Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (29 page)

“Give me those stupid things,” he
whispered loudly, grabbing the keys out of David’s hand. The first one he used
opened the door. “There, you see?”

“Big deal,” David whispered. It was a
stage whisper and I could hear every word.

“Why are we searching Josh’s room?” Mike
asked.

“I don’t want to leave any stone
unturned,” David replied.

They entered Josh’s room.

I moved on to the second bathroom, intent
on getting all the laundry together. I closed the lid to the laundry hamper
before I heard a loud crash in Josh’s room.

Uh oh
, I thought.
Sounds like the detectives blew it.

I took the bags of towels and threw them
down the stairs, which was easier than carrying the load down, before moving on
to the third and last bathroom to finish the job. I heard Josh’s door open, so
I crept to the doorway to watch again.

“You’re a real clown, Mike,” David
whispered. “Could you have made any more noise?”

“Well, if you hadn’t closed the drawer on
my hand – ”

“If you hadn’t stepped on my foot, I would
have noticed your hand was still
in
the drawer,” David replied.

“Oh, no. If you hadn’t closed the drawer,
I wouldn’t have jumped and landed on your foot,” Mike said, correcting David.

“Do you think Josh will notice?” David
asked.

“Notice? He’d have to be blind not to
notice a broken lamp.” Mike sounded disgusted.

“Maybe Kelly has another one,” David
suggested, still whispering.

“We’ll ask her before Josh comes home.”

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing, and
tried to stifle a cough, successfully.

Their next stop was Marion’s room, and
Mike tried every single key on the ring before he found the right one.

“Ha!” David said triumphantly.

“Crap!” Mike replied. “It’s always the
last thing you try.”

“Yeah, yeah.” David was grinning from ear
to ear, and I felt as though I was watching two little boys playing a game.

They weren’t in Marion’s room for long. I
was about to go downstairs when I heard them coming, so I stopped to watch more
of the entertainment.

David was holding his stomach as they
crept out of Marion’s room.

“Well, you shouldn’t have snuck up on me
like that,” I heard Mike say.

“I wasn’t sneaking, and why would you turn
around swinging like that anyway?” David said hotly.

“I wasn’t swinging at you. It was just a
reflex,” Mike said, just as hotly.

Their next stop was Mrs. Banks room, and as
Mike went through the keys, he dropped them. Mike and David bent over to pick
up the keys at the same time and bumped heads.

“I can’t stand anymore,” I said, and began
laughing when they stood up holding their foreheads. I applauded their
performance.

“You guys ought to take it on the road,” I
said, tears running down my face by that time. “By the way, the keys are marked
so you’ll know which one goes to which room.”

They each gave me a dark and dirty look.

Just as Mike found the key to Mrs. Banks
room, I began coughing again. Too much laughter. My lungs couldn’t take it.

“Serves her right,” I heard one of them
say.

I took the rest of the laundry and threw
it down the stairs, then followed it down, laughing and coughing all the way. I
dragged the bags to the laundry room and got a load started, then returned to
the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. I noticed Lucy had made some cinnamon
rolls, so I took one to go with my coffee, and relaxed until the first load of
laundry was done. I threw it in the dryer and started a second load.

Lucy walked into the kitchen. “Sit down.
I’ve got a funny story to tell you.”

She looked quizzical, but sat down across
the table from me.

By the time I finished my story, she was
practically falling out of her chair. Mike and David walked in and all Lucy
could do was laugh harder and point at them.

“If you two are through making fun,” Mike
said, “we’d like some lunch. Please.”

“I’ve already had lunch,” David said.

I took one look at the red spot still showing
on his forehead and started laughing and coughing all over again. I couldn’t
help myself.

“I don’t see what’s so funny,” David said
indignantly. “We could have knocked each other out.” He looked at Mike, saw the
red spot, and began to laugh with us. The humor of the situation finally struck
him.

“I guess it must have looked pretty
funny.” Mike grinned and started laughing.

“
Looked
funny? You should have
heard yourselves,” I said.

“How long were you up there?” David asked.

“Right from the time you two got to Josh’s
room,” I said. “Oh, and I do have another lamp, so you don’t have to worry
about that little problem.”

Mike groaned.

Lucy fixed lunch for Mike.

They told us they hadn’t found a thing,
not a single clue. I wasn’t really surprised, but I had hoped for some results.

“What about Richard’s room?” I asked.

“The police have already gone through his
things,” Mike said. “There wasn’t much there anyway. You need to pack his stuff
up and get it out of there.”

“I know. I’ll do it soon. What do we do
next?”

Mike picked up his sandwich. “I’m not
sure. I’m going to talk to Josh tonight. One thing though, I think we’d better
search those passages again.”

I pushed my chair back and stood. “Why
don’t we do it now? All of the boarders are out for a while.”

“I want Josh to see it with me,” Mike
replied.

“By the way,” David said, “isn’t this
supposed to be your day off Lucy?”

“My days off fell during the holidays, so
Kelly is letting me take Friday off to make up for it.”

“See you later,” I said to no one in particular.
“If we can’t search the passages, then I’ve got to finish the laundry.”

Chapter
Thirty-six

As I left the room I heard Lucy ask if the
guys would do a repeat performance for her. I couldn’t hear their reply, but I
knew by the tone of voice that it was probably a threat.

The rest of the day passed quietly, and I
was thankful. I was coughing again and needed to rest. Mike hung J.T.’s game
board and challenged David to a dart game. They were pretty competitive, which
somehow didn’t surprise me, but they had a good time. Lucy and I, having folded
the towels and put them away, spent the afternoon lounging around.

