Walter's Rifle (Haunted Collection Series Book 2)
Page 18
He put his hands in his pockets and whistled a low tune as he made his way to his bedroom. It would take months, if not years, to build up enough arsenic in his mother’s system to kill her.
But that was alright as far as Stefan was concerned.
He now had something to look forward to.
Bonus Scene Chapter 6: A Drop in Temperature
Stefan woke up shivering, in spite of the thick blanket covering him. His breath rushed out in clouds of white, and there seemed to be frost on the interior of the windows. He sighed and shook his head.
The chill in the air meant his mother had forgotten to put away some of her pieces, and the pieces, in turn, had decided to wander the house freely.
Stefan hated how forgetful she had become since Ivan’s death. At times he contemplated an increase in the dosage of rat poison he administered, but that ran the risk of being found out when she died. Even an overweight woman who died suddenly would probably warrant an autopsy, especially after her husband had been found murdered in a hotel room.
I’ll have to do something about it, Stefan complained to himself, tossing off the blanket. He shook as he climbed out of bed and pulled on his robe and slippers. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Stefan left his bedroom and wandered out into the hall. He tried to judge where the cold was coming from, standing at the top of the stairs.
After almost a minute, he decided the chill had its origins somewhere on the first floor.
Rolling his eyes, Stefan walked down, pausing when he reached the bottom stair. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to sense the next direction. His body tugged him toward the kitchen, so he followed its lead. The whisper of his slippers on the floor was loud and grating, his breath continuing to billow out from his mouth.
When he reached the kitchen, he stopped in the doorway, glancing around and searching for anything that might have been left behind by his mother. He sought out any sort of knick-knack or item that wasn’t usually in the room.
He found it a moment later, and it caused his heart to skip a beat.
On the center of the table was his father’s wedding ring.
Stefan trembled, not from the cold, but from a combination of fear and rage.
He had buried the man. Seen him laid out in a coffin, listened to an Orthodox priest chant above his father’s corpse, and watched as the last shovel full of earth was cast into the grave.
He had buried his father, and Stefan wanted him to remain buried.
Ivan Denisovich had no right to be alive.
“Stefanushka.”
His father’s voice came from behind him, and Stefan jerked around.
The dead man stood in the doorway, wearing the clothes he had died in, a trickle of blood coming from his nose. A grin danced along his father’s face, an expression that caused Stefan to stiffen with fear.
He knows, Stefan thought, fighting back panic. He knows I’m going to kill her. He knows!
He managed to keep his paranoia in check as he said in a low voice, “Hello, Father.”
“You are not glad to see me, Stefanushka?” his father asked playfully. Their relationship had never been easy, and Ivan Denisovich knew how much Stefan disliked him.
Stefan contemplated a lie for a moment, then he shrugged and said, “Not particularly.”
His father let out a chuckle, nodding his head. “I like you better when you are honest, Stefanushka. It is something you so rarely are. Your mother is asleep.”
Stefan nodded, even though he knew it wasn’t a question.
“I am going to need you to do something for me, my son,” his father continued.
Stefan raised an eyebrow and waited to hear what the dead man had to say.
“Not even a little curious, Stefanushka?” his father asked.
“No,” Stefan answered.
Ivan Denisovich laughed, pleased with the response.
“Good, my son,” his father said. “Very good. Now listen to me. I need you to take my ring up to my room, and place it with my dead.”
Stefan blinked, not quite certain he had heard his father correctly.
“To your room?” Stefan asked.
His father nodded.
“It’s locked,” Stefan said. “I don’t know if mother will give me the key. She keeps it with her.”
“She keeps a copy of the key with her,” Ivan Denisovich corrected. “There is the master key, of which she is unaware. It is what you will use to enter the room, deposit my ring, and exit.”
“And your dead?” Stefan asked. “Won’t they attack me?”
“No,” his father said in a cold voice. “Not when I am in the room. Not when I am anywhere near them. Do you believe me?”
Stefan nodded.
“Good,” Ivan Denisovich said. “Now, go and put on some warm clothes and your boots. It is colder than you can possibly imagine in that room.”
Repressing a shudder, Stefan left the kitchen and hurried up to his bedroom. Even with his father dead, Stefan had no desire to see the man angry.
Bonus Scene Chapter 7: His Father’s Dead
The master key to his father’s room was hidden behind a book about the history of the Russian Revolution on a bookshelf in the first-floor study. With a pair of white cotton gloves protecting his hands, Stefan held the key in his right hand and his father’s ring in the left.
“You will walk in,” his father said from behind him, “and you will go forward to my desk. In the center of its back, you will see a small lion’s head. You will push it in, and a spring-loaded drawer will pop out. Place my ring there and leave the room. I will hold my dead back. Now, repeat my instructions, Stefanushka.”
Word for word Stefan did so, and his father muttered his approval.
“Go now, Stefanushka,” his father said. “I will not speak to you again for some time.”
Never would be too soon, Stefan thought bitterly, but he kept the comment to himself, and his face plain and submissive.
Stepping forward, Stefan unlocked the room and let himself in. Even as he reached for the light switch, his body was wracked with horrible tremors, the cold penetrating his flesh worse than anything he had felt before.
Each step was an effort, every ounce of his physical being screamed for him to flee, to seek warmth and safety.
He crushed those thoughts, seized his primal nature and squeezed it back to where it needed to be, buried deep within him. If he wanted Ivan Denisovich out of his life, Stefan had to put the ring in the desk drawer and seal the door behind him.
