by Bobbi Holmes
“Your wedding—that’s your last memory?”
“No—I remember our honeymoon.” Walt stopped pacing for a moment and smiled. “We returned to Marlow House—we were home for several weeks when Angela wanted to go to Portland and visit her brother. I didn’t want to go, so she went alone. I had some business to attend to.” He looked at Danielle. “That’s all—that’s as far as I can remember. I said goodbye to my wife, went into the library to work on some ledgers. Wait—I remember working in the library for most of the afternoon when George Hemming stopped by. We shared a brandy—and then he went home…”
“What year did you say this was?” Danielle interrupted.
“1925.”
“I thought drinking was illegal back then?”
“Ridiculous law. Someday it will be repealed.”
“Umm….they already repealed it, about eighty years ago.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Danielle nodded.
“Humm…” Walt cocked his head briefly and gave a little shrug before he started to pace again. “It’s about time.”
“So who was George Hemming?”
“My neighbor.”
“Then what happened?”
“I don’t recall. I remember walking him to the doorway, saying goodbye. I closed the door….started walking up the stairs….and….then…”
“Yes?”
“Everything after that—until you arrived today—is somewhat hazy. I think I’ve a better understanding as to how you came to inherit this property, however it’s not clear to me why Angela would have left the house to Kathrine. Perhaps she finally realized what kind of man her brother was and had a new will drawn up—one that would leave the estate to Kathrine.”
“That’s only if she died after you inherited the property. Obviously she died before you.”
“No, that is impossible.”
“Wasn’t it a little risky to leave your estate to someone you barely knew?”
“You mean, because it would give her a motive to kill me? Kathrine O’Malley didn’t know she was in my will. I certainly never told her, and I can’t imagine Angela would. As for you—what are your plans?”
“You mean for Marlow House?”
“Since those are the only plans that directly concern me—yes.”
“I was hoping to turn Marlow House into a B and B.”
“B and B?” Walt frowned.
“A bed and breakfast—you know, an inn.”
“Are you telling me you intend to have strangers traipsing in and out of my home?” Walt shouted.
“Technically speaking it is no longer your house.”
“And just how do you intend to evict me?”
“I was sort of hoping you would do that yourself, now that you understand how things are.” Danielle nervously smiled up into Walt’s face.
“What are you talking about?”
Follow the light, Danielle wanted to say. Instead she said, “It’s time for you to move on to the next level. I imagine you’ll find Angela waiting there for you. For some reason you’ve been trapped in this house, but now you need to move on.”
“Who says I want to move on?”
“Certainly you don’t want to be stuck in this house for eternity?”
“Don’t presume to tell me what I want.”
“You said yourself you’ve been in a fog—confused since your passing. Maybe that’s why I’m here today, to help you see clearer and move on.”
Walt studied Danielle for a moment. “So tell me, how does one go onto the—the next level you say?”
“Well…I’ve heard some people say to follow the light…do you see a light?”
Walt frowned at Danielle. She smiled back at him, looking somewhat sheepish while at the same time encouraging. She wanted him to give her suggestion a try.
“So, are you telling me I’ll probably see Angela on the next level?”
“I think you’ll be reunited with your loved ones—family and friends who’ve passed.”
Walt closed his eyes, standing quietly before Danielle.
“Relax, Mr. Marlow,” Danielle encouraged. “Follow the light—don’t be afraid—move toward the warm glow of love…”
Her gaze fixed on Walt, Danielle continued to utter words of encouragement, urging him to pass to the other side. Gradually Walt’s form begin to fade, going from solid to transparent, until at last, she could no longer see him. The room was silent, devoid of his presence.
“Walt? Mr. Marlow?” Danielle called out? “Hello? Are you here?” All was silent.
Thirty minutes later, and with still no response from Walt Marlow, Danielle left the parlor and went to gather up her purse from the kitchen. Opening the front door, she paused a moment and called out to him one more time. There was no answer.
“Well,” Danielle said aloud. “That was a most unusual exorcism.” Without another word, she left the house and headed back to the Seahorse Motel.
Chapter Five
Danielle glanced at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand between her bed and Lily’s. It was almost 6 a.m. Lily was asleep, buried under the blanket and bedspread, her back to Danielle. Yawning, Danielle rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, replaying in her mind yesterday’s events.
She was relieved to have the matter of Walt Marlow resolved before she and Lily returned to the house. Smiling, she felt a sense of accomplishment knowing she had in some way helped him come to terms with his death, to acknowledge it, thus allowing him to move onto the next plain. She was fairly confident he was in a better—happier—place.
“What time is it?” Lily grumbled from the next bed as she rolled over and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“It’s about six. How did you sleep?” Danielle asked.
“Had a bunch of crazy dreams.”
“Lily, what would you think about checking out this morning? Moving into Marlow house today?”
“Really? I thought you wanted to look at the entire house before making that decision.”
“The downstairs was in great shape. If we find out it’s a mess upstairs, we can camp out in the parlor or library while we work things out.”
“Parlor?”
