The Halloween Haunting

by Kathi Daley

  “I can paint over the red paint with white paint, but the exterior of the house is so dilapidated and the paint so worn, that the white paint is going to stand out as much as the red does now. I certainly don’t have time to paint the entire house to blend in the white I was going to add to cover the red. What do you want to do?” Tony asked.

  “It’s sort of creepy, but I guess it works okay given our theme. Just leave it the way it is. We don’t have time to fix it. It will be almost dark by the time everyone shows up, so it isn’t like it is going to stand out. I guess if we decide we need to cover it, we can tackle it tomorrow.”

  “Okay. That sounds like a good plan.” Tony looked toward the house. “Now that I know about the treasure, I can’t help wondering about it.”

  “You know what I’m wondering? I’m wondering if our skeleton in the secret room isn’t actually Edward Vandenberg.”

  Tony raised a brow. “You think?”

  “Grange didn’t know for certain what had become of the man,” I pointed out. “He said he couldn’t find anything to verify his death here in the States, but I wonder if he checked for a death certificate in England.”

  “I guess it might be worth looking into,” Tony agreed. “If we are unable to find proof that he actually returned to England, then the theory of the body in the secret room being Edward does make sense.”

  “Didn’t Mike describe him as a cruel and abusive father? Maybe Ethel took matters into her own hands,” I suggested.

  “It is a story that works. We’ll do some digging tomorrow. Right now, we have a fundraiser to pull off. Are we going to do the extra groups again tonight?” Tony asked.

  I shrugged. “I guess so if we have enough volunteers to lead the extra groups. It seemed to work fine last night, and it did allow us to make a lot of extra money for the animals.”

  “We should go ahead and schedule extra volunteers for next weekend and Halloween,” Tony suggested. “I guess this weekend we’ll just work with what we have and take as many ticket-buying spectators through as we can. I have a feeling that now that we’re open, people are going to start showing up in droves.”

  “If we really want to bring in the customers, we should leak the rumor about the hidden treasure.”

  “I don’t think that would bring in ticket buyers. What I think it would do is bring unwanted trespassers,” Tony pointed out.

  “I guess you have a point. Maybe we should keep the rumor about the treasure between you and me and Mike and Grange for now. And Bree, of course. I doubt the dang thing really exists, but wouldn’t it be something if it did? We could build a palace for unwanted animals if we found a treasure worth millions.”

  “If it does exist, and I sort of doubt it does, I’m afraid it would belong to the current owner of the house and not to us even if we found it,” Tony informed me.

  I supposed Tony was right. A palace for unwanted animals would be fun, but at this point, I’d settle for the house we’d originally envisioned.

  Chapter 11

  Sunday, October 20

  “Brady is calling for you on the house line,” Tony called up the stairs to me. We’d decided to come out to his place after we left the haunted house last evening, so I had to wonder why Brady was calling on Tony’s home line rather than my cell. I picked up my cell and noticed the three missed calls. Ah, I guess that was why.

  “Hey, Brady, what’s up?” I asked after answering.

  “I need your help if you are available this morning.”

  “I can be. What do you need?”

  “Susan Wallaby called to let me know that she was out walking her dog when she came across a mama cat with a brand new litter of kittens. She said she would have trapped and transported them herself, but she’d noticed a pair of coyotes lurking nearby, so she didn’t want to leave the kittens while she went home to get a cat carrier. She called me from her cell and asked if I would come out and pick them up. I would, but I have a dog in my operating room that has been hit by a car and needs stitches. I was hoping you could help Susan out.”

  “I can and will. Where are they?”

  Brady gave me Susan’s location and her cell number. I pulled on tennis shoes and headed down the stairs. “I need to go pick up a feral cat and her kittens who are being stalked by coyotes. Do you want to come?”

  “Yeah, I’ll come,” Tony answered. “Just let me grab my wallet and keys.”

