“Now what were you asking—something about Hatti being related to Helen and Lulu?”
“Yes. I’m trying to find a connection.”
“Well, you found one. Hatti’s grandfather and Lulu and Helen’s grandmother were related. So, I guess that makes the girls cousins.”
Juniper thanked Eve and disconnected the call. She had just found Hatti’s motive and now Hatti was going to have a surprise visitor of her own.
Hatti’s house was only a couple of blocks away from the center of town, with a large country porch. Juniper climbed the steps and rang the doorbell. For a split second she wondered what she was going to say. She waited and rang a second time.
“Sweet baby Jesus, I’m coming.” Seconds later she swung the door open. “You!” Hatti was already dressed for bed, and she pulled the neck of her white frilly chenille robe closer together, then yanked on the belt to make it tighter.
“I apologize for the unannounced visit, but we need to talk,” Juniper said.
“I don’t think so. You have a lot of nerve invading my space like this.”
“Invading? Like how you invaded mine?”
“Pardon me? I have no idea what you’re going on about but I’m calling the police if you don’t get off my property now.”
Juniper crossed her arms over her chest. “Why don’t you do that? Maybe you can explain to them why you left dog poop on my bar.”
Hatti had the door half closed, but she stopped. “What?”
“You heard me.” Juniper enunciated each word slowly.
The little bit of color in her face drained away. “I did no such thing!”
“It’s too much of a coincidence that it happened right after that meeting—the one you left early because you were so upset to see me there. Just admit it, you waited until I unlocked the door and turned the alarm off, then you snuck inside when I went upstairs.”
“What do you take me for?” Hatti questioned. “I am hardly some sort of…” Her voice faltered. “Thug.”
“Then talk to me. Please.”
She took a step back like she was going to close the door, but instead she opened it all the way. “Fine. Come in.”
Juniper hesitated a moment. Hatti’s shock at what she’d told her seemed genuine, but what if it wasn’t? Juniper couldn’t very well back down now, though.
The door opened directly into Hatti’s living room. There were hardwood floors under a well-worn oriental rug. The furniture was antique, but what really surprised Juniper were the numerous photos on the walls—photos of the Gothic Haunt.
Juniper turned to Hatti. “These photos are fabulous.”
“Yes.”
She stepped aside when Juniper moved to get a closer look. There were photos of people of the past standing by the Mansion. Much older photos were displayed on the next wall. These were back when it had been owned by the Doctor’s family and they were all sepia’s and black-and-white.
Juniper turned around. “Where did you get them?”
“My father.” She motioned to the sofa and Juniper followed her lead and took a seat. “He always went on about that house. He just loved his cousin’s house.”
“So, you’re related to Helen. Why didn’t you say anything to me before when I was picking your brain over Victoria and the Doctor?”
“Because Helen and I didn’t get on very well. The fact that she was my cousin is something I don’t like to broadcast, then or now.” That sounded reasonable to Juniper. “Anyway, enough about that,” Hatti said. “That’s not why you’re here.”
Juniper gave her the full rundown, beginning with the vandalism before Feliz was murdered. “After the meeting tonight, I went back to the Gothic Haunt to pick something up I’d forgotten earlier, and when I went to leave, I saw a paper bag on top of the bar that hadn’t been there when I came in. When I opened it, there was dog poop inside.”
“Oh,” Hatti said. “How revolting.”
Juniper nodded. “There was a note in the bag that said, get out of my house or next time it will be you on the cellar floor.”
“That’s terrible! You’ve really had a bad time of it,” she said. “I had no idea all this was going on. You really thought I was behind all this?”
“I did—at least between leaving the Gothic Haunt and arriving here.”
“That house was important to my father but I would never kill for it. Besides, I thought about what you said at the meeting and it’s possible my grandfather would have liked to see that house full of life again.” Hatti gave her a slight smile. “I was just writing you a letter.” Hatti pointed to the handwritten letter on the coffee table. Hatti’s handwriting was nothing like the writing from the threatening note.
Was it possible Juniper had actually won her over?
“You said someone is getting in,” Hatti said, “even though there’s no sign of a break-in?”
Juniper nodded. “It’s baffling. I can’t figure it out, and neither can the police or the alarm company.”
Hatti smiled. “I can.” There was a twinkle in her eyes as her smile got wider.
Juniper was starting to think maybe she really was a nutcase.
Then Hatti stood and walked over to the wall where she removed one of the photos. “The police don’t know about this.” She handed the picture to Juniper and returned to her seat.
It was a grainy black-and-white shot of a cavernous brick room. Juniper didn’t understand. “What does this have to do with the Gothic Haunt?”
Hati clapped her hands together, very pleased with herself. “This, my dear, is how your murderer is going in and out.” She leaned forward. “By using the tunnels.”
Thirty Two
_____________
T HERE was no way around it. Hatti’s bubble had to be burst. The old woman had seemed so happy to have solved the case.
“I’m sorry, Hatti, but we already know about the tunnels. They lead to the neighbor’s barn which was the mansion’s old carriage house and to the cemetery on the hill behind the house. We sealed both of them up after the haunting incident in October,” Juniper said.
