The Castle on Deadman's Island
Page 13
“I don’t know whether I believe in ghosts or not,” Neil said earnestly. “That’s what I’m trying to find out. But you guys aren’t helping at all.”
“Sometimes it’s best to retain your illusions,” Graham said. “Especially in these times.”
And that was all Neil could get out of him. Graham was, understandably, more concerned about his aunt. “With Grimsby and Snyder gone, I wonder if we’ll ever find out about Aunt Etta,” he said morosely. “I don’t imagine Lady Macbeth will tell us anything. If she is involved with Aunt Etta’s disappearance – and I’m darn sure she is – she’ll never admit it. She’ll be more interested in saving her husband’s reputation, as well as her own. But I’m still going to try to get Sergeant Simpson to grill her about it.”
He stood up and stretched. “I’m going down to the dock to wash up.”
Graham was kneeling on the dock, washing his hands and face, when he heard the whine of an outboard. He looked up. A small runabout was going by, headed for Deadman’s Island. He did a double take and looked at the woman in the yachting cap running the outboard. Could it be? Impossible. But yes, it was!
He leapt up. “Aunt Etta!”
Henrietta Stone looked around to see where the voice had come from.
“Over here!” he called, and she, in turn, did a double take when she spotted Graham dancing around the dock and frantically waving his arms. She veered her boat sharply and headed for Lovesick.
“Graham! What a coincidence running into you here,” she said, as she pulled into the dock.
Graham was stunned by the sight of her. “Are … are you all right, Aunt Etta?” he managed to say.
She scrambled nimbly onto the dock. “Of course I’m all right. Why wouldn’t I be?”
He had an urge to throw his arms around her and hug her right then and there, but he couldn’t quite do it, as much as he cared for her – neither he nor his aunt were huggers. He was so overcome to see her, however, that tears welled up. He turned away and swiped at his eyes.
“What a lovely surprise,” his aunt said. “What are you doing here?”
“Camping, Aunt Etta,” Graham said, still somewhat stunned.
“That’s my castle over there.” She pointed. “Hard to believe it belongs to your aunt now, isn’t it? I can hardly believe it myself. You may have heard about the horrendous events there last night.”
“I’ll say I did,” Graham began, “in fact, we –”
“I’m just going there now to find out more. Both Grimsby and Snyder dead in terrible accidents. Heavens! I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t like either of them, but I wouldn’t have wished their fate on anyone. At any rate, it’s safe to return now, callous as that may sound.”
“Safe to return?” Graham said. “Then you knew –”
“Of course I knew them. They’re the other two owners of the castle – they were the other two owners, I should say. Now I’m the only one left.”
“What I meant was –”
“Confidentially, Graham,” Henrietta looked around to make sure no one was listening, “they were not nice men. I believe they sabotaged my boat. Certainly, someone did. It sank under me in the middle of the channel last Sunday.”
“Your boat sank! What did you do?”
“Why I swam to shore, of course.”
“But Aunt Etta, that’s a long way! How did you ever –”
“I swim almost that far every day,” Henrietta said indignantly, as if her prowess had been doubted. “Quite a current, mind you, and carrying my purse around my neck made it a bit difficult. I wanted to save my good shoes too, but they slowed me down and I had to kick them off – they were practically new. So I had to buy new ones, and I also bought this yachting cap – rather chic, don’t you think? I can’t wear my favorite straw hat when I’m in the boat – it blows off and I have to chase it.”
Two more puzzles solved, Graham thought. “But where did you go when you got ashore?” he managed to slip in. “We were looking –”
“Why I just drove down the road to the Riverview Inn. Charming old place. I thought of going to the police about the sabotage, but I had no proof – the boat is now on the bottom – so I decided the safest thing was to let Grimsby and Snyder think they’d succeeded in getting rid of me. I knew they wouldn’t tell anyone, of course, so I didn’t have to be concerned that my friends would be worrying about me. But I vowed I’d never stay in the castle again while they were there. I thought I’d just wait until they’d gone back to town, then I’d rent another boat at Muldoon’s, come back to the castle, get my suitcase and clothes, and leave on my trip south, as I planned all along. But when I heard about the deaths here last night, that changed everything.”
She shook her head. “Hard to believe, both of them in one night. People in Riverview are saying it’s the curse of the castle again. I suppose nobody will ever know what really happened.”
“Actually,” Graham began. “Neil and Crescent and I –”
“Your friend Neil is here? And Crescent too? Lovely girl. How nice, the three of you together on a camping trip. But what a coincidence! Here you are, camping right across from my castle – I guess I can call it my castle now that I’m the only one left. You must come over and I’ll give you a tour. It’s an intriguing place. You’ll love it. And bring your friends – they’ll enjoy seeing it too.”
Graham sighed. “I’m sure they will, Aunt Etta.”
“Well, I must be on my way,” Henrietta said. She leapt back in her boat and cranked the outboard into life. “I’m so glad I ran into you, Graham,” she shouted over the roar of the motor.
“I’m glad you did, too,” Graham shouted back. “In fact, you’ll never know how glad I am.”
“Now what do you suppose he meant by that?” Henrietta said to herself, as she opened the throttle wide and shot off. “Lovely boy young Graham, and very bright. He’s certainly different, though. For a moment there, I thought he was going to cry. Perhaps he’s homesick. I do hope he comes over to see me.”
Graham stared after the speeding runabout until it turned into the boathouse on Deadman’s and disappeared. When the sound of the outboard died away, he had to keep telling himself that the brief encounter with his aunt hadn’t been a figment of his imagination.
Neil and Daniel came down to the dock. “We heard voices,” Neil said, looking around. “Was someone here?”
Graham turned to them. “To quote the messenger in the last act of Macbeth, when he saw the trees of Birnam Wood move, ‘Gracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, but know not how to do it.’”
“Huh? You feeling all right, Graham?” Daniel said.
Graham smiled. “I’m great, thanks, and this calls for a celebration. Let’s go toast some marshmallows for breakfast and I’ll tell you all about it.”
The End
AFTERWORD
Though there are several actual castles in the Thou sand Islands, the castle in this story is fictional, as is Dead man’s Island, on which it is set, and nearby Lovesick Island. There is a Deadman’s Bay and a Love sick Lake in Southern Ontario, and the author has taken the liberty of borrowing their singular names.
Copyright © 2009 by Curtis Parkinson
Published in Canada by Tundra Books,
75 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 2P9
Published in the United States by Tundra Books of Northern New York,
P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008903010
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
> Parkinson, Curtis
The castle on Deadman’s Island / Curtis Parkinson.
eISBN: 978-1-77049-077-2
I. Title.
PS8581.A76234C34 2009 jC813′.54 C2008-902057-X
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Afterword
Copyright