Legacy of Lies- The Haunting of Hilda Page 9
He laughed. “Okay. I’ll come and watch you in the shower, but only because I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.” He placed his hands on my hips and pulled me towards him. “In fact, I could do with a shower myself.”
I giggled. “On one condition.”
“Name it.”
“That we go for a walk around the mine tomorrow. Neil is taking Mum out when you both get back from Tauranga.”
“When am I meant to do some work?”
“I’ll help when we get back, if you like? And besides, you’ve arranged for some labourers next week. You won’t get a chance to do any site-seeing once things get underway properly.”
“Okay then.” He slid one strap of my sun dress off my shoulder and grazed the bare skin with his teeth.
I groaned. “Where’s Mum?”
“Tucked in bed with a hot chocolate,” he replied cheekily. “Which is where I intend to be in five seconds flat—minus the hot chocolate, of course.”
“Erm. Are you forgetting something?”
“I don’t think so.” He gripped my chin between his finger and thumb and lifted my face to kiss my mouth.
“You’re forgetting the shower.”
He flicked the other strap off, allowing my dress to slide to the floor.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and allowed him to kiss me deeply.
Chapter 19
Pete and Neil left for Tauranga the next morning, and I arranged to take Mum into town to get her hair cut. I’d been relieved to get an appointment at such short notice. Pete teased me before he left, saying I didn’t want to be in the house without him for fear of our resident ghost. Although I’d laughed it off, he’d hit the nail on the head.
“Ready, Mum?” I tapped on her bedroom door.
A strange, scraping sound coming from behind me caused my stomach to drop to the floor. I spun around, expecting to see my grandmother, but instead Mum suddenly appeared around the corner dragging her suitcase.
“Mum! What are you doing?”
“I need to go home, but I can’t find my way out.”
“Oh, Mum. I’ll tell you what, how about we go and get your hair cut and then, if you like, I’ll give you a lift home. Deal?”
“You’ll take me home?”
I nodded. “Let’s leave your case here for safekeeping.” I eased her fingers from the handle and then linked them through my arm. “Ready?”
She looked worried for a second, then nodded.
Mum looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled.
“Do you like it?” I got to my feet and approached her chair.
“I look pretty.” She turned one way and then the other.
“You are pretty.” I smiled at her and then at the stylist.
“I don’t want to look old like Ethel.”
The mention of my grandmother’s name startled me. I paid the stylist, then led Mum out to the car.
“Why did you say that back there?”
“Say what?”
“About my grandmother. Have you seen her lately?”
“No. She’s dead.” She looked at me as though I was a crackpot.
“Shall we go home then?”
She nodded. “Yes. Neil is taking me out for lunch.” She appeared to be back to normal, for now at least.
Before heading home, we did a quick dash around the supermarket grabbing a chicken and some vegetables for dinner.
We’d only been home five minutes when Pete and Neil arrived back.
“Right, where do you want these paintings?” Pete said.
“Take them in there for now.” I indicated the snug.
Mum hugged herself excitedly. I smiled and rubbed her arm.
Between them, Neil and Pete carried the two boxes into the snug. Pete found a knife and carefully sliced open the tape.
Inside the first box were a couple of large frames, and several smaller ones, wrapped and packed with polystyrene beads. Pete laid the box on its side and carefully slid one frame out at a time. The first picture was a beautiful oil painting of the Waikato River.
“That’s stunning,” Pete said.
“I told you she was good. Pity I didn’t inherit any of her talent.”
“You were a good artist as a child,” Mum said.
“Oh, no, I wasn’t. Charlotte was good, but I was atrocious.”
“Nonsense. You just needed to believe in yourself.”
All in all, there were sixteen framed paintings.
“You’ll be able to open a gallery with this lot,” I said, completely in awe of her talent.
“I wouldn’t mind trying to sell them. But in the meantime, where should we store them?” Mum said.
“I told Pete they could go in my garage. But he insisted on bringing them here first,” Neil said.
“Maybe we can just hang some of them in the hallway for now,” Pete said, ignoring Neil’s comment.
“That’s a good idea. Then we could try to sell them online.” I began taking the paintings one at a time into the hallway, leaning them against the wall where I wanted them hung.
“I’m not sure what they’d be worth, any more. Nobody will know my name. It will be like starting from scratch.”
“If you decide on the lowest price you’ll take for each one, I’ll put them on an online auction site. That way, they’ll go to the highest bidder, just in case there is a lot of interest.”
“I have a couple of friends who are big in the art world. Why don’t you let me speak to them, see what they suggest?” Neil said.
“That would be lovely. Thanks, Neil.” Mum smiled at him, warmly.
