by Zoey Kane
“Ow, ow, watch the shoulder,” he said.
BonBon clamped onto one of his long legs. “Oh, Daddy! I don’t hate you.” She started sobbing. “I love you! Really!”
“Gremlins can also be awfully cute,” Claire said to herself, not expecting to be heard or understood by anybody.
Zoey nodded with a smile, like their minds were linked.
A loud knock at the door startled everyone out of their awe moment. “Police! Open up!”
This time Penny hurried over. Officer Garrett and his younger, tubbier companion entered with flashlights. “Now, what did I say about anyone being caught back here?!” the older one called out in disappointment.
Everyone was silent, including Porsha, who leaned into the fireplace mantel in resignation. Seeing small feet propped against either side of the chimney, she took a double-take. “Auntie?”
“Sure is dark in here,” came a voice. “Where am I?”
Porsha helped tug the now sooty old woman out from the small compartment. “What were you doing up there?”
Aloise ran her fingers through her hair, shaking out dust. “I don’t know.”
“You all should be ashamed of yourselves,” Officer Garrett interrupted as he entered the sitting room. “Some of you seem like upstanding citizens.” He looked at the Kanes. “I guess I’m going to have to call backup and arrest you all.”
Nobody argued that.
“Dispatch said something about someone needing an ambulance. Who’d that be?”
Gavier spoke up. “I got shot by a madman, a Mr. Mitch Werner, but I can drive myself to the hospital.”
“And where’s this madman?” Officer Garrett asked.
“Upstairs, sir,” Claire said. “I shot him and tied him to a bed. He’ll need the ambulance.”
The policemen’s eyes widened in surprise and respect.
“Yeah, and it was my first time ever shooting a gun,” Claire said with bashful pride, rubbing an arm.
Zoey chuckled. “She takes after me, apparently.”
The whine of an ambulance and its accompanying flashing lights arrived. The officers told everyone to stay put while they’d join the EMT’s to tend to the wounded madman.
Claire sat on the lumpy couch with her mother, still feeling uneasy. “I’m really curious about that room on the third level, the one with the caution tape.”
Zoey nodded. “It’s sure creepy. Like his secret hideout.”
“He could’ve watched us dress or use the restroom. Why do you think he was so intent on watching us?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “That’s a sick and twisted game that I can’t wrap my mind around.”
Claire put a hand to her chin in thought. “But he just arrived today, after breakfast. That doesn’t make much sense.”
“Well, we know he knew about that room,” Zoey said. “We caught him messing with the door after we tried making that intercom call to Mavis. Plus, he told the police that his own inspector deemed it dangerous.”
“Yes, he definitely didn’t want anybody in there.” Claire crossed her legs.
Zoey gave a small smile with a keen sparkle to her light brown eyes. “How about we go check it out?”
“Right now?”
“Right now. There’s no other opportunity.”
The Kanes bounced up from their seats and hurried over to the stairs.
“Hey, where are you two going?” Porsha called from the fireplace.
“We’re going to check out something,” Zoey called over her shoulder. “We’ll be right back.”
*
Curiously, the door was shut. Zoey opened it slightly, and peered inside with the light of her recovered cell phone. All of the screens were still on, hooked up to a generator that quietly hummed. Various electronics blinked red or green lights, and some made soft whirring sounds. “Let’s go in. Seems safe,” she said, stepping inside.
An ammonia-like stench of sitting urine filled the air, stinging their senses. The ladies pinched their noses in surprised disgust. Across from the long table of screens was a bed. Its small, twin size was made up for by its large and intricately decorative metal framework.
“A full chamber pot,” Zoey said, pointing at it beneath the bed.
“Gross,” Claire said, creeped out. She stepped over to an assortment of dirty dishes on a trolley. “And look at this.” A fly buzzed over and landed on a piece of stale toast.
“I wonder what this all means?” Zoey said. She lifted a crumpled piece of clothing off the bed’s flat pillow, and aimed her flashlight at it. It was a white nightgown with a floral pattern.
