by Kathi Daley
“It is sort of odd that Ethel lived all alone in that house for so many years,” I added. “Are we sure she never married or took in a roommate?”
“Not that I’ve been able to find,” Mike assured me. “As far as I can tell, Ethel lived with her father until he either returned to England or died and then she lived alone until she died in nineteen sixty at the age of forty-nine.”
“And how did she die?”
“No one knows for certain. She was found dead in her home after the man who maintained her septic system had been unable to reach her and had eventually notified law enforcement. The cause of death appeared to have been natural, but was never conclusively determined.”
“Natural?” I asked. “As in a heart attack, stroke, or something like that?”
Mike nodded. “There was no sign of forced entry or trauma to the body, which might indicate an assault or an accident. Unfortunately, Ethel had been dead for several months before her body was discovered, so any evidence as to how she died was compromised by that point.”
I wrinkled my nose. “The poor woman. To have died all alone in that big old house with no one around to even know what had happened.”
“I’m afraid the house saw nothing but tragedy from the moment Edward built it and brought Elizabeth to live there,” Mike said.
Chapter 13
Tuesday, October 22
Tony was able to arrange for his forensic friend to look at the bones we’d found in the secret room and tell us what he could about them. He worked out of a lab in DC, so Tony had called his friend with the private jet and made arrangements to accompany the bones, which Mike had released into Tony’s care, to the lab. In trade for his friend’s time with the skeleton, Tony had agreed to take care of some upgrades his friend wanted to do to his computer system, so he arranged to spend two nights in DC. Tony promised he’d be back on Thursday in plenty of time to help with the fundraiser this weekend, but in the meantime, I was on my own. Tony had always traveled a lot for work, so you would think I would be used to his absences, but when I returned home to my cabin to find only the animals to keep me company, I realized I was really going to miss him.
Normally, I would have called Bree and suggested we get together for a drink, but she was a married woman now who usually had plans with Mike. Tony really hadn’t worked out of town much since he’d made the decision to work with Shaggy on the game they were developing, but if he did decide to go back to frequent traveling at some point, I supposed I’d need to make a new friend.
After deciding to scramble an egg for dinner, I poured myself a glass of wine and settled onto the living room sofa.
The discussion Tony, Mike, Bree, and I’d had at brunch on Sunday had gotten me thinking about my father. When I’d briefly seen him in March, he’d asked me to stop looking for him. He’d told me that by doing so, I would not only be putting him in danger, but Mike, Mom, and myself as well. After all the lies he’d told to disappear in the first place, I still found that I believed him, so I stopped all the tracking and computer searches Tony had been conducting and decided to simply let him go.
Of course, that didn’t mean that I didn’t think about him from time to time. I guess it had been a while, but talking about the lake where he’d gone fishing every Thanksgiving had brought up a lot of memories. Tony and I were the only ones who knew the entire story relating to my father, but I’d shared enough with Mike to cause him to be curious, and every now and then, he brought up the fact that one of these days he was going to take the time to really look for the man.
I never should have told Mike what I knew. Dad wanted to be dead. I should have let him remain dead, at least as far as Mike was concerned.
I got up from the sofa where Tang and Tinder were competing to sit the closest to me and grabbed an old photo album that I’d left on the shelf. There were photos of Mom, Dad, Mike, and me from when Mike and I were kids. Dad hadn’t always been the best dad. In fact, most of the time, he was an absent dad, but I’d loved him, and I knew he loved Mike and me. He was away more than he was home, but when he was home, he did things for us such as teaching us to ride a bike, taking us to the lake, or simply hanging out in the yard and tossing a ball around.
To find out all these years later that he’d been living a secret life the entire time he was masquerading as our dad, was still something I had a hard time wrapping my mind around.
