Malice Page 6

  ‘You saw the White Lady?’

  ‘I think I’d better explain,’ I said. I told Harriet about the scary noises and the ghost, and how we’d finally worked out what had really happened.

  ‘But why?’ she asked, exactly echoing our own questions. ‘Why would someone be doing this to you?’

  We told her about the Perdita file—about how it had been stolen and how we’d gotten it back. ‘You’re so lucky to have such good friends,’ she said to me. ‘Do you know much about the history of Perdita?’ she asked.

  ‘Only that Captain Greenlowe built it over a hundred years ago for his daughter and she died in tragic circumstances.’

  ‘Well, there are two versions of the story,’ said Harriet. ‘One is that Perdita Greenlowe and Daniel Abercrombie, my great grandfather, were hounded out of the country by Captain Greenlowe. They were in love, but he had forbidden their marriage after a terrible falling out with Daniel’s father, Frederick Abercrombie, probably because of a dispute over the property boundaries. The second version is much darker.’

  ‘Uh-oh,’ I said, guessing. ‘The ghost story?’

  ‘You got it! In that version, Captain Greenlowe, mad with rage about his daughter’s relationship with Daniel Abercrombie, murdered Perdita and then said that she’d taken her own life. The story goes that she can’t rest because of her tragic end. The Captain himself was said to have become obsessed with the house. He fussed over the grove in particular, ignoring his responsibilities, making enemies of the wrong kind of people, and ran the estate into the ground. And that’s why the house is cursed and anyone who lives there is driven away.’

  ‘Someone else must know that version,’ said Boges, ‘to go to the trouble of making the ghost appear.’

  ‘And it gets even worse than that,’ said Harriet. ‘Captain Greenlowe cursed the whole Abercrombie family, swearing that the property would fall into wrack and ruin and that the farm would never prosper again. Not long afterwards, the stream that used to run past the house started drying up. My great grandfather moved away, and ended up marrying my great grandmother Blanche. By then, the Captain had passed away, but his curse remained. When my parents moved us back to the family estate, nothing had changed.’ Harriet gave a deep sigh.

  ‘Wow, heavy stuff,’ Ryan said.

  ‘Yeah, I’m really sorry to hear that, Harriet,’ Boges said gently. ‘But all that still doesn’t explain why someone would want to terrorise Winter,’ he added, ‘and try to scare her off so she sells Perdita.’

  ‘Well, there is one more thing I can think of,’ said Harriet. ‘There were rumours that Captain Greenlowe was a smuggler. But when the police raided the house, they could never find any evidence. He was also rumoured to know the location of a ship that wrecked nearby.’ She looked up from her cup of tea. ‘A lot of the locals still talk about that shipwreck, the Windraker, full of gold coins that never reached their destination.’

  ‘A treasure ship wrecked near Deception Bay?’ I asked.

  Harriet nodded. ‘It’s just local legend, nothing more.’ She stood up, signalling it was time for us to leave. ‘I’d love to chat more,’ she said, ‘but I’ve got a lot of packing to do.’

  As we walked outside, Harriet pointed to the dry gully running past the house. ‘That’s the reason I have to go,’ she said. ‘It used to be a really reliable stream which watered this whole property. But now, it’s all dried up. I’ve never seen it flowing, I’ve only ever seen it in a picture.’ She ran back inside and came out with an old, faded sepia photograph. A group of people dressed in old-fashioned clothes stood smiling by the house. Beyond them was the stream.

  ‘Now look at it,’ she said, as we all turned to the dry riverbed. ‘I’ve given up hoping for a miracle,’ she said, ‘although there are other rumours … about those strange noises in the walls of the house—’ Harriet suddenly stopped speaking.

  I waited expectantly for her to finish. This was exactly the sort of information we needed.

  ‘What sort of rumours?’ I prompted. But something had changed; Harriet’s face was closed.

  ‘Oh, just silly talk. Now I really must go.’ She took the photograph out of Ryan’s hands and flashed a quick smile. ‘Thanks for coming to visit.’ With that, she hurried inside.

  Perdita

  12:52 pm

  As the three of us walked back, I was deep in thought. ‘Harriet was going to tell us something about the knocking in the walls, but she stopped herself.’