“Did Mitch Werner hold Mavis Mervel captive?” Claire said the only thing that seemed to make sense under the circumstances.
“I think you’ve got it.” Zoey set the nightgown back down.
“If so, her death points to him as the murderer. He had no qualms with killing one of us. He knows where her body’s at.”
“Yes!” Zoey burst. “We need to let the police know. He needs questioning.”
From over in a dark corner, something moved. “He didn’t kill me,” a voice said. It was Mavis’s.
TWENTY-ONE
Other than the framed portrait of a young Mavis, the Kanes had never seen her before. Their phones’ lights illuminated the woman with white hair that went to her waist. Her pale eyes were sorrowful but had a light of life in them. She wore a nightgown, this one peach-colored.
“You’re alive?” Claire uttered, dropping her pinched fingers from her nose.
“Yes,” she said, her lips in a line. “But I’m not feeling well.”
Zoey’s eyes were shining at her in concern. “This room isn’t sanitary. This isn’t right.”
“Mr. Proctor was taking care of me, feeding me,” she said, blinking. “But he’s dead.”
“He knew you were alive,” Zoey said with interest, but Mavis didn’t respond.
“Do you know who we are?” Claire asked.
“Yes.” Mavis didn’t nod. Her entire body stayed immovable except for her blinking. “You’re detectives. My niece hired you.”
“What is all of this, Mavis, and why?” Zoey considered it all so bizarre.
“My lawyer convinced me that having a treasure hunt would be a revealing trial of my heirs. Everybody likes a treasure hunt. I, myself, have been looking for it most of my life and can’t find anything. So, he set up all of this technology here, in order to watch and see behaviors. He put hidden cameras in discreet places around the house to see who would be worthy.”
“In the owl sculptures,” Zoey said, thinking of Aunt Aloise’s psychic words spoken at the dining room table. Something about Mavis having red eyes. “Their eyes.”
“Yes. That’s where some of them are.”
“And with all of this technology,” Claire glanced at the table of electronics, “I presume it helped you with your plot to sound ghostly?”
“Yes. Hidden speakers were placed throughout the mansion. Even in the Bell intercom’s receiver.”
“That’s how you were able to reach out to me with your plea to find Robert,” Zoey said.
“Yes.” Mavis looked up at Zoey, her eyes becoming red and watery.
“Isn’t that a bit mean, Mavis?” Zoey continued, “Convincing your family that you’re not only missing but dead?”
“I never thought of it like that before.” A tear spilled. “My family hasn’t really visited me over the years. I heard what Porsha said. I suppose that being a recluse suffering from delusions of the mind, I couldn’t or wouldn’t make the effort to visit them either.”
Claire stepped forward a little. “It seems some do care for you a great deal. They’ve just been—I don’t know—afraid to step out of their comfort zone to get to know you.”
Mavis blinked and looked down at her lap.
“Your sister is here.” Zoey also stepped forward. “Aloise. She’s very tearful over you, even with her memory loss.”
“Aloise. I do miss her.�
�� Mavis paused in thought. “I need to apologize for a few things, I suppose. I didn’t know Werner would threaten and shoot at anybody. I watched it all play out on my TV’s. He was up here to ask me about that picture of a ship.” She pointed to it shattered on a desk. “I told him that I didn’t know anything about it. He knocked me down. I wasn’t getting around so well before, but now it hurts to blink.” She laughed a little.
“I believe I want to get outside of this place for once, if you two will help me up, and then down the stairs.” Her eyes wandered upward. “I want to have the moon and stars shared with me tonight. Please help me.”
Zoey and Claire got on either side of her, pulling her up to standing.
Still supporting the frail woman, Claire said, “Please come slip on those nice slippers, there at your bedside.”
Mavis’s delicate—and actually pretty—feet pushed their way into pale-blue, Chinese silk slippers with a thin leather sole.
“Where is your robe or a coat?” asked Claire.
