4 The Ghosts in the Attic

by SUE FINEMAN

  The front door stood wide open. Was that bastard in there now?

  Dad walked toward him and shook his head, telling Charlie not to go inside. But Charlie was too angry to wait for the police. He heard a crash and a howl of pain, and rushed through the door. Mario lay at the bottom of the stairs, his leg bent at an unnatural angle.

  “Find what you were looking for, Mario?”

  Mesmerized by the blue ball bouncing slowly up the stairs, seemingly by itself, Charlie didn’t see the gun in Mario’s hand until it went off. Pain seared Charlie’s side.

  Dad rushed inside and kicked the gun aside, then pressed on Charlie’s side to slow the bleeding.

  The police pulled up seconds later. One of them called for the paramedics while his partner talked with Charlie and his father.

  Charlie told them he’d come home to find someone in the house. He skipped the part about Taylor’s vision and didn’t say anything about the ball. No one would believe him anyway.

  Dad grabbed towels out of the downstairs bathroom – one for Charlie and one to mop up the blood on the slate entry floor before it got tracked through the house.

  Breathing was becoming more difficult and Charlie felt dizzy from losing so much blood when the paramedics arrived. Although Mario was the one making all the noise, Charlie was transported to the hospital first. His injury was life-threatening. Mario’s was just painful.

  Dad stayed behind to secure the house and check for anything missing. But they both knew Mario Porcini wasn’t there to steal the silver. He wanted the one thing Antonio didn’t find in Vinnie’s safe.

  He wanted the numbers to the off-shore account.

  <>

  Donovan walked through the house with the officer. Taylor’s room hadn’t been touched, but it was the only room Mario hadn’t gone through. Cabinets were open, drawers were on the floor or on the beds, and papers were strewn all over the study floor.

  He should have known Vinnie Porcini had more money stashed away somewhere. He’d obviously given the numbers for his off-shore account to his daughter and cut his sons off with a mere two million apiece. His sons wanted the numbers. Mario Porcini was on his way to the hospital now, but when he was released, he’d go straight to jail. His two million dollar inheritance might buy him decent legal representation, but he wouldn’t get off easy. He’d spend a few years in prison. He’d not only broken into someone’s home, he’d shot the owner.

  Donovan punched numbers on his cell phone. “Andy, Charlie’s been shot. Stop at the house and pick up your mother on the way to the hospital, then call Ginny and Billy.”

  “Who shot him?”

  “Mario Porcini.”

  By the time Donovan secured the house and drove to the hospital, most of the family was in the Emergency waiting room, including Alex and Taylor. He hugged Hannah, who looked scared to death. They’d been through this before, when Charlie was shot in Iraq. “How is he?”

  “Uncle Mario shot Daddy,” Taylor said. The little girl had a worried look on her face.

  Donovan hunkered down beside her. “Is Daddy gonna be okay?”

  “Yeah, but he has to stay in the hospital, and I need to hold his hand.”

  “He’s in surgery right now,” said Andy. “They’re digging the bullet out of him.”

  “I thought we were finished with this when he left the Marines,” said Hannah.

  Andy sat with Julie. “They brought Mario in a few minutes ago. He was yelling about somebody with a blue ball pushing him down the stairs.”

  “Bobby and his first daddy don’t want Uncle Mario in Daddy’s house,” said Taylor.

  Andy looked up at Donovan. “Bobby… is that one of the ghosts?”

  Donovan nodded.

  “Bobby’s coming back,” said Taylor. “Daddy said he could come back.”

  Alex hugged Taylor. “Next time you see Bobby, tell him thank you for stopping Uncle Mario.”

  “Okay.”

  “What happened, Dad?” Ginny asked.

  “Taylor told Charlie that Uncle Mario was in the house. After Charlie called me, I called the police and met him at the house. I should have known he wouldn’t wait for the police. We heard Mario fall down the stairs. Charlie asked him if he’d found what he was looking for, and Mario shot him.”

