They were sitting in the Meadowlark Café together, at a booth in the far corner. It was midmorning of the next day and there was hardly anyone in the restaurant. Katie was nursing a cup of tea, although what she really wanted was something alcoholic. Something strong enough to erase the memory of what she had seen yesterday.
Although she’d tried that last night at the motel room with Mel. It didn’t work. She didn’t think she would ever get those terrible images out of her head. There wasn’t enough wine in the world.
“I should thank you,” Justina repeated.
“For what?” Katie put her cup aside and folded her arms on the table. “I seem to have made a mess of things all around.”
Justina smiled for a moment, and they both remembered Bill’s favorite saying. Sometimes you have to make a mess...
But then she shook her head. “On the contrary, Miss Pearson. You didn’t make a mess of things. You uncovered a truth that had been buried for so long. You gave me back my little girl...”
She had to stop for a moment and collect herself. Unshed tears brimmed in her eyes. She had spent the night in the hospital recovering from her ordeal. It was shock more than anything else, the doctors told her. Some sort of stress on her heart that they couldn’t explain. When Katie asked what she had told them, a smile spread across the old woman’s face. She kept that secret to herself.
“You know Chief Anson came to see me in the hospital last night, don’t you?” Justina found her voice again as she dabbed the corners of her eyes with her knuckle. “He’s such a good man. We’ve been friends for years. I wish...I wish I’d known him when I was younger. Perhaps if I’d married him instead of my husband then things would have been different for me. Yes. Chief Anson is such a wonderful man.”
“I’ll have to take your word for that.” Katie pulled a face. “He and I don’t exactly see eye to eye.”
“Yes. He told me.”
“He told you?” That surprised Katie. She hadn’t expected her difficulties with the local police department to become fodder for the rumor mill.
“Oh, don’t worry. He wasn’t being critical. In fact, I think you impressed him.”
Katie didn’t believe her. “Is that a fact.”
“My, yes. No one ever stands up to him. You did. That’s how you earn the respect of a man like Chief Peter Anson.”
“Not sure I want his respect to tell you the truth.”
Justina laughed softly. “Fair enough. It might interest you to know, however, that he was the reason I came to our old estate last night. Peter came to tell me your suspicions about my ex-husband. How he had killed our daughter rather than that Miguel boy. That was when I realized you were right. I’d known it all along, I think. I was just afraid to admit it. So I went to the house to talk to you and tell you that I lied before.”
Katie found it amusing that Justina still called Miguel ‘that Miguel boy’ as if he was still a teenager. She supposed that in a way, both Emily and Miguel would always be children in Justina’s mind.
“What did you have to lie about?” Katie asked her.
“I knew that Emily was pregnant. I knew. She told me the day before she disappeared. She told me she was pregnant, and she was leaving, and I chose to say nothing. Oh, I told myself it was because I wanted to help my daughter start a new life somewhere. I told myself a lot of things. The truth of it was that I was afraid of my husband. I was afraid if I told him that she was pregnant that he would take it out on me.”
“So you knew she was pregnant, and when Bill told you that Emily ran away...you knew he killed her. You knew he was a monster but you still stayed with him? You let the man who killed your daughter get away with it and you said nothing?”
Her hands found the paper napkin laid out on her side of the table and began twisting it in her fingers. “When you have been beaten enough, Miss Pearson, you will do anything to keep from being beaten again. It wasn’t until years later when his evil deeds had eaten him up to just a shell of a man that I felt I was safe to leave him. Not long after, he killed himself.”
It was a strange thing to hear the whole story. Katie had guessed at bits and pieces of it so often, getting it wrong each time, but now she knew. Now she knew everything.
A bad man had abused his wife and daughter and wrecked their home. When his mistakes bore fruit--so to speak--he made a worse mess of things by killing his only daughter in an effort to hide his deeds. He couldn’t forgive himself, and in the end the knowledge of what he had done tore him apart. He killed himself, but his spirit lived on in this house, trapped under the weight of his own sins until yesterday when Justina had gotten up the nerve to banish him.
In so doing, she’d set her daughter free at last.
Katie wondered what she should do now. The Knox Estate was still hers to do whatever she wanted to do with it. The ghosts of both William Frank Knox and Emily were gone now. One banished from the home, the other finally free to leave. The story was a sad one, but if she disclosed it in any sales agreement she might not even have to lower the price. Much.
“Miss Pearson,” Justina asked quietly. “Can you ever forgive me?”
The question caught Katie off guard. In a way, she supposed Justina needed forgiveness even more than Frank Knox had. She wanted to have someone tell her it was all right now. That the way she had lived her life wasn’t completely her fault. That much was obvious. She wanted to be forgiven for the abuse she had endured and the abuse she had visited on Emily, too. She wanted to be forgiven for living with a monster for years and saying nothing at all about it.
The only person she knew who could give her that forgiveness, was Katie.
“Justina,” Katie said. “You lived the life you found yourself in. Emily understands that and she doesn’t hate you for it. Just before she left she asked me to tell you that she loves you.”
