Richard Ashland

Terretsville Richard Ashland

In 2004, the things that happened to Charles Rikker in Terretsville, he has never shared with anyone, not even his wife. . . some things should not be talked about with anyone (and who would believe it, anyway). In 2005 and each year after, on the first of May, the Tour of Homes members begin their journey around Stamford, Connecticut at the entrance to the long, circular drive that leads up to the old Benson Estate. They are there to witness its Greek Revival charm and to hear the stories the tour guides love to tell of its mysterious past. 'On June 14th of 1933, the owners of the estate, Margaret and Hershel Benson, vanished without a trace. For more than seventy years the mystery behind their disappearance has gone unsolved. Stranger yet is the hand- written, cryptic will left behind by the Bensons that would keep their Connecticut mansion from being occupied for exactly fifty years. At the end of that fifty years, the city officials of Stamford Connecticut were collectively given the keys to the mansion and the combination to a vault tucked away within the walls of the estate. Days later, Charles Rikker, a career army intelligence officer was notified that he was the sole beneficiary of the entire estate including a ten-thousand-square-foot mansion and millions in cash. It's been more than twenty years since Charles and his family took possession of huge manor and the one thing that has remained a mystery is why and how the Bensons wrote him into their will eighteen years before Charles was born. We all wonder if the Rikkers will ever uncover the mystery.' March 2005. Charles and Mary discover a hidden tunnel that runs beneath the foundation of their mansion, but only after an explosion exhumes a mysterious body from a hidden grave. What secrets are hidden in the tunnel that was part of the Underground Railroad when the place was built in 1833? Is it possible that Charles will come to regret his grand inheritance?