  “While you’re doing that, I’ll run out to the garage and grab a trap. I think I left one here after the raccoon incident. I’ll meet you by the truck.”

  The trap I had was a large animal carrier with a door that you could set to close automatically after the animal you were trying to trap walked in. It was perfect for capturing raccoons in need of relocation or feral cats with new babies who might otherwise be uncatchable. I’d first brought the crate to Tony’s after a raccoon had gotten into his house through an open door and refused to leave. It had taken two days to catch the little trespasser, but we were eventually able to safely relocate him to the forest where he belonged.

  “Do you have everything you need?” Tony asked after arriving at the truck and unlocking the doors.

  “I do. Luckily, Susan lives on this end of town, so the location she told us to meet her is only about ten minutes from here.”

  Once we arrived at the river where Susan had been walking, she led us to a drainage pipe. The kittens were in too far to simply reach in and grab, so it looked like belly crawling through the mud was going to be in my future. I would go in first followed by Tony, whom I would pass the kittens back to one at a time, then he would hand them to Susan, who would place them in the crate which we’d prepared with a warm blanket ahead of time. Once all the kittens were removed, we’d place the trap near the entrance and wait for the mama cat whom we were sure would take off the moment we approached. It was a plan that had worked many times in the past. I just hoped it worked this time. There was always the risk that the mama cat would simply take off and abandon her babies.

  Once all five of the babies were safely in the crate, I set the trap door feature, and then Susan, Tony, and I hid behind a rock outcropping waiting for the mama cat. The babies were making a whole lot of noise, so I just hoped mama would show up before the coyotes who were still lurking nearby decided to take a chance and make a move for their breakfast even though humans were hanging around.

  “Thanks for coming,” Susan said, in a tone barely above a whisper after we settled in to wait. “I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew if I left, the coyotes would get the kittens before I could make it back with a way to transport them.”

  “I’m glad you called,” I whispered back. “And thank you for staying to watch over the little guys. I think you’re right about the coyotes.”

  “Did you see where the mama went?” Tony asked after a few minutes. Waiting for the mama to come back for the babies was always nerve-racking.

  “No, but I doubt she went far. Are the coyotes still lingering beyond the gully?”

  Tony stood up, looked around, and then crouched back down. “They moved further into the woods once we arrived, but they’re still there. I hope the mama cat doesn’t wander too far away.”

  I swallowed hard. “Yeah, me too.”

  “I wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed the haunted house last night,” Susan said while we waited for the mama cat to make her move. “I’m actually volunteering tonight, but I attended last night with my cousins who were in town. We all had a blast. Everything turned out perfectly.”

  “Everyone who has volunteered has done a wonderful job,” I answered. “I really think we are going to make more than enough to get started on the expansion.”

  “That’s fantastic. You and Brady have really done so much for the homeless animals in our area. I can’t tell you how much we all appreciate it.”

  I smiled.

  “Oh look, there’s the mother,” Susan whispered.

  We watched in silence as she approached the cra
te, looked around suspiciously, and then circled several times, calling out to her babies the entire time. She eventually entered the crate, and the door closed behind her as it was designed to do. Brady had a nursery all set up at the shelter for new mamas and their babies, so we planned to take them there. Once the babies were weaned, we’d spay and neuter them, then find homes for the kittens and the mama. If she was too wild to be happy in a domesticated situation, we’d make a home for her at the shelter.

  “I’ve been in that house once before,” Susan said as we walked back toward the road where Tony had parked.

  “The haunted house?” I asked.

  She nodded. “When I was a kid. My friend, Trent, knew of a way to get in. By that point, the people who lived there had moved, and no one had lived there for a few years, so Trent convinced me and a couple of his other friends to break in so we could help him look for the treasure.”

  “Treasure?” So there were others who knew the rumor.

  Susan nodded. “Trent said that the first guy who lived in the house brought gold and jewels and stuff with him when he moved here. Trent said the treasure was hidden somewhere in the house, but no one knew about it, so no one had gone looking for it.”

