Haunted Hamlet (Zoe Donovan Mystery) (3 page)

Accordi
ng to local legend, the previous owner of the house, Hezekiah Henderson, was a crazed lunatic in life and, by all accounts, a crazed ghost in death. Hezekiah had been an old man already when I was a child. Although he seemed to have adequate financial resources to do whatever it was he wanted, what he chose to do was to live as a recluse who rarely if ever left his creepy old house. When I was seven, one of my classmates told me that, in his youth, Hezekiah had murdered and then dismembered over a hundred people. It was rumored that he buried the body parts under the floorboards in the basement and then settled into a life of seclusion in order to maintain the spell he’d used to trap the souls of his victims in a sort of limbo for all time.

As I parked in front of the house
, I reminded myself that the story couldn’t possibly be true. If Hezekiah
had
murdered a hundred people, he surely would have been arrested, and even if he’d managed to avoid incarceration due to some powerful black magic, as many of the kids in town believed, the spell would have been broken and the souls released the moment the old man finally died. As with many local legends, no one in town will admit to actually believing the strange tale, but when Hezekiah died and a distant heir tried to sell the property, no one would buy it at any price. As a result, the house has stood empty for more than fifteen years.

“Joel,” I called as I wal
ked slowly toward the front of the barn. The barn was large and in much better repair than the house, and Joel had already started to install the mechanical props he used to scare people year after year.

“Are you in here?” I called again when no one answered.

I took a few steps inside and looked around. It was evident by the equipment lying around that he had been there recently. I decided to return to the truck and call Ellie. Maybe she’d gotten her times messed up. Joel didn’t appear to be on the property, and I didn’t see his truck, but it was odd that the door to the barn stood wide open. I knew from previous discussions with Joel that his props were worth a lot of money.

I glanced at the house as I made my way back to the truck.
The building gave me the creeps. It’s not that I believe in ghosts exactly, but even the most stalwart nonbeliever would have to admit that in the fifteen years the house has been empty, strange and inexplicable occurrences have taken place within its walls. Hezekiah died when I was nine. When I was twelve, a group of counselors from a nearby summer camp had snuck into the house to party away from the watchful eye of the camp administrator. I don’t remember everything that happened, but by the end of that terrible night, three people were dead and one was missing.

For
several years after that, no one had dared enter the creepy structure, but as time went by the rumors ceased, and homeless vagrants began to use the building to ward off cold winter nights. The legend of Hezekiah Henderson and the haunted basement faded and became dormant until I was fifteen, when three homeless men had been found dead from no apparent cause other than fear-induced heart failure.

When I was seventeen, a group of kids prowling the streets late at night
had reported hearing the sound of crying from within the house’s dark walls, and when I was twenty, something that looked a lot like blood appeared on the back exterior wall. According to the authorities, these incidents, as well as several others, had logical and scientific explanations, although no one has actually revealed what those might be. Most accept the vague answers they’ve been given, but there are others of us who wonder if, perhaps, the house really is haunted.

After returning to the truck
, I called Ellie to let her know that Joel had apparently left early.

“Hey
, Zoe. How’d the meeting go?” Ellie asked.

“It didn’t. J
oel must have left early. I looked around in the barn, but he was nowhere to be found.”

“That’s odd. I
just talked to him this morning and he said he’d be there until dark.”

“I
guess something came up, although it’s strange that he left the barn door open.”

“Hang on while I check my messages.
Maybe he called while I was talking to the food vendor.”

Ellie put me on hold. A lone rain cloud drifted across the sky
, blocking what was left of the sun. I took the phone from my ear and held it at my side, looking toward the front of the house, where a black cat was pacing back and forth in front of the door. She was far enough away that I couldn’t see her clearly so I couldn’t be certain, but it looked like she might have recently had kittens.

“Zoe
, are you there?” I heard Ellie come back on the line.

I returned the phone to my ear. “Yeah
, I’m here. Did Joel call?”

“Yeah
, he did. I’m sorry I didn’t notice he’d called before you went all the way out there. He cut his hand, so he headed home early. I called him to arrange for a reschedule, and he asked if you would mind locking the barn. He said he meant to go back and do it but got tied up. There’s a combination lock on the door. You’ll need to unlock the mechanism and then relock it after the door is closed. Joel gave me the number; I can read it to you over the phone.”

“Yeah, okay
. I can head back over to the barn and lock up, but give me a few minutes.” I began walking toward the cat.

“
Why? What’s going on?”

“
There’s a cat on the porch who looks like she’s trying to get into the house. I’m going to check her out. I can call you back if you’d like.”

“No
, that’s okay. I can wait on the line.”

I put my phone on hold and jogged over to the cat. I bent down and pet
ted the friendly cat, who immediately began purring. “Did you get locked out?” I wondered. It was obvious by her swollen nipples that she had recently had kittens. The cat meowed and rubbed against my leg. I couldn’t help but notice the look of despair on her delicate face. Poor baby must be frantic that she had become separated from her babies. She must have gone out when the door was open and then been unable to get back in.

I clicked back on the line.
“The cat looks like she’s had kittens recently,” I informed Ellie. “My guess is that the babies are inside, but Mama got locked out. I’m going to go in and see if I can find the kittens. If I bring them to the Zoo, they’ll have a much better chance of making it to adulthood than they will on their own.”

“You’re going into that spooky old house a
lone? You do remember what happened the last time?”

