by SUE FINEMAN
They walked upstairs together and Billy showed her through the bedroom suites.
“This is nice,” she said in one room, “but I couldn’t sleep in this room.”
“Why not?”
“There’s someone already here.” She pointed. “Over there by the window. Can you see her?”
“No.” He’d seen ghosts in his parents’ house when he was a kid, but they all left before Charlie and Andy were born. But those were friendly ghosts. He wasn’t so sure about the ghosts in this house. “What does she look like?”
“It’s a young woman, blonde, and she’s crying and rubbing her chest.”
“That’s Maggie. She died of breast cancer twenty years ago.”
“Oh, there’s another woman with her now, a tiny little woman with dark hair.”
“Eleanor.” He was planning to move in while he got the house in shape, but he had no intention of sharing a house with unfriendly ghosts, especially those two.
Kayla turned to him. “Is there a bedroom on the main floor?”
“A maid’s apartment.”
“I’d prefer to stay down there. I’ll clean up here, but I don’t want to sleep with them.”
“I don’t blame you.” He wasn’t sure what to expect from these two after the way they treated him when they were alive. “Are they the only ones in the house?”
“The only ones in this room right now. If there are more, they’ll show themselves at some point.”
He didn’t want anything to do with those two, alive or dead, but he wouldn’t mind having his grandfather here. He wasn’t so sure about this psychic relative of Eleanor’s. She was a beauty, but if she was anything like Eleanor, he didn’t want her around long. Could she tell the future? Could she read his thoughts? If she could, she’d either blush or smack him silly.
Billy took Kayla downstairs to the maid’s apartment, which was two small rooms with one tiny closet and a gas station bathroom. “How long have you been seeing ghosts?”
“I’ve always seen them. So did my grandmother. She said they were people who didn’t know they were dead or who stayed behind because they had unfinished business here. She used to tell fortunes at the county fair. I don’t know how to do that, although I do have visions now and then, and sometimes I just know things.”
She opened the windows while she talked. “When I was in the second grade, my teacher called me a witch. Granny was so mad she gave her what for, and I ended up in another class. I never talked about ghosts at school again.”
She brushed off her hands. “What grade do you teach?”
“High school gym and social studies.”
She stripped the bed and started a load of wash in the nearby laundry. She had a sexy, sensuous way of moving that both aroused and intrigued him. Her jeans cupped a well-shaped behind and her shirt stretched over full breasts his hands itched to touch. But she was here for her inheritance, not for him. “Do you need anything, Kayla?”
“No, I’m fine, but I might not get much done today after driving all night last night.”
“Stop when you get tired and take a nap.”
“Okay.”
Billy left her alone to clean her rooms. She seemed honest enough, and he couldn’t see any reason not to let her stay in the house. Dad had worked on the safe for an hour last night and couldn’t get it open, and Andy never did find a way into that secret room he was so sure about. If they couldn’t get in, Kayla couldn’t either.
He put a bowl of water on the patio for the dog. Buford wandered over and lapped at it, slopping water all over the place.
Billy turned on the pump to drain the rest of the pool. Buford ambled up and nudged him, so he scratched the dog behind the ears. Nice dog, even if he was a hound.
When he saw the dog and heard the water running out in the pool house, he was tempted to call 911 and report an intruder, but one look at the girl stepping out of the shower changed his mind. Even from a distance, she was pretty. Up close, she was stunning. The woman had a great shape, curly dark red hair that spilled halfway down her back, and warm chocolate eyes. He was more than a little attracted, but he didn’t want to get involved with a woman who was in any way related to the grandmother who despised him.
Kayla had come here expecting money, but she obviously didn’t have any money now or she wouldn’t be showering in the pool house and driving a van that looked like it wouldn’t make it across town, let alone all the way to River Valley from Memphis. He chuckled. The woman drove here with a hound dog. Was she expecting to sleep in that van with the dog? Yeah, she probably was.
