Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (26 page)

“Oh, go ahead,” J.T. said. “There’s
nothing wrong with showing a little affection. Hell, we’re almost a family
here.”

“That’s for sure,” Josh agreed.

Ted quietly watched us, not one to show
his feelings.

For the next couple of hours I sat quietly
and listened to everyone talk. Lucy put on some Christmas music and the general
mood was mellow. Even Ted joined in more than usual.

I napped on the couch while they ate
dinner, but by eight o’clock I was worn out. Everyone seemed to have unwound,
the gentle Christmas spirit settling over them. I didn’t think they’d miss me
if I went to bed.

“Mike, I’m going to go lie down. I’m
awfully tired,” I said.

“Okay, I’m coming with you. Everyone
thinks we’ve been staying with you because you’re sick. Well, that
is
why we’ve been with you, but it’s made it easier to protect you, too. This is
working to our advantage.”

“Gosh, it sure is convenient that I
happened to get sick, huh?” He couldn’t miss my sarcasm.

“Oh, come on. You know what I mean.”

“I guess.”

We stopped in the kitchen and I filled a
glass with water to keep in my room.

“If I fall asleep, wake me up so I can
take my pill. By tomorrow I should feel a lot better.”

“I hope so,” Mike replied. “The fact that
your fever broke should help. At least, that’s what Lucy tells me.

I was worn out from staying up so long. I
was too tired to even change out of my clothes, so I settled myself on top of
the bed, fully clothed. Mike brought an extra blanket from the closet and threw
it over me. He sat down in the rocker with his book. We talked for a while, but
I soon began to have trouble keeping my eyes open.

“Take your medicine before you go to
sleep,” he reminded me.

After taking my pill I swallowed a dose of
cough medicine and drifted off.

I slept late the next morning and awoke to
find Josh sitting in the rocker, dozing. I sat up and looked around, and was
surprised to see an old army cot standing on end in the corner. I wondered if
he’d slept on the cot.

“Josh?” The simple act of sitting up made
me cough, long and hard.

He didn’t open his eyes. “I wasn’t
sleeping, just resting my eyes.”

“Yeah, that’s the excuse I used to give my
mother when I’d fall asleep in front of the television.”

“Guess you caught me.” He rubbed his eyes
before opening them. “How do you feel this morning? That cough still doesn’t
sound too good.”

“I’ll have to let you know after I’ve been
up for a while. Is there any food left?” The clock read ten minutes after ten
o’clock.

“No, but Lucy will fix you something.”

“I’m hungry this morning.”

“I guess that’s a good sign. I’ll leave
you alone so you can get dressed,” he said, standing. “I’ll meet you in the
kitchen. I want to talk to you while you eat.”

“About anything in particular?” I asked.

“Yes, but it can wait. I’ll see you in the
kitchen in about twenty minutes.”

I stood up and stretched, still not
feeling great, but I was definitely better than I had been. I set out my pills
and cough syrup so I wouldn’t forget to take them to the kitchen with me, and
headed down the hall to take a quick shower. I put on fresh clothes and some
make-up, hoping it would make me look healthier. By that time I was out of
breath and had to sit down to rest. My lungs were still congested and I knew
I’d have to take it easy for another day or two.

Lucy was in the kitchen when I walked in.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” she said,
grinning at me.

“No respect for the sick, huh? I’m going
to get as much mileage out of this bronchitis as I can,” I said, starting to
laugh. The laugh quickly turned into a cough.

“I don’t think you’re going to have any
trouble milking it with that cough.”

She was standing by the window where I
joined her. I peered out to see what the day was going to be like, and was
overjoyed to see a blue sky, with just a few wisps of clouds. A perfect
Christmas Day, I thought to myself. I wondered how long the clear skies would
last, remembering more snow had been predicted.

Lucy reached over and hugged me. “You
know, you scared me. I think you squeezed about a week’s worth of sickness into
two days, and I’m astonished to see you looking so well this morning. I didn’t
realize just how fond of you I’ve become until you got sick.”