  ‘She knows more than she’s saying,’ said Ryan.

  ‘Maybe. She’s a bit of an enigma,’ said Boges.

  ‘I thought you only found those in zoos,’ joked Ryan.

  ‘I think we need to get serious with our investigation,’ said Boges, ignoring Ryan’s quip. ‘There’s something going on and I want to know what it is.’

  As we walked back inside, I could see the determination on my friends’ faces. It mirrored my own. ‘Let’s go right back to the beginning,’ I said.

  ‘You mean the Perdita file?’ asked Ryan, his face showing the same resolute focus I’d often seen in Cal.

  I nodded. I opened the file. We crowded around as I turned the pages. We saw the documentation transferring the property from my parents’ possession to Sligo as trustee for me. The property transfers went back quite a way. Slowly, understanding dawned on me. ‘My parents didn’t buy this place,’ I said, pointing to some older documents, ‘they inherited it. It was a family property on my father’s side. Look, these rate notices go back over seventy years. That’s in my grandparents’ time.’

  Then I noticed something glued on the back inside cover of the file—an old envelope. I lifted the flap and pulled out a worn sheet of paper. ‘What’s this?’ I wondered. It was a peculiar drawing. I passed it to Boges and Ryan so that they could have a good look.

  ‘It looks a bit like a ghost,’ said Boges.

  ‘Ha! You’ve got ghosts on the brain!’ I laughed. Looking closer, the shapes still seemed to make no sense. It looked as if someone had been interrupted halfway through drawing something.

  ‘And that looks like an “M” there,’ said Ryan, pointing. He was right. A faintly drawn M was marked next to two circles.

  ‘Maybe it’s just meaningless doodling,’ I said, folding the page and slipping it back in the envelope.

  ‘But why would someone store it so carefully in the file if it was completely meaningless?’ Ryan asked. It was a good question. ‘Everything to do with this place seems to involve a mystery.’

  ‘Whoever is after this place is after the secret it holds,’ I agreed.

  ‘But we’re going to beat them to it,’ Ryan said.

  ‘I wonder,’ I said slowly, ‘if it really is about the Windraker and all that gold.’

  ‘We need to ask a few more questions,’ said Boges. ‘Time for a trip into town tomorrow.’

  DAY 19

  12 days to go …

  Abercrombie Village

  2:49 pm

  Rose looked up in surprise as we walked into the store. ‘Hi, Rose,’ I said. ‘My name is Winter and these are my friends Ryan and Boges.’

  ‘You’re the young people staying at Perdita!’ she said. ‘I didn’t expect—’

  Then she lowered her voice, looking behind her where a curtain swung in a doorway. Was she about to say that she didn’t expect to see us again? That we should have been frightened away by now?

  ‘I was hoping you might be able to help us. Maybe you know a little bit about Perdita, its history?’

  ‘There’s rumoured to be a secret,’ Rose whispered, looking behind her.

  ‘We’ve worked that much out,’ said Boges. ‘We’ve heard stories of a sunken ship … laden with treasure … ’

  The curtain that separated the shop from the residence billowed open and Curly stepped through the doorway. Rose shrank in fear.

  ‘What have you been saying, woman?’ He was trying to smile, to make it sound like a joke, but it wasn’t. Behind the false grin, his
eyes were hard. ‘Frightening the customers?’

  ‘Nothing, dear. Just chatting …’ Rose was Curly’s wife?

  ‘That’s right,’ I said lightly. ‘We were just asking your wife about the history of the local area.’

  ‘I heard you asking about a secret and that old house,’ he said. ‘Something to do with a ship? Where’d you hear that?’

  I flashed him my prettiest smile. ‘Places like that always have secrets. Plus, the house is built in the shape of a ship.’

  I could see that Curly wasn’t convinced. He continued to look at me suspiciously. ‘The only mystery I can think of is why you want to stay there. There are some very nice rental properties closer to town—nice and modern, with big balconies, swimming pools and all that stuff that you young folk like. I could get you a very good discount.’

  ‘Thanks, Curly,’ said Boges, ‘but we’re pretty happy where we are.’

  Curly looked hard at Boges. ‘What about some more biscuits and cheese, Mrs Curlewis? And some orange juice?’ Boges continued.

