“There will be nothing left to settle when Mrs. Leeds and Laponi get through. It’s pretty evident that one or the other is an impostor.”
“But we can’t prove that, Penny. If only I hadn’t lost my key and the credentials!”
“We’re only starting to work on this case,” Penny said cheerfully. “Let’s keep our eyes and ears open. We may discover something of value.”
Since their arrival at the old house, the girls had awaited an opportunity to inspect the third floor, hoping to discover the cause of the mysterious music which had disturbed the household. Penny suggested that while Mrs. Leeds and Laponi were occupied in the library they might make their tour of investigation. Rosanna agreed but without enthusiasm. She was not as venturesome as her companion.
Penny led the way to the third floor landing. The hall was dark and dusty; cobwebs hung from the corners of the ceiling.
Penny cast an appraising glance about her. The doors leading from the hall were all closed. She was certain that upon her previous visit one had been slightly ajar.
She reached for the knob and turned it. The door did not give. It was locked.
“That’s funny,” Penny murmured.
“What is?”
“I’m sure this door was unlocked before.”
“Perhaps it was the other one,” Rosanna suggested.
They moved on down the hall to try the second door. It too was securely fastened.
“I distinctly recall opening that other door,” Penny maintained. “I started to go in and tripped over something. I suspect it was a rope stretched just inside the door.”
“Well, if we can’t get in I guess we can’t learn anything,” Rosanna said, somewhat in relief.
Penny made no response. She bent down to peer through the keyhole.
“See anything?” Rosanna asked.
“Just a big empty room. But there is something up against the far wall! Rosanna, it’s a pipe organ!”
After a minute she stepped away that her friend might see for herself. Rosanna agreed that the shadowy outline was an organ and a magnificent one.
“The music came from this room all right,” Penny said excitedly. “I wish we could get in.”
After trying the door again, the girls returned to the second floor. As Penny closed the stairway door she noticed that it had a key. Upon impulse she turned it in the lock and pocketed the key with a smile of satisfaction.
“That should put a stop to the music for a few nights,” she remarked. “I’ll show that ghost I can lock a few doors myself!”
As they reached their own bedroom, Rosanna said that she believed she would lie down for a half hour. The events of the past few days had worn her down, both physically and mentally.
“Do,” Penny urged: “A sleep will refresh you. I think I’ll go downstairs and see if I can discover what plot is brewing.”
She descended the spiral stairway and paused at the library. It was empty. The house was strangely silent. Penny crossed the hall to the living room. Heavy draperies screened the arched doorway. As Penny pulled them aside to enter, she saw Mrs. Leeds standing at the fireplace, her back to the door. Something about her manner aroused Penny’s suspicions. She waited and watched.
Mrs. Leeds had built up a roaring fire on the hearth. She held a paper in her hand. Deliberately, she tore it into a dozen pieces and dropped them into the flames.
Penny hastily entered the room.
Mrs. Leeds wheeled, her cheeks flushing. “How you startled me, Miss Nichols! You surely have a way of coming in quietly.”
“Sorry,” Penny said, walking over to the hearth. “How nice to have a fire, although it is a little warm today.”
“The room seemed damp,” Mrs. Leeds said nervously. “I was cold. I think I’ll go to my room and get a sweater.”
The instant Mrs. Leeds had disappeared, Penny snatched a charred piece of paper from the hearth. It was the only scrap which had not been completely consumed by the flames.
Only a few scattered lines with many words missing were visible. The others were blackened or torn away.
Penny distinguished a part of the writing: “Last will and testam— —do bequeath to my niece, Ro—”
“This must be a portion of Jacob Winters’ will!” she thought. “Mrs. Leeds probably found it somewhere in the house and decided to destroy it because she or her daughter weren’t mentioned!”
She stared at the word which began Ro—. The remaining letters had been torn away. Had Mr. Winters written Rosanna’s name? If only she had entered the living room a minute earlier she might have prevented the document from being destroyed!
