“We know all about Anita Pendragon lurking around,” I said.
Gail shook her head.“No, it wasn’t her. I hate to even mention it because she seems like such a nice person, but she really was acting odd.” Gail looked up at us.
“Who?” I prompted.
“It was Esther Hill and she was messing around in that old outhouse. I have no idea what she was doing, but she was in there for quite some time.”
Twenty-Four
“It’s always the nice ones who have dark secrets,” Millie said as we headed toward the outhouse, flashlights in hand. Now that the sun had set, the dark shadows of twilight loomed around us and the hooting of owls and scurrying of squirrels and chipmunks in the leaves took an ominous tone.
“I should have connected the dots earlier,” I said. “Flora said Esther was at the outhouse, remember? I thought she was just doing her usual complaining about cleaning, so when the ghostly noises happened I didn’t put two and two together, but the noise came from that direction and it wouldbe a great place to hide something.”
“Easy to see how you would think that. She does complain a lot.” Millie flicked her light at the shabby structure as we approached.
The outhouse was fairly large and it wasn’t in very good shape. It was listing to one side, the wood gray and rotting. Grass and weeds had grown up knee high around the outside. The door had a crescent moon cut out, but it was too dark in there to see inside. We creaked the door open slowly.
Nero and Marlowe pushed through ahead of me. The moonlight slanted in from the door opening and reflected off the cats’ eyes as they sat blinking at us from the darkness inside.
“Well don’t just stand there, let’s go inside.” Mom aimed her light at the interior and pushed in front of me.
“What do you think Esther was doing in here?” I asked as I pointed the beam of my light around. The flashlights were all small pen-sized lights that sent out a narrow beam that didn’t reach far. Probably not that great for the job but, seeing as I hadn’t anticipated skulking around in outhouses in the middle of the night, they were all I had on short notice.
“Hiding the speaker that made the ghost noises, of course.” Millie shot me a look that said “duh”.
“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there is another reason she was here.” I pointed my light at one of the holes. Nothing but a black pit. I dared not look too closely, that hole led to things I didn’t want to think about. “Maybe she thought being here would bring her closer to Jed.I mean, he probably spent a lot of time in here and I do remember someone mentioning that being close to places or things that someone spent a lot of time near when living could help raise their ghost.”
“This is an odd place to hide the recorder,” Mom said. “Maybe Gail was lying to us. If I were the killer I’d lie to us.”
“But Flora saw Esther here, too,” I reminded them.
“And the recorder that Gail had didn’t have ghostly noises on it,” Millie said. “Her claims about the real reason she is here do make sense. We know Victor scammed that woman from the cruise. We should find a way to verify that she really was that woman’s friend though.”
“Even so, she could still be the killer.” Mom seemed reluctant to let go of that theory as she ran her light over the three holes. “Sure glad we don’t have to use this thing. Did you have to when you were a kid, Millie?”
Millie snorted.“I’m not that old! We had indoor plumbing. This old thing hasn’t been used since my grandfather’s time.”
Meow!
Nero was walking along the“seat” part, which was just a long board with three large holes in it. “Don’t fall in there, because I’m not going in after you.” I used my sternest tone, but Nero just blinked at me and continued walking along, balancing precariously on the edges of the holes as if challenging me.
When Nero moved, my light picked out a spot in the wood that looked like it had fresh scratch marks.“Look at this, looks like someone pried this open.”
“A hidden compartment, maybe?” Millie put her flashlight in her mouth and reached over toward the wood. She tugged and pulled and finally a small section slid back revealing a dark hole.
“What’s in it?” Mom asked.
We all shone our lights into the dark section.“Can’t see. The compartment goes behind the board.” Millie angled the light and craned her neck to see inside. “Darn. It’s too dark in there.”
“Reach in with your hand,” Mom suggested.
“I’m not reaching in with my hand,youdo it.” Millie stepped back from the hole and gestured for my mother to step up.
Mom looked at the hole uncertainly.“I’m not doing it. Josie, you do it. You’re younger and if something bites you, you have a much higher chance of recovery.” Mom pushed me toward the hole.
Visions of nests of spiders, centipedes or worse ran though my head as I aimed my flashlight inside. Someone had to reach in though, and I didn’t want Mom or Millie to get hurt. Guess it was up to me.
I slowly put my hand in, tentatively feeling the sides and bottom of the compartment, my heart thudding with the expectation of feeling the creepy sensation of insect legs at any moment. Thankfully I didn’t, but I also didn’t feel anything of interest. Satisfied that I’d explored the entire compartment, I withdrew my hand as quickly as possible. “It’s empty.”
“Darn!” Mom said.
Millie shone the beam of her flashlight over the interior of the outhouse again. Probably looking for more secret compartments.“Esther must have come in and gotten the recorder after the noises played. She’d have had plenty of time and we wouldn’t have seen her because we were busy with Gail.”
“But how would she know there was a secret compartment in the first place?” I asked. Still not convinced, I shone my light on the scratches again. The scratched wood was light, almost white in color. Surely it had been done recently.
“Good question,” Mom said. “Maybe it wasn’t Esther. Maybe it was Jed’s ghost. He’d know about the hiding place I bet.”
“Rose, there’s no such thing as ghosts!” Millie who had had her back to us, turned quickly, the flashlight under her chin lighting her face in a ghastly way.
Mom screamed and jumped back.
I did too.
Nero and Marlowe practically fell into the holes they were circling.
Millie cackled, then lowered the flashlight and rolled her eyes.“Come on, let’s look the rest of the place over. It’s pretty obvious someone has been in that hidden compartment, but there might be another clue and we might as well look while we are in here.”
We searched for a few minutes but found nothing else. The cats weren’t much help, they were more interested in sniffing the holes. Yech.
“Well, I guess that’s that. We need to confront Esther.” Millie brushed the dirt off her hands and started for the crescent-moon door.
Merooo!Nero sounded like he wasn’t too keen on confronting Esther. It was no wonder, she’d given the cats a lot of treats and they were probably reluctant to think she could be a killer.
“She did seem to get really mad when Victor claimed he was talking to Jed tonight,” I said.
Merope! Marlowe added her two cents as I ushered them out of the outhouse and shut the door.
“And she got that mysterious envelope,” Mom added. “We need to see what’s in there.”
“Yeah.” Millie picked up the pace and was practically jogging toward the guesthouse. I wasn’t sure if it was because it had gotten even darker and a little scary outside or if she was excited about facing Esther. “The contents of that envelope could be the key. I have a feeling that the sooner we find out what it is, the sooner we can catch our killer.”
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“I haven’t seen Millie move this fast in years,” Nero said as they trotted along beside the humans. Moonlight lit the path, but the humans had their flashlights bobbing in front of them like oversized fireflies. Blades of tall grass whipped Nero in the face every so often when he strayed too close to the edge.