Hatti leaned back in her seat and gave a sly wink. “Well then, you know of just two of the many passages that run from the Inn.”
It wasn’t possible. “But how? I would certainly know if there were more tunnels under my Inn,” Juniper said. “We looked into it. We even had the plans for the house reviewed.”
“They’re not on any building plan, but they’re definitely there.”
“Then where is the entrance? The basement walls are stone.” Then Juniper remembered the old shelves on the walls. Could it be behind one of those?
“It’s there. I’m sure of it.”
“More tunnels. Under the Inn.”
Was it really possible that the tunnels were simply forgotten, except by the old-timers like Hatti’s dad, who’d taken pictures of them.
“There were half a dozen ways to enter the tunnels. And that’s only the ones I knew about. From what I remember my dad telling me, there were entrances from some of the other businesses in the area for rum running and such back in the day.”
Everything made sense now. Someone else knew about the tunnels and was using that knowledge to get in and out of the Inn without being detected, making it look like the house was plagued by a poltergeist, except for the one time the alarm had been activated.
Juniper needed to find the tunnel entrance.
Hatti agreed to meet her at the Gothic Haunt the next morning to help her look.
***
Juniper arrived at the Gothic Haunt raring to go. She’d spent a sleepless night thinking about the tunnels and trying to figure out where the entrance could be. She took in the walnut paneled walls and wine racks, slate flooring, and the recessed lights twinkling like dimmed stars. Before Jack and Juniper had refinished it, there had been old steel shelves along the walls.
When Jack arrived at seven-thirty, he found her in the cellar on her hands and knees, examining a space un
der one of the built-in shelves. “What are you doing down here?”
“Looking for a secret door.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess. You found one of those old detective novels Eve likes to read and you’ve got an idea.”
“Did someone once tell you that you were funny, or something?” Juniper said as they climbed the stairs. “Because they were lying.”
He slid onto a bar stool with a sly grin. “What are you really doing?”
Juniper took the seat beside him. “Remember that meeting I went to last night?”
He nodded.
“It didn’t go very well at first.” Juniper told him about Hatti storming out of the meeting and what happened after that. As soon as Juniper got to the part about the dog poop, he interrupted.
“I thought you were going to call me when you were going to be here late.”
Good thing she skipped telling him about the note. “I stopped on the spur of the moment and I thought I’d be in and out.”
“That’s not the point. It could have been much worse. You could have been hurt.”
“Sweetheart, you think I don’t know that? I’m not going to let someone chase me out of my own home. We’re supposed to move in today. What will I do then—avoid coming out of the attic? If I’d planned on being here more than a minute or two, I would have locked the door and set the alarm.”
“I’m not going to lecture you—not that it would do any good,” he said. “What happened after that?”
Juniper filled him in on her visit to Hatti’s house and what she told her about the tunnels. “She’s adamant about it, and she even showed me old photographs of them. Anyway, she’s coming here soon and we’re going to look for the opening.”
“So that’s why you were down on the floor. Here I thought you were trying to trick me into giving you mouth to mouth.”
“You’re on to me, Sherlock. Clearly my seductive games are no match for your deductive skills.” Juniper skipped around to the serving side of the bar.
He followed her around the bar top and cupped her face with his hands, kissing her full on the mouth, a stolen kiss, bold and lustful. His arm wrapped around her waist and he pulled her against him. Juniper came alive and claimed him with equal passion. She was pretty sure he was about to take it to the next level when they heard “Ahem.”
They jumped apart.
“Little early in the morning for hanky-panky, isn’t it?” Eve said with a big grin on her face.
“It’s not what you think,” Juniper stammered.
“I may be old, but there’s nothing wrong with my vision, you know,” Eve said.
“Maybe not,” Jack said. “But you sure know how to overstay a welcome.” He squeezed Juniper’s hand. “I’ll be outside. I have some work to get back to.”
Eve grinned again. “Looks to me you were already hard at work.”
Juniper heard Jack laughing as he went out the door.
Juniper told Eve about Hatti and the tunnels.
She nodded. “I heard rumors about them, but I figured they were just stories. It’s too bad Lulu’s on that cruise. She would surely know, wouldn’t she?”
“I don’t know about that. I don’t think so. I think she would have mentioned more tunnels to me after what happened with Helen.”
“Maybe, but Lulu did have a lot on her plate dealing with the loss of Kaitlyn. Not to mention, Peter was recovering in the hospital and Helen was headed to jail for everything she’d done to her. It might have slipped Lulu’s mind.”
“True, but she couldn’t even bare to read Victoria’s diary. Oh, that reminds me she gave that to me and I told the ghost hunter I would have a look through it to see if she left any clues.”
Thirty Three
_____________
O NCE again, Pike discovered what was going on before Juniper had a chance to tell her. This time Juniper blamed it on Eve, who’d gone to the cafe to pick up that day’s special: Santa’s Cinnamon Buns.
It was a little after nine when Pike tracked Juniper down on the third floor where she was unpacking and organizing her books on the shelves in the hopes of finding Victoria’s diary.
“Why didn’t you call me?” She stood in the open doorway to Juniper’s new living room. “I had to hear about the tunnels secondhand.”
