Blackvine Manor Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

in.”
    “You said you’d been pranked, remember?”
    She crosses her arms against the chill of her shock and squares off against him. “I thought I had but we didn’t find any proof, remember? Then I discovered that similar things happened to my mother here. She saw and heard things. So I followed what I saw and heard and I found evidence.”
    Maxwell turns to peer at the uncovered corner of the laundry room, his face paling. “It’s not that hard to read about Delia Charles’ disappearance, it was in all the newspapers. Why make up that stuff about being psychic?”
    “I didn’t make it up. I saw her.”
    “Prove it,” he mutters as he takes a few steps closer and gingerly examines the skeleton Alexis uncovered.
    Alexis shuts her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. Pressing her palms to her eyelids she thinks about the image of the woman who led her here. Instead she sees a little boy smiling in the basement window well. He carefully catches a frog that had jumped in and couldn’t get out. After he releases it he puts in a few long sticks to help out any other curious frogs.
    When she describes his childhood memory to him, Maxwell stares at his shoes briefly before turning and gesturing to the door. “I think its time we called the police, don’t you?”
    He sends her back up to her apartment before going to his small office on the main floor. Alexis paces her studio until he returns with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and two glasses in the other.
    “Aren’t the police going to want to question me?”
    Maxwell sits on her red sofa and starts to pour. “It will help with the shock. I explained your suspicions about it being Delia, so the coroner is coming first. If the age of the … um … remains fits that time period there won’t be any police at all.”
    Alexis keeps pacing and sips at her drink before a wave comes over her. “Oh, God, Maxwell, I’m sorry!”
    “For what?”
    “I told you what happened to her. I mean, I don’t know if it was him or the man she helped hide something. If it was him, then I can’t imagine how you’re feeling.”
    He finishes his drink and decides to pour another one. “What are you talking about?”
    “Your grandfather!”
    “He was never warm and fuzzy. Cops are like that, and he was a police chief. After my grandmother disappeared he never mentioned her again, but I don’t think that means he murdered her. It was just his way of dealing with it.”
    “Didn’t he investigate it? She was murdered.” Alexis grips her glass with both hands.
    “Of course. The department decided it was some enemy of Otto’s out for revenge. Though, like I said, he wasn’t a people person and he was a cop so he easily had a hundred enemies.”
    Alexis finishes her drink and sits down next to him. “I’m really sorry to bring all of this up again. You really loved her, I saw it.”
    He gets up abruptly. “I’ve got to go meet the coroner. Stay here. I’ll call you if they need to ask you anything.”
    Curled up on the couch, Alexis watches until she sees a black van arrive. No one else comes and she has a sinking feeling Maxwell called in a favor instead of calling the police.

Chapter Eight
    “ Y OUR GRANDFATHER WAS ASKING FOR you. Your mother lied and said you had an emergency at the property, a burst pipe and flooding. You better get that old goat Barry to corroborate your story because you know your grandfather will check.”
    “My story? I didn’t make it up.” Maxwell refuses to stand up from his desk, his hands flexing over week old paperwork.
    His father stands in the door of the small office, frowning at the dusty “superintendent” sign. He never visits Blackvine Manor, usually preferring to pretend it doesn’t exist. David Charles grew up in a large suburban home on two acres where his parents moved when he was born. It was his mother, Delia, who insisted she and Otto move back to Blackvine Manor when David left for college. After she disappeared, he