Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Haunted House

When Mr. Quinn entered the store, J. C．Pettigrew was thrashing, and his belongings were piled carelessly on the table.He had just had lunch at the Chamber of Commerce's weekly dinner at the Upham Hotel, and he still felt full of fried chicken from Upham's cook.Mr. Quin shook him awake and said: "My surname is Smith. I just arrived in Wright. I'm looking for a furnished house. I hope it will pay monthly rent." "Nice to meet you, Mr. Smith," J. C．Pettigrew tucked himself into the gabardine "office" suit with difficulty. "Oh, it's hot! Looking for a furnished house? I can see you're from out of town. We don't have furnished houses to rent in Wright, Mr. Smith."

"In that case, a furnished suite would be fine—" "It's still the same." J. C．Pettigrew yawned. "Sorry! It's getting hotter, isn't it?" "Exactly," Ellery said. Mr. Pettigrew leaned back in his swivel chair, picked out a shred of chicken with an ivory toothpick between his teeth, and looked at it carefully for a while. "Housing is a problem. Really, sir, crowds of people are pouring into this town like dump trucks unloading rice—especially people looking for work at the machine shop. Wait!" Mr. Quinn waited quietly. "Yes!" J. C．Pettigrew deftly flicked the shredded chicken off the toothpick. "Mr. Smith, are you superstitious?"

Mr. Quinn looked alert. "It's not superstitious." "In this case—" J. C．His face showed joy, but he stopped talking and asked instead: "Which industry do you work in? Of course, it doesn't matter what you work in, but—" Ellery hesitated. "I do writing." The man in the real estate business was taken aback for a moment. "You write novels?" "Yes, Mr. Pettigrew, writing a book or something." "Oh, oh." Mr. Pettigrew smiled. "It's been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Smith. Smith...strange," J. C．Say, "I'm a great reader myself, but I can't recall an author named . . . What's your name, Mr. Smith?"

"I haven't told you my name yet. My name is Ellery, Ellery Smith." "Ellery Smith" J. C．I read it intently. Mr. Kui Tuan smiled and said: “I use a pseudonym when I publish my work.” "Ah! Your pseudonym is...?" Mr. Pettigrew saw Mr. "Smith" in front of him smiling and said nothing, so he touched his chin and said, "Well, how about your credit for finding a house?" "Is paying three months' rent in advance a good customer in Wrighttown, Mr. Pettigrew?" "Oh, this commission can make me smile!" J. C．Sure enough, he smiled. "Come with me, Mr. Smith, there is a house just for what you are looking for."

"You just asked me why I believe in superstition or not?" The two got into J. C．asked Mr. Smith after the pea-green coupe was on the road. "Is that house haunted?" "Oh...not really," J. C．Say. "It's true that the story about that house is kind of weird, though. Might give you an idea for a new book, eh?" Mr. "Smith" agreed that it was possible. "That house adjoins John F.'s own house in the Hills. John F. Wright is the current chairman of the Wright National Bank, and the Wrights are one of the oldest families in town. Well, sir, three years ago , the second of John's three daughters, her name was Nora, and she was engaged to Jim Hayter, a non-native cashier at the John F. Recommend from New York to work in our town. He was in the bank, first as a cashier's assistant, doing well. This Jim is a steady young man, away from the bad elements of society, frequenting the library, I guess he doesn't have much For entertainment, at most, go to a small theater run by Louis Kahn to watch a movie, or listen to an evening open-air band, or join in the fun with a group of boys, watch girls walk around while eating popcorn, and occasionally tease Just tease them. He's hard-working, driven, and independent. Really, I've never seen a young man as independent as Jim. Everyone loves him."

Mr. Pettigrew sighed. Ellery wondered why such a bright topic should frustrate him. "I guess Miss Nora Wright liked him more than anyone." To grease the wheels of the story, Ellery interjected. "That's right," J. C．muttered. "She was just crazy about the boy. Before Jim came along, Nora was always the quiet type of girl with glasses, and I guess that made her feel unattractive to boys; so every time Lola, Patric Summer went out with the boys, and she was always home, or reading, or sewing, or helping mother with the housework. Well, sir, Jim changed the situation completely, as it turned out. The boy who held back, and Norah was actually a pretty girl. Jim started courting her, and she changed. . . . Wow, she really changed!" J. C．Said, frowning, "Looks like I gossip too much. Anyway, you must know what I mean. When Jim and Nora got engaged, the whole town said it was a perfect match-especially when it happened After what happened to John's eldest daughter Lola." Ellery asked hastily:

"What's the matter, Mr. Pettigrew?" J.C.'s car turned onto a wide country road, and now they were well out of town, Ellery enjoying the fresh green of the country. "Did I say anything about Lola?" the real estate man asked feebly. "Well, Lola . . . she ran away from home and eloped with a touring troupe. But she came back to Wright soon after--from a divorce." J·C．Pout tenaciously.Mr. Quin saw that it was impossible to hear more of Miss Glad Wright. "Oh, anyway," J. C．Continued: "John and Hermione decided to give Jim and Norah a furnished house as a wedding present. John set aside a plot of land next to his own to build the house on, so the house was right next door. Because, seeing Having lost a daughter, Hermione wants Nora to live as close as possible."

