Hoaley Ill-Manored (3 page)

Looking at it, even rationalizing that the
passage of time and changes wrought by climate and nature had
reformed the structure into something sad and despicable, Adam
couldn’t help the painful jolt it gave his heart to think about the
people who’d been relegated to its rustic bosom all those decades
earlier.

It was probably safe to say that Adam had
some guilt issues about the whole slavery thing.

The spiny-leaved green growth behind them
thrashed wildly and colorful language stung the air. The woods
finally spat Mink, red faced and manically scratching, into the
small cleared space where the cabin stood.

“Just step on my damn throat and be done
with it!” he exclaimed as he surged toward them. Something long,
determined, and green clung to one of his rubber legs with the
tenacity of steel bands and Mink nearly went down under its clingy
grasp. “I can’t believe I let you two talk me into this.”

When his friends didn’t respond to his
outburst, Mink glanced in the direction they were both staring.
“Well strap me into a milking machine and hit the on switch,” he
murmured.

The aged, log walls seemed to collect the
dappled light of the small clearing and kill it, submerging it
under years of black taint. The logs rose to about a height of six
feet and then succumbed to a clutch of mud and tangled grass that
must have once been a roof. The gray mud had dried to a kind of
concrete substance that was probably impervious to most anything
after more than a century of exposure. The whole thing gave off an
aura of rejection, warning onlookers away from its pain-filled
presence.

Maddy finally stirred and moved toward the
cabin.

“You’re not going inside?” Mink’s voice was
strident with emotion.

She stopped, jerked around and frowned at
him. “Of course. We came all this way.”

“It might not be safe, Mads,” Adam told her.
“I mean…structurally.”

She glanced back toward the cabin and
thought about that for a moment. “I’ll just stand in the doorway
then and look inside.”

Adam nodded, staying right where he was. He
had no desire whatsoever to become any more intimately acquainted
with the terrible place.

Maddy walked slowly, her hands up in front
of her as if prepared to fend off an attack. Adam knew the only
attack she might have to defend against was one of horror at the
timeless evil saturating the cabin’s rustic walls.

She stopped in the doorway and leaned
inward, poking her head just beyond the frame where the door had
once been. Her gasp brought Adam jerking forward to protect her.
“What is it, Mads? What’s wrong?”

She turned an expression filled more with
surprise than horror in his direction. “Somebody’s been here
recently. There are fresh flowers on the floor.”

Adam stopped beside her and peered inside.
The smell of stale dirt and old wood assailed him, making his nose
itch with a building sneeze. The lighting inside the old cabin was
dim and dappled, sneaking through lost chinking and wafting through
the single, glassless window. Sitting in the very center of the
musty space, bathed in the weak light from the window, a scattered
bunch of yellow daisies drooped against the dusty ground.

They couldn’t have been there more than a
couple of days.

“Holy shit,” Maddy whispered, grabbing
Adam’s arm. “Adam…”

Adam followed the direction of his business
partner’s gaze, sliding upward from the bunch of flowers. He
gasped. A thick, rough rope hung from the ceiling, flung over the
single girder defining the center of the roof, and hanging down
about a foot from the ancient wood. The end of the bristly rope was
twisted and looped into the perfect noose.

“Fuck me.” The cold fingers around Adam’s
heart tightened, cutting off the air in his chest and sending a
cold sweat flashing through him.

The noose was dancing softly on a breeze,
waving and spinning over the scattered array of drying flowers.
Outside the cabin, not a single wisp of a breeze touched Adam’s
clammy skin.

Mink shoved his face between Adam’s and
Maddy’s. “What’s in there?”

The shrill sound of Mink’s voice startled
the shadows into action. The ceiling of the cabin started to
bubble, and a soundless wave of inky black suddenly shot downward
and headed directly toward them.

Adam screamed like a girl and stumbled
backward, yanking Maddy down to the ground with him and flinging
himself over her. A cool, musty wind rushed past and something
touched Adam’s skin and hair with spectral fingers, leaving behind
the bright tang of pain. Beneath him Maddy started to chant the
Lord’s Prayer, which was a notable event since Adam had never seen
his partner enter a church or utter a single statement of belief in
a higher power in all the years he’d known her.

