The Mandie Collection (3 page)

“We could visit all of the stores downtown and ask whether they’ve seen the lady or not,” Jonathan said.

“Yes, I had thought about that. If we can manage to get away from Grandmother, we might accomplish more without her,” Mandie said, glancing at Celia. “We know a lot of those people from other mysteries we’ve solved here in Asheville. And they might tell us more than they would my grandmother because, as you all know, my grandmother is rather bossy sometimes.” She grinned.

“So do we go with your grandmother if she asks us, or do we slip away on our own to visit the stores?” Jonathan asked.

“We’d better go with her if she asks us. We can always go back without her and ask more questions,” Mandie said.

“And if we are able to get information on our own, what are we going to do with it? Your grandmother will know we went alone,” Joe reminded her.

“That depends on whether it’s something we can check out or whether we should tell my grandmother,” Mandie decided.

“Your grandmother said Uncle Ned came ahead of us to let Ben know that we were coming. I wonder if he went home, or is he coming back here?” Celia asked. “Sometimes he can help us out on things like this.”

“I forgot to ask my grandmother, but I will in the morning,” Mandie promised. “Yes, if he’s on our side he can be a lot of help.”

“I wonder what really happened to Miss Hope,” Joe said thoughtfully. “Do y’all think she just disappeared on her own, or maybe she was kidnapped or something like that?”

“I hope she just disappeared on her own. I’d hate to think about Miss Hope being kidnapped,” Mandie said. “Besides, why would anyone kidnap her? Miss Prudence probably has some thoughts of her own about what happened, but she is not telling us the whole story.”

“But if Miss Prudence wants your grandmother’s help in finding her, wouldn’t she tell your grandmother everything that she knows about it?” Celia asked.

“Remember, Miss Prudence doesn’t want the law enforcement called in to help, so there may be some secret there she doesn’t want made public,” Jonathan said, frowning as he thought about it.

Mandie grinned and said, “Knowing my grandmother, she may just go and talk to the law enforcement anyway. She did say she was going to discuss all this with the mayor, remember.”

Suddenly Annie stuck her head in the half-open door. “Just checking to put the lights out for the night,” she said. “Everybody else done gone to bed.”

Mandie stood up and said, “Yes, I think we’d better go, too. But Annie, can you remember what Miss Hope was wearing when you saw her by the church that night?”

“I ain’t positive it was her,” Annie replied. “It was dark, but I am pretty sure it was Miss Hope. I couldn’t tell what kind of clothes she had on—too dark.”

“If it was so dark, then how can you be sure it was Miss Hope that you saw?” Jonathan asked.

“I said I’m pretty sure it was her—looked like her,” Annie explained. “Is y’all goin’ lookin’ for Miss Hope?”

“Yes, Miss Prudence wants us to help her search for Miss Hope,” Mandie explained. “Will you let us know right away if you think you see Miss Hope again?”

“I sho will, missy. Now I’se got to check all de lights,” Annie replied. Moving back into the hallway, she added, “Good night now.”

“Good night,” all the young people replied.

Suddenly Annie stuck her head back through the doorway as she added, “Dat Injun man done come back.”

“Uncle Ned has come back? Where is he?” Mandie quickly asked.

“He went straight upstairs to de room where he sleeps. See y’all tomorrow,” Annie replied and hurried down the hallway.

“Well, now we know that Uncle Ned is here,” Mandie said. She stood up and added, “I think I’ll go to bed so I can be up early tomorrow. Uncle Ned is always the first one up in the morning, and I’d like to talk to him.”

Her friends all rose to follow her.

“Yes, he always gets up early,” Celia agreed.

The young people went upstairs to bed and promised to be up early and meet at the top of the stairs.

In the room she shared with Celia, Mandie discussed the mystery of Miss Hope’s disappearance with Celia as they crawled into the huge four-poster bed, and Snowball curled up at their feet.

“I just feel like there is something Miss Prudence is not telling us, something that she doesn’t want the law enforcement people to know,” Mandie said.

“Mmm,” Celia agreed sleepily.

Mandie stayed awake a long time trying to figure out exactly what that could be. She finally went to sleep and dreamed that Miss Hope had come home.

