Winds of terror (18 page)

She reached over to turn on the bedside lamp, but was greeted by continued darkness. A cold chill crept up and down her spine. The house quaked with terror as the storm raged.

Melanie knew that she needed to get to Addie, that she should have been in her room all along. Guilt mingled with apprehension as she groped her way across the room and to the door. She should never have laid down on her own bed. No matter how weary she had been.

Feeling her way along the wall of the pitch-black hallway, Melanie slowly inched her way to Addie's room. Her scream was lost in the rumble of thunder that echoed through the house as a sudden flash of lightning lit up the room ... The old woman's empty bed!

"Aunt Addie," Melanie cried, rushing into the room. "Aunt Addie! Are you in here?'*

Another bright flash—she could see now that the room was empty! Where could she have gone? Melanie needed help. She turned and stumbled down the hall towards Cale's room, calling out her aunt's name over and over. At last, she reached Cale's door. She pounded on it, calling to him. Suddenly, the door opened, and she gasped and leaped backwards.

Despite the events of the past couple of days, Melanie had never known terror such as this! A blindingly brilliant flash of lightning floodlit the room. Cale's bed was empty! His wheelchair sat next to the window ... his empty wheelchair!

Petrified Melanie lost precious moments as she stood frozen in the doorway, the empty chair and the empty bed appearing before her again and again in the almost syncopated rhythm of the lightning.

Dear God! It was all so plain now. Cale was the one; he had been all along! He could walk, and he had only

pretended to be crippled stUl so that he would not be suspected of scheming to get rid of his grandmother.

Clutching at the door, so many mysterious things seemed crystal clear. Surely, she had been suspicious of Cale when she discovered the red clay on his shoes, but she had never quite believed that he was the one who had murdered her dog or hit her on the head and locked her in the family mausoleimi. But now it all made sense. He had wanted his grandmother to blame Mark, to disinherit him, and to have him thrown oflf of the plantation. And what better scheme than to make,Addie believe that Mark was possessed by the spirit of his dead brother, Todd, whom Cale knew his grandmother had hated.

Cale had murdered Butch because he wanted to frighten her away. He had moved his grandfather's body to the locked room because sensing Melanie's curiosity about the room, he knew that sooner or later it would be discovered. He knew, too, that his grandmother would automatically blame Mark, and he knew that Mark would use the discovery of the corpse to claim that his grandmother was deranged, thereby pushing everyone's suspicion in his direction. All the while Cale, sitting back in his wheelchair, completely bewildered, would look lily-white and innocent of wrongdoing in everyone's eyesl

And now Cale's plan was on its way to complete success. He undoubtedly assumed that should his grandmother die before her new will could be executed, he would be the rightful, legal heir, and that Mark would be blamed for her murder. People would say that Mark had left the plantation to avoid suspicion and then later backtracked to commit the murder. And Cale—innocent Cale—could return to his wheelchair, once more an apparent cripple. Not only would he be free from suspicion, he would also be quite wealthyl

As Melanie groped her way down the stairs, she almost fell several times. She was on the verge of hysteria, sobbing wildly. The realization of what Cale was up to was mind-boggling, and she cringed remembering that she had briefly fallen in love with him! Now she had to get help to find Aunt Addle before Cale had time to do her harm!

She reached for the phone but was greeted only by an empty silence. The line was dead. Had Cale cut the lines? A fresh wave of terror engulfed her. He might have been

afraid that Melanie would awaken and try to summon help. If that were true, if he were that worried about her presence, perhaps he planned to return later to murder her, too!

She crept through the house, trying to conduct her search for Cale as quietly as possible. Even as she moved, she knew, somehow, that there was no one in the mansion. As she opened the back door, the raw wind whipped against her face, and she stumbled backwards momentarily. Regaining her balance, she stepped outside into the fierce and furious storm. The giant magnolia trees were doubled over against the ground. Tree limbs and branches glided through the air as though tossed by a giant, unseen hand. She would not let the storm stop her, she told herself. Aunt Addie had to be found, no matter what the cost!

Melanie screamed her aunt's name into tte tumultuous night, but her cries were bounced back at her by the reckless, howling wind. She tried to reason, to think . . • Where would Cale have taken Aunt Addie?

