The story of a voicless ghost

Chapter five

I handed Abel the book, he got nervous but calmed down after a while. I suggested that we should search the entire house if we wanted to find answers. We left the room and started walking through the corridors, hoping to find a place where we could find another clue. I supposed that the third floor was where the owners lived because all we could find where six bedrooms counting the one that we had left, we searched them but without luck, the only thing that we could guess was that  there were two girls and two boys that used to live there, the other two were hard to guess. At the day I could finally see the corridors in detail, they were of wood and had carpets, mirrors and paintings all over them. 

We finally reached a place that looked promising, it looked like an office but not an ordinary one, the room had a round shape, in the middle was a huge window where you could see the forest. In the middle of the room was a huge desk, on one side of the room there were shelves full of books and on the other there was a portrait, a tall handsome man stood there looking back at us. He looked like he was 50 years, he had a few wrinkles but nothing to important, he had clear brown hair under a top black hat. Bright blue eyes looked back at us but with a kind stare, he was wearing a classy tuxedo and a cane in one hand.

Abel stared at the painting like if he was trying to remember where he had seen him, his eyes looking at it desperate for a sign to help him remember. Meanwhile I headed straight towards the wooden desk, there had to be something important here, on the first drawer I found an old newspaper announcing that an important gala would take place at the "Dawson Manor" on November 13, there was a drawing of the place, it looked exactly like this mansion. On the middle drawer I found more stationery but this were different from the ones we had found on the other room, it only said Dawson Manor in a classy font.

"Found anything yet?" Abel said wiping a tear hoping I hadn't seen it.

"Just this" I said handing him the newspaper" does the name Dawson seem familiar?"

"Terribly familiar but I cant remember why...I'll look on the bookshelves to see if I can find something"

I then continued with the search, I opened the last drawer and found a bunch of letters. I called Abel to come and we read the first one:

Good evening to you my good sir,

My name is Raymond Hughes, I'm the owner of Hughes & Co. an early business ready for success. Now I don't want to take a lot of your precious time but I've heard that your looking to invest, if this is true I beg of you to take me in consideration, I am determined to flourish my business into greatness but now that I've said the purpose of this letter I will part off waiting eagerly your response.

September 8, 1821

After we finished the letter I looked at my friend with attention to see if he showed any sign of remembering anything but he was as lost as I was, so we continued with the second letter:

My dear sir,

I must say that I quite enjoyed myself in the meeting that we had after you responded my previous letter and I hope you did too. I understand that you still have doubts about my company but I assure you that there is no need, even though I cant guarantee the full success of the product I can give you my word that it will flourish and as all the honorable men in this fine country I always keep my word. Hope we may meet again.

Raymond Hughes

September 15, 1821

"So until now we have that whoever the man in the portrait is, he was looking to invest in something, Raymond Hughes contacted him and apparently they got along well"

"Right"

We reached for the last, this one started becoming more personal that of business:

Walter Dawson,

I have received your letter and I would be delighted to accept your affable invitation to come and stay at the Dawson Manor. If I may, I always considered it the most beautiful in the entire country and I'm sure that my dear Cora and Julien will get along with your fine children Charles, Abel, Lula and Melodie. You speak very highly of them and I cannot wait to acquaintance them at last. We will be arriving on September 26 at noon I expect.

Yours,

Raymond Hughes

September 23, 1821

  This time Abel's face went white, he grabbed the letter as if he were hoping there was a mistake but his name was clearly in the letter. He looked at me with a nervous face and it took him several second to speak

"I...I found something too...I thought that it wouldn't be very important but..."

He handed we a leather covered book, on the last page the name Walter Dawson was written in it. I approached toward the shelves and investigated the other books, they all had the same name written.

"Well now we know who the man in the portrait is..." I stopped myself as I understood why he had gone white, I grabbed the letter and read it again, then I looked back at him

"Abel...I think we've made a mayor discovery! Your name is Abel Dawson, son of Walter Dawson and you have one brother and two sisters, Charles, Lula and Melodie. That's why the name Dawson and Lula sounded so familiar!"

He looked at me in shock for a moment as he processed what I had said, then a smile slowly started appearing on his face. He ran up to me and gave me a hug.

"Thank you! Thank you so much Odette! If it weren't for you I wouldn't have remembered who I was, I remember them! Vaguely, but I do!"

We hugged for a bit more and then we pulled away, we knew that this was only the start of a much bigger mystery but for a moment we wanted to enjoy our triumph.