A. Renee Art

The teens had been talking through most of lunch. Even Maddie seemed a little livelier than usual. Janet was the only one who didn’t talk much, even opting to eat in her room upstairs, saying she wanted to think on her own.

Almost an hour later, she returned downstairs. The teens said that they were at a loss as to what they should do next.

“Scott suspected Dr. Johnson of killing Charles’s mother Magdalene,” Janet said. “But we found nothing in his office about it. The thing is, he didn’t have any grudge against her, that we know of.”

“Oh, but Vivian did,” Lydia exclaimed. “Magdalene sounded like a major conservative cheerleader for the patriarchy, wanting a boy to continue the Roberts’s name and line.”

“Maybe that’s what’s in her locked desk in the tearoom—proof that Magdalene didn’t die naturally.”

“Sounds like we’re going back to the mansion,” Merc said.

Janet and Maddie quietly exchanged looks.

“Actually, you go,” Janet suggested. “All of you. There are several things I want you to try to find out for me there, if possible. Lydia, get ready to write them down.”

“Sure,” she said, getting her notebook. “Ready.”

“One—The truth of Magdalene’s death. Two—Employee records from the ‘70s and proof of Sofia’s employment there. And three—whether or not Charles knew about Sofia’s death and of baby Vincent’s disappearance. Got that?”

“Got it all. What about you?”

“I need to go back to Scott’s cabin to check something. I’ll also be checking around the playground for the tree stump and going back to my car and checking Andrew’s house on the way. When you’re all done, meet me at the cabin.”

Lydia, Merc, and the twins said, “Alright” while Maddie eyed her with concern.

On the way out, the other teens were ahead talking amongst themselves. Maddie stayed back as Janet locked the inn door.

“Janet,” Maddie whispered. “You know who the killer is now, don’t you? You know that it’s the same person who took the vase of flowers I told you about…You’re not really going to the cabin then?”

Janet said nothing but slightly nodded. Maddie noticed she held a wrench in her hand, originally picked up from Oliver Gibson’s place.

“I’ll try to make it to the cabin as soon as I can,” Janet said. “Then I’ll tell you all everything.”

“Ok, but remember this: follow her out. Whatever happens, you must follow her out wherever she goes.”

“Who?”

“See you later at the cabin, Janet!” Maddie rejoined the others, and they headed back to the Roberts’ manor.

As they approached the manor, there was a certain place that Lydia wanted to check out first before going in the house—the well where Sofia was killed. For the first time, Connor and Caylix objected to going somewhere.

“Why do you want to go there,” they said.

“I thought we agreed no one saw a real ghost,” Lydia said as they approached the backyard.

“I didn’t,” Caylix insisted. “Demo…”

“What?”

“As you know, we went back to see relatives in Japan last year,” Connor explained. “A cousin took us to see a new movie, Ringu.”

“’Ring’,” Caylix translated. “In it, the ghost of a dead girl emerges from a well a week after her victims watch a cursed videotape! She calls them on the phone after they watch it, warning them that they’re going to die in seven days. Just like Sofia, the girl in the movie was killed at a well and thrown inside it!”

“So that’s why you’ve been scared all weekend,” Lydia said as the group approached the back gated area. “Understandable, but we don’t have any ghosts to worry about around here. Scott recovered Sofia’s body and gave her a proper burial.”

“The girl’s remains in the movie were also found and properly buried. However, that didn’t satisfy her grudge. Her ghost still killed people.”

“Really,” Merc asked, intrigued and scared at the same time, but trying to hide it.

Lydia unlocked the gate and the group stepped carefully inside, Maddie going first.

“There’s no one here, living or otherwise,” she said. “We’re fine.”

Merc and the twins sighed with relief as they followed her and Lydia. Their examination of the well and surrounding area found them with nothing. Merc managed to bravely go down the well itself after finding a rope still attached to it. He thought to himself over and over, “Scott did it, so can I,” repeating it in his head like a mantra all the way down, then, after finding nothing, back up again.

