Dark Secrets [COMPLETED]

Chapter 12: Secrets and Lies

Death certificates of public figures were located in the D drawer. I went straight to the K section and searched for Milford and Evelyn. I pulled out the old pieces of paper and read them. The doctor's scrawl took a second to parse, but once that was taken care of, I scanned the cause of death sections and read the doctor's notes below.

Milford Kendrick's case was straightforward: he'd died of head trauma after falling down the stairs, like Robert said. Evelyn, on the other hand, was what I was looking for specifically. Sure enough, her cause of death was listed as poisoning.

Skin on the patient's arms and body is thickened and discoloured. Intestinal damage. Daughter said was vomiting blood in her final days. Arsenic is the most likely culprit.

"Holy crap..." I murmured as I read the doctor's notes. Poor Evelyn, I couldn't begin to imagine how it felt to slowly die like that. "Roger, she was poisoned. William lied."

"Maybe he just didn't know," Roger repeated. "How do you know he lied?"

"Because he said she died of a fever, but she didn't! Then he left town after she died and after her daughter went missing?" I shook my head. "I saw Evelyn in one of my visions, Roger. She looked awful. She was very sick, and when she saw me... or Meredith, I guess, she went all animated and screamed at me to run. What if she knew William killed her father and he was poisoning her so she couldn't tell anyone?"

"Then that's downright horrifying," Roger admitted. "But what about Meredith then? Where does she fit into all of this?"

"I think she knew William was guilty, since she believed that he killed her grandfather. And maybe William knew that she knew, so he needed to get rid of her."

"Okay, but then what's his motivation? Why did he kill his own family?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"You wanna know what I think?" Roger asked. "William Castle wanted to take over the Kendrick Family's fortune, so he married into the family and then killed them all."

"I'm not so sure about that. They were married for nearly twenty years before any of this happened, so why would he just suddenly decide to kill his family like that?"

"I don't know. It was just a theory."

It made sense, but something was missing. Whatever the case may be, I was certain of one thing now: William Castle was guilty and he'd lied to everyone about it.

Before we left, I went back to the biographies on a hunch. Under "C" I searched until I found Clement, Virginia. A grainy photograph of a pretty brunette girl was there along with a news headline that stood out: Local Woman Goes Missing.

Okay, so she was a real person, and she disappeared too. So why did I find a note from her under my floorboards? Had she been inside Kendrick House before? If so, why? And when?

I couldn't figure it out right then. My head was swimming with all the information I'd found. I needed to go home and rest.

~

After Roger dropped me off at home, I went up to my new room with the intention of taking a nap. I peeled off my jacket and bag and tossed them onto the bed. Robert jumped up from the other side of my bed and I let out a loud shriek. "What are you doing here?" I exclaimed.

Surprise flashes across his face for a split second before disappearing. He turns up the corners of his mouth. "You startled me, Calista." He chuckles. "I was just looking around."

"Around my bed? For what?"

"I came in here to return the journals you lent me, and on my way out, I dropped my pen. It's rolled over here. My apologies for scaring you."

I didn't believe him. "It's fine, just...please leave. I'm tired and I want to take a nap."

He listened, and just as he was about to go out the door, I stopped him. I couldn't believe I was going right into this, but if any time was appropriate, why not now? "Robert, besides Milford, has anyone...died here? In this house?"

His eyes widened. "My great-great grandmother, Evelyn, but that's the only one I know of. She came down with a fever."

I knew he would say that. "Robert...I found Evelyn Kendrick's death certificate in the library archives, and it said that she had died of poisoning. Not sickness."

His face remained stoic, and it infuriated me. "Why did you do that?"

"I just figured you'd want to know."

"Well...thank you, but that is not the truth. I... My great-grandfather was very honest with the community about his wife's passing and what caused it."

"So what, the doctors just lied? Why would they do that?"

"The people in this town... let's just say that they had a negative view of my family after the Kendricks were gone. As they saw it, we had replaced the 'community darlings', and it's simply not true. You should take what they have to say with a grain of salt. They don't know me."

"I understand, but...Robert, what if William lied? What if he told everyone it was a fever because he's the one who killed her?"

"How dare you!" His voice was sharp like a slap in the face, and I recoiled. "My grandfather would never do such a thing. He was an honest man, and damn anyone who would think otherwise!"

"Okay, I'm sorry I brought it up..."

He left with a huff. I flopped down on my bed with a loud sigh. I'd never seen Robert get angry like that before. It was scary.

Maybe I should go for a walk to cool down. I went to get my earphones out of my night table drawer, when I noticed that it wasn't closed all the way. I opened it and saw that the corner of a yellow piece of paper was blocking it. A paper that looked eerily familiar.

I opened it and saw with a bizarre relief that it was the Virginia Clement letter. I also saw that there was more than just the first line I read.

There is something deeply wrong with Kendrick House, and I have proof. If you want to know the truth, follow the directions I've written down here.