Restoring the Castle Ch. 05

Shiflet sighed a sigh of relief. Ally thought she understood now why he'd been so anxious for her just to tear the castle ruins down and sell the land off to the national park system. It looked an awful lot like the sheriff was using his position to cover a salary-augmenting illegal activity and wanted to do it as far away from anyone's house as he could. But she was serious; ferreting out and turning in moonshiners in Virginia just wasn't on her "to do" list. If she wanted to do that here in these mountains, it probably would be a full-time job and most likely would entail being willing to swallow a good bit of buckshot.

"You say that you want to help pursue this no matter where it leads? This is your mother's house, and you know about the rumors about her and men. That body is at least partly mummified, having been in a dry, confined cavity like that. There's no telling how long it's been there. Cooperating will mean I've gotta talk to your mother and she's gonna need to answer some questions."

"Good luck talking to my mother, sheriff. She has dementia—you should know she has that and that she isn't faking it. Her lucid days are getting to be fewer and fewer. I have no fears of you looking into her activities when she lived up here, though. I know she couldn't have been any part of this." She was speaking with more bravery than she felt. Her thoughts went back to Dennis Harris and why she couldn't locate him in Prague, where Angela had said he'd gone. She had to remember to pin Angela down on that.

"I'll give you all the help I can. And for starters, I can give you a 'no-earlier-than' date for the body being put in that wall."

"Yeah? What would that be."

"That wall wasn't there seven years ago when I was last home," Ally answered. "That's why I was knocking it down. I'm restoring the castle to its original form. That wall divides what was the original ballroom. So, the body couldn't have been put in there earlier than that."

"Well, now, that does help," the Sheriff said. "So your mother can tell me when that wall went in?"

"If she remembers and understands the question in her condition," Ally answered.

"And if not, there are records of the construction here—receipts and such?"

"Probably burned up in the last fire here," Ally said. Looking toward the façade of the castle, she saw that Jake Monroe had returned and was talking with some of the forensic technicians who were still going back and forth into the castle ruins. "There's Jake Monroe over there, though," she said to the sheriff. "He's done construction here before. I asked him earlier about the wall and he said it wasn't his company's work, but maybe he can help you pin down when it was done and who did it."

"Good possibility," Shiflet said. He tipped his hat in the closest to an act of respect he was going to give, but the look he gave Ally indicated a deeper appreciation for an entirely different kindness she was giving him. Then he strode off to talk with Jake.

Ally watched them talking animatedly across the yard, taking the time alone to try to calm her shaking and regain her composure. Finding the body in the wall had really rattled her, and while she'd been escaping from the scene, she'd been hyperventilating and in a panic that she now felt was way out of proportion to the situation. As she thought about that now, she realized it had been a release of fear and grief that she hadn't yet let loose of in the wake of Chad's death. Perhaps this would help her cope with the terrorist incident and start to heal. What worse could happen now? But then she thought of her mother and the danger she was in from this, and her hand holding the coffee cup began to shake again.

Shiflet came back to her. "Jake was only able to help a bit," he said as he reached her. "He said the wall was there when his company did some work here three years ago—after a fire. You have had quite a few fires here, it seems. Sort of suspicious, that."

"My mother smoked in bed," Ally responded. "More to the point, she had a habit of lighting up in bed and then getting up for one of her nocturnal wanderings and leaving the cigarette to start a fire. I suppose it's a blessing that she was never in the bed herself when the flames started."

"Ah. He told me something else as well. He says that Hugh Cole has been doing electrical work here too."

"Yes, he has. You know Hugh? I thought he'd just recently come up from Georgia."

"Just up from Georgia? He tell you that?"

"No, not in so many words. Hugh hasn't said much to me about his past at all. His credentials were good, though."

"They better be good," Shiflet said with a laugh. "The dude's got a doctorate in electrical engineering."

"A doctorate? The only evidence he showed me was a bachelor's degree."

"Yep, an engineering doctorate. I thought he'd be off teaching at some university now. He's from these parts—well, over the mountain from here. Jake says he's even already done some work on this place. He came back here summers during college and got in with a really rough crowd. He comes from the Luray area, but I guess he didn't want them over there to see what a hell raiser he was, so he brought his business over here. I was zeroing in on him when he up and left and went back to Georgia Tech to work on his doctorate."

"When was he here?"

"Last here about five years ago, as I recall. Jake seems to think he was working on your mother's place when he up and left—that he and she had some sort of row."

"Oh," Ally said, fighting hard not to show her concern at this revelation.

"Yep, 'oh' would be just about right. Your mom seemed to have a big fight with just about every man she met."

Just about, at least in later years, Ally thought. But, of course, she wasn't going to give the sheriff any ammunition she didn't have to.

Shiflet took up the conversation again. "It would really be nice to know who that is in the wall. And we should be able to find that out after the medical examiner has had a go at the body. But it would be double nice to wrap this one up before those results are in. I think I want to talk to Hugh Coles fast like. Is he supposed to show up here pretty soon?"

"He should be here now. He's staying in the old Airstream trailer over there by the trees. He's working as the night watchman too. He wasn't here when I came up here this morning, though, I don't think. His truck was gone."

"What Airstream? I don't see an Airstream over there."

Alley turned her face toward where the trailer should be. It was gone.