Walking across the carpet of the small room, Stefan focused on the roll-top desk opposite from him. Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, and while such shelves in his mother’s room were packed to overflowing, his father’s were sparsely occupied. Stefan caught a glimpse of a bayonet on one shelf, and a briar smoking pipe on another. A long hairpin with a jeweled butterfly occupied an entire display case, and a pair of books by Louisa May Alcott stood on another.
Relics of war were scattered about as well. The broken butt of an AK-47, the bandolier from a Viet Cong. An old K-Bar knife from the Marines.
And as Stefan moved towards the desk, he heard his father’s dead.
The words were unintelligible, but their meaning was clear.
They despised Ivan Denisovich Korzh, and they wanted to punish his son.
Fear spiked in Stefan’s heart, but he pushed himself forward. His father’s voice joined the cacophony around him, yelling in a variety of languages as the room shook with unseen violence. Stefan stumbled, caught himself on the edge of the desk and reached out, pressing the lion’s head. The click was barely audible, but the drawer sprang out. Velvet lined the interior and Stefan hastily put the ring in it, closing the drawer when he was finished.
Something or someone struck him in the back of the head, knocking him back into the desk. He struggled to get away, but another blow caught him in the face. The pain was sharp, more from the chill than the actual force of the strike. A pair
of hands tried to hold him back as he forced his way towards the door. Stefan felt as though he was wading through mud, and a deep fear rose up. He felt certain he would drown in the room, that somehow he would be dragged down to the floor where the dead would murder him with his own breath.
Yet even as the thought crossed his mind, Stefan reached the door. Clutching either side of the door jamb, Stefan thrust himself out of the room and back into the hallway. He fell to his knees, took several deep, warm breaths, and then twisted around. Seizing the door, Stefan slammed it closed and got to his feet, holding onto the frame and locking the door again.
Shuddering, Stefan took several steps back, breathing painfully.
A heartbeat later his father’s voice came through the door.
“Put the key back, Stefanushka,” his father said, laughing. “Put it away and keep it safe.”
Stefan nodded and made his way to the stairs. His legs trembled and his arms shook as he held onto the railing and descended to the first floor. By the time he reached the study, he had regained most of his control. He paused in the doorway, breathed in through his nose, let it out, and then smiled.
Stefan slipped the key into his front pocket and turned away from the study. He would keep the key safe, but he wouldn’t return it. That, as far as he could tell, wouldn’t be safe at all. A smile crossed his face as he walked towards the kitchen.
It was almost time for breakfast, and his mother was going to need her eggs.
* * *
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Bolt Action
Chapter 2: Searching for Something
Chapter 3: A New House
Chapter 4: Seeking
Chapter 5: Conversations
Chapter 6: Setting the Bird Free
Chapter 7: The First Clue
Chapter 8: “All Gaul is divided”
Chapter 9: Along a Road in the Evening
Chapter 10: Something’s Wrong with Julius
Chapter 11: Stopping a Panic
Chapter 12: Lunch and Death in Vermont
Chapter 13: A Meeting of Strange Fellows
Chapter 14: A Visit with the Patriarch
Chapter 15: In Darkness, He Despairs
Chapter 16: An Argument Unresolved
Chapter 17: A Conversation
Chapter 18: Dawn Arrives
Chapter 19: The First Bit
Chapter 20: Hot and Uncomfortable
Chapter 21: No Safe Place
Chapter 22: Discovered and Recovered
Chapter 23: An Unfortunate Disturbance
Chapter 24: Walter and Brown, Sitting in a Tree
Chapter 25: A Question of Some Importance
Chapter 26: A Conversation
Chapter 27: Unnecessary Risk
Chapter 28: A Phone Call in Boston
Chapter 29: Alone with a Good Book
Chapter 30: Jeremy Rhinehart in the Waiting Room
Chapter 31: Therapy
Chapter 32: Finishing the Tale
Chapter 33: Retribution
Chapter 34: Brown’s Bad Information
Chapter 35: Voices in the Darkness
Chapter 36: Anger and Poor Decisions
Chapter 37: A Painful Decision
Chapter 38: An Education
Chapter 39: Searching for the Boy
Chapter 40: Norwich, CT
Chapter 41: Along a Winding Road
Chapter 42: Patience is a Virtue
Chapter 43: Handing off the Problem
Chapter 44: Tactics
Chapter 45: An Unforeseen Occurrence
Chapter 46: Displeased
Chapter 47: Another Scene
Chapter 48: Unpleasant News
Chapter 49: A Hard Walk
Chapter 50: A Knock on the Door
Chap
ter 51: A Growing Paranoia
Chapter 52: Preparations against Invasion
Chapter 53: Duplicity
Chapter 54: Lambtown Cemetery
Chapter 55: Walter’s Rifle
Chapter 56: Jeremy’s Home
Chapter 57: Outrage
Chapter 58: A Marine and His Rifle
Chapter 59: Conversations and Decisions
Bonus Scene Chapter 1: A Definite Improvement
Bonus Scene Chapter 2: An Unwelcome Visitor
Bonus Scene Chapter 3: From a Distance and Efficient
Bonus Scene Chapter 4: A Successful Trip
Bonus Scene Chapter 5: Mother’s Little Helper
Bonus Scene Chapter 6: A Drop in Temperature
Bonus Scene Chapter 7: His Father’s Dead
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