by HR Mason
He stalked toward her, pulling the baby from her arms and placing him in a crib. The boy screamed, crying, wailing for his mother. Her heart broke into a million pieces. She knew it was the last time she would see her baby, the last time she would hold him in her arms. He was lost to her forever.
“Don’t take my baby,” she pleaded with him.
Her words couldn’t permeate his insanity.
His face contorted with rage. He leaned in closely, and she smelled the scotch on his breath. His black, soulless eyes were nothing but a void. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sound was muffled as he gripped her neck tightly, his spindly fingers squeezing into her flesh and cutting off her air supply.
She couldn’t breathe. She was going to die. This was how it ended. She understood now.
The man cried as he continued compressing her neck between his hands. Her breath grew shallow as her eyes fluttered open and shut. She was drifting in and out of consciousness; soon she would be gone completely.
“Why did you make me do this, Marie? Why couldn’t you just do as you were told? Why does it always come to this?”
“You’re… killing… me,” she gasped.
She fought to keep her eyes open, trying to find a way to stay alive. He released his grip a bit and she wheezed, trying to force air into her lungs.
“Marshall….”
He sobbed, continuing to grip her neck as he squeezed with all his might. She struggled for several moments, but it was no use. Her body grew limp as she slumped over the arm of the rocking chair.
“You left me no choice, Marie.”
Aubrey opened her eyes, straightening herself in the chair. She was still gasping for breath, startled by the stark reality of fully experiencing Marie’s gruesome death.
Glancing across the room, she spotted Marie weeping beside the window. Aubrey sprang from the rocking chair, tripping over a box in the process. Her body thudded to the floor. As she lay there, working to catch her breath, she knew there was still something she was missing, some piece of the puzzle Marie was waiting for her to figure out.
Marie remained in front of the window, continuing to weep. The ghost glanced back and forth between Aubrey and the wardrobes lining the wall.
Tentatively, Aubrey rose to her feet, following Marie’s eyes as they darted toward the wardrobes. She walked slowly in that direction, trying to understand. She looked back at Marie, who continued to cry.
Aubrey knew Marie wanted her to inspect the wardrobes, but she had looked through them before. It was where she’d found the paintings. There was nothing remaining inside but old gowns. But that was where Marie wanted her to look. She felt it.
Continuing to ruminate, Aubrey suddenly realized she’d looked through the wardrobes, but she hadn’t moved them. Maybe there was something behind them she needed to see.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to push the first one away from the wall. But the antique piece of furniture was heavy, and it barely budged.
She tried again, funneling every ounce of strength she could muster. All she had to do was move it away from the wall. She pushed as hard as she could, and the wardrobe finally shifted. Aubrey wedged her body behind the furniture, using her feet to scoot it forward. After several attempts, she managed to move it from its original position.
She waited a moment, working to catch her breath. When her heart rate began to slow, she inspected the space behind the wardrobe. The area that had been hidden looked almost the same as the rest of the wall. Almost. Upon closer inspection, Aubrey realized a section of the wall seemed warped. She ran her hands across it, noting the texture felt different from the rest.
She looked at Marie again and the ghost began to cry harder, her body shaking with sobs.
Aubrey knew she had found where Marie was leading her. Something was in there, and she had to find out what it was. Frantically glancing around the room, Aubrey looked for a tool she could use to bust through the plaster on the wall. Seeing an old cane with a metal tip leaning against an ancient piano, she stalked across the creaky floor, quickly grabbed it, and ran back to the spot.
She raised the cane and began pounding it into the wall. Sweat dripped down her forehead and burned her eyes, but still she continued. The plaster began to break away, chipping, cracking, falling to the floor in small chunks. She banged against the wall harder, enlarging the hole she had made.
The plaster finally gave way completely, and a large section crashed onto the attic floor. Aubrey blinked twice, grinding the heels of her hands into her eye sockets, rubbing in disbelief as the dust settled around her. Her brain began to register what she was seeing, and the puzzle pieces shifted swiftly into place.
Aubrey’s body began to tremble as the macabre discovery came into view. Wedged in the wall, propped between the strips of lath, was a woman’s corpse. The bones were draped in scraps of a faded white nightgown, the remnants of chestnut waves still intact.
Aubrey opened her mouth and screamed, the sound emanating from the very depths of her core. She shrieked over and over again as the horror of the truth bobbed to the surface of her muddled brain.
She glanced toward the window. Marie was gone.
34
When her howling finally subsided, Aubrey took several ragged breaths and tried to calm herself. She looked at Marie’s corpse, unable to completely process the fact that the woman had been behind the attic wall for two hundred years.
No wonder Marie haunted Desolate Ridge. She’d literally been trapped inside the house, longing to be set free. Aubrey knew her discovery was monumental. In fact, it was a game changer. She had always suspected Marie had been murdered, and now she had proof. Marshall Ross had killed his wife and stuffed her body behind the wall of the attic.
