Cluttered Attic Secrets (Tina Tales)
Page 11
“I don’t know.” Hank looked at Tina.
“What did we say while we were in the library? You called Lisbeth, told her what happened. Told me she was bringing some techs. Then you mentioned the architect. Coming to look for a secret room. You think they could have heard?”
Hank nodded. “Possibly. Then got out in a hurry using the back stairs.”
The doorbell rang, and Hank looked at his watch. “That’s probably Mr. Hall. He’s right on time.”
They all went to let him in. A tall, spare man stood on the porch. He had a white beard and mustache, carefully trimmed, as was his white hair. Brilliant blue eyes studied the three of them, and then he held out his hand to shake Tina’s first. “I recognize you from the newspaper stories about Olivia Blackwell’s, shall we say, situation? I’m glad to meet you. And happy that turned out all right for you.”
Tina still wasn’t used to people recognizing her. She smiled weakly and nodded.
Mr. Hall seemed to understand her unease and, without further comment, turned to shake hands with Lisbeth and Hank. Then they walked to the office doorway to look inside. Hank explained what had happened.
Lisbeth asked the techs when they’d be finished. One looked up from his camera. “Maybe half an hour.”
The four of them sat in the living room. Hank explained why Tina and Lisbeth were there to Mr. Hall, and what he and Tina found when they arrived earlier. “Where would you like to start searching?”
Mr. Hall smiled. “In the attic. I was able to do some research on secret spaces and how to look for them. It sounds even more likely now that there is one. After the attic, the room where Brandon was attacked.”
Tina looked at Hank. “We haven’t been up there. I hope it’s not a disaster.”
“We’ll just have to go see.” Hank led the way.
With the overhead light and sunshine streaming in from the two big windows, Tina didn’t see that the attic looked any different.
“Notice anything out of place?” Hank’s lips twitched.
“How could one tell?” Lisbeth asked. She actually grinned. Tina had never seen her do that before.
“This is amazing.” Mr. Hall’s gaze took in the attic section by section. “My father and I were never up here, of course. Only on the first floor, and most of the time in the kitchen doing the remodel.”
“Tina and I tapped along this wall.” Hank pointed to it. “We never finished, though. We started at the ends and didn’t quite meet in the middle.”
Mr. Hall frowned. “Where did the sounds you hear come from?” he asked Tina
“That wall, and Leslie thought she saw something moving in that corner.” Tina pointed. “But later she saw it again when we were with her, and it was simply a cloud moving past the moon.”
Lisbeth’s eyes bored into Tina. “No one told me about seeing anything.”
Tina looked at her steadily. “I didn’t see it the first time, and we pretty much figured no one would believe her. You could name yourselves the Skeptical Police Department.”
“Tina.”
She looked at Hank and saw he was trying to look stern while hiding a grin.
Lisbeth raised her eyes heavenward. “We’re paid to be skeptical. If we believed everyone who talked to us, no criminal would ever get caught.”
“This is different, though, and you’d still doubt us.”
“Possibly. Anyway, water under the bridge. Which one of you tapped in this area?”
“I did.” Hank rapped on the wall.
They all waited for an answering one.
When one came, they looked at each other in astonishment.
CHAPTER 28
They stood staring at each other, not moving, waiting. Nothing happened. Hank rapped on the wall again. The answering knock sounded, and Tina gasped.
“An echo,” Mr. Hall said. “Or something behind the wall that bangs against it when you hit that particular spot.”
Hank tapped around the rest of the area, and nothing happened. Then he rapped on the spot again, and they heard the answering knock. Hank pulled a pen from his pocket and made a circle on the wall. “I’d guess something is banging. An object hung on that spot, maybe.”
“Agreed. May I have a closer look?”
Hank nodded and stepped out of the way.
Mr. Hall ran his hand over the area, then just his fingertips. He shook his head. “I don’t feel anything that indicates a door.” He began rapping his knuckled in a precise pattern in the same area. “I’m pretty sure there’s no opening here.” He looked along the wall and sighed. “This is going to a devil to measure with all the clutter everywhere. And I can’t do a good job of tapping, either.”
