Interior Darkness

By G.R.R. Restivo

Robert Bedford a very rich man is found in his locked Study dead. The police close the case as a suicide, but a young Architect and his girlfriend question the manner of the death. What happens next upsets the heirs to the Bedford fortune and the closed case.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493125968

G.R.R. Restivo

G.R.R. Restivo has again written another mystery/adventure novel of the detective-architect Nick Cook and his girlfriend. Mr. Restivo has written all his novels part time and continues to live on Long Island.

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Copyright © 2013 by G.R.R. Restivo.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013920346

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4931-2595-1

                Softcover        978-1-4931-2594-4

                eBook             978-1-4931-2596-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 11/25/2013

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTERIOR DARKNESS

THE CASE

THE UNRAVELING

Other Novels by G.R.R. Restivo

Eyes of the Innocent

Eyes of Revenge

For

my parents,

Vincenza and Alfredo,

and for my brother and two sisters,

Alfred, Nancy, and Eleanor

PREFACE

I always wanted to write a mystery novel, and reading the novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie and many other authors, I decided to pen an idea I had for many years. This mystery novel was not easy to write. It was my wife who nudged me to write and embellish the idea into a mystery, and I’m glad I did so.

It took approximately four years to write and rewrite. I was happy when it was finally finished and was delighted in the editing and reediting of the story. Thanks to John Dickson Carr for opening my mind to surprising endings, and thanks to my forty-plus years as an architect designing and measuring all kinds of houses, warehouses, hospitals, and office buildings. In those years, I found many strange areas and artifacts.

I tried to keep it short, and since everyone is going to try to guess the manner of the crime, I tried to build in some small clues that may click in your head.

Hope you have a great time reading this, and maybe you can guess what really happened.

September 2013

We are not punished for our sins, but by them.

—Elbert Hubbard

INTERIOR DARKNESS

THE BEGINNING

Robert Bedford was sitting at his desk in his large study with his back to his huge fireplace. It was his favorite place in the estate. In the passing years, he felt the cold more and needed to sit in front of the new copy of the great nineteenth-century fireplace in the main living room of the mansion. The fireplace was bigger than the average person’s kitchen. The study where Bedford sat in was a recent addition to the mansion. The original great fireplace is on the other side of the addition in the main house. The Bedford family now uses it as a living room, but it was the bedroom of his ancestor, Charles Bedford, who built the original estate.

Charles Bedford was a young man from England when he settled on the north shore of Long Island in 1820. He saved some money working as a whaler and then established a large whaler group who bought shares on each whaling ship leaving Sag Harbor on Long Island’s north shore. He became the richest man on the north shore and in 1865 built his estate at what is now Glen Cove, Long Island. When whaling monies became scarce, he entered into retail and stage lines from Brooklyn to Hempstead, Long Island. When he died in 1895, he left his two sons with one of the largest fortunes on the East Coast.

One son, Martin, died of pneumonia early in life; and the other son, Thomas, was a fool with his money.

Robert’s grandfather, Charles II, was the son of Martin. Martin died at the age of fifty-five, and with a brief takeover of the company by Thomas until his death in 1935, Charles II took over the business. The name Bedford was synonymous with railroads.

Charles Bedford II was an unscrupulous man who stepped on everyone to get what he wanted. He sired three children: John, Priscilla, and Bartholomew. Priscilla married a California millionaire. John went into the army and was killed at Anzio during WWII, and it was left to Bart to carry the mantle of the family. He was not as strong as his father. Charles was in his late seventies then, and the family’s transgressions had caught up to them. Bart had married Amy Young of Great Neck, Long Island, and had one child, Robert. When Robert was about sixteen years old, Bart had sired a bastard son and was sued by a fifteen-year-old girl for rape. Olivia, the young woman he fathered a child with, called their son Monty; and she sued to have him gain the family name. Eventually, she won after many years, and Monty was taken into the fold as a rightful heir. Olivia was granted permission to live on the estate, where a piece of land was carved out, and the old converted estate house was given to her.

After Monty moved in as a teenager, he never got along with anyone in the family. Monty wanted his mother in the main house. He loved his mother and didn’t want her treated as a second-class person.

The Bedfords gave in, and Olivia was granted living privileges on the estate. Bart had added on wings to the estate twice, and he did so again for Olivia, to live apart from him in the main house.

Bart’s son Robert grew up very rich and learned everything from his mother since she was the stronger of his parents. Robert was a slight boy with skinny legs and small frame, but he had the Bedford smile and deep brown eyes and thick brown hair.

Grandfather Charles would show him the different ancestors of his while he escorted the child from one room to another. Monty was never called to be around the grandfather, and since Monty was considered a bastard, he was not shown any of the details of the family business. Robert and Monty never got along or agreed on anything.

Robert was considered the champion for the future of the family, which made even his father jealous of him. Thanks to his grandfather, Robert became smart in business and avoided his father as much as possible.

