Haunted by the Past, page 10
part #11 of Ismael Jones Series
A short, middle-aged woman in a baggy tweed suit and a battered Panama hat was facing the Glenburys down at the top of her voice and hitting them with both barrels. Her vocal assault filled the lobby, pushing the shadows back into corners as she set out her complaint, and every time she made a point she hammered on the desk with her fist. Arthur winced every time she did that, but Marion held her ground and didn’t bat an eye. The new arrival was a stocky, pugnacious bulldog of a woman, with a lined face and slate-grey hair, not unattractive, but clearly one of those women with no time for the usual feminine touches. A bulging suitcase squatted patiently at her feet, like an obedient dog.
Fascinated as I was by this new drama, I suddenly realised I hadn’t been hearing something I should have. Penny and I had descended the stairs accompanied by the usual low thunder of feet on bare wooden steps, but there had been only silence behind us. I turned and looked back up the long stairway, but there was no sign of Catherine anywhere. For whatever reason, she had chosen to stay on the top floor and ignore what was happening downstairs. I made a mental note to find out why later on, and then gave my full attention to the primordial clash of forces taking place in the lobby. Everyone involved was so taken up with their war of words they hadn’t even noticed Penny and me arriving. So we took up a position at the foot of the stairs and settled back to enjoy ourselves. I didn’t even think of interrupting; it would have been like trying to hold off a tropical storm with a leaky umbrella. Some things you just have to let run their course.
The newcomer was Wendy Goldsmith, a member in good standing of the Ravensbrook Historical Society. She repeated this at regular intervals, in between establishing her complaint, just to make sure Arthur and Marion knew exactly who they were dealing with. She had turned up at Glenbury Hall despite being told not to; in fact, she’d probably done so precisely because she’d been told not to come. Apparently, she was damned if she was going to be messed about with like that. Or cheated out of a weekend she’d been looking forward to for months.
“I paid good money to be allowed access to Glenbury Hall, at long last!” she said loudly. And the fist came hammering down again. The room keys on the wall behind the reception desk jumped on their hooks, as though volunteering to press themselves into Wendy’s hand if she’d only stop shouting. Wendy paused for breath, and Marion jumped right in.
“We did offer a full refund,” she said quickly, in her best I am being reasonable about this because one of us has to be and it clearly isn’t going to be you voice.
“I don’t want my money back!” said Wendy.
“Then what do you want?” said Arthur.
Surprisingly, Wendy seemed to calm down a little when presented with a straightforward question.
“I couldn’t believe you cancelled the Society’s meeting at such short notice,” she said. “I was so angry about that I came all the way here from London just so I could complain in person, and now you tell me there wasn’t a double booking after all? That it was just something you made up, to disguise the fact that Lucas Carr vanished into thin air before he even got to his room? How is that even possible? No one’s disappeared at Glenbury Hall for ages!”
“But what is it that you want?” said Arthur, sticking to the one question that seemed capable of derailing her.
Wendy drew herself up to what passed for her full height and folded her arms in the manner of someone prepared to stand where they were until infinity ran out, if that was what it took to get her way.
“I insist on being allowed to stay in the room I booked, in advance, until someone can tell me what the hell is going on here. Or else...”
“Or else what?” I said interestedly.
Wendy looked round sharply, as she finally realised she had an audience. Arthur and Marion looked too, and seemed a little relieved at the prospect of reinforcements. Wendy took a good look at me, and then at Penny, and deepened her frown into a scowl to make it clear she wasn’t even a little bit impressed. When she addressed us, her voice was more a growl than anything else.
“What do you mean ‘or else what?’”
“Well,” I said, keeping my voice carefully reasonable, because I knew that would annoy her more than anything else, “when someone says Or else, it usually means Give me what I want, or I will do something you really don’t want me to do. I was just wondering which particular threat you had in mind.”
“Or else,” Wendy said heavily, turning the full force of her glare back on the Glenburys, “I will be forced to go to the local police, and inform them of my suspicions!”
“And what might those be?” Penny said politely.
Wendy seemed thrown for a moment, but quickly rallied.
“I will tell them that since the Hall’s management has made such an effort to put me off...something suspicious must be going on here!”
There was a pause as we all considered that, and even Wendy seemed to realise it wasn’t as impressive an argument as she’d hoped. But she still stood her ground, arms tightly folded, refusing to give an inch.
“Did you know Lucas Carr?” I said.
“Only by name and reputation,” Wendy said grudgingly, as though afraid she might be giving ground. “And of course I was very familiar with the excellent work he did for the Society. I read all the papers he submitted to our site. Including some remarkable pieces detailing Lord Ravensbrook’s precarious position at the Court of James II, and his constantly shifting political alliances. Lucas also came up with some fascinating theories as to what shape Lord Ravensbrook’s rebellion might have taken, if he’d been able to get it off the ground. I don’t know what sources Lucas had access to, but he was able to quote all kinds of people who were directly involved.”
She paused for a moment, her bulldog expression suggesting she might actually be a little jealous Lucas had been able to discover sources that had eluded her. She quickly recovered and stared at me challengingly, as though daring me to catch her in a contradiction.
