by SUE FINEMAN
“No way,” said Billy. “I’m going in with you, and so is Buford.”
“And me,” said Kayla. “I’m psychic, remember? Or kinda psychic.”
Dad sighed. “Then stay together.”
Kayla grabbed Billy’s hand. “Yes, sir.”
The small gate in front was unlocked. Benton was either here now or he had been here.
Dad asked, “Can you find your way around inside without lights?”
“Yes, sir, I can,” said Kayla.
Buford picked up the scent, and they followed him to the side door of the garage, which stood wide open. Eleanor’s car was still parked in the garage. The son-of-a-bitch was still here, or the car would be gone. Dad pulled his gun from his shoulder holster and opened the door into the house.
Letting the dog take the lead, they followed him into the house and around the first floor. Billy wanted to run to the library and make sure that snake hadn’t touched the safe, but he waited for Dad’s lead.
Two uniformed officers followed them into the house and then two more. Dad sent them to guard the doors, so the intruder didn’t get away.
Finally, the dog led them to the library and study. Benton wasn’t there. Billy turned on a light and checked the safe, which looked undisturbed. He opened it and found everything as he’d left it. With a sigh of relief, he locked the safe and pushed the books back in front of it.
They waited for Buford to lead them upstairs, but he was sniffing around the door to that hidden room.
Billy motioned to his father and pointed to the hidden door. He lifted the bottom of the portrait and the door popped open. A white-faced man fell into the room. One of the officers called the paramedics while another gave the man CPR.
Benton Ainsworth was still alive when they took him to the hospital. Billy shared a long look with Kayla. Had his grandfather deliberately scared Benton into having a heart attack? Did they have three evil ghosts in this house?
Buford stared at something in the hidden room and growled. Billy played the flashlight around, thinking Benton might not have come alone, but there was no one else there, at least no living person. “Kayla, can Buford see—”
“Animals and little kids can often see what others can’t.”
After the officers left, Billy and his father inspected the hidden room. “What is this place?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know, but it looks like it was built this way. William’s parents must have used it for something.”
Dad picked up a video tape. “Looks like William used it, too. I don’t know if he was watching dirty movies or what, but somebody should check these out.”
“I intend to.” Video tapes were stacked on the shelves beside the television set and VCR. Some were dated, others had names on them, and a few were unlabeled. Billy was curious, but it would take days to go through all those tapes, and he had to go to work in the morning. This would have to wait for another time.
They locked the house and Dad drove them back to Billy’s apartment.
“Billy, did William do that on purpose?” Kayla asked.
“I don’t know. Benton’s flashlight didn’t work and neither did the lights in that room. It wouldn’t have taken much.”
Kayla sighed audibly. “I don’t like Benton, cousin or not, but I don’t want him dead.”
“It’s his own fault,” said Dad. “Anyone breaking into a house takes a risk of something happening. An irate homeowner could have been armed with a baseball bat or a gun or knife. Stupid jerk! If he survives, he’ll spend a few years in a prison cell. No judge in his right mind would turn him loose again.”
“He shouldn’t have done it this time,” said Billy.
“Yeah, I know. Judge Tolbert’s on his way out. Once this hits the news, he’ll never be elected again.”
Billy walked upstairs with Kayla and Buford. It was nearly one in the morning, and he was tired, but he was too wired to sleep. The last thing he expected to find in that house tonight was a man having a heart attack.
<>
Benton woke in the ambulance. The young woman paramedic at his side said, “You were having a little trouble breathing, so we’re taking you to the hospital to let the doctor check you out.”
“Chest hurts.”
“That’s because we had to give you CPR.”
He pulled the oxygen mask aside. “I had a heart attack?”
“Your heart stopped and the police officer brought you back with CPR.” She put the oxygen mask back over his face. “Quiet now. Breathe deeply and try to stay calm. We’ll be at the hospital in another minute or so.”
Stay calm? There was something in that room, something cold. It wouldn’t let him open the door, and it broke his flashlight.
What kind of monster did they have locked in that room? Was that why Billy-Boy and Cousin Kayla didn’t stay in the house?
<>
Friday morning, Hannah helped Kayla pull down the old drapes upstairs, and the window washer came that afternoon. The ghosts stayed quiet and out of sight while the crew of three washed the windows, for which Kayla was immensely grateful.
While the window washers worked, she cleaned the bedroom suite Maggie hung out in. The cabinets and drawers were filled with clothes and shoes, purses, handbags, and other accessories. Some things still had price tags on them.
Polishing the beautiful mahogany sleigh bed, Kayla saw a glimpse of Maggie standing off to the side, watching her. “Hi, Maggie. I thought you might like your room cleaned. It’s looking a little shabby. Billy said I could buy new blinds and drapes for the windows, and we might paint the walls.”
The furniture in the sitting room was covered in a flowered chintz pattern. Pretty and feminine, like Maggie. A wallpaper border in the sitting room had flowers that matched the fabric on the chairs. “Would a nice soft green suit you for the walls? It would look good with the furniture in here.”
Maggie didn’t answer. The ghost had disappeared.
