Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (19 page)

The last thing he thought about once he reached Littleton was the strange exchange he shared with Norm before leaving. What in the hell did he mean by his allusions to ‘secret treasures’ and ‘you ole player’? And what about his silly smile that reeked of knowing arrogance?

“
It’ll have to wait until tomorrow, I guess,” he told himself, as he pulled into Janice’s driveway. Jillian and Christopher waited there to greet him. Each one grabbed an arm once he got out of his car and led him inside the townhouse.

Chapter Twenty

Troy Stewart came by Norm’s office just before midnight. It wasn’t the first time Norm had stayed this late during the past week, and the night watchman tapped the tip of his flashlight on his door, halfway open.

“‘
You planning to call it quits and go home sometime soon?” he asked, poking his head through the doorway.

“
Hey, there, Troy!” Norm looked up from his laptop and the contract drafts he had spread across his desk. Unlike the more austere offices on the second floor, his furnishings included a handsome cherry bookcase that covered most of the wall next to his matching executive desk. “I take it you’re about to leave for the evening?”

He leaned back in his plush, high-backed leather chair that squeaked slightly as he turned to face the doorway.

“
Evening? In about three minutes it’ll be morning!” Troy’s brilliant smile flashed and his deep brown eyes twinkled playful from within his flawless ebony skin. “Since it doesn’t look like you’re quite ready to leave yet, I’ll let you set the alarm on the side entrance downstairs like we did on Monday night. Just remember again to not step outside for a smoke until you’re actually leaving the building for good. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get back inside until Johnny gets here around five-thirty.”

“
Gotcha. Thanks man.” Norm stood up to stretch his back. “I should be out of here by one o’clock at the latest. It just depends on how long I can go without another cigarette!”

“
All right, Mr. Sowell,” said Troy. “I’ll be leaving you, then.” He headed to the elevator across the landing.

“‘
Have a good night, Troy, and I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon!” Norm called after him.

“
All right, ‘see you then, Mr. Sowell!” Troy stepped inside the elevator.

Norm moved over to his doorway, listening to the elevator’s chimes and the soft purr of its motor as it carried Troy down to the first floor. He left his door cracked open to keep his office from getting too stuffy.

For a moment he absently tapped his fingers across the silver cigarette case in his breast pocket. The temptation for further distraction before he finished tonight’s work grew strong. Only the reality of not being able to get back inside the building before Johnny Townsend or Nancy Geddings arrived in the morning deterred him.

So many times in the past he considered stealing a smoke in one of the men’s room stalls, but it made him feel too much like a juvenile miscreant to do it. He moved back to his desk and sat down. As he did, a slight jingle emerged from inside the little bag in his pants’ pocket. He pulled the bag out, recalling his experience from earlier at David’s desk. He eagerly loosened the leather strap and opened it, inhaling a deep whiff of its aroma.

“
Ah-h-h, something young and
sweet!
” he enthused. “What I wouldn’t give for the piece of ass this came from!”

He took another whiff, smiling dreamily while he let the odor fill his nostrils. Satisfied from the fix that successfully replaced the nagging urge to smoke, he began to close the bag, then peered inside it and stopped. He thought he saw a broken tooth, which he hadn’t seen earlier. Norm cleared a space on his desktop and opened the bag fully, spilling its contents in front of him.

“
Well, what have we here?”

He sifted through the items, pushing the sleigh bell aside as he picked up the letter. Once he saw a male wrote it, he tossed it aside. Next, he ran his fingers across the shiny blue ribbon, admiring its fine texture. He set the ribbon next to the letter and moved on to the torn locket attached to the gold chain. Turning it over in his hands, he determined an inscription had been engraved on its back. The inscription too faint to read, he set the locket down next to the other items and curled the chain on top of it.

That left the tooth. As he brought the tooth closer to his face, the aroma he so admired wafted toward him, coming from
inside
the chipped bicuspid.

“
Well, I’ll be goddamned!” Astonished, he noticed the encrusted blood on the tooth’s side and wondered how the thing could smell like that. He leaned back in his chair holding it between his thumb and index finger while he continued to study and sniff it. He sat like this, mesmerized, until the elevator’s motor started up again.

Norm sat up straight and gathered the items, hastily stuffing them all back inside the bag. He then closed it, pulling the leather strap tight before placing it inside the top left-side drawer of his desk, beneath his laptop. The handsome digital desk clock next to his darkened PC read 12:33 a.m.

“
Who in the hell could that be?”

He stood up and moved toward his doorway, his lips pursed and brow furrowed as he tried to figure out how more than twenty minutes slipped away so easily. He could’ve sworn only five minutes had passed. Now he’d have to stay here longer than he wanted.

The whir of the elevator’s engine began to slow and the chimes announced its passenger had reached the second floor. He pushed his door open and stepped into the hall.

“
What did you forget, Troy?” he called out into the landing’s dimness. “You might as well stick around and leave with me….”

His words trailed off when the elevator door finished opening. Nobody was there. The glow from the fluorescent light inside the empty compartment poured out into the deserted landing, until the elevator door slowly closed.

“
Troy?”

He moved out into the landing, peering toward the shadows in the far corners on either side of the majestic stained glass window. For the moment, the only illumination came from the gold-tinted security lights downstairs and the streetlights in the rear parking lot that shined through the window’s angelic imagery, creating a colorful array of hues and odd shapes upon the landing’s gray carpet.

He paused to listen…. Other than the soothing sound of water moving through the fountain on the main floor, he heard nothing. He moved over to the banister and looked out toward the security post. Closed, and the main reception area was also empty.

“
Are you down there, Troy?”

The echo from his voice reverberated against the walls of the deserted first floor.

