House of Shadows Read online

  “I can’t even imagine,” Miles frowned. “No one in their right mind could do anything but love you. The woman’s got something wrong with her, obviously. She doesn’t know you. If she did, she’d know just how much got handed to you the year you and your family lost everything material, and almost lost your sister, too.”

  “I don’t like how it feels to have someone hate me, especially when I can’t even figure out who she is, or how she knows anything about me!”

  “I don’t like it either,” Miles said, and he hugged me. “We’ll figure it out, though.”

  We turned back to the monitor and looked at the image some more.

  “Well, her hair is dark and slicked back in a bun… I’ll bet she could pop a poufy blond wig over that unflattering hair-do without any effort,” I said.

  “You’re right,” Miles said.

  “Okay, so imagine her with tarantulas for eyelashes,” I said, tilting my head and narrowing my gaze.

  “What a disturbing visual image you’ve just created,” Miles laughed, and I laughed too.

  “Well, that’s what Blondie’s eyelashes look like!”

  “I’m calling the PI,” Miles said decisively. “That’s what we need to do. The student’s word is good enough for me, based on what we’ve experienced all year. We need more than that, though. This is too elaborate. It’s not as simple as this woman being eaten up with envy.”

  Miles immediately called the PI and told him everything we knew. He promised to start digging for answers, and Miles ended their call.

  “We’ve got more than we did,” he said.

  “Yeah. We do.”

  “We’re going to figure this out,” he said reassuringly, as he hugged me, and I hugged him back. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ll be okay,” I replied.

  I would. As long as I had Miles, I’d be just fine.

  Miles heard from the prosecuting attorney for the attempted murder case against his very distant cousin, Alfred Sullivan. The trial would begin shortly. We were hoping Miles would be able to testify without it interfering with finals, or our wedding, but it was anybody’s guess when he’d have to be in court.

  Miles and I had several classes together again, which was great. We were both looking forward to the end of spring semester, and the time when we could say “we’re married” instead of “we’re getting married.”

  “One of the reasons I love having classes with you, is that we get to study together,” I said to Miles, as I sat at the desk reading over his notes. “Your notes are always so well written, and legible.”

  Miles looked up from the textbook he was reading as he lay stretched out on the couch.

  “I’ve seen your notes, you’re pretty good yourself,” he smiled.

  “Yeah, but you write down things I don’t.”

  “And that’s what makes us a great team,” he reasoned. “Together, we’ve got it covered.”

  “That’s right,” I grinned back at him, and we continued studying.

  I woke up later, my head on the book I’d been reading. Not an acceptable substitute for a pillow I decided, as I tried to straighten out the crick in my neck.

  I yawned and looked at the clock. Yikes, three-thirty in the morning! I seriously needed to go to bed in my actual bed.

  I shut down my laptop, then stood and stretched. I saw that Miles had fallen asleep, too, with Pandora curled up on his chest. He looked as tired as I felt.

  I hated to do it, but knew he would want me to wake him up and send him to his own apartment, so I scooped up a complaining Pandora, and gently shook Miles’ shoulder.

  “Miles, time to go home,” I said.

  He blinked and rubbed his eyes, then sat up. “What time is it?”

  “It’s three-thirty in the morning,” I said. “We’ve got a big test tomorrow, so we better both get some sleep.”

  “No kidding,” he said.

  I gave Miles a quick kiss goodnight—or was it good morning? Then locked the door behind him, and went to bed.

  Chapter 16

  The next morning was chilly and snow covered, which was typical for January in Glen Haven. Jenny and I were on our way to a class we shared. We were discussing the notes we took during the previous lesson, when a girl neither of us knew, fell into step beside me.

  “Too bad about your fiancé,” she said.

  I just looked at her. She must have expected a different response, because she hesitated.

  “Yeah, too bad,” she continued loudly, looking around at our classmates, who were headed in the same direction. “You think you got a nice guy, and then he runs around behind your back, like that.”

  I didn’t respond. Sometimes people will trip themselves up, trying to fill silence. I was willing to wait her out, and see what she’d say next. Jenny, was not.

  “Evidently you don’t know her fiancé—at all,” Jenny bristled.

  “Yeah well my friend does, real well,” she laughed. “She went out with him last night, and didn’t get home ‘til three o’ clock.”

  With another hyena laugh, she strutted off.

  Jenny and I glanced at each other sharply, and immediately took off after the girl.

  “I don’t think she’s a student here,” I said softly, as we followed behind her stealthily.

  “She doesn’t know Miles fell asleep studying at our place last night, either,” replied Jenny.

  “Even if that wasn’t the case, I’d trust Miles over a random stranger, any day. I’d trust Miles, period. What I don’t get, is why someone else doesn’t want me to,” I said.

  We ran into a crowd of students, and almost lost the girl.

  “There!” Jenny pointed. She had the benefit of height.

  A car was parked at the curb. The woman in the driver’s seat looked an awful lot like Blondie, aka Bea. The girl hopped into the car, and it sped off. I grabbed a pen out of my messenger bag and wrote down the license plate number.

