The Adventures of Gravedigger (9 page)

March 23, 1937

It looked like something torn straight from a
nightmare – an old house that loomed against the moonlit sky. It was a massive
pile of ancient stone, fine woodwork and dark shadows. The impression that it
gave was that it was almost a living thing, this isolated mansion known locally
as Hendry Hall - a living thing that was just waiting to sink its fangs into
the bodies of all those unlucky enough to cross its doorway.

The clouds that drifted past the bloated moon
looked to be full with rain, which was nothing unusual for Sovereign City. The
overcast sky combined with the thin layer of fog and the faint, flickering glow
that emanated from the ground-floor windows to enhance the almost supernatural
feel of the home.

Li Yuchun stared out at the place and felt a
thrill go through her. This place was absolutely terrifying!

She’d expected something unusual from the place,
given its reputation, but the truth of it far exceeded the rumors. The contrast
of the turrets against the moonlight captivated her and brought an instant
smile to her lovely face. She was riveted as a particularly large cloud drifted
across the face of the moon, leaving the outline of the Manor in silhouette.

“Two bucks, lady. I tell ya what – if you change
your mind right now and want to go back to the city, I’ll take ya back for
free.”

Li turned back to the brutish face of her cabdriver.
“Oh, no! I’m going to be staying here. Can you drive me through the gate and up
to the door?”

“Sorry,” the cabbie answered. “You can’t pay me
enough to pass through those gates. This whole place is bad luck and everybody
knows it! The only folks who are welcome here are members of the Hendry
family.” He twisted around and studied her features. “No offense, lady, but you
don’t look like you’re a Hendry.”

“Distant relation,” she said with a cheeky smile.

With a grunt, the cabbie stepped out of the car
and began unpacking the two small bags that Li had brought with her.

After paying the driver, Li watched the car
quickly pull away. She turned towards the gates, studying the house behind. She
wore a long tan-colored dress, heels, and a large hat that she positioned at an
angle atop her head.

Her heels sank a bit in the moist earth as she
moved towards the house. The wind was stirring the wrought iron gates, causing
them to creak with an almost human moan. While many women would have trembled
at the sound, Li merely smiled and pressed on.

She thought back to what the cabbie had said –
that the bad luck that surrounded Hendry Hall didn’t affect members of the
family. Given the circumstances that had brought her here, she wasn’t too sure
of that. Even if it had been, that familial shield wouldn’t have protected her
– given that she was here under false pretenses.

The entire affair had begun with a newspaper
account of Maxwell Hendry’s death. The elderly patriarch of the family had
passed away in his sleep, leaving behind a small fortune… along with rumors of
occult dealings and a very peculiar will.

According to Hendry’s lawyer, his estate would be
divided up between all of his relatives, no matter how tenuous the connection.
Anyone wishing to claim a piece of the pie had to be present at midnight on
March 23.

Gravedigger had dispatched Li on this particular
errand, having forged papers that Li now carried with her. They showed that one
of Maxwell’s cousins had fathered a child with a Chinese woman. It wouldn’t hold
up to extended investigation but it would be good enough to get Li inside the
house.

The porte-cochere that covered the steps blocked
out the moonlight, leaving Li standing in almost total darkness when she
reached the door. Setting down her bags, she reached around blindly until her
slim fingers made contact with an iron knocker. The clanging sound echoed
loudly. When there was no answer, she repeated the knocking, finally bringing
someone to the door.

The fellow who admitted Li was the butler, dressed
in a faded jacket and stiff shirt. He wore yellow-stained white gloves and had
a long face that reminded Li of a bulldog’s.

Li stood in the foyer, waiting for the butler to
say something, but he merely stared at her in silence after shutting the door.
Refusing to speak first, Li playfully glowered at him.

The stare down ended when an old woman’s voice
issued from a nearby room. “Who was at the door, Sebastian? Another relative,
come to pick at the bones of Maxwell?”

The butler turned as if to say something to the
unseen figure but Li beat him to the punch. “I don’t care anything about the
bones but I sure would like some of the money!” she exclaimed.