“That was Lucas for you: tenacious as a terrier when it came to digging up rare and elusive facts. Though of course he had more time to spend on his investigations than the rest of us. I don’t think Lucas had anything else in his life, just his fascination with this particular area of history.”
“Do you think Lucas had discovered something important?” said Penny.
“Absolutely!” said Wendy. “If Lucas said he had something, then you could take that to the bank and get a receipt. I never once knew him to make a claim he couldn’t back up, unlike some members of the Society I could mention but won’t.”
“Did Lucas have any close friends, inside the Society?” I said.
“Well, not friends, as such,” said Wendy. “There were people he was always ready to chat with on the site, but he’d never met any of us in person. I got the feeling he didn’t get out much. In fact, I think we were all a bit surprised when he announced he would be joining us at Glenbury Hall. From things he let slip in his posts, I’m pretty sure he found travelling, and meeting new people, a bit difficult. I think it was only his discovery of this important new information that gave him enough strength to make the effort.”
And then she stopped, and fixed me with a suspicious stare. “Who are you? What right do you have to question me?”
“I am Ishmael Jones, and this is my partner Penny Belcourt,” I said easily. “We were brought in by Lucas Carr’s company, to find out exactly what happened to the man.”
Wendy smiled knowingly. “Of course...His disappearance matters, because his job has security connections! That’s it, isn’t it?”
“You know about that?” said Penny.
“Oh, Lucas loved to boast about how important his work was,” Wendy said airily. She’d unfolded her arms, and seemed a little calmer now she seemed to be getting somewhere. “He loved to drop the word Security into a conversation and then back off, without giving anything away that might pin him down. You don’t need to worry, though. He never told us anything about what his work actually involved. He could have been just the tea boy, for all we knew.”
“So this would have been Lucas’ first trip away from home,” said Penny. She nodded to me. “That would explain the over-packed suitcases. He had no experience when it came to what he might need, so he brought everything.”
“I know he was very determined to make a good first impression,” said Wendy. “His last few posts were brimming over with enthusiasm for what he had to tell us.” She shrugged, just a little unhappily. “It is possible that we weren’t all as supportive as we might have been. Lucas didn’t cope well with teasing.”
She broke off, suddenly realising that she was giving away more information than she was getting.
“Anyway! I was looking forward to meeting him at last, if only so I could buy him several drinks, back him into a corner, and finally get some straight answers out of the man. And I was really looking forward to hearing his presentation. He’d been talking it up for months, promising us exciting new material that would completely change the way we saw Lord Ravensbrook, and the Glenburys’ role in what happened to him!”
She stopped for a moment as she ran out of breath, and then fixed me and Penny with an inquisitive stare.
“You think something bad has happened to Lucas, don’t you?”
“Foul play can’t be ruled out,” I said carefully.
Wendy shook her head and seemed to shrink into herself a little. “Poor bastard. After all the effort he made to get here the Hall betrayed him, because that’s what it does. I can’t believe people are still going missing here, in this day and age...” She turned her glare back on Arthur and Marion. “I demand to know what efforts are being made to find him!”
“You’ll have to ask Mr. Jones and Ms. Belcourt about that,” Marion said immediately, pleased that she could turn the problem over to someone else. “They’re in charge of the investigation.”
Wendy planted her fists on her hips, to back up her glare, and sniffed loudly. “So his disappearance is connected to his job!”
“We haven’t uncovered any evidence to support that, as yet,” I said.
“But we are concerned about what might have happened to him,” said Penny.
Wendy decided she’d got as much out of us as she was going to, and resumed her attack on Arthur and Marion.
“I want my room! The one I paid for. So hand over my key, because I am not leaving this house until Lucas has been found!”
“Then you could be here for some time,” murmured Arthur.
“Let her stay,” I said. “Her knowledge of the Hall’s history, and of Lucas Carr, might come in handy.”
Arthur looked to Marion, who shrugged quickly and gestured at the keys on the rear wall.
“Give her Room Five.” She pushed the ledger across the desk to Wendy. “You’ll have to register.”
Wendy snatched a proffered pen from Marion’s hand, while Arthur went to fetch the key. Wendy nodded at Lucas’ signature, and added her own underneath. She finished with a flourish, and then underlined it for emphasis. Just to remind them who they were dealing with. She smiled triumphantly at Marion, and tossed the pen onto the desk.
“When will you be calling us for dinner?”
For the first time, Marion was caught off balance. “It’s a bit late for a meal...”
“No, it isn’t!” Wendy said immediately, with the air of someone not prepared to compromise even a little bit. “I have come a long way to be here! The least you can do for a paying guest is to provide them with an evening meal!”
“Oh, very well,” said Marion, recognising a lost cause when it was glaring right into her face. “I’m sure we can rustle up something...” She looked at me and Penny, and we both nodded solemnly. “All right, something for all of you.”
Arthur came back to offer Wendy her key, and she grabbed it out of his hand as though afraid he might change his mind. Penny leaned in close to me.
“Why do you want her to stay?” she said quietly.