  “What about this business with the blue ball?”

  “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believe it. It bounced up the stairs all by itself.”

  “Nuh uh,” said Taylor. “Bobby carried it upstairs.”

  The kid wasn’t even there, yet she knew. Taylor had an amazing gift, a sometimes frightening gift for seeing what others couldn’t see.

  And she was only six.

  After a few minutes of silence, Alex asked, “Donovan, what does the house look like?”

  “Every room but Taylor’s has been gone through. I didn’t touch anything except in the entry. I cleaned the blood off the floor.” Charlie’s blood.

  Alex glanced at the door and saw Antonio walk into the Emergency room with Christie, Mario’s wife. They were taken to the back, but they weren’t back there long. Antonio glanced at Alex, and she couldn’t look away. “How is he?”

  “Hurting,” said Christie. “He’s hurting, and they handcuffed him to the bed. How can they do that when he’s hurting so much? It isn’t as if he’s going anywhere with a broken leg.”

  “It’s standard procedure when a criminal is apprehended,” said Ginny, who wore her police uniform. “He shot my brother.”

  Christie’s nose went up. “Nonsense. Mario doesn’t even own a gun.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t own the gun,” said Donovan, “but I saw him fire one at my son. He’d better get used to being locked to something, because he won’t be free anytime soon.”

  Antonio looked away. He must have known what Mario planned to do. Antonio was the one with the gun collection. If the police traced the gun to Antonio, they could both go to jail. Maybe that was where they belonged.

  Antonio said two million wasn’t enough. Apparently it wasn’t enough for Mario either.

  Thank God Papa wasn’t here to see this.

  <>

  Charlie woke in the recovery room with the nurse checking his IV. “Hey, you’re awake,” she said. “Your surgery is over, and you’re doing fine.”

  “Shot.”

  “Yes, you were shot, but you’ll be okay.”

  “Alex.”

  She peered at his bandage. “Who’s Alex?”

  “I need to see Alex,” he said, and dozed off again.

  The next time he opened his eyes, Mom and Dad stood beside his bed. Mom said, “The doctor said you’re going to be all right.”

  “Hurts,” he whispered.

  “I know, sweetie,” Mom crooned.

  “That’s what you get for playing hero,” said Dad. “Alex is out in the waiting room. They wouldn’t let her in the recovery room because she isn’t family, but she’ll see you as soon as they take you up to your room.”

  “Okay.”

  The nurse put something in his IV and Charlie drifted off to sleep.

  <>

  Alex paced in the waiting room, anxious to see Charlie and tell him she was sorry. She should have known he’d never take a bribe from Papa or from anyone else. But they wouldn’t let her in to see him. “Only family,” they told her, and she wasn’t family. If Charlie didn’t forgive her for doubting him, they might never be family.

  Andy and Julie had taken Taylor home with them. Charlie’s family had been great with her. Whenever they needed someone to watch her, Alex knew she could count on them. Mother had never offered, even when Alex had her surgery. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her only grandchild. Mother wasn’t comfortable around children. Surprising she had any herself, although Papa probably wouldn’t have married her if she hadn’t been pregnant at the time.

  Hannah and Donovan came out to the waiting room. “He’s asking for you,” said Hannah. “We told him you’d be in to see
him after he was taken upstairs to his room.”

  “Is he all right?”

  “He’s going to be fine. He was injured in Iraq, but we didn’t know until after the danger had passed. This time it was even more frightening.”

  Alex sat beside Hannah. “When Taylor told me what was happening, I left a basket of groceries in the middle of the grocery store. They probably thought I was crazy, rushing out of there like that.”

  “I stopped worrying about what other people think a long time ago. You can’t please everyone.” Hannah smiled up at Donovan, who stood by the window. “I’m not the politician in the family.”

  “I walked out of a budget meeting,” he said. “I said it was a family emergency. Someone said, ‘Charlie again?’ but I didn’t hang around to answer. Everyone I work with knows my son’s proclivity for trouble, but this is the first time he’s been shot by a… an intruder.”

