by Bobbi Holmes
“I imagine he’s proud enough of his work,” Teddy countered. “How many Emmys has he won?”
Chase, who had never even been nominated for an Emmy, glared up at Teddy, who only chuckled in response.
“I’m sure you’ll be meeting Ian,” Walt said. “If it wasn’t for him, we all wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
Turning his attention from Teddy to Walt, Chase said, “Actually, what I’m more interested in hearing about is that tunnel. Is it real?”
“I assume you’re talking about the tunnel that runs under Beach Drive—from our house to one of the neighbors’ up the street?” Walt asked.
Chase arched his brows. “So it is true?”
“Yes. Frederick Marlow, a distant relative, originally had this house built and at the same time put in the tunnel,” Walt explained.
“I’d love to go inside the tunnel,” Chase said. “Talk about raw material!”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Walt said.
“Why not?” Chase asked.
“It’s no longer accessible,” Walt explained. “Both ends have been sealed off.”
“Walt and Danielle showed us the entrance to the tunnel, quite fascinating,” Birdie said. “But we weren’t able to see anything other than a locked door.”
“I’d love a peek inside. Can’t you unlock the door?” Chase asked.
“I’m afraid not. Might be dangerous,” Walt said. “It could come down on us.”
“I bet it would be perfectly safe. Didn’t I read you were wandering around in there for hours, and it never fell on you?” Chase asked.
“It’s practically impossible to get that door open. But I’ll be happy to show you the entrance to the tunnel,” Walt offered. “But I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. Nothing much to see.”
Birdie, who had just finished her dinner, glanced across the table at Polly, who sat quietly, pushing her food around her plate with her fork. “Polly dear, is everything alright?”
Polly looked up to Birdie and smiled. “Yes, thank you. I’m afraid I’m just a little tired this evening.”
Teddy looked at his wife. “You don’t look very good.”
“Teddy!” Jackie snapped. “That is a terrible thing to say to your wife!”
“I just meant she looks tired. She should probably go up and turn in early tonight,” Teddy said.
Polly stood up. “I think Teddy is right. I hope you all don’t mind if I go up to my room now.” She looked to Danielle and said, “The dinner was delicious. I’m sorry I didn’t finish it all, but I’m quite exhausted.”
Polly could hear the voices in the dining room as she slowly made her way up the stairs. When she reached the second floor, she paused a moment and looked down to the first floor. She noticed the Marlows’ black cat leisurely strolling across the entryway from the kitchen toward the parlor. She watched the cat a moment and then turned, making her way upstairs.
Once she came to the second floor, she headed for the room they had given Phoebe and Bentley. When she arrived at their door, she glanced over her shoulder toward the stairway leading to the first floor and then looked back to the closed door. She knocked. A moment later, Phoebe opened the door.
“What do you want?” Phoebe asked, peeking out into the hallway. Polly couldn’t tell if Phoebe was dressed for bed or still wearing the clothes she had been wearing earlier. What she did notice, the woman had a black eye.
“I was wondering if we could talk,” Polly asked.
“What about?” Phoebe asked.
“Not here. I was hoping we could meet later tonight, after everyone has gone to sleep. I don’t want to be interrupted. Teddy or any of them could walk up here at any minute. I thought perhaps we could meet downstairs, in the kitchen. At midnight? I imagine everyone will be in bed by then.”
“Maybe I’ll be in bed by then too,” Phoebe said.
“It’s important. I just want to talk to you. Please.”
Phoebe looked Polly up and down and then let out a sigh. “Fine. I can’t ever get to sleep before midnight anyway, and I imagine I’ll be hungry by then. You think they’ll have something in the kitchen I can eat?”
“Why didn’t you come down for dinner?”
Phoebe let out a snort. “Come on, don’t pull that naive act. I’m sure Sera and I were the talk at the dinner table tonight. That’s why I didn’t want to go down. I know she isn’t here. I saw her leave with Chris Johnson, and she hasn’t come back, has she?”
