A Haunting at Hensley Hall (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery)

by Merabeth James

  Ah, there was the chimney from the old house silhouetted against the sky. The cellar doors would be over there, just to the left.

  He lay Brittany on the ground and pushed his way through the vines and brush that had overgrown the old foundation, then struggled to open the doors that were rotted through. It was blacker than the pit of hell below, but that didn’t bother him. The dark was part of him now and he didn’t need light to see where he was going or what he’d be doing.

  He remembered everything and his groin tightened even harder in anticipation. This time Devon would have to do it…not puke and piss himself like he did before. This time he would make him do it. He was too powerful to be denied anything…especially by his puling son, who had turned out to be an even bigger disappointment than he had ever thought possible. He would make a man of him tonight. He smiled as he picked up his prey and carried her below.

  ***

  Charlie was surprised to find a young man with a tattoo of something crawling up his neck and silver studs bristling from his nose and lower lip, pounding on their front door after she had thought everyone had left for the night. His eyes were wild, and he was almost incoherent, but she managed to catch, “She called me up and I answered, but she didn’t say nothin’. I heard the phone fall and she moaned or somethin’ and then I couldn’t hear nothin’. Just dead air. She was supposed to be waiting near the gates till I got there, but I was runnin’ late. She wasn’t there so I come up here, thinkin’ maybe she’d be here.”

  “No one’s here but us. Who are you looking for?” Charlie asked, as Meg joined her from the kitchen, where she and Freddie had been raiding the fridge.

  “Her name’s Brittany…Brittany Nelson…she was with the caterers. She was goin’ to cut out early then me and her was going to head up to Butte Point and…, Anyway, like I said, she wasn't down by the gates, so I come up here.”

  “Meg, why don’t you take, what was your name?” he mumbled ‘Jayson’ and she nodded, “into the kitchen while I call the police.”

  Some thirty minutes later a patrol car rolled up in front of the house. Merritsville only had one officer on duty at night, Dooley Fitts, and he wasn’t particularly pleased to be called out to Hensley Hall.

  Charlie and Meg led him back to the kitchen, where Jayson sat, drinking a cola. Apparently, Jayson was well known to the local cops. “Well now, Jayson, what are you up to tonight? What’s this about Brittany going missing? You know you aren’t supposed to be messing with her. Didn’t her daddy tell you he was going to beat the hell out of your sorry ass…excuse me ladies…out of you the next time he saw you hanging around her?”

  Charlie had heard enough. “That’s not what is important here. He was supposed to meet her…was talking to he on her cell phone…when something apparently happened. And, we didn’t report it at the time, but someone chased my sister up from the lake just a few days ago. Not likely to be a coincidence. Maybe we should start by looking at where Brittany was supposed to meet him?”

  Fleetingly, Charlie wondered, as she led the way down the drive, where Zack was. Maybe he’d left for the night? Surely, if he was still in his room, he would have been curious enough to see what was going on, since he was every bit as nosey as she was!

  It had grown colder, since they’d been outside earlier. The moon had settled deep in the trees. They could hear Annie’s dog howl once, as they passed that way. Her windows were dark. She must be sound asleep, Charlie thought. Lucky her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept through a whole night. Sometime before they ‘won’ the house, the never-ending blood sucking renovation, Meg’s parade of ghosts, and the ‘tax bomb’ Adrian had dropped. And too many other things she really didn’t want to think about.

  They continued to follow the drive past the fountain with its nymph and satyr that now sprayed water, after enough money had been thrown at it. “All part of your curb appeal” Rayne had told them more than once. And each time it drained their pockets even more. They reached the gates and looked around. “Let’s fan out , but stay close. One missing is one too many,” Charlie said. They pushed through the bushes and swept the area, calling Bittany's name, but there was no sign of her.

  Annoyed that Charlie had taken charge, Officer Fitts gave them his take. “Jayson, you said you were late and she was pissed. Maybe she’s just making you worry. Probably hitched a ride back home by now. Can’t do nothing for twenty-four hours anyway. That’s the rule. Twenty-four hours on a missing person report. Come down to the station tomorrow. Though if she’s still missing by then, I imagine her folks will have beat you to it.”

