B
y the time I arrived at Rose Cottage, I was feeling more like a wilted flower than a beautiful princess, so I took off the costume and took a quick shower. By the time I was out, I heard muffled voices, one distinctly male, and smiled. I put on my robe and went into the living room.
My heart went all a flutter as I watched Liam bend down and play with Luna. Which wasn’t easy because Liam had brought his Golden Retriever, Sandy, and Luna was more interested in her than in him. He finally gave up trying to pet her and stood up. I smiled at his costume.
“You had to think hard to come up with that costume, didn’t you?” I looked at the police uniform that fit nicely over his broad shoulders.
He put his hands on his belt. “Hey, it still fits, and it’s been a while since I’ve been a constable.” He smiled, which brightened up his very handsome face. “Yours is nice too, but don’t you think you may get chilly dressed as you are?” His eyes roved up and down my body and I shivered.
I looked down. “The robe is quite warm, but my feet might get a little chilly in slippers.” I walked into his arms. “Hey handsome.”
He bent down and kissed me, which sent shivers down my spine. He lifted his head, “Hey beautiful.”
I smiled, then turned my head at the ruckus the dogs were making. I shook my head and left his arms, walked across the room to the sliding glass door, and opened it up. The two dogs went tearing out into the fenced-in backyard.
“Would you like a drink?” I asked him, walking over to the cupboard where I keep my limited amount of alcohol. I poured myself a brandy, and then opened up the small refrigerator and took out a small can of ginger ale and added it to the glass and took a sip.
“Rough day?” He asked, coming to stand next to me. He put a small amount of whiskey into a glass for himself.
“Boy, was it ever,” and I told him what happened with Herb.
“I’m surprised he’s getting any business at all, considering how old that bus is. It can’t run all that great.” He sat down on the couch and I sat down next to him.
“I heard a few women complaining about that very thing,” then I explained about the double booking. “My guess is they prefer Herb’s bus to not being able to take the trip.” I took a sip of my drink and then looked at my watch. “Oh my, we’re going to be late if I don’t hurry.” I set my drink down on the coffee table and then headed for my bedroom.
As much as I enjoyed being a princess, I changed into my Sherlock Holmes costume. I put on a pair of black jeans with knee-high boots and a turtleneck sweater, then grabbed the wool coat and deerstalker hat. Oh, and my pipe. Can’t forget that! I also added a magnifying glass and a torch to my pockets. The two tools of the trade Sherlock would never be without!
I walked into the living room and Lian had let the dogs in, both of which were laying on the floor chewing on a bone. I laughed. “Such well-behaved children we have, don’t we?”
He got up off the couch and helped me on with my coat. “Yes, I look forward to having one or two with only two legs in our future rather than four.” He laid his hands on my shoulders as I went still.
I turned to him. “You want kids?” My stomach did a little flitter.
He smiled, “I want kids with you, yes.” He leaned down to kiss me. “Does that scare you?”
I looked into his eyes. “No. Yes. Well, maybe. I just figured since you have a grown daughter, you wouldn’t want any more children.”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t around much when my daughter was little. I was in the military, and away much of the time. I have to say, I’m looking forward to being around for our children.”
Our children. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. At thirty-four, I wasn’t too old, although I probably shouldn’t wait too much longer. And the thought of having his children sounded nice. However, we hadn’t even talked about marriage, let alone children.
He laughed. “Come on, Sherlock, let’s get going.”
It didn’t take long to get to Dooley Castle, located approximately a half mile inland. I could see the tall turrets long before we reached it, and after driving around for five minutes looking for a parking space, I suggested we park at either Shenanigan’s, the local pub, or the bookstore and walk.
Luckily, we found a parking space at the pub, which would be a good place to head to afterward for a warm drink. Liam grabbed his Garda jacket from the car, and I buttoned up my coat to the chill, and he held my hand as we walked toward the castle. I couldn’t help but notice all the campaign posters tacked up on practically every available space. I nodded toward one, and said to Liam, “Do you think the mayor’s going a little overboard on the campaigning?”
