Case of the Highland House Haunting Read online

  The smile on my face disappeared in the blink of an eye, only to reappear on Jillian’s face a split second later.

  “No comments from the Peanut Gallery,” I told her, as I waggled a finger at her. “Now, Ms. Smarty-Pants, you were saying? Are there any other family members?”

  “Dame Highland had an aunt,” Sammi dutifully reported. “She married and had several kids. The last I heard, a granddaughter of hers was still alive, and living in Bremerton.”

  “Where’s that?” I wanted to know.

  “Washington State,” Jillian answered. “Thank you, Sammi. You’ve been most helpful.”

  The girl nodded and immediately headed to a nearby table, where the hostess had just seated a large family.

  “Washington State,” I repeated. “At least she didn’t say they were living in Rhode Island. What are the chances that this granddaughter might shed some more light on Dame Highland? We might be able to find a phone number for her.”

  “She might have a few memories,” Jillian decided. “It all depends on how old she is.”

  Right then, Jillian’s cell phone started ringing.

  “I need to remember to turn this thing off whenever we go inside a restaurant,” Jillian told me, as she dug through her purse to retrieve her phone. “I don’t want to be one of those types of people, namely someone who disrupts another person’s dinner. Hello? Yes, this is Jillian Cooper. Who is… oh! Mr. Springer! How are you today, sir?”

  Jillian muted the phone call and leaned towards me.

  “It’s the safety inspector.”

  I nodded, “I remember. He had a name you wouldn’t easily forget.”

  Jillian smiled at me and unmuted her phone. “Wait, what was that? Could you say that again, please?”

  My girlfriend fell silent as Mr. Springer evidently explained what he had found.

  “On all of them? Or only on some? Just the corner pieces. I see. What do you…? No, I had no idea. All that is handled by my foreman, who… yes, of course. I can wait.”

  Jillian muted the phone again and turned to me. She had a look on her face I will never forget: anger.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered, as I placed my hand over hers.

  “The safety inspector has finished his inspection. You’ll never guess what he found.”

  “Something about corner pieces?”

  Jillian nodded, “Yes. The scaffolding that collapsed? Apparently, this particular type of scaffolding had what he called gravity locking pins, to keep it from falling it apart.”

  I slowly nodded, “Okay. I know what you’re referring to. What about them? Have they been tampered with?”

  Jillian shook her head, “Worse. The pins have been removed. Zachary, someone has stolen the pins holding the scaffolding together. It was only a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed!”

  “But, that’s premeditated,” I stammered. “That means…”

  Jillian suddenly sat up straight and unmuted the phone call.

  “Yes, I’m still here, Mr. Springer. No, I’m grateful you told me. I’ll be sure to pass that along to my foreman. I know he’ll want to know. Oh? Is it? Well, that is good news. I’ll call him right away. Thanks again for all of your help, Mr. Springer. Thank you. You have a good day, too.”

  “What’s the good news?” I asked, hopeful that it’d put a smile on Jillian’s face.

  “The house has been cleared. Work can resume on it. Would you mind if I made another phone call? I have to let Robert know.”

  “Please, do what you need to do. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Thank you, Zachary. It’ll be just a moment. I know I’ve got his number in here from… ah. There it is. Hello, Robert? This is Jillian Cooper. I’m fine, thank you for asking. I wanted to know if you have spoken with the safety inspector, Mr. Jerry Springer. Yes, he called me and explained to me what he found. What’s that? Yes, we know what happened. I’m sorry to say this, and something tells me you won’t like hearing this, but it looks like quite a few of the scaffolding’s gravity locking pins had been removed. I’m sorry, you heard that right. I… no, we… Robert? Please calm down. I know this isn’t your fault. I…”

  Jillian muted her phone for a third time and looked helplessly at me. Even from where I was sitting, I could hear Robert cursing and shouting, in both Spanish and English. I pointed a finger at the phone and frowned.

  “Tell me he’s not yelling at you.”

