Chapter Fifty-Six Stella
Chapter Fifty-Six
Stella
In the world of bad ideas this might be the worst. Daniela waking up qualified as the best news in days. Her mentioning Jeremy
gave Hanna hope. Daniela naming, or at least suggesting, Aubrey was behind it all confirmed what I already believed.
Being back at Aubrey’s house was the issue. Hanna didn’t trust the police. I didn’t want to involve them for Lukas’s sake.
His dream of a judicial career balanced on the edge of a great abyss. My sole focus was in pulling him back and taking away
any reason for the governor to hand that judicial seat to someone else. Naming Aubrey, then having the claim be a false lead,
would only ratchet up the tension. Hanna’s solution to all the potential issues was to track down Jeremy ourselves.
Life was easier and a lot duller back when I pretended Hanna and Marni didn’t exist. This reluctant, tenuous new friendship
had turned into a full-time job. My poor nanny was going to quit from being overworked. Then I’d be stuck with Mom for child
care and as a roommate, and that could not happen.
“Tell me the plan again.” We didn’t really have one but maybe Hanna had dreamed up something on the drive over.
We walked around the outside of Victoria and Patrick’s old house with only flashlights showing the way. I’d previously slipped
Mom’s key to the residence back in her stack and now couldn’t find it, which meant we needed to perform a break-in.
Leaves and sticks crunched under my feet. I stumbled over pieces of wood and what looked like remnants of a chair as a chilled
wind blew across my shoulders. The light jacket I’d thrown on couldn’t beat back the stormy fall weather knocking at Sleepy
Hollow’s door.
I kicked aside a shard of glass. “There’s a broken window somewhere.”
“Everything is broken around here. I wonder if we should just try to smash in the front door.” Marni stood bundled up, aiming
her flashlight at the second floor. “Look up there.”
I followed the beam to the decrepit balcony off what once served as the primary bedroom. A torn piece of curtain poked through
the hole in the glass door. “That’s not helpful.”
“It’s either climb or break down a door.” Marni didn’t sound like a fan of either option.
“Wrong.” Hanna didn’t wait for a response. She slammed her elbow into the window in front of us. It shattered on impact, sending
glass tumbling inside the room and a few shards pinging at our feet.
Marni gasped. “You could cut yourself.”
Marni had a point. The move tore Hanna’s quilted jacket. I didn’t see blood but that had to sting.
“Don’t care as long as I find Jeremy.” Hanna took a stick and knocked out the rest of the glass. The crash and crinkle rang out in the still night. “Done.”
Yeah. Sure. Done. I glanced around, half waiting for the police or neighbors or Aubrey to descend. “Now what?”
“I crawl in.” Hanna started to do just that.
“Whoa there, Wonder Woman.” I pulled her back and handed her my gloves. “At least wear these. You’re not made of steel.”
“Are you sure she’s not?” Marni asked.
“Thanks.” Hanna mumbled the word as she tugged the gloves on and tightened her hold on that stick.
She slipped one leg inside, then curled tight and small and ducked until her head cleared the window frame. Then her second
leg disappeared into the house and so did the rest of her.
“You know if Aubrey shows up Hanna might really strangle her,” Marni said.
I didn’t bother to debate whether that would be a bad thing. “I know I should be sad about that, but . . .”
The damp air and storm rumbling in the distance started a countdown. We needed to get this hunt done before the deluge forced
us to huddle inside this house of horrors.
Nothing happened.
Marni and I stood still, waiting for Hanna to show up again. The lights inside stayed off. The expected sounds of stomping
and things being moved never materialized. As each second ticked by the tension rose. A churning ball of anxiety started flipping
around in my stomach.
Go after her? Don’t go after her?
“Hanna?”
“Door’s open. Are you coming?” Hanna called out from the front of the house.
She peeked around the corner. I couldn’t see her face in the darkness but knew she wore a frustrated expression. We slowed
her down. No question about it.
I didn’t dare say no. “Right.”
“Maybe she really is Wonder Woman,” Marni mumbled between labored breaths.
I looked at her. Took in her stark expression. “Are you okay?”
“This house scares the hell out of me.”
Patrick’s body on the floor. Victoria’s threats. So much of Marni’s hesitant personality made sense now. She commanded her
classroom. The dangers of real life terrified her. The mix of anxiety and depression thumped through her, limiting who she
thought she could be and what she wanted to accomplish. If we survived this Tanner mess without going to prison or being run
out of town, I’d sit down with her. See if I could offer some support.
Hanna held the front door open, then closed it behind us, blocking the uptick in biting wind once we were all inside. The
crush of air still made the walls shudder and moan as stray gusts slipped inside, but the remains of the house blocked the
worst of the weather.