Never again, he mentally screamed.

After conquering their fears, they re-entered the mansion, first time for the girls. Remembering the security room held employee records, Merc, Lydia, and Maddie went there and found an employee sheet for Sofia Miller—more proof of her existence, besides the medical record in Dr. Johnson’s office.

The twins entered Charles’ study and searched the drawers again. They found nothing new, so they tried the bookshelves. That’s when Connor tripped and fell on what felt like a switch in the middle of the shelf. One of the books activated a mechanic allowing the whole shelf to move to the side. A door was revealed to them.

“We didn’t find this last time,” Connor exclaimed. “Another secret door!”

Inside that room, they found an old newspaper clipping—an obituary announcing Magdalene Roberts, Charles’s mother’s death from a heart attack at age 68. Underneath was a letter from Magdalene describing how Dorothy wrote her a letter telling her about Charles’s affair. Magdalene wrote to her son, saying he had to take responsibility and that she was coming over to visit to take care of it and not to say anything to Vivian yet.

“So that’s how Vivian found out,” Connor said. “She intercepted this letter meant for Charles.”

On a shelf, they found an old journal. It was hardly filled in, just some old passwords and account numbers. There were two things of import, however: a passcode to a “Painting Safe”, described as Vincent’s birthday and a slightly worn copy of the picture of Sofia Miller from Steve Moss’s car, labeling her as “Sofia”.

“Now we have proof that this is definitely her,” Caylix said.

Beneath that was a letter from Beckerd’s Investigation Services.

“Charles hired a private investigator in 1995 to investigate Andrew Reed and Dr. Johnson’s deaths,” Connor said, “but confidentiality agreements prevented them from investigating further. They suspected the two men and Vivian to be connected to Sofia’s disappearance, just like we and Scott did.

They also found possible evidence of Dr. Johnson tampering with Charles’s mother’s medicine. They talked to an anonymous nurse at the hospital who had worked with the doctor for thirty years. She was cleaning out his office after his death when she found notations in his handwriting about increasing Magdalene’s dosage. The note also said something about asking Vivian what the regular dosage was so he could triple it.”

Caylix took the paper from him and read the date. “This letter is dated two days before Vivian died!”

“Here’s a follow-up, from the following year. Continued efforts in finding out what happened to his mistress seems to have been fruitless, especially after the deaths of the main three involved in her disappearance. They suggested him to wait until they find anything.”

“So, he really didn’t know anything about Sofia’s death. He even moved out of Painscreek not knowing his son Vincent was really Scott.”

They next approached the painting of the woman with a white headband and used the hint in Charles’s notebook to open the safe behind it. In it, they found a will disowning both Vivian and Trisha and leaving everything to Vincent—Scott—upon Charles’s death and recognizing him as an official member of the family as of July 1, 1975. Judging by the date of the updated will, Magdalene was still alive at the time and therefore likely had a hand in this new will.

There was also a folded letter with “To Vivian” scrawled across it.

Meanwhile, the others entered the tearoom and successfully unlocked Vivian’s top desk drawer. Inside was a single object, a windup key.

“What could it go to,” Merc asked.

“If it was locked in Vivian’s desk,” Lydia said, “it goes to somewhere in here.”

They each spread out, until Lydia came upon the clock. Putting it on in front of the clock, it locked on. She called the others over.

“A clock,” Merc said. “Is that all?”

“’Teatime…on the dot’,” Maddie reminded her from Trisha’s journal.

“Yeah,” Lydia said.

“What,” Merc asked.

“Think about it. Why would Vivian have this windup key locked in her desk if it wasn’t important?”

She set the hands to 3:20 and turned the key. That caused a latch to open and the front of the clock opened revealing a letter. Lydia read:

June 18, 1975

Dear Vivian,

I am not writing to you as your doctor, but as a friend. I know you had your suspicions about Charles. Now that his affair is revealed, there is no point going around the bush.