  “He’s not,” Jillian confirmed. “He told me he knows full well those pins were in place that morning. He did a full check of all equipment, too, before the rest of his team arrived. He… Robert? Yes, I’m still here. You… hmm? Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. How long do you need? Very well. Let’s give it a few days, just to let things blow over. We’ll reconvene on Monday. How does that sound? It does? Perfect. I’ll see you then.”

  “I’m glad he wasn’t yelling at you,” I said, as Jillian slipped her phone back into her purse. “I can only assume he thought you were accusing him of tampering with those pins?”

  “Actually, he now thinks it’s a member of his crew. He was just telling me that most of them still refuse to return to work. He sounded stressed, like he was trying to find replacements for his team.”

  “That’s why you suggested Monday,” I guessed. “That’ll give him some time to get some more guys together.”

  “Exactly. Plus, it’s also given me an idea. What would you say to a little get together?”

  “With the gang?” I asked.

  The ‘gang’ was the circle of our immediate friends, which included Harry and his wife, Julie; Vance and his wife, Tori; and lately, we’ve also been including Hannah and her son, Colin. For the record, a get together this Friday might just be what the doctor ordered. For Jillian, that is. I’d really like to get her mind off this blasted house.

  “Yes, we’d include everyone,” Jillian confirmed.

  “I can get on board with that. Do you have something in mind?”

  “We’re going to have a little party,” Jillian explained. “At Highland House.”

  Oh, snap. This wasn’t the distraction I figured it to be. What, then, does she have up her sleeve?

  “What’s on your mind? Do you… wait. You want to check out the house, don’t you? Are we looking for anything in particular?”

  Jillian solemnly nodded, “Yes. We’ll be looking for ghosts.”

  FOUR

  “Seriously, if a spook jumps out at me, then I’m personally running straight through you, Julie, and anyone else who’s stupid enough to get in my way.”

  The speaker, my best friend from high school, was Harrison Watt. All his friends called him ‘Harry’. He also happened to be the town veterinarian, which still blows my mind. You see, back in school, Harry was the biggest goof-off on the face of the planet. He’d been suspended from school so many times that I honestly didn’t see how he managed to graduate. But, as it turns out, all he needed to turn his life around was a close brush with death – in Harry’s case, a nasty car accident – and before you know it, he had a new appreciation for life.

  Harry’s wife, Julie, stood beside her husband and slowly looked around the small foyer. Visible straight ahead was a curved dual set of stairs leading up to the second floor. After a few moments, Jillian pushed by Harry and walked into the main reception area.

  “I call this ‘Staircase Hall’,” Jillian said, as they spread out behind her. “The living room is to the left, through there. The dining room is north of it. Then, through that door behind you on the left, there’s a small room for which its intended purpose is lost on me.”

  Julie poked her head into the room for a quick check.

  “Maybe a sitting room?”

  Jillian nodded, “I like it. Now, through that other doorway, on the right, is a den. Or a study, I’m not sure. Will Hannah and Colin be able to join us tonight?”

  Julie shook her head, “I’m afraid not. She has another meeting with her attorney. She’s fairly c
ertain that her divorce is going to be finalized soon.”

  “I sure hope so,” I added. “The sooner she’s officially done with that loser, the better.”

  “Hear, hear,” Tori echoed.

  I pointed at the open doorway on the right, adjacent to the den.

  “What’s through there?”

  “I really don’t know,” Jillian admitted. “Perhaps it was a rec room of some sort? It’s certainly large enough. There’s a huge kitchen on the other side of the stairs and there’s plenty of storage everywhere.”

  “The bedrooms are all upstairs?” Tori asked.

  “Yes. There are six rooms, including the master bedroom, which I think can be split in half. That’d give us seven rooms total.”

  “The interior isn’t too bad,” Julie decided. “I like the tiling on the floor. Do you see this? It’s some type of mosaic. I hope you plan on keeping this here, Jillian.”

  “I certainly do,” Jillian confirmed. She ushered everyone into the living room. “Well, what do you guys think?”