  “I don’t know if this will even matter, it isn’t like we don’t know where Bea works… but still…”

  I called the PI and left a message, asking him to run the license plate number, and get any information from it that he could.

  Jenny and I had to race to make it to our next class.

  I texted Miles and told him what happened.

  Miles: again?

  Me: yep.

  Miles: she sure isn’t giving up.

  Me: no, she isn’t.

  Miles: we’ll get this figured out.

  Me: I know we will.

  Miles: I love you.

  Me: love you back.

  Then class started, and I had to put my phone away.

  Jenny and I had movie night at our place that night, and we all discussed what happened.

  “That is so strange!” Annette exclaimed.

  “No kidding,” I agreed. “What her goal is, I don’t understand. I mean, other than she hates me, and wants to hurt me.”

  I stroked Night as he lay purring on my lap. Pandora was sound asleep, draped over Miles’ knee.

  “We know she’s the woman who tore over the grassy knoll at us, and that she left the note at the front desk,” Miles said. “Probably she was the one who Delia’s boyfriend caught on video, talking about the texts Anika started receiving right after that. She was in the office when Anika received the phone call claiming I was with someone else, instead of playing basketball. And now we know she was encouraging Gina all along, and pumping her for information, too. But that’s about all we do know. I’m hoping the PI will be able to shed some light on this.”

  “She isn’t very well informed,” Jenny concluded. “To claim he’s with someone else when he’s right here in your own apartment, and when he’s playing basketball with you.”

  “She doesn’t have very good surveillance,” agreed Miles. “It strikes me as peculiar that she isn’t making sure the accusations are believable, since she’s going to so much trouble to create them. It really concerns me though, that Anika is h
er target.”

  “Could this have anything to do with the strange things going on at your castle?” asked John.

  “Could it?” Miles thought. “I wonder how it would connect.”

  “I dunno,” said Xander. “But if I were you, I’d go through that castle and find those secret passages, if there are any. That’s your best bet for getting information about some of the weirdness following you guys around.”

  Miles sat back and ran his hand through his hair, as he thought.

  “Good idea, Xander. I believe I’ll do that.”

  John looked at Annette, then at Miles.

  “Want help searching for those secret passages?”

  Miles looked at Xander and Jenny and I. We all gave a thumbs-up.

  “Alright, then. Yeah, that sounds great. Tomorrow’s Saturday, so let’s do this. We’ll search with a security team on the premises, as well. That way we won’t take any chances.”

  Snowflakes drifted from the sky and onto the already snow-covered grounds and driveway of the estate, where we stood reconnoitering before beginning our search.

  “This is where the apparition generally appears… and vanishes here,” said Jeff, a member of the security team that monitored the webcams in the castle.

  “Do the appearances follow any set pattern, or routine? Day, time of day?” asked Miles.

  “No sir, they’re pretty random,” Jeff answered.

  Miles focused on the screen shots in front of him.

  “Have you had any indication what this—figure, is doing in the estate?”

  “Most of the halls have webcams, but not the rooms, sir. However, at times the apparition has been seen carrying items out of the rooms. Candlesticks, vases, statues, works of art.”

  Miles and I looked at each other. We suspected the person was stealing from the estate, because of what Polly said. But then why scare Polly… to get her out of the way, so it would be easier to move about undetected?

  “All right then, everyone ready?” Miles looked around at those of us assembled nearby. Xander and Jenny, John and Annette, me, and the ten members of the security team. We all nodded.

  “Let’s go, then,” Miles said, gripping my hand firmly.

  We approached the vestibule and double front doors of the castle.

  I used to run right up these stairs and inside, without apprehension. I had a very different feeling upon entering the castle, now.

  We slowly moved through the hallways and rooms, toward the hall of bedrooms that Polly, Miles and I, so hastily vacated at the beginning of Christmas break.

  Moving up and down the hall, half of the security team kept watch, and the other half, including Miles and I and our friends, searched the walls for any sign of a hidden door.

  “Look,” I whispered to Miles. The castle felt so eerie, like something was listening. “This is where I’ve seen it vanish before.”

  Miles reached up and removed the tapestry, then began to examine the panel behind it.

  “Xander, give me a hand here, will you,” Miles said, as he felt all around the edges of the panel for anything out of the ordinary.

  Look as they would, nothing seemed unusual.

  “The panel fits snug with the floor, and like Anika said, the figure seems to disappear here. It would have to swing in, not out…” Putting his shoulder to the panel, Miles pushed hard and it bulged inward slightly. Xander began to push as well.

  “It seems to be latched somehow, I’m afraid we’re going to break it,” Xander pointed out.

  “If that’s what it takes,” Miles replied, as he pushed harder against the panel.

  With one last heave, the panel splintered on one side and swung back on the other, to reveal a dark tunnel.

  Miles gripped my hand again, as I took a step forward to see the wall where the panel had been fastened on the inside. As I did, the panel began to swing back in place. I put my foot in front of it to keep it from closing all the way.

  “I’m not planning on going in there by myself,” I reassured Miles, as his grip on my hand tightened.

