HAUNTED WALTZ

When I awoke on Sunday morning, I looked out the bedroom window and saw it was a beautiful Fall Day. The leaves were in full color. I thought it would be a perfect day for a canoe ride down the river. I rolled out of bed. I was feeling excited about the day. I quickly changed from my pajamas to jeans and a T-shirt. A brush of my medium-length ebony hair, and I was ready to start the day. I walked to the kitchen for eggs and coffee. After I finished eating breakfast, I made a telephone call to my best friend, Kassy. I asked her to join me for a canoe ride. She agreed to go and would be at my house in an hour.

While I was waiting for Kassy, I removed the cooler from the hall closet. I proceeded to take it to my truck. Next, I hitched the canoe trailer onto my truck. I was finishing connecting the trailer to the truck when Kassy arrived.

She had her long brown hair in a ponytail and wearing a ball cap. Her athletic build stepped out of her car and smiled at me. She removed a bag of ice, snacks, and drinks to put in the cooler. As Kassy put the refreshments and ice into the cooler, I put the canoe paddles into the truck bed.

We stepped into the truck. We drove to the launching dock at the local state park. Kassy and I put the canoe into Whispering River. We tied the canoe to the dock to put the cooler in it. Next, we stepped into the canoe. I released the rope tied to the dock. We started to paddle down the river. We mostly floated on the water as we enjoyed the scenery.

At this time of year, Whispering River had trees in full Fall color leaves lining the riverbanks. The leaves glistened in the sunlight causing a reflection on the water. It was peaceful and the only sound heard was the river flowing.

When Kassy and I went further down the river, I noticed a stone fence with an iron walk-in gate. Suddenly, a yellow figure swept past us.

“Kassy, did you see something?” I quizzically asked.

“Robbi, I am not sure,” she answered.

The yellow figure made another appearance. Curious about the glimpse of yellow, Kassy and I paddled toward a deteriorated boat dock.

“I thought I saw something…………” Kassy’s voice trailed off as she paddled close to the dock.

We looked around and didn’t see anything unusual. Shrugging our shoulders, we thought the trees were causing the sighting with the sunlight until we started to paddle away from the dock. The yellow figure appeared again. We returned the canoe to the dock. After securing the canoe to an old post, we climbed out of the canoe and up the embankment. Kassy and I walked to the walk-in gate and saw it was secured with a chain and lock. The stone fence appeared to be six feet high with no end in sight. We followed the fence to a stone patio. The iron table, chairs, and bench were rusted. Looking around, we didn’t see the yellow figure. Then we heard crying coming from the stone bench wrapped around the tree. A young woman with long wavy dark auburn hair wearing a yellow floral dress with matching pumps was sitting on the bench crying. When we went to approach, she vanished with the wind. We stood still for a moment. We were startled and a little scared. We could hear the wind weeping.

As we cautiously walked toward the canoe, the chain and lock around the walk-in gate had disappeared. The gate slowly screeched open by itself. Kassy and I had uneasy feelings. A part of us wanted to run, and the other part wanted to stay because out of curiosity we wanted to know who opened it. The lady in yellow reappeared. She stood on the stone path with overgrown grass and weeds looking at us.

“Follow me,” she softly said.

Even though we were scared, we found the courage to follow her. She led us up a hill to a huge cobblestone mansion. We kept a distance behind her. Kassy and I watched her disappear into the garage.

“I guess she wants us to go into the garage first,” I nervously said.

Kassy was too scared to give a response. She only nodded in agreement. We carefully walked up to the side of the garage. The side door squeaked open. Kassy and I slowly entered the large garage. A husky-built man with graying hair and a mustache was sitting on a bench. His steel gray eyes gazed at us. He had a sad expression on his face. Kassy and I didn’t move. The man vanished. The garage was eerily quiet. Kassy noticed a white wrecked limousine. The twisted, mangled car had the windows smashed out. The broken pieces of glass were scattered inside. Kassy touched the smashed front fender. I peeked inside the twisted wreck.

“This wrecked car has a body style of the 1950s,” Kassy said.

When we heard,” It is a 1955 limousine,” the man reappearing said, startled us.

The lady in yellow stood near the workbench. Our nerves were still rattled by the disappearance and reappearance of the lady in yellow and now the man had vanished to only reappear again. Kassy and I stood by the car. We stared at the ghostly figures. We were filled with mixed emotions. We didn’t know which to do first, scream, run, or faint. Our hearts were pounding like bass drums.

“We do not mean you any harm. Can you help us?” the lady in yellow softly asked.

“What do you mean by help?” I nervously asked.

“We all died here in some form or another. We need your help to find the one responsible for our deaths,” she sadly answered.

