Ghost Town Mystery (7 page)

At Eagles Nest, they found Grandfather and Mr. Lacey in deep conversation in the sitting area of the dining hall. Lunch was about to be served.

Grandfather waved them over. “Mr. Lacey and I have been talking about the land. I’m wondering if anyone will ever visit there. Or if we’ll really use it. I’m thinking of selling it to Mr. Lacey.”

Benny stared at Grandfather, his hunger forgotten. “You’re going to sell the town? How can I be mayor and fire chief and police chief?”

“Oh, Benny,” Mr. Lacey said enticingly. “You don’t want to be in charge of a rundown old town.”

“Lunch!” Mrs. Harrington called to the guests.

Jessie was amazed to see Corey Browne carry a huge bowl of soup from the kitchen. Marianne followed him with a large basket of bread. He looked at her as he set down the bowl, spilling the soup a little. Jessie could tell Corey was head over heels for Marianne Harrington. And for once, she wasn’t acting like she couldn’t stand him. Did Corey finally win her over?

Jessie dipped her spoon into her soup. Yuck. It was like dishwater with a few soggy carrots floating around. She broke off a hunk of stale bread to dunk in the thin soup. Like Benny, she was tired of the awful food.

“Excellent soup!” Victor praised Mrs. Harrington, scraping his bowl. “I’ll have seconds, if you have enough.”

“Oh, there’s plenty,” said Mrs. Harrington. “By the way, dinner will be late tonight. The power is off again.”

Violet noticed a mysterious glance pass between Victor Lacey and the owner as she ladled more watery soup into his bowl. Something strange was going on, but she didn’t have time to think about it now.

“Grandfather,” she announced. “Is it okay if we go down to Tincup? We know the way. And it’s not that far to walk. We’ve gotten pretty used to hiking.”

“We’ll be careful,” added Henry. “We won’t go into any of the buildings. We just want to walk through the town.”

He crossed his fingers under the table. This was an important part of their plan. Everyone in Eagles Nest had to know they were going to Tincup. And Grandfather had to give his permission.

“Well ... ” James Alden hesitated. “You are responsible children. I trust you. If you leave early and promise to be back well before dark, it’ll be fine.”

“We will,” said Benny. The first part of their plan had worked!

The children prepared for the hike immediately after lunch. Jessie packed snacks and bottles of water that Grandfather had brought back from his second trip to Beaverton.

“We can eat on the way,” she told the others. “That soup wouldn’t give a chipmunk strength.”

As they walked behind the dining hall, they noticed the gray metal panel was hanging open.

“The fuse box!” exclaimed Henry. He looked inside. Sure enough, one of the fuses was missing. “I bet that goes to the electricity.”

“Now we know Mrs. Harrington turns off the phones and power on purpose,” said Benny.

“We’d better hurry,” Violet said. “We don’t have the Jeep to ride in and we must be in Tincup by sunset.”

Although that seemed like a lot of time, lunch had been late and they had to pack for the hike. It was after two-thirty when the Aldens set off on the potholed road.

The day was clear but very warm. Before they had walked far, the children were glad Jessie had told them to put on short-sleeved T-shirts and shorts. Stout walking shoes prevented twisted ankles and sore feet.

Soon they were panting as they climbed the steep mountain.

“I wish we had the Jeep,” Jessie said. “It was bouncy, but it got us to the trail a lot quicker!”

“I like walking,” Benny said. As always, he had the most energy. “You can see the plants and birds this way.”

Jessie checked her watch. Almost three-thirty. They had been walking for nearly an hour and they hadn’t reached the end of the road yet. She had forgotten how long the road was.

Suddenly Violet stumbled and cracked her knee on a rock.

“It’s nothing,” she told Henry, who gently felt the swelling.

“You might get a bruise,” he said. “Maybe we should stop. Walking on it could make it worse.”

“I’m okay,” Violet insisted. Her knee hurt only a little. She couldn’t let the others and Grandfather down.

“Are you sure?” asked Jessie, concerned. Of them all, Violet tended to be the most quiet.

