The Dark Stage: Wylie Westerhouse Book 2

by Nathan Roden

  “Dead men tell no tales,” Dougie Day said.

  Bruiser thumped him on the back of the head.

  “Yeah,” Bruiser said. “We could just take ‘em out with cue sticks, right Dougie?”

  Dougie looked sick. Dougie exited his life after a group of poor losers beat him to death with cue sticks.

  “Hey, Quentin,” Brian said. “My brother-in-law flies a bird—he’s working in the Mediterranean transporting people to and from the off-shore oil rigs.”

  “That would be great, Brian!” Q said. “Can we trust him to keep quiet?”

  “If he wants to stay a member of the family, he will,” Brian grinned. “I’m the one that introduced him to my baby sister.”

  With a little prompting and little to do for the next thirty hours, Holly finally went to her room, where she slept for sixteen hours. The rest of us tried to sleep, not knowing when we would have the opportunity again. I slept a little and then joined the group in the main room of the suite while Duncan read from the Lord of the Rings. Everyone shuffled off to their rooms late, and we met again the next morning.

  Bruiser and the other ghosts traveled to Castle Wellmore before dawn. They were back quickly.

  “The place is deserted,” Bruiser said. “No sign of man or beast.”

  “The castle is locked up,” Delbert said. “There’s a sign out front that says ‘The Castle Wellmore will be closed for one week while the staff takes a much-needed holiday. Please visit us again starting November 27’.”

  Arabella was fuming mad.

  “I hope you’re all good and happy,” she said. “The boys got to do all the fun stuff, and now Arabella gets to run back and forth to empty castles and read signs. I should just run off and play with my dolls, or maybe cook something for the men-folk!”

  Bruiser, Dougie, and Delbert tried to find somewhere to look, other than at Arabella.

  “If you have dolls, I’ll play with you, Arabella,” Charlotte said, her hands clasped behind her back.

  Nora stood behind Charlotte. Nora bit her lip and pinched Charlotte on the arm. Charlotte jumped but didn’t make a sound.

  “Hmmpppff!” Arabella said and she stormed away.

  “I’ll play with you, Arabella!” Nora whispered in a mocking voice.

  “Like I would play dolls with her,” Charlotte giggled. “I bet she sucks at dolls. OW!!”

  Elizabeth grabbed Charlotte by her ear.

  Holly’s sleep marathon left her embarrassed, but it had done her a world of good. She looked fantastic. The dark circles under her eyes were almost invisible, and her skin glowed. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the room.

  The phone rang, and everyone jumped.

  “Thank you,” Q said. He hung up the phone.

  “I have a post,” he said, “At the front desk. I’ll be right back.”

  Q returned with an envelope identical to the one that I spotted less than two days ago. He walked straight to the desk and to his computer. He opened the envelope.

  “What does it say?” Ian and Myron said together.

  Q looked at the page of paper inside and then turned it over to look at the other side.

  “Longitude and latitude,” he said. “Nothing else.”

  Quentin entered the coordinates into a computer program, leaned back and exhaled. Everyone crowded around behind him.

  “It’s a Greek Island,” Quentin announced. My arm was around Holly’s shoulder. She reached up and took my hand with her own clammy and trembling one. We both squeezed.

  “What’s the name of it?” Ian asked. He was jockeying with Brian and Myron for a view of the screen.

  “Oh, man. I forgot about the projector. Just a sec,“ Quentin said. He sent the image to the projector screen so that everyone could see the aerial image from his computer.

  “God, there’s a million of ‘em,” Brian said. “And they’re so tiny. What’s it called, Quentin?”

  “I’m still looking,” Q said. “I’ve checked two databases so far that don’t list anything at those coordinates. Oh, wait. Here we go.

  “Kalos.”

  Brian, Ian, and Myron looked at each other and shrugged.

  “Don’t look at me,” Ian said. “He could have said The Queen’s Knickers, and I wouldn’t have known the difference. I never paid attention in Geography class.”

  “That island is uninhabited, I’ll bet,” Brian said. “How else could Wellmore pull this off?”