Polly shook her head. “No.”
“I bet everyone is expecting Sera to can me for good when she gets back, aren’t they?”
“You don’t think she will?” Polly asked.
Phoebe shrugged. “Sera and I go back a long time. Maybe she will; maybe she won’t. But okay, I’ll meet you in the kitchen at midnight.” Phoebe closed the door.
“I appreciate this,” Bentley said as Walt set up the inflatable mattress in the parlor while Danielle waited by his side with an armful of bed linens.
“No problem,” Walt said, watching the mattress inflate.
“The sofa is not very comfortable,” Danielle said. “I remember Lily’s brother camped out on it one night when they were here for her wedding. It’s too short. So we picked this up a while back for an extra bed.”
“I’m surprised with a house this large you’d need extra beds often,” Bentley said.
Danielle smiled. “That’s why this inflatable bed is perfect—for those few times we do.”
After making up the blow-up bed, Walt and Danielle left Bentley alone in the parlor watching television, while they went to the library, closing the door behind them. Waiting in the room was Eva and Marie.
“Chris still hasn’t brought Seraphina back?” Eva asked. She sat with Marie on the sofa and watched as Walt and Danielle took the chairs facing them.
“Maybe he’s not bringing her home,” Danielle said with a grin.
“Surely you’re not suggesting she’s staying with him at his house,” Marie asked primly. “They just met each other.”
“That house has practically a hundred rooms. I’m sure he’ll give Seraphina her own,” Walt teased.
“Yeah, right.” Danielle snickered.
Eva smiled over at Marie and said, “Marie dear, I know you were young once—I remember when you were born. Surely when you were Seraphina’s age, you…well…you know.”
“When I was her age, I was married,” Marie said.
Eva shrugged in response.
“I can’t believe those two women actually got into a fight!” Danielle said.
“I can’t say I blame Seraphina. I almost decked Phoebe myself,” Marie said.
“I’m just glad Chris and Seraphina are getting to know each other. I worry about Chris,” Danielle said.
“Worry, why?” Eva asked.
Danielle shrugged. “Chris, he never goes out. Half the town thinks he and Heather are an item, because she’s the only woman they ever see him with.”
“You do know Heather has been seeing that fisherman from Astoria?” Marie asked.
“Of course. I told you about it,” Danielle reminded her. “But most of Frederickport doesn’t know that, and Chris might as well be a monk.”
Eva let out a sigh. “That’s not exactly true.”
“I don’t see Chris as a monk,” Walt said. “Don’t they usually have bald spots? Chris has too much hair to be a monk.”
Ignoring Walt’s comment, Danielle looked at Eva and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Chris has a social life. Just not in Frederickport,” Eva explained.
“He does?” Danielle asked. “He would have told me.”
“Love, I have no problem with your close friendship with Chris. But expecting him to confide in you about his sex life,” Walt began.
“Chris has a sex life?” Danielle asked.
“We need to change the subject,” Marie said.
Eva laughed. “I’m just saying Chris has been on dates.
There are a number of women he sees casually in Portland. Casually in that he hasn’t felt compelled to share with them his real identity.”
Danielle looked to Walt. “Did you know this?”
Walt shrugged. “Well…yes. Chris has talked to me and Ian—”
“Ian knows too?” Danielle asked.
Walt only smiled in reply.
Danielle let out a sigh and slumped back in her chair. “I guess I understand. You guys are all friends, and there are things I talk about with Lily that I would never share with Chris.”
“Would you share it with me?” Walt asked.
Danielle looked at Walt and considered his question. “To be honest, I can’t think of anything I haven’t shared with you. So the answer is probably yes.”
Walt smiled again.
“Chris isn’t seriously interested in any of these women he’s been seeing in Portland?” Danielle asked.
“I imagine not, considering he’s out with Seraphina at the moment,” Walt said.
