Haunting at Remington House. Laura V. Keegan

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СКАЧАТЬ around the drawers, he found a spiral notebook and a pen, poured himself another cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. Outside the window, in the branches of one of the beech trees, a movement caught his eye. High on a limb was a black kitten, its tiny mouth open, its unheard sounds of distress clearly imagined. Opening the window, the mews were piercing. Tom ran out the back door and down the stairs to find Joe.

      “Hey, Joe, I need your ladder. There’s a kitten stuck in a tree!” he hollered. Joe was in fact high up on a ladder, checking for faulty electrical connections at the back of the house. He clambered down, collapsed the sliding ladder to a manageable size and followed Tom around to the side of the house.

      “The kitten’s halfway up the tree outside the kitchen window. It’s in a panic, doesn’t know how to get down.” The men braced the ladder, raising it to just below the limb where the kitten clung to the branch, yowling louder than seemed possible for such a tiny creature. Tom slowly ascended the ladder. Never having been that high on a ladder, he recognized how unstable it felt as it wobbled back and forth with every step. He hoped Joe was backing him up. He risked a quick look downward. Nope, Joe wasn’t holding the ladder.

      Apparently savvy to the desperate look on Tom’s face, Joe quickly put his hands on the ladder sides for good measure.

      He thinks I’m a wuss. Tom reached for the kitten, tucked it under his arm, and descended the ladder as fast as he dared. “Thanks, Joe. Rescue accomplished. Let’s take this little guy in the house.”

      In the kitchen, the kitten scrambled out of Tom’s grip and scurried to hide under the table. Tom found a bowl, poured some milk into in, and lured the kitten from its hiding place. “I need to fatten you up.” As he drank, Tom petted his scrawny back. “Joe, more coffee before you go back to work?”

      “Sure, don’t mind if I do. Take the chill out of my bones. Sit down, I'll get it.” Joe poured them both coffee. “I found that the main wire into the house had some breaks. Might be the reason the power was fluctuating last night. Wind was blowing the wires around. I’ll take care of it before I look any further.” Joe sipped his coffee, then continued, “Surprisingly, most of the old wiring into the house has been replaced. There’s a good chance that the interior wiring was replaced at the same time. You’ll be lucky if that’s the case. Like I said before, the previous owners, the Lindemans, did quite a bit of work on this place over the years. You may get lucky—might not be a lot wrong. I’ll finish checking all the outside connections, and then you can show me where you had the trouble last night. Might be a few bad switches, maybe even loose bulbs.”

      Tom picked up the kitten, setting it in the center of the rag rug in front of the fireplace. The kitten took a quick bath, then curled into a little ball and closed its eyes. “Looks like I have my first houseguest. Kind of hope he sticks around. I could use the company,” Tom said. The men sat sipping their coffee. “I think I’m ready to nose around upstairs. Come on. Let’s take a quick look around. Then you can get back to the wiring.”

      “Sure.” Joe followed Tom through the house to the front entryway and up the stairs to the second floor. At the top was a long hallway that ran the full length of the house. Joe, already familiar with the layout, took the lead. “The master bedroom’s this way, down the hall to the right,” Joe said. He opened the double doors into the room and stood aside. The smell of fresh paint and lemon oil wafted out into the hall. The suite was tastefully decorated. There was a fireplace built into the middle of the west wall. It was faced with chocolate-brown, polished marble swirled with black veins. The hearth was black marble. On the right side of the fireplace a door led to a large walk-in closet. Centered against the southern wall was a king-size, four-poster bed with nightstands on either side. A large walnut bureau and dresser were to the left of the bed. The drawer edges and frame of the mirror were intricately carved with numerous, odd symbols that were inlaid with tiny, black, polished stones. The east and south walls had large picture windows; double french doors led out onto to the balcony. Joe opened the drapes, morning sun streamed into the room.

      “The view’s magnificent,” Tom said, again finding himself mesmerized by the ocean. In every direction could be seen the vast, seemingly endless Atlantic. He opened the double doors and stepped onto the balcony. It ran the entire length and width of the house on the east and south, with a glass-brick wall dividing the balcony from the rooms to the west. Joe joined Tom to admire the panoramic view. The air was brisk and cold, smelling pungently of damp earth and autumn decay. They made a hasty retreat back into the bedroom. While Tom looked around, Joe built a small fire to warm the room.

      In front of the fireplace were a loveseat and an easy chair, both upholstered in navy-blue suede. A low, walnut coffee table sat in front of the loveseat. By the window in the northeast corner of the room was a small, round dining table and two straight-back chairs.

      The walls were wallpapered in navy blue and white plaid. All the wood trim in the room had a fresh coat of midnight-blue paint. The room was carpeted in dark brown, tweed chenille—lush and velvety. To the left of the doorway was a built-in bookcase that took up the entire wall, its shelves filled with collections of poetry—most leather bound, old and well worn.

      “Didn’t think there were that many books of poems in print,” Joe remarked. “Not my idea of good reading, but to each his own.”

      Tom sighed, thinking, Elise would have loved these books. . . . Well, no sense in thinking about her likes or dislikes now. I’ll move the books to another room one of these days. They're not my idea of good reading either.

      “Ready to check out the other rooms?” Joe asked, turning to exit the room.

      To their right was the staircase leading up to the third-floor attic. A narrow open room, about ten feet wide, ran the length of the east wall with another set of double doors leading to the balcony. The only furnishings in the room were a high-backed rocking chair and a large, mahogany cabinet filled with a collection of fine porcelain vases and statues.

      Joe found the switch that operated the interior light of the cabinet and clicked it on. “What? Look at this! This statue looks just like you! Check it out.” Joe moved aside so Tom could see the statue.

      Tom stared at the porcelain figurine. The light shone brightly spotlighting the statuette, as well as a female figurine beside it. Tom had the sense that something unreal was taking place. He reached out to touch the statues—too quickly, too clumsily. His hand knocked one statue, then the other, sending them flying off the shelf where they shattered on the hard, wooden floor. “Damn it! I broke them both. Stupid of me!”

      “Guess I’m not the only bull in a china shop!” Joe laughed, then disappeared, returning with a broom and dustpan. As he swept up the broken shards, he let out a soft whistle. “Did you see the face? That statue looked like you, didn’t it?”

      “No! Not at all!” Tom replied a bit too quickly. He walked away and down the long hallway to the west. “Come on. Let’s look around, then I need to get on to other things. I still have to call someone about the phones.”

      “Well, they’re good about taking care of the residents here. Probably send someone out right away,” Joe answered, following Tom.

      There was a room down the hallway, to the east of the stairs, that had been converted into a library. Most of the west wall of the room was taken up by a massive brownstone fireplace with windows that had built-in window seats on both sides. The south wall was mostly windows with a door in the center opening out to the balcony. The two other walls were lined with bookcases. In front of the fireplace were two loveseats with a small, cherry wood, claw-foot table in between them and an overstuffed chair to the right. The loveseats and chair were upholstered in various shades of dark rose. A large desk and chair, also of СКАЧАТЬ