Madison Johns - Agnes Barton Paranormal 01 - Haunted Hijinks Read online

  Once Eleanor was seated in the passenger’s seat, I admired her yellow pantsuit with white tank top beneath its jacket. “You sure look great today, but won’t you get hot?”

  “Not lately. It’s October, don’t you know?”

  “Yes, but it’s in the seventies, dear.”

  “Are we going to discuss suitable apparel all day or check out the Butler Mansion? You did say that Andrew was picking up the owner, Sara Knoxville, right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  I cranked over the engine and off we went with my ghostly passenger in the back, who toppled over as I shot off. I snickered for a moment until Eleanor gave me a hard stare. “What’s so funny?” she wanted to know.

  “Oh, nothing, really. It’s just funny that we’re going back to poke around in the mansion again. I hope we’re able to search it before Andrew brings Sara there.”

  “I can’t imagine an actress staying at the mansion.”

  “Why not, El? It has much better accommodations than most of the hotels around East Tawas.”

  “Not so sure about that. If she stays at the East Tawas Beach Resort, she can order room service.”

  “You’re right there. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  “Hey, Aggie. I sure hope she brings some famous actors or actresses with her, like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.”

  I about spit out my uppers. “Seriously? I doubt you’d see anyone that big showing up in town, but she might bring someone with her. I’m not even sure if she’s married.”

  “Not according to the tabloids,” Eleanor said. “They barely mention her unless she attends a movie premiere.”

  “Lucky for her. I can’t imagine anyone famous would want to be in a tabloid at all since most of the stories are complete fabrications of the truth.”

  “That’s not true. I’ve seen impending divorces turn into real ones even though both parties have denied it.”

  “Hmmm. What is Sara Knoxville famous for, exactly?”

  Eleanor gripped her big black bag. “Oh, you know, she was in that thing about the beach and another about a wedding.”

  “Oh, and those are the names of movies?”

  “You know my mind isn’t always the swiftest.”

  “Neither is mine most of the time, but there are so many movies about weddings that I can hardly keep track. I suppose I could ask Sara when I see her.”

  I pulled into the mansion’s drive and it was empty except for the Impala. When Eleanor and I stepped out of the car, I made tracks to the Impala, trying the doors, but they were all locked. “Oh, phooey,” I said.

  “You actually expected to find the doors open? That would be too easy. If it is Katherine’s car, I’m surprised it wasn’t hauled off to impound.”

  “Perhaps because it’s not hers.”

  The ghost floated toward the backyard like she had before, but the door was already ajar by the time we caught up. “Did you do that?” I asked the ghost.

  “Did I do what?” Eleanor asked. “I didn’t do anything.”

  With an exhale of breath, I walked inside with Eleanor nearly hugging me, she was so close. “Oh, nothing, I was just thinking out loud.”

  “You better cut that out. It’s becoming a habit with you lately.”

  I shook Eleanor off me. “You don’t need to stand that close to me, El. I can barely breathe as it is.”

  “Not sure why. It can’t have anything to do with the fact that we can see our breath inside,” she said as she puffed out a breath, and sure enough, the white mist appeared from between her lips like it does during winter.

  “That’s sure strange. It is a tad cold in here, I suppose. Perhaps the air conditioning is on.” I went to check the thermostat, but it was off.

  “Since when can you see your breath with the air conditioning on? No system ever makes it that cold,” Eleanor said with chattering teeth. “I-I think this place is haunted for real.”

  I wasn’t about to admit to that. The ghost hovered close by, her eyes focused behind us and in the direction of the stairs. I slowly turned, and saw a mist making its way up the stairs.

  Eleanor followed my line of vision and asked, “I-Is th-that a-a gh-ghost?”

  I made way for the stairs. “We should check out the upstairs.”

  Eleanor threw her arms wide. “Are you nuts? I’m not searching a real haunted mansion. I’d rather deal with finding a dead body than a ghost. Corpses can’t hurt you.”