How long would it take to settle Eleanor’s estate? How long before Kayla could get her money and go back to Memphis? Would she be around long enough to clean the house?
Trevor came out of the house sipping coffee. “Hey, Billy, did you hire a maid?”
“That’s Kayla, one of Eleanor’s heirs. She’s going to stay in the house, but she doesn’t want to sleep upstairs with the ghosts.”
“Uh oh!”
“Yeah. Apparently my mother is here with Eleanor, and who knows how many others are in the house.”
“Does this mean you’re not going to move here?”
“I don’t know what to do.”
Walking closer, Trevor asked, “Do you trust her here alone?”
“I guess so, but I’ll let Dad do his thing, put the fear of God and the River Valley Police Department into her.”
Trevor motioned toward the house with his cup. “He’s doing it now.”
<>
Kayla heard the two men come into the house and call for Billy. “He’s out by the pool,” she called to them. A minute later, one of them walked into her sitting room and stuck out his hand. “Donovan Kane. I’m Billy’s father.”
“I figured as much.” They looked a lot alike. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Kane. I’m Kayla Blanton, one of the heirs. Billy was kind enough to let me stay here in the house.”
“There are nicer rooms upstairs.”
“Yes, sir, I know. I told Billy I’d help him clean up there, but I don’t want to sleep with the ghosts.”
“Do you know who—”
“Yes, sir. It’s Billy’s mama and grandma, Maggie and Eleanor.”
“Aw, shit!”
He didn’t look or sound any happier to have those two here than Billy did. She wondered why that was, but she couldn’t ask someone she’d just met something that personal.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where they kept the vacuum cleaner, would you?”
He shrugged, and she said, “That’s okay. I’ll find it.” If she owned a house this big, she’d have one on each floor, so she didn’t have to carry it up and down the stairs.
The back of her neck prickled like it always did when she had a vision or something wasn’t quite right. And something didn’t feel right about Billy’s father. “Is there something else, Mr. Kane?”
“It’s Police Chief Donovan Kane, Miss Blanton.”
She lifted her chin. “And you want to know why I’m here? If I’m wanted by the law? If I’m gonna steal everything as soon as I’m left alone? Or do you want my pedigree in case I decide to seduce your son? I don’t have a rap sheet, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
He opened his mouth to speak, and she held up her hand. “Never mind. I’ll sleep in my van tonight.” She grabbed her overnight case from the closet and poked her head out the back door. “C’mon, Buford, it’s time to go.”
“Go where?” Billy asked.
“Your daddy doesn’t want me here.”
“Dad!” Billy yelled.
“I didn’t say I didn’t want her here, son.”
“Turn the cop off, Dad.”
Kayla sighed, pulled her driver’s license out of her purse, and shoved it into Donovan’s hand. “I’m thirty-two years old, I’m in the process of getting a divorce, and that’s my husband’s dog, not mine. But I couldn’t leave poor ole Buford back home to starve. Leonard never bothered to feed him
. My last job was as a waitress in a nightclub in Memphis, but the cops closed it down when it went topless a couple weeks ago. I’ve had three speeding tickets and I got caught in a raid at the club one time, but I didn’t get charged with anything. And since Leonard emptied my bank accounts when he took off with his latest bimbo, I’m nearly broke. Is that enough, Mr. Police Chief?”
He handed her driver’s license back without looking at it. “That’s more than enough, Miss Blanton.”
“Kayla. I promise I won’t steal anything. All I want is whatever my cousin left me, and then I’ll be moving on.”
“That’s good enough for me,” said Billy.
“Me, too,” said Donovan. He turned to his son. “Billy, I brought the pressure washer. I thought we could use it to clean the pool and the fountain. I spoke with a guy yesterday about resurfacing the pool. He said he’d give you a good price, and he can start on Wednesday, weather permitting. If you want to sell this place, you’ll have to invest some money into getting it in shape.”
“I know.” Billy glanced at Kayla, who looked unsure of her welcome here. “Kayla, please stay.”
“Are you sure?”