  Perdita

  5:25 pm

  ‘Curly is hiding something for sure,’ I said. ‘And it’s obvious his wife is scared to death of him.’ We were standing in front of the fire, and I picked the Perdita file up off the top of the carved mantelpiece where I’d left it, intending to search it one more time for hidden secrets. As I did so, I took a long look at the mantelpiece itself. ‘You know, there’s something about this carving,’ I said. ‘It seems out of place. Why is there an acorn sticking out of a gum tree design?’

  I ran my fingers along the carvings, the graceful wattle flowers and gum leaves chiselled out in the dark timber. I felt around and then leaned on the acorn. The carving suddenly caved in under my fingers. ‘Oh no! I’ve broken it! I didn’t mean to press so hard.’

  A creaking and knocking noise seemed to come from the nearby wall and I jumped back in fright.

  ‘What’s that?’ Ryan cried.

  ‘Watch out!’ Boges yelled. ‘The whole wall is moving!’

  The three of us gaped as the panel of timber closest to the right-hand side of the fireplace slowly opened, revealing a dark space inside.

  ‘I don’t believe it! A secret room!’ I gasped.

  ‘How cool is that!’ Boges said.

  ‘What’s in there?’ asked Ryan, poking his head in and then pulling it out fast, tearing cobwebs away from his face. ‘Ugh! Spider webs!’

  Boges found the torch and shone it into the hole. ‘It looks like a passageway,’ he reported.

  ‘What are we waiting for?’ I couldn’t wait to get in there, spiders or not. ‘Come on, follow me.’ I grabbed the torch from Boges and stepped into the dark space, shining the torch ahead of me.

  The passage ran along to the left, behind the fireplace and along the wall of the front room, a narrow walkway hemmed in by solid walls. The others jostled behind me, heads down under the low ceiling. After about seven paces, the passage made a sharp turn to the right and I figured this must have been somewhere under the bedroom I’d been sleeping in. ‘There’s a right-hand turn here, guys,’ I called back. I followed the passageway a short distance to where a narrow flight of steps started. Flashing the torch on the dusty floor revealed the first of the steps … and something else. ‘Someone’s been here recently,’ I said. ‘You can see the footprints in the dust.’

  ‘That would explain the knocking and scratching in the walls!’ said Boges.

  The steps were steep and narrow. I went up and up, and suddenly banged my head on a low ceiling. Hunched over, I shone the torch above me. I’d run into a dead end above my head.

  ‘That looks like floorboards,’ said Boges. ‘Must be the room above us.’

  I switched off the torch and heard the others gasp behind me.

  ‘What did you do that for?’ asked Boges. ‘Want to give us all claustrophobia?’

  Now that it was pitch black, I could see a faint, square outline through which tiny chinks of light shone between the floorboards above me.

  ‘There’s a trapdoor here,’ I said, ‘just above my head.’ I switched the torch back on, and tried to push it up. ‘I can’t budge it.’

  ‘Let me try,’ said Ryan. There was hardly any room for him to get past me and I was nearly crushed as he took my place.

  ‘It’s no use,’ he called back. ‘It must be locked. What room’s on the other side of this?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘I don’t know. It could be the room I’ve been sleeping in, that front bedroom.’

  ‘We’ve climbed higher than that,’ said Boges, ‘past that bedroom. I think it’s that little lookout room above your bedroom, Winter.’

  ‘Of course!’ I said, excited. ‘That’s where they set up the video projector! They used the secret tunnel, crept up here and somehow know how to open the trapdoor. There’s only that old chest up there.’ I suddenly understood. ‘Come on!’

  We turned around and made our way back to the opening next to the fireplace. We thundered upstairs to the lookout room. The three of us were about to move the heavy chest when I noticed something. ‘Look at the dust on the floor—you can see the outline of the chest just there, next to where it’s standing on the rug now. Someone’s moved it over the trapdoor.’

  We heaved the chest away, pulled back the rug and sure enough, right in the floorboards, was a trapdoor with a slide lock. It opened easily and as we peered in, we could see the steps leading down into the tunnel.