In reviewing Mrs. Leeds’ actions during the past two days, Penny could not doubt that the woman had actually found the missing will. Since her arrival at Raven Ridge she had spent most of her time poking about into odd corners of the house. The locked drawer of the desk had annoyed her exceedingly.
“I’ll just take a look and see if it’s still locked,” Penny thought.
She opened the desk and tried the drawer. It readily opened.
“Empty,” Penny commented grimly. “Just as I suspected.”
She examined the lock. It was evident at a glance that it had been broken by a sharp instrument and not unlocked with a key.
“The will was hidden in this drawer,” she mused. “I feel confident of it. And it must have been drawn up in Rosanna’s favor or Mrs. Leeds never would have destroyed it.”
Penny closed the desk and carefully placed the charred bit of paper in her dress pocket. She was deeply disturbed over the discovery, realizing that Mrs. Leeds, by destroying the document, had gained a great advantage. However, she had no intention of abandoning the fight.
“I’ll keep this strictly to myself,” she decided. “For the present I’ll not even tell Rosanna. It would only disappoint her to learn that the will has been burned.”
Since Mrs. Leeds’ arrival at Raven Ridge, Penny had done everything in her power to avoid a break with the arrogant society woman. She had ignored snubs and many unkind remarks. Now she felt that if Rosanna’s interests were to be safeguarded, she no longer could afford to play a waiting game.
“Mrs. Leeds and Max Laponi have shown their hand,” she reflected. “They mean to gain their ends by any possible means. But since they’re stooping to underhanded tricks, I may have a few little schemes of my own!”
Penny was unusually silent that evening. Rosanna noticed it at once but thinking that her friend was absorbed in her own thoughts, refrained from questioning her.
At six o’clock the girls motored to Andover for dinner. To their chagrin, Mrs. Leeds and her daughter Alicia chanced to select the same cafe. All during the meal, Penny noticed the woman’s eyes upon her. As she and Rosanna arose to leave, Mrs. Leeds hastily followed them.
“Miss Winters, may I speak with you a moment?” she began coldly.
“Why, yes, of course,” Rosanna responded.
“I mean alone.”
Rosanna hesitated and glanced at Penny. The latter started to move away.
“No, don’t go,” Rosanna said quickly. “I am sure that anything Mrs. Leeds may wish to say to me can be said in front of you.”
“Very well,” Mrs. Leeds returned icily. “Evidence has reached me today which proves conclusively that I am Jacob Winters’ sole heir.”
Rosanna took the blow without the quiver of an eyelash.
“What evidence, may I ask, Mrs. Leeds?”
“I don’t feel compelled to go into that, Miss Winters. Certainly not in the presence of strangers or on the street.”
“Penny isn’t exactly a stranger,” Rosanna smiled.
“From the first I have been very tolerant, I think,” Mrs. Leeds went on, ignoring the orphan’s remark. “By your own admission you have no credentials—we have only your word that you are even related to Jacob Winters.”
“I had a letter and key—the same as you,” Rosanna faltered. “Either I lost them or they were stolen.”
“And Rosanna happens to be a niece of Mr. Winters,” Penny added significantly. “I believe you are only a cousin, Mrs. Leeds?”
The woman eyed her furiously.
“Just what is it that you want me to do?” Rosanna asked.
“I think you both should leave immediately.”
“And allow you to have everything your way,” Penny interposed sweetly. “Now wouldn’t that be nice—for you!”
She took Rosanna by the arm and urged her toward the car.
“Don’t allow Miss Nichols to poison your mind!” Mrs. Leeds pleaded, following Rosanna to the curbing. “Unless you leave immediately you will receive no part of the fortune. If you go without making any further trouble, I might agree to some small settlement. After all, I mean to be generous.”
“Thanks for telling us,” Penny smiled.