The older woman relaxed, slumping down in the booth seat with a smile that lent some extra color to her eyes. It was as if a lifetime of worry and regret had been lifted off her shoulders. “Thank you, Miss Pearson. Thank you.”
“Please. Call me Katie.”
Mel was sitting on the side of the bed when Katie got back to the motel room, gripping the edge of the mattress as her hangover beat staccato rhythms at the back of her head. She’d still been asleep when Katie went to meet Justina for breakfast. From past experience, Katie knew that after consuming more than a bottle of wine all by herself, Mel needed her rest. Otherwise she was a bear.
Her friend liked wine, but she wasn’t used to drinking that much all at once. She was a social drinker, not a lush.
“Hey,” Katie said, careful to gently shut the door to the room on its pneumatic slide so it wouldn’t make anything louder than a soft snick as it closed. “How are you feeling?”
“Do you have to be so cheerful?” Mel grumped. “Ooh, I don’t think I’ll ever touch wine again. Well. At least not until tonight. So how did it go with Justina Knox?”
“Not at all like I expected,” Katie told her. “We parted friends, is I guess the most important thing. I don’t think we’ll ever see her again.”
Mel nodded. She combed her hair back with her fingers. She hadn’t looked directly at Katie once. Now the silence stretched between them.
“Is there something wrong?” Katie asked her.
The rude noise that Mel made in her throat was her answer.
Katie frowned at her. “What? What is it? I know you were worried about me getting hurt. I was, too. Can you believe this story? This is crazy. I’m not going to be able to sleep right for a month! When I think of the things Bill made me do, or at least believe I was doing...” She shivered. “I can’t tell you how many times I woke up last night with all these vivid nightmares.”
“I know, chickie. I know you’ve been through a lot but that’s not what I’m mad about.”
So. Mel was mad? Katie was completely confused. “Then tell me what’s wrong. We can work it out, right?”
Now her friend looked up at Kati
e with eyes that were red from lack of sleep and drink, and raw emotions. “I’m mad, because you went to that house without me. I could have helped you with this psychotic ghost. I could have been there for you, and you shut me out. I’m your friend, aren’t I?”
“Of course you’re my friend, I just didn’t think--”
“I know! That’s the problem. You shouldn’t have to think about whether or not I should come with you anywhere. I’m always here for you, Katie. I’m your best friend. That’s what best friends do. Why did you call me out here if you weren’t going to let me help you?”
Katie thought about that. Mel was right, and she knew it. Going to that house by herself, whether she thought it was to meet a police officer or not, had been foolish. She didn’t know what Mel thought she could have done if she’d been there, but she should have given her best friend the chance to find out.
Because that’s what friends were for.
“Okay, Mel. I’m sorry.” She smiled, and bounced down on the bed next to her, and wrapped her arm around Mel’s shoulders to kiss the top of her aching head. “I promise that the very next time I get involved with a haunted house, I’ll have you there with me. Every step of the way.”
“You better. Or else when I die I’m going to come back as a ghost and haunt you myself!”
They spent the rest of the morning putting their stuff back into suitcases and making sure all the arrangements were made for them to leave Port Cable. Not for the last time. Just for now.
Katie had made the decision sometime after giving Justina Knox a goodbye hug that she was definitely going to try to make a profit off the Knox Estate after all. She made a quick phone call to Sam the contractor, just to make sure that her schedule was still free. She was relieved to learn that it was. She even offered to pay a bonus to her crew, sort of a hazardous duty pay for finding Emily Knox buried in the wall that way.
Sam laughed it off. “Oh, honey. If my guys can’t handle finding a dead body every now and then they’ve got no business working for me!”
Katie had laughed with her, but she had to wonder what that meant.
When the time came to drive out to the airport and put Mel back on a plane, Katie spent a moment standing in the parking lot of the motel and staring around at the town of Port Cable.
It wasn’t such a bad place after all, she decided. Just a small town in America like any other. Full of secrets and stories. Some of them darker than others.
Some of them just beginning.
Chapter 19
Eight Months Later
“Money? Why yes. I do like money.”
Katie laughed at herself as she collected the mail from her condo’s lobby and noticed the letter from the bank stamped ‘check enclosed.’ This new place of hers was a little bit pricier than she could really afford, but the final payout from the Knox Estate property was going to cover several years’ worth of living here, and lots of good steak dinners besides.
Upstairs, she got off the elevator on the fourth floor and hummed to herself as she walked to her door. Inside, the silence of single living met her. “I’m ho-ome,” she called out to no one, and no one answered.
With a sigh, Katie tossed her mail on the table, opening the envelope from the bank and scanning the six-figure amount on the check. Perfect. It had been a long time coming. Sam and her crew had found some more rot in the walls around the living room, and in the upstairs bedroom, and other less sensational damage that had to be repaired. She’d seen photos of the finished product. It looked nice.
One day last week she’d even gone in to inspect the results on the heels of a purchase offer. Everything looked amazing. All new appliances. Some of the original wood molding had been salvaged and refurbished. The fireplace was clean and functional. It was absolutely stunning.
At the same time, it felt empty to her. Just like a house should.
