The Guest House Hauntings Boxset by Hazel Holmes (novel books to read txt) 📕

the pain stopped. But when she opened her eyes, she found herself back on her hands and knees outside of Pat’s house.

An immediate feeling of nausea overtook her, and Sarah vomited onto the grass. The hot bile was sour on her tongue, and she wiped her mouth with a shaking left hand. She looked around, finding the redhead gone, but she glanced back up to the mansion.

Quick as her legs would take her, Sarah sprinted toward Pat’s Tavern, finding the old barkeep with the phone to his ear.

“Tell Dell to bring the letters,” Sarah said, blurting out the words in a single breath. “I think they can help.”

70

The ride back to the station was quiet. Dell stole glances at Dennis in the backseat, who smiled vacantly through the window and at the woods they drove past. Each time Dell looked, it gave him the creeps.

The headlights illuminated the Redford Sheriff’s Department sign in front of a small building the city had graciously designated as their police headquarters. It had been previously used as an auxiliary building for the post office. But after they closed due to competition from UPS and FedEx, the city had allocated the building to the Sheriff’s Department. It was a definite upgrade from the basement in the city hall building, which flooded every time it rained.

Dell removed Dennis from the back of his squad car and ushered him through the front door, where a very surprised Faye lowered her magazine and removed her feet from the counter.

“Faye, will you grab me the keys to the interrogation room?” Dell asked, moving quickly through the office. He’d never really conducted an interrogation before, but Dennis didn’t know that, and he could tell the man was already starting to sweat.

“Um, yeah.” Faye retrieved the keys from her drawer and tossed them to Dell on his walk past, waiting until Dennis wasn’t looking her way to mouth, “What are you doing?” which Dell ignored.

Dell flicked on the lights and gave Dennis a little push toward the chair. “Sit down.”

“You’re not going to take the cuffs off?”

The steel bracelets clamped around his wrists were uncomfortable, and the longer Dennis wore them, the tighter they became. It wore on a person, both physically and mentally, to not have the simple freedom to scratch one’s nose when it itched. It was enough to drive most petty criminals to a confession.

“No,” Dell answered. “Sit.”

Dennis did as he was told and was forced to maneuver himself to the end of the chair’s seat to make room for his arms pinned behind his back.

Dell took a seat opposite Dennis and rested his arms on the table between them. Heat pumped through the vents, banishing the cold they had walked through outside, and Dell removed his jacket and laid it on the table off to the side. He took his time, letting Dennis sweat it out.

Finally, Dennis showed his first signs of cracking. “Well? What do you want to ask me?”

Dell repressed a smile and shrugged. “Whatever you feel like talking to me about, Dennis.”

“You said you wanted to ask me questions about Sarah,” Dennis replied, a hint of irritation in his voice. “That’s why you brought me here, right?”

Dell hadn’t had a lot of experience with interrogations, but from what he recalled with his training, he remembered that once a suspect started talking, it was best to let them work themselves into a corner. You did it by plucking at the threads that they gave you while maintaining control of the narrative. “You said that you and Sarah talked a few times. What did you talk about?”

Dennis cast his eyes down at the table and shrugged. “We talked about the chores and the different responsibilities of taking care of the house.”

“Why?” Dell asked.

The follow-up threw Dennis into confusion. “Wh-What do you mean, why?”

“Why didn’t you talk about other stuff? Didn’t she like you?”

Dennis frowned. “I don’t know. I guess we didn’t have a lot to talk about.”

“But you said you did talk, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you never talked about anything other than work?”

Dennis hesitated a moment then answered more slowly, unsure of himself. “Yeah—I mean no.”

“So you lied to me?”

Dennis’s eyes widened in trepidation, and he shifted in his seat, rotating his shoulders. “No!” Dennis shouted. “I didn’t lie, I was just telling you what… What…”

“What Mrs. Bell and Kegan told you to tell me?” Dell asked, pushing it further.

Dennis shut his eyes, muttering something to himself, and then lifted his face, snarling. The anger streaming off Dennis was like that of a child that wasn’t getting his way.

Dell stoked the anger. “Is that what happened? Did Mrs. Bell and Kegan make you lie?”

Slowly, Dennis produced a smile followed by a giddy laugh that escaped tight lips. It went on for some time, and then tears leaked from his eyes. “You can’t stop it.”

Dell leaned forward, trying to remain calm despite his eagerness. “Stop what?”

“He’s almost here,” Dennis answered, relaxing as if the burden of secrecy had been lifted. “And he’s going to reward those that have been faithful to him.” Another spate of giddy laughter spewed from his lips. He lowered his face slowly, all the while his eyes locked on Dell. “I have been faithful.” He leaned forward. “And I will continue to be faithful.”

Dell’s heart rate spiked. “And who is this man you’ve been faithful to?”

“My master is no man,” Dennis answered. “And when he arrives he shall embrace the world to his bosom and let us suckle from his nurturing strength. The dark lord will be freed from his prison of hell and walk the earth for all eternity.”

If Dell understood what Dennis was saying, then—“You’re talking about Satan?”

Dennis smiled, exposing his yellowed teeth, and then stood, leaning over the table with his hands still locked behind his back. “People will burn, consumed in the eternal flames of the damned. Millions, no, billions!” The shadows beneath his face darkened as he maneuvered himself directly under the light in the center of the