Violet smiled gamely. “Positive.”

The children slowed their pace so Violet could keep up. It was after five when they reached the end of the potholed road.

“Here’s the old wagon trail,” Benny said.

It took them another thirty minutes to walk down the twisting road. By now, Violet’s knee had stopped hurting, but they still took it easy.

When they reached Tincup, the children stared at one another. As bravely as they had talked on the hike, their fears were back.

“We’re all scared,” Jessie said. “But this is for Grandfather, If he doesn’t know the truth, he could be making a mistake. And we owe it to Gert to save the land.”

“Jessie’s right,” said Violet. She drew in a deep breath. “The sun is nearly over the canyon. Let’s go catch the ghost.”

“It’s not a real ghost,” Henry said firmly. But he was as nervous as the others. Saying there were no ghosts and
seeing
one were two different things.

Together, the Aldens entered the silent ghost town. The wind had risen again, kicking tumbleweeds ahead of them. A loose shingle shrieked.

They decided to wait for full sunset by the dance hall, where Violet had seen the old crone’s face.

The sun dropped in a lazy arc till it touched the craggy ledge of the canyon.

And then they saw her.

She appeared from nowhere, gliding into the dusty street in her tattered gray dress, the gray shawl draped about her shoulders.

The Aldens stood rooted for a few seconds. Then Henry shouted, “Okay, guys. Let’s move!”

They ran then, with Jessie in the lead.

Jessie stared at the figure ahead of her. The Lady in Gray didn’t speed up or act as if she heard pounding feet behind her.

But Jessie didn’t see any shoes sticking out from under the hem of the gray dress.
Was
this Rose Payne, walking toward the sunset to meet her husband as she’d done for so many years? But she couldn’t let such thoughts take over. She had to catch this ghost.

Sprinting, Jessie pulled away from the others. She was beside the Lady in Gray now. The figure turned her face sharply away from Jessie.

Swallowing her fear, Jessie grabbed one thin arm and yanked the figure around.

Amazed, she gasped at the yellowed, wrinkled face surrounded by wisps of scraggly gray hair. The yellowed hand Jessie grasped felt horrible, but she didn’t let go.

Instead she reached up and pulled off the gray wig. The yellowed crone mask came off with it.

She found herself staring into the startled blue eyes of Marianne Harrington.

“You!” Jessie accused. “You’re the ghost!”

The others ran up.

“It’s Marianne!” Violet said. “She’s the Lady in Gray!”

Pulling off the fake rubber hands, Marianne began to cry.

At that moment, Victor Lacey blasted through the rickety swinging doors of the dance hall.

“All right, you kids!” he said menacingly. “I knew you were trouble the minute I laid eyes on you. Now I’ll have to fix you but good!”

Before the children had a chance to be frightened by his threat, a second voice boomed from the dry goods store.

“You’ll do nothing of the sort, you little weasel!”

Benny hopped up and down. “It’s Gert!”

It was indeed Old Gert. She loomed in the center of the road, her booted feet spread wide apart. No one was going anywhere without dealing with her.

“You leave these children alone,” she told Victor. “The jig is up. I’m on to your little game.”

“So are we,” said Henry. “But we needed to bring the ‘ghost’ out in the open first.”

Suddenly Violet figured out the missing piece that had been bothering her. They were on the wrong track! Marianne Harrington wasn’t the descendant of Rose and Duncan Payne.

Old Gert was!

Violet drew in a breath. It all fit. Old Gert had the brightest blue eyes Violet had ever seen. And Gert’s iron-gray hair had probably once been long and black.

“You’re related to Rose and Duncan,” she said to Gert.

The blue eyes twinkled. “I wondered when you’d guess! Yes, I’m Seraphina’s granddaughter. I was born back East, where Seraphina married. My father, her son, also stayed in the East. But when we visited out here, I knew where I belonged. I came out here as soon as I finished school.”

At that moment, a roaring sound made them all turn toward the top of the old wagon road above. The Jeep, which Marianne had had fixed, screeched to a stop. Grandfather, Corey Browne, and Mrs. Harrington hopped out. They wasted no time hiking down the wagon road into Tincup.