“So Leslie and I will need to discard as much as possible and get this area clean before you can do anything more?” Tina asked.
Mr. Hall smiled. “I doubt there’s only one entry to the space, if there is one. Another might be in the library, and yet a third in the master bedroom. Or even a connecting passageway between more than one bedroom.”
Lisbeth raised her eyebrows. “Why there? And an even better question, why any at all?”
“It’s not too easy to find out why some of these spaces were made secret. The hidden passageways between bedrooms, for example.” Mr. Hall smiled. “Children loved them. Some were trunk rooms. Obviously not used for that purpose here.” He looked around and counted the trunks. Everyone laughed.
“What else?” Tina was fascinated.
“Gun rooms, and even just closet space. Back a couple hundred or more years ago, though, they were often used to hide people. Priest holes in Great Britain. Runaway slaves here in America.”
“Oh, my,” Tina said.
“You probably all know that Newport traded in slavery back in the day. Fortunes were made, and many of the founding families’ descendants still live here. But there were also people adamantly opposed to slavery, and it’s very possible some were hidden here on their way to other places. Some were brought here by their vacationing owners as slaves and escaped. But even if we find a hidden space, we will probably never know its original purpose.”
“What do you suggest we do next?” Hank asked.
“Since the attic will be difficult to work in in its present state, I suggest we look at the master bedroom.”
Everyone headed downstairs, and Tina showed Mr. Hall the walk-in closet in Leslie’s bedroom.
“I didn’t tell you this before, Mr. Hall,” Hank said. “A friend of ours was attacked in this room from behind. We were unable to find out who it was or how the attacker came to be in the room in the first place.”
“Mr. Silver.” Mr. Hill’s eyes twinkled. “I’m not so sure I’d want to be a friend of yours. They seem to get into the most peculiar messes.”
Hank laughed. “I’ve always thought of it the other way around. They get me into unusual, sometimes even dangerous, situations.” Hank looked at Tina.
“Who me? I live a very ordinary life.”
Mr. Hall regarded her with interest. “Well. Let’s investigate the closet. Is your friend all right?”
Tina nodded. “We think so. His sister, who owns this house, is with him, checking on him.”
“Brandon Young?”
“Yes. You know him?” Hank asked.
“Not well. We just bump into each other when we’re out and about on Bellevue Avenue. I also know of his good reputation as a defense lawyer.” Mr. Hall paused and looked around. “This is a nicely proportioned room. Let’s see, it’s over the library.” He walked through it to a doorway, into the sitting room, then opened the door to the bathroom. “And it appears the suite, takes up the whole space, front to back.”
In the bedroom, he opened the door to the rectangular closet. It took up the whole outside wall and was stuffed with Leslie’s clothes and accessories. “Hmm. I’m afraid we’re going to have to get some of the hanging items out of our way. Will she object, you think?”
“May I look?” Tina asked.
&n
bsp; “Sure.” Mr. Hall stepped aside so Tina could join him.
Tina wasn’t surprised to see that Leslie had arranged her clothing by type, then by color. Shoes were neatly lined up on two divided shelves on the floor, hats on hat stands on a rack over the rod, and handbags inside a hanging organizer.
“How about we remove some clothes in the middle of each wall and put them on the bed?”
“That’s a good idea,” Mr. Hall said. “But let’s just do one wall at a time. I’ll hand them to you, Tina, and you can place them carefully on the bed.”
“Sounds good to me. Which wall do you want to do first?”
Tina and Mr. Hall switched places inside the closet. “The one we think of as the outside wall.” He removed as many clothes as he could from the middle of that space and handed them to her.
Tina placed them on the bed while Mr. Hall tapped around inside the closet. After a while he stopped tapping, but he didn’t come out. Tina, Hank, and Lisbeth exchanged glances, waiting.
They heard a click. Mr. Hall, his voice muffled, said, “Eureka.” A door creaked. “We have us a stairway.”
