Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (24 page)

Mike took hold of my hand. “Josh and I
came up with an idea last night. I don’t know if you’re going to like it or not
though.” His words were said quickly, like he wanted to get the conversation
over with. “You’re the only witness to two murders, and you’re the only one we
know of who’s received any notes. This guy is coming after you. It’s like he’s
playing with you first. Ruth and Richard must have gotten in his way.”

Josh nodded in agreement. “So here’s what
we have in mind. We’d like you to be bait. If we work everything out so you’ll
always be protected, will you do it?”

“Do you realize what you’re asking me to
do?” Ex-cop or no ex-cop, did Josh really know what he was doing? I couldn’t
help but wonder. I didn’t know much about his past. Had he really been a
homicide detective? Could
he
be the one leaving me notes?

“We know, honey,” Mike said. “But I think
whether you help us or not, he’s going to come after you. Think about it.
‘Woman is his game’? So why not turn the advantage to our side and make things
happen on
our
terms.”

Josh leaned forward intently. “Think about
it, Kelly. Whoever’s doing this has taken months to get to this point. He’s been
patient and taken his time and watched you. Now, all of a sudden, he’s
addressed you as Amelia. That tells me the rules of the game have changed.”

I poured the water for my tea and began
squeezing the lemon I’d found, the juice dripping into my cup. I added some
honey. I was stalling for time, not wanting to answer. Another fit of coughing
seized me. “I guess I don’t feel all that well after all.” I had to admit I
felt like I was running a temperature. I kept stalling.

Josh had been here when someone threw the
pillowcase over my head. No one else had moved in yet. And, yet, I didn’t
believe he was a bad guy.

“Yes,” I said, finally. “He’ll come after
me. I can feel it in my bones. I just wish I knew why. That’s the part that’s
driving me crazy. Why does he want me? What did I
do
?”

“I don’t think you’ve done anything,” Josh
replied. “Like I said, it’s the fact that he called you Amelia that sticks in
my mind. I think this guy has turned a corner.”

“And,” I added, “he commented on my
fondness for quotations. I’ve never cared one way or the other about
quotations, but I’ll bet Amelia liked them.”

Mike nodded. “Okay. We’re going to pull
Lucy and Sharon in on this, too. That way, between the four of us, someone will
always be with you.”

“What about David?” I asked.

Josh and Mike exchanged glances and
managed to look a little sheepish.

“Let’s face facts,” Josh said. “None of us
knew David until we all moved in here. And other than Sharon, none of us knows
all that much about him. You understand, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t. He wasn’t even here when
Ruth was killed. And besides, I like him.”

“So do I,” Mike said. “I can’t argue with
the fact that he
probably
wasn’t here when Ruth was murdered, but I
don’t want to take any chances. He could have slipped away from Sharon for a
while. Like to get his truck worked on? David stays in the dark for now.”

I didn’t even have to think about it
before I said, “I didn’t know you guys until you moved in here either. What
about that? And you were both here the night Ruth was killed. Besides, David
already knows about the passages. And, Josh? You were the only tenant living
here when the pillowcase incident happened.”

“I didn’t attack you. You can take that to
the bank.”

“No, you didn’t know me and Josh, but
that’s different,” Mike said. “And I wish we
hadn’t
told David about the
passages.”

I thought for a moment before speaking.
“Okay, I’ll do it. If for no other reason, I’ll do it to prove David is
innocent. I hate this already.”

“In the meantime,” Josh said, “I’m going
to contact some friends of mine with the L.A.P.D. and have them start some
background checks on the boarders. We may be able to turn something up.”

“You come with me,” Mike said, “and we’ll
go talk to Lucy. I think Josh can be more diplomatic with Sharon than we can.”

Climbing the stairs caused another bout of
coughing.

Mike and I found Lucy in Ted’s room,
making up his bed. He’d finally condescended to having Lucy and me make up his
bed and dust his room, although I thought he might follow along behind us and
do what he thought was a better job.

“For someone who said he slept well last
night, this bed is a mess. It looked like he tossed and turned all night.” Lucy
wasn’t a big fan of Ted’s.

“Maybe he just won’t admit how upset he
is,” I suggested. “He might seem less than perfect if he admitted to having a
fault.”

“He sure didn’t seem upset this morning,”
she grumbled.

“He said he took a tranquilizer,” I
replied.

“Never mind that,” Mike said. “We’ve got
to talk to you, Lucy.”

Lucy tucked in the corner of a sheet. “Let
me finish here and I’ll meet you downstairs. This is the last room anyway.”

 “I’m sorry, I should have been up
here helping you.” I’d been derelict in my duties, again.

I walked around to the other side of the bed
and helped her, finishing in a matter of seconds. The three of us went
downstairs to my room when we were done. Mike thought we’d better talk where we
couldn’t be overheard.

Neither of us thought about the passages.

Chapter Thirty

Mike filled Lucy in on the latest, with me
adding comments in between coughs. At the end of his story, he explained the
plan to her.

It was a long moment before Lucy spoke. “I
don’t like it. It’s too dangerous. I can tell nothing I say is going to make
the slightest bit of difference though, so I’ll do what I can to help out. I
don’t want anything to happen to Kelly.”

“Thanks,” Mike said.

“What about when she’s sleeping?” Lucy
asked. “She’ll be a sitting duck, what with that secret passage and all.”

“We’ve covered that. First of all, her
dresser is in the way of the passage. And secondly, we’ll set something up in
here so we can take turns sleeping near her.”

“Uh huh. I didn’t hear anyone asking
me
about that,” I said.

Mike folded his arms across his chest. “You
have no choice.”

“No choice,” Lucy echoed.