She closed the car door and they drove away.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t have been so short with her,” Rosanna said uneasily as they returned to the house on Snow Mountain. “If it’s true that the property has been left to her, then she was being generous to offer to give me anything.”
“Don’t worry, she’d forget her promise soon enough if she succeeded in getting you away from here, Rosanna. I detest that woman. She thinks she is so subtle and she’s as transparent as glass!”
“I wonder what evidence she referred to?” Rosanna mused.
Penny started to speak, then changed her mind. Although Mrs. Leeds had no suspicion that she guessed the truth, she was well aware of the nature of the new evidence. However, she refrained from mentioning the burned will, realizing that Rosanna, in her present depressed state of mind, would be greatly disturbed by the information. If the orphan believed that she no longer had a definite claim to the fortune, she would insist upon leaving Raven Ridge without further delay.
Penny did not intend to quit the scene until she had answered several questions to her satisfaction.
The entire case seemed a trifle fantastic as she reviewed it. First, Rosanna had received the strange letter signed by a fictitious name. Then, although the orphan had lost the key, they had found the door of the Winters’ mansion unlocked. Close upon the heels of their arrival, Mrs. Leeds, her daughter, and Max Laponi appeared. Since then, the house had been disturbed by haunting organ music and one baffling event had crowded upon another.
“It’s all very bewildering,” Penny reflected. “But I believe that everything can be fitted together if only I am able to learn the identity of the mysterious ghost.”
The night closed in dark and windy. Penny and Rosanna sat by the fire, trying to read. They were relieved when Mrs. Leeds and her daughter retired to their rooms shortly after eight o’clock for it gave them an opportunity to talk. At ten o’clock the girls went to their own room. Max Laponi had not yet returned from Andover where he took his meals.
Penny was tired and fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Hours later she was awakened by Rosanna who was sitting upright in bed.
“What is it?” Penny mumbled drowsily.
Then she knew. The house reverberated with the soft chords of a pipe organ.
Without switching on the electric lights, Penny drew on her dressing gown. She started toward the door, then returned to grope in the drawer of the dresser where she found the key which locked the door leading to the attic floor.
“What are you going to do?” Rosanna asked anxiously, drawing the bedclothes closer about her.
Penny already had gone. Stealing quietly down the dark hall she reached the end of it and stood listening. The door leading to the third floor was closed. She could hear the music more distinctly than before and knew for a certainty that it came from above.
She gently tried the door. It was still locked.
Penny was momentarily baffled. She had half expected to find the door unlocked. She had been so confident that by taking the key she could put a stop to the ghost music.
“How did the organist reach the third floor if he didn’t pass through this door?” she debated. “That ghost must be quite a clever fellow if he can enter without keys.”
The entire house had been carefully locked up for the night. Penny and Rosanna had attended to it the last thing before retiring, knowing that Max Laponi could come in later by using his own pass key. They had secured every door and window.
“Well, I won’t learn anything by standing here,” Penny thought uncomfortably. “I’ll have to go up there.” Her usual courage was at low ebb. She dreaded the ordeal.
However, before she could open the stairway door, a shrill scream echoed down the hall.
Terrified, Penny crouched back against the wall and waited.
CHAPTER X
The Wall Safe
Recovering from her fright, Penny reached up and snapped on the light. She heard a door open down the hall. Mrs. Leeds, a dressing gown clutched about her unshapely figure, stumbled toward the girl.
“There’s something in my room! It struck my face while I was sleeping! Oh, oh, such a horrible house!”
“Control yourself,” Penny advised, taking her by the arm. “We’ll see what it is.”
Mrs. Leeds jerked away, assuming an attitude of tense listening. For the first time she had paid heed to the organ music from above.
“There it is again!” she whispered in awe. “This house is haunted.”
Rosanna came down the hall, joining the two at Mrs. Leeds’ door. Alicia huddled nearby, too frightened to speak a word.
Penny opened the door and groped for the electric switch. As the room was flooded with light, she looked quickly about. Everything was in disorder but that was because Mrs. Leeds had done no straightening or cleaning since her arrival.
