It was the butler, Álvaro Lopes.
- Calm down.
- What are you doing here? Said Elizabeth.
- Sorry, I came down here to get some things that I forgot, I knocked, no one answered, I noticed the door was open, I called for someone and no one responded, so I walked in, this used to be my room.
- Ok, then.
The butler walked in the room, picked up a bag with his belongings in it. Elizabeth was afraid of him, she stood from afar, holding the rifle, and ready to shoot.
- Well, I have everything now, is everything ok?
- Yes, she said. I want to ask you something, you said this house was strange, how strange?
- Well, said the butler. I’ve already seen weird things happening here, but if I told you the truth you would not believe it.
- Maybe I will believe it.
- Well, I am going to go, be safe.
- Before you go I want to ask you something, said Elizabeth, still distant from the butler.
- Yes, go ahead.
-I met someone, so to say, that told me there was a gold mine here, here on this ranch’s grounds.
- People’s foolishness, tales that go around, this ranch has been here for years, I’ve worked here for so many years, I assure you that the only valuable here is this house, that for being so remote, might not even be worth too much.
- Good to know, thank you.
The butler went down the stairs, with Elizabeth following him distantly, he opened the door and went to a car that was further away. Elizabeth locked the door, and waited for him to get in the car, to turn the car’s lights on, turn the car around and go away. Elizabeth went up the stairs, she went to the room that the butler was in, she left the gun on the bed, the bed was like her bed, she opened the wardrobes, the dressing table’s drawers, the first one, the second one and when she opened the third... there was the box of bullets, she had lost. She got scared. She got scared.
- What is this box doing here? She said, picking up the box.
The 7 bullets were inside it, she looked in the dressing table’s mirror and noticed there was something behind her, she quickly turned around but didn’t see anything she looked again in the mirror and didn’t see anything again, she turned around again and saw nothing.
- Must be my imagination, this house scares anyone.
On her way out, she notices something behind the dressing table. It looked like a large frame. She tried to move the dressing table forward. But it was hard to do so. The dressing table was made of massive wood, with a large mirror that looked very heavy, but she didn’t drag it too much. Just enough to see what was behind it. She picked it up. It was a large painting. Of a middle aged man.
- Who is he? Asked Elizabeth.
The man wore black suit and black trousers. He was serious, sitting on a small sofa, the ones that look like chairs with arm holders. His body was a bit on the side, to the right, but the head and his face, facing in front as if he was looking from within the painting. Elizabeth looked closely, she saw something in the corner, it was a name. A signature, W.S., probably from the person that painted it. Painters always leave their signatures on paintings. But in the middle, on a small frame on the image’s bottom there was a name written with large letters. She couldn’t believe it: HENRY CAVENDISH. Elizabeth picked up the painting. It was large, but she kept observing it. She leaned on the bed, went to the dressing table and dragged it back to the place it was before, but nearer to the wall. She looked at the painting. She imagined her life. Standing. Beside the dressing table. She felt sad, almost like crying.
-Could this man be my father, the one that left me the inheritance? Why did he leave me there, at that orphanage, why he didn’t bring me up, here, what about my mother, who could she be? She asked, whispering observing the painting.
She went to the painting, observing it more closely, caressed the painted face, she walked away, went to the dressing table, dragged it towards her with difficulty, went to the bed, picked up the painting and put it back, dragging the dressing table back to its place.
- It’s better if you remain there, said Elizabeth. This inheritance only brought me suffering.
She left, locked the room that used to be the butler’s room, went to her bedroom, when she remembered she left the rifle on the bed, in the other room. She went back, picked up the riffle and remembered she locked the room’s door.
- Wait a minute, she said. Before I left I locked this room’s door, how did he get in? I wonder if he has the key, then he must have the house keys too, then I didn’t leave it open. He lied about it. But why would he lie?