  Charlie looked at Meg. “Which one of the girls was she?”

  “The one with the long dark hair. Really pretty…maybe seventeen.” Meg replied. “I have a really bad feeling about this!”

  Charlie shivered. Another Breanna look alike. She couldn’t help but wonder if anyone would ever see Brittany alive again.

  They walked back to the house and waited in the drive, until Jayson and Officer Fitts climbed in their cars and drove off. “Better get Freddie and we’ll get him walked,” Charlie told Meg, “and we should check on Rayne. She and Adrian must have had a row. She went up to her room as soon as the last guest left and didn’t say a word.”

  “I saw that. And he left early. Hey! Who’s that coming up from the lake?” Meg asked excitedly. “Let’s get inside and lock the door.”

  Charlie sensed who it was before she even saw him clearly. It was Zack. The wind teased his dark hair and his eyes were deeply shadowed, as he stepped out of the darkness. “What are you doing prowling about in the dark?" she asked.

  "I might ask you both the same question. Is something going on?

  "There’s a girl missing,” Charlie told him tensely.

  He grabbed her arm and asked, “Who is it?”

  “Bittany. She worked with the caterers.”

  “I'm betting the one with the long dark hair, right? Another Breanna look alike,” he told her.

  “Yes. I’m getting Rayne out of here in the morning. You never answered my question. What were you doing out there in the dark?”

  “You still don’t trust me do you? I wanted to see where Rayne had been that night and I wanted to see the ‘Folly’ on the island so I rowed over. It’s a lonely place. Beautiful in the moonlight, but lonely and rather sad. Now doesn’t that sound silly coming from a guy like me?”

  “It was their favorite place…Breanna and Devon’s. They used to go there in the moonlight…sneak out together,” Charlie replied.

  “How do you know all this? Have you been holding out on me?” he asked, brushing back a strand of silvery hair from her face.

  Meg had been watching their exchange with a mixture of interest and disgust. Or was it envy? She wasn't sure, but enough was enough. "Seems I'm as invisible as one of my ghosts. I'm taking Freddie inside. He already did his thing in the bushes, while you guys were talking?"

  But Charlie hadn't heard a word she said. “We found Breanna’s journal. Her ghost led Meg to it. I think I’ll let you see it now," she told him, still shivering from his touch.

  “And not before?”

  She smiled. “I wasn’t ready. It’s upstairs in my room. I’ll check on Rayne, while we’re up there. I think she had a row with Adrian. He took off early and she went up to her room. Meg," she called, looking around for her sister, but she was gone.

  "Meg!" she called again, this time frantically, just as the door behind her popped open and Meg said, "If you had bothered to listen to a single word I said, you'd know I was safely inside…with Freddie. We'll be in the kitchen in case anyone is interested."

  Charlie flushed, uncomfortably, only too aware of what Meg was trying to tell her. Making sure the door was locked behind them, she led the way up the front staircase and down the hall. She paused outside Rayne’s door and listened. All she could hear was the sound machine she had borrowed cranking away on Rain Storm. Light poured from the crack beneath the door. She turned t
he knob, but it was locked. “Wait here, Zack. I’ll get the journal and bring a key. I want to make sure she’s okay.”

  She was back in moments. Handing him the journal, she said, “I think you’ll get a feel for what really happened here, but there are no answers in there, at least to the questions we’ve both been asking.”

  “Like where Devon is?” he asked, slipping the journal into his jacket pocket.

  “Exactly,” she whispered, as she opened the door and looked inside. Every light was on. Her sister lay huddled beneath a pile of blankets…her head covered with a lavender towel. She was sound asleep and snoring, quite loudly, something that would have horrified her had she known. But she was safe and Charlie breathed a sigh of relief.

  But she was alone with Zack and her reaction to his presence really terrified her! Locking the door behind her, she called a quick “Good night,” over her shoulder and bolted for the back stairs, but he caught her in two strides and spun her around.