I smiled as I flipped through the pages of the old album. In spite of everything, we’d had a good childhood. Mom had been a wonderful and caring parent who was there for all the moments of our lives even if Dad hadn’t always been around. I thought about Bree and her desire to establish a place in the Thomas family hierarchy. Mom had always been the only Mrs. Thomas in the family since Dad didn’t have a mom, or at least he didn’t have a mom we’d ever met. Mom loved to cook, and cooking for the entire Thomas family had always been one of the things she’d done to demonstrate her love for us. I hated to cook, so Mom had no competition from me on that count, but Bree, like Mom, loved to mess around in the kitchen. I sensed that the potential for a real struggle between the two might be lurking in the background if they didn’t work out a compromise. Thanksgiving might represent the first tiny battle, but I could see Bree wanting to host Sunday dinners and even family birthdays as time went on.
I closed the photo album and put it back on the shelf. The last thing I wanted to do was get in the middle of a power struggle between the two. I knew that Mom loved Bree and wanted her to be happy, so maybe she’d willingly give up some of her well-established ground to the new woman in her son’s life.
Pouring a second glass of wine, I logged onto my computer. I checked my emails, most of which were spam. Logging off, I decided that what I really needed was to expend some energy, so I tossed a log on the fire and headed out to take Tilly and Titan for a walk. The air was crisp, and the sun had set, although it wasn’t completely dark yet. I grabbed a flashlight just to be safe and headed down the narrow woodland trail that wound through the forest. I loved being outdoors at this time of the year. The smell of smoke from my wood fire filled the air as leaves fell gently to the ground all around me. I zipped up my sweatshirt against the chill as the sky grew dark. After only a half a mile, I turned around and headed back toward my cabin.
“Oh good, you are here,” Jessica, a friend and fellow volunteer for the haunted house, greeted me in the drive as the dogs and I approached my cabin.
“I was just taking the dogs for a walk. What’s up?”
“I was on my way back into town from visiting my cousin in Big Fork, and I drove by the haunted house. I’m sure I noticed a light coming from inside. It didn’t necessarily look like a light was on; it looked more like someone was moving around inside with a flashlight. I didn’t have your phone number with me, but I did remember where you lived, and it was on the way so I thought I’d stop by.”
“Thanks. I’m glad you did. I’ll head over and check it out.”
Jessica looked toward the cabin behind me. “Is Tony here?”
“He is actually out of town.”
“Well, I wouldn’t head over to the house alone. Who knows who you might find. It could be dangerous.”
“It’s probably our prankster. I’ll call Mike and have him meet me over there.”
She blew out a breath. “Oh good. I feel better about that.” She turned and looked back toward her car. “I need to get going. I’ll see you on Friday.”
“See you then, and thanks again.”
I continued into the cabin. I called Mike’s cell, but he didn’t answer, so I left a message. I figured the intruder Jessica saw was most likely the individual Tony and I suspected had been messing around with the props, so I called to the dogs, loaded them into my Jeep, and headed down the highway toward the isolated estate. When I arrived, the place looked to be closed up tight. I used my key to enter and turned on the lights. Looking toward the dogs to provide a cue if there was an intruder on the property, I waited while
they sniffed around, and when they didn’t seem overly concerned, I decided to take a look around. I really didn’t know who our prankster was, but as Tony and I had discussed, so far the intruder had actually made things better so we’d decided not to stress over figuring it out.
I didn’t see anything on the first floor and was about to head up to the second floor when I heard a crash which sounded like it had come from the basement. Changing direction, I headed down the stairs rather than up. The room was mostly empty, except for a stack of boxes in one corner and the old furnace in the very back. I felt a cold breeze and remembered the heating vent Susan had mentioned. There was a good chance what I’d heard was an animal that had accessed the vent and gotten inside. I turned on my flashlight, headed toward the back of the room, and confirmed that the screen for the vent was definitely not in place. Making a mental note to have it replaced, I headed back up the stairs. When the dogs and I arrived back on the first floor, both Tilly and Titan began to growl. Both dogs were looking toward the stairs to the second floor, so I gave them the command to find and then followed to see who or what had caused them to growl in the first place.
