"Hey Hannah," Nancy said, pinning her phone to her shoulder as she double-checked to make sure that her flashlight had fresh batteries, "I'm checking out the Sanford Manor, I'll be home for dinner, and don't worry I know, be careful, it's a very old house and there's been a lot of accidents around it lately. That's what I want to investigate."
Nancy said goodbye then hung up, turning her phone on silent, she had almost been caught a few times because she had forgotten to do that and had scared away people that she had been following, "Now let's see what's really going on here," Nancy muttered to herself, "Haunted Mansion, yeah right."
She had never believed in ghosts, ever, and after proving several houses weren't actually haunted, she knew what to look for with a fake haunting. This case was going to be an easy one.
She looked across the street at the old manor, it didn't look that bad on the outside, it had the abandoned haunted mansion vibe going for it. Obviously abandoned, but it didn't look like the roof was going to cave in any time soon.
There were a couple of big machinery parked out front, Nancy didn't really know what they were, but she could guess that the one was for working on the facade of the upper stories, and the other one looked like a cement truck or something. She glanced at the forklift platform thing, wishing that they had had something like that when she went to San Francisco to help Hannah's friend Rose to renovate her house. Maybe she wouldn't have fallen through the roof if they had.
Nancy walked up the steps, looked like the restoration of the front porch had already happened, probably hadn't wanted anyone breaking a leg or plunging through the rotten boards, but all of the strange things happened on the inside, not the outside.
They were simple things, things would be moved around after everyone went home for the day, strange noises no one could explain, a light in the attic, the power suddenly going off for no apparent reason. Not to mention the graffiti, telling them that they had angered the ghosts that lived there and that they would be cursed forever if they didn't stop what they were doing.
The work of teenage pranksters, that was what the police chalked it up to, nobody hurt, nothing damaged, just some teenagers playing a prank. That was the reason why the police hadn't gotten involved, and why Chief Mcginnis had asked her to investigate it. Mainly as a way to get her out of the way of actual police investigations.
Inside the house looked very much like Rose's had when she had gone to help with the renovations there. Paint, tools, and other things needed to work on restoring a house were scattered across the entryway.
Nancy glanced down on the floor looking for some kind of clue that something was up. According to workers and people she had overheard in town, one of the signs that there was a ghost were shoe prints wandering about the old house.
Nancy quickly located some of the red splashes on the floor and pulled out her magnifying glass. This wasn't made by a work boot, it was a dress shoe, an odd choice of footwear to wear at a construction site. Perhaps if she follows them, they'll lead her to a clue.
The footprints lead up the rickety staircase to the second floor, down a hall that looked like one wrong move was going to send her tumbling down to the first floor. She stepped where the so-called ghost had stepped until she reached the end of the hall, where the steps seemed to disappear down the back staircase.
Something was wrong, she could smell something quite strongly, "Paint thinner," Nancy gasped, "and a lot of it." Paint thinner was a necessary part of home restoration, but it was highly flammable, her most recent case in Salem, Massachusetts, had driven that point home. The whole arson case she had been asked to solve had been an accident when an intruder knocked over a candle into some paint thinner.
But this smelled strong, way too much for them to be using it for paint. Especially since they hadn't started painting the place, there were still cracks in the wall and peeling wallpaper. Unless they were using the paint thinner for something else, like as an accelerant.
Nancy wasn't sure how long she stood at the top of the servants' staircase, but she knew she was there for quite some time, trying to piece together what she knew. Someone had bought the property and was restoring it. The place had just been declared a historical site too, right before the sale happened. Several people had bid for the old manor. Stokes Inc., a large building company, won.
Nancy wasn't sure, but it could be that one of the companies that had lost the bid might be trying to scare off the company that won.
Now when it came to the titian-haired girl she had one setback. she could get so caught up in a moment that she would forget everything else. Like to pay attention to make sure that no one snuck up on her while she was snooping around.
So that was why she was caught by surprise when the floorboard behind her suddenly creaked at the same time as a large hand grabbed her shoulder.
Nancy whirled around in alarm, her flashlight rose high to reveal the bald head of Mr. David Stokes the owner of the house, "Mr. Stokes."
"I would appreciate it if you would lower your flashlight, Miss. Drew," Mr. Stokes pleaded, his voice gruff, "They warned me when the odd things started to happen that you'll start poking around, Chief Mcginnis told me to let him know if you started being a hindrance and he'll take care of it."
"I'm just investigating the pranks, you know the footprints, the moving tools, that kind of stuff," Nancy insisted.
"It looks like you're trespassing on my private property," Mr. Stokes insisted, "Besides I know who's causing all this trouble, I found this outside by a window that opened mysteriously last night," Mr. Stokes held out his hand to reveal a business card.
"Linda's Restoration Company," Nancy read, "That's the company you outbid for the house isn't it?"
"Yep, and they're trying to scare us away. They're working on the house down the road from here. They're further along than we are. They're painting, guess what color."
"Red," Nancy guessed, "And Linda's Husband works for her, it's a family business, he's their attorney, and he had red paint on his shoes the other day, didn't he."
Nancy had no idea if that was true, but she wanted to get him nice and trapped, because she had just figured out who the culprit was, talk about an easy case.
"Exactly," Stokes said, "So you can see that this whole thing is their idea of a way to scare us off, and as you can see it isn't working. Do you need evidence? I have pictures in my office."
Nancy yanked away from the owner, " , I have to admit that your reasoning is sound, except for one thing, this place has been prepped for an arson. The whole place reeks of paint thinner, and you haven't gotten to the point of painting yet, so that doesn't explain it. And I bet I know why."
"Oh yeah, why?"
"You wanted to develop the land this manor sits on, but the historical society stopped you by declaring it a landmark. So you bought the land anyway, started doing little things, and framed your competition so that when the house went up in flames they'll take the fall and not you, leaving you free to develop the land as you wish."
"I have to admit Ms. Drew you are just as bright as Chief Mcginnis claimed you were."
"I know, and he knows I'm here," Nancy lied, a good lie every once in a while was just something a good detective needed.
"I doubt that," Mr. Stokes insisted, "I read up on you, and you seem to have a hard time waiting for the police, insisting on catching the culprit on your own." Mr. Stokes reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
"There was only one thing different, one little mistake that you made. You see Linda has pretty much finished with the renovation of her house, she's planning a party, a grand party with fireworks. She has that large open area out back.
"Of course, as is common with fireworks they tend to wander as they come down again. Wouldn't it be a shame that one of those fireworks landed on the manor, causing it to burst into flames?"
Nancy frowned, Stokes was blocking her from going back the way she came, but maybe she could make it downstairs with the servants' staircase, which was behind her.
"Is that so?" Nancy asked, before turning and fleeing down the steps. Stokes didn't follow her, why hadn't he followed her? Down at the bottom, she found out, the door at the bottom of the stairs was bolted shut, and the door was in fairly good condition, there wasn't time to bust the door open. It was already dark outside and Nancy could hear the sound of explosions, the firework show had already begun.
Nancy quickly whirled around, racing back up the stairs, she flung the door to the top open… A blinding flash of light hit her right in the face, a loud boom filling her head as pain laced across her body as first her face, then her back, and finally her head erupted in pain before everything went black.