“The first room we checked out.”
“So that’s a parlor? Hmmm…sure, I’m game.”
“I do feel a little guilty,” Danielle confessed.
“What about?”
“You spending your summer vacation helping me get the house ready.”
“Don’t be silly. It sounds like fun to me.” Lily jumped from the bed and headed to the bathroom while shouting, “Dibs on the bathroom first!”
Danielle chuckled and climbed out of bed. She heard Lily slam the bathroom door shut. Hope you don’t wake the neighbors, Danielle thought as she walked to the window and opened the blinds to look outside. Dark clouds filled the morning sky yet according to yesterday’s weather report they weren’t expecting rain. Turning from the window after a few minutes, Danielle walked to the bathroom and told Lily to hurry it up.
Danielle and Lily dressed, packed and were checking out by 8 am. Their first stop was the nearby café for some breakfast, and the second was the local market.
“I don’t want to get too much cold stuff, because we’ll need to keep it in the cooler for now.” Danielle placed a carton of milk into her shopping cart.
“Surely that house has a refrigerator.”
“Remember, the house has been vacant since 1925. I don’t think we’ll find a modern refrigerator in the kitchen.” Actually, I know we won’t.
“You have a point. From what I recall, electric refrigerators were fairly new back then. If there’s one in the house, I’d be surprised if it was still in working order.”
“I need to get a new one anyway. If I’m turning the home into a B and B, I’ll need modern appliances.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Lily asked as they made their way through the bakery section of the market.
“Sure,
what?”
“That lady yesterday, the one from the attorney’s office, who brought the keys…”
“Yeah?”
“She mentioned something about the house…can’t recall her words exactly but you said later it was just superstition, what did you mean? What was she talking about?”
“Mr. Renton…” Danielle began.
“The attorney?” Lily interrupted.
“Yes. Mr. Renton assumed I would sell the house, not come live in it.”
“You mentioned that. But I don’t understand why he’d make that assumption.”
“I guess because my aunt felt the house was cursed. So he figured I’d feel the same way and want to unload it.” Danielle picked up a loaf of freshly baked bread and set it in the cart.
“Cursed? How?” Lily reached for a plastic container filled with chocolate chip cookies and set them in the cart next to the milk.
“Cookies, Lily?” Danielle teased.
“We can’t very well buy milk without cookies. And considering your chocolate addiction you have no room to talk. So tell me about the curse.”
“Actually, I don’t know much about it. First time I ever heard about a curse was when Renton mentioned it. Of course, I never discussed Marlow House with my aunt. I didn’t even know she owned property in Oregon.”
“But she knew about this curse?”
“According to Mr. Renton, she’s the one who told him.”
“Your aunt left you a cursed house? I thought you were her favorite.”
“Personally, I think Mr. Renton was making too much of it. Sounded like silly superstition.” Now, had they said the house was haunted—that would make sense to me.
“Did some local witch place a curse on the property? What?”
Danielle laughed at Lily’s suggestion. “No, nothing like that—at least Renton didn’t mention a witch. It was more along the lines of past owners of the property having bad luck. But considering my aunt lived an interesting and long life, seemed very happy and content, I don’t think she was plagued with back luck.”
“Yes, but didn’t you say she never lived in the house?”
“I’m not entirely certain she never lived in the house. She may have when she was younger. I really don’t know.” Although if her mother inherited the house, and she was a small child at the time it would stand to reason she moved into Marlow House. According to Walt Marlow, Kathrine O’Malley was a single, unmarried mother with limited funds. I’d imagine she would move into the house, or sell it for the money.
“What did the attorney tell you?”
“Not much, really. I probably should’ve asked more questions, but at the time I was more focused on the property’s current condition. Its history didn’t seem that important at the time.”
They arrived at Marlow House before noon. The sky was not as gloomy as it had been earlier that morning. Patches of blue had pushed aside the gray clouds. Lily got out of the car and unlocked the side gate so Danielle could pull the car up the drive and park by the side door.
“How did you know this door led to the kitchen?” Lily asked as she and Danielle carried sacks of groceries into the house from the car.
“A lucky guess,” Danielle lied. She’d noticed the door when she had been in the kitchen with Walt Marlow the previous day. “I knew it would be more practical to pull up to the house instead of hauling everything up the front walk. Just figured there had to be a side door off the drive. Lucky for us there’s one that goes directly into the kitchen.”
“This is an amazing kitchen. The appliances look brand new. Like we stepped back in time.” Lily dumped the sacks she had been carrying, setting them on the counter, and then went to inspect the vintage electric refrigerator. “I’ve only seen old refrigerators like this in museums or historical homes. Do you think it works?”
Danielle pointed to the cord. “It’s unplugged. I really don’t want to try it. Last thing I need to do is plug in some faulty electrical appliance and burn the house down. Maybe I’ll make a storage cabinet out of it.”
“You’re probably right. But it’s really awesome.” Lily lingered a moment by the refrigerator, looking inside and then at the motor atop the unit before going back outside to retrieve the rest of the groceries.