If you want to protect yourself and Trisha, you must make Sofia and the baby leave Charles and Painscreek altogether. Make sure to compensate for her leaving.

As for Charles, he will need to know that having his affair publicly known will destroy his political status. People are not so forgiving when the mayor they trust is involved in such a scandal.

Regardless, I think Charles will try to add the baby into the family register. I would do so if I were him. It is a boy, after all, and the child will be able to continue the family line as Magdalene wishes. If that should happen, I cannot imagine what will happen to you or Trisha.

—Dr. Henry Johnson, M.D.

A second letter read:

Vivian,

I have given careful thought to your request and here is my answer.

I have provided a new prescription for your mother-in-law. It is three times the strength of her usual dosage. Detailed instructions will be sent with the medicine.

Should you decide to do it, you will need to administer the medicine carefully, so no one suspects anything. Call me if you have any questions.

—Dr. Henry Johnson, M.D.

P.S. Make sure no one else in your family intakes any of it. Immediately dispose of the rest after the effect takes.

“Vivian…and Dr. Johnson…” Lydia started.

“Killed Magdalene,” Merc finished.

“Scott only thought it was the doctor, and this key was locked away. Could he have found other proof somewhere?”

“Andrew must have told him other things, but finding his parents became more important, so he didn’t write anything about it.”

“We know Charles was out of town at the time. It doesn’t mean he didn’t hire someone. With his money…”

“It wasn’t him,” Connor said as he and Caylix stood at the door.

“What did you find,” Maddie asked them.

“Charles wrote Vivian a goodbye letter just before he and Trisha moved away,” Caylix said, holding it up. It read:

Dear Vivian,

I know. Without hard proof I know what you did to my mother. And I know why. I regret not ordering an autopsy, but I wanted her body to remain untouched for burial, per her request.

You’ve always known the truth just as I’m admitting it now, that despite my public success, I am a weak man. I couldn’t stand up to my mother and keep you and Trisha in my will. I wasn’t strong enough to defend you against her emotional attacks against you. I couldn’t even persuade her to see the beauty in her baby granddaughter. I also should have done everything I could to find out the truth of my mother’s death, even if it meant implicating you.

Above all, I stepped outside of our marriage out of loneliness and pressure for us to have a son. I didn’t want it to happen the way it did either. I guess that’s why they say “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”

So, in my failures as a man, a father, a son, and a husband, I have sinned, but darling, so have you. And I just don’t mean with mother. I’ve been led to believe that you, along with our late gardener, Andrew, and Dr. Johnson, did…something…to the mother of my only son and to Vincent.

But there is no hearing your confession now, is there? And you three seem to have paid the ultimate price for your shared secret.

Trisha and I are leaving Painscreek. I can only hope her mental faculties improve the further she is away from here and she’ll be able to finish college.

You’re gone, mom’s gone. Sofia, Andrew, Dr. Johnson, Vincent, and Scott—all gone.

And I know. Without hard proof I know it’s my punishment for my weakness and my affair from twenty years ago. I already made my confession to Father Matthew last year and I believe God has shown me mercy in return by letting me still have Trisha.

May God have mercy on you.

I’m sorry and goodbye,

Charles

“It’s not him,” Merc and Maddie said together.

“He thought all of these deaths and disappearances were divine punishments for his affair,” Caylix said. “He had no interest in seeking revenge.”

“Ohhh man,” Lydia exclaimed. “Is that seriously it? It’s like we’re right back to where we started, except we know so much! Like it’s enough for a Lifetime movie-of-the-week!”

“And then some,” Merc sighed. “Let’s just meet up with Janet. If we come up with any other ideas, we’ll call her or tell her when we see her.”

As they left, they filled each other in on what else they found and took the hypotenuse back to Scott’s cabin.