Kayla finished up and walked down to Eleanor’s rooms. The bedroom alone was bigger than Kayla’s whole apartment, and it was twice the size of the little trailer house she’d grown up in. The huge four-poster bed looked funny without a mattress. She wondered if Billy intended to replace it. Yet, why would he? He didn’t intend to live here, especially in this room.
The sitting room was furnished with a white sofa and chairs, and a multi-brown-colored area rug covered the center of the floor. Brown and rust throw pillows on the sofa coordinated with the rug, but there was nothing on the walls. Looking closer, she saw the holes where something had been hung there. Had Billy taken something down, or had Eleanor done it herself? A cabinet held eight photo albums, and every picture in every album was of a blonde child, a blonde teenager, or a blonde woman. Maggie.
Where were the pictures of their family together? And where were the pictures of Maggie’s son?
Billy called, “Kayla, where are you?”
“Upstairs.” She walked out to the hallway. “I thought I’d clean Eleanor’s suite.”
He kissed her lightly on the lips. “No problems?”
“None. I cleaned Maggie’s suite, and she didn’t do anything but watch. Billy, does your sister want more of Maggie’s clothes? If not, we need to figure out what to do with them.”
“Throw them away.”
“No. There are still price tags on some of those clothes.”
“I know. Every time Maggie got mad at Dad, she went shopping and charged it to him. By the time she died, he had over a hundred thousand in credit card debt, and he owed the hospital a half-million. He sold the house and we moved in with Pop, but Pop sold his house to pay the credit card bills and the three of us moved into a dumpy little apartment in a bad part of town.”
Now she understood why Donovan hated Maggie so much. “Why didn’t your father file for bankruptcy?”
“Because the chief of police told him it would ruin his career.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Yes, I know, but t
hat’s the way things were back then.” He glanced around. “What do you need me to do?”
“You can pay the window washers and check on the pool guys while I clean the bathroom in here. It doesn’t look as bad as the others.” She wanted to get as much done as possible while the ghosts were behaving themselves, and she wanted to keep Billy off this floor for now. He sent negative vibes that were hard to ignore, for the living and the dead. Given the history of this family, his presence might keep the ghosts stirred up.
If Billy could find a way to forgive his mother and grandmother for their neglect and cruelty to him and his father, if he could put it behind him, she might be able to convince Maggie to move on. She wasn’t so sure about William and Eleanor. There could be something else going on there.
When Kayla finished upstairs, Billy bought Chinese for dinner. They sat in the family room, bare feet propped on the coffee table, passing cartons back and forth.
Billy watched her eat with chopsticks without spilling anything. “I never could figure out how to eat with those things.”
“Someone told me you couldn’t eat as much with chopsticks, and I was on a diet at the time, so I taught myself how to use them.”
He cocked his head. “You can’t eat as much?”
“You can’t shovel it in as fast with chopsticks as you can with a fork, especially the way you eat.”
“What’s wrong with the way I eat?”
“You eat like you’re starving, Billy.”
“Hey, I get hungry.”
She giggled, and he knew she was teasing him. He picked up his chopsticks and tried to eat a bite of sweet and sour pork, but it fell on his shirt. “No wonder Chinese people are so small. They never get anything to eat.”
Her eyes sparkled. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and her hair was a mess, but she looked happy. He’d never known anyone quite like her. Her soft accent reminded him she wasn’t from this part of the country. She worked hard for what little pay he gave her, and he trusted her completely. Yet she was related to Eleanor Goodman, the meanest woman he’d ever known, and Benton Ainsworth. He kept waiting for her to show that side of her personality, but it didn’t happen.
He’d always been attracted to small women, but Kayla was at least five-eight, and there wasn’t anything small about her, including those luscious breasts. She knew how to move that shapely body, and she wasn’t shy about making love. Kayla was older than him by about five years, and she’d undoubtedly had more lovers than he had. Yet in every way that counted, they were equals.
Still, there was something about her that made him hold back his affections. Maybe it was because she came here for money and intended to leave here as soon as she got it. He was reluctant to get involved with a woman who’d been married before – twice – and couldn’t have children. And she carried the same DNA as Eleanor.
“Billy?”
“Sorry, I spaced out. What did you say?”
“I asked if you wanted more food.”
“No, I’m full.”
They opened their fortune cookies. Hers said she’d come into some money soon, and his said he’d get some upsetting information. He tossed them in the trash.
Nobody believed those things.
Chapter Nine
Kayla and Billy stayed at the house Friday night. She expected him to sleep with her in the maid’s room, but he stayed in the study. Kayla got the message loud and clear. He wasn’t offering more than an occasional night in his bed. No emotional attachment, nothing but sex. It hurt to know he didn’t feel the same about her as she did about him. Still, they’d only known each other for a few days, and she’d be gone in a few weeks. In any case, he obviously didn’t want to get involved with her.
It wasn’t the first time she’d mistaken sex for affection. What made her think he was any different than the men she’d dated in the past? Because he was a school teacher? Because he had a nice family? Because he was a fantastic lover?
Why did she always fall for the wrong guys?
