AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What was under that wallpaper?
I glanced at the clock. Nearly nine. A little too early to call my mother, but once I’d eaten and showered and gotten dressed, it would be past ten. I’d get in touch at that point.
Because I had a feeling I should probably get permission before I started my own little remodeling project on her stairwell.
“You want to do what?” my mother asked. From somewhere behind her, I could hear the annoying hum of a distant leaf-blower. That was one thing I really liked about living in Globe — I hadn’t seen a single one of those damn things in use anywhere around here.
“I want to pull back the wallpaper in the stairwell,” I said. “I think there’s something odd going on in there.”
When I’d called, I’d confessed to going back to the house but had carefully avoided any mention of the attack. I was fine, except for some bruises that were probably going to display a stunning array of colors over the next few days, and I didn’t see the point in getting my mother upset over what had turned out to be nothing.
Okay, attempted murder wasn’t “nothing.” But I was more interested in getting to the bottom of the demon problem at the Bigelow mansion.
“I really don’t like the idea of you going in there by yourself,” my mother told me, her reluctance obvious in every syllable.
“I won’t be going by myself,” I reassured her. “I’ll have my friend Hazel with me.”
That was nothing more than the truth. I’d already gotten in touch with Hazel and asked if she could come with me on my fact-finding mission. In fact, I’d also asked her if she could bring Chuck along, because I figured having six feet, two inches of solid cowboy muscle on standby couldn’t hurt.
But she’d told me he was going down to Willcox for the day for a cattle auction, so that put the kibosh on my clever idea. Still, I thought that going back to the mansion with a friend in tow — and going there in broad daylight — would make the whole situation a lot safer.
“We-ell….” Although my mother still sounded dubious, I knew when she hesitated like that I’d begun to wear her down.
“It’ll be fine,” I said. “Really.”
A long pause. Then a sigh breathed its way out of my iPhone’s speaker, and she said, “All right. To be perfectly honest, Tom and I were thinking about taking down that wallpaper anyway. It’s awfully busy.”
I had to agree with that assessment. While the floral paper might have been correct for the home’s period, it was a little headache-inducing.
“Then it sounds like this will work out for everyone,” I told her. “And don’t worry — Hazel and I will be out of there at the first sign of trouble.”
Another of those pauses. “All right. Just…please be careful, Selena.”
I promised her I would, and ended the call. The clock ticking away on the mantel told me it was twenty minutes after ten, which meant Hazel would be over shortly.
That gave me enough time to call the hospital and inquire after Father Neil. They patched me through to his room right away, which told me he must be doing all right.
Sure enough, he sounded pretty cheerful when he picked up the phone, although some of that cheer faded after I told him I’d gone inside the mansion without him.
“That could have been dangerous,” he said, sounding worried.
Oh, it was, I thought, although I didn’t say the words out loud. Instead, I replied, “It was fine. The demons were doing their usual thing, though. Well, minus the smell.”
He chuckled. “That must have been a relief.”
“I’m sorry about your accident, though,” I went on. “What happened?”
A pause. “It was odd. I was leaving the parking lot of the hotel and was about to turn onto the highway when someone came barreling down the side street and plowed right into me. I don’t know how they couldn’t have seen my car — a Buick is pretty hard to miss.”
I couldn’t argue with that statement. “Who was driving the other car?”
“I don’t know. A man, but he took off running almost immediately. The police told me the car was stolen.”
Car theft was pretty rare in Globe. Maybe that was because most of the town’s residents tended to drive their vehicles until they dropped in harness, and so the few cars that were actually worth stealing were too distinctive to make the crime worth the effort involved.
“It was definitely a man driving, though?” I asked.
“Yes. The lighting wasn’t that good, of course, since it was eleven-thirty at night or so, but I could tell it was a man with dark hair. Not too tall, but those were the only details I was able to notice.”
