Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (31 page)

“Okay, bye.”

I hurried to Sharon’s room and passed on
the message.

“Maybe he’s got the name from the
hospital,” Mike said, hopefully. “I wonder why he didn’t just tell you over the
phone.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe it’s
something else. Anyway, he said he wants you guys to hurry.”

“Okay, we’re on our way,” David said. They
put on their jackets and dashed out the door, not even saying good-bye.

“Well,” Sharon said, “should we go ahead
and search the passages ourselves?”

“No,” I said. “Let’s wait until they come
home.”

We closed the door, moved the bed back
into place and decided to make some hot chocolate.

“I’m pretty much coffee’d out.” I began to
heat the water.

“Me, too. I’ve been drinking way too much
coffee lately. It’s beginning to make me feel jumpy. Too much caffeine.”

I found the hot chocolate mix in the
cupboard and set the can on the counter. “I wonder what Josh found out. He sure
sounded excited. He didn’t sound very good though. I think maybe he’s coming
down with bronchitis. I’m going to feel terrible if I passed it on to him.”

“Lucy won’t mind doctoring him,” Sharon said,
smiling. “In fact, she’ll love it.”

“You’ve got
that
right.”

By that time it was around two-thirty in
the afternoon, and we were bored. Jem was leaning against my leg again, while I
stood by the stove, and he was practically pushing me over. He wasn’t all that
small anymore.

“What’s the matter with you?” I said,
looking down at him. “Quit pushing.”

“You know,” Sharon said, sounding edgy, “I
think he’s being protective. He’s making me a little nervous. Maybe it’s not
the coffee after all.”

“Jem? Protective?” I said, looking at him
in a new light. “I don’t know what he’d be protecting me from.”

“Well, duh,” Sharon said. “Don’t you think
he feels all the tension around here? He knows something’s going on.”

“I think he just feels the storm coming,”
I said, not wanting to think I needed protection from anything. Not while
Sharon and I were home alone.

“I suppose you’re right,” Sharon said. “We
saw everyone leave. There’s no one else here. Right?

“Right.” I couldn’t help glancing over my
shoulder toward the kitchen door.

Chapter
Thirty-eight

After adding water to the cocoa mix, I sat
down across from Sharon. After we emptied our cups, we decided to try throwing
darts without the expert guidance of our teacher. I knew David meant well, but
we just wanted to have fun, not become experts.

“Now we can do it our own way,” Sharon
said, reading my mind.

She took her turn and handed me some darts
so I could have a go at it. Neither one of us was very good, but we’d never
admit it. After all, we were beginners.

My dog had begun leaning against my leg
again. “Jem! Will you quit leaning on me? You big chicken. Who’s protecting who
here?” I pushed him away. He growled.

“That’s it,” I said. “You’re going
outside. Maybe some fresh air will do you good. You need something to calm you
down.”

“Did you see any of the cars?” Sharon
asked, when I walked back into the Library.

“No, I let Jem out the back door. Why?”

“I thought I heard the front door.”

I walked with purpose to the living room
and peered out the window. Sharon followed me.

“There aren’t any cars out there, except
yours and mine, and there’s no one around. I think Jem is getting to you. It
was probably just the wind.”

We both jumped when we heard a loud bang.

“One of the shutters must have come
loose,” Sharon said shakily. “I think maybe we should have gone to town with
Mike and David. This place is giving me the creeps.”

“Me, too. Come with me while I close the
shutter.” It had begun to bang back and forth as the wind picked up. We climbed
up to the second floor and discovered it was one of the shutters in Richard’s
room. I pulled it in and latched it, coughed a few times, and closed the window
in a hurry. The snow was falling heavily by that time.

“I’m going down to let Jem in. Naturally,
I had to put him outside just in time for the storm.” The lights flickered, but
stayed on.

Sharon followed me to the back door, but
when I opened it, Jem was gone. I could hear him barking. I looked around,
trying to follow the sound. He was standing just inside the old coach house.

“
Jem
,” I yelled. He kept barking
and wouldn’t come to me. Yelling made me cough. “What’s the matter with that
dog?” I was half disgusted and half disturbed. “Oh, well, I guess he’ll come in
when he’s ready.”

“I know what it is,” Sharon said, suddenly.
“There’s a stray cat that’s been living out in the coach house. David mentioned
it the other day.”

“Oh,” I said with relief. “That must be
why he’s barking.”

“Yeah. So what do you want to do now? I think
we need to keep busy or our imaginations are going to run away with us,” Sharon
said. She was right. Every little noise was beginning to set us off.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should go ahead
and search the passages after all,” I suggested.

“Tell you what,” Sharon said. “If no one
is back by the time we’ve finished dinner, we’ll go exploring. If they’re back
before dinner, then we can all go together.”

“Good idea.” I was relieved we were
putting it off, and yet glad to have a plan. I wasn’t really anxious to go
through the passages without the men around, but we needed to do it.

I found a deck of cards and we played War
for a while, but neither one of us could concentrate on the game.

“This is ridiculous,” I said. “We’re here
alone, so why are we feeling so jumpy?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s the wind, the
snow, your crazy dog, and I almost feel like we’re stranded.”

“Well, we’re not. Both of our cars are
here, and we can leave anytime we want to,” I reminded her.

“You’re right. We can leave if we really want
to.”

“Yeah.”

“So why don’t we?” Sharon asked.

“Because there’s a huge storm outside.
Actually, that’s a good thing. If we can’t get out, then the bad guy can’t get
in.”

“Now that’s the first encouraging thing
either one of us has said in an hour.” Sharon smiled and I could see her
relaxing.

Jem stood outside the back door and
barked.

