Lendle

Girl's Mystery novel, ages 9 -15
Includes a Table of Contents.
"After thirteen years of being deserted Darkson House is now occupied again. This famous house, which is 100 years old this year, was constructed by Mr Darkson at great expense in the early days of Dayman Heads. When it was built, it was considered one of the grandest mansions in Australia. The marble floor was imported from Italy, the chandeliers from Austria, and the furniture was brought from Transylvania.

During its construction two workmen died in freak accidents, and work had to be stopped at one stage when two skeletons were found buried near the side of the house. Then, Mr Darkson, forty years old, lived in the mansion for thirteen months before dying mysteriously in his sleep. Mrs Darkson was so upset after his unfortunate death that her hair turned grey in less than two weeks. Seeing herself in a mirror distressed her so much that she smashed every one of the thirteen mirrors in the house.

In 1985 the council took possession of the house after back rates had not been paid for 13 years.

'All right. What's next?' Jodie held the pencil ready to write out a list.

'It's good we're on school holidays, isn't it?' I said. 'It gives us time to prove whether or not the new people really are vampires.'

'What evidence do you have that they are vampires?'

'Well, there's the business of the cellar. They were supposed to want the cellar for wine, right?'

'Sure. Quite sensible, because wine has to be kept cool.'

'Yet when George Blare saw the delivery from the hotel all they brought were cartons of beer and some vodka. There's no need for a wine cellar if all you drink is beer and vodka. And it had to be a cool, dark cellar, remember? The sort of place a vampire needs for a coffin.'

'Is that all!'

'Of course not. What about the big box that the men carried in? George Blare reckons it was the size of a coffin. He watched four men carry it up the steps. And there's the fact that they've been there six weeks and no one has ever seen them in daylight. And they have the lights on practically all night.'

'Keep going.' She held the pen poised over the page which was still blank.

'Well the real evidence is from Ron Rocco.'

'Why should we believe him? He's always making stuff up.'

'Not this time, he was terrified. He was asked by Mansions Real Estate to mow the grass at Darkson House. So he went around there in the daytime but they would only talk to him through the closed door. He was mowing the long grass all day. And he found there was a bat colony down the back in the trees, thousands and thousands of bats.'

'Fruit bats no doubt. Nothing mysterious about them.'

'Ron Rocco said the whole place was spooky. There were strange looking statues half buried in the ground, and they looked like graves, because some of the statues had fallen over and were almost buried in the ground. They had gone all green and mouldy and looked like dead bodies.'

'Ha. What else?'

'Mr O'Brien said he couldn't pay Ron Rocco till it was dark. So Rocco had to go back again that night. He reckons he was so scared he asked his father to go in the house with him. When they got inside it was creepy, there were long dark passageways, the floors creaked, and the people were listening to this weird organ music. When the old woman— she looks like a witch he said— opened the door and invited them inside, she was wearing a black cape and carrying a black cat!'

'Maybe she had just been watching The Addams Family.'

'Wait on Jodie. The old woman took them into the living room to get the money. Mr O'Brien was sitting in front of an open fire in summer, drinking a glass of blood!'

'Blood!'

'Rocco swears it. When Mr O'Brien stood up, he wiped his mouth and hid the glass with the blood in it.'

'What happened then?'

'They got the forty dollars and took off in a hurry. Ron Rocco says he'll never go back.

'Well I don't believe in vampires. An