  What he nearly said was by a Porcini. “It’s all right, Donovan, I know what you meant.”

  He cocked his head. “You’re not like your father or your brothers, Alex. You’ve got more sense, more… decency.”

  “Thank you, I think.”

  The phone rang on the volunteer’s desk and she called, “Mayor Kane.”

  Donovan rushed over. She said, “Your son is being moved upstairs. Give them a few minutes to get him settled, then you can go see him.” She gave them the room number, and they took the elevator up to the fourth floor and sat in the waiting room.

  Alex jumped to her feet. “I can’t wait any longer.” She walked down to the room and found Charlie’s nurse just finishing up. Alex stood in the corner out of the way until the nurse turned toward her.

  “Weren’t you in here a few days ago?”

  “Yes. I had plastic surgery on the scars on my face.”

  The nurse turned back to Charlie. “Is this the man I threw out of your room?”

  “That’s him. Charlie Kane, the mayor’s son. He was shot.”

  “By you?”

  Alex smiled. “No, not by me.” She neglected to mention that her own brother had done the dirty deed. The whole city would know by tonight. It would undoubtedly be on every news station in the area. A former mayor’s grandson had broken into a private home and shot the current mayor’s son. Maybe she could create a new soap opera and call it River Valley. The hospital would no doubt be a major set, since they spent so much time here.

  “What are you smiling about?” Charlie asked.

  “Soap operas. I thought we could write one about River Valley.”

  “Would I be the good guy or the bad guy?”

  “The good guy, of course. The handsome leading man with the gorgeous gray eyes. The hero who steps into the path of a speeding bullet.”

  He groaned. “I don’t want to do that again.”

  She sat beside his bed and took his hand. “Taylor said to hold your hand so you wouldn’t hurt so much.”

  “Mario broke his leg. Did he get the number?”

  “No, the picture is in Taylor’s room, and he didn’t go in there.”

  “We need to rent a safe deposit box or buy a safe or something.”

  “Later,” she said, squeezing his hand slightly. “Right now, you need to rest. Andy gave you blood. He said to tell you if your eyes turn brown, it’s because of his blood.”

  “My smartass brother. He always comes through for me.”

  “I wish I could say the same about my brothers. Charlie, I’m so sorry about this.”

  “What, about me playing hero?”

  “About Mario shooting you.”

  “It’s my own fault. I was too damn angry to wait for the police.”

  Charlie closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “Did Taylor tell you what happened?”

  “Yes, but I want to hear the part about the blue ball.”

  “I think Bobby caused Mario to fall down the stairs, although I didn’t see that part. After he fell, I saw the ball bounce up the stairs all by itself.” He smiled. “I love that kid already and he isn’t even mine yet.”

  She gave him a warm smile. “We’ll start working on that as soon as you recover.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I can hardly wait.”

  <>

  Two weeks later, Charlie had nearly recovered from the shooting. Alex took him in to the office for an hour, all the time she’d allow him, so he could check on things there. He didn’t get any work done because all the employees came by to wish him well. She knew how much they loved working for him.

  Andy hired someone to help with the corn crop. He said Charlie couldn’t work those long hours this year. The bullet had nicked a rib, and it was still healing.

  While Charlie rested, Alex peered in the bathroom mirror. There were still tiny lines on her face, but the swelling was gone and the scars were no longer puckered and stiff. She didn’t look exactly like she had before the attack, but she looked a whole lot better than she had before the surgery.

  Charlie stood behind her. “I said you’d be beautiful again.” He reached around her and put a tiny box on the counter. “This is for you.”

  She opened the box and pulled out beautiful diamond and ruby earrings.

  “Put them on.”

  “They match the bracelet you gave me the night you proposed.”

  “I had them made from the gems I found in the backyard. Do you like them?”

  “I love them, Charlie. Thank you. They’re beautiful.” She put them on, then turned to kiss him.

