“All right,” Jimmy agreed. “But be careful.”
Kevin quickly turned the corner at the back of the kitchen and was at once standing in the long dim rear hallway. Only a single, small light fixture glowed from high on the back wall; Kevin could barely see. But he did notice more paintings hanging on the paneling, dark, swirly paintings set into heavy, ornate frames, just like the paintings in the den and foyer and upstairs hallways. He stopped a moment to look at one…
It was a large sailing ship, crashing through waves on the high seas, its many huge white sails puffed out from the wind. And like the painting in the foyer, this one had a title. In tiny letters along the bottom, the artist had painted the words:
The Count’s Mighty Sailing Ship, the Scrimm, on its Way to the Coast.
The Count, Kevin thought, staring long-faced at the painting. This was the second painting he’d seen that referred to “The Count.”
The Count, he thought again, with the faintest of shivers. The word rang in his head like a bell.
Count Dracula? he wondered. The most powerful of all the vampires?
It had to be. What other Count could the painting be referring to? This really is weird, Kevin thought, taking one last glance at the dark painting.
But he’d come back here for a reason, and looking at paintings wasn’t it. This was the same hallway where they’d heard that click earlier this morning, and then they’d seen Bill Bitner holding a shovel, and—
It looked like he’d walked right through the wall, Kevin reminded himself.
Nervously, he proceeded deeper into the hallway, taking slow, quiet steps. When he got toward the end, he stopped, scanning the dark walls with his eyes. Another strange painting hung right before him, at the same place he and Jimmy thought they’d seen Bill Bitner come out of the wall.
Kevin stared at the painting…
Things just keep getting weirder and weirder, he told himself.
The painting showed a band of blank-faced men carrying two large boxes across a beach. Behind the men, just at the shoreline, was a rowboat—The same rowboat in the foyer painting? he wondered—and beyond that, the same large sailing ship, The Scrimm, could be seen burning in the distance. That was weird enough, but the weirdest part was what the blank-faced men were carrying. Two boxes. One box was the same large wooden crate full of gold bricks, and the other box was—
The coffin, Kevin instantly recognized.
Then Kevin’s eyes flicked down to the bottom of the painting, to see if this one had a title too. Sure enough, there it was, in the same tiny painted letters.
The Count Comes Ashore.
So now he’d discovered a third painting that referred to The Count, and Kevin knew it had to be a vampire because there was a coffin in this picture too.
What is going on here? he thought.
This was all just too bizarre. Kevin leaned against the wall, to think, but in the same moment that he did so, he heard a tiny but very sharp sound:
click
And he thought for sure that he’d felt the wall behind him
… move.
Wh—what?
He turned around immediately, looked hard at the wall he’d just been leaning against. The painting stared back at him. Then, very slowly, Kevin reached forward with his hand, pressed his fingers gently against the paneled wall—
The wall moved.
Or, rather, a section of the wall moved, and when Kevin pushed on it a second time, he realized exactly what it was he had discovered.
A secret passageway…
Just like in the old vampire movies. A secret passageway right here in the lodge! Kevin pushed it open and noticed several tiny roller-mounts along the edge, like the kind that keep the doors on kitchen cabinets in place. That’s what had caused the clicking sound.
This explains it, he realized. Bill Bitner came out of this same passageway this morning, and that’s why it looked like he’d walked out of the wall.
Next, Kevin pressed his palm against the hidden door’s dark-wood panel, then he pushed the door open all the way—-
creeeeeak
Total darkness faced him; he had no way of telling how deep the passageway went, not without a flashlight or something he could see by.
Where does it lead to? he couldn’t help but wonder. How far back does it go? And what was Bill Bitner doing back here this morning when we saw him with the shovel?
All of a sudden, there were so many questions spinning around in Kevin’s mind—he couldn’t keep them sorted out.
He pulled the door to, heard it click shut.
I’ve got to find out what’s back there, he thought.
And he knew there was only one way to do that.
I’ll have to get a flashlight, he realized, and come back here.
Tonight…
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kevin decided not to tell Jimmy about the secret door and passageway—Jimmy sometimes had a big mouth, and Kevin thought it best to keep things to himself, at least until he could find out more about what was going on. So instead he came right back to the kitchen and helped Jimmy put away the rest of the dishes.
“Did you find anything back in that hallway?” Jimmy asked him, hanging up the dish towel.
“A couple more weird paintings,” Kevin said, and that was where he would leave it for now. “It sounds like the rain has finally stopped. Let’s go walk around outside.”
“Okay,” Jimmy agreed. “Not much else to do right now.”
They pulled on their coats and headed for the front door, but as they passed the big hearth room and the crackling fireplace, they noticed Becky sitting on the couch, talking to Wally, who was stoking up the fire with an iron rod. Becky had a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes as she listened to Wally.
“Looks like your sister is in love,” Jimmy said when they stepped out onto the front porch.
“She falls in love every week,” Kevin complained. “Thinks she’s the greatest girl in town. But I’m sure Wally the Lover Boy will find out what a nag she is real soon.”
Outside, a chill wind gripped them, brushing across their faces and blowing down their collars. The night sky was full of cloudy black murk; not a single star could be seen, and of course there was no sign of the moon either. Leaves fell steadily from the high trees around the lodge.
“How come your aunt seems to disappear all the time?” Jimmy asked as they rounded a stand of floodlit hedges.
That’s a good question, Kevin thought, but he kept it to himself. “I guess, like she said, she’s got a lot of stuff to do around the lodge, you know, upkeep and stuff like that.”
“But there aren’t even any guests,” Jimmy observed, “except for us.”
“Yeah, I know. But there’s still lots of stuff to do, I guess, probably a lot of paperwork and taxes, things like that.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
More bright floodlights lit the side of the lodge as they walked around. When they looked up they could see smoke pouring slowly out of the tall brick chimney. They continued to walk around, their hands jammed down in their coat pockets. Kevin expected the back of the lodge to be lit up by floodlights too but he found he was wrong the minute they turned the corner.
The back was pitch-dark.