The butler’s bushy eyebrows shot up and his dour
expression deepened.

A figure emerged from the room and Li realized
that she had come face-to-face with one of the strangest looking women she’d
ever seen. The woman was very tall, well over six feet, and cadaverously thin.
Her skin seemed shrunken against her bones, accentuating each one. Her silver
hair was piled high atop her head and she wore a scarlet shade of lipstick,
which only served to make the paleness of her skin more apparent. When the old
woman spoke, only her lips moved, the rest of her face apparently frozen. Li
noted that she had a pronounced Adam’s apple, as well – an unusual feature for
any woman.

“Money, you say?” the old crone asked, emitting a
laugh that sounded equal parts bark and cough. She stopped and regarded Li with
interest. “And you are--?”

“Li Yuchun. Distant relation.”

“I should say so.” The woman straightened and
offered a leathery hand. “My name is Myrtle Hendry. Maxwell was my cousin.”

“Nice to meet you. I brought papers.”

“The lawyers can sort through them later,” Myrtle
said. Her touch on Li’s hand was brief but the young girl was surprised by how
cold the old woman’s fingers were. Turning to the butler, she said, “Take these
bags up to one of the guest rooms, Sebastian, while I show Miss Yuchun to the
parlor.”

Sebastian lifted the bags easily and began
ascending the stairs, which creaked with each and every step. The interior of
the house was illuminated only a few sparse candles, which threw frightening
shadows along the walls.

Myrtle put an arm around Li’s shoulders and led
her into the living room. A large fireplace was crackling, giving much needed
warmth and brightness to the environs. There were three people in the room and
Li was glad to see them, as she loved making new acquaintances. She was even
happier to see that all three were male.

The first man was in his early fifties and well
dressed. He had a roundish face, a thin moustache, and one droopy eyelid.
Engaged in a game of solitaire, the man looked up when Li and Myrtle entered.
His scowl vanished immediately and he stood up, bowing low. He smiled a bit
lasciviously at Li, chuckling when Myrtle introduced them. Named Marlowe Wayne,
the man was related to the Hendry’s through his grandmother.

A bald man named Nicholas Koepp was the next to
say hello to Li. He looked surprisingly young to be so bereft of hair. He
greeted Li respectfully though a bit coldly – Li wasn’t sure if it originated
from her race or from the fact that every newcomer meant that the estate’s pie
was now being sliced into thinner slices.

The third and final man was by far the most
handsome. With dark hair, deep-set eyes and a square jaw, Cedric Hendry was a
businessman from Pittsburgh. He held Li’s hand and gallantly kissed it.

“Thank you, Miss Yuchun, for bringing a ray of
sunshine to this dreary old house,” he said.

Myrtle gave an unladylike snort. “Maxwell didn’t
believe in electricity and refused to have it installed. Whoever ends up with
the house will have quite a time retrofitting this place.”

Li glanced at her. “Surely Maxwell left the house
to someone in particular?”

“If he did, we don’t know it yet,” the old woman
answered. “Maxwell insisted that all his relatives be assembled in one place
and then everything would be made clear. His lawyer, Jenkins, is already in
Maxwell’s old office upstairs, getting ready for tonight’s ceremony.”

“Any reason why he wanted to do it at midnight?
I’m normally getting my beauty sleep at that hour!”

“My cousin was quite the night owl… he used to
tell me that most of his important work wasn’t even started until The Witching
Hour. I suppose in death, he thought it amusing to force us all to keep his
schedule.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Cedric said. “You
look like you could miss whole weeks of beauty sleep and still be the most
attractive woman on the East Coast.”

Li stifled the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she
lowered her head and looked embarrassed. “You’re much too sweet, Mr. Hendry.”

“Please call me Cedric.”

Li agreed to do so and then she turned to Myrtle.
“Do you think it’s possible that I could see my room? I know we have over three
hours before the reading of the will but I’d like to powder my nose and maybe
catch a quick catnap.”

“Of course, my dear.”

After a series of polite goodbyes, Li followed
Myrtle up a set of rickety stairs. The older woman held a candelabrum in her
right hand and it was the only thing that kept Li from losing her footing.

