Free The Haunting of Annabelle by Carl East

Chapter 1
     
    Annabelle returned the cordless phone to its
charger on the office desk. Gazing at the framed magazine covers
that lined the walls of the room, she slowly headed for the door,
pausing only to turn off the desk lamp. Wandering into the kitchen
still dressed in workout clothes she headed directly to the
refrigerator. There was a bottle of white wine in there and she was
pouring a glass even if it was only 11:30 in the morning. She
needed it after the telephone call she just had with her agent. Her
mind was racing even though she knew this day had been coming.
    The requests from designers that simply had
to have her face and body gracing their haute couture had been
steadily declining in the past couple of years. Instead of being
the pivotal model in a photo shoot or on the designer’s runway, the
offers were dwindling down to being an extra, or perhaps the
finishing touch to the group that were being used for the major
promotions. It hadn’t been a surprise when her agent called with
the latest news that there were still no requests for the upcoming
Fashion Week in New York. They discussed a few options, one being
for them to contact some of the more loyal designers who were still
using her on a sporadic basis even after twenty years had
passed.
    She couldn’t seem to put her head around the
thought of her agent calling them. She advised him to hold off
until she had time to review their discussion. It wasn’t as if she
was unaware of the passing of time. Taking a turn around the
kitchen while sipping wine didn’t help to calm down the agitation,
so she kept moving to the patio doors and out onto the small
terrace that graced her condominium. Watching as the city air
streamed over her tiny garden of roses, she reasoned that even
though a person kept in shape, kept current with the new designers
and still had plenty of contacts in the industry it didn’t stop
time. When twenty years go by you had to face facts. Time doesn’t
stop just because you want it to. It was time to move on to the
plans she’d been putting into place these past five years.
    Money wasn’t going to be a problem. She’d had a
level head from the start and began investing and saving during her
years of modeling. Perhaps it was time to start a business, an
investment that she had total control over. Through the years,
carefully selected opportunities, along with investments in land
and property, added to her wealth and on most projects, she had
turned over a nice profit. Maybe it was time to expand from doing
it on a part-time basis to a full-time one.
    Pinching off a dead rose, she walked back in
and went through the kitchen for a refill and a salad, and then
back to the office where the computer sat silent. Flipping the
switch and rolling up her sleeves to the elbows, the review of
emails came first. Junk mail had now graduated to spam, and one by
one she deleted them off until she caught sight of an email alert
from a property broker she’d dealt with on a sporadic basis in the
past.
    The e-mail was about a property in upstate
New York that would be coming on to the market. The attached
pictures showed a handsome estate surrounded by woodland with
forests and a mountain in the distance. The agency was suggesting
the possibility of it being utilized as a country home or perhaps a
bed-and-breakfast if one had the inclination. Pondering on the
other details listed, it definitely seemed like an opportune time
to set up an appointment for a walk-through.
    Calling her former contact, they spent
several minutes catching up and then arranged for a viewing of the
property. The appointment was scheduled for the following weekend
and arrangements were made to have her met at the railroad station.
This was definitely turning out to be an improvement over the
morning phone call. The idea of a bed-and-breakfast appealed to
Annabelle. It was definitely something she could invest in, and the
complexity of having to make improvements to the property