Suddenly Penny began to laugh.
“Pray what do you find that is so humorous?” Mrs. Leeds demanded indignantly.
“Bats!” Penny answered, laughing again.
There were four of them blinded by the light, cowering in the corners of the room. Penny opened a window and with Rosanna’s help drove them out into the night.
“They must have come in through an open window,” she said to Mrs. Leeds.
“I didn’t have a window open,” the woman retorted. “I can’t bear to sleep in this room again. Tomorrow I shall move into another. Come Alicia, we’ll sit up until morning in the living room.”
Returning to her own room, Penny listened for the organ music. It had ceased as mysteriously as it had begun. She glanced curiously toward the room occupied by Max Laponi. The door was closed. He alone of the entire household seemed undisturbed by the strange things which went on about him.
“I’d like to know if he really is in his room,” Penny thought.
She hesitated by the door but did not have the courage to try the knob. After a moment she followed Rosanna to their bedroom at the other end of the hall.
Morning found Mrs. Leeds even more upset than upon the previous night. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face sallow, her clothes unpressed. She quarreled with her daughter and ignored Penny and Rosanna. However, when Max Laponi came down the stairs looking as dapper as ever, her attitude instantly changed. She spoke to him in a softer tone.
“We were beginning to wonder if the ghost made off with you last night,” she said archly.
“What ghost?”
“You mean to say you didn’t hear the music?”
“Not a sound,” Laponi told her. “I am a very hard sleeper.”
He seemed disinclined to listen to Mrs. Leeds’ account of all that had transpired, and very shortly drove away in his automobile, ostensibly to have breakfast in a nearby town.
After straightening their room and making the bed, Rosanna and Penny went for a short walk. They sat down by the cliff where they could see the river below, discussing the situation.
“I don’t see that it’s doing a particle of good to stay here,” Rosanna insisted. “I don’t feel right about letting you waste so much time and money.”
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br /> Rosanna was thinking of the expensive meals which they bought at Andover. Because her own supply of cash had run so low, Penny paid for everything. Rosanna meant to settle the debt and it steadily grew larger.
“Now don’t worry,” Penny advised kindly. “I’m staying on here largely because I’ve determined to discover the identity of our ghost. Then, too, I can’t bear to see Mrs. Leeds gain what doesn’t belong to her.”
“I’d be glad to stay if I thought it would do the slightest good—”
“I think it will Rosanna. I have a scheme which I intend to try. It will take a few days before we can work things out.”
Penny then explained a part of what was in her mind. She was not certain as to all the details of her plan, but little by little it was taking shape.
After a time the girls walked down to Caleb Eckert’s cabin. He was not at home. They sauntered leisurely back to the house on the cliff.
Neither Mrs. Leeds’ car nor the one belonging to Max Laponi was on the driveway.
“I guess we’re the only ones here this morning,” Penny commented.
They entered by the front door. From the direction of the living room they heard a muffled exclamation of impatience. Signaling for silence, Penny tiptoed toward the velvet curtains which hid the living room from view. She parted them.
Caleb Eckert was working at the dials of a wall safe which had been concealed in a secret panel behind a large oil painting.
Although the girls had made no sound, Caleb sensed their presence. He turned and faced them.
“Why, Mr. Eckert, doesn’t this call for some explanation?” Penny asked in bewilderment. “Surely you have no right to tamper with Mr. Winters’ safe.”
The old man plainly was embarrassed. He moistened his lips, looked away, then said gruffly:
“I didn’t come here to steal. I came because I wanted to protect Mr. Winters’ valuables. There’s folks in this house that I don’t trust.”
“But how does it happen you know the combination of the safe?” Rosanna inquired.
“Mr. Winters gave it to me before he left. You see, he was my best friend. Jacob trusted me.”
The Girl Detective Megapack: 25 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls Page 209
