The Haunting of Seaview Manor

By Allan McCarville

Maggie Parker is looking forward to visiting her family who are restoring the old seaside Gilmore Mansion, an idyllic location that becomes even more sore when she meets the estate’s handsome young tour guide.
Not long after arriving at the picturesque seaside manor, things begin to happen and her young brother begins to exhibit strange behaviour.
Maggie soon discovers that it’s not only her family residing in the mansion.
Unknown to her and her family, a murder had been committed at the Mansion over a century ago. However, no one knew – except the victims.
The victims want justice but only the living can give it to them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allan McCarville
• Release date: Nov 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781777417864

Allan McCarville

Allan McCarville is an author and researcher who has a number of titles published in the genres of fantasy, crime thrillers and historical fiction. He and his family reside in Stittsville, Ontario where he does his best to make people think that he's normal. Apparently it's not working.

Book preview

June 1899

His daughter had been murdered.

There was no doubt in James Gilmore’s mind that her killer was none other than her husband, Robert Perkins.

Harsh bluish-white light surged through the room, followed almost instantly by the sharp crack of thunder that rattled the windows. The storm was violent and very close.

The old man looked outside but could see nothing, the light reflecting from the oil lamp on his desk made it impossible to see out into the darkness. The manor was scheduled to have those new-fangled electric lights installed next year.

Gilmore turned his attention back to the two documents and read them one more time. Sighing heavily, he signed and dated them: June 25th, 1899. He hoped that before the month ended, Perkins would be in jail where he belonged. One document summarized the information he had against Perkins, evidence that once in the hands of the authorities would ensure Perkins would be arrested and brought to justice.

He prayed that the bastard would hang.

The other document was changing his will so that ownership of the Gilmore Steamship Company would pass to his granddaughter.

He smiled as he thought about his granddaughter. Even though she was only fourteen, the girl was already headstrong and independent; she would not be easily manipulated by anyone.

His smile turned into a worried frown. He needed to keep her safe and away from her father. He doubted Perkins would take any action against his own child, but greed can drive a man to do many things.

The man had already committed one murder.

Tomorrow he would meet with his solicitors and begin the process to ensure justice was done. However, in the meantime he had to hide the evidence of Perkin’s duplicity.

He folded each document before placing them in separate envelopes. He stood and walked across the room to the stone fireplace, glancing quickly around to ensure he was not being watched.

He pushed against the top right stone and there was an audible click as the end of the mantle slid open a fraction of an inch revealing a hidden drawer. It wasn’t very large, but it was big enough for him to insert the envelopes and when he slid it shut, it was impossible to tell that the mantle concealed a drawer.

No one but Gilmore and the carpenter who had designed and built Seaview Manor knew about that particular drawer.

His desk also had a hidden drawer, but he suspected that others knew about it. He returned to his desk and had just sat down when a man entered the room.

Working late, James? asked the man as he entered.

Gilmore stood up as his son-in-law, Robert Perkins, strode into the room. Gilmore struggled not to display his dislike for the man or give him any indication he was aware that the man had committed murder.

Just getting a nightcap, Robert, grumbled Gilmore

May I join you?" asked Perkins walking over to the liquor cabinet without waiting for a reply.

Gilmore only scowled, turned his back on his son-in-law and looked out the window as another flash of lightening illuminated Seaview Manor’s sprawling front lawn and the bay beyond. For a fraction of a second, his retina retained the image of angry whitecaps charging across the bay.

Perkins appeared at his elbow holding out a glass of whiskey. Gilmore took it and merely nodded curtly to his son-in-law as he sipped the amber liquid.

Gilmore seethed with loathing for the man who had killed his daughter and was looking forward to wiping that smug smile off the murderer’s face. For now, however, he had to be civil to the man even though the only thing he really wanted to do was to strangle the bastard with his bare hands. It would be dangerous to do or say anything suggesting he knew of Perkin’s guilt.

Tomorrow he’d get his revenge.

Gilmore turned to his son-in-law, intending to advise him that he was going to meet with the family’s solicitors in the morning, but not what the meeting was about. As he turned, he felt suddenly lightheaded. His son-in-law’s face swam out of focus. Gilmore tried to say something, but his tongue was paralyzed, he was unable to speak.

Or breathe.

He collapsed to the floor and by the time he realized his drink had been poisoned, he was dead.