Then, all at once, as a flash of lightning cut across the black sky, she knew! The family crypt! It would be a terrifying place for Addie! It could cause her to have a fatal stroke!

Moving as rapidly as possible, Melanie hurried across the yard, oblivious to the dangers of the objects whipping about her. She had to find Addie . . • she had to find some way to help her.

She fell, then scrambled to her feet only to stumble and land on the ground once again. She struggled onward fighting her way through the woods, trying to discern the path before. Praying as she moved, Melanie only hoped that she would be in time, that somehow she could help her aunt before Cale succeeded in murdering her.

A sudden flash made the whiteness of the tombstones glare eerily in the storm-ravaged night. For an instant, Melanie thought she saw a man moving through the cemetery. She gasped in terror, trying to decide whether or not her mind was playing tricks on her. Then there was another flash! It was someone! And that someone was carrying something—somebody—mto the family mausoleum!

Panic-stricken, and too hysterical to formulate a plan 137

of action, Melanie plunged ahead, screaming, "No, don't do it! You can't! Put her down!"

Abruptly, she stopped. Her legs weakened as she realized it was not Cale standing before her. The man held up a lantern, Addie's form slung carelessly over his shoulder. Melanie screamed when she saw that it was Mark grinning down at her!

Before she could move, the ominous figure let Addie slide to the ground. He grabbed Melanie and hurled her roughly into the mausoleum, where she fell to the floor, gasping in fright as he picked up Addie and placed her on the cold, rough concrete.

"Well, cousin, what a bad time for you to drop in to pay your respects to the dead," he laughed. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Oh, my God . . ." The words came out in a hoarse, almost paralyzed whisper. The lantern light revealed the man's face, and Melanie realized that it wasn't Mark standing before her laughing so fiendishly—it was Toddl

"No, Dear God, no, it can't be . . ." She scrambled to get away from him, but he grabbed her ankle and held it securely, obviously enjoying her terror.

It can't be, she told herself. Perhaps the time spent in the gruesome old mansion had taken its toll on her, and she could no longer separate the real from the unreal. She tried to reason things out as she struggled. Had Todd's spirit taken over Mark so totally that he had now, in fact, actually become Todd? Or had Mark, by force of will or mental aberration, succeeded in becoming his brother on his own?

But there was still one more alternative! Had Todd actually returned from the dead to vent his wrath upon his aunt? Was such a horrifying thing possible?

The figure laughed, relishing her anguish and terror. Then he lowered his voice to a malicious, diabolical hiss.

"Haven't you figured it out yet, you little fool? You wouldn't leave, would you? And I gave you so many chances! It wasn't you that I wanted dead; but no, you wouldn't heed the warnings and leave. You had to stay and meddle, even after I killed that worthless mutt of yours. So now you're going to die . • . and that stupid sheriff won't be able to prove a thing!'*

"Mark .. . they'll say Mark did it. .." Melanie babbled. She was clutching at straws, trying anything to get

through to this crazy person, ugly and distorted, like a hideous gargoyle, in the lantern's flickering light.

He laughed, and it was a horrible, frightening sound. "You little fool! Mark is miles from here. They can't pin any of this on him. But he'll come back to claim what is rightfully mine, for mel'*

The figure was wearing an old leather jacket, and Mel-anie watched with eyes so wide she feared they would burst from their sockets, as he pulled out a knife, its sharp blade gleaming.

"First you, little cousin, and then your aunt It wasn't going to be quite this gruesome for her. I just wanted to frighten her into a fatal stroke, you see . • . but she has you to thank for dying a bloody deathl"

Screaming, Melanie kicked at him with her free foot, knocking him backwards. She scrambled to her feet, but there was nowhere for her to retreat Todd got to his feet and started to advance towards her, laughing insanely, the knife flickering with the flames of the lantern,

"Please, no . . ." she whimpered, moving deeper into the mausoleum. 'Todd, no, you're sick . . . don't do this ... please..."

Suddenly, Melanie's pleas stopped. She stared, trancelike, to the other side of the small room, beyond Todd...