  ‘So,’ said Boges, ‘the “ghost” is finally laid to rest. Someone came through the secret passage, climbed up here with the projector, played the footage of the ghost onto the smoke and then left the same way. These steps go past the wall of your bedroom, Winter, no wonder you could hear strange noises in the night.’

  ‘They couldn’t have pulled that chest across the trapdoor once they were underneath it,’ I pointed out, with a shiver. ‘They must have come down the main stairs behind us when we went outside to investigate.’

  ‘Man, that is spooky,’ said Boges.

  ‘What is it about me?’ I cried. ‘This is the second house where I’ve had intruders! And what about the Drowner? Don’t forget that clock is ticking down, and we don’t even know who it is!’

  ‘Calm down, Winter,’ said Ryan, putting an arm around me. ‘No-one’s going to hurt you while I’m around.’ He looked and sounded so like Cal in that moment, I almost forgot that it was Ryan.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, stepping over to the window. A thought came to me. ‘What if this isn’t the only secret tunnel?’

  ‘Good point,’ said Boges, excited by the possibility. ‘There might be more in another direction. Let’s go down and check it out.’

  6:32 pm

  We climbed down through the trapdoor and followed the tunnel back to the entrance to the front room. We were almost at the end of the passageway and about to step out when I spotted something on the floor—something shiny. I bent down and scratched dirt away from it. It looked like a ring of some sort.

  It was hard work in the squashed passageway, but we took turns and eventually uncovered a heavy brass ring, attached to the ground.

  ‘This is it,’ said Ryan, as he scraped the last of the dirt away to reveal a large slab of the rock. ‘Looks like we need to lift this whole stone up,’ he added.

  This trapdoor proved much tougher than the first one and it was obvious that it hadn’t been used in a very long time. Our arms strained levering the heavy stone up, but finally we managed to lift it right out. For the second time that evening, we were peering into the black unknown.

  I shone the torch down. This time, stone steps carpeted in thick dust fell away steeply and vanished around a corner. ‘This one seems to go away from the house,’ I said, trying to discern more in the torchlight.

  7:01 pm

  I lowered myself down onto the stone steps and into the narrow passageway. Slowly, I descended the stairs, Boges and Ryan close behind me. I heard Boges sneeze from the dust and Ryan almost slipped on a s
tep, grabbing me to stop his fall. I took hold of his arm and for a moment we held each other until he regained his balance. ‘You OK?’ I asked.

  ‘Fine, Winter.’

  I lifted the torch to reveal a small stone room ahead of us.

  ‘It’s an old cellar,’ said Boges, switching on the light on his phone. Ryan did the same to reveal a small damp square room that had been hewn out of the rock. The stillness was broken only by the swing and thud of the nearby ocean, a dim, intermittent roar. A huge iron hook on a thick iron chain hung from the cellar’s roof and I wondered what it was for—maybe hanging meat or fish to dry out.

  ‘In the old days, before refrigeration,’ Boges said, ‘people needed cool, dark places to keep their vegetables.’

  The light from my torch blinked and dimmed. ‘The batteries are dying,’ I said. ‘Let’s get better equipment so that we can explore properly. We really need some good lighting.’

  ‘We really need some good food, too,’ said Boges. ‘I’m starving!’

  ‘Me too,’ said Ryan. ‘C’mon, we’ll make a fresh start in the morning.’

  I called Cal to give him an update.

  ‘Secret passages? I wish I was there!’

  ‘They’ll still be here when you get here, don’t worry,’ I laughed.

  DAY 20

  11 days to go …

  Secret passageway,

  Perdita

  8:34 am

  Next morning, we couldn’t wait to get back to exploring. We hurriedly put new batteries in my torch and found Ryan’s camping light.

  We made our way through the secret passage and down the stone steps to the cellar. It was mesmerising to hear the sound of the sea so close, the shuddering dump of a wave as it struck the rocky beach beneath us. But there was something else. I strained to listen.

  ‘Shh!’ I hissed. ‘Quiet everyone! I can hear something. What is that?’

  We all stopped to listen.

  ‘All I can hear is the sea, crashing on the rocks,’ said Ryan.

  ‘Can’t you hear voices? Or is it just one voice?’

  ‘Winter, you are seriously freaking me out! What voice?’