“Yeah
, I remember,” I answered. “Just stay on the line as backup and I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,
’cause that worked so well before.”

“The last time there was a body in the basement. What are the odds of that happening again?”

“Knowing you? Pretty good.”

“
I’ll be fine. If you hear me being ax-murdered, call Salinger,” I said.

“You
do realize you’re insane?”

“Yeah, so I’ve been told.”

I gathered my courage and opened the front door of the musty old house. There were decorations stacked in the living room, which led me to believe that Joel must have been using the house as a staging area to assemble his props before installing them in the barn. I imagine that was how the cat got out. Joel probably left the door open while going back and forth between the two structures and then closed it when he left.

The house was murky and dusty
, with cobwebs hanging from every corner. After old Hezekiah died, the house had been boarded up with all of his furniture and personal possessions inside. Over the years, many of the items had been stolen, but rotting furniture, including a sofa and several chairs, still remained. Many of the walls were covered in graffiti, and the dust on the floor was so thick that you couldn’t make out the original color of the wood.

The cat seemed to be waiting for me to follow her
, so I headed toward the hallway, where she stood. I paused as something crashed overhead.

“What’s
that noise?” Ellie whispered.

“I’m not sure.”
It sounded like someone was walking around upstairs.

“You should get out of there while you still can,” Ellie warned.

“I’m fine. It was probably just the wind blowing in through an open window. I really want to find the kittens.”

“Do you see the
mother cat?”

“
Yeah, she’s heading down the hall. I think she wants me to follow her.”

I began walking in the direction the cat seemed to be leading.
She stopped and turned around every few feet, as if to ensure that I was following. If I had to guess, she hadn’t been on her own for long and welcomed the help that she somehow knew I was willing to provide.

“Maybe you should just go back tomorrow during the day
. I really don’t like the idea of you poking around in there by yourself when it’s getting dark. Weird stuff happens in that house after dark.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her as I headed
down a narrow hallway. “I really want to get the cat and her babies to safety. She looks overwhelmed.”

“She’s a cat. I doubt cats get
‘overwhelmed.’”

“Obviously you’ve never had a cat.”

“Maybe not, but we both know that you tend to attribute human emotion to animals. I’m sure the cat is fine, but I’m not sure you will be if you wander around that rickety old place at night.”

“It’s twilight
, not night,” I pointed out.

I followed the black cat
toward the back of the house. Most of the rooms were bedrooms, covered in dust and cobwebs. Many still possessed the furniture that must have belonged to Hezekiah Henderson, while others likely had been stripped bare by vandals.

“
She’s headed to the basement,” I informed Ellie. “She just went down the stairs.”

“Zoe Donovan
, if you find another body, I am never going to speak to you again.”

“Don’t worry
; I’ll be fine.” I walked slowly down the steps to the basement and let out a short scream as I opened the door.

“What’s wrong?” Ellie demanded.

“It’s okay.” I took a deep breath as my heart rate slowed back to a normal rhythm. “It was just a rat.”

“Do you see anything?” Ellie asked.

I looked around. “Not so far. I’m going to check the back of the room.”

I tried to convince myself that there was nothing to worry about in spite of the murky shadows and scurrying sounds all around me. I’d pretty much convinced myself that the feeling of being watched was all in my imagination until
I saw a pile of old sheets shaped suspiciously like a body. I was about to tell Ellie to call 911 when the body in the sheets moved and I passed out cold on the dusty floor of Hezekiah Henderson’s house of horrors.

“So it was just a sheet full of old rags.” Levi laughed as I told him the story.

“It was humiliating a
nd not at all funny,” I said with a groan as I looked around Mulligan’s Bar and Grill to make sure no one was listening in on our conversation. Several patrons were sitting at the bar carving pumpkins for the annual contest, while “Monster Mash” played in the background. It appeared as if the occupants of the bar were busy listening to the music or involved in their own conversations, which was good, because the last thing I wanted was for anyone to find out what a fool I’d made of myself.

I
, super sleuth Zoe Donovan, had not only passed out when I saw the bundle I believed to be a body move, but Ellie had called Sheriff Salinger in a panic when I didn’t answer her repeated attempts to make sure I was okay. Salinger then sent all four members of the Aston Falls Sheriff’s Department to the house to rescue me. By the time they showed up and determined that I hadn’t fallen victim to a poltergeist on a rampage, Zak, Ellie, and Levi had shown up as well, so we decided to go out for a bite to eat as planned.

“Maybe it was a ghostly pile of rags,” Levi teased.

“Bite me.”

“Leave Zoe alone
.” Ellie kicked Levi. “The mind can play tricks on us during times of stress.”

“I’ve never been so humiliated
,” I complained.

Zak just looked at me.

“Okay, I’ve never been so humiliated
recently
.”

“Define recently
.” Levi was still laughing.

“Okay, I’ve never been more humiliated this month.”

Let’s face it, I’m known to be something of a loose cannon when it comes to getting myself into embarrassing situations. It’s not that I’m careless exactly. It’s more that I tend to power my way through life with my enthusiasm leading the way and my common sense trailing along at a distant pace. I couldn’t help but feel bad that I’d lost track of the mama cat and failed to find the kittens. It was going to get cold tonight, and I hated to think of them all alone in that creepy old house.

Zak squeezed my hand. “She’
ll be fine until tomorrow,” he offered as he apparently read my mind.