“I don’t blame you for wanting to get free of
young Cedric,” Myrtle said. “He’s a bit of a wolfhound – he was even going so
far as to flirt with me before you arrived.”

Li found that hard to believe but she chose not to
pursue it. “I’m really just tired from the ride out. The driver wouldn’t even
bring me through the gate!”

“There are many rumors about this house,” Myrtle
agreed. “It makes the locals a bit jumpy.”

“Really? I haven’t heard any stories,” Li fibbed.

“Our family has a history of occult involvement.
Have you heard of the Sons Or Daughters of Malfeasance?”

“Um, no.”

“There are those who think they were the true
founders of Sovereign City. That their worshipping of a dark…something… is the
real reason why this region is so steeped in the supernatural.”

Myrtle took her on a winding path through a number
of dark halls and Li realized that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to find her
way back downstairs. “So our relatives were part of… the Sons or Daughters?”

“That’s what some say.” Myrtle stopped next to a
large window and pointed out towards the back of the property. Li was surprised
to see a large cemetery, located behind an abandoned church. The stained glass
windows were now broken and weeds had overgrown the tombstones.

“This property has a lot of history to it. That
church there was one of the first erected in Sovereign and the cemetery has
many notables buried there. Some of the combatants in the bloodiest local
battle of the Revolutionary War are interred there.” Myrtle looked at her with
eyes that seemed to glow in the candlelight. “The Horseman is reputed to be
among those buried in unmarked graves.”

Li gasped. Like every child born in Sovereign
City, she knew the legend of the Headless Horseman and the way it had inspired
a writer named Washington Irving to appropriate the story and, with minor
tweaks, turn it into a part of American folklore.

“Don’t worry, my dear. I think you’re quite safe
inside these walls.” Myrtle chuckled. “At least you’re protected from the
threats that originate from without.”

Glancing at the older woman, Li asked, “What do
you mean?”

“I mean that all of us should be on our guard.”
Myrtle lowered her voice. “Look at logically… every member of the family who is
here at midnight shares in the estate. If something should happen to drive one
away… or if a terrible accident should end their life before that hour… then
each individual piece of the pie gets that much larger. If all of us were to be
removed from the picture, then the entire estate would belong to Maxwell’s
lawyer, Jenkins.”

Li hid her nervous excitement, instead adopting
the facial expression that would lead Myrtle to think that she was frightened
by these suggestions. “Do you really think we’re in danger?”

“Stranger things have happened. In fact, at this
time last night, there was a man named David Dinkins here. He was a relative on
Maxwell’s mother’s side… I personally showed him to his room and Sebastian said
he was definitely there at just past eleven because his room light was still
on. But this morning – no sign of him! Nothing! All of his belongings are still
in his room!”

“Did you call the police?”

“Jenkins advised us to wait until after tonight’s
ceremony.” Myrtle smiled coolly. “Otherwise, any investigation might force the
delay of the reading of the will. And no one wants that, now do we?”

Li agreed that this seemed to be the wisest course
of action. The trek to her room resumed and Myrtle had little else to say,
except to point out an interesting portrait or two along the way.

“Here’s your room, dear.” Myrtle opened the door
to a room that was rather nice, if a bit dreary in terms of interior design. A
large four-poster bed dominated the room but there was also a writing table,
two chairs, a changing screen and a small washbasin, as well as a closet. Li’s
bags were resting on the floor next to the bed. “I hope you’ll find it
pleasing.”

Not wanting to let on that her own home was less
than half this size, Li merely shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’ll do… it’s
only one night, after all.”

Myrtle made a clucking sound, as if she were
terribly embarrassed by the accommodations. “Have a nice rest, dear. If you
wish, come and join us in the parlor at your convenience. Otherwise, I’ll have
Sebastian fetch you at a quarter to twelve.”

Once she was alone, Li went quickly to the smaller
of her two bags. From an interior pocket on the bag, she produced a tiny
flashlight. Stepping over to the window, Li stared off into the thick woods
that lined the back of the property. She flashed her light several times into
the gloom, sending a message in code.