CHAPTER 29
Tina gasped. Lisbeth rushed into the closet, Tina close behind her. They could see Mr. Hall’s feet as he ascended the stairway.
“Mr. Hall, wait!” Lisbeth shouted. “You had better let me go first.”
“Too late. I’m already at the top. Nobody up here.”
“Are you sure? Is there a place for anyone to hide?”
“Good question, under the circumstances.” He stepped out of the way so the others could enter the room.
Tina gasped again. From the stairs the space appeared to go all the way to the back of the house. Long and narrow, maybe six or seven feet wide, the area was lined with three single beds. It took her a moment to realize there was a lot of light in the space, but no windows. She looked up and saw sunshine coming from some sort of opening.
Mr. Hall followed her gaze. “Ah, a belvedere cupola. It has slats across the openings, so from outside you can’t tell it also has window panes. Very clever.”
They walked to the end of the third bed. An armoire sat next to a half-wall partition, which separated the space. Three more beds lined up again in the second area. Another armoire and another partition separated a smaller living space with a battered couch and one chair. More light streamed in from above. Tina checked the ceiling and saw the same type of opening that was in the first area.
Then they came to a door.
Mr. Hall put his hand on the knob.
“Don’t you dare.” Lisbeth lightly shoved him aside. She rapped loudly on the door. “Police, open the door, then put your hands up.”
There was no answer. They waited. Tina realized she was holding her breath, and took a big gulp of air.
Nothing happened. Lisbeth repeated her command. Still silence. She unholstered her gun hidden under her suit jacket. Pointed it at the door. Then she turned the handle and pushed it open. She stood, feet spread wide, gun aimed into the room, then looked right and left. Slowly, she lowered her weapon and re-holstered it. “Clear.”
The room was a large primitive bathroom. Everything looked to be early nineteen-hundreds. White enamel sink, toilet and even a claw-foot tub. The plumbing was not hidden, and they could see where it came in from the back wall.
“Amazing.” Hank stepped into the room next to Lisbeth. He pointed at the slightly rusted medicine cabinet. The mirrored door hung partly open. “This is the wall we were tapping on.” He banged the door toward the wall. “Could be what we were hearing.”
“Leslie’s going to be amazed.” Tina laughed. “She can accommodate at lot of overnight guests now.”
Mr. Hall looked about as shocked as Tina felt. “I’ve never seen anything like this. And it’s obvious it’s been used recently. It’s clean, well-kept. No dust.” He ran his hand along the sink’s edge.
“Who. And why. Those are the questions.” Lisbeth turned to leave the space, then stopped to examine the contents of the medicine cabinet. It held the things that most did—Band-Aids, aspirin, toothpaste, and so on. “No drugs, legal or illegal,” she murmured.
“You’re not going to check the toilet tank?” Hank laughed.
Lisbeth gave him a look. “Probably should, but I imagine whoever is using this space doesn’t think anyone will find it, so no need to hide anything.” She took the lid off the tank anyway and glanced inside. Shook her head and replaced it. “Let’s have a look in those armoires.”
Lisbeth opened the one between the bathroom and living space. She jumped back when something fell out. “What was that?” Lisbeth grabbed for her gun, then laughed when she saw the cabinet had a drop down desk inside, and the writing surface had fallen onto its braces when she opened the door. “Hinges must be old.” She re-holstered her gun again.
Stored inside were paper goods, some canned food, snacks, and cleaning supplies. A can opener, a sharp kitchen knife and a cutting board were stashed in a drawer. In the right bottom area an apartment-size refrigerator filled the space. Lisbeth opened the door. Sodas, cheese, and some cut-up fresh vegetables filled it up.
“This is weird,” Lisbeth muttered.
“You want to call in forensics?” Hank asked.
Lisbeth looked startled. Then she held up her hands. “What am I thinking? Of course, you’re right, Hank. Everyone out. Don’t touch anything.”
Mr. Hall appeared confused. “Why forensics? Just keep a watch near the cellar door.”