  His dark eyes bored into her’s and she felt a strange melting sensation in her knees. His hands gripped both her shoulders tightly and she could feel his heat scorch her bare skin. He gave her a shake, a hard shake, then told her, “I don’t know what’s going on here. The only person that ties all this together is supposed to be dead. The train wreck. But nobody checked very deeply into the identity of the man they brought back here. He had Devon’s wallet...was the right age, size, and coloring, but his face was mutilated. The family identified him and the police let it go at that, even though they considered him a person of interest in both the murders and disappearance of his sister. You don’t think Devon is dead and neither do I. There’s a good chance that he was after Rayne the other night and now has Brittany. I want all of you to get the hell out of this place till he’s captured or killed.”

  She smiled then. Someone was actually trying to look after her! “I can’t leave here. This house is all we have, but I'll make sure Rayne’s out of here in the morning. Meg’s another matter. She is a very stubborn woman who has her own ideas about what she wants to do.”

  “Like her sister,” he replied, tracing her full lower lip with one finger. “Then promise me, you won’t take any foolish chances. I know you have a gun and I know you can use it. Protect yourselves, but let me handle the rest.”

  She looked into his dark beguiling eyes and felt a tug of longing work its way through her entire core. At that moment…more than anything…she wanted to pull Zack Mallory into her bedroom and let him do to her everything his eyes promised. But she couldn’t…or, rather, wouldn’t. She would not allow herself to feel what she was feeling, so she laughed and warned him. “You know that is never going to happen. I’m going to the police station first thing in the morning, after I see Rayne headed for the airport. We could help each other, but don’t get in my way.”

  Twisting free she sped down the stairs. At the bottom she turned and looked back. He stood there looking down at her and she had the strangest feeling he had done that once before…a long time ago.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Meg and Charlie helped Rayne load her bags in the back of her rental. She was headed back to New York and couldn't wait to put as many miles as she could, as fast as she could, between her and Hensley Hell. She was only too aware that the missing girl might have been her and she was more terrified than ever “Mom and Dad are there now…a meeting with his publisher…some TV appearances. I won’t tell them about the mess you’ve gotten yourselves into here. No use scaring them, too. I’m scared enough for the whole Ravynne family!” she told them. After hugging them tightly and making them promise they’d be careful, Rayne slid behind the wheel and drove off.

  “This is the earliest I’ve ever seen her up, ” Meg muttered around a yawn.

  “Fear can be a powerful motivator,” Charlie said with a wry grin. “I love Rayne but a little of our baby sister goes a long way!”

  “I’m glad you said that and not me. It sounds more natural coming from your lips.”

  “Alas! I’m not all sweetness and light like you!” Charlie told her with a laugh. “I wonder where Zack is this morning? I gave him the journal to read. He was probably up all night finishing it.”

  “I was a little fed up last night with both you and Zack, but I'm over it. So you trust him now? Are you certain he’s not Devon?” Meg asked, narrowing her blue eyes as she studied her sister.

  “Honestly? He’s not who he says he is, but I don’t think he’s Devon,” Charlie replied.

  “And you know that how?” Meg asked with a frown.

  “Gut instinct, what else?”

  “Just make sure you are listening to the right part of your anatomy, if you get my meaning,” Meg told her, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. She knew she had gone too far, when she saw the look in her sister’s eyes. Squealing loudly, she sprinted around the house with Charlie in close pursuit. They were both laughing when they burst through the kitchen door.

  “I’ll not be askin’ what’s got you two actin’ like four year olds. Breakfast is almost ready. Get your bottoms in the breakfast room. I want to get busy puttin’ me kitchen back in order after all the commotion yesterday. Imagine caterers and all! And dancin’ on the lawn! Quite a shebang it was!”

  “Then you didn’t hear what happened afterwards?” Charlie asked.