The dark wave seemed to go on and on, for
several minutes. When it finally passed and the clearing around the
cabin settled into silence, Adam suddenly remembered Mink.

He slowly cranked his head around and peered
up at the spot where he’d last seen his high-strung friend. Mink
didn’t look as if he’d moved. He appeared to have simply settled in
to ride out the horror. His small, perfectly manicured hands were
splayed in front of him as if he were performing a number in a
Broadway musical. His rubber clad legs were spread wide, the
massive booted feet firmly planted in the dirt, and his head was
bowed, the ridiculously enormous bill of the dumb-fuck hat covering
his face. On closer inspection, Adam saw that Mink’s narrow
shoulders shook with a barely discernible tremor.

Adam and Maddy sat up and Adam said,
“Mink?”

The overlarge bill slowly lifted and Mink’s
fingers curved inward, into fists. He turned to Adam, only the
angry twist of his lips visible beneath the shadow of the stupid
hat. “Adam. Those were bats. I was just attacked by an angry mob of
nasty, filthy, flying rats.” He glared down at them. “Bats. Adam. I
told you I didn’t want to come out here. You forced me. You brought
a terrified, gay-as-a-peacock, city-born-and-bred realtor into the
jungle and subjected him to a haunted cabin and an angry mob of
bats. I think I wet myself. Adam, I’m gonna slosh when I walk.” He
stopped, filling his narrow chest with a shaky breath. “That was
the worst two minutes of my life. I’ll probably need a therapist.
What do you have to say for yourself, Adam Hoale?”

Adam and Maddy shared a glance. Maddy’s
cheeks were pink, her lips rolled inward in an obvious attempt to
keep from smiling. Adam widened his eyes, giving his head a tiny
warning shake. Mink was a man on the edge. A harpy perched on the
precipice. A single wrong step and they’d send him into his
shrieking madman persona. That was something they tried to avoid at
all costs. Besides, it might startle the bats into returning to
their roost.

Steeling himself, Adam finally turned toward
Mink and said the only thing he could under the circumstances. “Who
knew the dumb-fuck hat would come in handy?”

Maddy snorted out a laugh and started to
climb to her feet. Mink’s mouth snapped shut and he lifted a hand,
pointing a shaky finger at them, his body rigid with anger. His
lips parted, but nothing came out.

The unmistakable sound of a shotgun being
cocked filled the silence. “Who the hell are you, and what are you
doing on my property?”

DS

After a shocked moment of silence, they all
turned toward the man with the shotgun. When the man’s words
finally sank in, Adam frowned. “
Your
property? My name’s
Adam Hoale and I’m the new owner of Bilsworth Manor. Who are
you?”

The man was big. Professional basketball
player big. At least six and a half feet tall, probably more, Adam
decided, with a broad chest and shoulders and long, muscular limbs.
The shotgun he was holding made him look even bigger.

The man with the gun had short, neatly
trimmed black hair, a goatee, and a wide mouth with full lips. His
brown eyes were narrowed with suspicion and his nose was wide, with
nostrils that flared in anger. His light brown skin glistened with
a sheen of sweat and his white tee shirt clung damply to a truly
stupendous set of pecs.

“You’re on my property, Mr. Hoale. This
parcel was sold off from the main estate years ago.”

Adam shared a look with Maddy. She shrugged,
then turned a smile toward the man with the gun. “We’re so sorry,
Mr…?”

The gun didn’t waver. The suspicious look in
the man’s eyes didn’t lessen. “Name’s Teddy.”

Maddy nodded. “Teddy…we do apologize. We’ve
asked for a plot plan but so far nobody can locate one.” She gave
him her most harmless grin. “I’m afraid we just assumed this was
still part of the Bilsworth property. We’ll get out of your hair.”
She touched Adam’s arm but he hesitated.

“Mr…erm…Teddy. I was just wondering, do you
know who left those flowers in there?”

Teddy frowned, the muzzle of the shotgun
finally sliding downward. “You should stay away from that cabin.
It’s drenched in evil. Nobody should go inside, ever. I try to keep
people out but them stupid kids from town are fascinated. They call
it the haunted cabin and they’re always daring each other to go
inside.”

“That must be very annoying,” Adam offered
with a smile.

Teddy didn’t return the smile. He seemed
impervious to friendliness, no matter how sincere. “If somebody
gets hurt in there it’ll be my ass. If I had the money I’d build me
a fence around the place.”