  “Ummm,” Harry slowly began, as his eyes took in the dust, decay, and overall shabbiness of Highland House’s living room. “You really bought this?”

  “You can’t look at it the way it is now,” I told my friend. “You have to be able to either picture what it looked like, back in the 1920s and ‘30s, or else imagine what it’ll look like once Jillian is done with the place. I think it’s gonna look fantastic. I love the décor in here.”

  “You do?” Jillian excitedly asked. “What parts?”

  I started pointing at various objects. “That, for starters. What is it, some type of coffee table? Look at all the carvings on it. You don’t see that every day, do you?”

  “There isn’t much to see in here,” Vance added, as he and Tori stepped further into the living room and looked around.

  “The original furniture has been moved,” Jillian explained. “I didn’t want to risk any of the original décor becoming damaged once the renovations began.”

  “Why didn’t you take this, then?” I asked, as I looked back at the small table.

  Jillian shrugged, “Robert gave me a list of things that need to happen in this house. The order in which they’re getting fixed is by the total number of code violations the room presently has. If memory serves, there was less than ten in this room, so it’s about halfway down the list.”

  “Then why cover the furniture in here?” Vance wanted to know. “I can only imagine you’ll be replacing everything, right?”

  Jillian shook her head, “I’m going to have the furniture refinished, reupholstered, and so on.”

  “You’re keeping it as original as possible,” I guessed.

  Jillian smiled at me, “Precisely.”

  “I’ve always loved antiques,” Tori said, as she gazed wistfully at some of the tarps covering various objects. “Would you mind if I take a look?”

  Jillian held out a welcoming hand, “Please. Be my guest. Harry? Do you want to come all the way inside? Nothing will bite you, I promise.”

  As one, both of my dogs craned their heads to look up at Jillian. What happened next couldn’t have been timed any better, even if I had tried. After staring at Jillian for a few moments, both corgis then turned to look back at Harry, who was standing just inside the open door, leading back to Staircase Hall. Then, they both did that adorable head tilt thing dogs do if they find something puzzling. The entire room burst into laughter. Harry, unsurprisingly, was the only one who didn’t find it funny.

  “This house has a history, man,” PV’s resident veterinarian insisted. “Do you really think all those people just made up those stories for the hell of it? Think about it. There’s… I don’t know. There’s something…”

  “…afoot at the Circle K,” both Vance and I interrupted, using deadpan voices at the exact same time.

  We gave each other an appraising look before we bumped fists together.

  “I don’t get it,” Tori complained. “What just happened here? Why did those two say the same nonsensical thing at the same time?”

  Jillian was shaking her head.

  “Boys.”

  “It’s a line from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” Harry explained. “Righteous movie, man. And, while I’m at it, you both can kiss my ass.”

  Vance and I developed a case of the chuckles.

  An hour later, we were all sitting in the living room, polishing off the three large pizzas Jillian had ordered. A new pizza place had moved into town, Sarah’s Pizza Parlor, and we had decided to give them a try. For the record, I’m glad we did. We ended up ordering pepperoni and sausage, a thin crust Hawaiian pizza, and finally, Jillian was delighted to learn this new pizza joint would make her favorite pizza: salami and ham, with white sauce.

  The food was outstanding. Fantastic crust, fresh toppings, garlic knots worth arm wrestling over (which we did – me vs. Vance. I won!), and they were punctual. You really couldn’t beat that in a pizza delivery restaurant.

  “I think I found my new favorite pizza place,” Vance said, as he tossed his and Tori’s paper plates into the trash can. “That was really good. The last couple of pizzas I’ve had were almost dripping with grease.”

  “What do you expect when you order it with triple pepperoni?” Tori dryly asked.

  Vance shrugged.

  “So,” Julie began, as she looked over at her friend, “we’re all here, Jillian. This is your show. How do you want us to proceed?”

  “How are we going to proceed with what?” Harry querulously asked.

  Jillian looked at Harry and smiled.