As sure as he could be after knowing her such a short time. “I need your help.” The woman was willing to clean and she could see the ghosts in the house. Maybe she could tell him why Maggie and Eleanor were still here. There had to be a reason. They didn’t hang around just for the hell of it.
Kayla had proven she could stand up for herself, first with him in the pool house, and now with Dad. Her red curls caught fire in the sunshine, and she knew how to use those expressive chocolate eyes. If she was anyone else, he would have thrown her out by now, but the girl with the soft drawl and the hound dog had sucked him in big time.
Too bad she was related to Eleanor Goodman.
Hannah came in with the kids, and the noise level rose. He wondered how Maggie and Eleanor liked having Dad and his second family here. Or how they liked it that the son and grandson they hated now owned the house.
He thought the hurt of their rejection would be gone by now, that once he was grown, it wouldn’t matter so much. But that kind of pain would never go away. Was he such a bad person his grandmother couldn’t stand to look at him and his own mother couldn’t love him?
Chapter Three
The open shelves in the kitchen had collected layers of greasy dirt. Obviously, no one had cleaned this kitchen in a long time. Kayla stood on a step stool and handed the greasy dishes and cups and glasses down to Hannah and Ginny, who loaded them in the dishwasher. They ran the dishwasher three times that morning. Kayla scrubbed the open shelves several times before all the grease came off.
The spice cabinet and pantry weren’t in much better shape. Everything in the kitchen felt slimy or grubby. “I don’t know how anyone could cook in such a dirty kitchen,” Kayla told Hannah. “My granny would say it was only fit for germs and cockroaches.”
Donovan and Trevor bought several bags of food from a local fast food restaurant, and they all sat around the breakfast table, eating lunch and getting to know each other. Billy had a great family, and once his daddy got over being curious and cautious about her, he was as nice as could be, like the rest of the family.
After lunch, Ginny and Hannah emptied the lower cabinets and ran the dishwasher again. Kayla scrubbed the stove and ran the clean cycle on the oven. Then she dismantled the hood to give it a thorough scrubbing. By the end of the afternoon, the kitchen sparkled.
Kayla propped her hands on her hips and sighed. “It looks so good I hate to use it and mess it up.”
“I know what you mean,” said Hannah. “We gutted the old kitchen and started over a few years ago. Once it was finished, it was too pretty to use.”
Ginny sat outside on the patio with Buford’s head on her lap. “He likes people to sing to him,” Kayla told her.
“Sing what?”
“Anything.” She sang, “The minute he walked in the door.” She bumped her hips twice, singing, “Boom, boom. I could tell he was a man of distinction.” The dog howled, and she kept singing, “A real big spender.”
Ginny giggled.
“Good looking, so refined,” she sang to the dog.
She looked over to see Billy doubled over laughing. Buford kept on howling.
“Mom, can I have a dog like Buford?”
“Ask your father, Ginny.”
“Dad, pleeease.”
Donovan wiped at the smile on his face.
“You can have this one, if it’s all right with your parents. Shoot, Leonard won’t take care of him, and I don’t think Billy especially wants him here.”
Charlie tossed a ball into the yard. “Go get it, Buford.”
The dog looked at the ball and yawned, then put his head on Ginny’s shoulder.
“You call that a dog?” said Charlie.
Andy said, “He’s smarter than you.”
“Ginny, if you want a dog, we’ll go to the pound and see what we can find,” said Donovan. “But not a hound. We had one when I was a kid. Smelliest dog we ever had.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” said Kayla. “Granny used to say the only thing that smelled doggier than a hound was a wet hound.”
Buford barked. “Present company excepted, of course,” she added.
Billy gazed at Kayla and shook his head in wonder. In one day, she’d charmed everyone in his family, including Dad, whose skepticism came with the job.
“We need to think about getting home for dinner,” said Hannah. “Pop probably thinks we’ve deserted him.”
Dad’s cell phone rang. Seconds later, he said, “Gotta go. We have a missing child, and there’s a storm blowing in.”
