Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (17 page)

“I don’t believe he pushed her out the
window, and like I said, he’s an ass. The only way to handle him is to ignore
him. The sooner you do that, the sooner he’ll leave you alone. I’ve noticed
it’s worked for your friend Sharon. She has nothing to do with him, and he
leaves her alone.”

“When she gets her hackles up, she can be…
Sharon! Where’s Sharon? I haven’t seen her at all.” After the events of the
early morning I was ready to panic about my missing friend.

“Don’t worry, she’s okay. David called to
say they’d spent the night in town. They should be rolling in any time now. I
told him what happened, so they’re prepared for the situation around here.”

I was overwhelmed with relief. “When I
realized I hadn’t seen Sharon, I panicked. For a second I thought maybe
something had happened to her, too.”

“Something probably did, but we won’t go
into that,” he said, chuckling.

“I’ll ignore that remark. It would take me
to places I’d rather not go right now.” I was too tired to spar.

“Anyway, there are other people who may need
your help right now.”

I raised my eyebrows and looked at him
questioningly.

“I heard Marion Webster is in her room
crying. She’s pretty upset. Josh tried to talk to her but he couldn’t console
her. Since you both liked Ruth, we all thought maybe you could help her. Go
talk to her. She knows you liked Ruth, too.”

“I’ll try. Maybe we can console each
other.”

I looked around and my gaze came to rest
on the blood stains once more. “Mike, would you please ask David to clean up
this mess as soon as possible?”

“I’ll do it myself.”

“Thanks.”

Grudgingly, I pulled myself up and headed
for Marion’s room. I could hear her crying through the door and knocked softly.

“Who’s there?” she asked, sounding
pitiful.

“It’s Kelly. May I come in?”

“Yes, come in.”

I opened the door and walked in. We spent
the better part of an hour talking, paying our personal tributes to Ruth Bell.
She’d been such a pathetic and needy little creature and she’d brought out
Marion’s motherly instincts. We both calmed down and decided to go downstairs
and have breakfast together. I learned that day that even the strongest people,
like Marion, have a breaking point. I thought she’d be stronger than any of us,
but I was wrong.

With one exception, all of the boarders
were quite subdued. I heard Richard ask J.T. for a tennis rematch. He had
become quite active since moving to the country.

“Nah, I’m not in the mood,” J.T. said.
“I’m surprised you can even think about tennis after what happened this
morning.”

Richard snorted with disdain and left the
room. Not long after that I heard his car pull out of the driveway.

J.T. glanced at me and shrugged. “He’s not
really all that bad. He just doesn’t seem to have any common sense.”

My turn to shrug. “You’re right. He has no
common sense whatsoever.”

“Kelly, come here.” Mike called me into
the kitchen. “I still want to go out tonight.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, balking at the
idea.

“It’ll do you good. After all this, you
need to get out of here for a while.”

“Well...”

“Okay. It’s still a date,” he said, refusing
to take
no
for an answer.

“You’re probably right. I could use some
time away from here. If you’ll excuse me now, I’m going to see if I can get
some sleep. I won’t be very good company tonight if I don’t get at least a
little rest.”

“Good idea.”

I wondered how some people could bounce
back so fast. Well, I wasn’t being fair. Mike didn’t know Ruth to speak of, and
men seemed to react differently than women in most cases anyway.

I had a brief flash of the bloody patio and
knew I needed to get a grip. Sleep might help, so I left the kitchen quickly
and headed for my room.

Chapter
Twenty-one

I was just opening my bedroom door when I
heard Sharon calling my name. She and David had made good time coming home from
town.

“Kelly, wait a second. I want to talk to
you.”

I waited, my hand still on the doorknob.

“You look terrible.”

“Thanks a lot. You probably wouldn’t look
so good this morning either if you’d been here last night.”

“Let’s go talk in your room.” She pushed
me through the doorway. I sat down on the edge of the bed while she settled
into my rocker.

“What happened this morning?” she asked.

“It was awful, Sharon. I saw her fall. She
kind of, hmm, bounced when she hit the patio. You can’t imagine what it was
like.”

“Oh, Kelly. I’m so sorry you had to see
that.”

I told her the rest of the story,
including the part about the hands I’d seen. She believed me when I told her I
thought Ruth had been pushed. That encouraged me and I went on to tell her
about the notes I’d received and about the secret passages Mike and I had
found. I told her about Richard, too, and said I thought we should keep an eye
on him.

“That’s it,” she said, “as soon as I get
to my own room, I’m pulling out the dresser to see if there’s a door. If there
is, I swear I’ll seal it with cement if I have to.”

“Sharon, is it just me or do you get the
impression all of this is tied together?” I asked. “I mean Ruth, the notes, the
passages, all of it.”

“No, I don’t think it’s just you. On the
surface it doesn’t sound like it’s all related, but it’s just too much of a
coincidence to have all of this going on.” She paused, and seemed to change her
mind. “No, on second thought I can’t see how any one thing could be related to
the other. What could Ruth have to do with the notes or the passages?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. That would be
quite a stretch.”

“I think you’re right about one thing
though. We should keep an eye on Richard. He’s always rubbed me the wrong way.
I’ve seen him smile and joke with people, but as soon as they turn their backs
his face changes into a mean, cold mask.”

“Well, we’re agreed on Richard English
anyway,” I said. “You should have seen his face after I told him off. If looks
could kill, they’d be burying me next to Ruth. Oh! Sorry I said that.”

“I’m just sorry we didn’t get back here
sooner.” Sharon shook her head.