Mandie and Celia were up waiting at the top of the stairs with Snowball. “I wonder where the boys are,” Mandie said as they sat on the settee by the steps. “Do you suppose they are already up and have gone to look for Uncle Ned?” She tapped her foot impatiently. The white cat ran down the staircase.

“No, they would probably knock on our door before doing that,” Celia replied. She smiled and added, “They probably overslept.”

At that moment, Joe and Jonathan came hurrying down the hallway toward them. Joe grinned and said, “Now I know how it feels to be second.” Glancing at Jonathan, he added, “I told Jonathan he’d better get a move on, but he wanted to stand before the mirror and brush those curls just right.”

The girls giggled and Jonathan blushed. “Well, I do like to look neat when I’m in the company of such lovely young ladies,” he said with a grin.

“Oh, Jonathan, you look fine. Now let’s go see if we can find Uncle Ned,” Mandie said, grinning, as she led the way down the stairs.

“Are we going to the kitchen?” Jonathan asked as he brought up the rear.

“No, I don’t think we’d be welcome in my grandmother’s kitchen. Early coffee would be in the breakfast room. Come on,” Mandie replied. “We’ll look in there first.”

They found hot coffee there, but no one was around.

“Uncle Ned may be out in the yard. You know how he always likes to take a little walk before breakfast,” Mandie told her friends and started toward the back door at the end of the hall.

“Yes,” they all agreed and hurried after her.

Outside, Mandie glanced around the backyard and finally spotted the old Indian walking through a flower garden at the back of the property. She hurried toward him and her friends followed.

“Good morning, Uncle Ned,” Mandie called to him.

He stopped walking and waited for them to catch up with him.

“Uncle Ned, are you going with Grandmother today to start looking for Miss Hope?” Mandie asked.

“Sit,” the old man said, pointing to a nearby bench. When everyone had been seated, he continued, “I am not sure where your grandmother will go today. I have plan already to look.”

“You do? Can we go with you, then?” Mandie asked.

“I go to school farm today,” the old man said. “Grandmother will go other places.”

“Oh,” Mandie said, turning to look at her friends. “What do y’all think we ought to do? Go with Uncle Ned or with Grandmother?”

Joe frowned as he thought about it. Jonathan grinned and said, “I will go wherever you go.”

“So will I,” Celia added.

“Suppose we just leave it up to you, Mandie, as to what we will do today? I’m ready to follow along with whatever you decide,” Joe said.

“Since it’s such a long ways to the farm, it would probably take most of the day, and since we don’t know what my grandmother will have to say about any plans she may have, I suppose we’d better wait and go with her,” Mandie said, blowing out her breath. Then, looking up at the old man who was sitting next to her, she asked, “Uncle Ned, why don’t you just go with us or with my grandmother today? That way we’d all know if anyone uncovered any information about Miss Hope.”

Uncle Ned shook his head and said, “Need to talk to Aunt Pansy today. Tomorrow I search in town for Miss Hope.”

“Then would you let us go with you tomorrow?” Mandie asked.

The old man nodded and answered, “If grandmother say.”

But then plans were changed when they met Mrs. Taft at the breakfast table.

After they were all seated, Mrs. Taft asked, “Uncle Ned, I was wondering if you would like to go with the young people and me today. Senator Morton just sent word down that he is feeling poorly and does not feel up to participating with us. He thinks he may be getting a cold.”

“I plan to go to farm but can go tomorrow,” Uncle Ned said, nodding his head.

Mandie and her friends looked at each other and smiled.

“But Uncle Ned, that’s exactly where I had planned to go today,” Mrs. Taft said. “So I appreciate your going along with us. That’s so far out in the country, and since we don’t know what has happened to Miss Hope, I thought we needed an escort.”

“We?” Mandie questioned. “Then you would like for all of us to go with you, too, Grandmother?” She smiled at her.

“Of course, Amanda,” Mrs. Taft replied, setting down her cup of coffee. “I don’t really know those people who run the farm, but you all do.”

“Yes, ma’am, Aunt Pansy out there is Uncle Cal’s mother. You know, Uncle Cal who works at the school and is married to Aunt Phoebe. Celia and I have been out there with Aunt Phoebe,” Mandie explained.

Turning to Uncle Ned, Mrs. Taft asked, “You also know those people, don’t you?”