“Did you say deaths? How, how many are there?” Kassy nervously asked.

“There are several others,” he replied.

I took a step back and took a breath to think about my response.

“Forgive us, we are mortals and startle easy. We’ll help you but first, let me introduce ourselves. We are State Police Detectives. I am Robbi Colter, and this is my partner, Kassy Kinter. Any help you give us will be appreciated,” I said with trembling knees.

She smiled at us. “My name is Pamela, personal assistant to Melanie. This is Gary, the mechanic,” she said.

When Gary pushed the workbench over, the lid flopped open. Kassy and I were surprised to see a skeleton inside of it. We stood there staring at it.

“This is me. I died here and was placed inside the workbench,” Gary bitterly said.

“I’ll need to make a call if that is okay with you. What is the address?” I replied.

I carefully removed my cell phone from my jeans pocket.

“139 River Road,” Pamela answered.

They faded away as I dialed the station. Kassy turned toward the garage overhead door. It took both of us to push the decaying rusted door open. Dust flew everywhere. I let out a sneeze. Kassy and I coughed a few times. Once the dust cleared, we noticed it was a four-car garage. Stepping out into the sunlight, we saw the windows were covered. We walked inside to remove the covers from the windows to let the sunlight shine through. Kassy and I were surprised to see a silver Rolls Royce, two Cadillacs, one red and one blue. I stood there looking at the tools, engine fluids, and car wax sitting on a shelf covered in dust. Kassy saw something in the back corner of the garage. We walked to the rear of the garage to examine the rumbled metal mess. Kassy looked at the twisted metal.

“The two motorcycles were in an accident, too,” Kassy said.

We returned outside the garage to wait for the medical examiner and Captain Kendyll.

In my mind, I wondered how I was going to explain this to my Captain. If I told him the truth, he would think I would need rest or a special doctor. Shaking my head, I decided to use the I got a tip story. I suggested the idea to Kassy. She liked the tip story.

We looked at the cobblestone mansion with faded white trim windows that needed painting. The flower beds were overgrown. The three-story mansion had a concrete horseshoe driveway that led to a bridge made of stone and concrete. The porte-cochere and the cobblestone needed a good cleaning.

Captain Kendyll arrived at the vehicle gate. Doctor Cray was in the medical examiner’s van and was behind Captain Kendyll. Kassy and I walked across the bridge to open the vehicle gate. Being the gate had a lock and chain, I told Captain Kendyll I’d find something in the garage to open it. As I turned around to enter the garage, I heard Kassy shout my name. The wind picked up. The chain and lock fell off the gate. We stared at the lock and chain as it fell to the ground. The gate screeched as it spread open. It made us nervous to see the gate open by itself. Patches of grass covered the road leading to the gate and stone bridge. The dirt road was overrun with debris from the woods surrounding it.

When the gate was opened, we greeted Captain Kendyll and Doctor Cray. The forensic team arrived. We noticed a small block building with windows broken and the door barely hanging on the hinge. The river flowed softly beneath the bridge. Tree limbs, weeds, and sticks were scattered everywhere.

The vehicles followed us to the four-car garage. The forensic team and medical examiner quickly went to work. Doctor Cray and his assistant carefully looked at the skeleton. Doctor Cray’s slender build was hunched over to examine the remains. He stood up and ran his fingers through his thinning gray hair as he thought about the skeleton. We questioned him about possible trauma to the skeleton.

“There are no entry wounds of a gunshot or any other trauma. The clothes on the skeleton are tattered from time. It looks like he was inside the workbench for a very long time. I’ll know more when I get the remains to the lab,” Doctor Cray said.

“Detectives Colter and Kinter, how is it you came upon this skeleton?” Captain Kendyll asked with a puzzled facial expression.

“Let’s say I received a tip about this place,” I carefully answered.

Captain Kendyll’s dark eyes looked at us with puzzlement on his clean-shaven face. He shifted his stocky build to look at the wrecked limousine. Kassy told him about the wrecked motorcycles in the rear corner of the garage. Captain Kendyll walked to the rear of the garage to examine the wreckage. He ordered forensics to photograph everything.

“It seems we have a mystery. Two wrecked motorcycles, a car smashed, and a skeleton found inside a workbench. Detective Colter, this case could be difficult to solve. I don’t suppose there is someone who can answer questions at the residence,” he said.

“This place is empty. No one is here to ask questions. I’ll have to find the owners. By the appearance of the property, I say it has been emptied for a very long time. Finding someone may be difficult; they could be deceased or very old,” I replied.

When additional officers arrived to assist at the scene, I requested a ride to my truck. I told Captain Kendyll the canoe was docked at the river near the walk-in gate.