by SUE FINEMAN
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Benton stood before a judge at his arraignment and turned on the charm. He insisted he’d gone back to Billy’s house because he’d dropped his wallet there the night before. When no one answered the doorbell, he’d walked around to the back door, which wasn’t locked when he arrived. But the maid thought he was breaking in and attacked him, then her dog bit him, and he was still suffering pain and swelling from the dog bites. By the time he finished talking, he looked more like a victim than a criminal.
The judge, who’d formerly lived in Cleveland and knew of Benton’s mother’s charity work, released Benton on his own recognizance pending trial. “Stay in River Valley, and stay away from Mansion Drive.”
“Yes, your honor. I’m expecting a rather large inheritance from my cousin’s estate, and her attorney tells me it will take a few more weeks to settle the estate.”
The prosecutor shook his head. “Your honor, I—”
The judge rapped his gavel, and it was done.
The attorney assigned to him did nothing but sit at the defense table. Benton did all the work himself.
After court adjourned, while the defense attorney and prosecutor were arguing about another case, Benton slipped money and a credit card from the attorney’s wallet and dropped the wallet on the floor under the defense table.
Then he walked away, a free man.
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Billy drove home to his apartment, but Kayla wasn’t there. Hannah said she’d gone to the house to get some work done. After he’d told her not to go over there alone. He changed into jeans and drove to Mansion Drive, intending to give Kayla a piece of his mind, but by the time he walked into the kitchen and found her stirring something on the stove, his anger had drained away. She was all right, which was the important thing.
“Kayla, what are you doing here? I thought we agreed you wouldn’t come here alone.”
“I didn’t go upstairs today. I worked outside and in the kitchen.”
“Did the ghosts behave themselves?”
“I didn’t hear a peep out of the ones upstairs, but I saw another one downstairs.”
“A man?”
She nodded. “A small man with white hair. He walked into the wall in the study.”
“You mean he vanished like the others?”
“No, he didn’t vanish. He walked into the wall, or through the wall.”
Could she have found the entrance to Andy’s secret room? He gazed into her eyes for several seconds before saying simply, “Show me.”
Double bi-fold doors separated the library and study. When the doors were open, it was like one big room. Kayla pointed to the wall of the study just inside the right side of those doors. The wood panels on the study walls could easily hide a door.
Billy pushed on the wall. “How does it open?”
“I didn’t know it was ’sposed to open.”
“Andy thinks there’s a hidden room back here, but we couldn’t figure out how to get in.”
The study extended back about ten feet beyond the library, yet the house had a square corner outside, so Andy was most likely right. All they had to do was find a way in.
While Kayla finished making dinner, Billy took everything out of the bookcase around the corner from the wall. He searched for something – anything – that might be a trigger to open the door, but there was nothing there.
Kayla called, “Billy, dinner is ready.”
“Did you find it?” she asked when he sat at the table.
“No. Maybe Andy can find it now that we know where the door is.”
“Maybe.” She poured him a glass of iced tea and another for herself. “Was that your grandfather I saw today?”
“Probably. Dad said he was a little guy, and his hair was so blond it was almost white. He expected me to find the safe, and I think he wants me to find that hidden room.”
“I’m sure he does. Why don’t we ask him?”
“Another conversation with a ghost?” He shook his head slightly. “I don’t know, Kayla. After the last one—”
“But that was Eleanor and Maggie.”
“Yes it was. How many other ghosts are here?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea. Who lived here before?”
“The attorney said William’s parents left the house to him, so I assume they lived here. I don’t know when they died or what their names were. I barely remember my grandfather. I was only three or four when he died.”
After dinner, Kayla walked into the study with Billy. She didn’t see the ghost, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t talk to him. “William, are you here?” He didn’t respond, and she didn’t expect him to, but she felt the cold of his presence. “Would you show Billy how to get into your secret room? He found the safe, but he can’t figure out how to get the door open to the private room.”
She glanced at Billy’s wide eyes and realized he felt the cold and knew his grandfather was present in the room. Most men would be skeptical, but Billy was more open-minded than most men.
The image of a white-haired man appeared in front of the wall. He put his hand on the picture hanging on the wall beside the secret door. And then he vanished.
Billy examined the portrait of a fair-haired young couple dressed in formal clothes. He’d seen it before, of course, but he didn’t realize the significance of the painting. Were these people his great-grandparents? “Kayla, do you know—”
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Cecil and Helen Goodman, William’s grandparents.”
He tried to lift the picture off the wall, but it wouldn’t budge. It wouldn’t twist either. Then he lifted the bottom of the painting away from the wall and heard a click. The wall to the right of the picture popped open a little, just enough to get his hand inside. He let go of the picture and it dropped back into place against the wall.
“Thank you, William,” said Kayla. “Thank you.”
Billy grabbed the edge of the door and pulled it open. The windowless room was small and dark. He felt around and found a light switch, but when he flipped it on, nothing happened. Why would it? After twenty-some years, the bulbs were probably no good.