Chapter 19

Melanie blinked her eyes. Why was she in bed, and why was there a woman dressed in white sitting beside her? Glancing around the room, she saw that she was in an unfamiliar room—a hospital room—and that the smiling woman was a nurse.

"Just lie still," the nurse said. "I'll get Dr. Ambrose."

Melanie felt panicky, but thmgs were flooding back to her now. It was such a relief to know that she was out of the mausoleum and still alive. She wasn't too con-ceraed at the moment with why she was in a hospital.

"Hello there," Dr. Ambrose greeted her as he bounded into the room. "Talladega isn't my territory, but they were kind enough to let me hang around until you woke up so I could tell you myself that everything is under controL"

"Aunt Addie?" she asked; it was her first concerru

"You know there's a Umit to how much even a strong-willed woman like your aimt can stand," Dr. Ambrose said, frowning. "I'm afraid she's suffered another stroke, and it's a bad one, but I have confidence and hope that she'll pull through. She's a fighter.**

Melanie blinked back tears and buried her face m the pillows. If Axmi Addie were still alive, then there was a chance. After the horror of all that had just happened, she couldn't expect much more.

Turning back to face Dr. Ambrose, she took a deep breath and said, "Okay, let me hear all of it. I want to know what happened and how I got here. Did the sheriff get Cale and Todd?"

"Cale?" the doctor asked, obviously puzzled. "Maybe I'd better let him tell you the whole story. I've got to get

back to Linville, and he's been waiting outside your door all morning."

Before she could protest, he opened the door and went striding out . . . and Cale came striding in—on legs as strong and sturdy as anyone could ask for. He walked right over to her bed, overiooking the way she shrank from him in terror, and planted a firm kiss on her Ups before settling into the chair beside her bed. His eyes twinkled and his lips grinned mischievously.

Melanie was so astounded that she could not speak, but Cale only laughed. *'You know something?" he said "You'd make a lousy detective!"

She shook herself to find her voice, then raised herself up to a sitting position. **Why weren't you arrested, Cale? You were in on it, too ..."

He threw his head back and laughed again, long and loud, and Melanie was seized by a new wave of fright

"Let me explain, honey," he said, leaning forward, his face suddenly serious. "I started to suspect something strange was going on a long time ago. I got to thinking maybe Todd really wasn't dead, because it just never seemed believable to me that someone as mean as he was would make things pleasant for everyone else by killing himself. And that tale about his raising his head up to tell Grandmother he'd be back to get her, while he was supposedly swinging from a rafter, dead—^I didn't buy that, either."

He shook his head firmly from side to side. "I got to thinking that it was all a scheme to scare Grandmother into a fatal stroke so that Mark would inherit her money, I think Mark and Todd were scared she'd eventually change her attitude towards me and name me sole heir, since I'm her only grandson. If she were dead, Mark would inherit the bulk of the money, and, of course, Todd would then take it away from him and go abroad somewhere to spend his life in splendor. And Mark would go along with the plot, just as he always went along with anything Todd told him to."

"You see," he cleared his throat and went on, as Melanie listened, fascinated, "it was Mark who helped Todd stage the faked suicide and make arrangements with that old drunken undertaker, Luke Walker. Luke signed the death certificate, since he was also county coroner. I found out later that Todd had managed to dig up some-

thing on Luke—from long ago—^that he could use to blackmail him into going along with the scheme."

Melanie could keep quiet no longer. "But how did you find out all this? And why didn't you say something sooner?"

*1 had to get all the facts straight and know exactly what they were doing," he explained. "Todd stayed out of sight. He was hiding out in Grandfather's room, you see? He didn't have to worry about being found in there, because no one was ever supposed to go in there. Then when you arrived, it complicated things. Your dog knew there was someone in that room. He smelled the food that Mark smuggled in to Todd. So Todd had to kill your dog. Then he and Mark got to worrying about how curious you were over the room, and they decided to put Bart-ley's body in there in case you did go snooping. Mark planned to claim Addie had done it, but the whole thing backfired. Dr. Ambrose shot that little prank full of holes. After that, they had no choice then but to go ahead and try to scare Addie to death."