talking and wrote something on my chart.

“Dr. Warren, I’ve never felt so sick before.
Nerves couldn’t do this, could they?”

“No, although what’s happened may have
helped lower your resistance. You’ve got bronchitis, and if you’re not careful
it could turn into pneumonia.”

“I had a feeling you might say
bronchitis,” I said. “My chest really hurts.”

“I’m not surprised. I’ll start you out
with an injection, and I’ll give you prescriptions for cough medicine and
antibiotics. Take the antibiotic four times a day, and the cough syrup three
times a day. When you get home I want you to stay inside and stay warm. Get
lots of sleep, and be sure to take all of the medication. Don’t stop just
because you feel better. I’ll send Margaret in to give you that injection. Have
a Merry Christmas,” he added, patting my back.

“You, too. Are the kids coming down this
year?” I’d gone to school with his two sons, Ed and Brian.

“Not this year, I’m afraid. Brian’s wife
just had a baby girl, and Ed can’t get away from his job.”

“Well, congratulations, Grandpa. When you
talk to Brian, tell him I said congratulations. And Merry Christmas to Mrs.
Warren, too.”

After a few minutes, Margaret came in and
gave me my shot. I wished her a Merry Christmas when I left, and she told me to
take care of myself.

I found Mike reading a magazine in the
waiting room.

“Let’s go home,” I said.

“What did he say?”

“I’ve got bronchitis. We’ll need to stop
at the pharmacy before we leave town.” I made a point of not mentioning what
the doctor had said about being close to pneumonia. Mike was worried enough
already.

“Okay. I need to pick up a couple of
things while we’re in town anyway.”

Mike drove to the pharmacy and had me wait
in the car with the heater running while he got my prescriptions filled. The
pharmacy was located across the street from a sporting goods store. I looked
through the window and thought I saw J.T. I hoped I was mistaken, but it
appeared he was looking at guns. He paid for his purchases and the salesman
handed him a large bag before he turned and left the store.

I honked the horn, trying to get his
attention, and he looked up – right at me. He quickly turned and walked away,
acting like he hadn’t seen me. I wondered what he was up to.

Mike came out a moment later. He handed me
a small bag with my prescriptions in it, and put a big bag in the back seat.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Don’t be so nosey.”

On the way home I told him about seeing
J.T. and that it looked like he might have been looking at guns.

“Are you sure it was him?”

“Absolutely. I’m just not positive about
whether or not he bought a gun.”

“I hope you’re wrong. I don’t want those
people to start shooting each other.”

“I know. I can just see the headlines. ‘
Crazed
boarder shoots and kills ailing landlady
.’”

“Not funny,” Mike said.

“I tried.”

“I’ll look into it. Maybe I can find out
what he actually bought.”

I had to stop talking because it made me
cough, so Mike did the talking and I listened. When we drove farther out of
town and the roads got worse, he quit trying to entertain me and concentrated
on his driving. I turned up the radio to hear the weather report. The
weatherman said we could expect more snow, a white Christmas – surprise,
surprise – and the temperature would get down to around twenty-five degrees
during the night. Winds and possibly more snow predicted for Christmas Day. I
sighed, leaned my head back and tried to rest my burning eyes. When I next
opened them it had begun to snow, just as predicted.

The roads were so bad that the normally
forty-five minute drive took us over an hour and a half.

When we pulled up to the house, I saw
J.T.’s car. Since I was sick I had to consider that maybe, just maybe, I’d been
wrong about seeing him buy a gun, but I was pretty sure I was right.

Mike retrieved the big bag from the back
seat before coming around to help me out of the car. He held my arm as we walked
to the house so I wouldn’t slip on the snow, which was turning icy.

As soon as we entered the house I made a
beeline for the kitchen to take some cough medicine, and then I went to bed,
hoping not to be disturbed. Mike brought a book with him and sat in the rocker
while I drifted off. I slept until three in the afternoon. When I awoke, Mike
was gone and Sharon was in his place.

“Hi,” she said. “How do you feel?”

I sat up and looked around without
speaking.

“Hello,” Sharon said. “Are you still with
us?”

“Yeah. I’m just surprised. I felt so bad
this morning, and this afternoon I feel almost human again. That shot really
worked.” I was lying, of course. Nothing, not even illness, was going to cause
me to miss Christmas.

“Feeling good enough to come out and join
the crowd?”

“Soon. Let me take a shower first. I think
my fever broke. At least I don’t feel as hot as I did.” I climbed out of bed
and my legs almost crumbled under me, and my breathing was labored. “I guess
I’ll sit here for a minute first.”

“You’re pretty sick. It’s going to take
some time to get your strength back. I can see you’re having trouble breathing.
While you’re in the shower I’ll fix some soup for you.”

“Thanks, but do you think you could fix
something more solid? I’m actually kind of hungry, and I don’t think soup is
going to solve the problem.”

“Sure. I’m glad you’re hungry. That’s a
good sign, but don’t rush things.”

I finally caught my breath and put on my
robe, and headed for the bathroom for a long, hot shower. It was refreshing and
I did feel better. I returned to my room where I put on a pair of jeans and a
V-neck sweater, but had to sit down for a moment after an attack of coughing,
to catch my breath.

Sharon knocked lightly on the door and
stepped into my room. “You okay? I could hear you all the way down the hall.
Are you sure you feel good enough to get up?”

“Uh huh. If I sit quietly I should be
okay, and if I get too tired I’ll excuse myself and go lie down. Is anything
ready to eat?”

“I fixed you some scrambled eggs, toast
and hot tea. That’s probably the best thing for you right now.”

“At least it’s more filling than soup.”

We walked out to the kitchen and I ate
most of what she had fixed. I took some cough syrup before we walked to the
living room.

“Well, look who’s here,” Josh said. “How
are you feeling?”

A beautifully decorated Christmas tree
stood in front of the window. “Better, thank you. Who put the Christmas tree
up? It looks wonderful.”

“Mike and David and I did it,” Sharon said.
“Lucy told me where you’d stored all the decorations, so David and I got a tree
this morning while you were at the doctor’s office, and the three of us put it
up after you got home. Lucy sat with you while we worked.”

“I see all the presents are under the
tree. I’m glad that shot helped, because I sure would hate to miss all of
this,” I said, feigning good health.

J.T. was like a little kid after I
mentioned the presents. With a lot of effort, he sat down on the floor by the
tree and started reading all the tags, telling us which gift was for whom. I
watched J.T. and felt sure I must have been mistaken about the gun. I was sure
he was the man I’d seen at the store, but this man wouldn’t have anything to do
with a gun.

Would he?

Chapter
Thirty-two

“Where’s Mike?” I asked.

“He had something to do,” Sharon said,
smiling. “He’ll be down in a minute.”

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, I looked
up and saw him carrying a large package. He saw me and stopped, then continued
down. “I didn’t know you were up. You look pretty good compared to this
morning. Feeling better, huh?”

“A little.” I was still lying through my
teeth.

Mike sat down next to me and put the
package on my lap. It was obvious he didn’t know much about wrapping presents,
but it was cute. Paper went from side to side and end to end with lots of tape.

“This isn’t a Christmas gift. It’s more of
a get well present. Go ahead, open it.”

I gave him a kiss on the cheek and began
unwrapping the package. The paper fell to the floor. He’d given me a stuffed
animal, a black and white Panda bear.

“I thought you could sleep with it, like a
kid does, while you’re sick.” He shrugged his shoulders, looking embarrassed,
but rather pleased with himself. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“It
is
a good idea,” I said. “It’s
one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.” I gave him a hug and kissed him
again before remembering the boarders were watching. I pulled away.