Grandfather strode over to the children. “Are you okay? I was worried when you didn’t come back for supper.”

“Grandfather!” Benny exclaimed. “You can’t sell our town! We know the truth!”

“They don’t know anything!” Victor Lacey blurted. “Who’d listen to a bunch of kids, anyway?”

“I would.” James Alden crossed his arms over his chest.

Marianne Harrington was still crying. She sobbed on Corey’s shoulder.

Victor threw her a disgusted look. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, stop sniveling! If you hadn’t messed things up, we could have pulled it off.”

“I think you’ve bullied enough people,” said Old Gert. “Why don’t you come clean, Lacey.”

But Victor wasn’t about to confess that easily “Those kids are so smart — let
them
tell what they think I’ve done.”

“Go ahead,” James Alden encouraged his grandchildren.

Henry began, “From the beginning, things didn’t add up. First, Eagles Nest isn’t what it claims to be.”

“I do my best,” said Mrs. Harrington.

“You try to drive people away,” Henry told her. “You deliberately made the food awful and pulled the fuse that works the electricity. You unplugged the phone wires, too.”

“That’s not true!” Mrs. Harrington argued.

“It is true,” Grandfather said, backing up Henry. “I’ve never stayed in a place with such lousy service. Even Mr. Williams left.”

“That’s because he was a real fisherman,” Benny said, taking up the story. “Henry and I saw pictures in a magazine showing the way fishermen dress. Mr. Lacey’s stuff is too new. Like he’s never used it.”

“Not only that, but the trout are trapped upstream with a net that goes all the way across Tincup Creek,” Henry added. “We found the underwater net. No wonder it’s so hard to catch any fish.”

“So what does that prove?” Victor challenged.

Now Violet spoke up. “Nothing, by itself. But there are more pieces to the puzzle.”

“Why would I drive off customers?” asked Adele Harrington. “Eagles Nest is how I earn my living.”

“The motel isn’t what it used to be,” said Jessie. “But if you had a bigger place, like a fancy hotel, and a lot of land, more people would come up here.”

Victor snorted. “People would need more than a bigger hotel to come here.”

“What about warm springs?” Henry said. Victor paled visibly. “We found the springs this morning, the bubbling water in the cave and the creeks around it.”

Now Old Gert turned to him in surprise. “The healing springs! I remember stories about the Ute Indians who came here to soak in the baths. But we thought it was only a legend. Not even the miners ever stumbled on the springs.”

Grandfather smiled. “If there is a secret, leave it to my grandchildren to find it! I think I know where this is leading. The springs are on my land. And you want my property desperately. Why, Lacey?”

Now Victor sighed in resignation. “I’m into land development. But my last deal was a huge flop. I needed a better project, one that would make tons of money for me and my investors.”

“And pay off your debts,” Mrs. Harrington said acidly. “He made me all kinds of promises. I would be the manager of his fancy hotel. I’d have a whole staff to order around instead of cooking and cleaning rooms myself.”

Victor ignored her bitter comments. “This was the perfect place to build a resort. Unspoiled, untouched. Course, we’d have to put in a real road and tear down this eyesore of a town — ”

“Our town!” Benny exclaimed in protest.

“The springs would draw people here,” Victor went on. “Many people who have pain believe in the healing powers of warm mineral baths. I’d planned to open the cave and put a fancy spa over the springs. Hot tubs, attendants to give massages. The guests would be totally pampered.”

“What about the wildlife?” Gert asked. “Where were they supposed to go? And me?”

Victor waved his hand dismissively. “There are other mountains.”

Grandfather turned to Adele Harrington. “How did you join Lacey’s scheme?”

“He stayed at Eagles Nest.” Mrs. Harrington shrugged. “I saw his blueprints one evening and we got to talking. I fell for his dream, hook, line, and sinker.”

“You were going to sell him Eagles Nest, weren’t you?” Henry guessed. “And you both knew that Grandfather owned the land where Tincup and the springs are.”