Are You Haunted (part thirty-two)

Are You Haunted

(part thirty-two)

One electric bulb stuck in a joist-mounted socket over the steps. The rest lit by windows, or by nothing. At the landing Tovey had cached two kerosene lanterns; he struck a match, lighting one, thrust this at Powell and lit the other.

“I ain’t telling you. I want you to tell me. Look around. Pay attention.”

Powell in frustration stubbed his shoes along the dirt floor. Then, with an actual pain, stubbed against something different, the edge of a plank. Not a plank either, but full flooring, his lantern welling over a stretch someone had kicked free of dirt. A chamber, with sash and hinges where a door had been.

He backed out and lifted the lantern above his head, casting light on the Drybrooks’ oil burner.

Tovey had begun to breathe in a deliberate way.

Part of the floor was concreted over, fitted with a drain. Along the wall were ghostly tendrils of vines that had probed inside, cobweb sheets tearing into eyeholes…

Tovey muttered profanities. Leaning close, Powell stared at the cement facing.

“Okay, sport, now you’re getting warmer.”

With his heel Powell kicked an arc in the dirt.

“Looking for skeletons? You’re cold, Kenzie.”

But other unhappy Drybrooks must have gone before the daughter who was said to haunt this place. Folklore needs only brushing acquaintance with historical truth. The Toveys, on the other hand, wanted to make their enemies’ deal with the county unprofitable. To do this they needed, not a fairy story, but a dirty secret.

He made his way to a little store room. The shelves were empty. He moved for the stairs to escape.

Tovey jerked him by the sleeve.

“Then what am I looking for?”

“Since you’re slow in the head, I’ll clue you in. When they turned the mill into…whatever, for the war, that’s when they built the tunnel. I don’t know what the war was like in your part of the world, Kenzie, but around here everyone was wound up about subs full of krauts, sneaking up the coastline. Drybrook’s had an emergency plan to take the documents underground from the mill to the house, where the high-ups could hie off in their getaway car, I guess. Now, look.”

He brought his lantern to shine next to Powell’s, the flame blooming with the rush of air.

And at last, Powell discerned something.

32

Haunted
Are You Haunted (part thirty-three)

(2019, Stephanie Foster)