  “How did Trent know about it?” I asked.

  “I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think one of his friends heard about the treasure from an uncle or something. Anyway, I guess there is this big gas heater in the basement. A really old one. And since gas can be toxic, the heater is vented. Trent knew about the vent, which had a screen over it that was secured with a lock, and was a large enough opening to crawl through. Trent brought bolt cutters, and after he cut the lock, we opened the screen and crawled through. Once we were inside, we looked around, but we didn’t find the treasure. Trent thought it was hidden inside one of the walls, but none of us wanted to get in trouble, so when he suggested coming back with a sledgehammer to open up the walls, the rest of us declined.”

  “Did Trent ever go back?” I asked as we arrived at the truck and Tony opened the back door to strap the carrier in.

  “I don’t know. If he did, he didn’t find the treasure, that’s for sure. Trent is as broke as he ever was.”

  “He still lives in town?”

  Susan nodded. “He’s a lifer, like me. You might have met him. He works as an electrician. I remember seeing him at the house early on, right after you started fixing it up. I was coming, and he was going.”

  “Tall guy? Thin? Dark hair and bushy eyebrows?” I asked.

  Susan nodded. “That would be Trent.”

  I did remember him. He came out twice to look at the electrical. The second time he was out, I asked Joe to show him where the outlet that needed repair was located. The men seemed to know each other. If they both knew about the supposed treasure, could they have stopped to talk about it? I had to wonder if that discussion had led to whatever happened later that led to Joe’s death.

  Chapter 12

  Tony and I met Mike and Bree at a resort out on White Eagle Lake which was known for its Sunday brunch. Most weeks, we all went to Mom’s for a meal after church, but this Sunday with the fundraiser and all the extra work we had to do, supper at Mom’s had been canceled. Mom was a stickler for attending services, but Mike, Bree, Tony, and I decided to have brunch instead.

  “I’m glad you were able to save the baby kittens,” Bree said. “Are they going to be okay?”

  “Brady said that the mom and babies all seem to be perfectly healthy,” I answered. “It’s a good thing Susan found them when she did. Those coyotes looked pretty determined to start the day off with a brunch of their own.”

  Bree made a face. “I know that coyotes have to eat, but I’d just as soon not think about it.”

  I couldn’t agree more. I turned to Mike. “So did you have a chance to speak to Joe’s neighbor, Jack?”

  “I did. He admitted that he and Joe had discussed the house and the treasure in the past, but he was out of town on the night that Joe died, so he couldn’t have been the one to kill him. Too bad. He made a good suspect.”

  “I might have another one,” I responded and proceeded to tell Mike what Susan had told me about Trent. The fact that he knew about the alleged treasure, how to get into the house, and seemed to know Joe, made him a real candidate in my book.

  Mike frowned. “I know Trent. I really don’t see him being a killer.”

  I lifted a shoulder. “And maybe he isn’t. Still, it might not hurt to speak to him. If he didn’t kill Joe, maybe Joe mentioned something to him that will help us figure out who might have met Joe at the house the night he died.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Mike answered. “I really don’t think Trent did it, but you are correct in that he might know something.” Mike took a bite of his egg, chewing slowly before he swallowed. “Do you remember if Trent volunteered on the day Joe died?”

  “Yes, that was the day I asked Joe to show Trent where the outlet in need of repair was. I’m pretty sure that day, the day Joe died, was the only day Joe was at the house.”

  “So it does stand to reason that they could have prearranged to meet back at the house after everyone left,” Tony said. “If they both knew about the treasure and if they both were interested in it, they might have discussed it at some point.” Mike turned his attention to his plate. “Has anyone tried the salmon?”

  The conversation took a meandering path at this point and eventually settled on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

  “Mike and I would really like to host Thanksgiving at our place this year, but when I mentioned it to your mother, she sort of frowned, and said she’d need to think about it,” Bree said to me. “I realize that your mom usually cooks the Thanksgiving dinner, but this is our first year as a married couple, and we really want to host. Don’t we, dear?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure,” Mike replied.