 “The dog wants in,” Sharon said.

I let him in and noticed the hands on the
clock were nearing four o’clock. “It’s getting late.”

“We could start dinner.” The lights flickered
and Sharon twitched. “In fact, maybe we’d better do it while we can. We may be
eating by candlelight from the looks of things.” The lights flickered again,
for emphasis.

“That’s a good possibility. Let’s get
started.”

I had put a roast in the oven earlier, so
Sharon peeled potatoes while I put a salad together. I placed the salad in the
refrigerator and Sharon started the potatoes boiling. We sat down with nothing
else to do for the moment. When the roast was just about ready, Sharon put some
vegetables on to heat and took the potatoes off the stove. She mashed them
while I took out the roast. We placed everything on a warming plate.

“I’ll reheat the veggies in the microwave
when people start wandering in,” I said.

“Don’t hold your breath.” Sharon was looking
out the window. “The snow is even heavier than it was last time we looked. I’d
be willing to bet the roads are probably impassable. I doubt if anyone will be
able to get through.”

“Listen to that wind.” I joined her at the
window. “This has turned into a regular blizzard.”

“Why don’t we go ahead and eat,” Sharon
said. “We can take care of everyone else as they come in,
if
they come
in.”

“Sure. I’m hungry.”

While we were heating the vegetables, I
thought I heard something. I stopped and listened, but it didn’t repeat.

“What is it?” Sharon asked.

“Nothing. I thought I heard a noise.”

“What kind of noise?”

“It sounded like someone walking around
upstairs.”

“I think I heard it, too, but really, with
all this wind, it’s probably just the house creaking. Don’t forget, no one else
has come back from town yet.”

We sat down at the table to eat, but after
a few bites I pushed my plate away. Food didn’t look tempting to me anymore.

“I guess I’m not as hungry as I thought.”

“I know the feeling.” She also pushed her
plate away. “I wish David and Mike would come home.”

“Me, too,” I said. “I hope they’re not
stuck in town.”

I noticed Jem sniffing around the legs of
the chairs. “Jem! You know better than that. Do you need to go outside again?”
When he heard the word
outside
, his tail began to swing wildly. I opened
the door and he made a mad dash for the coach house.

“He sure has been acting weird today,”
Sharon said.

“Between the wind, the snow and the cat, I
guess I’m not surprised.”

“Look. We’re both bored to tears, and
we’re both jumpy. A contradiction, I know, but that’s the way it is. Why don’t
we just get it over with and search the passages. If we wait any longer, the
boarders may come home, and we’ll end up having to wait until tomorrow. I don’t
want to wait.”

“Okay, let’s go,” I said. “Besides,
somehow I think it might put our minds at ease.”

“How do you figure?”

“We’ll see for ourselves that no one is
here.”

“Sure. That makes sense to me.”

We returned to Sharon’s room and relit the
oil lamp.

“You’ll have to lead the way,” Sharon
said. “You’ve been through the passages before, and I haven’t. I wouldn’t know
where to begin.”

“Follow me, but watch were your step.”

The first place I checked was the small room
where Mike and I had found the pencil and paper. The items were still there,
but along with them was Sharon’s eyebrow pencil. I picked it up and handed it
to her.

“I thought the color on your mirror looked
familiar,” she said. “I hate the echo in here. It’s really eerie,” she added.

“I know. I keep expecting some weirdo to
leap around the corner and scare us to death.” As soon as the words were out of
my mouth, I wished I could pull them back.

“What an imagination,” Sharon said
shakily. “Most likely we’d run into David or Mike. I’m sure they’re on their
way home right now, and if they don’t see us when they come in they’re going to
figure we’re in here.”

We both laughed a little nervously. We
didn’t find anything else in the room, so we moved on.

“This really is eerie,” Sharon repeated.
“In a way, I’m glad the storm is so bad. At least I don’t think anyone will be
returning early. Not even David and Mike. I feel safer knowing we’re here
alone.” She was doing her best to convince both of us that we were alone in the
house. It wasn’t working.

“I
hope
we’re alone. I still keep
thinking I hear noises,” I said.

“You’re scaring me, Kelly. Knock it off!”

“I’m not trying to scare you. And it
really is probably just the house creaking. I have to admit though, I wish I’d
brought Jem back inside before we started this.”

“I said, knock it off!”

“Okay, okay.”

We climbed the stairs to the second floor.
As we looked into the first of the three small rooms, the light sent a mouse
scurrying for his life. I’d have to invest in some mouse traps. I couldn’t
believe I hadn’t seen signs of the mice.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,”
Sharon said. “I’m beginning to feel crawly. Look at those spider webs,” she
said, pointing toward the corner of the room. “And don’t try to tell me that
mice and spiders are probably more afraid of me than I am of them.”

“I won’t. Let’s keep moving.”

We found nothing on the second floor
except plenty of dust and dirt, so we climbed up to the third floor.

“Follow me,” I said. “I’ll show you where
we found that box.”

I led her to the room Mike and I had
discovered.

“Look at this,” Sharon said in
astonishment. “This guy’s a pack rat. Just look at all this stuff.”

He’d been busy. There were now two boxes,
filled with various small items which belonged to everyone who lived in the
house.

“Sharon,” I said, excitedly, “here’s the
book I was telling you about.” I picked it up and opened it, but then dropped
it like a hot potato.

“What is it?” Sharon asked. “What’s
wrong?”

“Open it, if you want to. He’s destroyed
it. Pages are torn, and he’s taken a red marker and scribbled all over the
pages.” I couldn’t explain it to her, but somehow the destruction of the book
frightened me more than any of the notes he’d left.