Robert Barr's
second house
Santa Barbara
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It
is on the eve of his wedding
with Kelly Capwell that Robert Barr, or rather his twin brother Quinn Armitage,
makes discover to his mistress Flame Beaufort the house he has just rented. Big
and dark,
the
inside
looks like an
old
manor house, one of these haunted
houses
of another century. It is because it indeed holds
many
secrets, hidden doors and rooms.
The
walls of the ground floor are all covered till the middle-height with wooden
mouldings which darken the big lounge which we reach by entering. Some wooden
plates turn out to be removable and hide an access to the inside of the
partition. It is the case to start on the left wall of the lounge, behind the fainting
couch.
So, we do not count the secret locations the house holds, the possible locations
of hiding places, and the secret passages allowing to pass from a room to another
without being seen. It is Flame who discovers the first one these passages. She
uses them to hide from visitors and to set up a whole series of stratagems to
drive Kelly crazy.
On
the left of the lounge, behind the desk, an impressive wooden staircase allows
to reach on the first floor. Covered with a carpet in the brightly coloured
motives, it leads up to a landing concealing a new secret access. Indeed, one of
the wooden plates opens here too, and allows to hide to spy on the visitors down
below. It is there that Flame hides when she pushes down Kelly in the staircases
thanks to a thread stretched out between the first steps.
After
the landing, a long corridor
serves
several rooms. Always very dark, it consists of walls of blue-grey
color
and
on the ground of the same carpet as in the staircase.
One
of the doors allows to enter Kelly and Quinn's
bedroom.
Always enlightened artificially, it gives the feeling that the sun never
succeeds in entering in spite of the window. One of the pieces of the wall of
the room is in fact a hidden door, which allows, by a ladder, to reach the attic.
The
other access to the attic is situated at the end of the corridor, by a wooden
staircase. It is at the foot of this staircase that Robert will die, under the
combined shootings of Eden Capwell and Flame.
The
attic, almost so dark as the rest of the house, seems to cover all its surface.
It is constituted by series of wooden beams and so allows many hiding places
without being seen. It is this location which Flame will choose as den during
all the period when Kelly will live in the house. She will be besides stuck with
district attorney Keith Timmons there, before Gina Capwell comes to release them.
Robert's
death will lead Kelly to go
back to
live at the Capwell villa, and so the house will end uninhabited. It will
however continue to be the place of the investigations of Cruz Castillo, but
also of Eden Capwell's dreams during her coma, in order to discover the identity
of Robert's real murderer. But even after its disappearance of the screen, it
will stay remembered for its atypical and very disturbing architecture...