  “Oh, come on, man,” Harry moaned. “What have you dragged us into?”

  “I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as ghosts,” Jillian began.

  Heads were nodding.

  “I’m sure all of you have heard what’s happened here in the last couple of weeks?”

  Everyone nodded. Everyone but Harry, that is.

  “Wait, what? What happened in the last couple of weeks?” Harry wanted to know.

  “Oh, come on,” Julie teased her husband. “You can’t possibly tell me you don’t know. I, for one, have talked with you about it. Are you saying you’ve been ignoring me?”

  “Umm…”

  “Two weeks ago,” Jillian hurriedly began, before Julie could respond, “one of the contractors I hired was electrocuted in here during the demo phase. While cutting through a wall that needed to come down, and after being told all power had been shut off, a contractor wielding a reciprocating saw was electrocuted when he hit a live power line.”

  “A power line that should’ve been shut off,” Tori said, horrified. “Was he… did he…”

  “He ended up being okay,” Jillian assured the group. “He was held in the hospital for a day or two just to be sure. In the meantime, everyone chalked it up as being exactly like it appeared: an accident. Then… then earlier this week, there was another accident, only this time…”

  “…this time,” I said, picking up the story after Jillian trailed off, “there was a fatality.”

  “What happened?” Harry wanted to know.

  “Do you see the scaffolding outside?” I said, as I pointed at a window where we could see the shadows of the bars. “It collapsed at the back of the house while there was someone on it.”

  The room fell silent. Sherlock whined, as if to say he was uncomfortable being in the room with so many somber people. I patted the sofa next to me and waited for the dogs to join me.

  “How could scaffolding just collapse?” Harry wanted to know. “Aren’t there precautions you can take which would prevent just that?”

  Jillian nodded, “Yes, there are. The safety inspector conducted a thorough inspection here just after the accident happened. He determined the gravity locking pins had been removed.”

  “All of them?” Vance demanded, shocked.

  “Not all,” Jillian quietly answered. “Unfortunately, just the pins that were holding the corn
ers together. The scaffolding, quite literally, collapsed like a house of cards.”

  “Why don’t I know anything about this?” Vance asked, as he stared hard at Jillian. “Wouldn’t this be classified as a homicide now?”

  Jillian shrugged, “We don’t know if the contractors forgot to insert the pins once the scaffolding had been assembled…”

  “Which is malarkey,” I grumbled.

  “…or if the pins were deliberately removed.”

  “Voluntary or involuntary manslaughter,” Vance said. “However you look at it, this will be reflected badly on the construction company.”

  Jillian cleared her throat.

  “I should probably tell you something. Robert, who is my foreman, by the way, insists that those pins were there at the start of the day.”

  “Voluntary manslaughter it is,” Vance decided.

  “Are we looking for those pins, is that it?” Tori asked.

  “Partially,” Jillian admitted. “Right now, I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t really explored this house yet. I only have been given a very brief tour with my realtor.”

  Both dogs whined this time. Sherlock reared up to place his front legs on the couch next to me. Questioningly, I looked over at Jillian, who nodded, giving the dogs permission to jump up on the furniture.

  “It’s okay, boy. We just don’t want any more of those accidents. That’s why we’re here. More specifically, that’s why you two are here. If there’s anything suspicious going on in this house, then I’m counting on you two to find it.”

  “That’s what you want us to do?” Harry incredulously asked. “You want us to search this place?”

  Jillian nodded, “That’s exactly what I need. If I can prove to my closest friends that there aren’t any supernatural anomalies in this house, then I should be able to prove that normal, regular human beings did this. I want to put this supernatural nonsense to bed once and for all.”

  “How do you want us to do this?” Julie asked.

  “I was thinking that, perhaps, you and Harry could take…”

  A loud thump sounded from nearby. It silenced the six of us instantly. I glanced down at the dogs. Both sets of ears were perked up as they curiously looked around the room, as if they were expecting to find another person present. Unfortunately, that was the last thing I wanted to find.