Restoring the Castle Ch. 03

But during dinner she asked another question first, and the answer to that sent her brain spinning so fast that she forgot the silver cup question altogether.

"A curse of the castle?" Angela inclined her head and asked. She seemed definitely intrigued by the question.

"Yes, the county sheriff was up at the castle this afternoon when I was there. He was complaining about the number of times he'd had to come up to the castle. And he said something about men disappearing up there. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?"

Angela took her time responding. She patted at her mouth with her napkin and then brushed the napkin out flat on her lap while choosing her words.

"I doubt that he means disappearances at the castle itself. But there have been cases over the last several years—most of them since you went off to college—of men with some link to the castle disappearing. And I guess your mother's reputation for not thinking much of men somehow has gotten mixed into that by the gossips. I certainly won't repeat all of the wild speculation some in the village have made of that. But, yes, there have been disappearances. All probably explainable."

"How many?"

"Three."

"That many? Who? And what connection did they have to Banffy?"

"Well, there's Lois Aylor's husband, Felix. But it's likely he just decided to take a hike up to the Appalachian Trail during one of his drunken spells and fell into a remote ravine."

"And the others?"

"There was a peculiar mountain man who lived up in one of the hollows. When they were creating the Shenandoah National Park across the crest of the Blue Ridge they displaced quite a few mountain families who didn't want to go. There's always been talk that some of them didn't go—that they just hunkered down in remote areas of the mountains and never have been found. There was a man doing handyman work around the village and area farms who was rumored to be one such mountain man. And he got a fixation on your mother. But he hasn't been around in years."

"Ah, yes, I vaguely remember such a man from when I lived here," Ally said. "He kept appearing on the lawn and just staring at Mother whenever she went out, and then he'd go away when she gave him a tongue lashing. But he'd come back after a time. And the third disappearance?"

"She had a couple of brothers, the Monroes, contracting for her in one of her occasional reconfigurations inside the castle. One of them disappeared while they were working on the castle. And apparently quite a bit of cash from the brothers' company also disappeared at the time. Of course most just assume he ran off with the cash."

"Would that be Jake Monroe's brother?"

"Yes. It was Craig Monroe. But what do you know about Jake? Did your mother tell you about her troubles with the Monroes?"

"No. Not a word. It seems that mother didn't tell me a lot of things going on in her life. No, Jake Monroe was up at the castle today. He's interested in subcontracting some of the work I need done. Is he not reliable? You mentioned that my mother had trouble with them."

"Your mother has trouble with anyone doing projects for her, I think we have to acknowledge. No one did work to her satisfaction. As far as I know Jake Monroe is reliable. He has a good reputation around here for the quality of his work and the fairness of his prices. It was really Craig Monroe who your mother was on the outs with. She thought he wasn't working all of the time she was paying him for. The brothers didn't get along too well with each other either, if I remember correctly."

"And why is it that mother and the castle are connected to these disappearance stories?"

"Unfortunately, your mother had a furious, publicly observed row with each one of the men right before they disappeared. The locals are good at connecting dots that aren't there, of course."

"Oh."

"And since you'll probably hear about it around the village if you have many dealings here, I might as well tell you something else." Angela put her cutlery down beside her plate and rearranged it and her glass and wine goblets to be "just so" straight before she continued.

"You probably need to know that there's some talk about Dennis too."

"What do you mean?"

"Dennis is gone too. And your mother and he had a knock-down-drag-out fight right before he left. Of course I tell anyone who will listen exactly where he is and that he's gone because of me, not your mother—and that I'm in frequent contact with him. But they don't really repeat the story in my presence, so there's not that much opportunity to set the record straight on that. And I'm not sure anyone from around here would put much credence in a defense I put up for your mother anyway."

Double oh, Ally thought. And she spent the rest of the meal mulling all of that over and forgot to say anything at all about the record jacket or the silver cups.