“Yeah, that part gets a little confusing, but it looks like Abigail outlived her husband. I mean, he was older than her, so I guess it makes sense. After he passed, there was some sort of family squabble with the children and the house changed hands a few times over the years. I don’t know what happened to Abigail, but I found an obituary that was dated about twenty years after he passed.” Brianna nodded and sighed. “She lived in Bakersfield her whole life and nobody even knows her name.”
“It was a really long time ago.” Shane shrugged. “This house was abandoned by the time we bought it.”
“It’s hard to follow the trail, especially with the daughters getting married and changing their last names, but it looks like the house ended up in an estate for some of the surviving heirs. They probably forgot about it before you guys came along and offered to buy it. They were pretty wealthy from what I can gather.” Brianna tapped her notebook again. “I took a lot of notes.”
“I see that.” I chuckled and tilted my head inquisitively. “But why?”
“This story needs to be told.” She held up the journal. “This is a part of history, but more importantly—it’s a love story. Abigail Herrington recorded her deepest thoughts, her rawest emotions, and you can feel the love flowing off these pages.”
“What are you going to do, write a book?” Shane sipped his iced tea and laughed. “I don’t think people are going to like reading about all the beatings she got.”
“No, I’m not big on writing books. I’m going to write a screenplay.” Brianna nodded and grinned. “This is such a good story. I’ll be in California soon. Maybe I’ll get a chance to pitch it to someone if I get it written down.”
“Wow, you’re serious about this.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Well, if you’re that interested, I think there’s something you should see.”
“What’s that?” Brianna tilted her head inquisitively.
“You know the room she described in the book? The one in the basement? We found it.” I grinned and started to stand.
“There’s no way—it would have been found by now.” Brianna’s curiosity was definitely piqued.
“It was hidden.” Shane chuckled and stood. “Come on, we’ll show you. We need to run some lights down there first, though. It’s hard to see much with the flashlights.”
It took Shane and I a while to drag down some of the lights that we used to light up the house while we worked, especially evenings when we pulled some late hours. After we got them set up, we had to run a couple of extension cords just to get them powered. I wasn’t particularly happy about dragging Brianna through the dirty mess, but I thought she should see the room. I helped her down the stairs, and since we had already found the room, it didn’t take us long to make a straight line over to it. I pulled one of the lights close and it illuminated most of the space. Brianna’s mouth fell open immediately as she let go of my hand and started walking into the Herrington’s former punishment room.
“Oh my god.” Brianna walked up and touched the bench. “It’s just like she described.”
“I didn’t get to that part where she
described it, just the part where she said it was almost found by someone who was visiting.” I shrugged and followed her into the room.
“All of these… toys.” Brianna looked up at the wall like a kid in a candy store. “He bought them to satisfy her desires.”
“I don’t know if I’d call them toys.” Shane chuckled and shook his head. “Some of them look like they would leave marks.”
“This is remarkable. Do you mind if I take some pictures?” Brianna dug her cell phone out of her pocket.
“No, go ahead. I don’t care.” I shook my head and looked at Shane.
Brianna took some time taking photographs, and I could see the curiosity in her eyes as she checked out the different implements. Her curiosity and budding desires were just like the woman who lived in the house all of those years ago. Brianna wasn’t at the point where she wanted to be strapped down to a bench and whipped, but some of the items seemed to interest her. All of the leather items had aged too much to be used, but most of the thicker pieces of wood were still salvageable. Especially if they had the kind of attention I gave the paddle we found the first time we were in the room. Even it wasn’t in the best shape. Once she had taken enough photographs, she took down a smaller paddle from the wall and turned around.
“This one still looks like it’s in good shape.” She gave it a smack on her palm. “Hurts, too.”
“Maybe.” I reached out and took it from her. “I could clean it up and see if it’s still sturdy enough to use if that’s what you want.”
“You do that and I’ll find a way to be naughty.” She batted her eyelashes and giggled.
“Well, we don’t need it tonight.” Shane walked over and put his arms around her waist. “We just want to get you upstairs.”
“Finally, I thought you were just going to give me a tour of your dusty basement!” Brianna giggled again and pulled out of his embrace. “Race you to the top.”
“Be careful!” I sighed as she started trying to run across the basement floor with Shane in hot pursuit.
19
Brianna
Two weeks later