"They've lost Lola," Mr. Quinn nodded. "Did you just say that Lola Wright was married? Did she return to Wright Town after the divorce and didn't live with her parents anymore?" "No." J. C．Just made this simple answer. "And it turned out that John built a nice six-room house for Jim and Norah next door. Hermione took a lot of trouble buying rugs, furniture, curtains, quilts, silverware, etc. for the house. Nope. Think of something sudden that happened." "What's the matter?" asked Mr. Quin. "Mr. Smith, to be honest, no one knows what happened," the real estate man smiled coyly. "Nobody knew what happened except Nora Wright and Jim Hyatt. It happened the day before the wedding. At first it seemed like everything was going well, but unexpectedly - Jim Hyatt suddenly ran away Yes! Leaving Wrighttown, in fact. That was three years ago, and he hasn't been back since then."

They drove up a winding uphill road, and Ellery saw green grass on both sides; a spacious old house stood on it, and around the house were scattered elms, maples, cypresses, and willows that grew taller than the houses. .Mr. Pettigrew frowned toward the hilly road. "The next morning, John saw a resignation note on his bank desk, but it didn't say a word about why he left Wright. Norah also kept silent, shutting herself in In the room, she refused to come out to see her father, mother, sister Patricia, and even the elderly Ludi. Ludi was hired to take care of the three daughters of the Wright family. In fact, she took care of the three girls alone. Big one. Nora just kept wailing in the room. My daughter Carmel and Patricia Wright were close friends and Patricia told Carmel what happened. One day, Patricia cried herself, and I guess the whole family cried about it."

"Then what about the house?" asked Mr. Quin in a whisper. J． C．Pull the car over to the side of the road and turn off the engine. "Of course the wedding was cancelled. We all thought that Jim would come back, because we guessed it was just a quarrel between the couple; however, Jim never came back. There must be something serious about breaking up such a couple!" The real estate businessman shook Shake your head. "Well, a new house is all set up and ready to move into, and no one takes it. It hit Hermione so hard that she let it out that Nora had deserted Jim. But The whole town couldn't help talking, and it didn't take long..." Mr. Pettigrew paused.

"What's next?" Ellery asked hastily. "It wasn't long before rumors began that Nora...had gone mad; and that the six-bedroom house was unlucky." "Ominous?" J． C．I smiled wryly: "That's how funny some people are, isn't it? Thinking that house had something to do with Jim breaking up with Nora! Of course, Nora's all right—I mean, she's not crazy at all. Crazy!" J. C．scoffed. "It was more than that. Then, seeing no sign of Jim coming back, John decided to sell the house he had built for his daughter. Soon a buyer came along. A relative of Judge Martin's wife, Clarice. , a man named Hunter, who belongs to the Boston branch of the Clarice family. I was the one who handled the business." J． C．Lower your voice and say: "Mr. Smith, I'm telling you, it's true: I took this Mr. Hunter to the house so that he could inspect the house again before he signed the papers. We were looking around in the living room," Mr. Hunter said. : "I don't like that set of sofas over there." While talking, he suddenly showed a frightened expression, hugged his chest, fell to the ground in front of me, and died on the spot! Afterwards, I slept for a week Don't feel it." J. C．Wipe your forehead. "Dr Willoughby says he died of heart failure, but the townspeople say otherwise. Everyone says there's something wrong with the house, because first Jim ran away and then a buyer died. Worse still, , the Wright Town Chronicle run by Frank Lloyd, there was a smart new reporter who reported Hunter's death, calling the house a 'Haunted House.' Later, the reporter was fired by Frank because The Frank and Wright families have always been friendly." "It's all nonsense!" said Mr. Quin with a smile. "It's nonsense, but no one is buying a house today," J. C．muttered. "John then rented it out, but no one came to rent it. Everyone said that the house was unlucky. Now that you have heard this, do you still want to rent it, Mr. Smith?" "For rent, yes," said Mr. Quinn cheerfully. J． C．After hearing this, he started the car and started on the road again. "The family seems to be out of luck," Ellery commented. "First, one daughter ran away from home, and another daughter was victimized by a love accident. Is their youngest daughter normal?" "Patricia?" J. C．The face lit up. "She's the prettiest, smartest girl in town, on a par with my daughter Carmel! Now Patricia and Carter Bradford are in a stable relationship. Carter is our town's Attorney...  Here we go!" The real estate agent pulls his coupe into the driveway of a Colonial house, the largest in the neighborhood on a hill away from the road, surrounded by Ella trees. The tallest one seen in the hilly area.Next to the big house, there is a small wooden house painted white, with all the windows closed. Mr. Quinn looked from the small house he was renting to the porch of the Wrights' big house.I saw J. C．Go forward to ring the bell, and then see old Ludy come out to open the door wearing the apron that is famous in the town for its stiff starch, and ask the visitor what's your business.