by SUE FINEMAN
She shook his hand and took a seat in his office.
“I spoke with Cole about the house on Manor Drive. He insists it belongs to you, although Brent put Julianne Bosch on the deed. We’ll change the name and you’ll be free to do whatever you want with the house.”
“I’d like to burn it down and forget I ever saw it, but I doubt that’s an option.”
He smiled. “How big is the house?”
“With the hidden room, I’d guess at least three thousand square feet, maybe closer to thirty-five hundred, and it’s all on one floor. The yard is beautiful, and it backs up to the River Valley Golf Club property.” She cocked her head. “Would you be interested in buying it?”
“Maybe. My wife wants to trade in our big house for something smaller on one floor, and I like the idea of living on the golf course. Do you know what you’ll be asking?”
“I haven’t given it much thought. I’ll need to check the comps.”
He cocked his head. “My next appointment cancelled, so I’m free until four. Would you show me the house? I can have my wife meet us there.”
She couldn’t believe she’d found a potential buyer for the house Brent intended her to live in. Why not sell it? He’d put it in her name. “I’d be glad to show it to you if I had a key.”
He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a key with a little white tag on it. He put it on the desk and pulled out a garage opener and another gadget for the gate. “Cole dropped this off at lunchtime.”
“Okay then.”
Julie rode to the house with Jim Clancy. His wife, who’d been parked and waiting at the curb, pulled into the driveway behind them.
Before they went inside, Julie said, “The décor isn’t what you might expect, but it has a lot of potential. The rooms are spacious, and as you can see, the yard is beautiful. The landscaper is an artist.”
Mary Clancy smiled. “Yes, the yard is lovely.”
Jim unlocked the front door and they wandered through the house together. Everything went well until they walked into the red room. Mary held her hand over her mouth. “This is ghastly.”
“Yes, it is. Andy Kane is an architect, and he says the door can be fixed and the bars can be removed from the window, but it’ll take a few coats of paint to cover this dark red. Still, it’s a nice, big room, and it has the snack kitchen.”
“Perfect for a home theatre,” Jim said.
His wife’s eyes came alive. “Yes, a home theatre. We don’t need a rec room, and we don’t need five bedrooms. This house is just the right size for us, and the study is perfect for you, Jim.”
The more they saw, the more they found to like. When they started placing their furniture in the rooms, Julie smelled a sale. “Will you have to sell your current home before you buy another one?”
“Our son is a full partner in the law firm now, and he’s looking for a bigger home. They have three children and are expecting another.” Mary smiled. “According to his wife, it’ll be their last one. We’ll see if they want the big house.”
Jim walked outside the family room door and past the pool to the back fence. Julie followed with Mary. The iron spike fence separated the backyard from the golf course.
“We have a membership in the club here,” the attorney said.
As they walked back toward the house, Jim said, “Assuming we can come to an agreement on the price, I think we’ve found a new home.”
His wife kissed him. “We should have done this years ago.”
Julie wanted to cheer. She not only had a sale, it was a sale of her property.
As they walked around the pool sparkling in the afternoon sunshine, Julie wondered if Brent would have allowed her to use it. Probably not.
Jim drove Julie back to his office and they talked about price on the way. She insisted she had to run some numbers and check other home prices in the area before she could give him a reasonable price.
“While you’re running numbers, run some on our home at 813 Palace Drive. Call Mary and she’ll show you around.”
She nodded. “I’ll do that. How many square feet is it?”
“Nearly six thousand, five bedrooms, six bathrooms. It’s two floors plus a finished basement and a playroom in the attic. Mary has a hell of a time getting up and down those stairs, but we don’t want to leave the neighborhood. It’s close to the office, the club is right there, and our friends and family all live nearby. With a little work, we could turn that little house into a nice home.”
Little house? By most people’s standards, the house on Manor Drive would be considered a big house, but then most people didn’t live in the part of town where the going price for a home was in the seven-figure range. People may routinely pay those prices in New York City or some areas of California, but not in River Valley, Ohio.
“Would you want to take care of the door to that room and the bars on the windows, or would you want me to do that?”
“Give me a good price and I’ll take care of it.”
He was talking as if the decision had been made, and she hadn’t given him a price yet. Might as well make it on the high side, because this slick attorney would no doubt want to haggle over the price until he got it where he wanted it. On the low side.
She didn’t care. To her, it was found money. Most of it would go for taxes, but she should have a nice little nest egg left.
If she could sell this house, she’d never have to borrow from her father again.
Brent had another surprise coming. She just hoped the doctor shackled him to the wall before telling him she’d sold the house, so he couldn’t kill anyone else.
If Brent ever got free, he’d kill her for sure.
Chapter Nineteen
Brent paced in his tiny room. Two steps to the wall and three steps to the door. He dropped to the floor and did ten push-ups, but the twitching in his muscles wouldn’t go away. The goons in charge here wouldn’t let him out of his cell, wouldn’t let him interact with the other patients, wouldn’t even let him see the damn doctor.