The place didn’t look any better the second time than it had the first. The flashlights provided limited visibility. In the
darkness, floorboards creaked and things scurried around our feet. I really wanted to be done with this hunt. “What now?”
“Xavier could see what was happening in Patrick’s house.” Hanna looked around the entry as she talked.
Marni peeked out the window next to the front door. “Well, the properties are only three streets apart. That’s a lot of acreage, but I guess it’s possible.”
“That’s not what I mean. Aubrey comes in and out without keys,” Hanna said.
Marni frowned. “I feel like I should understand what you’re saying but that’s not happening.”
Hanna faced us now. “Secret passageways.”
“Like on spooky television shows?” Marni snorted. “Really?”
“Really. Do you remember Isabel or Xavier ever talking about hidden hallways or rooms?” Hanna asked me, then turned to Marni.
“Maybe Victoria mentioned that sort of thing.”
“Wait a second. You think Aubrey has Jeremy hidden in this house? Behind the walls somewhere?” I had to admit that sounded
like a very Tanner family thing to do. The whole clan thrived on creepy shit.
Still, I couldn’t imagine Isabel knowing about hideaways and not telling me. She would love showing off that kind of secret
because it spoke to a property entrenched in history and brought to mind illegal alcohol stashes and speakeasies and a whole
bunch of other wealthy people things that would send her imagination flying.
“Where do we start?” I dreaded asking but did anyway.
“The most obvious place.” Hanna turned and pointed at the massive painting at the top of the stairs, on the landing.
That thing. My mom and I used to make fun of it.
Outside of Victoria’s hearing, of course.
It replaced a piece Victoria had commissioned before Noah was born of just her and Patrick.
Victoria had insisted the whole family sit for this extravagant portrait as a replacement.
I had no idea how she got two kids to agree, but they likely didn’t have a choice.
It sat in shadows now and cried out for restoration, but I remembered the details. All four of them dressed like they’d stepped
out of a Hollywood period drama. Not relaxed and smiling. Set in the library, the most formal room in the house. Tuxes for
Patrick and Noah. Evening gowns for Victoria and Aubrey. Only Victoria looked like she wanted to be there.
She’d said she wanted to capture a moment in time before the kids got too old and moved out. Six months later the whole family
disappeared.
“Can we turn on the lights?” Marni asked.
“Not until we know we’re alone.” Hanna shook her flashlight when it flickered. “Gabe. Aubrey. I wouldn’t be surprised if at
least one of them is hiding, waiting to jump out.”
Excellent. “You’re really selling this plan of yours.”
But Hanna was already off. She tiptoed up the right side of the first set of steps, delivering a strangled whisper to us from
over her shoulder. “Be careful. This could cave in.”
Marni sighed. “I hate this house.”
Yeah, no kidding. “Me too.”
Even as my brain screamed for me to call Lukas or the fire department or someone who thrived on this sort of haunted thing,
I followed Hanna. Flinched at every squeak and wobble of the wood. Stopped more than once to breathe through the strange sensation
of motion sickness building in my stomach.
I let out a haggard but relieved groan when we left the shaky steps and reached the landing. The platform didn’t bend or give under my weight. It felt solid . . . sort of. I didn’t test it because I didn’t want to know if I’d reached the wrong conclusion.
We all stared at the family portrait. The flashlight circles roamed over all five feet of the painting.
“They even look uptight in the portrait.” I wasn’t sure I’d said the words out loud until Marni shined her light in my face.
“Sorry.”
Marni moved the light to Hanna’s face. “How do we get in or test it or whatever we do?”
“No idea.” Hanna still carried the stick she used to break into the window. She tapped it on the portrait now.
Interesting but confusing. “What are you doing?” I asked.
Hanna stopped poking. “I don’t have a clue. Just winging it.”
“At least you’re honest about it.” Marni felt along the wall and around the frame. “Maybe there’s a button or—”
Hanna slammed her shoulder into the portrait.
I jumped back. “Damn!”
Hanna did it again. Took a step back, then clobbered the thing.
“You’re going to hurt—” My words cut off when the left side of the portrait shifted. It dipped until it no longer lined up
with the wall. “No way.”
Marni pointed to the opposite side of the frame. “There’s a tiny button tucked under here. Like a toggle switch. I’ll press
it and you two push.”
I shoved against the side with Hanna. Pushed until the wall moved.
The portrait turned until the side we pressed against slipped into the wall.
A door. A damned door. We moved it enough for a person to fit inside.
Hanna aimed her flashlight into the unexpected entrance.
The beam cut through the darkness, showing off the dust and tiny particles floating through the air.
Marni looked at me, then at Hanna. “What now?”
I didn’t need to wait for Hanna on this one. There was only one answer. “We go in.”