<>
Billy spent the evening digging through the secret room behind the library. A cabinet held several family photo albums, including faded black and white pictures of William’s parents. There were also pictures of the house before the black iron gate was installed. The house looked stark and massive before the landscaping screen was planted in front. It still looked stark and massive, but it would look a whole lot better after they added the porte-cochere and the iron window boxes on the front.
William wasn’t an only child. Many of the earlier pictures showed an older brother. Then there were pictures of a coffin and a gravestone. In the next pictures of William and his family, William had to be at least two or three years older.
“I wonder how he died,” Billy said to himself.
There were pictures of William at his high school and college graduations. He’d gone to Yale. Billy wondered what kind of student he was and what he studied.
The next album was filled with wedding pictures. William was a small man, and his wife was tiny in comparison. The pages were filled with pictures of people Billy assumed were family members. Honeymoon pictures showed the newlyweds on a beach, in bathing suits that would be considered conservative these days. Eleanor looked happy, and so did William. Billy had never seen that look on Eleanor’s face. He remembered her disapproving scowl and her nasty comments, but he couldn’t remember her ever smiling at him.
Flipping through more pictures, Billy stopped on a picture of a glowing mother-to-be. “Eleanor was pregnant?” He thought she couldn’t have kids, which was why they adopted Maggie. Pictures of a newborn dressed in blue came next. One picture of Eleanor holding the baby seemed especially sad. All the light had gone out of her eyes.
The next pictures of the baby showed a little boy about two or three years old sitting on a blanket on the grass. Billy recognized the facial features and expression as those of a kid with Down’s syndrome. He had black hair like Eleanor’s, and black eyes that slanted up on the outside, but those eyes looked like nobody was home. Billy knew little about Down’s syndrome, but he did know there was some level of mental retardation involved, and often other health related problems.
There were no more pictures of the little boy and no more of the happy couple. It was as if the kid had disappeared. Maybe he had. Maybe he died shortly after those last pictures were taken. And maybe Eleanor was so ashamed of him, she wouldn’t let anyone take more pictures.
What happened to that little boy?
<>
Saturday morning, while Billy and Andy met with the architect, Kayla finished cleaning Eleanor’s suite. The big bed looked funny without a mattress. Billy said to pack up Eleanor’s clothes and he’d donate them to the homeless shelter, but she wondered how many homeless people wore a size two.
There wasn’t a single piece of clothing in her closet that wasn’t black. Had Eleanor been in mourning since Maggie died? Poor lady. “I’m so sorry, Eleanor. So sorry you lost your daughter when she was so young.”
Sunlight streamed through the sitting room window. Kayla opened the French doors and walked out on the balcony overlooking the pool. The men had finished the pool lining, and a man was installing the new pump. The pool should be filled and ready to use by next weekend.
Kayla finished packing Eleanor’s clothes, pushed the boxes outside the bedroom door, and carried the cleaning supplies down to the nursery. Three more suites to deep clean, including the nursery.
She picked up the teddy bear from the crib and hugged it. Sitting in the rocking chair, eyes closed, she could hear baby Maggie fussing, smell the baby powder on the soft skin of her behind, feel the warm weight of the baby in her arms. A heaviness settled in her heart as she let the visions of the past take her to another time.
“Mommy’s perfect little angel,” Eleanor crooned.
William came into the room. “Eleanor, we need to talk about John.”
“No,” she snapped. “It’s too soon.”
“E
leanor—”
The baby cried.
“See what you’ve done? You’ve upset the baby.”
“But—”
“Not now, William. I don’t want to talk about John now.”
“You never want to talk about him,” William said on his way out of the room.
Kayla opened her eyes and the vision was gone. She sat in the rocking chair, not Eleanor, and she held a teddy bear, not a sweet little baby girl. But the question in her mind wasn’t about the baby girl.
Who was John?
As she packed away toys and baby clothes, Kayla had another vision, this one of a baby boy lying quietly in his crib. He didn’t cry. It was almost as if he knew no one would come if he did cry. He didn’t roll over or reach for the mobile hanging over his bed.
William came into the room, changed the baby’s diaper, and picked him up. He sat in the rocking chair and gave the baby a bottle.
Billy called, “Kayla? Where are you?”
The vision disappeared. “I’m in the nursery, Billy.”
He appeared in the doorway. “I ordered pizza for lunch, and Mary Corning is due in an hour or so.”
“I didn’t realize it was that late.” The visions had drained her, but she had to get her mind back on work or she’d never get finished. “I thought I’d order white blinds to match the woodwork for all the rooms. That way we can paint the rooms any color. Is that okay with you?”
“Sounds good. Did you find a painter?”
“Not yet. I thought I’d paint Maggie’s rooms myself. I don’t think she’d appreciate having another strange person invading her space.”
“What about Eleanor?”
She put the teddy bear back in the crib. “I don’t know what to do about her. She seems so angry.” Did the other baby have something to do with that? “Billy, did Maggie have a brother?”
He stared at her. “Why do you ask?”
“I had a vision about a baby boy, but something wasn’t quite right.”
