The Spite House(60)

After a sip of whiskey, Millie continued. “After their father died, Luke and Peter were the sole inheritors of the land. Luke wanted to sell it, Peter wanted to build out more on it. They spent some years arguing over what to do with it before World War One interrupted the argument.

“Peter joined the army as a combat medic. That way he could demonstrate his Americanism, like his ancestors tried to, and show that he could be proud of his German heritage and still be true to Old Glory.

“Luke got himself exempted from service somehow. He stayed home and Peter went to war. Now, a lot of what I’ve said so far is oral history, but Peter going to war is on the record, and so is this next part. Around October of 1918, Luke received a telegram saying his brother was killed in action. The army delivered Peter’s remains, which weren’t much and weren’t fit for public viewing. A service was held, a box was buried, and that was supposed to be that. With his brother buried, Luke managed to sell the property.”

“Even with the war on, he got a buyer?” Dess said.

“Oh, yes,” Eunice said. “The saying goes, ‘When there’s blood in the streets, buy property.’ That probably isn’t fair of me to imply about the buyer, though. It was a ministry called Everlasting Arms from Chicago. They operated a few orphanages up north but were looking for a more rural locale, and fell in love with the Masson land. It worked out well for Luke, the only problem being that his brother apparently wasn’t dead after all.”

“I was waiting for something like that,” Dess said.

“Sure. He couldn’t have built that house if he died over in France,” Millie said. “There’d been some kind of mistake. That sort of thing wasn’t too uncommon back then. When he got home, Peter was mad about the sale and the construction. About a year had passed since he was supposed to have died, and most of what they were adding on to the house for the orphanage was done. The first group of kids were moving in. Kicking them out and forcing the orphanage to give the land back wasn’t going to happen. Peter tried anyway, though. Man had tunnel vision. All he could see was the land he thought still belonged to him. He’d been through hell overseas. His heart was set on home. He was determined not to let anyone take it from him and didn’t care what anyone else thought of it.

“Thing was, nobody was going to help him move an orphanage off the land, even though he promised to help them look for a new area nearby. He didn’t have anyone on his side to help him take it to court. So he decided to take things into his own hands.

“He built the spite house in 1925. He built it to cast a shadow over the valley. But to do it, he had to move the memorial. And he built his house at the spot where those men and boys were hanged.”

Dess shuddered and Millie shook her head. “I know. Saying it out loud makes me mad at myself for letting you stay there. All I can say is I’ve never really believed in ghosts. But there’s something about that place, isn’t there?”

“Yeah, there really is.”

Millie nodded, then went on. “So, that’s also why the house is built the way it is. That was the only way to fit it in that space without crossing his property line or teetering over the lip of the hill. It wasn’t the most convenient place to live—you’ve been inside, you can vouch for that—but he went with it because he wanted the sisters of Everlasting Arms to see his strange, pathetic house and feel guilt for denying him what was his. He wanted the children to look up and see it and feel intimidated. At that point he just wanted other people to be miserable along with him.”

“And he really lived there?” Dess said. “He didn’t just build it for show and move somewhere else?”

“No, he really lived there. With his bedroom windows facing the orphanage, and all his lonesome hatred facing it too.”

“He wasn’t alone though,” Dess said. “When we were in there my sister said she heard a little boy talking to her, and on the last night I heard a little girl. Were they kids from the orphanage?”

Millie sighed and tilted her head back, stretching her neck as if to loosen throat muscles exhausted from storytelling. “Oh, the kids. That might be the strangest part of—”

Dess’s phone rang, cutting Millie off. Dess looked at the caller ID, expecting to see Lafonda’s name, or Eunice’s. Instead she saw the name DANA CANTU in big white letters against a blue backdrop. She answered, “Hello.”

“Hey, are you okay? Where are you?” Dana said. She spoke quickly and sounded out of breath.

“I thought Lafonda told you where I’d be—”

“You’re still with Emily?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know where Lafonda is? Did she go with you?”

Dess stood, her heart suddenly thudding as though she were at the starting blocks, ready to race.

“No. Are you at Eunice’s house? She’s not there?”

“Well, they’re not downstairs and nobody’s answering me, but there’s some car parked out front.”

“Whose car? What’s going on? You can’t find my sister?”

“I can’t find anyone. I’m going to call Eunice’s phone aga—”

A sound between a gasp and a scream came through the phone, loud enough to make Dess jump and for Millie to hear it.