The haunting of beverly.., p.15
The Haunting of Beverly Holden, page 15
“Is everything okay, Meredith?”
“Yes, yes. I’m fine. I must get going, though. My husband is probably worried sick about me. He wanted to come up and help with everything going on, but I wouldn’t let him. The sun does a number on his fair skin.”
Despite Meredith’s assurances that she was fine, Beverly still felt terrible for how much she’d had to endure over the years. Never in her life had she expected to have such a strong bond with either of them. Yet looking at Tyler, she knew she wasn’t alone in the feeling. Even though he’d only just arrived, already he seemed to love the two elderly women like aunts. They watched Helena walk with Meredith to the front door, listening as it opened and closed before Helena appeared, informing them that she was exhausted and wanted to turn in. Instantly, Beverly was on her feet to assist her, promising Tyler that she’d be back in a few minutes.
Helena sighed as she climbed into her bed. “I’m tired of fighting to find the truth, Beverly. All these secrets… How did he keep so many from me? All this time, I’ve tried to think that he was a good man, but…I just don’t know anymore. Just when I think I know them all, something else happens. How much longer do you think it will be before the good Lord calls me home? I don’t want to keep fighting, Beverly; I’m tired,” Helena said softly.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she sat next to Helena, taking the woman's hand in hers.
“We’ll get it all sorted. I know Tyler can be a pain in the ass, but he means well. Plus, he’s a problem solver. He’s good at figuring out things. Between the three of us, we’ll discover the truth, I promise,” Beverly assured her. “You have help now. This isn't a burden you have to carry on your own any longer.”
“I just want to go to bed and go to sleep,” Helena said. “If I’m lucky, I won’t wake up and this whole nightmare will be over. Is that wrong of me?”
The woman’s words stung. She was heartbroken at the thought of losing Helena. No matter what her friend said, Beverly wasn’t going to let her get sucked back into the cycle of depression that had kept her hostage for most of her life. Helena was strong. She was a fighter.
“You can’t leave me. I need you here with me. We will find out what really happened. Just hang on a little longer. For me,” Beverly pleaded.
“This world isn’t done with me yet. I only need to sleep. I just wish that while I'm off in dreamland, Bobby would come to me again. Maybe then, I’d finally get some answers.”
“Just lie down and get some rest,” Beverly repeated. “We won’t stop until we get this all figured out.”
Beverly remained in the room for a while longer until the woman’s rhythmic snoring could be heard. She slipped out of the bedroom and slowly made her way back to the dining room where Tyler was waiting. As she rounded the corner, though, she stopped dead in her tracks, her heart pounding. The ghost children no longer frightened her, but the man she saw standing a few feet away was a different story. The apparition was nearly transparent, unlike the children who seemed to have more substance when they appeared. She wondered if it had anything to do with how often Bobby had visited his wife. Could the energy of a spirit be depleted? Beverly swallowed as she met the creature's gaze. She wanted answers.
“Hello, Bobby.”
31
She stood frozen in the hall. Around the corner, she could hear Tyler singing along with the radio that he’d turned on. Either way, she didn’t want him hearing them and running out. His presence might send the spirit away. Beverly could tell the apparition was weak. The wall behind him would come to go as if he were struggling to stay visible. She swallowed, her throat dry as he watched her. Time seemed to be at a standstill. Beverly didn’t know if she was supposed to talk to him or run.
She hesitated, her voice little more than a whisper. “Why are you showing yourself to me? Why not Helena?”
The creature's mouth opened, his face contorting as if he were in immense pain. Beverly’s heart ached for him, no matter what he was. No one deserved to suffer. When he spoke, it was a gurgled plea, barely coherent.
“Protect…Helena.”
“Yes, I’m trying to protect Helena. I need to know where you kept your journal,” she whispered. “I’ve looked, but without it…I don’t know the truth.”
He gasped, again his words causing him pain. “Always in desk. Always.”