“Oh, brother! I’m not going to have any
privacy at all from here on out. Wonderful. Just wonderful!”

“I don’t see why David isn’t in on this
though.” Lucy glanced from me to Mike.

I turned to Mike. “See? I’m not the only
one who likes David.”

“I’ve explained all of that to both of
you. Just trust Josh and me. We know what we’re doing.”

I certainly hope so
, I thought, coughing. The coughing was becoming very
annoying.

“You sound terrible. I’m going to fix you
some chicken soup, and I’ve got some cough medicine in my room. I’ll get it for
you. And Mike,” Lucy said, “you’d better drive her in to see the doctor on
Monday.”

“I will.” Turning to me, he said, “Why
don’t you lie down for a while?”

“I’m fine. I’d rather go join the others
right now.”

We left the privacy of my room and headed
for the living room, via the kitchen. Sharon was sitting at the kitchen table
waiting for me. Her face looked downright stormy.

“We’ve got to talk,” she said.

“I know. You guys get lost.” I waved my
hand at Mike and Lucy in a shooing motion.

Sharon and I waited until we were alone.

“Why don’t you trust David?” Sharon asked.
“He’s one of the good guys. You can look for a long time and you won’t find
anyone as trustworthy as David.”

“I
do
trust him,” I said, covering
my mouth while I coughed, “and I think Mike and Josh do, too, but they’re
afraid to take any chances right now. Let’s face it, Sharon, it’s my
life
we’re putting on the line here. We’ve been friends for a long time. Are you willing
to take the chance? No matter how outlandish it seems to us?” I coughed again
and rubbed my chest.

“That’s right, throw our friendship in my
face,” she said, the barest shadow of a smile on her face before she again
became serious. “Absolutely nothing can make me believe David is involved in
any of this, but I’ll go along with Mike and Josh for now. I wouldn’t want
anything to happen to you, and I want this guy to be caught. Both for your sake
and so David will be cleared. You understand, don’t you?”

“Of course, I understand. I don’t suspect
him, Sharon. I wanted to tell him what’s going on.”

“I know. Josh told me. That’s why I’m not
angry with you. I realize we really are talking about your life and the fact that
you don’t want to lose it. Lord! Did you hear me? I made it sound so trivial.
But it isn’t, and we’re doing something very serious here. I just don’t like
leaving David out of it. Even if no one really suspects him, it makes it
look
like they do. I don’t think he’s going to be very happy later on when he finds
out.”

I coughed again.

“You sound terrible,” Sharon said.

“So I’ve heard.”

We left the kitchen and wandered out to
the living room. Ted was on his way out the door, and everyone else was sitting
around trying to look unobtrusive. I tried talking about anything that came to
mind, hoping to lighten things a little, but talking made me cough. Everyone
made a point of telling me how sick I sounded. I gave up and picked up a
magazine. The small talk worked though, and soon there were conversations
around the room. I relaxed.

I was wondering if our plan was going to
work or not, when the doorbell
bonged
. I got up and answered the door,
finding a stranger standing on the porch.

He held out his hand, which happened to
contain a badge and identification card, and introduced himself.

“Detective Hardy. Homicide Division. May I
come in?” he asked.

“Of course. We’ve been expecting you.” I
smiled inwardly, thinking the Homicide Division probably consisted of one man,
namely Detective Hardy, and under normal circumstances he was probably a
traffic cop.

“Are all of the people here who were
around when the incident happened?” he asked, entering the house.

“They’re all here except Joshua Forbes,
Ted Fernley and my housekeeper, Lucy Daley.”

“Could you please ask those three to join
us?”

“I can get two of them, but Mr. Fernley
left shortly before you arrived. I don’t know if he’s on the grounds or not.”

I walked to the window and checked the parking
area. “His car is gone, so he’s not here.”

We gathered together in the living room,
and he asked most of the same questions we’d been asked early that morning. No
one could add anything to what they’d already said. He asked me to show him
where the incident had taken place, and I led him to the staircase.

“The officer mentioned the carpet looked
like it had been tampered with. I see what he was talking about,” Hardy said,
fingering the frayed carpet.

“It looks like someone took a razor to it
and then picked at the edges,” I commented.

“That’s a pretty good assumption. You
didn’t notice anything wrong with the carpet before this morning?”

“No, nothing. And I certainly would have
noticed a tear this big.” I glanced at the three inch cut and shook my head.
“Besides, it looks like it was cut with a razor and then picked apart.”

“So you said.” Hardy looked at me with
interest. “You’re pretty observant, aren’t you? I mean, he did a good job of
cutting, trying to make it look natural.”

“Now wait a minute. I’m the witness, not
the suspect. I just happened to take a close look after the officer mentioned
it. After all, this house is my livelihood, and I want to know what’s going on.
I want to
stop
what’s going on.”

“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, Miss
Sanders. I was merely commenting on your knack for noticing details.”

“Sorry,” I said, coughing. “I didn’t mean
to come across sounding so defensive. You have to understand, I tried to tell
everyone that Ruth Bell was pushed, and no one would believe me. Now that
Richard is dead, all of a sudden I seem to know what I’m talking about. This
whole thing has upset me, especially…” I broke off mid-sentence. I’d been about
to say, “…especially since I’ve been receiving those strange notes”, but I
wasn’t supposed to tell the police any of that because if they started looking
around they might scare the killer away. What a mess.

“You started to say something?” He
interrupted my thoughts.

“Nothing of any importance. On top of all
this, I’ve got some personal problems, that’s all. Nothing to do with the
murder.” Ha!
I
didn’t even believe me, so why should he?

He finished his examination and returned
to the living room to ask a few more questions.