“The voice seemed to come from the wall itself!” Penny murmured. She added jokingly, “Maybe this place has a ghost who is annoyed because we climbed in through the window!”
“That whispered warning came from a very human ghost,” the photographer muttered. “We’ll do a little annoying ourselves if we can find the bird!”
Salt jerked open the door. Penny followed him outside. Behind them, the door swung shut again, but neither noticed.
Quickly they circled the cottage. No one was visible in the clearing nor were leaves stirring in the bushes close by.
Salt, however, remained convinced the warning had been whispered by someone standing close to the window who then had quickly retreated to the sheltering shrubbery.
“The warning seemed to come from the very inside of the walls,” Penny repeated.
“How could it? The walls are only average thickness, so the only place a person could hide would be outside. It’s a cinch no one was in the room with us!”
“Lorinda might have crept close to the cottage and whispered the warning,” Penny said thoughtfully, “but I doubt it very much.”
“Lorinda?”
“Mrs. Rhett’s daughter. She tried to prevent me investigating the cottage before you arrived.”