Madison Johns - Agnes Barton Paranormal 02 - Ghostly Hijinks (21 page)

“So it might not be related to Francine Pullman’s family at all.”

“Doesn’t look like it, but it’s still strange that nobody ever went into Room 109 in all these years.”

“They said they don’t have a key to Room 109. Strange how it opened for you,” Andrew said.

“Strange indeed, but perhaps the spirit of that poor woman just wouldn’t rest until she was found. Will you be checking if it might be this Elizabeth that everyone has said was involved with Jessup Goldberg?”

“The prostitute? I suppose if we can positively identify her and check the DNA of her descendants, but the descendants of Jessup’s have vehemently denied that this Elizabeth was ever here at the hotel at the same time as Jessup—that he spent the majority of his time in Reno.”

“That doesn’t mean he never came back here, or kept her here waiting for him.”

“True, but then again, it might just turn out to be one of life’s little mysteries that just can’t be solved.”

“Which I so hope the family won’t be.”

We said our goodbyes and made it back to the hotel where Eleanor and Mr. Wilson awaited us. “I’m so sorry I left you to find that body down there all by yourself,” Eleanor said.

“I wasn’t alone. Andrew was with me, and Caroline encouraged me to keep searching for the little girl.”

“No, I didn’t, Agnes,” Caroline said as she appeared next to me. “I’ve been kept too busy running from Crazy Mary all day.”

“We’ll talk about that another time. I’m trying to sort out where the missing family might be.”

“Oh, so they still haven’t been found, then?” Francine asked from behind me. “I had hoped that you had forgotten all about that.”

“I have, really. I promised Andrew if I couldn’t find the family today that I’d just forget about it. I’m sure the sheriff will uncover the truth eventually.”

“Really? I don’t see you as the quitting type.”

“Well, we need to head on home soon. I have a wedding to plan.”

“Oh, really? Whose?”

“Andrew and I have been engaged for quite a while and we finally set a date.”

“And Mr. Wilson, and me,” Eleanor added. “We’re going to have a double wedding.”

“How nice,” Francine said stiffly. “I’m sure going to miss you girls. You’ve really livened up the hotel.”

She walked away with a clacking of heels and I relaxed. “That woman really bugs me.”

“She might rub you the wrong way, Agnes, but you can’t pin any wrongdoing on her now. She never did know about the remains and her family wasn’t guilty of murdering that woman.”

“You’re quite right, Eleanor. I’d love to pin something on her, but I’m not ready to railroad anyone, especially if they aren’t guilty of a crime.”

* * *

Hours later, sleep just wouldn’t come, but it sure did for Andrew who was sawing all kinds of logs from the sounds of it. All I could think about was just where the family had been taken and where else in town the mysterious man might have them digging next. If they weren’t able to find the gold the man was after, they might not live to see too many more days.

I turned on my side and closed my eyes, trying to drown out the sounds of Andrew’s snoring when I finally gave up and got up, putting on my robe. I’d just go downstairs and raid the refrigerator; a warm glass of milk might help.

When I opened my door, Eleanor popped her head out of her door, too. “Where are you going this time of night?”

“Shhh,” I said, motioning to the elevator.

Once we were inside the elevator and the door closed, I said, “I can’t sleep. Was planning to raid the fridge.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“That blasted ghost upstairs has kept me awake. All that pacing is driving me nuts.”

“At least she quit chasing Caroline.”

“That’s what you think, but for the moment she’s given it a rest,” Caroline said as she bobbed next to me.

When we were in the kitchen, I found the milk and poured it into two cups, warming them in the microwave. “I sure wish I could have a cup,” Caroline said. “The worst part of being dead is that I can’t eat. What I’d do for a bowl of ice cream.”

“I bet. I know that would surely do me in.”

We sat in the empty dining room and I enjoyed my milk, but I was startled by a noise. I cocked my head sideways and listened again.
Thump
. I continued to listen to the thump that came about ever thirty seconds.
Thump.

“Does anyone else hear that?” I asked.

“What are we supposed to be hearing?” asked Eleanor.