The insanity she’d seen in Marshall’s eyes had been real. The man was crazy. He had killed Marie. She hadn’t vanished into thin air, leaving her young son behind, as Marshall claimed. Her body had been buried in the house all along.
As the wheels began to turn in her head, she realized she’d made a breakthrough. If Marie hadn’t disappeared, and her body was buried in the house, maybe she wasn’t the only one. Maybe there were others. Maybe that was the source of the curse.
She shivered as the impact of her thought process came full circle. With trembling hands, she reached into her pocket, grabbed her phone, and called Hank. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, babe, what’s up?”
“Hank….” She tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come out.
“Aubrey, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“I… I found… Marie.”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
She hung up and dropped her phone into her pocket. Glancing back at the wall, she realized she couldn’t stand to be alone with Marie’s body for another second. She practically ran down the attic stairs, then rushed down the winding staircase and into the kitchen.
Heading to the sink, she turned on the faucet and watched as the water filled the glass. She guzzled the liquid quickly, trying to moisten her parched throat. Still shivering, Aubrey started a fire in the fireplace, then sat at the breakfast nook next to the hearth, waiting for Hank and willing the heat into her body.
“Aubrey, where are you?” Hank’s frantic voice echoed down the hallway.
“I’m in the kitchen,” she answered weakly.
He ran into the room, knelt in front of her, and took her hands in his. “Tell me what happened.”
“I found Marie.”
“What do you mean, you found her?”
“I found her body, Hank. It’s in the attic. She’s been there all along.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Two hundred years ago, Marshall Ross killed Marie and stuffed her body behind the wall in the attic.”
“And you found her?”
“I did.” Her voice broke and she began to cry.
Hank pulled her into his arms and held her. After several minutes, h
e spoke again.
“I know you’re shaken up, but can you show me?”
“Yes. Follow me.”
She slowly led him up the stairs and into the attic. Hank followed closely behind. As they entered the room, Hank gasped as he saw Marie’s body wedged between the strips of lath.
“This is unbelievable.”
“I know. This is what she’s been trying to tell me all along, Hank. She wanted me to find her.”
He pulled her close once more and rubbed her back soothingly, whispering that everything was going to be all right. She allowed herself to be held, thankful he was there and she wasn’t alone.
“I’m so sorry you found her. I’m sorry you had to see it,” Hank murmured.
“Me too.”
“You know we’re going to have to open an investigation, Aubrey.”
“Even though it’s been two hundred years?”
“Yes. We still have to connect all the dots.”
“Okay. But now we know for sure that Marie didn’t run away.”
“Yes, we suspected it all along, but now there’s irrefutable proof.”
“There’s something else, Hank.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, if Marie didn’t just disappear and she’s been here all along, maybe the others are here too.”
“The others?”
“Elsie Ross supposedly vanished. Her body was never found. Then there was Eleanor, Marshall’s sister. What if they’re somewhere in the house too?”
Hank nodded. “You’re right. We can’t rule that out.”
“So what do we do? How do we find bodies that have been hidden for years? I mean, I found Marie because she led me to the right place.”
“True….”
“But Marie is the only ghost I’ve seen. I don’t think that method is going to work for the rest of the bodies. And maybe they aren’t here at all.”
“We’ll have to call in the cadaver dogs.”
“That sounds awful.”
“It’s really not that bad. They know the scent they’re looking for. If there are bodies here, even decomposed ones, the dogs will find them.”
Aubrey shook her head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know, but we’re on the right path now. We know what we’re looking for.”
“This isn’t any path I ever wanted to be on.”
“Let’s go downstairs. We’ll have some lunch, and then I’ll make the necessary calls to get the ball rolling.”
Aubrey followed Hank downstairs, taking one last look at Marie’s body before she left the attic. A feeling of deep sadness had lodged itself in her heart. She had experienced the horrible fear Marie had gone through right before she died. She’d felt the woman’s heart breaking at the thought of never seeing her son again.
Marie was a part of her; her blood ran through Aubrey’s veins. She knew she would never be the same, even after the nightmare finally ended.
Feeling numb, Aubrey robotically prepared lunch. Hank didn’t seem hungry, and she had no appetite, but she needed to remain busy, to keep her hands from being idle. She was sure that’s why he’d suggested she make lunch.
Hank made a series of calls, setting the investigation into motion. Within a few hours, Desolate Ridge was swarming with people. There was a coroner, a medical examiner, FBI agents, police officers, and of course, the cadaver dogs. Aubrey paced back and forth in the kitchen, watching the unimaginable scene unfold in her backyard. It seemed that every agency had a part to play in uncovering the two-hundred-year-old mystery.
When Aubrey grew restless, she went outside. The grounds were crawling with strangers. Not knowing where to go, she stayed close to the perimeter of the house, watching, waiting, trying to understand.
“We found something,” a strange man’s voice echoed across the lawn, and Aubrey saw Hank run in that direction. She followed.
“Right here. Let’s do it,” the man commanded.
“We have something over here too,” another person yelled.
Aubrey’s heart leaped in her chest. The dogs had found something—and in more than one area.