Together they brought in the cooler, each taking one end. At the store they’d filled it with ice along with perishable items, so it was too heavy for just one of them to carry. After setting it on the floor near the refrigerator, they went outside to bring in their suitcases and the rest of their things.
Danielle suggested they stack their suitcases in the entry hall by the staircase landing. Until they checked out the rest of the house, they wouldn’t know where they’d be sleeping. After setting the last suitcase down, Danielle stood silently for a moment, noting how quiet it was in the house. Lily broke the silence as she made her way up the staircase. Danielle followed her up, her hand holding onto the oak handrail as she walked up the wood steps.
“Kind of noisy,” Lily said, glancing back at Danielle. The sound of footsteps echoed up the staircase.
“Maybe I should see about carpeting the steps, or adding some sort of runner.”
“At least you’ll hear if someone’s coming upstairs. Consider it a security system.”
“I’d rather have a security system that stops the bad guys before they get into the house.”
“Ahhh, in a perfect world!” Lily laughed.
Together they explored the rooms on the second floor before going to the attic.
“It’s even dust free up here,” Lily noted. “I’d keep that same housekeeper.”
“I wonder what this house would look like if it had been simply closed up all these years—almost 90 years.” Danielle walked over to the spotting scope and peered through it. Adjusting the scope she could see waves breaking on the beach, beyond the rooftops of the houses across the street.
“Remember Joe Peters?” Lily asked.
“That Realtor you used to date?” Danielle peered through the spotting scope.
“Yeah. I remember once I went with him to check out a house he was listing. It happened to be the home of the lady who used to give me piano lessons when I was a kid. She’d died and the house went to her nephew. I guess he had money, because he wasn’t in a rush to sell it, and it didn’t have a mortgage. Anyway, it sat empty, boarded up for about five years. I couldn’t believe how it looked.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was already starting to deteriorate. I remembered how it had looked when she was alive, it was in good condition. But five years later, it was pretty much falling apart. I said something to Joe about it. Initially I assumed a vacant house would look better five years later than an occupied house – you know, the wear and tear of people living in it. But that wasn’t the case.”
“What did Joe say?”
“He reminded me that the utilities had been turned off, so there wasn’t any temperature control. Extreme hot and cold can cause damage. And then there is the dust and critters. Dust accumulates, and things begin to rot. If something like a pipe happens to break, it might be days before someone catches it. Looking at this house, compared to my piano teacher’s, and considering this is probably 70 years older than hers—well, let’s just say your aunt was smart to keep this place maintained in her absence.”
“It couldn’t have been cheap. Maintaining a house you never use…never visit.”
“I wonder why she didn’t sell the property.” Lily stood by Danielle and looked out the window.
“I don’t know. Want to look?” Danielle stepped away from the spotting scope, offering Lily a turn. Lily accepted the offer and stepped up to the scope, adjusting the lens to suit her.
“I think I’ve found my favorite spot.” Lily turned the scope slightly and readjusted the focus. “You can get a close up of who’s at the front gate, or peek in the neighbor’s windows…” Lily turned the scope to face the house directly across the street. “Wow, I think I l
ike your neighborhood.” Lily peered through the scope, looking through the house’s front window. A shirtless man stood inside looking out the window. She estimated he was in his early thirties and by his impressive abs he was obviously physically fit.
“Lily!” Danielle jerked the spotting scope to one side. “You can’t be spying on the neighbors.”
“Why not?” Lily stood up straight, no longer looking through the scope. “You didn’t see him. What a hottie. We really need to get to know your neighbors!”
“Lily, I don’t think elementary school teachers are supposed to be constantly checking out guys.” Danielle laughed.
“Why not? I’m single and healthy.”
“Your friend does seem to have an eye for the men,” came a male voice by the attic doorway. Lily didn’t hear it, but Danielle did. She turned around abruptly and faced Walt Marlow. He smiled and gave her a little nod in greeting. Danielle said nothing, but glanced frantically from Lily to Walt, and back to Lily. Lily didn’t seem to notice her friend’s abrupt change in demeanor. Instead, she started chattering on about the handsome neighbor’s physical attributes.
Danielle gave Walt a questioning frown, ignoring what her friend was saying.
“You seem surprised to see me,” Walt said. “Let me rephrase that—you don’t seem happy to see me.”
Unaware of the new arrival, Lily peered back through the spotting scope. Danielle looked at Walt and lifted her shoulders slightly and turned her palms up, silently questioning Walt. Why are you still here? She seemed to ask.
“We need to have a little chat, Danielle. If you want me to leave, there is something you first have to do for me.”
Chapter Six
Danielle moved into the master bedroom while Lily took a room down the hall. Lily’s plan was to stay in Oregon for the summer and then return to California come August, to start a new school year.
It wasn’t until Danielle carried her last suitcase into her new bedroom did Walt appear to her again. He’d disappeared in the attic, shortly after announcing they needed to have a chat.
“This is my room,” Walt said after he reappeared.
