Postby Headmistress » Fri May 22, 2015 12:44 am
Kirsty and Genevieve set about untying Patricia and Miss Quentin. When they were both untied, their gags were also removed.
Now that she was untied, Patricia decided to read what was in the folder that had apparently outlined Dorothea Jacklin's death. She made a beeline for the folder and browsed through it. As Miss Pearce had said, the girl from the painting was featured in several old photographs. Several of them were badly creased, so Patricia carefully smoothed each one out to look at them properly. It was eerie to think of a girl that was so close in age to her, Kirsty and Genevieve dying in this very house. Patricia wondered fleetingly what she'd been like.
There were also several pages of typewritten notes in the folder, which she read. Apparently, Dorothea had been found dead in an upstairs room, but the particular room wasn't specified at all. There had been an inquest, but no cause of death had ever been established. As she suspected, there was nothing to suggest that she'd been murdered. The cause of death had been classified as suspicious, but there was nothing more detailed in the folder. Kirsty and Genevieve had obviously sensationalized the details to make it sound more exciting. There were also a couple of paragraphs about Dorothea's parents, but there were no interesting details about them to speak of.
Meanwhile, Kirsty and Genevieve were still arguing with Miss Pearce about the glass. Miss Pearce was still insisting that one of them had smashed it on purpose and Kirsty and Genevieve were still denying it. The argument was starting to get heated when a sharp voice spoke:
"Stop it! Stop this right now!"
The voice was so sharp that the three of them and Patricia turned to stare at Miss Quentin. The Drama teacher's face was flushed and red with anger. "I will not be putting up with this any longer! All of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves! You three breaking into a house on the weekend..." "We didn't know about that!" Genevieve and Patricia said in unison and then looked at each other in surprise. Miss Quentin went on. "Miss Pearce, you're not even fit to be a teacher. Tying me up...tying those girls up... and then that silly séance. I'm fed up with being treated like this. I'm going home now. The four of you can stay and enjoy each other's company. Be miserable all weekend. I don't care." "You can't leave. The storm's still too bad and you'll get stuck on that track," Miss Pearce said. "Then I'll walk if I have to. I don't care!" Miss Quentin stormed out of the room and a minute later the front door opened and closed and there was the sound of a car engine starting.
For once, Kirsty looked a little uncertain. "Miss Pearce, are you really going to let her go out there? It doesn't sound good out there." "I don't care," the English teacher snapped. "I warned her. When she comes back soaking wet, she can apologise to me before I let her back in!" Kirsty said, "In case you didn't notice, you just lost your lift, too. Now we're all stuck here." Miss Pearce said, "Doesn't matter. When the phone lines go back up tomorrow, then I'll just ring for a taxi."
Kirsty turned to look at Patricia. "Bit creepy what that Dorothea woman said about you, then?" Patricia said, "Yeah, it sounded like she had a copy of my file from the school office, didn't it? By the way, Kirsty, didn't you say once that you knew a girl from my last school?" "What are you on about?" Kirsty said. "Your nasty little jokes with the glass. Sorry, but it didn't work." Miss Pearce seemed to sense the rising tension. "Patricia, I'm going to make cocoa. Come with me." Miss Pearce's tone left no room for argument and Patricia followed her out of the room.
In the kitchen, Miss Pearce brewed hot cocoa in a dented saucepan. Patricia had to admit that the cocoa smelled good. After she'd placed four cups on a tray, Miss Pearce said to Patricia, "I've got a packet of biscuits in the fridge. You can have those if you like. Patricia went to the fridge, took out a packet of chocolate biscuits and placed it on the tray with the cups. "Miss Pearce, can I ask you something? Was it you moving the glass in there?" "No, it wasn't." "It's just that the glass spelled out things that nobody knew. You don't think..." "No, I don't," the teacher said. "For what it's worth, I firmly believe one of those girls spelled out those things. Look, I hate to admit it, but both of these girls are intelligent. They probably dug up some information about you from somewhere and decided to have some fun with it." Patricia felt relieved to hear this. Something about Miss Pearce's tone was reassuring.
