Page 69 of Hoodoo House
Sinclair drew in a quick breath. “Florry? Your sister that’s in the home?”
Mrs Cameron nodded.
“All this time you knew where the mysterious Miss Ellis was and you never said anything.” Sinclair huffed.
“It was nobody’s business. Marjorie Ellis was just anom de plume. She wanted her privacy. She’s in Red Deer Mansion, and she’s there because that bloody publisher of hers pushed her into a complete breakdown. She never got better. At least the Heart’s Shadow Foundation had the decency to keep paying her royalties which cover the cost of her care, but it’s a pittance compared to what they’ve made over the years.”
“How did you end up here?” Charlie asked.
“I saw the housekeeping job advertised by the foundation. I did everything I could to ensure I got the position which gave me a home, a paycheque and a way to watch over my sister’s legacy.”
Henry pulled away from Mrs Cameron and began pacing around the kitchen. “But, Gramma Carol, youhaveto be Marjorie Ellis. Youhaveto be!”
He started to cry.
“Henry. What’s wrong? Tell me,” she said.
“I’m a horrible person. I’ve done something really, really bad. Everyone will hate me because I’m so…” His voice was lost in uncontrollable sobbing.
Mrs Cameron rushed to him, knelt down and held him by the shoulders. “Henry. Tell us what’s wrong.”
“Mr Tull said a lot of nasty things about you and Marjorie Ellis. He shouldn’t have been talking about her like that and saying all those bad things about her writing!” Tears streamed down Henry’s face.
“What did Mr Tull say?” Declan pushed.
“He said horrible things about her books. He was planning on ruining them so no one would write any more of them, and that wasn’t right! He was going to ruin the legacy of Marjorie Ellis. I thought it was Gramma Carol. He had no right!” Henry yelled. He turned to his Gramma Carol. “I had to protect you.”
The boy clenched his hands like he was about to punch someone.
“Henry,” Declan said in a calm, quiet voice, “tell me what you did.”
“I can get into the walls. There’s passageways in there, just like the secret panel up to the tower. I could spy on Mr Tull in the writing room, and see Gramma Carol in the kitchen and I could even see into some of the rooms upstairs. That’s how I found out where Mr Tull kept his pills. And one night when he was down in the writing room, I snuck into his room and I took some from the bottle. I wanted to stop him.
“And then on the night before Mr Tull died, I was out watching the stars, and Gramma Carol asked me to take him in his tonic. He’d been so mean that day. So I crushed up the pills and mixed them into his nighttime drink. I wanted him gone. Forever!”
Henry started to shake.
“Once I’d given it to him and got back to the kitchen, I knew I’d done something horrible, so I ran back to the room to get it away from him, but he’d already drunk it down. He yelled at me, so I ran.”
The story poured out of Henry. “I was scared. So I prayed to my mom and asked her what I should do. I told her I was so sorry and asked her to help me. She’s in Heaven now and she should have been able to help me. She could ask God to help me but…she didn’t answer. She’s always answered me when I talked to her,” he said through tears, “but this time she didn’t. I thought I’d been so bad that she didn’t love me anymore. Or maybe God had kicked her out of Heaven because of what I did. She’s being punished because I’m such a terrible person. I was scared, so I decided to pretend like I’d never done it.”
Mrs Cameron held him tightly. “You should have said something.”
Henry looked up. “It was just another secret. I did it for you…to protect you. But I can’t keep it a secret anymore. I did it. I killed Mr Tull.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mrs Cameron held onto the sobbing boy. Sinclair stood across from them, arms folded and eyes wide. Declan thought Sinclair might be trying to figure out what his future held, now that it was so tightly linked to these people, the youngest of which had just confessed to murder. Charlie had a strange expression on his face which was impossible to read.
What a fucking mess.
Charlie sniffed the air. “Can you smell that?”
Declan inhaled. There it was. The faint smell of smoke.
“What’s wrong?” Mrs Cameron asked.
“Okay, everyone stay put,” Declan said.