“It’s a tough race. I hear his competition is doing well, so it doesn’t surprise me.” As we got closer to the castle, the amount of people doubled, then tripled. I didn’t think there were this many people interested in the festival, but I guess I was wrong.
We stopped when we saw Henry and Imogen Pierce standing near the entrance. Henry owns Moore Plastics, the company who is sponsoring the festival. I helped him with a couple of issues around Christmas time.
Imogen gave me a hug. “Molly! It’s so good to see you.” She held both of my hands. “You look stunning, and I must say, that costume fits you perfectly.” The petite woman had on a dress similar to the Cinderella dress I had on earlier, except her tiara was much larger, and she had a banner across her dress that proclaimed, “Queen”. She had on a heavy wool cape to keep out the cold.
I pulled the pipe out of my pocket and held it in my hand. I deepened my voice, “Yes, I believe I am the most wonderful detective in all of Britain.” I tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t help but laugh.
After shaking Liam’s hand, Henry leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Well, at least here in Dooley, anyway. I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”
Henry, appropriately dressed as a King, had on a heavy cape that didn’t hide the fact he wasn’t dressed in the correct clothing for a king in the Middle Ages. I waved away the compliment. Instead, I said, “Henry, where are your tights? You’re not dressed authentically.” I laughed.
He smiled and gave his wife a sly look. “As I told my lovely wife, that will never happen. You’re lucky I wore the silly cape.” He pulled it around him a little tighter. “However, it is quite warm.” He laughed again.
I pulled out my phone. “You two look quite nice. Let me take a picture.” I clicked one or two, looked at them, and nodded.
“Oh, by the way,” Imogen put her hand on my sleeve. “Did you hear you and Colleen won second place in the pumpkin carving contest?”
Liam pulled me close. “Congratulations. I told you it would win.”
I looked at him, my mouth agape. “I can’t believe it.”
“What did you win?” He asked me.
I looked at Imogen. “I don’t know. What did we win?” I laughed. “Gran just asked me if I wanted to enter and handed me a pumpkin.”
Henry smiled. “I think it’s a gift certificate to a restaurant over in Kerrigan.”
Liam’s eyes went wide. “I hope it’s at the Seafood Grotto. It’s one of my favorites.”
I playfully slapped him on the arm. “Who says you’re going with me? Gran donated the pumpkin. All you did was criticize my carving technique.”
He pretended to be hurt as we left the smiling couple and made our way to the ticket booth to purchase our tickets. It was getting quite late, so thankfully, there wasn’t a line. It surprised me to see Suzanne, the manager of the castle, behind the glass window.
“Suzanne, what are you doing working the window? I figured you’d have a ton of other things to do.” Short and slim, the blond-haired fifty-something just smiled.
“Oh, I do, but I couldn’t find anyone to replace Rose while she took a tea break, so did it myself.” She smiled. “Did you get my message earlier about Herb?”
“I did, thank you. Did he end up making it here on time?”
She nodded. “With only a few minutes to spare. He’s one of the major attractions in the haunted house.”
Then I leaned in a little. “I heard the two of you broke up. How are you?”
She shrugged her shoulders and then looked at her watch. “You two had better hurry. We close in thirty minutes. You don’t want to miss the fireworks!”
Suzanne handed Liam the tickets, and we headed to the iron gates. The castle loomed over us, spooky enough in the dark to where it didn’t need any additional decorations. Lights shone on the castle nightly, but someone had changed the bulbs to orange and green, and had them pointed upward at the gargoyles near the top of the castle. A shiver ran up my spine at how spooky they looked.
It didn’t take long before we ran into my family members. My twin brothers were both tall and slim. Normally Dillon sported a beard and Aiden was clean shaven. My eyes widened when I saw Dillon. I went up and rubbed my fingers over his clean jaw. “Nice. What made you decide to shave off your beard?” I looked at Reanna with my eyes wide.
She shook her head. “It wasn’t me. I like the beard.” She was holding onto his arm, her red, curly hair flowing over the collar of her gray wool coat.