  “So, if we do what Wellmore says—if we play along,” Q said. “We say that the McFaddens rented a boat—”

  Ian was shaking his head.

  “They had a boat,” he said.

  “Of course, they had a boat!” Brian said. “But maybe they wanted to try out a bigger boat.”

  “Yeah, yeah!” Q said. “That would work. Maybe at the last minute, they discovered a good deal—that they would be able to rent a bigger boat—”

  “Are we actually entertaining the thought of letting this lunatic walk away from this?” Ian asked.

  “Maybe they decided to make a longer trip,” Holly said. “Or maybe they were concerned about their boat being dangerous in bad weather. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have told Seth and me about making different plans, though.”

  “If everyone tells the same story, it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Myron said.

  “That’s right,” Brian said. “Why would we make this stuff up? That wouldn’t make sense to anyone.”

  “Not to anyone who doesn’t see ghosts,” Charlotte said.

  Dallas put his arm around Charlotte and patted her shoulder. Elizabeth glared at him, and he took his arm away.

  Charlotte looked up at her mother. Elizabeth raised one eyebrow.

  “That was not nice, what you said about Arabella, young lady,” Elizabeth said.

  “I’m sorry,” Charlotte said.

  “How would you like it if someone said that to you?” Elizabeth said. “What if I said that you suck at dolls?”

  “Ha!” Charlotte said. “I do not suck at dolls.”

  Elizabeth crossed her arms.

  “Sure,” she said, “Sure you don’t. Or maybe everyone is too nice to tell you the truth.”

  Charlotte turned to Nora.

  “Nora—!”

  Nora shook her head.

  Brian McAllen walked toward the opposite side of the room and made a phone call. He spoke loudly and kept a finger in his free ear. He came back when his call was over.

  “Sorry ‘bout that,” Brian said. “The bloke is deaf as a post after years of flying those things. He can be ready tomorrow afternoon at the soonest, Quentin.”

  “That will be great, Brian,” Q said. “He’s not going to get in any trouble is he?”

  “Nah,” Brian said. “He did say that I was gonna owe him a big favor—and he wouldn’t say what it was.”

  “I’m right there with you,“ Q said. “If it has a price tag, I’m your guy.”

  “Well, that gives me the better part of a day to explain to him how we found out where these folks have been for the past six months, “ Brian said. “No matter what, Quentin, this is going to be big news, ya know.”

  “Yeah,” Q said. “But let’s take it one step at a time. The next couple of days are going to be a little crazy.”

  “Aye,” Brian said. “You’ve said a mouthful, there.”

  Forty-Three

  Wylie Westerhouse

  The Greek Islands

  Quentin booked our flights to Athens, where we would meet up with Brian’s brother-in-law and his helicopter.

  Dougie Day said that the McFaddens appeared to be in good health, but everyone thought that it would be a good idea to have a doctor check them out.

  The helicopter’s passengers were Brian, his brother-in-law the pilot, Quentin, Holly, and me. I volunteered to be the odd man out if weight was going to be an issue, but Holly insisted that I be there. I felt warm and fuzzy about that but I would also be lying if I said that I wasn’t a nervous
wreck.

  Were we only hours away from the miraculous return of Oliver and Gwendoline McFadden? Of their resurrections from presumed death? Or was this some kind of trick?

  Holly wanted Bruiser with us. The talk of the great, red beast seemed to make her uneasy. For Bruiser to come, of course, meant that Dougie, Delbert, and Arabella would be in the chopper as well. They were now an inseparable and self-appointed detective squad. And like any good detective squad, they had enough personality-clashing baggage to create a prime-time drama series.

  I had only been up in a helicopter once in my life. There is a guy just outside of Branson who owns a helicopter and sells short rides on the weekends. I had no intention of actually spending money on such an experience, but Nate and Tooie dragged me along. Nate was so excited that you would have thought we were taking a ride on the space shuttle. Unfortunately for me, the only part of me that thought we were on the space shuttle was my stomach.