  “I’m glad to hear that. With you, I’m never sure,” he said, with a flicker of a smile.

  “The door swings shut by itself,” I said, stating the obvious.

  “It looks like the panel is then held in place by magnets,” Miles observed, moving further away from the tunnel and taking me with him. “I don’t want everyone inside. At least half of us need to stay here, keep an eye out for trouble, and search for signs of additional passages.”

  Tony, the head of security, attached a light to his cap and withdrew a Taser. Pointing it in front of him, he entered the tunnel first. Three additional security members followed.

  “I don’t want you in there,” Miles turned to me. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt, but you—I don’t want you in there, until the team has cleared it.”

  I squeezed his hand tighter.

  “Then you better stay here with me, or I’m going, like it or not.”

  “It’s a deal, then,” he agreed. He turned to Xander, Jenny, John, and Annette. “Let’s let the professionals deal with this, while we continue searching.”

  It wasn’t my imagination that everyone looked relieved at that plan. I knew they were all as curious as I was, but… we didn’t have nine lives to mess around with, and if the security team encountered someone armed and dangerous, none of us wanted to be in the line of fire.

  “Miles…” I said, as our group spread throughout the hall. “What I heard that night, it was coming from Polly’s room. Not the hall. I know I got knocked down in the hallway, but that isn’t where the sound came from.”

  We heard the squawk of the security team radios from down the hall, as they communicated with the team searching the tunnel.

  Miles considered that for a moment.

  “Okay. We can have a look. John—” he called. “We’re searching in here.”

  John nodded, and he and Annette moved to examine the walls closer to our location.

  Miles and I searched the room. The walls were papered, not paneled, so it would be much harder for a door to be hidden. Miles checked under the massive bed, and we rolled up the rug. Even though we knew how unlikely it was we’d find anything there, we didn’t leave those stones unturned. Miles began tapping on the wall between mine and Polly’s room. Then he turned and tapped a different wall.

  We looked at each other.

  “That sounds different,” we both said.

  We feverishly felt and pushed and prodded at the entire wall, but came up with nothing. Then we moved into my room, and did the same thing. We couldn’t find a door.

  “It could be a tunnel between the rooms leading to another panel in the hall,” I said.

  “Then let’s go find out.”

  As we exited Polly’s room, Tony exited the tunnel.

  “Sir—we found something. You’re going to want to see this.”

  I clutched Miles’ arm as fear washed over me. What did they find?

  The flashlights cast eerie shadows on the walls of the tunnel, as I clung to Miles’ hand, and we followed Tony.

  The tunnel was made entirely of stone. It angled downward and curved slightly to the left, until it opened into a windowless underground room. It was lined with racks that probably held wine bottles at one time. Now they held only dust. A number of items that I recognized, were lined along one wall. Several paintings, figurines, a clock, a silver tea set, and a few antique furniture pieces that were small enough to pick up and carry.

  Four doorways led to additional tunnels.

  “This leads to the other wing of the estate,” said Tony, pointing to the tunnel on the right. He pointed to the tunnel beside that. “This one leads up there, and probably exits into the hallway.”

  “Between mine and Polly’s rooms, I’ll bet,” I said.

  Then he pointed to the tunnel on the left.

  “This one leads into a cave.”

  Miles and I looked at each other.

&nb
sp; “The footprints,” Miles said.

  “This one leads that direction,” Tony pointed, “more than likely to an outside entrance. The door is locked. I didn’t want my team breaking it down, without talking to you first.”

  Miles thought.

  “I’d like to see the tunnel. Maybe I can figure out where the exit leads.”

  “Oh no you don’t,” I said, hanging on tighter to his hand, and clutching his sleeve for good measure. “You go, I go.”

  Miles looked back at Tony and Jack.

  “Okay. Lead the way.”

  We traveled down the long, dark, cold passage. It smelled like stone and earth, and stretched ahead of us into the darkness. I wasn’t sure what would be creepier, having twists and turns and wondering what might be waiting around the corner… or seeing the pitch blackness beyond the beam of the flashlights, wondering what might be lying in wait, biding its time, preparing to rush at us when we least expected it.

  On we traveled until at last the tunnel began to rise, slowly at first, then abruptly, ending at a heavy door.

  “This could lead to the guest house,” Miles thought. “If it does… I think we know who’s been trying to haunt Grandma Polly.”

  Miles examined the door.

  “Let’s go check out the guest house. If we don’t find an entrance there, we’ll come back and break this down.”

  Tony spoke into his radio, and ordered another member of his team to join Jack in guarding the door at the end of the tunnel, and we started back toward the underground room. Jack’s teammate passed us on the way there.

  Our friends were gathered outside the secret passage, as we exited into the hall.

  “One of the tunnels may lead to the guest house,” Miles said hurriedly. Our friends followed us, as we quickly made our way through the castle and out the front doors.

  “There’s no car parked there,” I pointed out, as we neared our destination. “The caretaker may not be here.”

  “It strikes me as more than a little unusual that we’ve never met the caretaker,” Miles said. “As many weekends as we spent here last semester, and as many walks as we’ve taken on the grounds...”