Nineteen
Danielle woke Sunday morning to the gentle patter of rain on the rooftop. Eyes still closed, a smile on her face, she rolled toward Walt and snuggled up against the warmth of his back. She could tell he was still asleep by the rhythm of his breathing.
She continued to lie there, enjoying the heat radiating off Walt’s body, when she had the eerie sensation that someone was watching her. Had Max jumped up on the bed and she hadn’t noticed, and was he trying to wake her so she would let him out? When there were people in the house, Walt and Danielle normally slept with their bedroom door locked. It was a habit Danielle had gotten into when running the bed and breakfast.
But then Danielle remembered Max had been sleeping in the living room when she and Walt went to bed last night. It was possible Walt had let Max in their bedroom sometime during the evening when she was sleeping.
It would not be the first time she awoke to a stare-down by the feline. Unable to shake the sensation, she sleepily fluttered open her eyes and lifted her head from the pillow, looking down to the foot of the bed where Max liked to sleep. She fully expected to find him perched near her feet, staring in her direction. But it wasn’t a cat sitting on the mattress, staring up at her and Walt. It was a man.
Danielle bolted up with a scream.
“What?” Walt said groggily, sitting up in bed.
Danielle managed to get a grasp on her fear, because she realized just moments after letting out a scream that it was not a man exactly—it was a ghost. The same ghost who had come into the kitchen—not the ghost she had caught looking in the kitchen window.
“What are you doing here?” Danielle asked, her heart still racing. “You scared the crap out of me!”
Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Walt glared down the bed at the ghost, who sat cross-legged on the foot of the mattress, looking up at them.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up, of course,” the ghost said.
“You’d better have a good reason for being on our bed,” Walt growled.
“Really?” the ghost said, cocking his brow. “And what exactly will you do about it?”
Walt narrowed his eyes, still staring at the intruder, and the next moment a bronze bookend came flying off a nearby shelf in the ghost’s direction. The surprised spirit widened his eyes and watched as the bookend flew through his chest and then landed on the floor with a thud.
“Impressive,” the ghost said. “But like I asked, what are you going to do about it?” He looked over at the bookend and cringed. “I think you just dented your floor.”
“Why are you here?” Danielle asked, reaching over, giving Walt a reassuring pat, wanting him to calm down. “Are you going to finally tell us who you are? Who might be in danger and why? And most of all, who is the killer?”
“I’m here to tell you it’s already too late,” the ghost said as he got up and began pacing the bedroom floor.
Walt and Danielle, now sitting up, the blankets pulled up to their chests, watched the ghost.
“What do you mean it’s too late?” Danielle asked.
The ghost stopped pacing and looked at her. “Isn’t it obvious? The killer struck again.”
“Are you saying one of our guests was murdered?” Danielle squeaked.
“Right here at Marlow House,” the ghost said.
Walt cursed and then climbed out of bed. Shirtless, he wore a pair of flannel pajama bottoms.
“Noooo…” Danielle said with a groan.
“I warned you,” the ghost said before vanishing.
“That is one annoying ghost,” Walt said as he hastily changed his pajama bottoms for slacks and pulled on a clean shirt.
Danielle rolled out of bed. “I don’t want to find a dead body.”
“You stay here. I’ll go check the house,” Walt told her. “Hopefully his annoyance extends to making up stories.”
“I need to go with you.”
Now dressed for the day, Walt and Danielle stepped out of their bedroom with trepidation, neither knowing exactly what to expect. When they reached the second floor, they came face-to-face with Teddy coming out of his room, heading for the bathroom.
“Good morning,” Teddy said cheerfully. “You’re up early.”
“Yes, the rain woke us,” Danielle said. “Umm, is Polly still sleeping?”
“Yes. Dead to the world,” Teddy said before continuing to the bathroom.
When Teddy closed the bathroom door a moment later, Danielle cringed and said in a whisper, “I hope that was just a figure of speech. I like Polly.”