Kayla rubbed the back of her neck. “Four-or five-year-old boy with a red backpack?”
Dad stopped cold. “Yeah.”
“Take Buford. He can track anything. Just don’t fire a gun around him. Is there a park along the river? Someplace with swings and picnic tables?”
“River Park.”
“Start there.”
He nodded his thanks, hooked the dog on the leash, and ran out toward his car.
“Wait for me,” Billy called. The twins were right behind him. When there was a missing child, everyone helped search.
Dad put the flashing light on top of the car and raced to the park while Billy talked on the radio to Officer Shutts at the boy’s home. The kid’s name was Robbie, and he thought since he’d just turned five, he was grown up enough to walk to Grandma’s house by himself.
“We have a search dog, but we’ll need something of the kid’s, a shirt or socks or something, for the dog to get the scent,” Billy said. “We’ll meet you at River Park.”
“On my way,” said the voice over the radio.
“I don’t like the looks of those clouds, Dad.”
“I don’t either. How accurate are Kayla’s visions?”
“I have no idea. I just know she described the ghosts in the house so well I knew who they were. She said she gets visions sometimes and sometimes she just knows things.”
“I hope to hell that’s good enough,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot at the park. “Search down by the river first, boys. The rain upstream could make the water more treacherous. Be careful, and stay out of the water.”
The twins ran down to the riverbank to search, and a police car pulled in beside Billy and his father. A uniformed cop jumped out with a plastic bag. He pulled out the boy’s clothes and held them up to Buford’s nose.
The dog snuffled and barked, and Billy said, “Find him, Buford. Go find Robbie.”
Buford took off, sniffing the ground up to a swing, and then ran toward the river, nose to the ground. Billy and his father ran along behind him. Billy prayed the kid wasn’t in the water.
Andy yelled and pointed at a red backpack floating by, and Billy’s hopes for a safe outcome plummeted.
“Robbie,” Billy called. “Where are you?”
Dark clouds blocked
out the late afternoon light and thunder sounded in the distance. The water boiled and churned, moving quickly down the river bank, tossing branches and other debris, and rising quickly. Too quickly. A spring storm could dump enough rain to cause flooding.
The dog barked down by the bank. Billy spotted a kid in the water about three feet from shore. He was holding onto a tree branch that had wedged into the rocks. “I see him. He’s in the water. Bring a rope. Hurry.”
Knowing the little boy couldn’t hold for long, Billy kicked off his shoes. Dad ran over with the rope he kept in the trunk of his car, and they looped it around under Billy’s arms.
“Hold on, Robbie. I’m coming for you. Hold on.”
As a news helicopter hovered nearby, shining light onto the river, Billy dove into the cold water and fought his way to the boy. As he reached for him, the branch broke away, and all Billy could do was grab the kid’s shirt. Desperate seconds passed before he could get a better grip on the boy. They were both swept downstream, the kid gripping Billy’s neck so tightly he could barely breathe. But Billy held on tightly, trusting his family to get them back safely.
The rope tightened around him and then Dad and the twins pulled him and the kid toward the bank. Toward safety.
Minutes later, helping hands pulled Billy and the kid out of the water and wrapped them in blankets. Paramedics took charge of the kid while Billy sat on the bank shivering. If not for Kayla’s vision and Buford’s nose, they would have lost that kid for sure.
Someone handed Billy a cup of coffee. He drank it slowly, and the mind-numbing cold eased a little. He needed a hot shower and dry clothes.
The temperature dropped and the wind picked up as the angry black clouds swept closer.
Robbie’s parents arrived, along with more reporters, and then Hannah and Kayla were there, hugging Billy and rubbing him to warm him.
Buford, still off his leash, ambled over. His big paws were covered in mud. One of the uniformed cops handed him a treat. “Good dog, Buford. You did a good job tonight, boy.” Buford gobbled it down and wagged his tail.
Kayla sang, “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog,” and Buford sang along, nose to the sky, howling along with Kayla.