“What if they never come back? Fingerprints could lead to their identity within hours. Let’s go.” She made a shooing motion with her hands.
“Can’t we look in the other armoire, at least?” Tina asked.
Lisbeth hesitated. She appeared curious. Sighed. She pulled a pair of blue latex gloves out of her pants pocket and put them on. “A quick look. Remember, no one touch anything.”
They walked toward the first section. Tina paid attention to the beds this time. They were all neatly made. Each one had a different quilt covering and a fat pillow. The three in the section nearest the bathroom looked more used than the rest, she thought.
Lisbeth pulled open the cabinet door cautiously. Nothing fell out to startle her, and Tina heard her sigh. This one held clothing. Some for a man. Some for a woman. And some for a child. A ragged Teddy bear lay on a shelf next to a Bratz doll in great condition.
She looked at Hank. He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. She wondered if he was thinking about the girl the O’Briens had mentioned hanging around.
CHAPTER 30
“Curiouser and Curiouser,” Mr. Hall said.
“Yes.” Lisbeth shut the armoire door a little harder than Tina thought necessary, but she understand the other woman’s frustration. “Now we’re truly done up here. Everyone downstairs.”
“What are you going to do?” Tina followed Mr. Hall. “Don’t we need to call Leslie? It’s her house, after all.”
“I certainly need to talk to her.” Lisbeth’s heavy shoes clumped on the wooden stairs. “And her parents.”
“I wouldn’t mind being with you when you do that,” Hank said. “I know them pretty well, after all, and Mrs. Young is not in the best of health.”
They arrived in Leslie’s bedroom. Lisbeth left the secret door open and turned to Hank. “What does that mean, ‘not in the best of health’?”
Hank glanced at Mr. Hall.
Lisbeth caught the look. “Okay. Mr. Hall, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You’ve been an enormous help, and I can’t thank you enough. However, this house has now become part of a murder investigation, and all civilians will be barred until further notice.”
Mr. Hall appeared upset, but he composed himself quickly. “I understand.” He faced Hank. “If I can be of further assistance, please don’t hesitate to call.”
They followed him downstairs and said good-bye at the door. Lisbeth told the techs who were finishing up in the office to go upstairs and do a thorough in
spection of the master bedroom and the secret room. They seemed surprised, but only nodded, grabbed their bags, and went upstairs.
After they disappeared, Tina held her breath, waiting for Lisbeth to tell her she had to leave.
But Lisbeth ignored her and asked Hank, “Now, what do you mean by ‘not in the best of health’?”
“She’s a recovering alcoholic. All of this is probably going to set her off. My own mother won’t be very happy to hear about it either. Nor will Tina’s. These three mothers, plus two more, have a kind of support group. Combined, they worry a lot about their daughters.”
Lisbeth appeared baffled. “I understand that this could be hard for Mrs. Young. I have to think about how best to handle it. Let’s sit down.”
In the living room, Lisbeth looked at Tina. “Under the circumstances, I would like to ask you a favor.”
Startled, Tina nodded. “Sure.”
“I going to interview Mr. Young next, and his wife. I want you and Hank to come along. If you think it’s getting too much for Mrs. Young, I want you to stop me.”
Tina’s respect for Lisbeth rose. She’d admired her since they first met, but hadn’t seen much of a soft side. Not that she was exactly being soft. Kind. And smart. If Mrs. Young got too upset, Mr. Young would probably insist she stop talking to the police and might not be too cooperative himself.
“I’d be happy to help. What about Leslie? Do you want her there, too?”
“Good question.” Lisbeth looked at Hank.
“It might get too confusing with the three of them. I’m not sure what Leslie has told her parents. Better to do the parents together, then Leslie separately, if you even need to interview her again.”
“I certainly do. Remember, she didn’t tell us about the apparition the first time. I have to wonder what else she might have left out.”
“I doubt there was anything else. As Tina said, she figured you, meaning the police, would be extremely skeptical about the whole matter.”
“I try to keep an open mind, Hank.”
“I know that. Leslie doesn’t. Her brother works the other side of the aisle, remember.”