They passed the second floor and scrambled up the stairs to the attic. The door to the attic was closed. I opened the door and stepped inside. I stood in the middle of the room, looking around while the dogs sniffed at the wall leading to the hidden room. That was empty too. I supposed whoever had been here had gone down the back staircase as we came up the main staircase. I thought about the light Jessica had seen and wondered who’d been here. If I had to guess, it was someone who’d heard the rumor about the treasure and had come by to take a look for themselves. But who? Grange, the man who’d told Joe about the treasure in the first place? Jack, the neighbor we suspect Joe had talked to about the treasure? Trent, the man Susan told me she’d broken into the house with when they were kids? Susan, who’d been reminded of the treasure when we’d discussed it? The other kids with Trent and Susan, who she never identified, would be adults now and possibly still living in the area?
Of course, the intruder might just have been whoever had been pranking us, and not someone looking for the treasure at all. I suspected they were long gone, so unless they left clues behind, I really had no idea how we would identify our prowler.
It was then that Tilly came trotting up with a hat in her mouth. I took the hat from Tilly and took a closer look at it. It was a baseball style hat with the name Plimpton Construction embroidered on the front. Could Grange have been the one to be here snooping around after all? He was the only one I could think of who knew about the treasure and would have a hat such as this. Of course, he could have simply left the hat when he was here doing repairs. I wished I knew exactly where Tilly had found it. Tony, Mike, Bree, and I had searched the area fairly well when we’d found the back stairway, but that didn’t mean the hat couldn’t have fallen behind a piece of furniture or off to the side when Grange was here, and no one had noticed it. I supposed I’d call Mike once again and let him decide.
Chapter 14
Thursday, October 24
Mike had spoken to Grange, and he’d assured Mike that he hadn’t been anywhere near the house on Tuesday evening. He had been at the bowling alley with the other men who participated in his league, so Mike was inclined to believe him. The odd thing was that when Mike suggested that perhaps he’d left the hat at the house when he’d been there to do repairs, he’d informed Mike that he hadn’t been wearing the hat and, in fact, never wore a hat since his hair was so thick that hats never fit right. He’d also said that the hats had been distributed as a promotion a couple of years before and there were quite a few people in town who still wore them. Too many in fact, he assured Mike, to really consider the hat to be a clue as to who may have been lurking around inside the house on Tuesday night or any other night for that matter.
Tony was coming home this afternoon. He’d called me last night to tell me that while the skeleton we’d found in the secret room could very well have belonged to Edward Vandenberg based on height, he had no way of knowing for certain that the skeleton had been Edward since he’d been a man of average height, not a man who’d been statistically tall or short. Tony decided to leave the bones behind since his friend agreed to continue his investigation, while Tony came back to White Eagle to dig around on the computer in the hope of finding a mention of when and where Edward Vandenberg might have died or perhaps where he might have been buried. Tony figured if we could find a death certificate or burial site, then we could probably eliminate him as a possible identity for the skeleton found behind the wall.
“Morning, Hattie,” I greeted the owner of Hattie’s Bakeshop as I began my route, which I’d started early in the hope of finishing early and having more time to spend with Tony once he got back. “Something smells wonderful.”
Hattie handed Tilly a dog cookie. “I have both pumpkin spice and cinnamon apple muffins in the oven, and my apple popovers have just come out. Would you like one with a cup of coffee?”
“Normally, I would, but I’m in a bit of a rush today. Tony is coming home, and I want to get my route done early.”
“Did he figure out who that skeleton belongs to?” Hattie asked. I’d spoken to her about the secret room and the skeleton we’d found during a visit the previous week.
