The Restoration Page 12

  I hate to think for what purpose!

  The same question troubled Terri. Had Niles hoped to catch his older sister off guard so he could hurt her? Was he wanting to intimidate or scare her? Or was it some sort of perversion that urged him to her room at night?

  I could no longer bear it in silence. Though mortified, I told Mother about Niles’s nocturnal visits. And once again, she refused to believe the truth! She refused to believe me, though I am honest as the day is long. She instead accused me of hysterics.

  My brother has kept to himself more than usual lately, and I know he is plotting some nefarious deed. Most perturbing of all is that one of my beloved shotguns has gone missing. There is no point in telling Mother; I shall be wasting my breath. Once Father returns from his business trip, I shall request a private audience with him and reveal everything. I pray he will take my warning seriously, or it could very well be the death of us all!

  The door flew open and, startled, she cried out, expecting to see Niles leering at her. Dallas burst into the room, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glowing. Terri’s chest ached at the sight of her, and at how her smile disappeared when she spotted her mother on the bed.

  “Oh. You’re in here. I didn’t know.” She began to back out of the room.

  “Wait! Hasn’t this gone on long enough?”

  Dallas’s eyes narrowed. “Hasn’t what gone on long enough?”

  “Oh, Dallas, let’s not pretend either of us is stupid. This silent treatment. It’s getting to be ridiculous.”

  “I guess it’ll last until we’re not mad at you any longer.” Dallas’s hand clutched the doorknob, and she glanced behind her. “I should go. I’m playing Hide and Seek with Gertrude.”

  “Hide and Seek? Since when do you like to play Hide and Seek?” Or any games, for that matter. Since she was a toddler, Dallas had refused to participate in any organized games, never failing to let Terri know how dumb they were.

  “Since I have someone fun to play it with, I guess.”

  Ouch. “She’s not here to play games. She’s supposed to be investigating.”

  “Everyone needs a break, Mom.”

  “It doesn’t matter to me. She’s the one who’s going to regret it if she wastes her time here.”

  “Yeah, well, nice talking to you. I’ll be going now.”

  “Can you just tell me what I did that was so terrible?”

  “You know what you did,” Dallas said, scowling. “Don’t pretend you don’t.”

  “But I don’t. I mean, I don’t understand why it’s enough to make you stop speaking to me for days. Did Gertrude tell you not to talk to me?”

  “God, Mom. She’s not like that. She would never do something like that. I haven’t been talking to you because I’m mad at you.”

  “Thanks for your honesty. I appreciate it. But why are you so angry with me?” As long as she kept her daughter talking, they could resolve this. Dallas would be reminded that she wasn’t an ogre, and this silliness would end.

  “You drove Niles away,” her daughter yelled, voice breaking. “He won’t talk to me anymore.”

  Ugh, Niles again. She was tired of hearing his name. He had been dead for so many years, and he was still causing problems. “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. You wanted him to leave you alone.”

  “That was before I knew his sister killed him. It’s not his fault he’s weird. Anyone would be if their sister murdered them.”

  “Hey, where are you getting this from? I don’t think Emma had anything to do with Niles’s death.” She considered the book in her hands. Had Emma’s meeting with Howard gone as badly as the ones with her mother? Did she finally feel she had no other choice than to kill Niles before he killed her? What a strange and troubled family. She wondered, not for the first time, what she’d gotten into by taking this job.

  “Not Emma, Henrietta. The one you’re working for.”

  “Dallas, she hired me to restore Glenvale. I’m hardly in cahoots with her. Gertrude worked for her too, a lot more closely than I have. The only difference is that Henrietta fired Gertrude.”

  Her daughter rolled her eyes. “Whatever. She’s still a murderer.”

  “And where is the proof? Has Gertrude discovered anything concrete? Or is this just more accusations with no evidence? It’s illegal to accuse people of things they haven’t done without proof, you know. She could be sued for saying stuff like that.”

  Dallas stared at her as if she’d grown another head. “What are you talking about? Gertrude hasn’t said anything. Niles told us! He told us with the Ouija board. You were there, and you made fun of him.”

  “I did not make fun of him. I told him he was dead, which is the truth. I don’t remember him saying Henrietta killed him. How could I have missed that?”

  “Mom, come on.” She crossed her arms. “He told us about Henrietta giving him candy. Lots of candy. Secret candy. He was a diabetic. He shouldn’t have been eating any candy. She obviously meant to kill him, and she did.”

  Terri hadn’t considered the ominous implications of the candy, and now Gertrude’s barrage of questions about how much candy he’d eaten made sense. “We don’t know that,” she said gently. “Henrietta was a child, and her brother was sick. She could have been giving him candy to cheer him up. There’s no proof she meant to kill him.”

  She wasn’t a doctor, but she wasn’t certain the candy would have killed him, in any case. “Unlike her brother, Henrietta is alive. We have to be careful what we say about her, especially when there’s no proof.”

  “But there is. Niles told us.” Dallas continued to look and sound furious, but Terri knew her daughter well enough to see her conviction was wavering.