Elizabeth picked up the rifle, locked the room’s door, went to her room, locked the door and went to have a bath leaving the riffle on a visible corner and the bath’s door open. She had just finished her bath when, suddenly, she heard a noise...It sounded like someone was trying to open her room’s door, trying the knob. She got scared, she only had her towel on, her clothes were in the suitcase, that was leaning on the bed. Due to her situation, she was even more frightened. She looked and saw the knob moving. It was one of those old knobs, made of rope. She didn’t think twice, grabbed the riffle and shoot in the door’s direction, near the knob. The gun’s strength pushed her backwards. The bullet broke a piece of the door. The knob stopped moving. She went to her suitcase, scared, she put some clothes on, a large white skirt and a long sleeve shirt, white too, it was basically what she had. She put them on quickly, frightened. Always looking at the door. She feared getting near the door, she put on socks and a pair of trainers. Still watching the door. She stood up, went near, tried to look thru the whole made by the bullet, she went slowly, looked a bit further away and... she saw a bulk falling. She got scared and turned away. When she did this, she heard someone running in the hallway, shoes steps, loud, she ran for the riffle, tried to unlock the door, opened but didn’t see anyone.
- Did I shoot someone? She asked.
She looked at the floor, there was nothing on it, no blood or anything like it. She went back to the room and locked the door. She sat on the bed, looked at the gun, tried to see how it worked, in order to load it with bullets, as she was afraid there weren’t any in the rifle. Tried to open it but she wasn’t successful. She heard steps, this time they were coming from the room above, on the top floor.
- I am going there, I will finish this, she said angrily.
She picked up the rifle, unlocked the door and went fast to the end of the hallway, she looked thru the window, she only saw the darkness outside, went up the stairs, this time almost running and wanted to get in in the room that was above her room. She noticed the door was closed. She hears footsteps again, inside the room. She stood on a side of the door and said:
- Who’s in there? I will shoot, she said with a loud tone of voice.
Nobody answered.
- Should I walk in or not? She thought, timorous, but still angrily. I must walk in, if not I will never have peace.
She put one of the keys in the lock, tried to open, but she couldn’t, she tried another one, didn’t open neither. Inside the room, complete silence. She was afraid whoever was in there, was going to shoot at the door the same way she did before. She pulled back, went frontward, leaning on the wall, on the lock’s right side. With her left hand tried to insert another key in the lock, but she had difficulties, it wasn’t her good hand, she got the key in, firmly turned it and the door opened. She pushed the door and it creaked. She tried looking inside the room, but it was weakly illuminated like the rest of the house. She held the rifle, the gun pipe in her left hand and the finger on the trigger. She walked in. The room’s design was the same as her room and the butler’s room. The same style of bed, wardrobe and dressing table. Same models. The rooms followed the same pattern. But this room didn’t have a bath. She stood by the door for a while but she didn’t have the courage to walk in. She turned around and locked the door.
- There’s no one here, she said.
She went back, went down the s
ide stairs that lead to the top floor, and reached the hallway where her room was. A dark hallway, the lights were weak. She looked up, waited to see if she hears more noises. Nothing. She went to her bedroom and locked the door. She reflected on her situation and she felt sorry for going to the mansion.
- I got nothing, I don’t know how to handle all this, everything here is so strange, I can’t even sell this house, I am underage, If Fisto was here everything would be easier, where is he, such a strange vanishing.
She went to her window and noticed Fisto’s car, the one they brought there, it was still outside.
-I think I should call the police, but I don’t even know how to do it. I wonder if the 190 number works here.
She grabbed the mobile phone, dialled 190 and nothing, there was no coverage.
- I am all alone, just me and God. And this rifle which I don’t even know if it has bullets or not.
Elizabeth tried again, tried to look where she could load the riffle, where it opens, but she couldn’t make it. She lied on the bed thinking about her life, and she fell asleep. She was woken up by a voice:
- GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, YOU ARE NOT MY DAUGHTER!!!
She got scared.
- What is that voice?
- YOU ARE NOT MY INHERITOR!!!
Elizabeth stood up scared, picked up the rifle, unlocked the door, stopping in front of it, in the hallway.