  I knew nothing about our impending helicopter ride when we had lunch. I might not have ordered the enchilada combo plate if I had.

  I helped Holly up and through the door of the helicopter. This particular model was much larger than the one I had ridden in back home. The ghosts waited until the doors were closed before they floated through the back. They stayed well away from the pilot. Holly and I sat as far away from him as possible, too. It would be bad news for our pilot to have ghosts pop up before his eyes while we were in the air.

  One hour and ten minutes later, the pilot pointed down at a speck of land. That speck was in the midst of a bunch of other specks. We descended and circled and found the one area of beach that gave us room to land. I saw depressions in the sand where another helicopter had recently landed and lifted off. I hopped down and took Holly’s trembling hands. I helped her down and we ran clear of the spinning blades.

  I have sung on a stage in a full auditorium, in front of a panel of ruthless judges, and a TV audience of over one million. I have seen my dead brother read a book to a five-hundred-year-old family of ghosts. But I had never seen anything like what I was about to witness.

  A man and a woman, holding hands, walked out onto the sand from the dense jungle. They dropped hands and began to weep. They staggered and then ran—to meet their daughter.

  Gwendoline ran ahead of Oliver. Holly stood still, with her hands at her sides.

  “Hello, Momma,” she said. I saw her eyes grow large.

  Gwendoline did not stop.

  She ran, and jumped, and threw her arms around her daughter, for the first time—in a long time. Oliver was sobbing so hard that he stumbled into his wife and daughter. Their embrace left them all on the ground.

  The rest of us watched in silent awe—willing to give the family all the time and space that they needed.

  After several minutes, they got to their feet.

  “Mr. Day,” Gwendoline said to Dougie. “It’s so good to see you again. I recognize two of your friends, but we were never introduced.”

  “Welcome home, Ma’am,” Dougie said. “This here is Bruiser Brady, Delbert Scoggins, and this is Miss Arabella McIntyre.”

  “Hello,” Gwendoline said. “You can be most proud of your brave friends, Miss McIntyre. They braved the horrors of that wicked dungeon to help us—”

  “Yes,” Arabella said. “In fact, I was the leader of the team that found those two henchmen. That discovery led to the sinister Mr. Wellmore—”

  “Later, please, Arabella,” Holly interrupted. “Mother, Father—these are my friends, Brian McAllen, Quentin Lynchburg, and Wylie Westerhouse.”

  “It is very good to meet Holly’s friends,” Oliver said. “I can’t remember when she had so many!”

  “Is it true, Holly?” Gwendoline whispered. “What he said about…about Seth?”

  Holly blinked away tears and nodded.

  “It was a heart attack, Mother,” Holly said. “It happened so suddenly—he didn’t suffer.”

  “How did you all meet our Holly?” Oliver asked.

  “Mr. Lynchburg bought the castle,” Holly said.

  “He bought—?” Gwendoline asked.

  “Bought…what castle?” Oliver asked.

  “There were heavy rains that lasted for days and days,” Holly said. “The rivers were out of their banks—it was like nothing we had ever seen before. The big bridge took all the beating that it could stand—and then it broke—and it was gone. No more trucks and no busses…”

  “And no tourists,” Oliver whispered.

  “Seth took a job,” Holly said. “And, I took a job myself—working for Maggie Wellmore. I walked around over your heads! I still can’t believe it. But we were barely keeping up with the costs of the castle as it was. We would have gotten farther and farther behind without any tourist trade. We just couldn’t keep it going.”

  “What of Dallas, Elizabeth, and the girls?” Oliver asked.

  “Oh, they are still…”Holly said. “They are still in the castle.”

  “I can’t wait to get back there,” Oliver said. “Will we be going soon?”

  “First, we’re flying to the city, to have you checked out at a medical clinic,” Holly said.

  “But, we’re fine,” Gwendoline said. “Really, we are.”

  Oliver pushed one hand against the small of his back.

  “Nothing that a few nights’ rest in a decent bed won’t cure,” he said.