“No. So far, they haven’t found anything that would eliminate Ethel’s father, Edward, as a potential identity, but they haven’t found anything that would definitively prove that the skeleton belonged to the man either. Given the fact that Ethel lived in the house when the body was placed in the room, and the fact that her father seems to have simply disappeared, my money is on him as the resident of the room, but I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to prove it with any certainty.”
Hattie visibly shivered. “It is so disturbing to think of this young woman killing her father and then walling him in so that no one would ever find his remains.”
“I don’t know a lot about it, but it sounds like Edward was a cruel man who may very well have killed both his wives. Maybe Ethel acted in self-defense. Maybe her father became violent, and she fought back.”
“Then why hide the body?” Hattie asked.
I shrugged. “I suppose she may have been afraid of what would happen if she told the truth. I don’t think there was any sort of official law enforcement in the area before the town was incorporated. Whether or not she was faced with consequences for her actions would most likely have been up to the residents in the area, and who knows what they would have done.”
Hattie turned toward the ovens and opened the one on the top. She adjusted the tray and closed it again. “I guess you do make a good point. Still, the whole thing just seems so tragic.”
“I agree. It seems like the house has seen a tragic past. It really isn’t surprising that a lot of folks think it is haunted.”
“Any more pranks?” Hattie asked.
“No, but there was someone at the house on Tuesday. The dogs and I scared them off, and Mike had Gage do a couple of drive-bys yesterday. So far, the prankster hasn’t done any real damage. I’d like to keep it that way.”
Hattie rearranged her cooling trays in anticipation of taking the next batch from the oven. “Are you making a lot of money for the shelter?”
I smiled. “We are. I spoke to Brady yesterday, and he is going to go ahead with our plans to break ground for the new long-term care facility for hard to place animals in the spring. It’ll be nice to provide an environment more like a home for these hard to place pets.”
“The two of you are doing wonderful things for our community. I’ve spoken to a few of the other merchants who have all agreed to make large contributions to the cause over the next few months.”
“That’s wonderful. The long-term care facility is not going to be cheap. We can use all the donations we can get.”
I chatted with Hattie for a few more minutes and then continued on my way. I’d ended up spending a lot more time with her than I’d plann
ed, so if I wanted to get off early, I’d need to pick up the pace. Tilly and I had our route down pat, so when a drop and run was needed, we knew exactly what to do.
It wasn’t until after lunch, which we skipped in favor of making up time, that a random comment provided a clue in Joe’s murder that would throw me off my timing once again.
“Afternoon, Ernie. Where’s Hap?”
Ernie Cole was Hap’s part-time employee who only worked the counter when Hap was out.
“He had a doctor’s appointment today, so I’m watching the counter.”
I set the pile of mail on the counter. “I hope Hap is feeling okay.”
Ernie nodded. “I think this is just a checkup, although it is his second appointment in the past couple of weeks.” Ernie set the mail behind the counter. “Hap might not want me saying as much, so forget what I just said.”
“No problem.”
Ernie reached into the drawer beneath the cash drawer and pulled out a dog treat, which he handed to Tilly. “Did that paint work out okay for you?”
“Paint?”
“The black paint for the haunted house. Trent wasn’t sure if a water-based or an oil-based paint would work best, but I suggested the oil.”
“Trent?”
“Trent Mason. He said he was one of the volunteers out at the fundraiser. I let him charge the paint to your account. I hope that’s okay.”
I drew my brows together. “Uh, sure. That’s fine. I really need to get going, but yes, the paint worked out fine.”
Susan had said her friend, Trent, had known of a way to get into the house when they were kids. Could Trent be our prankster? Might he even have been the one to kill Joe? Susan said that Trent wanted his friends to break back into the house all those years ago and start opening up walls, but everyone had declined. She didn’t know if he’d gone back, but she suspected that if he had, he hadn’t found the treasure. Maybe he had never gone back then, but perhaps when he’d heard we planned to open up the house and use it for a fundraiser, he’d decided to go back for a second look before someone else found the treasure he considered to be his.
