Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

It was just after noon when Declan left his office and headed into the main reception area. Charlie was diligently working at his computer.

"Ready to head to Hoodoo House?" Declan asked.

"Sure," Charlie said without looking up. He collected his jacket and put a fistful of notes into his bag. His lips were firmly set in a frown and Declan could see that for some reason, Charlie was avoiding eye contact.

"I think we need something before we start."

Declan led the way downstairs and straight into Gwen's shop. "Two coffees to go, Gwen. And maybe some of those," he said, pointing to the pastries.

That should put a smile on his face.

It didn't.

Once Declan had paid, they made their way to the parking lot and Charlie walked directly to Declan's van. Declan stopped him. "I thought we could take the Beast this time. I haven't had a chance to drive your car yet, and this way you can read me your notes on the way out…if that's okay with you?"

"Sure. No problem," Charlie said, handing him the keys.

Declan sat in the driver's seat and looked for the cup holder. It became clear that cars of this age were not equipped with such luxuries. He passed his coffee cup to Charlie. "Apparently you and your fellow muscle car maniacs don't drink and drive."

Charlie didn't even crack a smile.

They drove in silence through the streets of Calgary and out onto the highway. As they reached the outskirts of town, where city turned to prairie, Charlie finally spoke.

"Who's Michael?"

Declan felt like he'd been caught with his pants down.

"How do you know about Michael?" Declan asked.

"When you went to the washroom at the bar yesterday, you left your phone on the table. A text came in and I glanced over at it. It was from Michael. The text preview said ‘Thanks for this afternoon.' I didn't open the text. I wasn't spying on you."

Declan glanced over at him. Charlie was staring forward. His face was tense. Declan wished he could tell him now, tell him everything, but…he wasn't ready.

"Michael's just a friend. That's all."

"Oh," Charlie said. "What kind of friend?"

Charlie was staring at him now.

"It's…just some personal shit. I don't want to talk about it. Let's focus on Hoodoo House. What can you tell me?"

"Fine…strictly business," Charlie said, gritting his teeth, as he reached down and pulled a few pages of notes out of his messenger bag. He riffled through them and stared at his notes as he spoke. "Technically Hoodoo House is owned by the novelist Marjorie Ellis, who wrote the famous novel The Ragtag Crew. It was a huge hit. They did a film of the book that was nominated for an Oscar. The Ragtag Crew made Marjorie Ellis and her publisher Mount Temple Press millions of dollars."

Declan nodded. "So you make millions of dollars. Why buy a property on the edge of the Badlands in Alberta?"

Charlie continued, "There's a bit of mystique surrounding the author. When her novel came out, it was released with a female silhouette instead of a photo, and no bio. Apparently Marjorie Ellis is a recluse and insisted that the only identity attached to the book would be her name. From what I could find out, she purchased Hoodoo House in 1981 as a place out of the public eye. And nobody really knew who she was. The purchase agreement was done through Mount Temple Press so her name wouldn't be exposed to the real-estate company."

"So why isn't she living there now?" Declan asked.

Charlie reached down and took a sip of his coffee, then continued. "According to my research, after the huge success of her first novel, her second novel was a flop. It came out in 1983 and was called The Offal House—that's offal as in o-f-f-a-l, not a-w-f-u-l. They made a film of the second book, but it was a bust. It lost a ton of money and the novel itself never took off. Rumour has it that this didn't sit well with the mysterious author and she had some sort of breakdown and moved to Portugal."

Declan frowned. "But why not just sell the house?"

"Maybe she thought she'd come back some day. All I know is that the house itself became famous after she left when people found out she'd lived there. And Portugal must agree with her because that's where she began The Heart's Shadow series, which is up to thirty-one books now. My mom's read every single one of them. That series has turned a good profit, and with that money she established the Heart's Shadow Foundation to support authors of interest to her publisher. And as you know, at this point there have only been two of them—Thomas Pritchard and Malcolm Tull."

Declan glanced over at Charlie. "Anything else?"

Charlie shuffled the remainder of his papers, then handed Declan his lukewarm coffee. "Not really. Maybe we'll find out more when we get there."

Declan swigged back the drink, went to toss it on the floor then thought better of it and returned the empty cup back to Charlie.

They continued on in silence.

Declan drove the car around a corner and turned from Township Road 271A onto a small Concession Road, taking in the waving fields of golden crops, dappled by the shadows of the clouds that sailed through the blue prairie sky which stretched from horizon to horizon.

"What are they growing there?" Charlie asked.

Declan was happy Charlie had broken the silence.

"I think it's durum wheat," Declan said. "The stuff pasta's made out of. If you look over there, you can see the swaths cut in the fields where they've started harvesting."

"Huh."

"We'll make a country boy out of you yet," Declan joked.

"Says the guy who rarely leaves the city unless he's forced to," Charlie said, as he checked his phone for directions. "According to Sinclair's instructions, we should almost be there."

The road curved to the west around a hill.

"There," Declan said.

At the top of a hill to the east, on a flat, elevated plane between the road and what must have been a drop-off, sat the large, two-storey clapboard structure.

They pulled into the gravel drive which curved up to the house. Declan stared at a tall, thin spire of stone, capped with a flat rock which rose in front of the house.

Hoodoo House.More like the House on Haunted Hill.