Read Online Haunted Hamlet (Zoe Donovan Mystery) by Kathi Daley - Free Book Online
Authors: Kathi Daley
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Davenport,” Zak said, picking up the conversation where we’d left off as he handed me my wine.
“Trenton said Adam Davenport ha d been doing research on the Henderson house for quite some time. He’d gathered as much information as he could by pulling old newspaper articles, obtaining copies of police reports, and digging into everything he could find concerning the history of the house. After taking into consideration everything he’d uncovered, he decided there was enough evidence to justify a trip to Ashton Falls. It seems he’d been hanging out at the Henderson house for the past two weeks. No one realized he was there because few people, other than the occasional drifter or the high-school party crowd, dared to venture out to the property.”
“ How did Trenton know he was in the area?” Zak wondered.
“Davenport contacted Trenton and asked if he’d be willing to meet and provide some background information about the house. Trenton agreed since they had a similar background.”
“Similar background?” Zak asked as he stirred the coals and tossed another log on the fire.
“Although Davenport ventured into the field of parapsychology later in his career, his undergraduate work was in psychology, as was Trenton’s. According to Trenton, they’d actually attended some of the same seminars in their early academic careers.”
I took a sip of my wine as I gathered my thoughts. Zak really did buy the best wines. Prior to my relationship with him, I’d usually purchased whatever was on sale at the grocery store, but Zak had wine sent to the house from vineyards all over the world.
“So the men met for lunch . . .” Zak prompted.
I set my wine on the table next to my chair and tucked my legs up under my body. The temperature had dropped and in spite of the fire, my feet were getting cold.
“Trenton indicated that while the men had taken differing paths after completing their undergraduate work , they had many viewpoints in common,” I said. “He told me that he shared what he knew about the history of the house, including the mysterious deaths that had occurred over the years, and Davenport provided small tidbits of information that Trenton had never known.”
“Such as?”
“Such as the fact that Hezekiah Henderson wasn’t the only Henderson to die in that house. According to Trenton, Hezekiah’s grandparents died unexpectedly when Hezekiah’s father was a young man. His father, an only child, inherited the house, and after marrying a young girl from the area, he settled in to raise a family. By the time Hezekiah reached his twenty-fifth birthday, his parents and siblings had all died. According to Trenton, Davenport felt that each of the deaths he looked into could have a supernatural cause as well as a logical one.”
“Like what?” Zak sat forward in his chair. He took one of my bare feet and placed it in his lap. He began to massage away the tension in my entire body by skillfully working his magic on my foot.
“He didn’t really go into a lot of detail. To be honest, I was in a hurry and didn’t ask him to elaborate. He did say that in the one hundred fifty-odd years the house has existed, Davenport is the fifth person who died from falling down those same stairs.”
“ Okay, that’s a little weird. And I didn’t realize the house was that old.”
“Trenton said Davenport told him that the place was originally built as a cabin and had been expanded many times since.”
Zak frowned. “I’m surprised more people don’t know that story. It seems pretty sensational.”
“Hezekiah Henderson was an old man when I was a child. If I remember correctly, he was in his late eighties when he died. I was nine, so Pappy would have been around fifty. If Hezekiah was, say, eighty-five when he died, that would make him a good thirty-five years older than Pappy. If Hezekiah’s family was dead by the time he was twenty-five, Pappy wouldn’t even have been born yet.”
“ The town
“Trenton said Adam Davenport ha d been doing research on the Henderson house for quite some time. He’d gathered as much information as he could by pulling old newspaper articles, obtaining copies of police reports, and digging into everything he could find concerning the history of the house. After taking into consideration everything he’d uncovered, he decided there was enough evidence to justify a trip to Ashton Falls. It seems he’d been hanging out at the Henderson house for the past two weeks. No one realized he was there because few people, other than the occasional drifter or the high-school party crowd, dared to venture out to the property.”
“ How did Trenton know he was in the area?” Zak wondered.
“Davenport contacted Trenton and asked if he’d be willing to meet and provide some background information about the house. Trenton agreed since they had a similar background.”
“Similar background?” Zak asked as he stirred the coals and tossed another log on the fire.
“Although Davenport ventured into the field of parapsychology later in his career, his undergraduate work was in psychology, as was Trenton’s. According to Trenton, they’d actually attended some of the same seminars in their early academic careers.”
I took a sip of my wine as I gathered my thoughts. Zak really did buy the best wines. Prior to my relationship with him, I’d usually purchased whatever was on sale at the grocery store, but Zak had wine sent to the house from vineyards all over the world.
“So the men met for lunch . . .” Zak prompted.
I set my wine on the table next to my chair and tucked my legs up under my body. The temperature had dropped and in spite of the fire, my feet were getting cold.
“Trenton indicated that while the men had taken differing paths after completing their undergraduate work , they had many viewpoints in common,” I said. “He told me that he shared what he knew about the history of the house, including the mysterious deaths that had occurred over the years, and Davenport provided small tidbits of information that Trenton had never known.”
“Such as?”
“Such as the fact that Hezekiah Henderson wasn’t the only Henderson to die in that house. According to Trenton, Hezekiah’s grandparents died unexpectedly when Hezekiah’s father was a young man. His father, an only child, inherited the house, and after marrying a young girl from the area, he settled in to raise a family. By the time Hezekiah reached his twenty-fifth birthday, his parents and siblings had all died. According to Trenton, Davenport felt that each of the deaths he looked into could have a supernatural cause as well as a logical one.”
“Like what?” Zak sat forward in his chair. He took one of my bare feet and placed it in his lap. He began to massage away the tension in my entire body by skillfully working his magic on my foot.
“He didn’t really go into a lot of detail. To be honest, I was in a hurry and didn’t ask him to elaborate. He did say that in the one hundred fifty-odd years the house has existed, Davenport is the fifth person who died from falling down those same stairs.”
“ Okay, that’s a little weird. And I didn’t realize the house was that old.”
“Trenton said Davenport told him that the place was originally built as a cabin and had been expanded many times since.”
Zak frowned. “I’m surprised more people don’t know that story. It seems pretty sensational.”
“Hezekiah Henderson was an old man when I was a child. If I remember correctly, he was in his late eighties when he died. I was nine, so Pappy would have been around fifty. If Hezekiah was, say, eighty-five when he died, that would make him a good thirty-five years older than Pappy. If Hezekiah’s family was dead by the time he was twenty-five, Pappy wouldn’t even have been born yet.”
“ The town
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