Each question was answered with short responses. It was hard for Beverly to understand what he was saying. She remembered her mother telling her that some spirits, especially ones who lived a rough life, would lose strength each time they showed themselves. Given that Bobby had ended his life with a torrid affair and the death of his children, it made sense. She watched him as he spoke while trying to understand the figure in front of her.
“I found the journals, but there’s one missing. Can you tell me where it is?” she asked, simplifying the question.
“In desk,” he responded. “The desk, always the desk.”
“That’s what I am trying to say. There is a journal missing,” she said, becoming impatient. “The one you told Helena about. You told her that you had written what really happened. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“No!” His cry was desperate.
His sudden outburst made her jump. She hadn’t been afraid of him until that moment. The apparition appeared confused. Could it be that he didn’t know where it was, either? Beverly could tell each time the spirit spoke, it weakened him. She didn’t want him to disappear. The questions she had seemed near endless. Taking a deep breath, she tried to sort through the racing thoughts in her mind. There had to be a way to get through to him. With each passing second, she felt more desperate, knowing that his time there was limited.
“Okay then. What about the tunnels?” she asked before muttering under her breath. “Why didn’t you mark the tunnel under the cabin? All the others are mapped out. You had to know about it, you son of a—”
“Bootlegger’s cubby…within,” he hissed.
“What?” she pressed.
In a flash, Bobby was gone. A chill moved through the air in his absence. Beverly quickly jogged into the dining room. When Tyler saw the color had drained from her face, he jumped to his feet and met her halfway. She quickly told him what had happened. In true Tyler fashion, his eyes instantly lit up at the prospect of another treasure hunt. Instantly, she regretted telling him about the possibility so late in the day. It was an intriguing prospect, though. She hadn’t heard the term since they’d learned about prohibition in high school.
The cubbies, said to have been scattered throughout the mountains, were used by bootleggers as a decoy. Most of the time, their stash wouldn’t stay stationary longer than a few hours. They would fill jars with colored water, and if they got nabbed, they’d strike a deal and offer to take them to their stash. Instead, they’d lead the officers to a cubby where other bootleggers would help their fellow felons to escape into the night. By the time the police knew what was happening, prohibition was already headed out the door and they no longer cared about catching drunks.
“What are we standing in here for? Let’s go knock down that wall and see what the bootlegger’s cubby has to offer. It could be the answer to everything! Can you imagine what we will find? My God, do you think there could be gold? Maybe good old Bobby kept a stash away from the wife.”
“Slow down there, speed racer. Helena is asleep. We can’t just leave her in here. What if she wakes up and no one is here? The poor woman would panic or, worse, get hurt. I don’t think it’s a good risk to take. Tomorrow we can go looking for it. We don’t even know if it’s really here.”
“Well then, that’s perfect! You said she talks a sleeping pill, right? She will be out all night! We could get in and out before she even knows we’re gone. You said the answer is in that journal. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can get Helena to relax. It could be sitting right there, behind the wall. It’s begging for us to find it. What do you say, we could be the two musketeers?”
“You are incorrigible, do you know that? There are so many things that could go wrong. What if the tunnel caves in and we’re trapped? No one would know we were even gone.”
He shrugged. “So, we’ll leave a note. Problem solved.”
Beverly had to admit that she wanted to find the journal as much as Tyler wanted to explore the tunnels. Still, the idea of leaving Helena by herself made her nervous. She’d watched their host take a sleeping pill before climbing into bed, the same as she did every night. Suddenly she remembered the blueprints and kicked herself for not grabbing them from Meredith. Even though it was nearing nine and the night had taken over the landscape, Beverly found herself wide awake and ready to walk. If nothing else, it would take her mind off the cryptic encounter with Bobby. The memory alone made her shudder.
“Okay, but hold on a minute,” she cautioned. “If we’re going to do this, there’s going to be some ground rules. Understand? You’re not going to go running off and getting us into a situation that we can’t get out of.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, Mom—”
“First rule is no more of that. After spending today with you, I have far more sympathy for our mother than I ever thought possible. Second, you follow my lead down there. Whatever I say, goes.”