Uncle Ned nodded and replied, “Yes, know them years and years. Good people.”

“Since we are going, perhaps we should ask Miss Prudence if there is anything we can bring back for her,” Mrs. Taft said.

“Uncle Cal does all that,” Mandie said. “He takes supplies out there and brings their produce back to the school. We could ask Uncle Cal. It might save him a trip.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea. We’ll just stop by the school on our way out of town,” Mrs. Taft said. “Now we should finish up here and get on our way.”

When they arrived at the school later, Mandie went inside with her grandmother while everyone else waited in the rig. They found Miss Prudence in her office.

“Good morning, Mrs. Taft,” the schoolmistress greeted her as she and Mandie stopped in the doorway. “And good morning, Amanda.”

“Good morning, Miss Prudence, and now that we have that all over with, I just wanted to inform you that we are on our way to the school farm. I want to speak to Aunt Pansy about Miss Hope. And we were wondering if you had anything going or coming from the school that we could help out with.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Taft, but Uncle Cal handles all that,” Miss Prudence replied. “And right now he is down the street helping to remodel that old house that’s been closed up for years. However, I don’t imagine we need anything, because he was just out there day before yesterday.”

“Are you talking about that huge old white house with the pink shutters, Miss Prudence? The one that’s supposed to be haunted?” Mandie quickly asked.

“Now, now, Amanda, there’s no such thing as a haunted house. That’s the kids around here playing jokes now and then. But, yes, that is the house. And it’s in such disrepair I can’t imagine who would want to waste time and money trying to make it decent again,” Miss Prudence replied, and turning to Mrs. Taft, she said, “You know, we’ve already been to the farm several times inquiring about my sister, but no one out there has seen her.”

“I realize you said your people have been every place imaginable, but that leaves us nothing to explore except to go behind them,” Mrs. Taft said. She smiled and added, “Besides, situations can change at a moment’s notice. The people at the farm could have heard something since Uncle Cal was there day before yesterday.” She turned to go.

Miss Prudence followed Mrs. Taft and Mandie to the front door. “Some of the road out there needs to be worked on, according to Uncle Cal. We’ve had so much rain it has made gullies everywhere, so drive carefully,” she told Mrs. Taft.

“Ben is a good driver,” Mrs. Taft replied as she and Mandie went outside to the rig. “Thank you. I will see you later.”

When Mrs. Taft and Mandie got back into the rig, Mandie quickly asked, “Grandmother, could we just drive by that old house and see what they are doing to it? Please. It’s only about three blocks down this street.”

“All right, Amanda, we’ll just pass it on our way,” Mrs. Taft agreed. She instructed Ben, “Please go by that old house down the street that is being remodeled.”

Ben glanced back at Mandie, grinned, and replied, “Yes, ma’am, Miz Taft. We will do that.”

Mandie quickly told Joe and Jonathan, “Y’all probably never heard this before since you don’t live here, but they say the house is haunted.”

The boys grinned. Celia giggled. And by that time Ben had brought them to the house and had stopped the rig in front of it.

The house was huge, even larger than the schoolhouse, with chimneys standing at each side and a veranda that turned and ran out of sight, hidden by tangles of bushes growing in the yard. Some planks were missing from the front side of the house, and the workmen seemed to be repairing that part of it.

“Oh look, they’ve cut down all those old dead pine trees that were in the front yard,” Mandie remarked.

“And they’ve cleared the driveway where all those bushes were growing,” Celia added. “I do believe I can see roses blooming back there.”

Uncle Cal was holding boards for the men to nail onto the house, but when he saw them, he gave that job to another man and came to the road.

“Good mornin’, ma’am,” he greeted Mrs. Taft. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“No, Uncle Cal. The young people wanted to see what y’all were doing to that house. We’ve just come from the school and are on our way to the farm. We had stopped to ask Miss Prudence if she wanted anything from the country, which she didn’t.”

“Who is going to move into that house, Uncle Cal?” Mandie asked excitedly.

“I don’t be knowin’ de name, but I heerd it’s newlyweds,” the old man replied, grinning at the young people. “Sho’ lots of work to be done.”

“Is there any message we can give your mother for you, Uncle Cal?” Mrs. Taft asked.

