The Haunting of Alcott Manor by Alyssa Richards

Author:Alyssa Richards [Richards, Alyssa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-07-31T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Gemma looked out at the ocean, sipped her morning tea, and reflected on everything she had witnessed the night before. There was Anna and Benjamin, how she wanted a divorce and how he needed her to be the perfect wife. And, of course, Benjamin after his death. She remembered the gaping hole in his face, and a shiver traveled up and down her entire body.

Henry approached with his coffee and ran his hand along her back. "Chilled?"

"No, I was just thinking about what I saw last night. Who I saw last night.”

“Ah. Anna and Benjamin? Or—"

“Yes.” She scrunched her nose. “And Benjamin's face. What happened to it?"

He gazed at the horizon as though he knew the question was coming, as though he wasn’t excited to answer it. “As the story goes, they were escorting him to the gallows to be hung, and a man from the crowd shot his face clean off—or most of it.”

“Shot him in the face.” She scrunched her nose.

“No one knows who it was. Or if they did know, they didn't talk. The town believed that Benjamin had killed his wife. The shooter could have been anyone who wanted to punish him for that.” His tone was weary, as though he had heard or told the story a hundred times.

“Shooting someone in the face, that kind of violence is personal, like an act of revenge. If it was just someone from the community who hated him for killing his wife, they probably would have been satisfied just to watch him hang. Whoever shot him wanted to kill him himself,” she said.

“She had two younger sisters. Her father was known to be overprotective of her, even into her adult years,” he said.

“Yes, a father would.” She thought of her own father and how protective he had been of her as his only daughter. She searched the windows on the backside of the house for the face she never wanted to see again. He wasn’t there, though she felt an awareness from the house, a connection with it she didn't want. “An open and shut case.”

“The trial only took two days. They hung Benjamin on the third. Of course, he was shot on the third, as well. Only man in the history of South Carolina’s justice system to be shot and hung on the same day.”

“They hung him even after he’d been shot?” Gemma wasn't a fan of Benjamin’s. He was a shallow, self-absorbed murderer who thought nothing of destroying another person’s life if it served his own benefit. But even she thought this was harsh.

“To make an example of him,” he said grimly.

“I guess so.” She envisioned an angry crowd cheering when he was shot. And then cheering even louder when he was strung up without a face. She shivered again and turned her focus to the expanse of the summer green lawn. It was time for her to do a deeper clearing. One that would move Benjamin on. “Where was Anna shot again?”

“Down there. To the right and in front of the ocean, before the steps.

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