by Bobbi Holmes
“I was hoping you were the chief,” Danielle said when she answered the phone.
“Hello to you too,” Chris replied.
“We haven’t found out anything yet. Marie still isn’t back.”
“That’s not exactly why I’m calling,” Chris said.
“Why, then?” She looked at Walt and mouthed, It’s Chris.
“I just called Seraphina, offered to take her out to get something to eat. I thought she might want to get away from the house and talk, especially after everything that happened today. I can’t imagine how she’s processing Phoebe’s death.”
“I know you believed her when she told you they were close, and she didn’t feel she could stay angry with Phoebe because of their history, but I have to be honest with you, she didn’t seem all that broken up when she found out Phoebe was dead,” Danielle told him.
“She could be in shock. But that’s not the reason I’m calling. Did the chief say it was okay if they all leave?”
“What do you mean?”
“I understood that after they found Chase’s body, the chief asked them not to leave right away. But according to Seraphina, they’re packing up and plan to leave tomorrow. In fact, she told me goodbye. Said she was tired and going to bed early because she and Birdie were leaving first thing in the morning.”
“What?” Danielle asked. “No one said anything to us. And no, as far as I know, the chief didn’t say they could leave.”
Danielle talked to Chris for a few more minutes while Walt listened. When she finished the phone call, she recounted Chris’s side of the conversation that Walt hadn’t heard.
“I think we need to tell the chief,” Walt said.
Danielle stood up. “First I’m going upstairs to see what Seraphina says. Maybe Chris misunderstood.”
After Danielle left the parlor a few moments later, she considered stopping at Birdie’s room first to see if they were planning to leave. But then she changed her mind and decided to talk directly to Seraphina, because that was who Chris had spoken to. She hurried up the staircase and once on the second floor started for the room she had assigned to Seraphina. But when she passed her old bedroom, where she had put Jackie and Julius, the door was open, and the couple was in the process of packing their bags.
Stepping to the open doorway, she looked into the room. The Staffords didn’t notice her, but Eva, who was in the room with them, eavesdropping, spied Danielle and gave her a little wave. “I was just about to come downstairs and let you know they’re planning their escape. They intend to leave as soon as they get packed.”
Danielle knocked on the doorframe. Julius and Jackie stopped packing and looked Danielle’s way.
“Oh, Danielle, we were just getting ready to come downstairs to say goodbye,” Jackie said, closing one of the suitcases on the bed and latching it.
“You’re leaving?” Danielle asked.
“Oh, come now, I imagine you will be thrilled to see us go. Heavens, if I were in your position, I would have figured out some way to get us out of the house by now,” Jackie said.
“But I thought the chief asked you not to leave yet?” Danielle asked.
“That was before someone was arrested for the murders,” Julius said.
“We don’t know if Polly has been charged,” Danielle reminded them.
Jackie picked her now closed suitcase off the bed and set it on the floor. She looked at Danielle. “Polly is obviously responsible for Teddy’s and Phoebe’s deaths. I’m not sure who killed Chase, and I’m beginning to wonder if Bentley’s drowning was an accident or another murder. That makes four of us murdered. Four. Nine of us came to Frederickport, and only five are returning. I’m afraid if we stick around, then five might not be returning. Julius and I are leaving.”
“You’re leaving now? I thought Seraphina and Birdie were leaving in the morning.”
Jackie shrugged. “I have no idea what Seraphina’s or Birdie’s plans are. They can do whatever they want, but I would rather they not come with us. You see, I know I didn’t kill Chase. I know my husband didn’t kill him because he was with me all night. But I do know someone from this house might very well be the killer. Maybe it’s Polly. Maybe she killed Chase too. But I’m not going to take the chance. And if you will excuse me, I need to change my clothes.” Jackie slammed the door shut. Danielle could hear her lock it.
Danielle returned to the parlor, and just as she closed the door behind her, Eva appeared in the room.
“I believe Jackie is sincerely frightened,” Eva told Danielle.
Danielle then updated Walt on what Jackie had told her upstairs.
“I think she’s wondering if Walt or I might have killed Chase,” Danielle said.
“What I heard upstairs,” Eva began, taking a seat on an imaginary chair, “she believes Polly is responsible for Teddy’s and Phoebe’s deaths. According to Jackie, Polly had motive and she did practically confess. But she’s not sure about Chase—she can’t come up with a motive. But she is wrong about Julius.”
“Wrong how?” Walt asked.
“Julius could have slipped out and killed Chase. She keeps insisting he was with her all evening, but I was with them that night and then left after they went to sleep. Who’s to say Julius didn’t wake up and slip out that night, and she slept through it?” Eva asked.
A knock came at the parlor door.
“Come in,” Danielle called out, glancing briefly from Eva to Walt.
Seraphina opened the door and stepped into the room. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I wanted to let you know Birdie and I will be leaving first thing in the morning. I hope you understand.”
“Umm…yes…” Danielle said.