“That is it there.” Mavis pointed to a sheer, sleeveless full length cover up, also pale blue.
“Now,” she said, “get me down those stairs and outside. I don’t want a throng of people greeting me. It will be too much for me. Understand?” A tear rolled down her cheek and yet she had a smile. It was one of exerted strength.
They held Mavis under the arms and patiently helped her step by step down three flights. All the while Mavis was using all her control and determined power to manage her way.
When the three got to the front door, the family saw and ran to greet her. Zoey held up a hand to halt them, which they did immediately. Mavis smiled toward them and said, “The treasure, when found, goes to all of the family and Theona. Werner gets nothing!”
She then faced the door, her long and wavy white hair, with a bit of silvery gray mixed, hung down her back. She was the heart and personality of the Victorian mansion.
Claire opened the large door and they walked her out. There was no storm. The moon was full and bright. Mavis said, “Take me beyond the porte cochère to the back, please.”
They arrived at a garden of weeds. One lavender bush survived, a sprig of purple flowers glowing bright in the moon’s light. A weathered, old swing hung near it.
“I shall walk by myself over to the swing on that old tree right there,” she said. “That is where my dear Robert proposed to me and then disappeared, never to be seen again. I want to go there… and remember.” Her eyes were already looking into the distance of her memory.
The Kanes let go of her and she walked, her sheer robe blowing with the mild wind, along with wisps of her hair, magically shimmering against the backdrop of a starry night. She made it to an overgrown lawn before the tree, and slowly she lay down.
Zoey and Claire were about ready to take their first step to run and check on her, when a young man appeared. He walked five steps to her and squatted down. Mavis’s spirit suddenly glimmered through her skin with a soft tremulous light. Taking hold of her spirit, he tenderly cradled her. Robert lifted her out from her body, then set her on her feet. Mavis’s robe and hair blew beautifully pale blue in the glow of the moonlight. The two embraced in a desperate kiss.
They faded, never parting lips.
The Kanes stood like stone, not being able to take their eyes away from where they’d just witnessed infinitely true love.
The sudden whine of the ambulance jolted the Kanes out of their trance, into mortal affairs of devious deeds. Mr. Werner was being transported away to the hospital. They walked back to the mansion still struck somewhat by awe, and linked arms.
“I wonder if we’ll ever find true love like that,” Claire mused, taking in the fresh cool breeze that carried a lavender scent.
“At least we know it exists,” Zoey said with a smile.
As the ambulance took off into the night, a series of cop cars with their flashing red and blues pulled up to the estate.
“Looks like we’re in big trouble, Mom.” Claire ran fingers through her dark tresses, heading for the front door. “Officer Garrett made good on his warning.”
TWENTY-TWO
That night, several new, though strange, friends each took turns posing for mug shots, one after the other.
“You don’t look so bad in orange,” Porsha commented to Zoey, once sharing the same holding cell.
“Thank you.” Zoey accepted it as a serious compliment. “Neither do you.”
Porsha laughed. “I know, right?” She added dryly, “I think it goes swell with my leopard-print glasses. What do you think?”
Darla nodded in agreement, twisting the hairs of her chin.
Claire sat on the cold concrete in a corner, talking with Penny and Aloise. She was putting corn rows in the old auntie’s short sooty hair.
“I didn’t steal any dog,” Aloise said, completely off-topic. “That was my dog.”
The two nodded at her with sympathetic eyes, then continued talking about business and finance topics.
A large woman with bleached blond hair was making friends with Theona by commenting on her missing leg. The two bonded by sharing scars with each other. The blonde was especially excited to show off that she too was missing something. Her front teeth. Bar fight.
Meanwhile, in the holding cell across from the women… men were doing what men do. Try and act tough. Spike and Gavier teamed up against a couple of young gangbangers, because the sumo wrestler would be too much to take on. The old uncle snarled at them, and the psychiatrist showed off his bullet wound. “I nearly killed a man,” Gavier warned.
