Page 28 of Hoodoo House
“So, it appears Mr Tull didn’t have a lot of fans,” he said with a smile.
“He was nothing but a schoolyard bully. Someone should have put him over their knee and given him a good spanking years ago. And it’s not the way he treated me, or the folks from the foundation—we can all take care of ourselves—but his total lack of respect for Marjorie Ellis and her work, work which put a roof over his head and food in his stomach… Well, there was no call for that.”
“I take it you’re a big fan of Marjorie Ellis?”
Mrs. Cameron nodded enthusiastically. “She’s a great writer. I’d say one of the best this country has produced. You can’t clump her work, at least the earlier novels, with those run-of-the-mill romances that come out these days. Hers have substance and depth, and she’s a master of character development.The Ragtag Crewwas a masterpiece. She should have won that Booker Prize. Her second book,The Offal House…well, it seemed a bit rushed. I don’t agree with the critics who said it was ‘the sophomore curse’. I suspect the publisher pushed her to finish it so he could take advantage of the popularity of the first novel. In my opinion, great books need time to develop. That’s probably the only thing Mr Tull and I agreed on, as he certainly took his sweet time writing his novels, but his books were never great like Marjorie Ellis’.”
“This is very helpful Mrs Cameron. A few last things. When was the last time you saw Malcolm Tull with his computer?”
She tilted her head. “The last I saw of it, I’d guess, was a few days before he died. He was using it in the writing room.”
“Did you see it there on the day before he died?” Declan asked.
She shook her head. “Not that I recall.”
“And you didn’t think that was strange?”
“Mr Tull, like all writers, I suppose, had his own process. He didn’t always write on the computer. Sometimes he did his notes by hand.”
“Thank you. Now tell me, did Mr Tull have friends or other people who visited him while he was here?”
She sat for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip before continuing, “He had visits from strange people.”
“Strange in what way?”
“Disreputable. From time to time, rough-looking young men would show up at the house, and at all hours of the day and night. I didn’t approve, but I don’t own the house, so it isn’t my business, I suppose.”
“And did any of these people visit him on the day before he was found dead?” Declan asked.
“I didn’t see anybody, but there was a large Harley parked at the side of the house for a few hours that afternoon,” she replied, “and I suspect whoever was riding that bike was up to no good.”
Chapter Eleven
Charlie finished taking pictures of the writing room, the desk and the bookcases around it on his phone.
Henry said, “Come on outside. I want to tell you about the history of the house.”
Charlie followed Henry, who barely took a breath between sentences as he began what seemed to be a well-rehearsed patter.
“Construction of Hoodoo House, which was originally called the Coulee Hotel, began in 1918. It was built during the Alberta Prohibition as a secret drinking establishment and brothel. The owners knew that it might be raided by police so it was built with a secret emergency exit for those in the know.
“As you can see, the building is topped by an observation tower which allowed for lookouts to keep their eyes peeled for approaching lawmen. It was eventually closed down by the police for being a house of ill repute. In the nineteen-fifties, the hotel was purchased by Lazlo Spence, an eccentric artist and wannabe hotel owner, who constructed several haphazard additions, adding ten more rooms. He also created the twenty-foot-high sculpture at the front which is called ‘Spirit of the Hoodoo’. That’s when the building became Hoodoo House. The hotel went bankrupt in the late nineteen-seventies and stood abandoned until the Heart’s Shadow Foundation bought it on Miss Ellis’ behalf.”
Charlie said, “Where did you learn all of this?”
“Gramma Carol taught me. It’s useful information for when I’m giving tours.”
“You give tours? To who?” Charlie asked.
“Towhom,” Henry replied.
Mrs Cameron was obviously a good teacher.
“Well, they aren’t official tours, but you see, Miss Ellis, who was the first writer in the house, has lots of fans. They come from all over the world to pay homage to her because she wrote a famous book calledThe Ragtag Crew, and she also has fans forThe Heart’s Shadowseries.
“Last year I had a small bus come by with tourists from Japan. I took them on a tour around the outside of the house telling them everything I could remember about it. I even included a few things about when this was a place for gambling and was filled with women of ill-repute. That’s the polite term for hookers. So anyway, I made up this story that this is where the Premier of Alberta was almost arrested when the police raided the place. And they believed it! They tipped me twice what I normally charge for a tour.”
“Did you ever make up stories about Mr Tull, or Miss Ellis or their books?”