Perkins sat down in the leather chair behind the desk and calmly finished his drink before checking to ensure the old buzzard was truly dead.

He retrieved the desk key from the old man’s pocket and unlocked the desk. He rummaged through all the drawers but found nothing of interest. He quickly found the desk’s hidden compartment, but it was empty.

Good, he thought, I stopped the old fool before he did anything stupid.

Perkins had no illusions regarding his father-in-law’s feelings for him. He had suspected that Gilmore was suspicious about his role in the death of Emily, the old man’s daughter, and so had to take steps to ensure Gilmore didn’t have the opportunity to spread rumours. There was far too much money at stake.

The poison he used was untraceable, and Gilmore’s death would be deemed to have been caused by a heart attack. Perkins mentally prepared himself to play the role of the shocked and grieving son-in-law who had just witnessed his father-in-law dropping dead from a heart attack.

Still, he couldn’t suppress a small smile of satisfaction. He was now a very wealthy man.

CHAPTER 1

Present Day

Margaret Parker drove up the long, curved driveway and parked by the steps leading up to the manor’s wide double doors. She got out of the car and stepped to the edge of the drive to get a better view of the imposing structure.

It was early morning and the darkness was just beginning to reluctantly yield to mingled shades of grey and blue. The mansion’s expansive lawn and the still waters of Gilmore Bay were at her back. In that early morning light, the mansion’s shadow seemed to loom ominously over her and she was unable to suppress a fleeting, inexplicable, sense of unease.

Get a grip, Maggie, she admonished herself. You’re twenty-one, not a five-year-old.

Then, the feeling passed. It was just a house; a very big and very old house, but just a house all the same.

There were no lights on inside the house that she could see, which was not surprising. Maggie knew her parents usually got up early, their day starting with a coffee before rousting her little brother out of bed to get him ready for school. However, her arrival was perhaps a little too early even for them.

She couldn’t help but smile as she anticipated their reaction upon seeing her much earlier than expected

Maggie had made a last-minute decision to drive to Gilmore Bay to visit her family who had recently moved into the old house known as Seaview Manor. She had finished her last exam at St. George College and, with two weeks before the start of the summer semesters, Maggie decided to throw a few things into a suitcase and make an early start to the five-hour drive.

She extracted her suitcase out of the car’s trunk and climbed the four broad wooden steps leading from the paved driveway to the double front doors.

In the middle of each door was a large ornate door knocker in the form of a lion’s head. She was about to reach for the one on the left-hand door when she heard a howling that seemed to reverberate from deep within the woods behind the building.

She froze, trying to determine what type of animal would make such a sound. She knew from letters she had received from her family that coyotes were often seen around their property, but this was no coyote. She didn’t know what type of animal it was, but she sensed it was hungry, or perhaps angry.

Maggie frowned as she listened, but to her relief the howling wasn’t repeated.

Nevertheless, a transitory feeling of unease made her shiver involuntarily.

She returned her attention back to the door, which suddenly opened, and she found herself staring at a tall man with dark hair streaked with grey, a closely cropped salt and pepper beard, and steel grey eyes that at the moment reflected surprise and pleasure.

Maggie! shouted Dan Parker as he reached out and embraced her in a bear-like hug.

Hi, Dad, she acknowledged, returning her father’s hug with one of her own.

We weren’t expecting you until later this afternoon, said her father as he stepped back to allow her into the spacious foyer.

I decided to leave early, she explained. Her father gave her a dour look and she held up her hand. Don’t worry, Dad. I took my time and stopped for rests.

Maggie! This time the shout came from Ann Parker, a woman in her mid-forties whose innate attractiveness was evident even though dressed in oversized flannel pyjamas with a well-worn housecoat, her mother’s favourite, thrown around her.

Hi, Mom, greeted Maggie giving her mother a hug.

She looked around the foyer and noted a pair of expansive stairs framing a wide hallway directly in front of her. The stairs led up to an open second story landing that mirrored the foyer. This place was palatial.

Maggie couldn’t help but grin at her parents, So, what’s it like to live in a museum?

Fortunately, chuckled her mother, it does have modern conveniences. . . and the price is right.

Maggie’s father was a marine archeologist and her mother a historian; both of them were currently on contract with the Gilmore Bay Historical Society to oversee the restoration of the old manor.

The mansion in which they were living had at one time belonged to a local shipping magnate whose family had amassed a sizeable fortune back in the days when steamships were the principal