“Kayla, did you find a flashlight when you cleaned the kitchen?”
“Yes, but the batteries were dead.”
Kayla picked up a lamp from the desk in the study and, stretching the cord as far as it would go, held it near the door, so they could see inside. It didn’t give them much light, just enough so they could see the shapes of furniture in the room. A sofa sat on one side of the room, which was about ten by fourteen feet. A cabinet on the side nearest the door held a television with a VCR under it.
Kayla pointed. “Are those video tapes?”
“Looks like it. I wonder what’s on them.”
“Something he didn’t want anyone else to see, I imagine. I wonder if Eleanor knew about this room.”
“I don’t think so. She didn’t know about the safe.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“I’m sure.” Eleanor wouldn’t have left anything for William’s grandson to find. “We’ll come back tomorrow with flashlights and light bulbs.”
While Kayla put the lamp back on the desk, Billy pushed the door closed until he heard it click into place. They’d need light before they could explore any more. It would take time to go through all those videotapes, time to figure out what William had been hiding.
“Is there anything else we need to do here tonight before we leave?”
She shook her head. “Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.”
“Then let’s go home.”
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Benton watched Billy-Boy and Miss Dishpan Hands drive away from the house on Mansion Drive. He followed them to a three-car garage behind a big old house on Livingston Avenue. They went in the side door, and a few seconds later, a light came on in the apartment upstairs. Why did they come here? Weren’t they living in the house on Mansion Drive?
He sat in the station wagon down the street, watc
hing and waiting for them to come out. The girl called the dog inside and then the lights went out. He waited, half expecting them to come out and drive back to the house. But they didn’t.
That meant there was no one staying in the Goodman house tonight.
Chapter Eight
Billy finished grading papers for his first period class and looked around for Kayla. The bathroom door was half open, and he could smell the steam from her bath. He tapped on the door. “Kayla?”
“I’m taking a bubble bath.”
“Where did you get the bubble bath?”
“From Ginny. She found it in one of the bathrooms at the house.”
Water sloshed and gurgled going down the drain. He eased the door all the way open and watched her step out of the tub onto the rug. She cocked her head and smiled, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the bubbles sliding down her wet body. Steve was right about one thing. She had the most amazing set of perfectly shaped breasts he’d ever seen.
Her eyes didn’t leave his face as she slowly began drying herself, rubbing the towel over her nipples and between her legs. He wanted to do that himself, with his tongue, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t take his eyes off her sexy body. She had a belly button ring. He’d never been with a woman who had a belly button ring, but then he’d never been with a woman as exciting as this one.
She dropped the towel and examined her hands. “Remind me to put hand lotion on the grocery list.”
He picked up the towel. “Turn around and I’ll dry your back.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Do it from the front.”
He leaned in and kissed her, a deep, passionate kiss that left no doubt how he felt about her. As he reached around her to dry her back, the clean scent of her warm, damp body turned him on more than any perfume he’d ever smelled.
After he dried her, he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. She unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it loose from his slacks. Her soft lips on his chest and the touch of her tongue on his nipples caused another part of his body to sit up and take notice, as if he wasn’t already hard enough.
“Condom?” she asked.
“In the drawer by the bed.”
She pulled one out of the drawer and tore open the package. “Can I dress him?”
“Honey, you can do anything you want with him. He’s all yours.”
“Billy, I want you to know I don’t sleep with every man I meet.”
He stripped off his shirt and sat beside her on the bed. “I didn’t think you did, honey.”
“My first husband, he was… He gave me a disease, and by the time I got it cleared up, it caused so much scarring the doctor said I couldn’t have kids.”
Wrapping his arms around her, Billy held her close. “First husband? You mean Leonard wasn’t the only one?”
“No, Blake was my first love. I didn’t know he was sleeping around on me when he was at boot camp. I was fixing to divorce him when he was killed in Afghanistan. I didn’t date for three years after that, and then I was real careful. When I found out Leonard was cheating on me, I went to the doctor and had a test. I never slept with Leonard again.”
He understood the meaning behind her words. “You’re saying you trust me not to give you something?”
“Yes, I guess I am.”
“I had a test after my girlfriend told me she was in love with another man. I assume they were sleeping together.”
“I can’t believe any woman would want another man after being with you.”
He couldn’t either, at first, and after he got over being angry, he nursed a bruised ego. What had Laura found so special about another man?
“It seems everybody sleeps around these days. Guys expect it on the first date, or maybe it’s just the guys I meet who do.”
He lifted her chin to gaze into her eyes. “Honey, I want you tonight, but if you’re not ready, I’ll wait.” He didn’t want to wait another second, but it had to be her choice.
“I just want you to promise you won’t be sleeping with anyone else while you’re sleeping with me.”
“Why would I want another woman when I have the sexiest one I’ve ever known right here in my bed?” Billy stood and, with one smooth motion, stripped off his slacks and underwear.