“Nearly?” one of the gangbangers said. “That don’t count, homie. Check out my teardrop.” He pointed at his tattoo that meant he actually had murdered someone.
“We would’ve killed him,” Spike hesitated, “but… but… she got to him first!” He pointed at Claire across the way.
A blush crept up Claire’s cheeks at the pronouncement, and she gave a small wave.
*
The next morning, Zoey made a certain call to one of her confidants back in Riverside, the distinguished Mr. Kipperman. Bail was posted and everybody was released.
“Gee, Brain,” Zoey said to Claire on their way out, “what are we going to do today?”
“The same thing we do every day, Pinky. Try and take over the world…” Claire paused. “Or at least 1 Shadyside Street.”
They spent more than a day poring over city ordinances, studying Mavis’s will, and calling on business matters back at their hometown of Riverside, Indiana. Demolition Day was soon upon them…
All of Mavis’s former potential heirs, plus BonBon, showed up that afternoon out front of the Gothic Victorian, looking nervous. The great big, steel wrecking ball dangled menacingly from a yellow crane. A crowd from the neighborhood, and beyond, had formed. Valery was there, right up front. She held up a crafty, homemade poster with an angry red font that yelled, “DESTROY IT!”
Media camera crews were poised around the mayor who was about to do the countdown.
“Where the heck is Zoey and Claire?” Porsha said, rubbing her hands together in a panic.
“And where’s B.B.?” Penny added in wonder.
The mayor raised ten, outstretched fingers, and the crane operator placed his hand on his stick. “TEN-NINE-EIGHT,” the counting started and the crowd joined in. “SEVEN-SIX-FIVE…”
BonBon jumped up and down in anxiousness. “No, Daddy,” she said, tugging on him. “They can’t do this!”
“FOUR-THREE…”
A sudden screech of tires making a swift stop at the curb interrupted the proceedings. It was a red Lexus with Indiana license plates. On a megaphone, Claire called out the passenger-side window. “Wait! We have a special delivery!”
Zoey exited, wearing cool shades and looking gorgeous. She lifted a piece of paper high up in the air. She stepped one foot in front of the other, like walking down a catwalk, the sea of people parting as she approached the mayor. The media crew turned to her and every
one began murmuring. Mavis’s relatives beamed with excited expectation.
“What is this,” grumbled the mayor, “stopping our important business?”
Zoey passed him the paper. It was legal paperwork from the city in regards to the estate. “The fine print declares that if someone has the means to purchase and bring this mansion up to code, then it can be saved.”
Valery audibly gasped at the declaration. The mayor noticed, and twitched an acknowledgment in her direction, as if having a political relationship with the HOA president. “Ma’am, whoever you are—” he started.
“Zoey Kane, private detective and business woman extraordinaire.” She smiled, her pink lipstick glistening in the sunshine.
“Woot! Woot!” Penny called out in support.
Still hanging out the passenger-side window, Claire yelled out, “Yeah! Go, Mom!”
“Well,” the mayor said, flustered. “Ms. Kane, do you realize it would take more money than it’s worth to resurrect this eyesore?”
Valery nodded with a smug smile.
“How much would you say that is?” Zoey asked.
“One million dollars, at the very least!” he spouted, tugging on his tie.
Batting her long eyelashes in victory, she asked, “Who do I write the check to?”
The mayor’s jaw dropped and a nearby anchorwoman announced into her camera, “This is Vanessa Consuelo with Channel 2 News. This just in, Shadyside Manor is saved!”
Erupting in a fit of rage, Valery tore her poster in half and charged at Zoey, before a couple of security guards dragged her away.
TWENTY-THREE
Two weeks later…
The sound of banging hammers was music to the Kanes’ ears as they walked around with hardhats and tight jeans. Throughout the mansion, a construction crew was working diligently at rehabilitating the old beauty. Thanks to an industrial high-pressure hose, the dome skylight now glittered bright and clean, the sunlight pouring through. No more dark and creepy corners.