  “Still, it won’t hurt to take precautions,” Holly said. “The McIntyres are waiting for us there, as well as the Finnegan brothers.”

  “And who might they be?” Oliver asked.

  “They are private investigators,” Holly said. “Acquaintances of Mr. McAllen. Mr. Lynchburg hired them.”

  “Then I suppose we’ll be talking to the police,” Gwen said. “If only Oliver knew how to properly aim a pistol, this would all be over with.”

  “That’s not fair, Gwen,” Oliver said. “I’ve never fired a gun in my life! I missed the man’s head by a centimeter!”

  “You shot at him?” Holly said.

  “Aye,” Oliver said. “Shot at him twice. And then the fool pistol wouldn’t work anymore. Or, perhaps it had no more projectiles.”

  “They’re called bullets, Olly,” Gwen chuckled. “Even I know that much.”

  “You watch more of the tellie than I do,” Oliver said.

  “I suppose they don’t use guns on the ‘Baywatch’,” Gwen said.

  “We’re lucky that he didn’t kill you both, then,” Holly said.

  Oliver shook his head.

  “I don’t believe we can apply normal reason to that man. He seems quite mad. He even claims to believe that he will get away with what he’s done.”

  “I don’t want to deal with any more of this right now, Oliver,” Gwen said. “I just want to go home.”

  “Holly, honey,” Oliver said. “We’re fine. “Really. Why can’t we just go—?”

  “The castle is not there!” Holly blurted out.

  “What?” Gwen whispered.

  “What are you talking about, Holl—?” Oliver asked.

  “I—I had it moved, Mr. McFadden,” Quentin said. “To America.”

  Oliver and Gwendoline staggered a little and then looked at each other without focus.

  “It has been…moved?” Oliver asked.

  “How does one move an entire castle?” Gwendoline asked. “Is that even possible?”

  “Oh, it’s quite possible,” Brian said. “’Twas a few dozen good men and me that moved her.”

  “Oh, my,” Oliver said. He tapped a finger against his lips, and then he spotted a fallen tree. He walked to it and sat down.

  The helicopter pilot hopped down from the cockpit.

  “Say, Brian,” he said. “I gotta go—”

  Brian nodded.

  “Sure. Go ahead. No hurry.”

  “Look, this whole thing has been crazy,” Quentin said. “You’re all welcome to come back to Branson with us while we sort this thing out.”

  “W
here is this ‘Branson’?” Gwen asked.

  “It’s in the State of Missouri, Mother,” Holly said. “You’ll love it there.”

  “You’ve been to this place, Holly?” Oliver asked.

  “I live there now,” Holly said.

  “Half-way around the world, child?” Oliver said.

  “How could I still call Scotland home?” Holly asked. “I had no family left. And the McIntyres were gone with the castle—”

  “They went with the castle?” Oliver said. “How did that happen?”

  “It’s a mighty long story,” Holly said. “But we’re still doing tours—just as we always did. We have so many people that we have to turn some away.”

  “Very well, then,” Oliver said. “I don’t see that we have many choices. We’re completely without a roof over our heads.”

  “But what about the police, Olly?” Gwen said. “They’ll want us to stay until that dreadful man is put on trial.”

  “That is something we’ll need to discuss,” Q said.

  He reached into his pocket and handed Oliver the message that he had received under his hotel room door. Oliver and Gwendoline read it together.

  “Why, this is madness!” Gwen said. “He expects us to act as if he didn’t keep us under lock and key for half a year—wondering if every day would be our last?”

  “I know how you must feel, Mrs. McFadden,” Q said. “But you must understand how far-fetched your story will appear to the authorities. Mr. McFadden—”

  “Oliver,” Oliver said, in a daze.

  “Oliver,” Q said. “You would be accusing a man from one of the oldest families in the land of a serious crime. On the surface, the story makes little sense; kidnapping, imprisonment with no ransom demands, no physical harm and then you were simply released. ”

  “He not only kept us prisoner in his dungeon—he kept us inside of a prison cell inside the dungeon!” Gwendoline said.