Are You Haunted (part thirty-three)

Are You Haunted

(part thirty-three)

Bricks were all over the property, easy to gather; all over the cellar, already dusted up. Fresh mortar would have to be stained, but the stuff to stain it with was right here. A coat of something sticky…even water. A broom to stir the dirt off the floor.

But there was a marked square of about five feet, by mortar too thick, bricks too tight and uniform. “What does it mean…?”

“Or what,” Tovey finished for him, “do I think I’m gonna find, when I take a sledgehammer to this?”

“If that’s what you plan to do.”

“I want to lay eyes on the inside of the tunnel. For myself.”

A girl was first through the door. Next Alfin, folding chair under an arm, bottle in hand. He nudged the girl forward, bumping the bottle against the small of her back.

“Alfin, you’re rude,” Isobel said. “Dennis needed that money, by the way. He’s gone to get gas for the stove, and I had to spot him five.”

“Won’t cost that much. See if he comes back sober. But here’s the change I’ve got.”

“Enid, is that it?”

Isobel was asking the girl. Powell was watching the only money he’d been given change hands into Isobel’s pocket.

“Lois Arthur.”

“Well, I knew you were an Arthur, you with that hair. Alfin, introduce Lois to Powell.”

Alfin let the chair fall where it might. “I thought we’d see you togged out in one of your new suits. Looks like you’ve been crawling after Dennis in the catacombs.” Chuckle. “Comb out those cobwebs, why not? Here we have Lois. Lois, Powell Kenzie.”

Lois stood doughy and freckled, under an auburn cloud, looking over her shoulder at Alfin. Powell felt incapable of asking this girl, “How do you do?”

He scratched his head. Lois rolled the cuff of her cardigan. The front door swung, the sound of it, and steps in the dining room.

“Hello there! Mr. Kenzie, is it?”

Taking the excuse, Powell shot off. “Yes, sir. How do you do?”

“Middlin. I’m a Dennis Tovey myself, the only other you’ll meet.”

“My Dad.” Alfin appeared. “He wants to have a go bringing the car up. More goods to unload. Trust Dad,” he said on, as Powell settled to an anxious smile, “all he’s done his life is drive a truck. Brought all the sickroom gear up here when the old man was alive. Took it all away again.”

33

Haunted
Are You Haunted (part one)

(2019, Stephanie Foster)