His father came to visit Monday afternoon, but they had to talk through the grill in the door, and Julie didn’t come. Brent said, “If you can’t bring Julie, then get me the fuck out of this shit hole, so I can go see her.”
Without another word, his father walked away.
The doctor came an hour later, but he wouldn’t open the door. “Grunt is dead, Brent. You killed him.”
“It’s his own fault. He tried to choke me.”
They’d probably never let him out of this place now. If he wasn’t crazy when he came in, he would be soon. Nobody could live under these conditions without going crazy.
Two steps to the wall and three steps to the door.
He felt like crawling out of his skin like a snake, slithering through that grill, and wrapping himself around the damn doctor’s neck.
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Julie spent most of Monday evening on the computer in the study, running comps for her house and for the Clancy home. Jim and Mary’s home should be worth between two million and two-and-a-half million. She’d have to see the house to narrow that down.
Her house was another story. It was one of the smaller ones in the neighborhood. According to the county records, the square footage was thirty-four hundred. Tax assessed value was nine hundred thousand, but that was low. Nothing in that neighborhood had sold for less than one-and-a-half million in the past three years. Could she ask a million three for it and say no negotiating? Would Jim go along with that? It was a fair price, considering the comps and the current market. She wouldn’t have to pay a real estate commission, and Jim’s law firm could handle the closing.
“What are you doing?” Andy asked.
“Running comps for a house. I’m thinking of asking a million three hundred thousand.”
“For what? Whose house are you selling?”
She gazed into his eyes. “Mine. I saw an attorney today, and he said the house Brent bought belongs to me. So I’m selling it.”
“But you said you didn’t want it.”
“I changed my mind. Brent put my name on the deed, so the house is mine. I’m not throwing away over a million dollars, Andy. I’m not that foolish. I can’t afford to pay utility bills and taxes and insurance on a house I can’t live in.”
He sat in the chair beside her. “What about Brent?”
“What about him? He’ll be locked up for the rest of his life.”
“Maybe.”
It was a risk she had to take. “If he ever gets out, I’ll leave River Valley.”
“Even if that means leaving me?”
She gazed into his warm brown eyes. “Are you asking me to stay with you?”
“Yes, for now.”
For now. He wanted her now, but not forever. “No promises?”
“Honey, I can’t make any promises until I know—”
She waved her hand to cut him off. “Never mind. No promises.” She’d finally found a man she could love forever, and he didn’t want her.
“Are you coming to bed soon?”
They’d slept together last night, but it wouldn’t happen tonight. Not the way she was feeling. “I have work to do. I’ll sleep in my own room tonight.”
Maybe her mother was right. She shouldn’t have slept with him until he could make a commitment for more than one night at a time.
She called Cassie, hooked on her leash, and went for a walk. She needed to think, and she couldn’t do it in that house, with Andy and his family there.
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Andy heard the front door open and close. He jumped out of bed and walked downstairs.
Otis’s nurse said, “Julie took Cassie for a walk. She seemed upset.”
Of course she was upset. He’d as much as said he didn’t want her.
He sat in the living room and waited for her to come home. She was gone nearly an hour before she quietly opened the front door and stepped inside. Cassie ran to him and stuck her nose under his hand, so he’d pet her. Sadie Belle was upstairs, sleeping on the foot of his bed. Once the puppy went to sleep, she was out for the night.
“Were you waiting for me?” Julie asked.
“I was hoping you’d change your mind. Or is it that time of the month?”
She glared at him. “Go to bed, Andy. I need to be alone tonight.”
He walked to her side. “Do I at least get a goodnight kiss?”
Julie gave him a quick peck on the lips and walked upstairs. Alone.
Standing under a hot shower, Julie thought about what Andy said. Why did guys always think that time of the month was the problem when a woman was upset about something?
She pictured the open box of tampons in her apartment bathroom, the box Brent took with her other personal things, and wondered when she’d last needed tampons. It was before she met Andy, before they moved into this house, and they’d been here for how many weeks? She’d met Andy in September, the week after her birthday, Halloween had come and gone, and it was nearly Thanksgiving.
“Oh God!” she whispered to herself. Could she be pregnant? Andy didn’t use a condom the first time, and there were a couple other times when passion took away caution.
No, she wasn’t pregnant. She’d never been that regular and had skipped periods before. Her emotions had been so stirred up lately, like finals week in college, and that always threw her off schedule.
But what if she was pregnant? Would Andy change his mind about her? He’d be a wonderful father, but she didn’t want to trap him into marriage if he didn’t want her.
She stepped out of the tub onto the bathmat and wrapped a towel around her wet hair. She wouldn’t say anything to anyone until she knew for sure.
Was it too soon to use one of those home pregnancy tests?
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Brent was shackled and taken to a little room, where his shackles were fastened to a bolt in the floor. “Is this necessary?” he asked the two brutes who escorted him to the room.
They glared at him, probably angry because he’d killed their friend.
