Midnight Creek Tales

#4. The Duchess' Lost Portrait / Chapter 5

We could see the cops coming up the hill just minutes after the call. We all sat in the parlor eating our food as we waited nervously, "Look chaps, nothing is going to happen. Keep you're cool, and we'll be scot free in no time. They'll declare the death a suicide, and we can move on with our lives and focus on more important things." I said trying to bring up all their confidence. "Quick! Someone punch me in the gut right now!" I said as I could hear the police coming up the steps.

"Why in the bloody hell would we do that?" Brown asked confused.

"I need to look as if I'm in pain. I need to look like I was bawling my eyes out for that old hag! Now do it!" Brown immediately threw a punch at my stomach and knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't breathe for a couple of seconds, and then kept commanding him to do it again and again until the police had knocked on the door.

After thirty more seconds of grueling pain, I could feel tears swell up in my eyes, and I shook nervously. There was a knock at the door, and we heard a loud voice call over, "It's the police open up!"

I looked up at the door and suddenly got up from the ground where I had fallen, in a staggered fashion I went for the entrance, and the others then got into position sitting casually in their chairs looking upset.

I took a deep breath, and slowly opened the door...

As it opened, I was greeted by the county sheriff, and alongside him were his men. "Sheriff Carpenter here, where did you say the body was?"

"Upstairs!" I said in a bawl of misery.

The sheriff walked into the house and looked back at the guys, "Come along fellows, were going to need all the help we can get in a case like this." He asked me to lead him and his crew to the scene of the death. As they followed me to the master bedroom where Elaine was hanging, none of us said a word.

"So tell me again what happened?" The sheriff said taking out a pen and notepad now jotting down every word I spoke.

"Well, Elaine and I had come home from the art auction in London. She seemed horribly distressed. I asked her to tell me what was the matter, but she wouldn't say." I paused for dramatic effect and then continued. "When we arrived home, I told her that the guys were going to stop by to play an excellent game of Bridge." I looked towards Terry and the others. "She did the usual and brought us down our supper. We had then asked for dessert. It had been awhile since we heard from her, so we scoured the kitchen to find her, but it was to no avail." I spewed out a couple of fake tears miraculously and kept going, "We searched the entire house, and what we found, was something that will haunt me for the rest of my life. There in the distance not too far away, I saw Elaine lifeless, hanging mercilessly by her own sadness and depression."

"You say she was severely depressed?" I nodded as he jotted it down looking back up at me, "How long?"

I panicked and blurted out the quickest answer I could think of, "Oh for quite some time. It has been like this for a while, but to be honest, I figured it was just a phase, something that would pass over. I would have never expected this to become of Elaine, never in my wildest nightmares!"

"Hmm..." the sheriff was pondering with his pen in his mouth as he chewed on the bottom part of it. He turned back to his men, and they then started to whisper to each other. Nervously I looked to my men to make sure that they weren't laughing. After a while, the police started to walk out as they were retrieving the body. "Look, Mr. Cole, I am sad to say but there is nothing we can do about this. It's a clear suicide, and there's nothing we can really do about this investigation."

"It's just the fact that Elaine ended like this makes it all the more tragic. And just between you and me sheriff, I feel truly responsible for her death."

"Don't beat yourself up Mr. Cole, with your money and good looks you'll find a significant other in no time!"

"Yes that might be true, but no one will ever be like my poor Elaine."

The sheriff nodded his head agreeing and went for the door to go downstairs.

When we were at the main entrance of the mansion, I thanked Sheriff Carpenter for his time and service.

"As for your wife, I'm sure you'll be in charge of the funeral services."

"I will indeed." Sheriff Carpenter patted me on the back. But then his face suddenly changed and was now giving me a confused look.

"Artist these days huh?" He said scratching his head. He stepped into the parlor room with his rough black galoshes.

"What seems to be the trouble?" I asked trying to figure out what was the matter.

"You said you went to an art auction?" He looked back perplexed, and I nodded instinctively.

"What did you buy at this said 'auction'?"

"Well I purchased a portrait of a beautiful lady, the Lost Duchess of France to be quite precise, it actually cost me quite a fortune, but being myself, I could easily afford it."

"You bought a portrait?" He said now suspicious.

"Yes what seems to be the problem with that?"

"Does this look like a portrait to you Mr. Cole?" He pointed towards the painting, and in the frame, there was no duchess, only the background. It was like she had vanished into thin air and walked away.

"Is this some joke?" He said trying to catch onto what scheme we were trying to pull.

"Umm... yeah it is. Well sort of, this is an invisible woman, a very rare portrait!"

"Rare huh?" He said chuckling, "Seems weird but what do I know? Can't arrest someone for buying useless art." He kept giving me a dazed look on his face as he walked away from the painting. "We'll give you a call and stop by in the morning, just sit tight guys." I showed him to the door and nodded in agreement, I waved and called out to Sheriff Carpenter, "Goodnight." He smiled back, still seeming a little weirded out from the sight as he hopped into his vehicle.

When the cops drove off, we all dashed to the portrait now perplexed and bewildered by what we just witnessed.

"Holy shit Brown, you were right! The lady in the picture did move!" And then it hit me like lightning, "This has to be a hoax! I bet that blasted Payne was the bloody son of a bitch that came up with this cruel idea!" I grabbed the painting off the mount and raised it high shaking in anger.

"Calm down Cole, don't worry. We're all bloody drunk, the five of us are probably hallucinating. It just can't be." Starkey began to scratch his head in disbelief and in the heat of the moment I exploded with a rage that had been welling up in me for quite some time.

BOOM! I had thrown the painting hard against the mantle in frustration. The loud bang from the interaction reverberated across the entire room like an earthquake. I broke out of the haze of anger that possessed me, and I looked down at my feet to see the damage.

The painting now had fallen off the frame, and I could see an enormous amount of impact on the corners as well as the portrait itself, but then something else caught my eye, something that grabbed my attention immediately and made me nearly kneel to the ground in an instant.

On the floor under the frame, there was a little piece of paper sticking out from the bottom, almost as if it was a secret note.

I started to read, "Damn, it's in French!"

"I'll read it," Terry said grabbing the note out of my hand.

"Je peux parler français." He said laughing at us monolinguals.

"Just translate the bloody letter!"

He began to read aloud,

'I am writing this before my subsequent death, I know I shall not live on any longer and that I will never marry my beloved. All of my belongings to my understanding have been burned and destroyed by the invading enemies. The only thing I have left in the entire world is this portrait. I shall transfer my soul into the portrait of this painting upon my death, and whoever is in possession of it will suffer the same fate I sustained on my wedding night...'