Kelly tried to turn the other three bedposts with no result. "Do you think people around here knew about the room?"
"It's hard to say." I thought about that. "But probably not. The kind of people who build these rooms usually don't tell anyone in order to keep them secret."
Unless you're a Yakuza boss who went into her panic room and forgot her sudoku or Carlos the Armadillo whenever he had a woman over he wanted to impress. Holy cow! Had Barbara Streisand or Cary Grant ever been in here?
Aunt June thought she was going to be murdered—is that why she had it installed? It seemed like a plausible reason. It said a lot about her state of mind.
We herded the girls back into the study, and they showed us how to access the room by pulling on the book Alice in Wonderland. I thought that was a nice touch.
"Why would someone who worried about death have the death collection upstairs?" Kelly asked.
"This place is amazing!" Ava gushed. "Why aren't we staying here?"
Oh sure, bring the girls to a house that had dangerous access to the river and a collection of killer bugs. I'd take the ghosts any day over that.
"Because we didn't know what we'd find here," I replied.
Kelly spoke up, "We're staying at the camp. I've paid the deposit."
A knock at the door startled us. After insisting that the girls stay with Kelly, I went to the hall and answered it.
"Nigel?" I asked. "Or is it Hal?"
The man standing before me had the same face as the two men, but that's where the similarities ended. Whereas the other two men dressed conservatively, this one was dressed in a loud paisley shirt, tight black trousers, and black loafers. His hair was trimmed in an edgy style that I'd seen only on teenagers back home.
"You must be Basil," I said at last.
"And you must be Merry Ferguson!" He clapped his hands together. "I'm so glad to meet you! I've heard so much about you from Aunt June!"
After a couple of air kisses, he walked around me into the house.
"You don't have an accent like your brothers." I followed him.
Basil rolled his eyes. "Those two stuffy idiots! We were born here. Why would we have accents?" He stepped forward and touched my short, curly, dirty blonde hair. "Oh, sweetie. You need help."
I snapped my fingers. "You're the town hairdresser!"
He beamed. "Guilty! Aunt June and I were dear friends. She spoke about you all the time!"
That caught me by surprise. "She did?"
"Of course! She said you'd never met in person, but she positively canonized you!"
This was the man the girls had heard last night, talking about Aunt June having three boyfriends. There's no bigger gossip in any small town than a hair stylist. People always confide in them. Maybe Basil was how I'd find out more about Aunt June.
"Anyway." He pulled a baggie full of scones from his bag. "I brought you these! Welcome to Behold!"
"Oh." I took the bag from him. "Thanks. I'm not moving here. I inherited the house and came up here to meet with your brother and consider selling the place."
The girls and Kelly funneled into the room and surrounded us.
"You're the guy who colors everyone's hair!" Ava said.
"Guilty again!" he squealed. "When you have a town like this that looks so run-down, you have to incorporate a bit of color now and then!" He looked at my hair again and shook his head.
"Now let me see." He studied the girls. "You must be Rattler…" He proceeded to correctly assign each girl with her camp name. For a moment I considered killing him with three paperclips and a piece of Scotch tape.
"How did you know that?" I blurted out. You couldn't even see the names on them because most of the lanyards were twisted or hanging down the girls' backs.
He shrugged. "Hal told me. There are no secrets in Behold, honey."
The girls glared at me. I decided from here on out to make them leave the lanyards behind, using the flimsy reason that camp names needed to stay at camp.
"And who is this ravishing creature?" Basil took Kelly's hand in his right while touching her red hair with his left. "Oh, darling, don't ever do anything to your hair. It's perfect!
Kelly smiled and introduced herself.
"Basil," I began. "Like you said, Aunt June and I had never met. I must admit to being at a disadvantage here since I know little to nothing about her."
He winked. "I'll tell you what. You come to my shop tomorrow morning at ten and let me fix your hair. And I'll tell you anything you want to know."
Basil turned and walked toward the door, turning to wave before shutting it behind him.
"He's right, Mrs. Wrath," Kaitlyn said. "You do need help."
The other girls were staring at my hair and nodding.
"Yes, well, we'll see about that tomorrow. For now, let's check out the rest of the house. And if you find a secret room, come to me before using it, please."
"Maybe we should all work on the same floor together," Kelly suggested, even though it sounded more like a command.
Kelly went to the other side of the first floor with Kaitlyn, Inez, and Ava, while I continued on the right side of the first floor with Betty and Lauren.
The kitchen was next after the study. Bright yellow and cheery, it had the usual appliances. Nothing fancy like our lodge at Camp des Morts, but good enough to cook in. A small breakfast nook in the corner had a large window that looked out over the backyard. It was too bad this place was so far away. Maybe it could be a vacation house. It would be nice to get away to the river with Rex every now and then. We could bring the animals.
I relaxed a little as I thought about Leonard frolicking in the yard as Rex and I sipped wine on the back patio. It was a