- IMPOSTORE, YOU ARE NOT MY DAUGHTER!!! THIS HOUSE IS NOT YOURS.
Elizabeth got even more scared. She imagined it was the mansion’s owner, Henry Cavendish. She picked up the gun and walked in the hallway looking at the rooms, but the voice didn’t seem to come from anywhere.
- GET OUT OF HERE!!!
The lights started to flicker.
- That’s fine, I will leave, said Elizabeth. I don’t want to be here anymore.
She ran to the room. Locked herself in, looked outside, but it was dark, she went back to the bed, standing beside it and firmly holding the gun.
-YOU ARE NOT MY INHERITOR, THERE’S NOTHING HERE BELONGING TO YOU!!!
Suddenly, a rock gets thrown in the room, breaks the glass and falls near the door. She thought of going to the window, but another rock gets thrown, a bit larger this time, breaking the glass again. Another rock breaks the window and falls beside the door. Another rock is thrown, but this time doesn’t hit the glass, only making a noise.
- I am going to another bedroom, said Elizabeth, more scared.
She runs, unlocks the door and runs into the room that was the butler’s room.
- I am going to call that lawyer, I give up, I don’t want this house anymore.
However, she left the mobile phone in her bedroom. At getting out of the room, she stopped by the stairs that lead to the living room, looked down, but there was nothing there. She slowly went back to the room that she had left, fearing she could be hit by a rock. She didn’t see any rocks being thrown, she picked up the phone that was on top of the bed, looked at the broken window from a distance, and went back to the other room leaving the room’s door open. The voices stopped. She was preoccupied holding the rifle. She looked at the phone, it was 23:46. She believed the lawyer was sleeping, but decided to call him anyway. She dialed and after three calls, someone answered.
-Hello, said the voice on the other side.
- Hello, it’s me Elizabeth. Did I wake you up?
- Hi, inheritor, no, you didn’t wake me up.
- It’s about being the inheritor, I don’t think I want to be any more, it’s very bad here, is there any way I could sell this house, I want to get out of here?
Elizabeth didn’t want to tell him about the voices and about the things that happened at the mansion, fearing he won’t believe her. Without questioning her, the lawyer stated:
- It’s enough to sign the documents I showed you and all your problems will go away. Those are precisely the documents necessary for the property’s sale.
When Elizabeth was about to say that she was going to sign the papers this time, a voice emerges:
- DO NOT SIGN!!!
Elizabeth noticed that this voice’s tone was different, seemed like a different person, another voice, strange.
- Hello, Elizabeth, are you there? Asked the lawyer.
- I call you later, she said. I need to do something here.
She hung up. She started to think. Noticed something was strange. The first time the lawyer asked her to sign the papers, he said it was merely bureaucracy for her to inherit everything, but now he said it was for the property’s sale. She thought it was strange, but, then, she thought the lawyer must be confused, for being so late, he could have been tired. Elizabeth waited for half an hour, one hour, one and a half hour, two hours, holding the rifle, the voices didn’t come back. She was getting relaxed in the bed, she fell asleep and this time she slept until the next day.
VI
It was morning, Elizabeth woke up, but she’d had a bad sleep. The rifle was beside her bed, but she, half asleep, forgot about it. Without washing her face or anything else, she unlocked the door, left the room, locked again and went down the stairs that lead to the living room. Feeling hungry she went to the kitchen. Above the sink, she looked through the window, it was drizzling. When she turned around, she bumped into the butler, Alvaro Lopes. He was wearing shoes, dirty from the rain outside, blue jeans and a black shirt, regular.
- Hey, did you forget something else? Said, Elizabeth, scared.
- Stop with the nicety, said the butler.
Elizabeth scared, got even more frightened at realizing she hadn’t brought her riffle.
-I don’t understand, she said.
- You will understand. Dr Adolfo, come here.
It was the lawyer Adolfo Perez, wearing a grey suit with muddy shoes.