  “I know it is important to Mom to host the holidays,” I said to Bree. “And up to this point, she hasn’t had to compete with anyone for the right to do so, but I understand where you are coming from as well. I’m sure there will be a period of adjustment now that there are two Thomas women who like to cook, so maybe you can sit down with Mom and talk about it. Maybe you can cook the meal together, or maybe one of you can host Thanksgiving, and the other one can do Christmas. You did work together well last Thanksgiving when we were at the lake.”

  “Maybe we should just go to the lake again,” Mike suggested. “That way, the question of which house to host the meal in won’t come into play and a few days of fishing sounds just about perfect to me. With Gage on board, I should be able to work it out to have some time off.”

  “I guess that could be an option you might want to bring up with Mom.” I looked at Tony. “Do you care one way or another if we go to the lake or are here in White Eagle over the holiday?”

  “Either is fine with me.”

  I smiled at my man. He was always so easy to get along with. Mike and Bree could both be bullheaded at times, but Tony was about as easy going as a man could be.

  “Mom and Aunt Ruthie closed the restaurant over Thanksgiving last year,” I reminded everyone. “If we went to the lake again, Aunt Ruthie would need to be part of the discussion. Maybe we should all discuss it as a family rather than putting it on Bree to work it out with Mom.” I looked at Bree. “If Mom is okay with a lake trip, would you be okay with not hosting at your house?”

  She looked at Mike. I could see that she was conflicted. She blew out a breath. “I guess that would be okay. It was fun being at the lake last year. Maybe this year we won’t have to spend all our time trying to solve a murder.”

  “I’m sure the odds are in our favor that we won’t,” Mike said.

  “I’m wondering if we should plan a trip to a different lake given Dad’s connection to the lake we visited last year,” I suggested. “I know it was Mom’s idea to visit the lake in the first place, but she might not want to be weighed down with a reminder of what she’s lost again thi
s year.”

  “Grizzly Lake has that new resort,” Bree said. “They have a lodge, but they also have cabins. It would be nice if each couple had their own cabin instead of sharing like we did last year.”

  “Of course, then Mom would be alone,” I pointed out.

  “Maybe Aunt Ruthie would want to come along,” Mike suggested.

  I sort of doubted it, but maybe.

  “I’ll approach Mom with the idea this week and see how she responds,” I offered, realizing after thinking about it that my approaching Mom alone would most likely be the path of least resistance. “We can discuss it in more depth after I see how that goes.”

  Everyone agreed to the plan, and the discussion looped back around to the bodies we’d found at the haunted house.

  “I’ve been thinking about the concept that the skeleton in the closet is actually the long-deceased Edward Vandenberg,” Mike said. “I’m struggling with a way to prove or disprove it.” He looked at Tony. “Any ideas?”

  “Maybe a forensic anthropologist? I know a guy who should be able to tell you if the skeleton you have could have been Edward Vandenberg. I’ll call him and see if he has time to take a look.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that. I guess at this point, I’m going to focus my attention on figuring out who killed Joe Brown. At least his death is recent enough to make finding the killer doable.”

  “Did you ever figure out how he got in?” Bree asked.

  “Not really,” Mike replied. “We suspect he left a window unlatched when he was at the house volunteering that day. Once inside, we are assuming he found the secret staircase and then used it to access the clock tower. We don’t know why he wanted to access the clock tower or who he was with, but perhaps he believed the treasure he was looking for was hidden up there.”

  “Do you think there really is a treasure?”

  “Probably not,” Mike answered Bree’s question. “If Edward Vandenberg did go back to England, chances are he took whatever wealth he’d brought to the States with him, and if it does turn out that he ended up encased in the secret room Tony found, then chances are his daughter used the money to live off of. I haven’t found any sort of documentation to show that she had a means of gainful employment once her father left and the mill was shut down.”