Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (13 page)

“I wish you’d mentioned this sooner.”

“I didn’t think there was anything to tell
you until now.”

“Wait. Let me tell you
why
I wish
you’d told me earlier.” I took a moment to put my thoughts in order.

“What? Have you had something disappear
too?”

“Oh, I was beginning to think I’ve been
working too hard. I thought my memory was playing tricks on me. Things have
been disappearing from my room, too. I was absolutely sure I’d forgotten where
I put them. I even started writing myself notes so I won’t forget the smallest
things I have to do.”

“What’s missing from your room?” Sharon
stopped walking and faced me.

“Nylons, a hair brush, one shoe – not two,
but one – and yes, it is strange. There are a couple of other small things
missing, too.”

“I wonder if any of the boarders are
missing anything.”

 “If they are, they haven’t said
anything. Although now that I think about it, yesterday I found Lucy searching
the kitchen. She said she misplaced her favorite ball point pen and thought
maybe she left it in the kitchen. The last time she remembered seeing it, it
was in her bedroom. She never did find it.”

“I think – ” Sharon began.

“
I
think we’d better start keeping
an eye on things around here.”

“That’s what I was about to say.”

“Oh, sorry. Do you remember a few months
ago when I thought there might have been a burglar in the house? I’d say I was
right if it wasn’t for the
types
of things that are disappearing. What
kind of burglar would steal a tube of lipstick?”

“Or one shoe?”

Suddenly the night didn’t seem quite as
lovely and inviting to me. The dark seemed more ominous and the hooting of the
owl sounded like a warning. I shook my head. Talk about being melodramatic. “I
hate problems. Why can’t things just run smoothly?” I was asking an age-old
question with no answer.

“I know.” Sharon patted my back. “Maybe we
should talk to Lucy and see if anything else is missing.”

“Let’s go.”

We headed back to the house to look for
Lucy. She was in the kitchen, already preparing things for the next day.

“I think I’ll just move your bed in here,”
I said. “I
always
know I can find you in the kitchen.”

“What a sense of humor. Ha ha.” Lucy
looked tired. “We have a lot of hungry people living in this house.”

“Let’s sit down. Sharon and I want to ask
you about something.”

We sat at the table and proceeded to tell
Lucy about the discussion we’d had while walking.

“So, are you missing anything besides your
pen?” I asked.

“The pen is the only thing that’s come up
missing, but what you’re telling me really bothers me,” she said.

“Well, between the three of us, let’s
watch things more closely. Although considering what’s been taken, I’m sure
it’s probably a prank. Since the house is open during the day, it wouldn’t be
that hard for someone to sneak in. I don’t want anything to happen to disturb
the boarders though.”

We talked for a few more minutes and I
finally excused myself. I had a few things I needed to attend to. I noticed
that Sharon and Lucy seemed subdued after our conversation. The last thing I
needed was a problem, and I wanted to head one off if I could, with their help.

The thing that kept coming back to me was
that Sharon said she heard a noise and the dresser was out of place. I related
it to when I thought the dresser in Mike’s room had been moved. I didn’t know
if it meant anything or not, but it did seem like more than a coincidence.
Heaven only knows why I didn’t tell Lucy about the burglar I’d interrupted in
Ruth Bell’s room right before Ruth moved in. At least Sharon knew about the
incident.

I didn’t sleep well that night. I was
restless, tossing and turning. I dreamed that someone was in my room, searching
for something. I didn’t know what he was after, but in the dream I had the
impression there was almost a feverishness to his hunt. The dream faded, but
soon another one began. There was someone standing over my bed, watching me. I
wanted to open my eyes to see who it was, but in the dream my eyelids seemed to
weigh a ton. I couldn’t open them, no matter how hard I tried.

It wasn’t until the early morning hours that
I finally fell into a dreamless sleep. When I got up that morning I was
sluggish and felt mildly depressed. However, it was Friday, and even though I
didn’t have an office to go to anymore, Friday still felt like the magical
end-of-the-week day. I worked seven days a week now, but that didn’t change the
way I felt. I also remembered I had Saturday night with Mike to look forward
to.

I wandered out to the kitchen where I
found Lucy hard at work, as usual. I stood quietly and watched her for a
moment. She felt my gaze and turned around, studying my face.

“Are you sick?” she asked.

I must have really looked bad. “No, but I
didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Couldn’t get our conversation off your mind,
huh?” she asked, not expecting or receiving an answer. “Don’t worry, between
the three of us we’ll figure out what’s going on.”

While I was eating breakfast, I had the
vague recollection of another dream I’d had. In it the dresser kept moving back
and forth, and there was a hole in the wall. I couldn’t remember anything else
about it.

Friday was a quiet day. Most of the
boarders were at work, with the exceptions of Josh and Marion. They’d become
good friends and he gave her a ride into town to run errands.

Lucy, David and I were home alone and we
savored the time we had to ourselves. We had lunch together out on the patio.
David was more outgoing than usual, and we found ourselves laughing. Lucy had
become very fond of David once she realized he and Sharon were a match. She
made no bones about the fact that she wanted Mike and me to be another match.

After lunch David returned to his work in
the garden. I helped Lucy clean up and then went for a swim. I’d already made
up the beds and dusted the rooms, and anything beyond that was left to the
boarders to do for themselves. The one exception was Ted, who seemed to think
no one could clean his room the way he could – Mr. Fastidious.

After changing into my swimming suit, I
strolled outside and swam the length of the pool a few times. I rolled over
onto my back and floated, feeling like I didn’t have a care in the world. The
exercise pulled me together. I found myself thinking about Mike.