While she’d been in Port Cable she’d stopped in to see Miguel Sanchez. All charges had been dropped against him, at the request of Katie and Mel, and Chief Anson too. Even so he didn’t want to see her. In fact, he slammed the door to his house in her face.
Guess there was just no pleasing some people.
Katie looked around her empty condo. Usually being alone didn’t bother her. She lived a solitary lifestyle with just a few good friends like Mel to keep her company. She had her family back in Oregon, but she hadn’t been back there in five years or more. She really should call her mom tonight and check on how things were at the old homestead.
For now, she just felt alone.
It had been this way ever since the events at the Knox Estate. It was as if the fake relationship impressed on her memories by a malevolent spirt had made her long for the real thing. The trip back to inspect the house had stirred those feelings up even more.
She shook her head. She wasn’t going to be ready to date anyone new for a long time. She still woke up with nightmares, sometimes, and the idea of opening up to another man...? Yeah. Not right now.
Her stomach growled. She could sit here, staring at the walls and reading the latest Danielle Steele novel, or she could go for that steak dinner she’d been thinking about earlier.
Steak. Definitely steak.
There were any number of good restaurants within walking distance of the condo. A few blocks either way and she had Italian, Chinese, or whatever. It took her three blocks to get to the Varsity Steak House, but it was always worth the trip. She found a good seat, and ordered a New York strip steak with a baked potato and a house salad to start. And, a glass of red wine, of course.
While she waited for the meal to arrive, she called Mel.
“Hey chickie! How’s things out there?”
“Fine, Mel. How about with you and...sorry, what’s his name again?”
Mel laughed. “Sebastian. He is such a sweet guy. You would not believe how happy we are together. Might even keep him around for a while.”
“Heh. Hope you do. You deserve to have that kind of happiness. Miss you, Mel.”
“Aw, miss you too. What about you? Any secret guy crushes on your horizons?”
Katie felt her expression sour. “I don’t think so. I think I might have to swear off men for a while. That mess--” She sighed, hating herself for using Bill’s word. “That mess back in Port Cable really stuck with me, you know?”
“I know. But, Katie, you can’t just give up. Someone will come along who makes your little heart go beating. You just have to wait for that guy. Lightning will strike. Just you wait and see.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence but for now I’m solidly single. Maybe I’ll live and die as a bachelorette. Hold on.”
She held the phone against her shoulder as the waiter leaned in with a pitcher of water to refill her glass. “Can I get you anything else, Miss?”
“No, thank you...” Then she looked up and saw his face. He was cute, with eyes that sparkled in the light from the candle on the table. His shoulders were tight in his white shirt and black vest. He so had a body under that shirt. “Um. No. Thank you.”
“All right. If you change your mind, my name is Brandt. Just ask for me.”
He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
She watched him walk away. The view was a nice one.
“Hello? Katie? Hello?”
The little voice from her cell drew her back to reality and she quickly put the phone back to her ear. “Sorry, sorry Mel. I got, um, distracted.”
“Oh yeah?” Mel teased. “What’s his name?”
Katie watched him at another table, bending over at the waist to clear away a family’s plates. She watched him work, watched the way he smiled and traded jokes with the children, and the way he filled out his clothes.
“His name is Brandt,” she told Mel. “And I think I’m going to order some dessert.”
Coming Home
Dedicated to Walter B. Gibson
Chapter 1
There’s an old saying that Katie Pearson had heard more than once in h
er life. An old bit of wisdom that had always proven true. As the saying went, you can’t go home again.
Being in the real estate business, buying and flipping houses for a living, Katie heard that a lot. Whenever someone would jokingly say, Hey, you can’t go home again, Katie would just laugh and change the subject. People liked to believe things like that were true.
Well, she knew better. You could always go home. It just wasn’t going to be the same when you got there.
Katie leaned her arm out of the window as she slowed down for the speed zone just outside of Fount Azure. Home sweet home.
The wind blew in her long brown hair, making it fly in the breeze. Katie pulled strands of it out from in front of her designer sunglasses. Oregon always seemed to have a certain smell for her. She breathed it in now and tried not to let it bring up too many memories. Her luggage was in the backseat. She’d packed enough clothes and personal items for a two week stay.
If she was lucky, that’s all this would take. Of course, it might end up being longer. She couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t every day you got to oversee the sale of your own childhood home.
On the one hand, Katie was very excited. This was a chance to fix up the house and make it be just the way she remembered it from when she was a little girl. Better, even. Then she would sell it to a new family who could enjoy it just as much as she had.
It was a bittersweet sort of feeling, because the only reason she was able to do this because her mother had passed on. Katie sighed. It was two years ago now, sure, but in all that time she hadn’t been able to do anything with the house. She couldn’t make herself do it until now. She knew what could happen to a house if it sat unoccupied for too long. If she didn’t do this now, later might be too late. Or too expensive.
There was more to it than that. Katie couldn’t put her finger on it but it was almost like she was being drawn home. Like there was a voice asking her a question she was compelled to answer. A voice she’d been hearing for several months now, stronger and stronger.
Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set Page 24