“No, ma’am, thank you, ma’am, don’t believe there is,” Uncle Cal replied and then added as he saw Uncle Ned in the rig, “Hope you are fine, Uncle Ned.”

“Fine, you too, fine,” the old Indian replied.

“Now I has to git back to work and help hold the boards whilst they nail ’em up.” He backed away from the rig. “Good day, ma’am.”

“Good day, Uncle Cal,” Mrs. Taft replied. Leaning forward, she said, “Ben, let’s get on our way now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the driver agreed.

As they traveled down the road, Mandie said, “I wonder if the people who are moving into that house know all about the ghosts that are supposed to live there.” She glanced at her grandmother and Uncle Ned sitting in front of them and hoped they didn’t hear.

“Real ghosts?” Jonathan teased.

“Real live ones?” Joe asked.

“Y’all just don’t know what all has been going on in that house since we came to school here,” Celia told them.

“Lights are seen in there at night sometimes,” Mandie said. “And weird music is heard.”

“And one time, some of the girls at our school were walking by there about suppertime, and they heard someone crying and screaming,” Celia said. “They ran the rest of the way to the schoolhouse.”

“Sounds like someone is playing pranks,” Joe said with a big grin.

“And trying to scare the girls at your school,” Jonathan added.

“Yes, I imagine there are some devilish boys around here somewhere,” Joe suggested.

“Maybe the remodeling will scare the ghosts away,” Celia suggested.

“Suppose the ghosts decide to move into your schoolhouse then?” Joe teased.

“They wouldn’t dare,” Mandie said firmly. “We’d get rid of them some way or other real fast.”

“That might be easier said than done,” Jonathan added.

“I’d like to see the inside of that house—that is, when the workmen are around,” Mandie said with a grin.

“I imagine they are there every day, working,” Joe said.

“And I imagine the inside is in great disrepair, judging from the condition of the outside,” Jonathan said. “I wonder why the house has stood empty so long.”

“The story is that an old lady lived there alone for years and years, and when she died the house was closed up because no one came to claim it,” Mandie explained.

“Poor lady, no relatives and died alone,” Celia added.

“I wonder if the new owners will keep the shutters painted pink,” Mandie said. “They didn’t look real bad.”

“Pink shutters? What a silly idea,” Jonathan said.

“It sure makes the house different from all the rest around the neighborhood,” Mandie said. Snowball had been curled at her feet all this time and now he decided to jump up into her lap.

“Oh, Snowball, why didn’t you sleep until we got to the farm?” She held on to his red leash.

The cat sat down in her lap and began washing his face. Mandie put him back down on the floor. “I don’t want you to ruin my dress before we even get to the farm,” she said. He curled up again on the floor of the rig.

Mrs. Taft heard this and she turned to glance back at Mandie. “Oh, Amanda, why did you bring that cat? I didn’t see him when we got into the rig or I would have insisted he stay home,” she said.

“I’ll watch him, Grandmother. I thought he needed some fresh air, and besides, there is a dog at the farm that he would like to chase.”

“Please be sure he doesn’t get away. We don’t have time to look for a cat today,” Mrs. Taft reminded her as she turned forward.

“Yes, ma’am, I will watch him,” Mandie promised.

“Why didn’t you leave him at your grandmother’s house, Mandie?” Joe asked.

“Because he doesn’t live there, and someone might let him out and he might wander off and get lost. That’s why,” Mandie explained with a smile.

“Oh well,” Joe replied with a big grin.

“I wonder where your grandmother plans to go after we visit the farm,” Jonathan said in a low voice.

“I have no idea,” Mandie said, watching to see if her grandmother had heard the remarks, but evidently she had not, as she continued conversing with Uncle Ned while Ben drove the rig on down the road, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Mandie knew he loved to speed but didn’t dare do that with Mrs. Taft in the rig.

Turning to Celia, Mandie said, “We need to check out the attic. Remember, they said they had seen lights in the attic. But I’d like to slip up there without everyone knowing it.”

“Yes, we need to do that,” Celia agreed.

“And I suppose you girls need us boys to go with you in case you run into a ghost or something up there,” Jonathan teased.

“Oh, you and Joe can go with us, but we’re not afraid of that attic. We’ve been up there lots of times,” Mandie replied.