Dillon shrugged. “I don’t know. Something different, I guess. I’ll probably let it grow back.” He looked at Reanna.
Glancing at the twins, if you didn’t know them well, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. I looked between them and said, “What are you two up to?” I looked at Reanna. “Are they planning on pulling a trick?”
Aiden laughed. “What trick?” He looked at Dillon, a wide grin on his face. “We never pulled any tricks, did we?”
Dillon shook his head. “Hardly any at all. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to keep the smile off his face, but suddenly burst out laughing.
Then a voice boomed out from behind me. “Oh, I remember a few tricks the two of you played on Mrs. Jones and your nanny that weren’t quite so harmless.”
Dillon stopped laughing and then bent down to kiss our mother’s cheek. “Yes, but it was all in fun, mum.”
Mum gave him a sideways glance, and then went and received another kiss from Aiden, which started everyone hugging everyone else.
“Geesh, you wouldn’t think we’d just seen each other four days ago.” I said with a smirk.
“Molly, that pipe had better be a fake. I don’t want to hear you’re smoking again.” She pointed to the pipe I had in my hand.
I rolled my eyes. “Mum, I only smoked once and was sick for three days. And it was twenty years ago!”
She gave me “the look” and asked, “Where is Fiona?”
My younger sister, although thirty-one, would always be the baby to our mother, and therefore, must be monitored at all times. Ciara answered before I could give a sarcastic retort. “She’s around somewhere. We just saw her a few minutes ago.”
Reanna added, “I think she went through the adult haunted house again.” She pointed to the door.
Excitement went through me. I loved Halloween, “Ooh, have any of you been through the haunted house yet?” I eyed my siblings and their significant others.
“The kids went through the younger rooms. They’re now doing some crafts.” Aiden wrapped his hand around Ciara’s arm. “And we should probably go check on them, if you’ll excuse us.” And he and Ciara walked toward the door.
“Reanna and I have. It was pretty cool. I have to say it even scared me a wee bit.” Dillon said.
Reanna punched him. “A wee bit? You screamed like a little girl.” She laughed, and he playfully rubbed his arm.
I grabbed Liam’s arm. “Come on, let’s go!”
Liam had no choice but to follow me as I ran up the steps to the front door of the old castle and handed our tickets to Martin McDonald, who I knew from church. Retired, he moved to Dooley about ten years ago when his wife passed away. He had a very husky voice, and I never admitted to anyone how I found it a little sexy.
“Hey, Martin. How are you?” I asked as Liam passed him our tickets.
“Fine, Miss Molly, just fine.” He chuckled. “Wait until you see ole’ Herb in there. He looks very convincing. He about scared my socks off!” He tore the tickets in half, handing the other half back to us. “The adult room is at the far end, next to the library.” He nodded his head forward.
The entry into the castle was well lit, but as we walked further into the castle, the darker it became. We followed the signs to the horror rooms, ending in a hallway they’d turned into a graveyard. There were tall stone tombstones with RIP written on them, some of them with dark stained handprints on the front. We passed the two rooms being used for the kids and the teens, but it got darker as we walked closer to the adult room. There was a skeleton standing in the corner that was motion activated, his eyes glowing red. I couldn’t help it. I shivered with excitement.
There was a piece of cardboard hung on the door with the words, “Come in if you dare,” written in black paint. I opened the door to a dark room, and immediately walked into cobwebs, and something flew in front of me, making me jump. I heard Liam chuckle behind me, which earned him a quick jab in the stomach from my elbow. “You go first.” I pushed him ahead of me, but held on to his belt hoop.
Someone had laid down a white carpet liner with a glow-in-the-dark arrow pointing our way, so we followed it to the left. I’d gone only a few steps when a bony hand grabbed my arm and in a scratchy voice said, “Beware.” I leapt in fright, my heart beating triple time. I looked at the bony hand on my arm and tried to ignore how cold and real it looked. I glanced up to see if I recognized who it was in the costume, but there wasn’t anyone there. I looked back down at my arm, and the hand had disappeared. I had let go of Liam’s belt hoop when the hand grabbed me. I looked ahead for him, but the haze made by a dry ice machine made it to where I could barely make out his shape a few steps ahead of me. I shivered as I ran to catch up. I could smell sulfur in the air and metal. Blood. Wow, whoever they hired for the special effects did a great job.