- I will explain it to you. We invented you. We invented Elizabeth Cavendish Stanton, said the lawyer at entering the kitchen.
Elizabeth surprised.
- What do you mean?
- Don’t you remember? Said the lawyer. You received a letter containing a birth certificate and a CPF number. This was the name of the owner’s late daughter. This was the name written on the will, to inherit all this, the ranch, the mansion, everything that’s on this land. But there was a problem. There was no one with this name. There was no Elizabeth Cavendish Stanton. She was dead. According to the Brazilian law, when someone dies, everything possessed by that person belongs to the local council or the federal government, never to the state government. For us to know who was going to get the fortune, we had to be aware that a valid will existed. In this case, there was a will, but the owner, the one that created the will, left his fortune to his daughter, that was no longer here to claim it. In this case, half of the goods should go to a close relative, a next of kin, like children, grandchildren and so on. If he didn’t have any, the goods should go to the spouse, if he was married, husband or wife. If he wasn’t married everything would go to the direct heir, like father, mother, grandfather, grandmother and so on. It’s like this, I will explain it better. First the goods are left to the spouse and deceased’s person’s heirs, mainly children, recognized or not, the adopted have equal rights too, but just the legal adopted ones. If there weren’t any heirs, the goods are left to the deceased person’s relatives (mother, father, etc.). If there wasn’t a spouse, the siblings would inherit. If there weren’t any brothers or sisters, the nieces and nephews would inherit. And if there weren’t any nieces and nephews the uncles would inherit. The old man Cavendish didn’t have any of these. He could have left his fortune to a person that wasn’t a relative, an actual person or an institution, should have been our friend, here, Mr. Álvaro Lopes, but, unfortunately, he was overlooked.
The butler had an angry face, while Elizabeth, scared, was listening to everything.
-So, the lawyer continued. When there is a situation like this one, everything the deceased owned goes to the government, in this case, the city council where he lived, the town’s district, all
this if no one shows up within 5 years, like a close relative. It could even go to the federal government, but strangely, never to the state government, only the council or the federal government.
- But, what does all this have to do with me? Asked Elizabeth still scared.
- it’s easy, said the lawyer. We needed an heir, someone to inherit everything here, but the old man didn’t have relatives and he didn’t leave his fortune to anyone, so we had to invent you, as I said, we had to create Elizabeth Cavendish Stanton, someone to inherit everything, a daughter of the old man, we had to bring his daughter back to life. You were the chosen one.
-But how did you find me? Why me? Said Elizabeth, even more frightened with this story.
- Easy, the lawyer continued. I falsified the documents, a bribe here, a little help there, and you were reborn, we needed an orphan, someone that had no documents, but it couldn’t be any orphan. The name Elizabeth should have been real, for the documents validity not to be contested. It must have been an Elizabeth around, lost, that could claim everything. We almost gave up, when we found out that the old man was donating, frequently, to an institution, an orphanage, ran by nuns. We examined the orphanage and we discovered an Elizabeth, you, young, only 16 years old, but it fitted, so we invented you, we send you the documents and you came here to claim your inheritance. I took care of everything.
- But you don’t get anything out of this, why would you do it? Said, Elizabeth.
- It’s easy, said, this time the butler Álvaro Lopes. You are underage, less than 18 years old, you can inherit everything, but only when you turn 18 you can completely enjoy the fortune that was left to you. But for all this you would need a guardian, to take care of your inheritance until you turn 18. And that guardian would have been me. You just had to sign some documents, and everything you owned would have been mine, and of course, I would have sold everything before you turned 18. But, in order for you to sign, you had to want to leave this place, you had to want to get rid of the fortune, that’s why we made up everything, the ghosts, the frights, they were all fabricated. This was all done for you to desist of everything here and for you to sign everything over to me. Do you remember? When you were outside, holding the rifle and you heard a branch breaking? That was me trying to scare you. The rock that broke your window, I threw it, the bulky shape you saw it was me, all my work.
Mystery and Suspense at the Cavendish Mansion Page 4