His attorney, Cole Williamson, came into the room and sat down across the table. “We need to talk about what happened last week.”
“You mean me defending myself against a man who was trying to strangle me?”
“You’re calling it self-defense?”
“What do you call it?”
“Brent, I’m not qualified to defend you against murder charges. If you intend to plead guilty to murder and avoid a trial, I’ll do my best to take the death penalty off the table. But if you want me to take this to trial, I need to bring in another attorney from my firm. He’s handled murder cases before and has an excellent record.”
Brent yanked at his chains, and the attorney flinched. “I’m not guilty of anything. Do you hear me? The man tried to choke me, so I fought back.”
“You could plead insanity.”
“And spend the rest of my life in this hellhole? I’d rather go to prison.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m sure.” Prison couldn’t be any worse than the loony bin.
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The crew tearing down the farmhouse started on Tuesday, and by the end of the week, they had the site cleared. A gaping hole from the basement and a stack of bricks from the old fireplace chimney was all that remained.
Andy had driven Otis out. The sick old man wanted to see what the farm looked like without the house, and Andy couldn’t deny him.
“They’re bringing dirt out to fill the hole on Monday.” Andy didn’t want Billy’s kids coming out here and falling in the hole. Knowing Michael, he’d probably jump in just to see how far he could fall without killing himself. The ornery little kid reminded him of Charlie, who was always doing stupid, dangerous things.
Otis sat in the car with Andy. “Looks funny with the house gone.”
“Yeah, I know, but next year it’ll look like this.” Andy handed him a sketch of the house he planned to build there. It wasn’t another small farmhouse and it wasn’t a mansion like Billy’s house. This house was big enough for him and a wife and kids someday, big enough for dinners with his entire family, big enough to have a home office, so he wouldn’t have to drive into the city every day to work.
All he had to do was figure out how to pay for it.
“Nice looking house,” said Otis. “Very nice. Andrew would be proud.”
“I hope there weren’t any ghosts hanging around the old house.”
“Only one I know of was ole Wallace Bedford. Ma said he was too ornery to move on.”
“What about Annie?”
“Gone. They’re all gone except maybe the one.”
“Your mother?”
“She wouldn’t hang around. Said she’d been on this earth long enough. She was ready to go.” He sighed deeply. “So am I.”
“I’ll miss you when you’re gone, Otis.”
“I figure I’ll hang around awhile, watch the new house go up, maybe see you and the girl get married.”
Andy backed out of the driveway and started for home. “I’m not ready for marriage.”
“She is. I can see it in her eyes every time she looks at you. A man would be foolish to throw that kind of love away.”
“I’m not throwing it away, just delaying it until I get things settled.”
“Don’t wait too long, Andrew.” Otis leaned his head back, and by the time they got back to the house, he was sound asleep.
Otis wouldn’t wake up when they got back, so Andy carried the frail old man into the house and put him gently on the bed. The nurse hooked up the IV, and Andy pulled the slippers off his feet.
Cassie put her head on the side of the bed and whined, but Otis didn’t lift his hand to pet her.
Julie came in and asked, “How did it go?”
“The trip wore him out, but he seemed satisfied with the drawing of the new house.”
She brushed the hair off Otis’s forehead and kissed him there. He sighed deeply and slipped into a coma.
&
nbsp; By morning, he was gone.
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Two days later, John Otis Bedford was laid to rest between his wife and mother, while Kayla’s beautiful voice soared over the cemetery. She sang In the Sweet Bye and Bye, as Otis had requested.
Julie leaned on Andy, tears running down her face. Cassie stood by her side. The funeral director wasn’t happy about the dog attending the service, but Julie insisted, and Andy agreed. Otis loved his dog, and Andy figured Cassie had just as much right to be there as anyone else.
After the service, they all went out to the farm, where they stood under the maple trees and said a final prayer for Andrew Jefferson’s grandson. One of the neighbors had put up a little white cross under the maple trees, and others had put flowers there.
When Andy bought the farm, he didn’t expect to get so attached to the man who sold it to him, but he didn’t know then about the family connection. A strange connection for sure, but a strong one.
Andy hugged his mother. “Thanks for letting Otis stay at the house.”
“He was a nice man.”
“And you owed him?”
“Our family owed it to Andrew to take care of his grandson, but after I got to know Otis, I would have done it anyway. He seemed like part of the family.”
Andy swallowed the lump in his throat and drove Julie and Charlie and Cassie home. The rest of the family followed. He and Julie could move back to the condo now, but what would he do with the dogs? He didn’t want to dump them on his mother.
“So, what now?” Charlie asked.
“First, we read Otis’s will, then we figure out where we’re going to live with the dogs.”
Charlie squirmed in the backseat. “Are you building a room in that house for me?”
“You have a place to live.”
“Yeah, but if I’m working on the farm, it would be a whole lot easier if I lived there.”
“What about women?”
“What about them?”
“I don’t want a parade of women moving in and out of my house.”