  My hands went to my hips. “And neither can ghosts, if that even was one. We might just find out that a ray of light has filtered from somewhere upstairs.”

  “Well, I’m not going up there.”

  “Fine, then I’ll go by myself.” I flicked the lights on but nothing happened. “That’s odd. The power must not be on yet.”

  “That’s what the ghosts want you to believe. They’re gonna lure us up there and push us back down the stairs or something. No way am I going up there.”

  “Fine, then stay down here all by yourself.”

  “To hell with being in here at all. I’m leaving.”

  Eleanor ran for the door that was pushed shut by my ghostly escort, and she must have locked it, too, since Eleanor rattled the door something fierce. “I want out of here.”

  “Eleanor Mason. Come here now and quit being such a big baby. There are no such things as ghosts.”

  “Then how did the door slam shut, and how is it now locked?”

  “Cross breeze, probably. You know old mansions like this have plenty of drafts. Since you can’t go out, you might as well join me upstairs, unless you want to wait for a ghost to get you down here.”

  The ghost laughed and gave Eleanor a nudge. Eleanor whirled, racing to my side. “I felt something touch me,” El said with tears swimming in her eyes.

  “Not to worry. Even if this place is haunted, I won’t let them hurt you. I promise.”

  “Your promises might not be so good if we both meet our end here, but I’ll go upstairs to check it out since you refuse to leave.”

  I grabbed the banister and climbed the stairs slowly so as not to lose my footing since it was darker on the stairs than it was downstairs. When I reached the second floor, I yanked my cell phone out, but right before I was able to power on the flashlight tool, the lights flickered on. I froze for a moment until my ghostly companion joined us. The ghost was starting to make me feel at ease with her presence. She sure was less scary than seeing another ghost.

  “Hey, Eleanor. So you saw the ghost go up the stairs?”

  “Yes. You did too, right?”

  “Yes, but is that the only ghost you saw?”

  Eleanor gripped my arm in a death-like grip. “You mean there’s more?”

  “I’m not sure just yet, I was just checking. This mansion could be filled with them from the amount of murders that have happened here, and those are the only ones we know about.” I turned to the right and headed down the corridor. “Let’s see. There was Herman Butler and the handyman.”

  “Don’t forget Mildred Winfree,” Eleanor added. “The thing is, there might be more that we never heard about in the past. We should do some research on the mansion. It’s a mighty unlucky place.”

  “Exactly.” I tried not looking at the portraits of the Butler descendants that hung side by side on the walls of the corridor. Why, the eyes seemed to almost follow us as we walked. I shook my head. Stop it, Agnes, you’re losing it.

  I stopped at the end of the hall and went into the first room, ignoring the squeak of the door when it opened. I scanned the boxes stacked in the room. “Looks like just a storage room,” I said. I made my way back into the hallway and we searched the next room that was a bedroom. Each room had the same ornate, Elizabethan antique four-poster bed with tapestry. The colors ranged from green to deep burgundy, colors that were used during the same period. “Sara Knoxville certainly has gone all out turning this into a bed and breakfast that will awe the visitors.”

  “I wonder. I guess we’l
l have to ask her when she gets here. I can’t imagine that she was able to furnish the place so elaborately. It would cost quite a bit to stay at this place and most folks in East Tawas don’t have that kind of money.”

  “Tourists might. I wonder if she plans to tell anyone about the dark history of the place. It might keep the place packed.”

  “What?” Eleanor choked out. “Who’d want to sleep in a murder mansion?”

  “Not us, but there are many people who are into that sort of thing. If they advertised the place was haunted it would even pack up more.”

  “I don’t know this Sara Knoxville yet, but I can’t image anyone trying to take advantage of that kind of history. Besides, it’s not a proven fact that the mansion is haunted at all.”

  At least Eleanor was on the same page with me. “Exactly. Let’s check that last door and we can leave, since I don’t see anything of much interest here.”