  “Did he tell us? Gertrude could have been moving the planchette on her own, and might not have known she was doing it. I had my hands on it too, and I couldn’t tell either way. In any case, the evidence you might think we have wouldn’t stand up in court. We could hardly use the testimony of a ghost.”

  “Did I hear my name?” Gertrude popped her head into the room, smiling that fake smile of hers. Terri had never loathed anyone more than she loathed Gertrude at that moment. “Oh, you two are talking again. Glad to see it. It was feeling a bit tense around here.”

  Unbelievable. “You weren’t talking to me either, Gertrude. If the tension bothered you so much, why didn’t you say something?”

  The woman’s smug smile vanished. “You seemed very upset with me, Terri. I thought it best to give you a respectful distance for a while. The last thing I wanted to do was make things worse for you.”

  “Are you sure? Because for someone who doesn’t want to make things worse, you’re doing a great job of it.”

  “Mom! Why do you have to be so rude? Gertrude is trying to be nice.”

  “No, Gertrude is pretending that she wasn’t an equal partner in the silent treatment I’ve been getting. Do you want to take the blame for it?”

  Dallas bit her lip but didn’t say anything. Her eyes went from Terri to Gertrude and back again. Terri hated every second of this, hated that the perfect summer she’d envisioned for them had gone up in smoke. Her daughter should have been having fun, enjoying the nice weather and the gardens, and instead she was entangled in adult drama. Immature adult drama. Two women bickering like a pair of teenagers.

  “I agreed to give this a try, Gertrude, against my considerable misgivings. But clearly it’s not working out. I think you should leave.”

  Gertrude’s mouth gaped open like a fish’s. “But…it’s too soon. I haven’t found what I need yet.”

  “And you’re never going to, if what you’re looking for is evidence that Henrietta murdered Niles with candy. What are you expecting to find, an old bag of M&Ms? A scrawled note that says, ‘I did it’? Henrietta was a child. Even if she had more malicious motives than trying to cheer up a sick brother, th
ere’s no proof. None of us can say what was going through her head, and if she told anyone, they’d be long gone by now.”

  “There’s something in this house. Niles told me. He was working with me until you scared him off. Now we might never find it. The truth might never come out.”

  “Henrietta Vandermere is one hundred years old. What exactly were you intending to accomplish? Do you want her thrown in jail for her remaining weeks or months of life, so she can die of old age in prison?”

  Gertrude straightened. “I want everyone to know what she did. I want to find justice for Niles.”

  “Well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to do it somewhere else. Like I said, this hasn’t been working out.”

  Dallas’s face fell. “Mom, don’t send her away. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but this summer was supposed to be for us. You and me. I’m not going to let her come between us and cause more damage.” Even though she already has. She returned her attention to Gertrude. “I can’t believe I trusted you and let you stay here, and you repaid me by convincing my daughter not to talk to me.”

  “That was my idea, Mom. She had nothing to do with it,” Dallas protested.

  “She didn’t help, though, did she? If you and I had been here alone, it never would have lasted four days. But you had an adult encouraging you, acting like you were a team of two against me. You’re both so upset about Niles being gone, but if I ‘drove him away’, why is he always around me when I’m working? He hasn’t gone anywhere.”

  Gertrude glared at her. “You’re lying.”

  “Why would I lie about something so ridiculous? We’re talking about a ghost. You’re both furious with me because I told a ghost he was dead. Christ, you should hang me for my crimes. If you hadn’t brought that damn board into this house, none of this would have happened.”

  A small voice piped up. “My mom doesn’t lie, Gertrude,” Dallas said, and Terri knew her daughter had found her way back at last. She could have wept with relief. “You shouldn’t say stuff like that.”

  “You’re a sweet girl, Dallas, but I don’t think you have any idea what your mother is capable of.”

  “Next you’ll be saying I killed Niles. Is that your latest theory? I want you gone within an hour. And if I ever see so much as a hint that you’re back in this house, my first call will be to the police. My second, to Henrietta. I’d love to see you explain how she killed her brother with candy.”

  The woman looked so furious Terri thought she might snap. Her lips were pressed together so tightly they’d gone white, and her throat and cheeks were flushed with anger. “Fine. You got what you wanted. Admit it, you never wanted me here in the first place.”

  “No, I didn’t. You’re right about that.”

  “I hope you’re happy. Because of you, no one will ever find out what happened to Niles.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Feeling spiteful, but also pretty damn good, Terri held up Emma’s journal. “I have the truth right here. You’re the one who’s never going to find it.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  Terri put a hand on her daughter’s head. Gertrude had left them hours ago, and already the house felt lighter. Perhaps she’d been the one truly haunting the house. She’d definitely been poisoning the atmosphere. “It’s okay.”

  “No, it isn’t. I feel really bad. I should never have sided with her over you.”

  “I’m the one who’s sorry – sorry you’re back to eating like this again.” She looked ruefully at the grilled cheese sandwiches and oven fries she’d prepared for dinner. Gertrude would have undoubtedly made chicken fricassee or some other fancy shit. Terri couldn’t compete in that department. But her daughter was still here, and Gertrude was not.