The crews began to dig, and Hank stood beside Aubrey, his arm wrapped securely around her shoulders. Aubrey lost herself in the shelter of his embrace and allowed her mind to wander. Time seemed to stand still. She had no idea how long she’d been standing there when a loud voice broke through.
“You’re going to want to see this, Hank,” someone exclaimed.
“I’ll be back. You wait right here, babe,” Hank instructed.
“No. I’m in this. I need to see. I have to, Hank,” Aubrey insisted.
With a slight nod, he grabbed her hand and led her across the yard. On one side of the house, the dogs had located an area that held three bodies. Glancing down into the holes, Aubrey gripped Hank’s hand tightly.
The corpses, which were clearly very old, had been placed directly into the soil, not buried in a coffin. There was nothing left but bones and a few scraps of clothing. All three skeletons had obvious evidence of skull fractures, and Aubrey immediately understood they had been bludgeoned to death. One of the bodies was larger than the other two, suggesting one was a man and the other two were women.
Aubrey began to piece everything together in her mind, immediately guessing their identities.
“Hank, I think I know who they are.”
“Who?”
“I believe one of them is Eleanor, Marshall’s sister.”
“The one who disappeared?”
“Yes. I knew she never ran away.”
Hank glanced back to the grave. “Looks like you might be right.”
“And I think the other two are Ione and Cullen, his parents.”
“Maybe. But didn’t his parents die in a fire?”
“That was the story. But you know as well as I do that most of those tales aren’t true.”
“What if Marshall set the fire to his parents’ house and made up the story that they died in it?”
“I think that’s what happened. Look at the wounds on their heads. I think Marshall bludgeoned them to death and buried all three of them here, then told people his parents died in the fire and his sister ran away.”
“That’s as good a theory as I’ve heard yet,” Hank agreed.
“Marshall buried his family in the dirt and then built his mansion right next to them.” Aubrey’s stomach churned as she came to grips with the extent of Marshall Ross’s evil.
“He must have been insane.”
“All he wanted was the money, and he had to kill them all in order to get it.”
Hank nodded. “They’ll have to run tests to confirm everything, but I think you’re on to something.”
They walked across the lawn to where the cadaver dogs had made their other discovery. Aubrey gripped Hank’s hand tightly as she looked into the ground below. There were two more bodies, presumably one male and one female. These bodies weren’t as decomposed as the others, suggesting they hadn’t been in the ground as long. Both had obvious fracture wounds to their skulls.
The smaller of the two was wearing a tailored blouse and skirt. The clothing, which had held up exceptionally well, was clearly expensive. It suggested wealth and privilege.
The larger one, the man, was wearing a button-up shirt, necktie, and military-style slacks. He had a gun holster around his waist. Pinned to his shirt was a sheriff’s badge.
“The man was a sheriff?” Hank said quietly, his brow furrowed, concentration written all over his face.
“The only woman left unaccounted for is Elsie Willard Ross.”
“She’s the woman Gramps said my great-great-grandfather was in love with.”
“The one who went missing?”
“Yes. My great-great-grandpa Howard. The sheriff.”
Hank dropped Aubrey’s hand and took a step away from her.
Aubrey immediately understood the nightmare that had been unearthed, as well as the ramifications. Elsie and Howar
d Metzger had been in love, but she married Clarence Ross instead. They had both disappeared around the same time. Aubrey knew without a doubt that Clarence had killed them both, probably in a fit of jealous rage, and buried them in the yard. With a sinking heart, Aubrey understood the impact of what that meant.
“Hank—”
“Your great-great-grandfather killed mine and buried him in the yard.”
Hank’s eyes met Aubrey’s, and the pain and horror she saw reflected there nearly took her breath away.
“Hank, I—” She reached for his hand, but he backed away.
“I… I can’t do this right now. I… I just need… to work. I have to work.”
Without looking back, Hank stalked across the lawn away from Aubrey.
35
Later that evening, Aubrey was in the sitting room alone. The house was dark except for the candles she’d lit, scattered throughout the room on various tables. Somehow, filling the darkness with candles seemed an appropriate way to mourn the deaths of the women in her family. They flickered, an unspoken remembrance of the souls who had been lost.
Aubrey had wanted to uncover the secrets of Desolate Ridge, and she had. The bodies had all been removed and taken to the lab for processing. Finally the house felt empty, truly deserted, for the first time since she’d arrived. The cadaver dogs had been brought into the house, but nothing else was found. It seemed everyone was accounted for.
Closing the chapter on the mystery should have brought Aubrey a sense of peace, but the dogs had dug up more than just the remains of her ancestors. They had dug up the truth, a truth including the fact that Aubrey’s great-great-grandfather had murdered Hank’s.
Hank had barely spoken to her the rest of the day, refusing to allow his eyes to linger on hers for more than a couple of seconds. She had tried to apologize, tried to somehow alleviate his pain, but the damage had been done long ago. Even though she hadn’t been directly involved, she carried a sense of responsibility that weighed her down like an albatross around her neck.