  When we went into the last room at the opposite side of the corridor, there were containers of makeup on the dresser, and the closet door was opened a crack. I went over there and checked out the inside of the closet. At first, I thought it was empty, but as I ran my fingers along the back, I felt the ridge of a handle of a suitcase. I removed it and put it on the bed. “Looks like the sheriff missed something.”

  I tried to open the suitcase, but it was locked. I pounded on it in frustration, and the ghost put her hand through it and then it snapped open. Eleanor backed up a tad. “How did you do that?”

  “Beats me, but at least we can check it out now.”

  I moved the contents to the side that were mostly clothing, but underneath were envelopes addressed to Katherine Clark, so I figured we were onto something.

  I handed Eleanor the envelopes and she said, “Should we really be going through Katherine’s personal effects? It feels kinda intrusive.”

  “Probably not, but we really need to find a clue or two if we’re going to figure out who might have murdered Katherine.” I took the mail from Eleanor and went to put in back in the suitcase. “Perhaps you’re right. We should take the suitcase to the sheriff’s department.”

  “No need to get hasty, Agnes. I just meant it seems wrong, not that I wasn’t willing to take a look-see. Then you can take it to the sheriff.”

  I handed the mail back to Eleanor, who carefully tucked it inside her purse. “Anything of interest besides the mail?”

  “Nope.”

  Eleanor came over and fingered the fabric on the inside of the suitcase. “No hidden compartments.”

  “Why would you think there’d be a hidden compartment in a suitcase?”

  “Good point. We should check out the inside of the closet instead.”

  Before I could say anything, Eleanor was face first in the closet, slapping her palms on the walls, her round bottom nearly in my face.

  “Eleanor, please. You’re not going to find anything in there.” I stared at the bookshelf next to the closet and began to pull books out. Suddenly, the entire closet rolled to the side. Poor Eleanor barely had time to move out of the way before it disappeared into the wall. We both stared, wide-eyed, at a door behind the closet and before I gave it much thought, I opened it. On the other side was an opening that led to a hidden passageway.

  I stared at the cobwebs with little enthusiasm. “This sure looks interesting, but being surrounded by spiders—not so much.”

  “Since when are you afraid of a little adventure? And those are probably only cobwebs.”

  “Oh? So you’re not worried about meeting up with a gigantic spider?”

  “Nope. Because you’re going to check it out—not me.”

  I reared back. “What? Why me? My name isn’t Indiana Jones.”

  “Because you’re younger, dear.”

  “Yes, but old enough to know better than to be walking down some corridor where I might break something. Who knows the condition of the inside, or what else might be in there?”

  “I suppose, but it’s worth the challenge, isn’t it? You might discover treasure down there.”

  “Or meet my maker, which I’m so not ready to do just yet.”

  I looked for the ghost for emotional support, but she was already headed through the opening. I had to follow, but I really hated to be covered with cobwebs so I yanked a sheet off the bed and threw it over my head, gathering it beneath my chin.

  “Good thinking, Aggie,” Eleanor said.

  With the light from my iPhone, I led the way inside. The floor beneath our feet was wood, and clumps of hair were gathered in the corners. “This looks like animal hair,” I observed.

  “I sure hope not from rats,” Eleanor said.

  At some point, I lost sight of the ghost and then I felt a breeze blow on me from above. I stared upward, but I figured it must have come from the ductwork so I continued. Before we knew it, there was a set of stairs to descend, which made sense since we were on the second floor.

  I jumped when the ghost glided toward me with a smile on her face. She then turned around and led us deeper down the hallway. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and once we neared it, I shoved hanging vines aside and stepped out into the sunshine. I gasped when I saw we were standing in the Butler’s family cemetery. “Well, I’ll be. I sure never expected the pathway to lead to the cemetery.”

  “Me, either,” Eleanor said. “But it must have been there for a reason. I just don’t understand why anyone would want to leave the comforts of the mansion to be out here in the graveyard?”

  “Someone with something to hide, like their comings and goings.”