  “I’m not. It’s great. Gertrude’s cooking was nice and all, but it was a bit too weird for me.”

  Terri laughed, even though she knew she shouldn’t. “Me too. It was a lovely cioppino, though.”

  “Until it ended up all over the walls.”

  “Yeah. It took forever to get that stuff off. Mac ’n’ cheese would have come off in a snap.”

  “I really do feel bad, Mom.” Dallas lowered her gaze to her plate, but not before Terri saw a glimmer of tears.

  “Hey, forget about it. We’re together now, we’re talking now, and that’s what’s important. You know I don’t hold grudges. I’m glad you came into Emma’s room.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of her daughter’s mouth. “Me too. To be honest, I kind of hoped you’d be in there.”

  “Really?” That had been the last thing Terri expected to hear. Dallas had looked so angry when she’d first seen her sitting there.

  “Yeah. I wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t know how. After so many days, it felt weird.”

  “If that ever happens again, and I hope it doesn’t, now you know. Just talk. You’re my daughter. I’m never going to shut you out.”

  “I got so caught up in wanting to find out what happened to Niles. I wanted to prove his sister killed him.” Dallas sighed, the weary sigh of a much older person. “But you were right. We shouldn’t have been going around saying Henrietta did it without any proof. I’d hate if someone did that to me.”

  Thrilled that her daughter was displaying empathy after three days of showing none, Terri was also furious with Gertrude for involving her child in her sick obsession. “I’m glad you see that now. Honey, Henrietta fired Gertrude, and Gertrude is angry about that. It doesn’t have anything to do with Niles at all.”

  Niles was a convenient excuse, had always been an excuse.

  “I apologize for letting her stay here,” she continued. “It wasn’t a healthy environment for you, but I’m going to do my best to make up for it with what’s left of the summer.”

  “Can I stay with you for the school year too?”

  Terri could scarcely believe what she was hearing. While it was her greatest wish that Dallas would choose to live with her full-time again, she’d assumed that ship had sailed. “Are you sure you want to do that? I’m probably going to be stuck here for the year, so that means leaving your old school and all your friends.”

  Her daughter shrugged. “That’s okay. I didn’t have many friends there, anyway. The only one I really liked was Angela. Maybe she could come and stay with us sometime. She’s nothing like Gertrude.”

  “I would love that.” When was the last time she’d met one of her daughter’s friends? It had been ages.

  “Did you get a lot done in the house while I was with Gertrude?” Dallas asked, sounding shy. Terri’s chest ached again. So much damage had been done in the past few days, so much progress erased. At least now they had a chance to get back on track again.

  “I did. If you like, I can show you after dinner.”

  “Okay. What was the book you showed Gertrude?”

  The book that Terri was determined to carry everywhere until she had an opportunity to read it from cover to cover and have a copy made. It was too valuable to let out of her sight. “It’s Emma’s journal.”

  Dallas instantly brightened, looking happier than she had since Gertrude had darkened their lives. “Cool! Can I see it?”

  Terri hesitated, wondering how Emma’s story would affect her daughter. She’d loved scary books and movies when she’d been Dallas’s age, but that had been fiction. This was real life, which made it so much more frightening. “We’ll see. I’m going to need to finish reading it first. It might be better if you waited until we aren’t living in this house anymore. It’s…well, it’s quite disturbing.”

  Rather than appearing the slightest bit put off, Dallas sounded more eager. Of course she did. Terri would have been the same way when she was ten. “What does she say?”

  “I’ll tell you when we go for our walk tonight. I
don’t want to talk about it in the house.” Terri glanced at the speaking tube. Though she wasn’t obsessed with Niles like Gertrude was, she had a healthy respect for the ghost – respect that had come courtesy of the scratches on her face, which had yet to fully heal. Had Niles used the speaking tube to eavesdrop when he was alive too? The thought was enough to make her shudder. There was that goose, walking over her grave again.

  “Okay.”

  She’d expected her daughter to protest, and was relieved when she didn’t. Terri wondered how long this new, tentative respect was going to last. Probably not nearly long enough.

  “Were you telling the truth about Niles? Have you really seen him?”

  “Of course I have. Like you said, I don’t lie.”

  Dallas beamed. “I know you don’t. Has he said or…done anything?”

  “No, he’s been pretty quiet. He’s watched me, mostly. Maybe he’s curious about what I’m doing to the house.” It had felt a lot more menacing than that, but there was no reason to scare her daughter more. Terri was beset with guilt whenever she thought of the doomed séance and how Dallas had screamed. She should have dropped it before it had ever gotten to that point. “He hasn’t been to see you at all?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t feel him around anymore, and he doesn’t talk to me. I haven’t had any nightmares, either.”

  “You’ve had nightmares? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Her daughter shrugged. “It didn’t seem like a big deal. Anyway, they’re gone now.”

  More relief. Terri felt the weight of her worries leave her, and sent a silent thanks to the ghost. All she’d wanted was for him to leave her daughter alone, and it sounded like that had been accomplished. “The fact he’s leaving you alone – that’s not such a bad thing, is it?”