Page 26 of Murder Will Out
Oh no, Willow thought,oh no, oh, please, no…Her heart was racing again and gooseflesh rippled over her skin as she remembered the broken railing on the roof walk of Cameron House. “The news article said she fell, but—” She stopped.
Catherine nodded grimly. “She was up on the widow’s walk. No one knows why. Part of the wood railing was weak or damaged; she must have leaned on it wrong, lost her balance, and fell. They found her the next morning—” Catherine shuddered.
“An accident?” Willow asked. “Sue would never have stood for rotten wood in her house, let alone fallen through it.”
Catherine’s eyes turned sharply to hers. “There was no evidence to indicate otherwise or that there was anyone in the house with her, but…” Catherine trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
“But what?”
Catherine fidgeted nervously, shifting papers on her desk. “Well… do you believe in ghosts?”
Willow went very still. “Why do you ask?”
The librarian ducked her head, seeming embarrassed. “Everyonesays the island is haunted, and especially Cameron House. People… see things.”
“What do they see?” Willow asked, forcing her voice to remain calm.
“You hear stories, that’s all,” Catherine said, “especially about that widow’s walk. The island workmen hate it and always charged Effie double to go up, and they were thrilled when Sue turned out to be handy enough to take care of most of the repairs herself. People would… feel things up there. Folks don’t talk about it much, but people who go up there once rarely do again.”
Small wonder, Willow thought. She said, “So, people think one of the Cameron House ghosts killed Sue? That’s…” Willow had been going to sayridiculous, but given her recent experience, she couldn’t quite get the word out.
“No—no, of course not,” Catherine said quickly. “The police did their jobs—they found no sign of anyone else in the house, no break-in, no signs of struggle. But I’m guessing they spent as little time up there as possible. In any case, there was nothing to indicate that anyone had been in that house that night except for Sue.”
Be careful who you trust, Geralt had said. Willow may not have been entirely sure about Rina, but every instinct in her wanted to trust Catherine. And she had the feeling she would need the librarian’s sharp and organized brain to piece any of this together.
Willow took a deep breath. “Last night, I saw someone prowling around the first floor of Cameron House,” she said. “Or rather, I saw a flashlight moving room to room as though someone were going through searching for something.”And then I saw what might have been a ghost peering out a little window in the roofline, she thought,but maybe I don’t need to say that part right now.
“Wait, really?” Catherine’s eyes widened. “Did you tell Nick?”
Willow winced. “No. Not yet. I honestly… forgot. And then this morning when I went over there—”
Catherine’s eyebrows went up. “When you what?”
Willow’s shoulders hunched, and she looked away, embarrassed. “I know. I didn’t mean to, but Finn ran away and ducked into the house, and I went inside to bring him back out, but then I was already there, so…” She trailed off.
“So you went exploring,” Catherine said, looking completely unsurprised. “What happened?”
Willow reached back into her bag and pulled out the typed sheet of paper she’d found on the stairs. She handed it to Catherine, who frowned. “What’s this?”
“I found it on the stairs,” Willow said. “Or rather, it floated down the stairs to me.”
Catherine took the paper and examined it. “‘Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall’—that’s Sir Walter Raleigh, I think? He supposedly carved it into a window for Queen Elizabeth. The story’s apocryphal, but it’s said that she wrote an answer—”
“Turn it over,” Willow said simply. Catherine did.
“‘If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.’ That’s the one.” She looked up curiously at Willow. “This just… drifted down the stairs to you?”
Willow nodded.
“And did you take its advice and… climb?”
Willow nodded again. “I found the widow’s walk. And the broken railing. And—” She looked away. “I don’t want to go up there any time soon again either.”
She gave her head a single hard shake. “Okay, let’s… let’s put a pin in that one. I have another question, if you don’t mind?”
Catherine nodded slowly. “Okay. Does it have to do with more ghosts or weird stuff at the house?”
“No,” Willow said. “At least, I don’t think so. What can you tell me about the North Islands Historical Society? There’s a sign outside Cameron House, but I can’t find any proper information about them.” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m a research nerd too, but faced with groups that don’t have an online presence, I get stymied pretty fast. Who are they?”