“You’ve grown on me, too,” I said,
returning the hug.

Josh walked in from the dining room. “You
girls sound pretty chipper this morning.”“I just love it when he uses words
like
girl
around me,” Lucy cooed. I glanced at her in surprise. She
sounded coy, which was out of character for her. She turned away from the
window and started some pancakes cooking for my breakfast. The bacon was
already frying and smelled so good it made my stomach rumble.

I felt something brush my leg and looked
down to find Jem sitting next to me.

“Where have you been?” He was wet.

Lucy flipped a pancake. “He’s been playing
in the snow. I brought him in just before you got here. I’ll go get a towel to
dry him off. He shouldn’t be in the kitchen anyway.”

“You know,” Josh said, “yesterday you
slept off and on all day, and Jem wouldn’t leave your room. Mike had to pick
him up and carry him to get him to go outside to do his business, and when he
was done he sat by the back door and whined until Mike let him back in. The
only other time he’d leave your side was when he was hungry. I’ve never had a
dog. I didn’t know they were so loyal to their owners.”

“I don’t remember much about yesterday,” I
said. I leaned down and scratched Jem behind the ear. He wagged his tail in
response. “Good boy,” I said.

I remembered sitting in the living room
listening to everyone talk, and I remembered Mike’s get well gift. Beyond that,
things were pretty much of a blur.

Lucy returned with a towel and took Jem to
the laundry room to dry him off. Josh checked on the pancakes, and finding they
were ready, he piled them on a plate with the bacon and placed them in front of
me with a small pitcher of syrup.

“I’ll put Jem in your room,” Lucy said.

“No, let him stay here. It won’t hurt
anything, just this once.” Jem seemed to understand and stretched out quietly
by my feet.

Josh sat down across from me at the
kitchen table.

 “What do you want to talk to me
about?” I asked.

“We need to talk about J.T. Mike said you
saw him in the sporting goods store and you thought he might be buying a gun.
Correct?”

“That’s what it looked like. I honked the
horn when he came out, but he pretended he didn’t see me. I know he did
though.”

“Okay. He’s been acting kind of strange
since yesterday. I guess I’ll have to talk to him. I don’t want to see him
going off half-cocked and shooting someone. I know he’s upset about Richard,
but he can’t take things into his own hands.”

“Be tactful, Josh,” I cautioned.

“Why? You don’t want a gun around the
house, do you?”

“No, but I like J.T. Try not to upset
him.”

“Upset him? Kelly, we’ve got a killer
running loose, and not too many suspects. You’ve got to forget about people’s
feelings for a while. Consider this. We’ve got Ted Fernley, J.T. and David as
suspects. Of course, it couldn’t be Marion or Marjorie Banks. They weren’t here
when Richard was murdered, and Marjorie didn’t even live here when Ruth died.
And if you get right down to it, you’ve also got me, Mike, Lucy and Sharon to
pick from. There’s also the possibility of someone we haven’t even thought of
yet. Someone knows this house quite well. Well enough to hide out in the
passages and slip notes into your room, and well enough to slip into the rooms
and pilfer little things. Don’t forget he’s been taking things, too.”

“You know I don’t suspect any of you,” I
said.

“It doesn’t matter
who
you suspect.
The fact is, other than Sharon, you don’t really know any of us that well.”

“Yes, but – ”

“No buts.
You’re
the one in danger
here. Wise up and do it fast, before anything else happens.”

He scared me, which I supposed was his
intent. All of a sudden I realized that Sharon was the only person I could
trust completely. Thankfully, I finished most of my breakfast before I lost my
appetite. I’d never considered there could be someone in the house we weren’t
aware of. It was stupidity on my part. I knew someone had been keeping the
house and grounds up, even before I moved in. And, of course, someone could hide
in the passages. Why hadn’t I taken these things seriously? I’d just been
sitting around, fat, dumb and happy, so to speak, never thinking things
through. The thought of a pillow case being pulled over my head caused a chill
to run down my back. Had I actually been that close to a killer?