  “Well, whoever that was had to have been one the original owners because that pathway had to have been put in long ago.”

  “Exactly. It also means that anyone could come into the mansion undetected and leave without anyone knowing.”

  “Aggie, do you think that whoever killed Katherine might have used this passageway to escape after they murdered her?”

  “Not sure, but it makes perfect sense. I can’t help but wonder who knows that much about the mansion to perpetrate the crime.”

  “So, not only do we need to find out more about who Katherine really is, but the history about the mansion, and hopefully we’ll find out who might have wanted the poor girl dead.”

  “At this point, we don’t know all that much about her other than she was readying the mansion for the bed and breakfast opening,” I mused.

  “With Sara Knoxville coming to town, we might get some answers.”

  “Not so sure about that, though. She’s only inherited the mansion since her father met his demise, but I suppose there’s no reason to think negative just yet.”

  Eleanor and I made our way back into the mansion and brushed our clothes off the best we could, concealing the opening again. Also the sheet I had worn was tossed in a nearby chair. The ghost floated alongside us as we made our way down the stairs.

  When I stepped back on the first floor, Andrew stared me down. There was a beautiful blonde standing next to him with a puzzled look on her face. “Hello, there,” I greeted them.

  Andrew knocked the dust from my shoulder. “What on earth have you two been up to? You both look like you’ve been cleaning the chimney.”

  “We’ve been looking for clues.”

  “Where? Under the beds? Or in the cellar?”

  “We thought we saw something strange.”

  “Like what?”

  “Not really sure, but Eleanor seems to think this place is haunted, if you can believe that.”

  “You thought that, too, Aggie.”

  “I’m really not positive what I saw, but if it was a ghost, it sure disappeared when we followed it upstairs.”

  Sara grinned, fanning her delicate face with her hand. “That sounds cool! I wish I could see a ghost firsthand.”

  “Be careful what you wish for,” I said, nodding to the ghost hovering close by.

  Andrew’s brow shot up. “Whatever are you looking at, Agnes?”

  “Not
hing, but it looks like this place could still use a little dusting.”

  “I’ll hire a cleaning crew right away,” Sara said as she was about to make a call.

  “Actually, we better get the go-ahead from Sheriff Peterson before we go into a cleaning phase. I’m not at all sure if they’re done with this crime scene yet.”

  “Oh,” Andrew said. “Then why are you two here?”

  “We wanted to check for clues about Katherine’s untimely death.”

  Sara bit her fist. “Oh, that’s so awful. I still can’t believe so many people have died on the grounds.”

  “Do tell.”

  Before Sara could respond, Eleanor asked, “Like recently or in the past?”

  “Both, but perhaps we could discuss that at a later date, because the sheriff over there doesn’t look too pleased that we’re here.”

  Sure enough, Sheriff Peterson’s frame filled the doorway, his nostril’s flaring like a bull about to charge. “Why are you all here? Didn’t you see the police tape?”

  Sara sauntered over on her sky-high heels. Her ruby red lips parted and she smiled up at him. “Oh, I’m sorry, sheriff. I just flew into town and had to come here straightaway. It’s just dreadful what happened to Katherine.” She pulled off her sweater, revealing a white camisole top beneath that displayed her cleavage nicely. “But you must understand, I have to have this place ready for the grand opening on Halloween.”

  Peterson eyes drifted to Sara’s cleavage and then he looked away as if they burned. His eyes looked anywhere except at Sara. “I see. W-Well, let me call the state police to assure they are finished here.”

  He strode outside to his squad car and Eleanor said, “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Peterson do an about-face like that before.”

  “Boobs do have their uses,” Sara said with a giggle.

  Peterson came back in and gave us the all clear. “Agnes, can I speak with you outside?”

  Eleanor and I followed him to his car where he leaned up against it. “I’m certainly no fool. You know better than to cross police tape.”

  I tried not to burst out in laughter as the ghost stuck her tongue out at Peterson. “Oh, I know,” I finally said.