Fried chicken and mashed potatoes were on
the menu that evening, so Lucy and I started preparing dinner around four
o’clock. Sharon came in from work and commented on how lucky we were that we
didn’t have to drive into town.

“It’s not too bad right now, really, but
the clouds are building up again. We must be breaking some kind of record for
snow this year,” she said.

I glanced out the window. “I know. It
seems like every time I look outside, all I see is white. It’s monotonous.”

Lucy and I told Sharon about the new
“detective” show Mike and David had put on. She thought it was pretty funny and
planned to get a lot of mileage out of the story.

Marion was due back on Friday, and Mrs.
Banks had called and said she’d decided to stay on in New York for an extra few
days. Somehow I had a feeling that when she returned she’d be giving notice on
her room. It was just a guess, but a good one. I was sure she probably missed
her old home and friends.

When I finally got to bed that night, I
slept well. I found no notes in my room, and I still didn’t feel completely
well, so sleep came easily.

Thursday was another welcome quiet day.
Lucy and I got our chores out of the way, after which we drove to town to do
some shopping. The sky looked ominous with snow clouds, so we decided we’d
stock up while we could. There’s nothing worse than being stuck out in the
country without enough supplies.

Mike and his crew were out on a job. It
had reached a point where they could work indoors.

Thursday and Friday were David’s days off,
so he talked Sharon into taking the day off and they drove into town to talk to
the minister about their impending wedding plans. They were intent on a
February wedding. They weren’t wasting any time.

As Lucy and I finished our shopping and
headed for the car, it began to snow lightly. By the time we pulled into the
driveway at home, it had stopped.

We put the groceries away and I went to my
room to put my purse away. I opened the door, walked in, and yelled. I’m not a
screamer, so the most I could do was yell, and I did so with gusto.

“
Lucy! Come here quick! Luuucy!
”

“What’s all the ruckus about?” Lucy asked
breathlessly, running into my room. “What’s wrong? You scared me half to
death.”

I pointed at the large mirror on the
dresser. This time the note was definitely the work of someone trying to
terrorize me. Written in what I thought might be eyebrow pencil across the
mirror was a new quotation.

“Amelia,

‘Three things are ever silent—Thought,
Destiny
,
and
the
Grave
.’

Bulwer-Lytton

Harold Bk. X, ch. 2

You shouldn’t have done it to me, Amelia”

Lucy grabbed my arm and pulled me out of
the room.

“Stop pulling on me, Lucy,” I wailed.

“Don’t look at it. Leave it for Mike and
Josh. And David. This is really sick – really and truly sick.”

“I don’t know if I’m shaking because of
anger or fear,” I said. I was trembling so hard my teeth were almost
chattering. “
Sick
is too mild a word for this character. You realize, of
course, that he’s getting closer – to making his move, I mean. I thought I’d
have more time than this.” I had a fit of coughing.

“He’s become awfully bold,” she said. “I think
you’re right. Let’s get out of here. Come to the kitchen with me. I’ll fix you
some hot tea.”

I didn’t move.

“Obviously he came back while we were out
shopping. When we left, there was no one around to see him,” I said. Somehow I
felt the need to explain this to her.

“Unless he was hiding,” Lucy said,
tentatively.

“But all the cars were gone,” I reminded
her.

“He could have hidden his car and then
come back.”

“I suppose. Oh, I wish Mike would come
home early.”

“Come on,” she said, gently pulling on my
arm. “Let’s go out to the kitchen. I’ll fix you that hot tea.” She seemed to
think tea would be a cure. Maybe she simply needed something to do to make her
feel useful.

No one came home early, and I sat and
stewed all afternoon. David and Sharon were the first ones to arrive. David was
angry and Sharon was horrified when they saw the mirror.

Josh was the next one home. He’d been in
town all day, trying to get more information about the boarders from the local
police. They hadn’t been much help, but they were trying.

Lucy told him about the mirror. He and
David hurried off to my room to take a look.

Following them, I stood outside the door
and listened to their conversation.

“David,” Josh said, “This fits with what I
found out today.”

“I thought you couldn’t get any
information,” David said.

“I’m not ready to say anything in front of
Kelly,” Josh replied.

“What did you find out? Do you know who’s
doing this?”

“Not yet, but I’m getting closer, and it
looks like my timing couldn’t be much better. I found out that the hospital the
Holts were paying was a mental hospital in California where they treat the
worst scenario cases.”

“What do you mean by ‘worst scenario
cases’?” David asked.

“I mean the ones where there isn’t much
hope. The people who’ve really gone off the deep end, the dangerous ones
included.”

“And what this guy has done fits into that
category. He’s killed twice already, and I think Kelly might be next. The way
he calls her Amelia is weird. I mean, I know Kelly looks like Amelia, but she’s
not Amelia. Doesn’t he understand that?”

“Apparently not,” Josh said.

“Notice how he underlined the words ‘the
Grave’,” David continued, “and the word ‘Destiny’. Maybe he thinks it’s
destiny, and Amelia has actually come back from the grave.”

“Maybe he wants to put her back in that
grave,” Josh said miserably.

“Let’s get out of here,” David said.

After overhearing their conversation, I
went through anger, fear, and back to anger again. I didn’t want them to know
I’d been eavesdropping, so I hurried back to the kitchen. He – whoever
he
was – wanted to put me back in the grave? I tried to unclench my teeth, but it
was a lost cause.