“Wow, you are just sucking all the fun right out of this. There goes our game of hide-and-seek in the dead man’s tunnel…hey, that’s a hell of a name for the attraction!”
"Tyler,” she warned. “Last one, when I say it’s time to go, we’re gone. Got it?” Beverly said.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Whatever you say, boss.”
It still felt like a bad idea, but he wasn’t going to relent, and she knew it. Plus, she would sleep easier knowing they’d exhausted all possible options in that tunnel. There were still others to check, and the longer it took, the worse Helena’s mind seemed to slip. Giving Tyler one final warning glare, she laid out the plan to stop at the tool shed first and make sure they were prepared for whatever they came across. The woods after dark didn’t seem like a great place to be unarmed.
They carefully snuck out the back door. Beverly was still worried that Helena might wake and find them gone, sending her into a panic. The farther they moved from the house, though, the more her excitement grew until they were back at the cabin, and she was watching her brother descend into the darkness. The police had cared very little about the shack, ripping the door completely off in an attempt to get down to the cavern. She climbed in after him, the walk a silent one until they reached the wall.
“What now, hotshot?” Beverly asked.
Tyler grinned and lifted his hatchet, swinging at the wall before she could stop him. The stone started to crumble instantly. Whoever had built it hadn’t used the correct materials, that much Beverly could tell. As her brother worked, she picked up a handful. It was moist to the touch. The material had absorbed the ground's moisture over the years. Thankfully, they were deep enough that she was sure Helena wouldn’t be woken by the noise. The dust was another matter. She covered her face as an opening in the wall appeared.
“Holy shit,” Tyler muttered.
Part of her didn’t want to look inside and see what was there. Her mind raced with possibilities, but the most morbid was a room full of corpses. Her stomach flipped, pleading with her to turn back before it all became too much and she succumbed to the claustrophobia threatening to derail her. With a firm resolve, Beverly pushed past her brother, shining her light into the circular dugout. What she found shocked her.
32
The siblings stepped into the space, no bigger than the office in the house, yet it was decorated considerably more. The moisture had taken its toll on the soft materials. A large, solid queen bed took up the majority of the space. Her heart lurched as she looked at Tyler, both knowing what it had been used for. The remaining square feet were occupied by a desk matching the one in the house and a few suitcases. The room appeared preserved in time, apart from the smell of mold. Beverly knew the chances of finding the journal intact had plunged dramatically.
“Bobby seems to have been the bad-boy type. He really took his time with this love cave,” Tyler said sarcastically. “You think Millie was the only one he brought down here? I sure as hell don’t. Sure seems like he had a whole harem. Can you imagine the old fart just bringing them in, one by one?”
“Enough, Ty. Haven’t you ever heard not to talk ill of the dead? For God’s sake, you know his kid's ghosts are floating around, right? What if they heard you? Have a little decency. Plus, you know Millie could pop up anytime, too. Hell, I hope she pops up right behind you and scares the shit out of you. It would serve you right! Wouldn’t that be a sight? You with a poop smear right down your butt.”
“Gross,” he moaned. “Don’t have a cow, Bev. I was only joking,” he laughed. “Seriously, though, there is no other way out of here. They had to have been using the cabin entrance the whole time. I was hoping to find another secret passage to a lot of gold or something like that.”
“Well, this isn’t the end of some rainbow, and we certainly aren’t on a pirate ship,” she joked. “Let’s just look for the journal and get out of here. I’m starting to get creeped out, and the smell down here is about to make me sick.”
“I know how to find it.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, extending his arms into a yoga stance. “Oh, great and powerful spirit of Bobby! We come to you today in hopes you’ll help us find the lost journal of yours, please mighty spirits! Help us in this quest, and we shall make offerings of blood! Oh, let us rejoice in your—”
“Dammit, Ty,” Beverly snapped. “Enough already. I swear, sometimes I want to beat you with a freaking stick. Do you take anything seriously? It’s no wonder you don’t have a girlfriend; you’re still looking for a babysitter! Just look for the damn journal and quit acting like a child.”
