The Supernaturals Read Online Free

country. It is only a theory that what happened to her cousin Nicholas in 1918 in Russia assisted her in reaching this point of view. Most who knew Elena would say that she had so much class she did not feel the need to push it on anyone else, as had her cousin the Czar. Very little is known about her. However, it is known that she dearly loved each of her eight children. She insisted on giving birth at Summer Place, even in the dead of winter. She would dote on those children until they were all, one by one, consumed by tragedy or illness.”
    The view on the screen switched to show close-ups of each of the eight children.
    “Still, she worshipped them with every ounce of her soul until the day she died in 1951. Every one of her children were brought back to Summer Place for burial after their deaths. As she put it, to be brought back to the place they were born and lived the happiest years of their lives.”
    Again the picture changed, showing another side of the giant mansion and grounds.
    “Summer Place and its surrounding grounds, all eight hundred acres, were benign for the first few years the family visited for their extended summer getaways. Not one of the hundreds of movie stars and financial giants who enjoyed the hospitality of Summer Place ever had a complaint. A week spent with the Lindemanns was the height of relaxation and luxury. It was as if the mansion spent those first few years gearing up for its first headline-grabbing act, which occurred thirty-three years after it was built.”
    The slide changed to a painting of a beautiful woman who smiled at the artist as if she knew she would be viewed for hundreds of years.
    “The tranquility and demeanor of Summer Place changed in the summer of 1925. Gwyneth Gerhardt, a German opera star and acquaintance of the Austrian-born Lindemann, visited Summer Place as a prized guest. Miss Gerhardt came up missing on the evening of her own official grand reception. Amongst the guests that week were silent film stars from Hollywood and the royalty of Broadway Theater. Although no guests were ever directly quoted, it was whispered inside closed circles that Miss Gerhardt had been troubled by noises, voices emanating from the walls in her suite, in the days leading up to her reception. She would claim sleepless nights, saying she could hear the fading heartbeat of the house from far below where the dark, rich dirt met Summer Place’s wooden foundation. These rumors gave voice to talk that the German opera star may have been a little eccentric—even by European standards.”
    The next slide showed the grainy official photograph of guests mingling in the ballroom inside Summer Place.
    “The night of her official introduction to American high society and theatre circles, Miss Gerhardt never came down from her room. First, Frederic Ernst Lindemann himself searched every one of the twenty-five bedrooms and suites of Summer Place.” The scene on the screen changed to the brightness of the barn and the immediate property surrounding the house. “The search expanded to other areas of the extensive property, such as the stables, the pool, and even the barn, but no trace of the diva was ever found.”
    There were curious nods and a few comments not fully heard from the table.
    “A local girl, Leanne Cummings, a shy seventeen-year-old from the nearby village of Bright Waters, along the Bright River, trained by the Lindemanns for serving at social functions, claimed she had left Miss Gerhardt in her suite after laying out a beautiful sequined gown upon her bed. That was the last anyone ever saw of the famous German opera star Gwyneth Gerhardt.”
    Kelly allowed her eyes to fall on the entertainment president. He was watching the presentation, but every now and then would write something on the notepad before him.
    “A three-day search of the property was joined by the sheriff and local constabulary, but turned up no trace of Gerhardt. Lindemann even hired the famous Pinkerton