The fog faded and there were several lit pumpkins sitting at different levels as we walked, reminding me of Stingy Jack, and it I’d only taken a few more steps when I heard an evil laugh, and a ghost, looking almost opaque, jumped out in front of us, again making me jump. A few seconds later when my heart calmed down a little, I looked closer and I could see it was “Hardly Headless Herb. His neck had a dark line across it, and he’d taken red dye and soaked the front of his shirt. He winked at me as we passed. I whispered, “Good job, Herb,”
I had to turn my head at the pool of water with a dead animal in it, hoping it was a prop and not real. There were cages placed at different levels, some with rats with their beady little eyes glowing, some with old children’s toys, and a glowing plate of eyeballs. The sound of a chainsaw starting rang through the air, with another evil laugh. There were dirty sheets hanging from the walls with what looked like dried blood on them. A few more actors jumped out at us at just the right time, and by the end, I was ready for a beer.
We came out a different set of doors into another dark hallway, this one marked with police tape. I’d visited the castle many times and knew where we were. I turned right and walked down the hallway, which became slightly lighter the closer we came to the exit, giving our eyes time to adjust.
I turned to Liam. “So, what did you think?” I put my hands over my face for a second. “Did you see that first ghost?”
“You mean Herb?”
“No, the one with the bony hand.” Shivers ran down my spine.
He looked at me, his brows raised. “What bony hand?”
I didn’t imagine it. I looked up at him and said, “The ghost with the bony hand. It grabbed onto my arm. Didn’t it grab you? Didn’t you see it?”
“No. but Herb’s looked pretty real.” He chuckled. “I have to admit, I don’t believe in ghosts, but for a second there, I almost changed my mind.”
“Wait. You don’t believe in ghosts? How can you live in Ireland and not believe in ghosts?” I asked, baffled.
He put his hand on my back. “Should I be concerned that you do believe in ghosts?” I looked up at him and he was smiling, so I let it go. We walked out of the front door and into the front yard. The sun had set while we were inside, but the property was well lit. I found the family all in a circle, most of which now had blankets in their arms so we could sit on the ground and watch the fireworks. Our newest additions included Gran, as well as Fiona and Callum, her boyfriend, and one of my best friends since we were twelve. I reached over and kissed him on the cheek and then gave Fiona a hug.
Blond and beautiful, Fiona always made heads turn wherever she was. She was abnormally bubbly right now, as she loves haunted houses as much as I do. I smiled at their costumes of Raggedy Ann and Andy. It must be love for him to dress in tights. I laughed as I looked him up and down. He just shook his head. “Don’t say a word.”
I couldn’t even if I tried, as Fiona began babbling. “Oh, my goodness, Molly. Wasn’t that scary? There should have been more ghosts, though. I only saw the one with his throat slit.”
I leaned in. “Didn’t a hand reach out to you right after we entered?”
She shook her head.
I looked around at everyone else. They were all shaking their heads.
“I must have imagined it then.” I looked at Fiona. “How many times did you go through it?”
“Three.”
Callum looked at her, and then me and smiled, “Four.”
Before anyone could say anything else, a crackle went through the air, and a voice announced, “Fireworks will start in ten minutes.”
“Oh, I forgot our blanket,” I looked at Liam. Before I even turned around, mum handed me one.
“I thought some of you might forget, so I brought extras.” I looked at her arms and they were bare.
“Mum, you thought some of us would forget, or just me?” I asked, looking around at all the others who had blankets in their arms.
Kayleigh came over to me, no longer dressed in her Cinderella costume, but in a fuzzy bear costume made of fleece. At least she’d be warm. “Aunt Molly, we all knew you’d forget. But it’s okay, we still love you.”
Everyone chuckled, and I handed the blanket off to Liam so I could pick her up for a hug. “Well, as long as you still love me, I guess it’s okay.” And I kissed her on the cheek.