“Oh, my God. That’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”
He chuckled. “You’re laying it on kinda thick, aren’t you?”
She answered with a passionate kiss and her hand closed around his erection. As their hands and mouths explored, Billy felt like king of the world. She pushed him onto his back and brushed her soft, curly hair over his shoulders and chest, and then, as her hair brushed his erection, she reached for the condom. “Wait for me, sugar,” she murmured, rolling the condom down slowly over him. “Wait for me.”
Softly singing, Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy, she slid down his chest and over his stomach, leaving a damp path along the way. And then she slid down a little more, sheathing him with her hot, wet body. “Ride a cowboy,” she sang softly.
He grabbed her behind, shoved in harder, and held on as he flipped them over. “My turn, honey,” he whispered, pulling almost all the way out and surging deeply into her.
She moaned and clawed at his back, and he did it again and again, until she tightened around him and tears ran down her temples into her hair.
A long way from finished, Billy settled into a rhythm, rocking them together over and over again. When he finally let himself go, she came again, burying her face in his shoulder to smother her screams.
While he disposed of the condom, Kayla stretched and rubbed her hand over her tingling breasts. Every cell in her body felt alive. Billy Kane was the most amazing lover ever. She’d never felt so satisfied.
Billy slid under the covers beside her and she rolled into his arms. It felt so good, so natural to be with him like this, as if they were meant to be together. She was falling in love with a great guy, and it would tear her apart when she had to leave him and go back home to Memphis.
Kayla was nearly asleep in Billy’s arms when his phone rang. He sat up and answered it. Seconds later, he said, “I’ll be downstairs in a minute.” He snapped the phone closed and grabbed his clothes off the floor.
“Billy, who was that?”
“My father. Benton Ainsworth is out of jail, and he was seen on Mansion Drive a few minutes ago. I don’t want that son-of-a-bitch in the house. If he gets the safe open—”
“Why? What’s in the safe?”
“Money and the deeds to the house and another piece of property.”
She bolted out of bed and started pulling on her clothes. “Wait for me.”
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Benton picked the lock on the small gate and walked down the driveway toward his cousin’s dark house. He no longer had a key to the house, but the lock on the side door of the garage opened easily. Using the flashlight from the station wagon, he made his way past a late model Mercedes to the door into the house. Again, the lock picked easily. Glancing back at the car, he wondered if he could find the keys. He knew how to hot wire a car, but that was such a nuisance.
He stepped into the kitchen and turned on the light over the stove. It couldn’t be seen from the front of the house, and nobody would be in the backyard at this hour.
“Now, where would Cousin Eleanor put a safe? In the master bedroom? Or in a study or office?”
It took Benton several minutes to explore the main floor of the house and find the library and study. When he didn’t immediately find the safe or anything else of value in those rooms, he walked up the main staircase to the second floor. He turned left and found a nursery covered in dust. Why would Eleanor have a nursery at her age? Her only child had died years ago, and her grandson was a grown man.
Another suite was decorated for a little girl. There were clothes hanging in the closet and shelves filled with toys, as if the kid who’d lived here would ever play with toys again.
Convinced he’d gone the wrong direction to find th
e master, Benton backtracked to the stairs and beyond, where he found a bigger suite of rooms. There was no mattress on the bed. Strange. One of the walk-in closets was empty and the other was filled with a woman’s black clothes. He pulled a dress out and held it up. “Tiny woman, my cousin. Now, where would she keep her purse, and where’s the damn safe?”
He went through all the shelves and cabinets in the closet and moved on to the bedroom, where he found a purse in a drawer. He pocketed the cash and credit cards, but there were no car keys. Had Billy-Boy already found them?
After a thorough search of the master suite, Benton decided the safe had to be downstairs. He didn’t question whether or not there was a safe in the house. Anyone who owned a house this size would have valuable possessions and a safe to keep them in. They might use a bank’s safe deposit box for some things, but not for everything.
One picture in the study was attached to the wall, so he examined it more closely. He lifted it from the bottom and something clicked. A panel on the wall not two feet away popped open. “Ah! Now we’re getting somewhere.” Instead of a regular safe, they had a walk-in vault.
Excited at finding the vault, Benton walked in to check it out. The door closed behind him and wouldn’t open again. His flashlight went out, and a surge of panic coursed through him. Groping around the only door in the pitch black room, he tried to figure out how to get it open. Something cold touched his neck and he jumped.
The light switch didn’t work. Nothing worked in this room except his heart, which pounded so hard his whole chest hurt.
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While Kayla finished dressing, Billy grabbed the big flashlight from the kitchen drawer and a package of light bulbs from the pantry. Buford followed him into the kitchen. “Aw, Buford, what are we going to do with you?”
“Take him along,” said Kayla. “If that snake is in the house, Buford will find him.”
The moon shone brightly that night, making puddles of darkness under the trees. There was no traffic between Livingston Avenue and Mansion Drive at this hour, and as Dad approached the house, he turned off the headlights. “You two stay in the car until I check out the house.”