“That thumping noise. It kinda reminds me of when we were at the Lemon Pine Mine and Unique and Ramone were hammering away looking for
gold
.”

We jumped up and I led the group, following the sound that only I could hear.
Thump
. I moved toward the elevator.
Thump
. When I walked into the elevator, the noise was much louder.
Thump.

“I heard it that time, Agnes,” Eleanor said. “But where could that be coming from? It sounds like it’s coming from below us somewhere.”

“Sound carries like that.” I stared at the M button on the elevator and pushed it before anyone could stop me.

“Agnes, no,” Eleanor said.

The elevator descended and the M button lit up and was flashing, but as the elevator continued to move downward, the thumping became much louder.
Thump! Thump! Thump!

“I sure hope nobody knows we’re coming,” I said.

I held on to the bar on the side of the elevator as it picked up speed. “How deep is this mine anyway?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

The elevator came to a screeching halt and the door flew open. Luckily, nobody was there, but I continued to hear the thumping as I made my way up the tunnel of what looked to be a mineshaft of some sort. After we’d walked two hundred feet, I heard a man say, “Okay, take a break. You have five minutes.”

“Is that all? Please let us go, we won’t tell anyone. We promise.”

“I’ll let you go when you find what I’m looking for.”

“I miss my daughter. Please, you left her all alone back in the other place and we didn’t find anything there, either. She needs me,” the woman implored the man.

“She’ll be fine. I left plenty of water.”

“But she’s only five.”

“Two more minutes, then you’re back to work and you better hope you find something this time or the buzzards will be plucking your carcasses clean come morning.”

“But we’ve done all you’ve asked.”

“No, you haven’t. You’ve yet to find the gold.”

Why does that voice sound so familiar?
My thoughts were interrupted as another man said, “Have you ever considered that there’s no gold down here?”

“Yes, they told us at the Willington General Store that the mineshaft was built down here, but no gold was ever found,” the woman said.

“Time’s up. Get back to work. You only have a few hours left before it won’t be safe to be making this much racket.”

“We should go for help,” Eleanor whispered in my ear.

“There’s no time,” I whispered back. “From the sounds of it, this family doesn’t have much time left.” I walked forward and into the light where the family was now pounding away at the wall, facing down the source of their anxiety—Redd Bullet—the jack-of-all-trades for the Goldberg Hotel & Saloon!

Chapter Fifteen

Redd panned his head sideways, his eyes widening considerably. “Wh-What are you doing down here?” he asked, pulling a gun from his pants, pointing it at me.

“Put that gun down, Redd,” I said. “What are you doing? Let those people go.”

“Why did you have to come down here? I thought you had given up on the missing family.”

“Given up is not part of who I am. We’ve found Rebecca and she’s safely tucked away,” I told the couple. “I assume you’re Trisha and Aaron Jameson, right?”

“Who are you?” Trisha asked, nodding with tears in her eyes.

“I’m Agnes Barton and I’m here to help you folks like I helped your daughter.”

“You’re not going to help anyone. You’re as good as dead.”

“Where’s the love, Redd?” I asked. “I must admit that I’m really shocked that you’re here. You do know you won’t find Leister’s gold down here, right?”

“I figured that when I didn’t find it in the last place, I had to search somewhere else.”

“Except that you know there’s no gold here, so why torment this couple?”

“Leister’s gold is somewhere in Silver and this is as good a place as any. Nobody knows for sure when he actually came to Silver, or where he hid his gold. I’m thinking that this would be the last place anyone would ever look.”

“Except that Jessup dug the mine down here. So unless Peyton came to Silver after the hotel was built, Leister’s gold isn’t down here.”

“Would you just shut up? I’m trying to think.”

“Is Francine in with you on this? I wouldn’t be surprised, really.”

“That cow? I think not. I knew who she was when I met her in Phoenix that night when I came to her room to fix the plumbing, and that was all planned.”

“So you wanted a woman with money? Except that according to her, you were never romantically involved.”

“Nope, but I knew the story about Leister’s gold and planned to find it when I came here.”

“Except you never found it. So why stay all these years?”