Miss Pearce poured the cocoa into the cups, picked up the tray and they left the kitchen. The hall was so dark that Patricia almost bumped into the wall several times. When they got back into the living room, Patricia busied herself sorting out the cocoa cups. After opening the package of biscuits, she arranged them on the tray and said, "Maybe we should put some new light globes in the hall. It's difficult to see anything out there because it's so dark."
Genevieve thoughtfully took a cup of cocoa off the tray. "It's strange about that Dorothea Jacklin woman. I wonder what she died of? If it was murder, it was probably all hushed up to avoid a scandal or something like that. Those notes said that they didn't even do a post mortem. I don't like the idea of her portrait being at the top of the stairs...I remember it from before, but I didn't realise who it was until I saw those photographs. Kind of creepy to have that portrait up there, isn't it?"
Patricia thought of Dorothea, lying cold and dead in that upstairs room and shivered. She wished that Genevieve would stop talking about ghosts. It was an unpleasant topic to be discussing in this gloomy old house.
Kirsty jumped in. "Hey, maybe the murderer was the one who smashed that glass! Maybe he or she thought we were too close to the truth and that's why the glass got smashed. Hey, has anyone here ever seen a ghost or something that they can't really explain?"
Genevieve Tait claimed that she'd seen her dead grandmother sitting in a chair by her bed one night. "Very clever," Patricia said. "Both of your grandmothers turned up for your music concert at school a few weeks ago. They looked fine to me." "Nothing gets past you, does it?" Genevieve said.
Miss Pearce said, "I do know a scary story that I read once. In fact, it was the scariest story I've ever read. There was this little country village where all the women who lived there were being murdered one by one. Anyway, they all get so scared that they start to travel in groups and see each other home for safety and all that. And one of them gets inside her house thanking her lucky stars that she wasn't the next victim. She's safe in her house with the lights off and all her windows and doors are locked. And then..."
"What? What?" Patricia, Kirsty and Genevieve demanded, mesmerized.
Miss Pearce smiled scornfully. "And then comes the very last line of the story."
"What?!"
"Behind her....in the darkness....someone cleared his throat!"
There was a fragile silence.
Why did you tell us that?" Kirsty said crossly. "I was about to go upstairs to use the bathroom. Now someone has to come with me." "Not likely. It's too cold up there," Genevieve said. Kirsty looked at Miss Pearce who smirked. "I doubt that anyone will be clearing their throat in my bathroom tonight, so I think that you'll be perfectly fine going on your own." Patricia realised that Miss Pearce had just gotten even with Kirsty and Genevieve for smashing her glass.
Kirsty looked at Patricia. "All right," Patricia said. "But we'll have to be careful because it's so dark in the hall."
But the hall was no longer dark.
At the foot of the stairs stood a new pale blue candle, alight and set into a silver candle holder. It sat on the bottom step and looked so sinister and out of place that both girls stared at it for several seconds.
"That's not funny! That's a mean trick to play on anyone!" Kirsty exploded, turning to look at Patricia. "I'll get you for that, Patricia Miggs, putting that creepy thing there!"
Genevieve and Miss Pearce came out into the hall to see what all the fuss was about. "Very authentic, Patricia," Genevieve said in a sarcastic tone.
"That candle wasn't even there when we bought the cocoa in," Patricia said indignantly. "I get it now. You and Genevieve put it there when I was sorting out the mugs. Okay, Kirsty, you can stop playing tricks now."
But Kirsty looked genuinely angry and it looked like real anger. Not the sort that you'd put on at all.
Genevieve, then, Patricia thought.
But Genevieve just met her eyes mockingly and didn't say anything at all.
Last edited by
Headmistress on Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:53 am, edited 1 time in total.