“Me too.”
“Do we knock on everyone’s door? Say, hello, are you alive?” Danielle asked.
Walt looked down the hallway at all the closed doors. Other than Teddy, it didn’t sound as if anyone else was awake. “Not unless you can come up with a good reason to be knocking this early.”
Danielle glanced at her watch. “Joanne should be here in about thirty minutes to start breakfast. We should check downstairs first. I don’t want her to walk in on something, in case it happened down there.”
Walt gave a nod and then headed to the staircase with Danielle. When they reached the first floor, all was quiet. The door to the parlor where Bentley had spent the night was still closed, as was the downstairs bedroom. They swiftly went through the rooms with no guests, the kitchen, living room, dining room, library and guest bathroom. Nothing appeared to be out of place. No dead bodies in sight. Together they went down to the basement, and they found nothing unusual there.
Once back on the first floor, they headed to the kitchen to make coffee. They walked into the room at the same time that Max entered through the pet door from the side yard.
“Max,” Walt said, before asking him if he had seen anything. He hadn’t. The cat told Walt he had spent most of the night sleeping in the library and prowling outside during the early morning hours.
“All we can do is wait for them to come down for breakfast, and hopefully they will. But there is one bright spot,” Danielle said.
“What’s that?” Walt asked.
“If someone was murdered in the house, I would expect their ghost to greet us,” Danielle said. “So that’s a good sign.”
“True,” Walt agreed.
“Oh crap,” Danielle groaned.
“What?” Walt asked.
“How do we know Teddy isn’t a ghost?” Danielle said.
“I doubt Teddy is a ghost. He didn’t walk through the bathroom door, he opened it with the doorknob.”
“True. I wish Marie was here. We could get her to check out the bedrooms and see if any of our guests have been murdered.”
“That sounds rather gruesome,” Walt noted as he made the coffee while Danielle continued to fret.
“I guess I should be careful what I say. I’d hate for one of our guests to walk in and hear me say something like that.”
Walt chuckled. “True. It would put one ill at ease.”
“No kidding.”
Wh
en Joanne arrived on Sunday morning, Walt and Danielle had already made the coffee and set the dining room table for breakfast. After helping Joanne get the breakfast started, Walt and Danielle retired to the dining room to wait for their guests—each praying none would be missing and none would show up as a ghost.
Birdie arrived at the table first. Danielle and Walt were fairly certain she was not a ghost when she pulled her chair out to sit down. While it was possible for a ghost to move objects, it was rare for someone who had just passed over. But when Joanne brought a basket of cinnamon rolls and said good morning to Birdie, their thoughts were confirmed.
The next one to show up for breakfast was Bentley.
“I went ahead and deflated the blow-up bed,” Bentley told them. “I have a feeling I’ll be back in the upstairs room tonight.” Danielle and Walt exchanged glances while Birdie greeted Bentley.
A few minutes later they could hear chattering voices coming down the stairs. When the people attached to the voices arrived in the dining room, Walt and Danielle counted the Staffords and Larimores safe. All four appeared to be healthy and alive.
“Did Seraphina get home last night?” Jackie asked when she looked over to the empty chair. When Walt and Danielle had set the table that morning, they had returned the chair they had removed the night before to make more room for Chase.
“Yes, I heard her come in rather late last night,” Bentley said. “I was still watching TV.”
“That might explain why she isn’t down here yet,” Jackie said with a chuckle. “Out partying last night.”
“I see Phoebe isn’t here either,” Teddy noted. “Do you know if she’s still in her room, or did Seraphina give her the boot last night?”
“I doubt it. But I wouldn’t have heard her leave anyway,” Birdie said. “First thing I do when heading to my room at night is take off my hearing aids.”
Again Danielle and Walt exchanged glances. Just as Joanne brought the platters with breakfast, Seraphina walked into the dining room.
“Sorry I’m late for breakfast,” she apologized.
