The House on Lake Jasper: A Tilton Chartwell Mystery (Tilton Chartwell Mysteries Book 1) by Anne Kelleher Read Free Book Online Page B

Sarah… if that’s what her name really is…I know I heard her out here again.”  She hesitates, gazing into the silent dark.  Where are you, she wonders silently.  Why won’t you come closer?  Tell me what not to forget?   
    “Tilt?” 
    “It’s almost like…” Tilt turns to look up at Aubrey, under the blazing porch light, and stops.  Clearly outlined in the door, are two dark shapes standing shoulder to shoulder, one slightly shorter than the other, their full hoop skirts and enormous sleeves spreading out to block almost the entire opening.  “Oh, my.” 
    “Tilt?”
    “I think they’re keeping her out,” Tilt replies, more to herself.  “I think that’s why I don’t feel her in the house…that’s why no one feels her in the house.”  She bounds up the steps, grabs her sister’s arm and turns to look at the doorway.  The energy is still palpable but the vision has faded.  “Yes, I think that’s it.  They’re keeping her out… but now the question is… why?”
    Before Aubrey can answer, Neale, Mike, Connie and the sheriff emerge from the direction of the living room.  June produces a piece of cardboard and some duct tape to temporarily fill in the gaping hole in the beautiful glass.   
    “So we’re pretty certain that’s who the perpetrators are, folks,” the sheriff is saying, “and we’re pretty certain there won’t be any more problems like this.  And if there are… well, you know where to find us.”  
    “We’ve heard some rumors, Sheriff,” says Connie.  “June tells us there’s a fair amount of anti-development sentiment around the lake… stories about letting the dead rest, all that sort of thing.”
    “Well, Ms. Moore, you’re always going to find anti-development folks just about anywhere someone wants to come in and develop, right? Listen, and June, you tell me if I’m wrong… you get a business going here, bring in some tourists, start providing a few jobs, a few opportunities for others, and the anti-development sentiment will be drowned out by far more sensible voices.”  Murdstone pauses and looks at Neale, then Mike.  “Am I right?”
    Mike shrugs.  “Pretty much.  Thanks for coming out, Sheriff.  We appreciate it.”
    “Now I guess we just have to hope Chuck knows how to put the fear of God into his kid,” says Norah, as she straightens up. 
    “Oh, he knows how to do that, all right,” says June.  “No worries there.”
    “Well, then,” says Neale, “sounds like we can all rest easily tonight.”
    Tilt looks up the winding staircase, where it disappears into the shadowy floor above.  Somehow, she thinks, that’s the last thing any of them are going to do. 

Chapter Ten
     
    The door to their room barely shuts with a click when Aubrey turns to Tilt.  “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    Tilt settles her overnight bag on the bench at the end of the queen size four poster bed.  It’s a beautiful room… Olivia had been in the process of restoring the place when she disappeared.  Apparently, Olivia, too, was thinking of turning the place into an inn, after the death of her husband.  It was another eerie parallel Tilt hadn’t wanted to point out.
    “Tilt? You okay?”
    “I’m fine.”  Tilt grabs a sweatshirt from her bag and pulls it over her head.  “A little freaked out, but I’m fine.”  She takes a deep breath and sinks down into the pale pink wing chair in the corner of the bay window overlooking the lake. 
    “So what exactly are you seeing…picking up around here?  Are you seeing stuff you don’t want to say?”
    “Yeah… exactly.  Not even Chuck… even though he seemed to know immediately that I did.”
    “Well, what was it?”
    Tilt shakes her head and glances out at the lake.  A long dock extends from the shore into the water.  It’s so long the end disappears into the mist.  A few lights pierce the darkness and the fog, houses dotting the opposite ends of the lake, she decides.  “Just