I could tell by Pete’s expression he was irritated by this suggestion, which wasn’t like him at all. “You okay, Pete?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Do you still want to go out this afternoon?”
“Yes. If Neil still intends to take Mum out, that is.”
“I can do that. Would you like to come to my bungalow for lunch, Eliza?”
Mum looked fit to burst. She nodded, her hands clasped to her chest.
“Right then, I’d best go get my walking boots on.” Pete headed to the bedroom.
“Did anything happen while you were gone?” I asked Neil.
He shrugged and shook his head. “Not that I know of. Why?”
“Oh, nothing. I just thought he seemed a little off somehow. Did you bring anything else from the lock-up?”
Neil shook his head again. “No. I did suggest we grab a few more boxes, but he didn’t want to rummage through anything without one of you being there.”
“Fair enough, I guess. I don’t think I’d like to rummage through it without Mum.”
“I don’t care much about any of it, if I’m honest, now I have my paintings,” Mum said.
“Well, we can start sorting through it all, there’s no hurry. Anything you don’t want we’ll sell.”
“You might want some of it. After all, it wasn’t just my stuff in there.”
“We’ll see. Right then, I best go get ready too.”
“Did I sense something a little off about you earlier?” I asked Pete as we parked the car beside the Golden Legacy Centre near the mine lookout.
“I don’t think so. In what way?”
“With Neil. You seemed a little irritated by him.”
“Ah, yes. He was getting on my nerves. He insisted on taking the paintings to his garage and got quite angry with me when I refused.”
“Really? What’s that all about?”
“I have no idea.”
We got out of the car and, hand in hand, climbed the concrete steps up to the pit-rim.
“I’d forgotten how big it is.” Pete shook his head at the vastness of the crater.
“I know. It gets me every time.”
“Which way should we walk?”
“We need to be on the other side of the pit really, that’s if my memory serves me well.”
He began walking to the right. “May as well go this way then.”
“Would your house have been here?” Pete said.
“I’m hoping to recognise something soon. It was so long ago and it’s all changed since then.”
We continued walking, but I was getting a little concerned I’d seen nothing familiar. Neil said it had all changed, but I thought I’d recognise something by now. The sun was beating down on us, and I was grateful for the shelter of the overhanging trees.
“Maybe we’ve passed it. Should we go back?” I said.
“It said on one of those information boards that the walkway has been shortened because of the slip. It said it goes on to the road for the last part. Maybe we could just get that far, and then we can turn back, if you like.”
I nodded, feeling a little deflated but still hopeful.
We came to a high fenced area. Beyond it were several mine buildings I presumed were still in use. The walkway continued up and around the edge of this area. As we turned the far corner, I gasped. “We’re here.”
“Really? How can you tell?”
I pointed to the old stone building. “That’s the gold bullion store.” Everything else around it was different, and there was no sign of our old house site, but I’d know that small, square building anywhere.
“So, where would the house have been?” Pete asked.
I shook my head. “I’m trying to work it out. From memory, you came out the back of the house and the building was there, which would make the house site here. Or maybe it was there.” The problem I was having was I couldn’t remember which side of the building the door was on.
“Never mind. At least we know it was here somewhere. Maybe if we go on the mine tour, they might be able to tell you more.”
I nodded, unable to believe how much the place had changed in twenty years.
We hung around there for a few minutes, looking at the building from each direction, hoping to jog my memory. It was no use. I was more than a little peeved there was no door, as I’d hoped the key I’d found would fit it—but I was no further on.
“Ready to head back?” Pete asked.
“I guess so.”
Hand in hand, we strolled back in the direction we came.
“So, go on, you were telling me about Neil. What do you think is wrong with him?”
He shrugged. “Maybe I’m just being sensitive, but I’m sure he wants to get his hands on those paintings.”
“Whatever for? We don’t even know if they’re worth anything yet.”
Pete shrugged. “I just got the distinct impression he knows something we don’t.”
Chapter 20
That evening over dinner, Mum seemed a little distracted.
“You okay, Mum?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“You’ve been playing with that piece of carrot for the last ten minutes.”
“I’m just not hungry, that’s all.”
“Are you sure? Neil didn’t stay long. You haven’t had words, have you?”
She shook her head, but something in her manner didn’t weigh up.
I glanced at Pete and he raised his eyebrows at me, clearly sensing it too.
“I told Neil he could have the two big paintings,” she said quietly.
“You did what? Whatever for? We don’t even know what they’re worth yet.”
“I don’t care what they’re worth. They’ve been stuck in a lock-up for years. And besides, it’s not as if I need the money.”
Seething, I began clearing the table. “Well, you could’ve asked if I wanted them first.”
“I’ll do you some new ones. They wouldn’t go in your house anyway. The frames are old-fashioned and gaudy.”