“Awe, Bev, don’t be jealous. You’ll always be my favorite babysitter.”
“Yeah, because none of the others could tolerate you longer than one shift. Are you going to help, or just stand around, waiting for the ghost of Bobby to come to kick your ass?”
Tyler laughed and started to shine his flashlight around the dark cove. Instantly, Beverly went to the desk. Her stomach dropped when she pulled open the first drawer and found nothing but decaying documents. Grabbing the ballpoint pen from its holder, she poked at the papers, and the pen went directly through them. There was nothing left for them to find. Whoever had sealed off the room had made sure of that, be it by luck or plan, the damage was too far gone. She sat on the edge of the desk. Something metallic caught the light as she spun around the space and looked for clues. It was a briefcase.
“Hey, Ty, come take a look at this,” she exclaimed. “It’s pretty old, and the combination locks are rusted. They won’t even spin. Can you get it open?”
“Well, if I can’t, my super trusty hatchet can. Let me take a look at it.”
“Be careful. We don’t know what's in there,” she muttered.
He rolled his eyes. “You think he was making bombs down here or boom-boom? The guy wasn’t exactly a criminal mastermind.”
“Just open the dang thing.”
Tyler laid the briefcase on the desk, wedging his hatchet under the edge as he slowly applied pressure. It opened a crack but held fast until Tyler forced the tip in a little more. After a few more gentle taps, the box sprang open. Beverly gasped as she carefully reached inside. The handful of journals she’d found in the office was identical to the one in the briefcase. It was the only item inside; its color faded with time but otherwise in seemingly pristine shape. Beverly carefully flipped the journal over in her hands. As soon as she shone the light over the back of the cover, she noticed little brown spots speckled all over.
“Those spots aren’t from water, Bev. You know what that is, don’t you? Because it sure isn't chocolate.”
“Yeah, I know. There aren't many things it can be, not being in the briefcase like that. It’s blood,” she whispered.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s open that bad boy up and see what’s been going on around here. I can’t wait to figure it all out,” Tyler said. “Do you think they were working in cahoots with each other?”
The smell of the space was starting to get to her again, and she frowned, carefully standing and tucking it into her back pocket. Tyler groaned, his shoulders dropping when he realized she wasn’t going to dive right into it.
“Come on, don’t tell me you’re going to make me wait until tomorrow! Is this payback for calling you Mom? If so, I’m really sorry…Mom.”
“I swear,” she hissed before sighing. “We will read it tonight, you impatient man-child, but back at the house. Helena needs me there, and we’ve been gone long enough as it is.”
He perked up. “You’re right. Let’s get back and check on her, then we can open the holy grail there.”
Beverly laughed. “I'm happy you’re finally agreeing to something. I was ready to watch you throw a full-blown tantrum right here in the hole.”
“You know, that’s still an option if you’d prefer.”
“Start walking, mister,” she said with a grin.
As they headed back down the tunnel, Beverly knew she’d have to share her findings with Helena and Meredith at some point, but she had no intention of it being soon. Before she dragged them both back into things, she had to be sure that no one else played a part in ruining Helena’s life. As much as she loved and trusted Meredith, things had become too complicated for her not to be suspect, especially after how she’d fled earlier in the evening. Beverly wanted desperately to believe her friend was innocent, but until she knew the truth, everyone was suspect.
“Are you all right, sis? You’ve gotten awfully quiet. What’s going on in that big head of yours?”
Beverly scoffed but realized she hadn’t said a word since they’d left the little room. Despite not planning on sharing her thoughts, to her surprise, she blurted out her concerns with the journal and the two women desperately wanting them to find it. She trusted both Meredith and Helena, but who knew how much damaging information they were about to unearth. Tyler seemed to ponder the problem for a minute before speaking.