“I’ll find it someday, and when I do, I’ll disappear just like so many of the families have. The thing is that they only know about two of them when it’s been closer to five. If only that damn Lois hadn’t started blabbing about the missing family.”

“Actually, I believe divine intervention is involved this time since I dreamed about this family, or Rebecca. I have a few gifts, like being able to see ghosts, and now I dream about things that are really happening or about to happen—like Rebecca being separated from her family. I even dreamed about the actor, Sheriff Wilford, and Francine, even the way the hotel looked although I’d never been here before.”

“You really need your head checked. Sure, ghosts exist here, but they can’t hurt anybody.”

I laughed. “I wouldn’t say that too loud, The Cutter might hear you!” I shouted loud enough to hope that he’d appear.

“Good try, but he never leaves the library and you already know that.”

I moved aside as The Cutter raced forward with all the might of a steam engine, swinging that jagged blade of his. Trisha and Aaron ran toward me and we huddled together as Redd emptied his gun at The Cutter, who only smirked with a disembodied laugh as the bullets went right through him and whizzed dangerously close to us. We raced up the tunnel and toward the elevator as Redd sprinted after us. “Get back here,” Redd shouted.

Right before he caught up with us, Redd was besieged by spirits who pushed him back, The Cutter swinging his jagged blade at him, nicking Redd’s skin, and he shrieked as he raced away, screaming. Within minutes, I heard a high-pitched scream I had to check out, sending the others back to the elevator.

Eleanor came out from where she was hiding. “No way am I leaving you alone again,” Eleanor said as she accompanied me.

I followed the screams and found that Redd had fallen through where the wall had given way and he held the ledge, frantically shouting, “Help me!”

“How on earth do you think we can pull you up?”

“I-I’m slipping.”

“You better hold on while we go for help,” I said, knowing that we’d never be able to pull him up without him yanking us in with him.

* * *

By the time we made it back with help in the form of Sheriff Bradley and a few other burly men, Redd had lost his grip and had fallen to his death twenty feet below, atop a pile of gold bars!

“Well, it looks like Redd finally found his gold,” I said.

“Except that he’s not around to reap the benefits,” Eleanor added.

“At least the missing family was found and not murdered. I assume he murdered the Thompsons,” the sheriff said.

“Yes, he told us he murdered five families. He’s been forcing them to find Leister’s gold for him, and when they didn’t find it, he got rid of them. It’s sickening when I think about it. He left poor Rebecca to die. He told us that he left water for her, but I didn’t see any water when we were in the tunnel under that cabin.”

“Why was there a cell down there anyway?” Eleanor asked.

“Because that wasn’t Peyton Leister’s cabin. That was the old jailhouse at one time.”

“Oh, that sure makes sense. I still can’t believe that Redd stayed all these years looking for the gold, but it’s good that it’s finally found.”

“After we retrieve Redd’s body, we’re going to retrieve the gold, and since it’s under the Goldberg it belongs to Francine Pullman,” the sheriff explained.

“The other tourists will really be disappointed that they weren’t the ones to finally find it.” I said.

“And most of the town, no doubt,” Francine said as she joined us. “Are you ladies, okay?”

“Yes, and I’m very sorry for thinking that you were in on this with Redd, but what I don’t understand is, how did that gold get into this mineshaft? I figured Peyton Leister would have been in Silver way before this hotel was ever built.”

“Well, that’s a different shaft—not the one Jessup dug—and a part of the Winfield Hotel that burned to the ground around 1860. Jessup had no clue just how close he was.”

“What do you plan to do with the gold?”

“I’ll have it equally divided so that all of the residents of Silver get their share. Besides, I’m not hurting for money. My great-grandfather started the Wisteria Hotel chain in his sober years, which I inherited and sold just recently.”

“Wow, no wonder your great-grandfather never bothered to open this hotel during his lifetime, and that’s sure generous of you, sharing the gold with the residents of Silver.”

“It’s the least I can do. We’re a tight-knit group here and now the town will get a facelift it desperately needs. I also think building a small museum is in order, depicting the legend of Peyton Leister.”

“I’m really sorry for thinking that your family might have been responsible for the murder of the woman in Room 109. It’s my understanding that you don’t have a key to open that door.”