“I happen to like the frames. But they’re your paintings—you can do what you want with them, I guess.”
“What do you think he’s up to?” I asked Pete once Mum had gone to bed.
“I told you he was determined to get his hands on those bloody paintings.”
“Do you think he knows what they’re worth?”
“I reckon he might.” He nodded.
“The greedy bastard. Do you think he’s actually interested in her, or just wants to get his grubby mitts on her paintings?”
“Who knows? But by the sound of things, he’s got his way.”
I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning for hours, trying to make some sense of Neil and the paintings. It shouldn’t really bother me. I hadn’t laid eyes on either of the paintings before, and there were still plenty more, but it was just a niggling feeling I had. We’d known Neil and Wendy for years, in fact, if they’d wanted anything of Mum’s, they could have taken it years ago, and nobody would have even known. So why was it bothering me so much? There was just something about Neil I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Where’s Wellington?” Pete asked the next morning over breakfast.
“Bottom of the North Island. Why?”
“I take it that’s pretty far?”
I nodded. “About six hours away by car, I think. Why?” I asked again.
“There’s a home show I wouldn’t mind going to.”
“Go to it then. When is it?”
“Next Wednesday. But I’ve got the builders coming in next week. Never mind.”
“Can’t you tell them what needs doing? I can stay and keep an eye on them.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t. I offered.”
“You don’t even like being alone here for half an hour and I’d be gone at least two days.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“What about your ghost?”
“She’ll be fine too.” I laughed.
He looked down at the paper he was reading. “I really would like to go.”
“Go where?” Mum said as she entered the snug.
“Pete wants to go to a home show in Wellington next week. We’ll be okay, won’t we, Mum?”
“Why wouldn’t we be?”
“Exactly! So that settles it then.” As I said the words, my nerves jangled. Pete was right—I was petrified of being in the house without him.
Tuesday came around much too fast. Pete was pleased with the builders so far. And they seemed happy to continue without him for a couple of days.
“You’d better get going before it gets too late,” I said, checking my watch for the hundredth time that morning.
“We could’ve asked Neil to stay with your mum, and you could’ve come with me.”
“Now he tells me.” I laughed. “No, it’s best you go alone. You know I don’t like those kinds of things, they bore the life out of me.”
I walked him to the car, plastering a smile on my face.
“You sure you’re going to be all right?” he asked, pulling me into his arms.
“I’ll be fine. It’s only two days. I’ll barely even notice you’ve gone.”
He rolled his eyes. “That’s it. I’m not going to buy you a gift now.”
“I’m sorry-I’m sorry-I’m sorry. I’ll be heartbroken as soon as you drive away. Is that better?”
“Much better. Thank you.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’ve got my phone, and my laptop. If you need me…”
“I know, and I will call. Now get going before it’s too late.”
I watched him drive away in the hire car he’d picked up the day before.
I spent the next couple of hours fetching and carrying for the builders. Neil had taken Mum on a picnic. They asked if I would like to go, but I declined, not wanting to play gooseberry.
“Mind if we go for lunch now, Mrs Shaw?” the el
der of the two builders said.
“Of course not. In case I’m not here when you get back, I’ll leave the door open.”
I really didn’t want to hang around on my own, so I decided to go to the Museum.
The quaint old building was dark and musty-smelling. A slight, grey-haired lady who appeared to be in her sixties wearing half glasses and an easy smile greeted me at the counter.
“I wonder if you could help me. I’m looking for some information on the Grand Junction—the original mine manager’s house from the Junction Mine.”
“Ah, yes. I remember that house. What are you after?”
“Anything I can find, really. I used to live there as a child, and just wanted to find some history on the place.”
The way she looked at me, I could tell she’d heard about the murder.
“I’m not the right person to ask about this, to be honest. Although I was around back then, I’ve only been employed by the Museum for a couple of years. Maybe you could come back later on in the week?”
“Okay, but do you mind if I have a look around while I’m here?”
“Of course not. It’s five dollars admission.”
I nodded and pulled out my purse.
“While you look around, I’ll have a flick through some of these books—see if I can find anything,” she suggested.
“Thanks so much.”
In the first of the rooms was a huge model displaying the township and surrounding land, including the mine. I could tell from the display that the pit had more than quadrupled in size from when it was the Junction mine. I wasn’t sure if my mind had been playing tricks on me, or I just remembered it wrong, but this showed I was more or less right. I located the battery and the Grand Junction residence. “Can you tell me where the mine lake was, according to this?” I asked the woman when she strolled back through, book in hand.
“The Junction mine workings, there…” She pointed to the small hole not far from the house. “… filled up with water, causing the lake to form.”
“Gosh! So this is well before my time then?”