Though he felt sorry for Aunt Olivia, as she was called, he kept her away from the family as his grandfather had done.

When Olivia moved back to the estate, she had a terrible accident in the main house. One day, while helping Robert’s wife, she had caught her foot at the top of the ornamental steps and fell down the one-story staircase, injuring her back permanently. She would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

When Robert was eighteen years old, he met a stage actress, Mary, who drove him wild and, after a short courtship, married her. She was smart and had the vocal chords of a singer. Her long brown hair and sultry brown eyes caught him at once.

Grandfather Charles died two days after their wedding, and the estate went in full to Bart, with some scraps to Monty. Monty was furious and sued the estate, but the will was not challengeable. Bart received the lion’s share of the estate, while Monty and his mother received only a hundred thousand dollars and the old estate house Charles had carved out from the estate years ago.

Monty swore he would get even, and his mother decided to go back to the old estate house as to not interfere in Bart’s family life. Bart then made the old estate house wheelchair accessible for Olivia.

By this time, the Bedford name had been dragged through the mud in the papers and on television. It was the eighties, and Robert invested his money that was given to him by his grandfather into computers. It was an up-and-coming business, and like his great-grandfather, he was a smart businessman, unlike his father.

Bart was ruining the company with bad investments, and Robert was against all his father’s business moves. He tried to stop his father’s lame business ventures, but his father never listened.

One day Bart and his wife, Amy, were driving from a gala for the North Shore Business Alliance when their car went out of control, and they crashed into a telephone pole. Bart died instantly, and his wife died hours later at the hospital.

Robert was upset and relieved at the same time in a strange way. His pain-in-the-ass father was gone, and he would have free rein on the business. He grieved, though, for his mother and gave his parents a huge funeral.

The years passed; Robert and Mary had two children. The oldest was a son, and they named him Laurence. Mary was a fan of Laurence Olivier. The second child was a daughter, and they named her Charlene, after her great-grandfather. Along the way, Robert’s hearing was eventually affected from the pneumonia he had suffered as a child. He wore a hearing aid consistently, and he always would turn it off to block out all the noise.

Robert sat in front of the fireplace as he always did and thought about his wife and son. They were always so close and inseparable, and both were beautiful. Just then his daughter, Charlene, broke his thoughts. She was full grown and, like her mother, was a beautiful girl and was modeling clothes and shoes. She was five foot six with blue eyes and drove all the guys crazy.

Dad, I got the job with Calvin Klein jeans. They’re going to use me soon. She laughed. My ass will be everywhere.

Her father smiled. I’ll try not to think of it that way. I’m happy for you.

She kissed him and ran out the double doors into the patio. It was September, but it was still a little warm out.

Robert tried to bury his thoughts in his work, but the images of his wife ran through his mind. His daughter had stirred old memories.

His wife was gone now along with his son, by his count five years. He tried not to remember the painful days, so he left the study and walked into the next room.

Charlene had some contractors over doing work on the living room on some home theater, and new speakers were being buried in the walls. He had added the study extension about five years ago after his wife died just to take his mind off all the pain. He added another huge fireplace, but not as big as the one in the living room. The fireplace couldn’t be back to back since the old fireplace’s flue was too old to use.

He sat down and watched some television while the contractors went about their work. Maybe his mind could be released from the painful memories.

*     *     *

The large Bedford estate sat on a high bluff and could be seen from the Long Island Sound. Seagulls lined the shore, looking for their take of the day while the surf pounded into the craggy rocks at the beach.

It was Labor Day, and Charlene Bedford had returned late in the morning. She had stayed up with friends from college to celebrate their new school year. Charlene and her friends would use any excuse for a drinking party.

One of her friends, Chris Ward, had a thing for her; and the two would have sex on a regular basis. She didn’t love him, but it was a fun thing to hang out with the group and then go screw. She never took him to the estate but to a hotel far from her home. Chris loved her and worshipped her. The guys all called him boy toy because he did everything she asked.

In Bermuda on their last vacation, Chris was dared to swim with the sharks. Charlene urged him on, and he did it, but not without some fearful moments. A shark was about to strike when a local fisherman threw a bat into the water to scare away the shark. The Bermudan chastised the group for their stupidity, but they just laughed at him. Chris escaped onto a pier, and the group just kept on laughing. Drugs were always available, and the group were steady users. Howie, the oldest, was the supplier of weed and coke.

Charlene at first didn’t want to try the drugs but gave in, and it was evident she used them often. Her preference was marijuana and whiskey. When she drank, it was in excess to the point of a rolling drunk where any guy could take advantage. Chris became her watchdog when she got into these binges.

One night, Howie and Rider, a half Chinese and a half Hawaiian, did screw her when she was passed out. Chris had fallen asleep in another room. The other girls, drunk and full of coke, laughed at the sight.

The girls, Trisha and Nadia, were always up for good times;