“Under the circumstances we feel it would be best,” Seraphina said. “I’m getting up early in the morning, so I’m going up now to pack and then turn in early. I’m not hungry, so don’t worry about any dinner for me—or for Birdie. She wanted me to tell you she’s not feeling well and is lying down.”
Just as Seraphina stepped out of the parlor a few minutes later, Marie appeared.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Danielle said. “What did you find out?”
After Marie told them all that she had overheard, it was decided Danielle would go down to the police station to talk to the chief in person. Yet they didn’t want the Staffords to leave while Danielle was gone, or before she had a chance to tell the chief everything Marie had learned. They needed to find some way to keep Jackie and Julius at Marlow House, at least for a couple more hours.
“Sabotage their car,” Danielle suggested.
“I suppose we could remove the distributor cap,” Walt said.
“That won’t work, dear,” Marie said.
“Why not?” Danielle asked. “I’ve heard of people doing that before.”
“Cars these days don’t have distributor caps, at least not recent models, like those rental cars.”
“How do you know about distributor caps?” Danielle asked.
“I know all sorts of things,” Marie said.
“I suppose we could remove the car’s battery. Cars still have batteries, don’t they?” Danielle asked.
Marie arched her brow at Danielle. “Was that a serious question?”
Danielle blushed. “Of course not…well…sorta…”
“Removing a battery is going to be far more difficult,” Walt said. “And what if one of them looks out the window and sees me messing with their car? It’s not dark yet.”
“And they will be leaving before it gets dark,” Eva added.
“I could do it,” Marie said.
“That might work. If they come downstairs to leave, I’ll do what I can to stall them while you take care of the battery. When you come back inside, I’ll know it was taken care of,” Walt said.
“Great, you guys have it all figured out. I’d better get out of here.” Danielle gave Walt a quick kiss and then dashed from the room.
Pearl stood at her bedroom’s corner window, looking down
at Marlow House. She spied someone who looked like Danielle Marlow coming out of the kitchen door and heading to the alleyway. Several minutes later she caught a glimpse of Danielle’s car backing out of the garage.
She glanced back to the street and noticed the two cars—which she assumed belonged to the Marlows’ houseguests—still parked in front of the house. According to what she had heard at Pier Café when she had gone there earlier for fish and chips, three of the Marlows’ guests had died under suspicious circumstances, and some guy who was working on the film but staying in another location had been murdered. It wasn’t clear if the deaths were all connected, but all Pearl knew, if the Marlows still had their bed and breakfast, this sort of publicity would surely kill their business.
About to turn from the window, she paused a moment when she noticed some motion from one of the cars parked in front of Marlow House. Quickly grabbing her binoculars from her dresser, she put them to her eyes and focused on the vehicle.
The motion had been the car’s engine hood opening. She couldn’t see who had opened it because the car was parked heading north, with its taillights facing her, and she assumed whoever opened the hood was hidden from her view by the open engine hood. But the next moment she saw an object floating up over the car.
“What the…” Pearl muttered.
What she was seeing made no sense whatsoever. The object looked like a car battery, and it now floated from the car toward the Marlows’ fence. It then stopped, hanging in midair over the sidewalk. Pearl looked back to the vehicle just in time to see the hood slam shut. No one was standing there.
Pearl blinked her eyes repeatedly in disbelief and looked back to the car battery and watched it fly over the fence and then land on the roof of the Marlows’ garage.
Pearl nervously licked her now parched lips and managed to set the binoculars back on the dresser without dropping them to the floor, despite her shaking hands and the room now spinning around her. Stumbling to the bed, she drew back the covers and climbed in, not caring that the sun was still up and that she was still fully dressed. Once in the bed she mumbled, “I must have gotten some bad fish,” and pulled the covers up and over her head.
Thirty-Six
Danielle ended up meeting the chief at Pier Café instead of going down to the police station. They sat together in a back booth, with no one sitting in the booths on either side of them.
“Where are the boys?” Danielle asked.
“When I knew I was going to be working late, I called Sissy to pick them up from school. She and Bruce took them out to get pizza, and then she’s going to take them back to our house and stay with them until I get home.”
“You’re lucky to have your sister and brother-in-law to help you,” Danielle said.
The chief shrugged. “Since our little adventure in Arizona, the boys prefer to stay at their own house.”
Danielle smiled softly. “I get that.”
“I imagine you wanted to meet me to find out what’s going on with Polly.”
“Actually, I wanted to tell you what Marie found out,” Danielle began. “She was in the interrogation room with Polly and her brother and—”
The chief put up his hand and said, “Stop right there. I can’t know what went on between Polly and her attorney. I would be breaking the law if I listened in, and using Marie would be the same thing.”
“You’ve used inside information before,” Danielle reminded him. “I don’t think a judge is going to rule your information was illegally obtained by a ghost.”
“I think this may be crossing a line,” he said.
“Then you should probably know Jackie and Julius are planning to leave Marlow House tonight, and Seraphina and Birdie are leaving in the morning, despite the fact you asked them not to leave.”
“I can’t make them stay, especially now that we have our suspect in custody.”
“Polly is being charged?”
