Read Online The Sense of Reckoning by Matty Dalrymple - Free Book Online

glanced toward the chair, then switched her gaze back to Garrick. “Ask him where the lady is.”
    Garrick sighed. “Loring, Ellen would like to know where the lady is.”
    “Tell him about the deadline—”
    Garrick waved a hand to silence her, his gaze fixed on the invisible presence in the third chair. He shook his head once, then a few moments later said, “No, that’s not what she—” and then, “I don’t think it’s necessary to provide the entire—” and finally sighed resignedly. “He’s ready to talk about the lady.”
    “It’s about time!” said Ellen with relief.
    “But he says you need to hear the whole story.”
    “Uh, okay ...” said Ellen suspiciously.
    “It may take some time, he says.”
    “No! Tell him we’re running out of time! We only have five more days!” She looked at her watch. “It’s after midnight—we only have four more days!”
    Garrick turned back to the chair. “Loring, your sister needs to find this lady she is looking for soon. She believes the lady can help her save the hotel. She’s running out of time.” He sat looking attentively toward the third chair, then turned back to Ellen. “He thinks it’s important for you to understand some things about the lady first.”  
    “Garrick, doesn’t he want to save the hotel?” wailed Ellen.
    “Evidently not tonight.”
    Ellen jumped to her feet. “Can’t you make him tell us where she is?”
    “What inducement could I provide that would make him tell us something he obviously doesn’t want to tell us tonight?”
    Ellen flopped back into her chair. “Does he know he’s making me crazy?”
    “Yes, I believe he does,” said Garrick.
    *****
    Loring Lynam sat back in his chair. He was a lean man in his late forties, with short, uncombed brown hair, skin darkened by a lifetime spent in the Maine elements, and light gray eyes, now narrowed speculatively at Garrick.
    “So we’re getting down to the wire, eh, Garrick?”
    “Yes, Loring.”
    “And she thinks the lady’s going to help her out of this jam?”
    “That’s her hope.”
    “Well, to understand the lady, you have to understand Dad.”
    “Very well.”
    “And to understand Dad, you have to understand about his mother.”
    Garrick raised an eyebrow. “The connection is becoming somewhat tenuous.”
    “Humor me, Garrick.”
    “Do I have a choice?”
    “None at all. One of the benefits of being dead.” Loring settled in his chair, getting comfortable—if getting comfortable was a concept one could apply to a spirit.

Chapter 10
    1936
    Six-year-old Chip Lynam was examining the equipment that would smooth the ground where the hotel’s new croquet court was to be built when he saw Uncle Edward’s truck trundle up the drive, his mother in the passenger seat. He ran to the veranda, snapping a flower off one of the potted geraniums as he passed. He slipped in the side door to the lobby, skirted the registration desk where Amy, one of the new hires, was chatting with a guest, and snuck down the hall to the kitchen. He was relieved not to have run into his father, who didn’t like seeing Chip in the public areas of the hotel. He scrambled up on a stool at the end of the counter, the flower hidden behind his back.
    His mother came through the back door followed by Uncle Edward, who was carrying a box of produce. Uncle Edward was the new cook, one of several new hires who were filling up the staff rooms on the top floor of the hotel. He was the most fun of any of them—he let Chip sit in the kitchen with him and told him stories about growing up in Canada. Sometimes he played catch with Chip on the gravel drive outside the kitchen entrance. Chip didn’t have a lot of experience with catch and wasn’t very good, but Uncle Edward, who had not only lived in another country but also seemed pretty smart about sports, had given him some tips and he was getting better.
    His mother unpinned her straw hat and put it on a shelf next to the back door, then