“
I guess not,” he said, feeling a bit foolish for being as paranoid as he felt right then. He shook his head, his grin sheepish while he moved back to the lighted hallway next to his office.

No sooner than Norm reached his office he heard the landing’s nineteenth century floorboards creak. He stopped in the hall, listening for the noise to repeat itself. At first, he only heard the splashing water downstairs. Then the floorboards creaked again.

“
Who’s there?” he called out, after taking a cautious step toward the landing.

No reply, but the soft creaking continued. The slender hairs on the nape of his neck tingled once he realized the creaks resounded from the middle of the landing’s floor, where the streetlight’s glow revealed it was empty. The floor less than twenty feet away now creaked, and he heard something brush lightly across the carpet. Whatever made the noises headed toward him.

“
Who the hell’s up here??”
he demanded. The creaking and brushing sounds stopped. “Come out and show yourself!”

Again, no response. Norm remained in the hallway for nearly a minute, peering out into the landing. After hearing nothing else above the fountain’s continual flow, he walked over to the light switch. He pushed the lever up and an immense brass chandelier above the landing sprang to life, brightly illuminating the entire floor. Definitely alone up here, he saw no one on either staircase.

“
I’ve got to quit spending so many hours here at night,” he mumbled to himself, again feeling foolish for being so jumpy. He started to reach for the light switch to turn it off, but decided to leave it on for the time being.

“
I owe this to you, David,” he told himself as he stepped back inside his office. “Your good buddy’s imagination is now getting the best of him, too, no thanks to you.”

Leaving his office door wide open, he moved back to his desk and sat down, awakening his PC and sorting through the most important contract documents. Hoping to complete the most pressing work now, he intended to come back early in the morning to finish the rest. He had just picked up where he left off earlier in the revised Applewood service contract, when the chandelier above the landing turned off.

Seeing the landing plunged into instant darkness left him more unnerved. He gathered the loosely strewn pages on his desk, ready to leave. Something very weird was happening in the old Victorian mansion. Having heard tales of ghostly presences from the girls at the reception desk, he intended to ask Troy if he ever witnessed strange events like this when he saw him tomorrow afternoon.

Norm had just cleared his desktop and placed the contracts inside the top drawer when he heard a whisper from outside his doorway. He paused to listen. He couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like the owner of the hushed voice moved away, toward the landing.

He grabbed his briefcase and sport coat and headed for the door.

“
No-o-or-r-r-ma-a-a-n!”

The voice emanated from the landing and belonged to a young woman, her unmistakable Southern style soft and sultry. But the voice also seemed empty and lonely, as if far away. Unnatural. He stopped in his doorway. Before he could muster a reply the female called to him again.

“
Come to me, No-o-o-r-r-r-ma-a-a-n-n-n! I’m ready to give ya what ya desi-i-ir-r-re!”

“
Who’s out there??” he called to the landing, surprised by the weakness in his legs. Tentative, he moved over to the light switch, his unsteady hand reaching to turn the light back on.

“
Don’t turn it on, darlin’!”

The voice sounded closer now, warmer and even more seductive. His sexual curiosity now fully aroused…who was this girl? Peering into the landing’s shadowed corner nearest him, he detected the silhouette of someone standing there.

“
Step out to where I can see you!” he ordered, keeping his hand on the switch, ready to turn the light back on if she didn’t comply.

“
Whatever ya say, Nor-r-m-m-a-a-n-n!”

The girl had her back to him, and as she stepped to the side away from the shadows he saw her long blue dress that hung down below her ankles. The likely source for the brushing sounds he heard across the carpet earlier, it no longer mattered to him. His eyes moved up and down her shapely form. Her strawberry-blond hair flowed past her shoulders and shimmered under the window’s colorful glow. She continued to move over until she stood near the center of the window, and then she turned her head to where he could see the right profile of her face.

He gasped slightly. From her delicate nose, cheekbones, and lips along with long eyelashes that surely adorned a pair of gorgeous eyes, he knew the girl was stunning. Powerfully aroused, he could already tell where this encounter would likely lead. Her smile naughty, she turned her head to where she held him in the gaze of one eye. A few strands from her hair fell over her face, making her even more alluring.

“
Do ya want me?” she asked.

“
What?”
He couldn’t believe his ears. His heart began to beat harder while his mind sifted through sordid images and the possible legal implications of having sex with an underage female.

“
No one’ll ever know, ‘cept us,” she assured him. She winked and motioned for him to join her by the window.

Did she just frigging read my mind??

It didn’t matter. Driven by an unquenchable hunger for sex far more than his cunning logic, he set his briefcase down and took off his coat, dropping it on the floor. He moved up behind her. When within a few feet, she placed one hand upon the window, sliding it down the glass as she bent over, thrusting her hips high in the air. With her other hand, she pulled her dress up to her waist.

The fragrance of lilac, honeysuckle, and a distinct female scent wafted toward him. Under the streetlight’s illumination that cast colorful rays upon her naked backside he saw her sex was ready, glistening and open, and positioned as the fulfillment of his favorite fantasy. From her nymph-like feet and long slender legs to the gentle curves of her nubile butt, he knew it could be a very long time before he had an opportunity like this again. He smiled lecherously, his manhood pulsing to full strength in his pants.

“
What are ya waitin’ for?” she asked, her voice muffled by her hair covering “Don’t ya want to fuck a hillbilly like me??”

Her words took him aback, and he thought about what he told David when they drove to the post office. If not for the delectable gift less than a foot away, he might’ve come to his senses and ran downstairs to get away.

“
What’s your name, sweetheart?” He leaned down to get a better look at her nakedness. The aroma of lilac and honeysuckle grew stronger.