“Because she might not be exactly who she says she is,” I said, just as quietly. “In which case it’s better to have her here, where we can keep an eye on her. And just maybe, she can tell us things about Lucas Carr. We really don’t know much about the man, considering he’s at the heart of this mystery. I’m also interested in this historical paper Lucas was going to present to the Society. The one that was going to change everything. Not everyone likes change.”
“You think someone might have arranged his disappearance, over an academic paper?” said Penny.
“People have killed each other over less,” I said. “And, I think it might be a good idea to compare Wendy’s knowledge of the Hall with Catherine’s. Just in case our sweet little local historian has been telling us things that aren’t one hundred per cent accurate.”
Penny looked a little shocked at the implied accusation. “You don’t trust her?”
“Do you?”
“She has been very helpful,” Penny said thoughtfully. “Perhaps a little too helpful? And she does seem very protective, when it comes to Arthur.”
“She’s been doing everything she could to steer us towards a supernatural explanation, and away from the historical,” I said. “Wendy might be able to help us figure out which facts we can depend on.”
“And whether any of it has anything to do with what really happened to Lucas,” said Penny.
“Exactly,” I said.
“If you two have quite finished muttering together!” Marion said loudly.
Penny and I looked round, to find Marion, Arthur, and Wendy all glaring at us. I stared calmly back at them.
“Just crunching a few theories,” I said. “You know how it is.”
“You must have turned up something useful by now,” said Marion. “You’ve been all over the Hall.”
“And yet, there’s no sign of Lucas anywhere,” I said.
“Didn’t you find anything?” said Arthur.
“A few things,” I said.
I think he would have liked to press me on that, but we all stopped and looked round as we heard footsteps coming down the staircase. Catherine Voss descended leisurely into view, showing us her usual sweet smile, and finally joined Penny and me at the foot of the stairs.
“I heard raised voices,” she said. “I do hope everything’s all right.”
“Why didn’t you come down with us?” I said, as casually as I could.
“I had to go to the bathroom,” said Catherine. “It was right where I remembered it, but then, things don’t change much in Glenbury Hall. That’s rather the point.”
Wendy stared at her, openly suspicious. “And who might you be?”
“Catherine Voss, local historian and expert on Glenbury Hall.”
Wendy surprised us all then, with a broad smile that lit up her whole face.
“Of course, I’ve read your book! Roots in Hell, and all that. A bit sensational in places, but solid in the facts department. And never afraid to draw a daring conclusion! Our Society has adopted it as a standard text.”
“Really?” said Catherine, beaming all over her face. “I’m afraid my little book didn’t attract many positive reviews, so sales weren’t what they might have been...”
“I thought you did first-class work!” said Wendy. “Lucas found a few things to argue with, but then he always did.”
I made a mental note, to consider a possible argument between Lucas and Catherine. There’s no one more touchy than a specialist scholar defending their territory.
Catherine smiled politely at Wendy. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name...”
“Wendy Goldsmith, from the Ravensbrook Historical Society. I’m staying here.”
“Are the others on their way too?” said Catherine.
“I doubt it. Takes a lot, to get them off their backsides.” Wendy fixed Catherine with a thoughtful look. “You know, while I was fascinated by your grasp of the Hall’s history, I really couldn’t be doing with all the spooky stuff. That kind of thing just gets in the way when it comes to uncovering the facts.”
“Unfortunately, it’s difficult to separate the supernatural from the historical at Glenbury Hall,” said Catherine. “The one does tend to reinforce the other.”
Wendy shook her head firmly. “When you strip away all the weird shit, what you’re left with is what matters.”
Catherine smiled happily. “Oh, we are going to have such fun, arguing about this!”
Wendy smiled back. “That’s what scholarship is all about.”
I moved forward to face Arthur and Marion. “Penny and I will be needing a room as well.”
“You’re staying overnight?” said Arthur.
“We’re staying until we find Lucas Carr,” said Penny.
“Or what happened to him,” I said. “We want the guest room at the top of the stairs.”
“The one Lucas was supposed to have?” said Arthur.
I looked at Penny. “Didn’t you just know he was going to say that?”
“Not really, no,” said Penny. “Is it too late to change our minds?”
“Yes,” I said. “If that was Lucas’ room, we don’t want anyone else having it.”
“You’re doing it again,” said Marion, just a bit dangerously. “Muttering to each other, keeping secrets, and leaving the rest of us out of it.”
“All part of the job,” I said.
“Get them the key to Room Four,” said Marion, not even glancing at Arthur. She looked at me steadily. “Do you have any luggage?”
“No,” I said. “Travel light, travel fast.”
“Oh. I didn’t bring anything either!” said Catherine. “I was in such a hurry to get here, I didn’t stop to think about that.”
“You’re staying as well?” said Arthur, halfway to the rear wall.
“Of course, dear,” said Catherine. “You’re not to worry about anything, Arthur. I’ll be here for as long as you need me.”
“You can have Room Six,” Marion said resignedly.
I wasn’t sure how pleased Arthur was about that, but he didn’t say anything. He collected two metal keys from their hooks, and presented them to me and Catherine.