  “Beautiful jewels for a beautiful woman. Now… how long does it take to plan a wedding?”

  “You want to get married right away?”

  “I want everything right away. I thought I’d sell the business and—”

  “No. It’s yours, Charlie. If you want to keep it, that’s fine with me. You’re starting to make money, aren’t you?”

  He nodded. “We have four new customers and three of the old customers are coming back. That means we need more trucks and more drivers. Stevenson is scouting around for good used trucks, and Jamison is looking for another driver or two.”

  And to think that was the business Papa wanted to close, the one that was losing so much money they couldn’t stay in business. Papa knew Charlie could turn it around. “Papa had faith in you.”

  “Strange man, your father. At times I liked him and sometimes I hated him. He wanted to be remembered, and I will definitely remember him. Who could forget Vinnie Porcini?”

  “Nobody who ever knew him could forget him.”

  Alex put her hand on Charlie’s shoulder and examined her engagement ring. It was a beauty, the prettiest one in the jewelry store. Charlie had the matching wedding ring tucked away somewhere. It reminded her of that day back in April when she met Scott Higgins in the hotel bar. The day Taylor met her daddy in the hospital.

  That day Alex thought things couldn’t get any worse, but she was wrong. They got worse and then they got better. Although Papa was gone, she had Charlie in her life, a happy, healthy little girl, and one of these days, she’d have a baby boy named Bobby. She’d wear a real wedding ring, not the fake one she wore that day at the hotel bar, and she’d live a happy life with Charlie, their psychic daughter, and the baby ghost who would come back as their son.

  She cocked her head. “We could name our son after my father.”

  “Robert Vincent Kane?” Charlie shook his head. “I don’t think so. If we name a kid after someone, he should be named after my father.”

  “I have a better idea. Why don’t we name him Robert Charles Kane? Bobby.”

  “That’ll work,” Charlie said with a smile. “That’ll work just fine.”

  Thank you for taking the time to read The Ghosts in the Attic. Please turn the page for an excerpt of the next book in the series, The Ghosts in the Audience.

  THE GHOSTS IN THE AUDIENCE

  by

  Sue Fineman

  Chapter One

  Ginny Kane sat in the back of the room and watched the man
on stage, wondering how much was an act and how much was true psychic ability. He had an amazing stage presence. Black clothes hugged wide shoulders and narrow hips, and a large silver pendant with an engraving of some kind hung to the middle of his chest. He wore his shiny light brown hair a little long, waving back from his strong face, and those mesmerizing dark blue eyes could no doubt pull the darkest secrets out of people.

  He pointed at an older woman with gray hair. “Hazel, Jack is standing right behind you. Can you feel his hand on your shoulder?”

  She nodded.

  “He said to tell you he loves you, and he’ll be waiting for you on the other side.”

  When the applause died down, he asked a woman in the front row to stand and hold her purse in both hands. Then he told her what was in her purse. “A wallet, lipstick, keys, a packet of tissues, breath mints, two condoms—”

  The man sitting beside the woman whipped around to face her. “Why would you need condoms?”

  The audience laughed and the woman blushed.

  The man on stage said, “Sit down,” and turned to someone else, but the couple sitting in the front row were putting on their own show.

  “Are you fooling around on me?” the man snapped.

  The woman moaned. “Oh, no, John. I wouldn’t—”

  “The hell you wouldn’t.”

  Some people squirmed nervously. Others laughed, but Ginny didn’t see anything funny about the situation. Their relationship could be doomed, all because the couple had come to see a stupid stage show.

  The man who called himself Steffen the Sensational might know his business, but the show made her uneasy. Why would this woman allow a psychic to tell her what she had in her purse when she knew it would be an embarrassment? And why would Steffen Marchand say to a room filled with people that she carried condoms in her purse? He had to know what would happen. Or maybe that was part of the show.

  Ginny believed in psychics and had used them before, but there was something different about this man. He seemed to enjoy flaunting his psychic abilities and showing off in front of an audience. Did she really want to work with a man like this?