The sound of a window opening brought me
out of my reverie. I slowly opened my eyes and glanced at the house. The sound
must have been my imagination. The windows were all closed. My gaze moved up to
the third floor and I saw I was wrong. The curtains at one of the windows were
gently swaying in the breeze. Strange. It was one of the vacant rooms. Had I
seen a movement? Was someone in the room?

I could hear Lucy in the kitchen, and
David was still in the garden. The boarders weren’t home. Who could be
upstairs?

Chapter
Sixteen

It took all of two seconds before I decided
I’d close the window later. I was too relaxed to get out of the pool and I
didn’t care if anyone was upstairs in a vacant room or not – and I didn’t want
to think about problems.

I stayed in the pool about another half
hour, swam for another five minutes and climbed out. Laying a towel by the side
of the pool, I plopped down on it, letting the hot sun dry my skin. After
fifteen minutes or so I began to feel
too
hot, so I picked up my towel
and returned to the house.

On my way back I glanced up and saw that
the third floor window was still open. I briefly wondered who’d been up there,
but didn’t dwell on it, finally beginning to bury my head in the sand.

I was humming to myself as I walked into
the kitchen.

“My, my,” Lucy said. “You sure look better
than you did this morning.”

“I feel better. Exercise can do wonders.”

“You sound more cheerful, too.”

“Yeah.” I smiled.

“I hear you and Mike are going out
tomorrow night. Could that have anything to do with it?”

“And just where did you hear that?” I
asked.

“A little birdie told me.”

“Uh huh. Would that be the well known
Red-Throated Sharon Bird who flits in and out of here on a regular basis?”

“No, Mike told me himself.”

“Oh.” I felt guilty for accusing Sharon of
blabbing. “I guess Mike could have a little to do with my good mood. But you
can certainly butt out now. I can handle my own social life, thank you.”

“I’m sure you can.” Her smug look was back
in place.

“Lucy, why don’t
you
start thinking
about getting out and having a social life? You’re still young. You need
something to keep you busy, too. If I were a man, I think you’d be a lot of fun
to go out with.”

“I’m glad you’re not a man, and don’t
worry about my social life, young lady. I’ve got things well in hand,” she
said. “You won’t be seeing much of me on my days off next week, because I’ve
got
social
plans.”

“Oh? Anyone I know?”

“Wouldn’t tell you if you did know him. I
guess you’ll have to butt out too,” she said, turning back to her work.

“Well, you don’t have to get snippy about
it.” I was teasing, and she knew it.

She turned away from me and began humming,
like I’d been doing, trying to ignore me. I laughed as I patted her arm and
left the room, although I was curious about her date, if she really had one.
She could conceivably be trying to shut me up. She hadn’t been going anywhere
where she could meet anyone, so I wondered where this mystery man could have
come from. Oh well, it wasn’t my business.

After I changed back into my clothes, I
wandered aimlessly around the house. I wasn’t used to having so much free time
anymore. I finally trudged up the two flights of stairs to take a look at the
room where the window was open. I figured it was the second room from the
stairs. Ted Fernley occupied the first room.

As I reached the top of the stairs and
turned to go down the hall, I noticed Ted’s door was open a crack. I’d have to
check that after I looked at the vacant room because I knew he was at work and
he always locked his door. He was so particular about his habits, like locking
his door. Everything had to be perfect, and he would accept no less.

I moved on to the second room and
discovered that door was also open. Remembering when someone had thrown a
pillow case over my head, I entered the room slowly and carefully. My attention
was immediately drawn to the dresser. It was pulled slightly away from the
wall. I looked around carefully, but didn’t see anyone. Nothing else seemed to
be out of place, so I tiptoed over to the dresser. My instincts told me to be
quiet.

Something about the wall didn’t look
right. I leaned over to look behind the dresser, and I could just barely see a
seam in the wall. Upon closer examination, I discovered what could be a door.
At least it looked like the outline of a small door. I leaned on the dresser to
get a better look and knocked over a vase. Glancing around guiltily, even
though it was my house and a vacant room, I picked it up and carefully set it
back in its place. I hoped no one had heard the noise.

I heard someone coming and again my
instincts took over. Stepping away from the dresser and toward the door
quickly, I hoped it would look like I’d just entered the room.

“Oh, Miss Sanders. I thought I heard
someone in here.” Ted pushed the door open and tipped his head, looking at me
intently. “I knew this room was vacant, so I thought I should investigate the
noise in case something was wrong.”

“I knocked over a vase. Someone left the
window open earlier, so I came up to close it.” I had this overwhelming need to
explain myself. “Did you get off work early today?” I asked, wanting to change
the subject.

“Yes.”

“How nice for you. Well, I’ve got things
to do, so I’ll see you at dinner,” I said, escorting him out of the room. I
closed the door behind me.

“You forgot to close the window,” he
reminded me.

“Of course I did. Thanks!”

I reentered the room and closed the
window. After looking over my shoulder to be sure Ted had left, I pushed the
dresser back into place. I didn’t want him to come back in to snoop and find
what I’d found. I had a feeling the discovery was something that would unnerve
him. There was no perfection to a piece of furniture being out of place, not to
mention a door in the wall.

Walking back down the two flights of
stairs, I pondered the seams in the wall. If Ted hadn’t come home early, I
might have had a chance to examine them more closely, although there wasn’t
really any doubt in my mind about what they were. The seams definitely took the
shape of a door.

My brain was working double-time and I
thought back to Mike’s and Sharon’s dressers. I made up my mind that when
Sharon got home from work, I’d go to her room and we’d pull out the dresser to
see if there were any seams in her wall. Three moving dressers were too much of
a coincidence. After having made the decision to check further into the dresser
situation, my thoughts turned in other directions.