“It’s one of the most beautiful properties in Ruby City,” she explained. “And it’s often considered to be a haunted mansion.”
“Haunted?” I raised an eyebrow.
“A lot of strange things have happened there,” she said. “The property has changed hands several times over the years, but it used to be a place where people held huge parties and balls. That sort of thing.”
“That sounds...” Well, it sounded pretty nice, actually.
“It was beautiful,” she said. “At least, that was what people thought.”
“So what happened?”
“It fell into ruin,” she shrugged. “About twenty-five, thirty years ago, it just all sort of...stopped. Something happened there. A woman went missing. After that, nobody wanted to go there.”
It was horrible. It was obviously a huge tragedy, and that was enough to break my heart as it was, but there was more the story. She was holding something else back, something important. Amber looked at her hands when she was nervous. I wasn’t exactly the best at reading body language, but most people didn’t just stare at their fingernails for fun. I didn’t think she was exactly an exception to that rule.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“Well,” she said slowly. “About a year ago, there was another tragedy at the Weston Estate. A young woman’s body was found. It was ruled a tragic accident. Some people said it was suicide, but there are people close to her who think it wasn’t an accident at all. There are some people who think that the woman’s death was actually on purpose, and that it happened at that place so that no one would ever find out what had actually happened.”
“Amber...”
She looked up at me sharply then, eyes flashing with anger.
And with pain.
“Last year, Rebecca Locke’s dead body was found there, and her brother bought the property.”
Chapter 14
Paige
My drive to the Weston Estate was short and silent. When I reached the road that it was on, I wasn’t surprised I’d never heard of the place before. There were huge, sprawling trees that lined either side of the road, and there were gated entrances to giant mansions. As I drove farther down the road, the mansions grew farther apart. Some of the gates seemed in disrepair, and some of them even had vines growing over them.
Cherry Vale Lane was a long road, though, and by the time I reached the correct address, I was about to wonder if the road was ever going to end.
The Weston Estate was the last property on the road. The road literally ended right at the gate. I stopped my car when I saw the giant stone sign that read Weston Estate.
“Charming,” I said aloud.
The gate was open, which was good, because this place looked a little bit creepy. Even in the middle of a Saturday morning, there was a certain sense of danger and fear. This was the place where Mr. Locke’s sister had passed away. It was here. He was bringing me to the place where she’d died, and I had no idea why.
That wasn’t quite true.
Nathan Locke was a weird guy, sure, but he was also a very gentle one. He’d been hurt when he lost his sister, and maybe he wanted to share that with me. I drove down the narrow drive. It widened quickly, and soon the trees cleared and I could see a big giant house. The driveway split. One portion led off to the garages and the other looped around in front of the house.
A car was parked there.
It was Nathan’s.
I hoped.
There was no way for me to know for sure. After all, I had never
seen his car, but it looked expensive, and it was bright blue. I pulled up behind the car, killed the engine, and got out of my car. I locked the doors and stared up at the mansion. To say it was sprawling would be an understatement. This was the kind of place that probably had like twenty bedrooms. The porch that wrapped around the front was incredible, and there were three stories that I could count.
I pulled out my phone and called Locke.
“Are you here?” He answered.