Mink cleared his throat and Teddy’s head
snapped around, the shotgun flying upward. Mink lifted his hands.
“Don’t shoot. They made me come with them.”

Adam laughed. “Thanks man.”

Mink just glared at him.

Teddy’s dark eyebrows lifted into his
hairline and he bit his bottom lip. He seemed to be trying to
decide if he should smile. Finally Mink’s strange outfit apparently
cut through the big man’s hostility and his wide mouth split in a
grin. “I thought you was a skinny girl until you talked. Nice
hat.”

“Thank you. It came in handy against the
bats.”

Teddy just looked at him, not sure what to
do with that. Apparently realizing his sarcasm had been an epic
fail, Teddy tried a more direct communication style. “You know
there ain’t no rivers around here, right? There’s a creek but I
don’t think you can catch nothin’ worth eatin’ in it.”

Mink looked horrified. He preferred
“catching” his fish in a seafood restaurant. He shook his head, his
hands still up as if he thought he was under arrest. “I’m a city
boy, Mr. Teddy.” As if that explained everything.

To Teddy apparently it did. He nodded.
“Y’all get on out of here now. And don’t come back, y’hear?”

They all bobbed their heads and turned
around, heading back the way they’d come. Adam could feel Teddy’s
hostile gaze on their backs until they’d gone a few yards into the
woods. He finally gave in to the need to turn around.

Teddy and his big gun were gone.

CHAPTER FOUR

“Are you sure you want to stay here tonight,
honey?”

Adam dropped his sleeping bag over the
camping cot he’d brought with him and nodded. “We’ve got the
bathroom working and I have a refrigerator with beer in it…” he
pointed to a small fridge he’d plugged into the wall, “…and
Walter’s bed. What more could I need.”

Maddy swatted at a mosquito and grimaced,
wiping the bloody results on her jeans. “I don’t know, mosquito
netting, air conditioning, a four-poster bed with foam
topping…”

“Don’t be a priss, Mads. If you had any hair
on your chest at all you’d stay here with me.”

She snorted. “I’ll let you lay claim to the
soft curlies on your chest. I’ll console myself with my comfy bed
and fifty-two inch flat screen TV.”

Adam grimaced at that. “Hurt me. I have my
entertainment too.” He held up his iPad.

Maddy kissed him on the cheek and started
toward the door. “I’ll see you in the morning partner. Don’t let
the air bugs bite.”

“Har!”

Walter started out the door with Maddy. “No
you don’t, Walter. You have to stay with me.” The big dog whined,
dropped to his butt on the dusty floor, and stared longingly after
Maddy. “Sorry, buddy. We’re a team, you and me. You go where I
go…never leave a man behind…all for one, one for all…that kind of
thing.” Walter dropped to his belly with a groan and stared at
Adam, accusation running deep in his big, brown eyes. “Don’t look
at me like that. You’re a dog. You have your bed, your favorite
rawhide, and the great outdoors to poop and pee in. You won’t even
miss the fifty-two inch TV.” Adam’s gaze slid to the door Maddy had
just gone through. “Or the bug free comfort of your bed. Or a big,
fat, juicy steak…” Adam snapped his mouth shut and pushed the
thought of food away before it weakened him. He would go into the
nearby town of Ashville, Indiana for dinner later. But first, he
and Walter would take a walk down to the lake. That is, if Mike and
Sue would let them.

The Phantom of the Opera started playing
behind him and Adam sucked in a breath, trying to decide if he
wanted to answer it. It was Dirk. They were currently not speaking.
Well, if Adam answered the phone they would in reality be speaking.
But Adam determined he wouldn’t enjoy it.

Dirk was the biggest reason Adam was hiding
out at the Bilsworth flip. He didn’t admit that to himself but deep
down he knew it was true. They’d been doing so well for weeks, and
then Dirk had returned to California to tape his latest film,
Dance of the Copper Goddess
, a fantasy about a king who
pushed everyone away he cared for because he thought loving only
one person would limit the potential of his life.

Adam thought Dirk might have immersed
himself just a little too deeply into that role. With a sigh, he
rummaged around until he found his cell under the pillow he’d
carelessly thrown on top of the cot. “Hello.”