Haunting

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

When Shannon arrived home, the driveway was filled with workmen’s vehicles, with plumbing and electrician printed on the side. It never failed to surprise Shannon what Fiona could get done with a soothing voice and a flip of her perky auburn hair.

When Shannon didn’t see her father standing moodily on the door step waiting for her, she assumed that her father hadn’t gotten the call from her principal, and considering the noise level in the house, it wasn’t surprising.

“Dad!” Shannon called out the second she threw open the door. “I got suspended.”

“He’s not here.” A voice came from her left, making Shannon jump.

“Jeez, man,” Shannon said, clutching her chest. “Make a sound when you move.”

“I did,” the man said, running his hands through his shoulder length brown hair. He was quite attractive for a man who worked manual labour. “I yelped when you slammed the door into my head.”

“Oops,” Shannon said, deciding the guy was eyeing her too closely. She walked away from the guy and started up the stairs, unfortunately he followed her.

“What did you do?” he asked, standing much too close to her back.

“I punched someone in the face.”

“Was the guy bigger than you?”

She raised her eyebrows at the question. “The entire world is bigger than me.” she said, stopping at her door.

“Ah,” the guy said, looking at her door. “You’re the black lace girl. Well, black lace girl, I’m Thaddeus, it’s nice to meet you.” He held out his hand for her to shake.

She looked down at the proffered hand. “I’m not interested.” Shannon said slamming the door to her room shut in his face.

She felt violated. She can’t believe that he not only perved at her underwear, but had the audacity to talk about them in front of her. Ick.

Shannon flopped onto her bed and flipped open the folder. After reading through the first few pages she became aware just how much crap was in here, and how badly organised it was, maybe that was the reason for the zero, not the P.I thing.

There were a lot of newspaper articles from the Northwood Gazette about fancy parties from the eighteen hundreds thrown by the Oswald family, and a few about a debutante ball where a girl called Regina Browning was the hit of the night.

Shannon supposed this was the dead girl Ben talked about; why else would it be there. Shannon pulled out the photo copied article and took a look at the grainy black and white photo that was next to the article; you couldn’t make much out, except for a lot of fluffy white dresses.

Next came the birth announcements from that same paper, there were four of them.

Wednesday October 7, 1925

Howard Clemmings Jr. was born yesterday to Howard Clemmings Sr. and Mary-Anne Clemmings at St Joseph's Hospital.

Monday March 1, 1880

Robert and Victoria Oswald are pleased to announce the birth of their first child, William Patrick Oswald, at St Joseph's Hospital on Sunday February 29, 1880.

Wednesday April 7, 1886

Regina Catherine Browning was born to Reginald Browning and his wife Elizabeth Browning early yesterday morning at St Joseph's Hospital.