Juniper laughed. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t make something called Santa’s buns and you wouldn’t attract such an unsavory and loud-mouthed crowd. I’d had all the crude jokes about Santa that I can take.”
“Tell me about it. Who knew? Anyway, we’ll call it even.” She sat down on her sofa. “Now spill. Eve told me a little bit—that Hatti told you about some tunnels. How did you get her to talk to you?”
“I accused her of leaving that little present, she was appalled and she invited me in.” Juniper told her the rest of the story.
“You know, entering from the inside is the only thing that makes sense. That explains why I never saw anyone,” Pike said.
“Pardon?”
“It’s so simple, and it explains why I didn’t see anything the couple of nights I watched the place.”
“You actually staked out the place?”
“Of course I did. I was safe. Penny was with me.”
Juniper laughed. “I did, too.” They talked for another minute or two, then Pike had to get back to the cafe. Before she left, Pike made Juniper promise to keep her informed. Not that she had a choice in that matter—she’d find out somehow… ahem… Eve, like she always did.
Juniper finished setting up the bed and unpackaged the new sheets she’d purchased. The bed was now ready for their first overnight stay.
She headed downstairs to wait for Hatti in the taproom. Finn was in the kitchen cooking up a storm, she smelled sausage and garlic. Eve sat at one of the tables, and had begun telling her a story when Hatti turned up at ten.
Juniper went over to greet her. “Thanks for coming.”
Hatti looked around the room. “This isn’t what I expected.”
“It’s not the heinous brothel you thought it’d be?” Eve said.
“Eve!” If Hatti weren’t standing between them, Juniper would have elbowed her.
Hatti smiled. “I deserved that.”
“You sure did,” Eve said with a grin.
Juniper waited while Hatti took everything in and then asked Eve to see if Jack could join them.
Hatti finally turned to her, and said, “This is very nice. I’m glad to see you’ve kept the overall look.”
“Would you like to see the wine cellar?”
“Very much so.”
Juniper led her down the stairs and into the wine cellar.
“Oh my.” She touched one of the stone walls. “It’s beautiful, just like the photos.”
“Good. I love historic houses and I want this to be a place where people can come and imagine what history looked like.”
Hatti reached over and touched Juniper’s arm. “I need to apologize to you. I’m afraid I misjudged you terribly. You’ve made this place a home again, just as it should be. A museum would be wrong here.”
“You haven’t given up on that entirely, I hope. All those pictures you have are amazing. I thought maybe—” Before Juniper could suggest anything, Eve swung open the door and poked her head through the doorway.
“Hey, Chatty-Hatti, are you going to show us these tunnels or not? Let’s get this show on the road.” She went back out.
“Definitely a way with words,” Hatti said. “Shall we?”
She pointed to the wall of wine. “I remember this part of the basement from Dad’s pictures, but obviously these shelves are new.” She crossed the room and confidently pointed to an area beside the wine racks. “I feel like the door would have been right here.” Hatti turned to Juniper and Eve. “But it’s blocked off now so that wouldn’t make much sense, would it?”
The wall was cold and damp under Juniper’s fingers. Jack, Eve, and Hatti soon joined her, and between the four of them, no s
pot was left untouched. There was no door, and no sign a door had ever been there.
“Hmm. Maybe it was the other wall,” Hatti said.
A stone wall with no door or opening anywhere.
“That can’t be.” She shook her head. “I’m sure it would have been here.” Hatti circled the basement, studying the walls closely. “I don’t understand it. It should be here. I’m sure of it.”
“Hatti,” Juniper said, “it was a long time ago and you’re going by old stories and pictures. It’s not your fault.” Juniper tried to let her down gently. “There may have been tunnels here at one time but maybe they were closed up. I don’t see any way into them from here.”
Hatti placed her hands on her hips. “Hmm, you could be right but nothing else makes sense. I’m going to go home and look through my dad’s papers and see if he documented anything else about the tunnels. I also have some blueprints of the downtown buildings at the historical office. I’ll dig them out as well. I should have done that in the first place. See if I can connect the dots.”
Juniper wished her luck. She wasn’t hopeful she’d find anything worthwhile.
Sweaty and grimy, she plopped down on a chair in the taproom after Hatti left. “Well, that was a bust.”
“Maybe not,” Jack said.
Juniper leaned back in her chair and sighed. If she hadn’t been preoccupied and disappointed over what she thought of as “the tunnel business,” she might have felt excited at the prospect of being alone with Jack in their new home. She’d been so sure Hatti would lead her to uncovering how the killer was getting in.
Jack reached over the table and put his hand over hers. “Stop fretting. Just because Hatti couldn’t find them doesn’t mean we won’t.”
“But where? The walls are stone.”
“Maybe it’s behind the stone.”
“If that’s the case, that’s not how the killer got in.”
“Then there has to be another way in,” Jack said. “This house was vacant for a long time, right?”
“Yep. Several years.”
“Chances are, whoever is coming in here was able to come and go as he pleased before we bought the place. He or she didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing.”
Candy Canes, Corpses and the Gothic Haunt Page 13