“For all intents and purposes she has confessed to the murder of her husband. While duress and intoxication aren’t defenses for murder in this state, her attorney is framing her defense for a lesser charge, and I imagine he thinks with a sympathetic jury it might work. She insists she didn’t think it was real when it happened. That it was all a dream,” he said with a snort. “What a bunch of BS.”
“Actually, she does believe that. At least that’s what she told her brother. So unless she’s lying to her attorney and a good actress, then that’s what happened.”
The chief frowned. “No kidding? Well, it doesn’t matter. Because I don’t think that defense will work on the charges for Phoebe’s murder. And while we’re in the evidence-gathering stages, there will probably be new charges for the deaths of Bentley and Chase. I don’t believe we have two killers on the loose.”
Danielle cringed and said, “I think you do, Chief.”
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“That information Marie overheard, it wasn’t incriminating against Polly—except for the part about her killing Teddy, which you already know. She was adamant with her brother, she didn’t kill Phoebe or anyone else. But we know someone did. And those someones may be getting ready to leave Frederickport.”
After leaving the chief, Danielle drove north on Beach Drive, intending to enter the alleyway by taking the road to the north. In doing so, she drove by Marlow House and was relieved to see Stafford’s rental car still parked in front, yet was concerned the vehicle Birdie had rented was no longer on the street.
When she got back home five minutes later, she walked in the kitchen and found Walt waiting for her.
“I was getting ready to call you, but I noticed your car coming down the street,” Walt said.
“Where’s Birdie’s car?” Danielle asked.
“Seraphina left not long after you to fill the car with gas and stop at the pharmacy to pick up something for Birdie.”
Danielle let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I was afraid we managed to keep one here while the other ones slipped out early.”
Walt shook his head. “That’s why I was getting ready to call you. The Staffords are gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?” she asked.
“I walked them out to their car to say goodbye, and when the car wouldn’t start and Julius looked under the hood—there was one thing we hadn’t counted on.”
Danielle frowned. “What’s that? Did they have a spare car battery on them?”
He shook his head. “No. They…as Lily would say…totally freaked.”
“Freaked?”
Walt nodded. “Ohhhh yes. Scared senseless, especially Jackie. Convinced someone was out to kill them all. They didn’t go back into the house, although I tried to get them to come back inside. Jackie got on her cellphone, called a taxi, and minutes later they drove off. Julius said they’d pay for someone to pick up the rental car. You should have seen them. Reminds me of one of those horror movies Heather made us watch before Halloween. You know, the scene where the victims just realize the guy with the chain saw is about to come through the only exit in the room, and they all scramble frantically to get away.”
“On a positive note, I guess that means Jackie is innocent, considering how she’s acting,” Danielle suggested.
“And it is possible she just drove off with the killer,” Walt said. “But Marie went with them, so for Jackie’s sake, if Julius is our killer and he decides his wife is next, Marie can intervene. But she’s only staying with them until they get to the airport and on the plane. After that, she’s heading back here, and if the chief wants to bring them in, he’ll know where to find them. At least, until they land in California and they all get off the plane.”
“Or the killer is out putting gas in her car,” Danielle said. “Where is Eva?”
“She went with Seraphina to get gas, just in case it was all a ruse. Birdie is in her room. Eva checked on her before she left, told me she was sound asleep. Snoring up a storm. According to Eva she had her hearing aids off, so I assume she�
��s down for the night.”
“Must be tired. Kind of early to go to bed,” Danielle mused.
“Did you eat anything at the diner?” Walt asked.
“Yeah, I had some fish and chips.”
“Since Joanne is not coming back tonight, and you already ate, and Birdie is sound asleep, I hope you don’t mind if I go upstairs and take a nap. One thing about being dead, you never get tired.”
“You do look exhausted.” Danielle reached up and stroked the back of one of her hands across Walt’s right cheek.
“It’s been a trying week—to say the least.” Walt leaned down and brushed a kiss over Danielle’s lips.
Danielle sat alone in the parlor with the door open to the hallway. Max had gone upstairs with Walt, and she was trying to get into the book she had put down earlier, but like before, her mind would not focus on the written words.
She had called the chief to update him on the Staffords, and Seraphina had not yet returned. The house felt eerily silent. And then it didn’t.
Shouts came from the entry hall. A woman’s voice. And then a man’s. Another man, and then another. Danielle recognized the voices.
She jumped up from the sofa and ran to the open doorway and looked out. There, gathered in her foyer were six people, five men and one woman. Although technically speaking, none of them were people. They were ghosts. Unaware Danielle watched them from the open doorway, they continued to argue amongst themselves. It was difficult to tell what exactly they were saying, as they kept trying to talk over each other, their voices growing louder and louder.
She recognized all of them. There were the two ghosts they had seen earlier but had not yet identified. And then there was Teddy, Chase, Bentley, and Phoebe. After standing quietly for over five minutes and still not getting the gist of the argument, she stepped into the hallway and said in a loud voice, “Please don’t leave.”
Danielle wasn’t particularly concerned about waking Birdie. After all, Eva said she was sleeping and without her hearing aids she was practically deaf.