I frowned. “Thanks for brightening my day,
Josh.”

“Sorry, kiddo, but facts are facts.”

“It’s Christmas Day. Do me a favor and
drop the whole thing for the rest of today. Please,” I begged.

Lucy stepped toward the table. “She’s
right, Joshua. Give it a rest.”

He pushed his chair back and stood,
looking disgusted. “Sure.” He left the room.

“I do believe he’s a little ticked off,”
Lucy said.

“I don’t care. He’ll get over it, and I
don’t want today to be ruined.” I said a silent prayer that Christmas would be
the bad guy’s day off.

Lucy smiled and changed the subject. “I
don’t care either. By the way, what’d you get me for Christmas?”

“Absolutely nothing. I figure working here
is all the gift you need.”

She laughed. “I didn’t get you anything
either.”

Chapter
Thirty-three

Josh quickly got over his frustration with
Lucy and me, returning to the kitchen to apologize for leaving in such a huff.

“Sorry, girls,” he said. “You’re right, it’s
Christmas Day, not a day to start anything.”

“Good for you, Josh,” I said.

“Although I still think I should talk to
J.T. as soon as possible,” he added.

“Have either of you seen Sharon?” I asked.

Lucy ran hot water over my plate. “She and
David drove into town early this morning. I think they went to church for a
Christmas morning service”

“It’s so quiet. Where’s everyone else?” I
couldn’t hear anyone talking or making noise.

“Out and around,” Lucy said. “Ted drove
into town, J.T. took a large sack and headed toward the garage, asking not to
be disturbed. He said it had something to do with tonight’s celebration. And I
don’t know where Mike is. His car’s gone.”

“A large sack?” Josh had zeroed in on the
comment about J.T.

“Yes, a large sack,” Lucy said, sounding
irritated. “He was smiling and humming a tune, and no, I don’t think he went
out there to target practice in the hopes he can shoot us all this afternoon.
Will you relax?”

“I’ll relax when we know what’s going on,”
Josh snapped.

“Oh, brother,” Lucy said. She turned her
back on him and, changing the subject, turned to me and said, “How are you
feeling, dear?”

I opened my mouth but Josh cut me off.

“Okay, I’ll let it go for the moment.” He
stormed out of the kitchen, heading for the living room.

“Hmm. Well, at the risk of being boring,”
I said, watching Josh’s retreat, “I think I’ll go lie down again. I want to be
in good shape for tonight. Maybe while I’m gone you two can work this out.”

“You don’t seem to be coughing quite as
much as you were,” Lucy said.

“That cough medicine is great stuff, but
it makes me sleepy. See you later.”

I returned to my room to lie down, but I
didn’t sleep. I thought over everything that had happened, trying to put it all
together. No matter how I analyzed the facts, nothing made sense.

Feeling frustrated and restless, I finally
couldn’t stand it any longer, so I headed for the library in search of a book,
hoping that reading would help me get to sleep. I’d done pretty well with my
choice of books at the secondhand store, and there were several I hadn’t read.

Josh and Lucy were sitting at the kitchen
table when I passed through. It appeared that they had resolved their
differences. I absentmindedly waved a hand at them and continued on to the
library where I perused the titles, trying to find something appealing.

“Oh!” I said to myself, pulling a book off
the shelf. It was titled
Famous Quotations
. I felt as though the floor
was falling out from under me. I knew this wasn’t one of the books I’d bought,
and it had been placed in an inconspicuous space, apparently with the hope it
wouldn’t be seen. But why not hide it somewhere? Maybe it had been placed on
the shelf on purpose, as a teaser. I opened the book with trembling hands, not
knowing what to expect, but my senses were telling me I’d most certainly find
something of interest.