Read The Murders at Astaire Castle (A Mac Faraday Mystery) for Free Online

part?”
    “After the murders in 1950,” Hector said, “the castle sat abandoned for over thirty years. When Robin returned to Spencer, after becoming a famous author, she decided to have it renovated and turned into a luxury bed and breakfast—an American castle in the country.”
    “She sank over a million dollars into updating the electric and plumbing,” Jeff said. “Not to mention the décor.”
    “A haunted American castle,” Archie said.
    “It was a disaster,” Jeff said.
    Hector explained, “You see, up until then, anyone who lived or stayed there died. Kids, young people, used to say things, but everyone dismissed it as stories to scare each other. When Robin opened up the castle, and paying customers were staying there—”
    “And came running back here demanding their money back,” Jeff said.
    “There were people who got off on staying in a haunted castle,” Hector said, “but even some of them came back here with only the clothes on their backs. Most of them refused to go back inside that castle for their things. They just wanted out.”
    “What kind of things were they saying?” Mac asked.
    “The sounds of parties on the main level in the middle of the night,” Hector said, “or they’d see a couple holding hands, standing on the stone railing and then jumping into thin air.”
    “The sound of a couple laughing and playing tennis on the court when no one was there,” Jeff said.
    “Then, there’s the Wolf Man,” Hector reminded Jeff. “Remember that couple who said he chased them all the way down the upstairs hallway and out the front door.” He turned to Mac. “That was before Riley Adams disappeared, by the way.”
    “Robin stopped trying to rent the place out,” Jeff said with a shudder. “But then, it was a few years later, she said Damian Wagner was going to move in and stay there. She thought with him being into that type of thing, that he could handle the castle’s peculiarity.” He frowned, “Obviously, he couldn’t, which proved to be bad news for his daughter and his editor.”

Chapter Three
    Next Morning – Spencer Manor
    In the heart of Maryland, the cedar and stone home known as Spencer Manor rested at the end of the most expensive piece of real estate in the resort area of Deep Creek Lake. The peninsula, known as Spencer Point, housed a half-dozen lake houses that grew in size and grandeur along the stretch of Spencer Court. The road ended at the stone pillars marking the multi-million dollar estate that was the birthplace and home of the late Robin Spencer.
    In her will, Robin Spencer had stipulated that her research assistant and editor, Archie Monday, was permitted to live in the stone guest cottage tucked away in the rose garden for as long as she wanted.
    The beautiful green-eyed blonde had come with the house and Mac Faraday had been in no hurry for her to move out, unless it was to relocate to the master suite in the main house. Now, Archie having done that very thing, the stone cottage was being renovated to reflect the masculine nature of its new occupant, David O’Callaghan, Mac’s half-brother by their late father, Patrick O’Callaghan.
    David’s mother had recently been sent to live in the nursing home. While the rundown home where he had grown up was being revamped to put on the depressed housing market, David was making his home at Spencer Manor.
    It felt like Indian summer. The morning sun was warming the Point to brighten up what had been a dreary fall. While playing a game of fetch with Gnarly, Mac was thinking about removing his jacket when David drove his police cruiser through the stone entrance and around the circular drive to park it in the six-car garage.
    When Mac paused in throwing the ball, Gnarly jumped up on him and barked as if to demand he continue playing. His master obliged. “Did you see Finnegan off?” Mac called over to David when he came out of the garage.
    “She’s on her way to Quantico as we speak.” David urged