They were just about to eat standing at the counter—since all the furniture Kathy had accumulated was still stored in the basement—when they heard banging on the front door. She ran to the door to answer it and found Paul and Anissa waiting on the steps. Behind them, was Paul’s snowmobile. “Merry Christmas,” Anissa called. “I’m here to bleed Tori’s water lines.”
“What?”
“The power company says we may not get the juice back on until tomorrow morning. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Paul called.
“Can it wait long enough for us to eat breakfast? We’ve got hot coffee, French toast, and bacon. Are you hungry?”
“Am I!” Anissa declared.
“Can I go get Noreen? She’s been munching crackers and complaining.”
“Sure, we’ve got enough for everybody,” Kathy said.
Anissa followed her inside and took off her coat, hat, and gloves while Paul headed next door to retrieve his wife.
“Looks like I won’t be going to Rochester for Christmas dinner,” Anissa said after greeting Tori and wishing her a Merry Christmas, too. “The main roads are a priority, but with this blowing snow, I don’t want to risk that forty-mile drive.”
“Your family will be disappointed you can’t make it,” Kathy said.
“Christmas is for kids, and my mother and brother and sister-in-law will be too busy spoiling the grandkids to even notice I’m among the missing. Besides, I’ll see them for Kwanza, anyway.”
“Well, I’m sorry you can’t be with them today, but Kathy bought a huge roasting chicken, we’ll have plenty. Why don’t you join us for Christmas dinner?”
“I can’t think of a better place to be,” Anissa said and gratefully accepted a cup of coffee.
“I’d better go back downstairs and get some more dishes,” Kathy said, and then paused. “Hey, guess what? You guys are my first breakfast guests here at Swans Nest.”
“I’d call that a pretty big honor,” Tori said, and smiled.
Kathy smiled back. Yes, and she was determined to treat her premier guests as though they were the most important people in the world—because right then, they were.
By the time Anissa had bled the water lines at Tori’s home and the bait shop, and Paul’s and Noreen’s home and their bar, it was time to start thinking about Christmas dinner.
While the others were gone, Tori had gone back and forth to the Cannon compound to check on the cats and add more wood to the stove, as well as ferry food, dishes, and other sundries Kathy needed to prepare a festive dinner for five. And it wasn’t easy. Slogging through all that snow was exhausting.
She and Kathy had just started to bring up the chairs to Kathy’s grandmother’s mahogany dining room set when Anissa, Paul, and Noreen arrived.
“Paul and I can handle that big table,” Anissa announced.
“Oh, yeah?” Paul asked, skeptically.
“Sure.”
“Can I help in the kitchen?” Noreen asked.
“I’d love some help,” Kathy said.
“I can help, too,” Tori said, feeling just a little bit left out.
“There’s more than enough to do,” Kathy said, and led them into the kitchen. “Would you mind peeling the potatoes?” she asked Noreen.
“Not a bit.”
Tori wandered the kitchen rather restlessly while Kathy got a cutting board, knife, and peeler for Noreen. It was then she noticed the yellowed piece of paper held on the door of the battered fridge by a magnet. She read the spidery handwriting.
To find what you seek
Go to the attic so neat
Look six paces east
Under the beast.
“Hey, what’s this, Kath?”
Kathy turned. “Just a piece of paper I found the other day under a board in the kitchen. I’d almost forgotten about it. I thought I might check it out, but I haven’t had a chance.”
Tori removed the paper and read it again. “This sounds like it could be a treasure hunt.”
“A what?” Noreen asked, looking up from her task at the counter.
Tori read the clue aloud.
“Do you think that’s legit?” Noreen asked.
Kathy shrugged. “I’m sure if there was treasure hidden somewhere in the house, it’s long gone by now. I mean, the place was a shambles, which is why it’s going to cost me a mint to repair and restore what I can.”
“How soon are we going to eat?” Tori asked.
“Not for at least another hour,” Kathy said.
“Then we’ve got time to investigate.”
“Investigate what?” Anissa said as she entered the big square kitchen.
“Kathy’s treasure hunt.”
“A treasure hunt? Is this some kind of a Christmas party game?”
Tori shook her head and handed Anissa the note. “Whoa. This sounds like it could be fun.”
“I’m for fun,” Paul said, coming up from behind her. “Especially since there’s not much to do while we wait for the dinner to cook—unless we want to just sit around on hard chairs and get drunk.”
“There’ll be no getting drunk!” Noreen admonished.
“How about a little bit tipsy?” Anissa offered.
Noreen’s gaze hardened.
“Okay, okay. Then treasure hunt it is.”
“Let me see that,” Paul said, and Anissa handed the paper to him. He read it and frowned. “Sounds bogus to me. Are you sure we can’t just sit around and drink?”
“I’m sure.”
“Where did you find the note?” Anissa asked, and Kathy explained.
“Do you think we need any tools?” Tori asked.
Anissa shrugged. “Maybe a hammer, a screwdriver, and a chisel.”
“I’ve got those tools down in the basement,” Kathy said.
“I’ll go get them. You guys start the treasure hunt.”
“I really need to keep my eye on the dinner,” Kathy said.