“What happened?” I asked.

“The truck broke down. I think David said
it had something to do with the carburetor. We couldn’t find an open garage,
and David didn’t have any tools with him, so we spent the night in town.” She
grinned at me but wouldn’t say another word on the subject, and I didn’t push
the issue. It was none of my business.

She left to go to her own room, while I
lay down to take a nap. I was suddenly very tired, but I didn’t think I’d
really go to sleep. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. Just goes to
show how much I know.

I awoke with a start to find Lucy shaking
my shoulder, saying, “Kelly! Kelly, wake up!”

“I’m awake,” I grumbled. “Quit shaking me!
What’s wrong?”

I was sweating profusely, even though I
felt cold.

“I was walking by your room and heard you
cry out. I guess you must have had a nightmare or something. It must have been
a doozy, from the looks of you. Are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, as the memory flooded
back. “I remember now. I was dreaming about Ruth. She kept falling and falling,
but never landed. And she kept screaming. Then I felt like
I
was
falling, but that’s when you woke me up.”

“Okay, sweetie. Go take a shower and cool
off. You’ll feel better.”

“I know. Thanks, Lucy.” I actually wanted
to take a shower to warm up. I was freezing.

“Thanks for what?” Lucy asked.

“For waking me. Please don’t tell anyone
else about this.”

She nodded and left, and I felt a sudden
surge of guilt. I was so worked up about Ruth that I’d neglected my work around
the house. I was certain Lucy had done it all herself. I was growing awfully
fond of her and didn’t want to leave everything up to her. It wasn’t fair.

I took a shower, letting myself soak under
the hot spray before putting on a fresh pair of shorts and a shirt and hurrying
out to the kitchen. The clock read almost four-thirty, so I wanted to help Lucy
with dinner and go get ready for my date with Mike.

“Okay, put me to work.”

“Gladly.” She handed me a head of lettuce.
“You make the salad.”

“I’m sorry I was so useless today.”

“Well, get your fanny in gear and help me
now, and I’ll forget about today. All kidding aside though, you were the only
one who actually saw Ruth fall. I can understand why you’ve been so out of it.”

“I shouldn’t have let it get to me like it
did. I’m a stronger person than that.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with
strength. You don’t see someone die every day,” she said. “We all have our
limits, and believe me, what you witnessed would have pushed me to the edge.”

“Thanks again, Lucy.” She really didn’t
have to make things easier for me, but that seemed to be her way.

Mike walked into the kitchen. “Are we
still going out tonight? You’re not having second thoughts are you?”

“No, we’re still on. I’ll be ready on
time.”

“Good,” he said, smiling. He left the
kitchen so Lucy and I could finish what we were doing.

After we had everything going, barbecued spare
ribs in the oven, corn on the cob ready to cook, fresh fruit ready in dishes,
and a few other things to serve on the side, I retreated to my room to change
clothes.

Mike and I went out that night and had a
wonderful time, under the circumstances. I tried to forget about Ruth, at least
for the evening, but I couldn’t put her out of my mind completely. Poor little
thing.

At dinner Mike laughed when I ordered
spare ribs.

“We might as well have stayed home,” he
said.

“No, I’m just in the mood for ribs. They
smelled so good when we were cooking them, but I’m glad we’re out. We both
needed a night away from the house.”

We talked about a lot of things over
dinner. Mike asked several questions about what I was like when I was young. I
felt like he was trying to get inside my head. I began to feel uncomfortable,
which he must have sensed, because he changed the subject abruptly. I supposed
he was trying to get to know more about me. We kept the conversation light
after the Q & A session.

After dinner we took in a movie. It was a
hilarious new comedy, and it made me forget my cares.

Mike and I walked to the car. “Let’s not
end the evening yet. Let’s go dancing.”

I grinned. “I love to dance. And I’m not
ready to go back yet either.”

We drove to the other end of town where
there were a few lounges. One of them had a band. We danced until two o’clock,
decided we’d had it for the night and headed home.

“I had a wonderful time, Mike. Thank you,”
I said, as we headed out of town.

“Thank
you
. You’re good company. We’ll
have to do this again soon.”

“I’d like that.”

The events of the past twenty-four hours
caught up with me on the long drive home. I rested my head on the back of the
seat and fell asleep.

“Hey, lady,” Mike said, gently waking me.
“We’re home, wake up.”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry, Mike.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, smiling.
“I’m surprised you lasted as long as you did. Come here.”

I turned to face him and he reached over
to hug me.

“Oh, Kelly. I – ” He didn’t finish his
sentence.

“What?” I prompted. “What were you going
to say?”

“Nothing. Something. I’ll tell you another
time.”

I didn’t push him. I wanted to know, but
at the same time I didn’t. I didn’t want things to move too fast.

He kissed me, lingering a bit, and looked
into my eyes.

“We’d better go in,” he said, his voice
sounding hoarse.

He climbed out of the car and came around
to my side to open the door. Hand in hand, we walked toward the house. “Let’s
go swimming again tomorrow.”

“Okay. It’s going to start cooling off
soon so we might as well take advantage of the pool while we can.” I yawned and
felt guilty for it.

He kissed me again when we reached the
back door. Mid-kiss the porch light began flickering on and off.

“Hi, kids,” Lucy said, through the door.
“Just got up to get a glass of water and thought I’d let you know I was here,
watching you.”

“Lucy – ” Mike began.

“Now, now.” We heard her hurried footsteps
as she left the kitchen, and we both laughed.

“Crazy lady,” Mike commented.