  “I took a wee nip of whiskey and fell asleep like a log. The first night’s sleep since your sister was chased up from the lake. I’m not all that sorry to see that one go, beggin your pardon for me sayin’ so. That young miss is full of herself and then some. So what happened while I be snug in me bed like a wee tick?”

  “A girl seems to have disappeared…one of those with the caterers. Long dark hair…young? You don’t remember seeing her about after you went to your apartment, do you? Maybe when you were walking Tavish?”

  “He uses his piddle pad ‘as seen on TV’, when me old legs want to stretch out and not be climbin’ the stairs. No, didn't see or hear a thing. After me drink…maybe a mite more than just the one…I was sound asleep. Did you call the coppers?”

  “Yes, an officer came out, but said he couldn’t do anything for twenty-four hours. Her boyfriend was supposed to meet her near the front gates, but she wasn’t there, so he came up here looking for her. We’re going to the station after breakfast. I want to know more about what happened here forty years ago. Somehow I think it’s all connected,” Charlie said, afraid that she might be scaring Annie when that was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “Ach! And why is that? That all be a long time ago…the three murders and the disappearance of this Breanna, who no one has ever laid eyes on again. I heard the boy who done it, the twin brother, run off and got himself killed somewhere.”

  “And who told you that?” Charlie asked in surprise.

  “There be gossip aplenty about this place and, with me living here, they want me to know all the nasty bits. The worst is the postmistress. What a tongue that woman has! Could fillet a fish with it…sharp as it tis and all.”

  “Annie, nobody really knows if he was guilty, but if it was Devon Hensley, he probably murdered his sister as well. We all saw Breanna again, at the séance, whether you want to remember it or not. She can’t be a ghost, if she isn’t dead,” Meg told her, before she realized it was better left unsaid.

  Annie crossed herself and muttered something under her breath. “Saints presarve us! Don’t be mentionin’ that again. If I live to be a hundred I’ll never be a able to wipe that from me mind, though not from lack of tryin’.” And with that she stormed from the room.

  “Well, it’s back to keeping Annie in the dark. Sometimes I wish we could all take that route and pretend nothing happened. Sometimes I feel it’s all my fault,” Meg said with a long sigh.

  “Yours? I was the one that wanted to enter the contest. You tried to talk me out of it, remember?”

  “I didn’t try hard enough…especially when I realized it must be haunted. I’m a ghost magnet. Among other things, n
one of which are good. I must have summoned up Breanna and Old Thumper. I don’t mind if Breanna wants to hang around. I like her and her cat, but Old Thumper is evil…really evil. Do you think he could have taken Brittany?” Meg asked, as she nervously worried her lower lip.

  “Wouldn’t that take more energy than a ghost would have? Meg, look at me,” she said, “whatever is unfolding here is destiny at work. We would never have won that contest if we weren’t meant to. You…me…Breanna…even Devon and Old Thumper are caught up in something we have no control over.”

  “You believe that don’t you? You really aren’t just trying to make me feel better?” Meg asked, hopefully.

  “That’s the funny part. Pragmatic, feet on the ground, Charlie Ravynne really does believe it. And nobody could be more surprised than she!” Charlie told her, as she drew her into a hug.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Charlie parked her pick up truck in front of the brick two-storied police station, then turned to her sister. “Look, Meg. This may be a complete waste of time. I’m not even sure what we’ll be looking for.”

  “And you can bet the police won’t be too happy with us poking around,” Meg added. “But that’s not going to stop us, is it?” Charlie smiled and didn’t bother to answer what she knew was a rhetorical question.

  They climbed the cement steps and pushed through the door. It was quieter than they expected, the only sound, other than a fan whirling above their heads, was the moan from an elderly lady sitting on a bench that hugged one wall. A too thin, sandy haired officer, sitting behind a glassed in counter, looked up as they entered. His name tag read: Sgt. Muggins. He smiled when he said, “I don’t think you need to tell me who you are or what you want. The Chief’s been expecting you. Millie!” he called to the woman pecking away at her keyboard behind him. “Take these ladies to the Chief. And better bring him another cup of coffee. Looks like he might need it.”