“No need, honey. I’m an experienced cook. Been doing it for six years now. I won’t let anything burn. You take a few minutes off and have a little fun. All you’ve done today is work, work, work.”
“We all have,” Tori said. The muscles in her legs were fatigued, and she figured by the next day they’d be protesting even louder at their mistreatment.
Kathy shrugged. “Okay.”
“Do you have a flashlight?” Paul asked.
Kathy stooped to retrieve a big blue light that she kept under the sink. “Right here.”
Paul bowed and swung his arm forward. “After you, ma’am.”
Kathy led the way to the front of the house and up the first set of stairs, down the hall, and the more narrow stairway that led to the attic.
Tori had never been in the attic, but wasn’t surprised that upon opening the door, Kathy reached for a light switch. She flipped it and entered, with Tori and Paul following.
Tori knew that Kathy was considering transforming the space to a suite for guests, but didn’t realize how much headroom there actually was. Once finished off and decorated, it would make a cozy retreat. Of course, that would be after installing a hefty amount of insulation. She rubbed her arms to warm them.
Although Tori had helped clean out the rest of the house—and there had been very little worth salvaging—she hadn’t realized that the attic still contained a number of cartons and trunks that Kathy hadn’t yet had time to sort through.
“Six paces east,” Paul said, reciting part of their clue. “Looks like we’re going to have to move a ton of junk to see it.”
“Then I guess we’d better start,” Tori said, and reached for the nearest box, picking it up and carrying it to an open spot on the west side of the attic.
Kathy set the flashlight down and she and Paul started moving the junk, too.
“What’s in these boxes? Lead weights?” Paul said as he hefted a small wooden crate.
“You’ve got me,” Kathy said.
It took several minutes to clear a space. Paul move
d to the attic door and took six paces. “What did it say about a beast?”
“To look under a beast.” Tori glanced all around her. “What beast?”
Kathy shrugged. “Maybe there was a deer head hanging here at one time?”
“Where’s that flashlight?” Paul asked.
Kathy located it and handed it to him. He raked the beam across the floor several times. “Whoa, what’s this?” he asked and crouched down. “Got a rag or something?”
Kathy pushed past Tori and retrieved a piece of rag from one of the boxes, handing it to Paul. He wiped at the dusty floor.
“Well, would you look at that?”
The women crouched down beside him. There, in faded red paint was a rather crude drawing of a wolf’s head.
“Looks pretty beastly to me,” Tori said.
Anissa arrived with the tools. “Sorry it took me so long. I couldn’t find the pry bar. What have you got?”
“The beast’s head,” Tori said, and pointed.
Anissa bent down, squinting in the bad light. “The guy was no Rembrandt.”
“Do you really think there’s treasure under that board?” Tori asked skeptically.
“We won’t know until we pull it up.” Wasting no time, Anissa went to work with the pry bar. The wood was old and was quite happy to stay where it had been for more than a hundred years, but Anissa worked at it until the rusty old nails squealed in protest at being yanked from their imprisonment. But instead of there being a box or bag of treasure, all that was in the space below the board was yet another note. Anissa handed it to Kathy, who shone the light on it. She read it aloud.
The parlor is nice
—so do not think twice
the window northwest
is surely the best
Anissa frowned. “The guy was no poet, either.”
“What a pisser,” Paul complained. “And after we moved all that junk to get at it.”
“What now?” Tori asked.
“I guess we check out the parlor,” Kathy said.
“How many more notes do you think we’re liable to find?”
Kathy shrugged, but gestured for the others to head out of the attic. She was the last to leave, turning off the light and following Tori down the stairs.
Paul had taken the steps two at a time and was already inspecting the parlor’s northwest window when the rest of them caught up.
“See anything unusual?” Anissa asked.
“Just nasty cheap windows.”
“The installer won’t put the replacements in until February,” Kathy said, sounding resigned.
“They left the original woodwork,” Anissa said, inspecting the left side of the casing. “You did a nice job of stripping everything, Kathy.”
“After doing so many rooms, I could probably make a living at it,” she said, but didn’t sound at all enthused.
“Did you notice anything out of the ordinary while you worked on this window?”
Kathy shook her head.
“What about underneath?” Tori asked.
Anissa got down on her knees and looked up at the underside of the casing. “Hey, there’s a little piece that was notched out. It’s got one nail in it. I might need a chisel to get it out. Do you mind if I give it a try, Kath?”
“I guess not. Nobody’s going to see it unless they lie on the floor.”
Paul handed Anissa the chisel and she got right to work.
“One thing’s for sure,” Tori said. “There isn’t going to be any treasure behind a little piece of wood. Where do you think the next clue on this wild goose chase is going to lead us?”
A little rectangle of wood popped out and landed on the floor. Anissa dug into the hiding space and came up with another piece of folded paper. “You can have the honors, Kathy.”
Kathy unfolded the paper and once again recited the verse.
Dinner is served
So do not be swerved
The treasure you seek
Is close to the seat.
“The seat?” Tori asked.
“The window seat,” Anissa said.
Paul gave her a hand and pulled her to her feet and the four of them traipsed to the dining room where the table Paul and Anissa had brought up from the basement now stood in the middle of the room.
