Firts Post!

Hi Everyone! This is my first book that I'm posting. I'm hoping that by having other people read and review my work it will help me to write better.
This is one of my Kathleen Rider mysteries. We may actually turn it into a movie this summer so be very critical and post comments often!
I'm going to post chapters in pieces so that I'll have more posts and they'll all fit.
Remeber to post commnets. I want to hear what you think. And please don't put only nice things, I need your oppinions. Don't be afraid to be too harsh.

Here Goes!


Chapter One



“This particular room was used by the original owner as a study,” Michael said. “He spent most of his time in here. No moving onto the next room,” he made a gesture to the door. Kathleen followed him out. She was very grateful to Michael, or Mike as he was more commonly called, for showing her inside the old house. An old house like this fascinated her.
The next room was the great room. It was furnished with expensive furniture and had heavy velvet draperies on the windows. Kathleen scanned it eagerly.
“This room was used for when the family had company. Since they were so rich, this room was used a lot,” Mike paused a minute and pointed at an old piano. “That belonged to the Hunter family’s only daughter. She used to be very good at playing it.”
Kathleen walked over to the old instrument. It was covered and dust, evidence of its not being used in awhile.
“As you know, the girl disappeared shortly after her parents’ death,” he explained.
“No one knows what happened to her?” Kathleen asked.
“Relatives searched for years for the girl, but not even a slight clue to be found that could tell them her whereabouts.”
Kathleen opened the cover to the keys. She could imagine a girl sitting there playing a song. The song was loud and happy, but suddenly it changed to something soft and almost sad. After a moment, the playing stopped and the girl turned around.
“Kathleen?” Mike asked.
“Huh? Oh!” she came out of her thoughts. “I was just, uh, thinking.”
Mike looked at her strangely for a minute, and then said, “Let’s move on to the upstairs.”
Kathleen followed him up the creaking stairs.
The first room they entered was a guest, as was the next two. After going down a hallway they reached the family’s rooms. The furnishings in these were not as nice as they had been in the other rooms. Kathleen questioned Mike about this.
“The guest rooms were furnished with a finer quality of furniture to make it appear that the whole house was richly furnished and to give the appearance of wealth.”
Kathleen thought a minute. “So basically they were just showing off?”
“That’s it exactly,” Mike laughed.
Kathleen smiled.
They left the room they were in and went into the next. Kathleen could tell by the décor that this had been the girl’s room. There were porcelain dolls, books about fairytales, frilly dresses, a music box, and a canopy over the four poster bed. It was once a very beautiful room, but now the wall paper had become faded and had started to peel away from the walls. Kathleen moved around carefully fingering some of the toys. When she picked up one of the books, a slip of paper fell out. She read it silently. “’Phell’s Factory,’” it read.