She rubbed my nose with hers. “That’s how the Eskimos kiss. Did you know that?” She laughed.
I laughed too. “Did you learn that at school?”
She leaned in and whispered, “No, from Tommy Benedict. He tried to do it to me, and I punched him.”
“Oh. You probably shouldn’t have done that. Do your mum and dad know?”
She nodded. “Ah-huh. But I didn’t get in trouble because he should have kept his nose to himself.”
I had to try hard not to smile. “True, he should of. But I enjoy getting Eskimo kisses from you.”
She rubbed my nose again. “Me too. You know what I learned from my friend Mindy Turner?”
“No, what?” I asked, wondering what piece of wisdom a five-year-old could give another.
“To always remember, never forget, boys are stupid.”
I laughed as I set her down, agreeing with her wholeheartedly, thinking of Herb.
As we walked to the back lawn of the castle, I looked back, a shiver running through me again. Did I imagine it? I shook it off as mum found the “perfect spot” and we all laid down our blankets. The fireworks began, and we all did the typical “oohs and ah’s,” and enjoyed the light show. Kayleigh was asleep on her father’s lap, and the twins had even stopped long enough to sit down and watch. However, once it ended, they were back up and running around.
Gran came up to me, frowning.
“What’s wrong, Gran?” I entwined our arms.
“I’m not sure. But something.” She looked at me. “Don’t you feel it? This may be what you felt this morning.”
I took a deep breath and tried to tap into my “sixth” sense. I wasn’t aware of it so much before I moved back to Ireland a little over a year ago. Then it went into overdrive and has led me into trouble a few more times than I’d have liked. However, I couldn’t ignore Gran, so I tuned everything out and listened to what my spirit guides, or my “witchy” senses, had to tell me.
All that formed was a big black hole with a sense of foreboding I opened my eyes. “I don’t know either Gran. I sense something, but all I’m seeing is a big black hole.” I looked at her in question.
“Come on, dear. Whatever it is, it’s coming from the castle.”
We told everyone we’d meet them at Shenanigan’s, and Gran, myself and Liam, who insisted on coming with us, made our way to the front of the castle. The orange and green lights were still shining on the front of the enormous building, and we could see a few lights shining inside. Someone had moved the podium into the corner that Martin had used to take tickets, so the area was clear. The long hallway was now lit up and someone had shoved several of the tombstones and graveyard paraphernalia into boxes which lined the halls. We followed Gran into the room where the kids had their activities, and it appeared to be all in order. Gran did a once through and turned off the light as we left. Next, we went into the room for the older kids, which appeared to be a scaled-down version of the adult room. With the light on, it just looked like props from an old horror picture.
“Is someone coming in tomorrow to clean all this up?” Liam asked.
“Yes. We used a company in Limerick City for this room and the adult room. They’re sending a crew tomorrow morning to take it all down.” Not finding anything, she turned off the lights and continued on.
Liam and Gran were in front of me as we walked further down the hall and toward the room where the adult haunt had been. Liam walked through first, and then Gran. I kept my arms wrapped around my waist as I walked through. I glanced to my left and right, but there wasn’t anything there, and no bony hand struck out and held on to my arm. Never the less, a shiver ran through me. We walked through the cobwebs, and then Gran flipped the switches on the wall, but nothing happened.
“Oh, dear. No lights. I don’t suppose anyone has a torch?” Gran asked.
I smiled in the darkness. “Sherlock Holmes goes nowhere without a torch, Gran,” I answered, pulling the item from my pocket and turning it on.
We followed the same path as before, but it wasn’t as scary now that nothing was moving. I waved the torch around to light up all the objects. The cages of rats had disappeared, thank goodness, but everything else was still there.
Including Herb.
His head was hanging crooked, and his eyes, wide open, wouldn’t be winking anymore. I looked at his shirt, now soaked with fresh blood. I moved the light downward and watched as thick, red drips fell to the floor. My stomach plummeted. Oh God, not again.
I heard Gran suck in a breath and felt the air move as she made the sign of the cross and mumble a prayer.