Noreen joined them from the kitchen. “How’s the hunt going?”
Kathy shrugged. “We just found our third clue. It says the treasure is somewhere in this room close to the window seat.”
Noreen frowned. “That could cover a lot of territory.”
The five of them looked at each other. “What do you think?” Kathy asked.
Anissa shrugged. “We could pull up a lot of floorboards or wreck the plaster and come up with a whole lot of nothing.”
“The window seat is built in. Maybe you just have to take a couple of boards out to see,” Tori suggested.
They moved en masse to look at the once-pretty window seat. The wood had been badly abused over the years, with gouges and dents. Kathy had stripped it of paint, leaving it looking lackluster and in need of some tender loving care. “I was going to cover the top with an upholstered pillow, so I don’t think taking a couple of the boards from the top is going to do it much harm.”
“Okay.” Again, Anissa used the pry bar to pull away a strip of wood about a foot long and three inches wide. “Take a peek, Kath.”
Kathy stepped forward with the flashlight and shone it into the opening, scrutinizing the space. “I can’t see anything. Can you take off another piece?”
“I can dismantle the whole thing, if you want.” And to prove it, Anissa pulled off another two strips of wood. Again Kathy shone the light inside and shook her head.
“What the hell,” Paul said. “Take the whole top off.”
Anissa removed another two pieces of wood, but it was apparent there was nothing to be found inside the cavity.
“That’s too bad,” Noreen said. “I’d better get back to the kitchen and check on that bird.”
“I could sure go for a beer,” Paul said, and followed behind her.
“I’ll have to go downstairs and see if I can find some nails to put that wood back on the window seat,” Anissa said. “And then I think I’ll join Paul in having a beer.”
Kathy stood over the window seat, looking resigned. “I guess I never really thought there would be any treasure, but it was kind of fun to hope.”
She turned and headed for the kitchen.
Tori knelt before the window seat. No doubt about it, there was nothing inside the structure. Did the person who’d written the notes do it as a prank, or had he (or she) honestly hidden something of value in the house for someone in his (or her) unknown future to find?
Kathy had left the flashlight behind, and Tori picked it up, turned it on, and ran the beam all along the bottom of the area. Maybe Anissa should just put it back together as it was. If she made a new top out of the old wood, and added some hinges, the seat could also be used as storage—and why hadn’t the original owner thought of that?
It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense. What kind of satisfaction could one of the home’s past residents get by sending an unknown future owner on a wild goose chase? And why hide treasure at all—leaving clues hidden in the house? What would motivate someone to go to so much trouble for an unknown outcome?
Again, Tori ran the flashlight over the bottom of the box. None of the floor boards looked like they’d ever been tampered with. But the verse had specified that the treasure was close to the seat.
Tori ran the light in the upper left corner. Was that a patch in the plaster? If so, it had been carefully done, because she could barely see the repair lines.
Tori looked toward the kitchen, where she could hear Kathy, Paul, and Noreen conversing. Anissa hadn’t come back from her foray to the basement. The chisel still lay on the floor, along with the pry bar and claw hammer. What could it hurt to knock a chunk of plaster off the wall to take a peek? Once Anissa r
epaired the top of the window seat, nobody would see the damage she’d caused.
Tori picked up the heavy hammer and hefted it. Again she looked around before she gave the plaster a tap. The hard surface was dimpled, but not cracked. She gave it another go. Still no real damage, and she remembered what her grandfather had once told her. “You’re choking the hammer. Hold it closer to the bottom and you’ll have more control.” So she did, and gave the plaster a mighty whack. The hammerhead not only cracked the plaster, but penetrated it, and she struggled to pull it back through the hole she’d made. Another two taps and most of the patch had been knocked out. Tori put the hammer down and picked up the flashlight, shining it into the hole. Funny enough, there was no lath behind where the patch had been, and there was also no sign of any treasure, either.
Tori sat back on her heels. Okay, no treasure. But what if the prize had been stuffed into the hole and then fallen down to floor level? Maybe she could reach down into the hole and pull out whatever had been stuffed there.
Tori hesitated. What if there was something nasty in the hole? What if there was a dead rat or mouse carcass? When Kathy had first bought the house, it had been infested. Anissa had had to remove the dead bodies when they’d found them in the knee-deep trash that had littered the floors.
“Oh, what the hell,” Tori said, trying to sound brave, and plunged her hand into the hole. She grouped around until her fingers came up with what felt like a piece of string. Gripping it tighter, she pulled, but whatever was tied to the string was pretty heavy.
“Kathy! Come quick!” Tori called as she yanked the string free from the hole, pulling out what turned out to be a small linen bag.
“What’s wrong?” Kathy said from the doorway.
“Come and see what I found.”
“You found the treasure?” Kathy asked excitedly, and bounded across the room.
Tori shrugged. “I don’t know what’s in this little bag, but it’s your house, so it’s your treasure.”
Anissa appeared in the doorway from the hall. “Did you find something?”
“Tori did,” Kathy said. “Paul, Noreen—come into the dining room!”
Christmas At Swans Nest Page 3
