1 The Ghost in the Basement

by SUE FINEMAN

  Grandpa was right not to get into an investigation like this while Grandma was alive. It would have upset her to see all these men with their muddy shoes tracking up her kitchen floor and digging through her house. And she couldn’t picture her sweet, gentle grandmother dealing with the knowledge that there was a man buried in the basement.

  “I never could stand that man.”

  She turned to see Pop standing in the kitchen door. “You know him?”

  “I worked with him years ago. Spent two weeks in a patrol car with him before I told the captain it was either him or me. That’s when they paired me up with your father. A couple years later, Charlie found him out in a squad car getting it on with some woman. He beat the crap out of Cordelli that night, cracked two ribs, blackened both eyes, and broke his wrist.”

  “The woman was Monique, I assume.”

  “Charlie never told me who it was, and I didn’t ask. Cordelli claimed an unknown assailant attacked him, but everyone in the station knew what happened.”

  She put the apples in the refrigerator. “I grew up fighting off men like that. I kicked one in the crotch and he was so mad, he locked me in the trunk of his car. I was in there for at least three hours before Monique found me.” Hannah was so scared, she wet her panties that day. “She went after the man with a baseball bat, but they were both drunk and stoned out of their minds. He said he didn’t remember putting me in there.” He lied. He not only knew, he came back every now and then to pound on the trunk and make her scream with panic.

  “Oh, Hannah,” he said on a sigh. “How old were you?”

  “Eight. I never told Dad. I never told anyone until now. I’m thirty years old and still afraid of the dark.” She leaned back against the counter. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dump all that on you.”

  “Honey, you can dump on me anytime.”

  Pop was such a nice man. Hannah wondered what her father would have been like today if Gus Clayton hadn’t killed him. Grandpa and Grandma would have had someone to help them through their last days, and Hannah wouldn’t have been separated from them. Her father had promised she could live with them and go to high school in River Valley. When Dad was killed, everything changed.

  “Thanks for being here for my grandparents, Pop. If I’d known, I would’ve been here.”

  “Yeah, I know. Don’t beat yourself up over it, Hannah. I did that for years after your dad was killed, but I couldn’t undo what was already done. I didn’t just lose my partner, I lost my best friend.”

  She lost her daddy, her grandparents, and most of her childhood.

  Cordelli’s men finished searching the bedrooms and attic and came down to the kitchen, where Donovan was helping Hannah put dinner on the table.

  “Smells good in here,” said Cordelli.

  If he was fishing for an invitation, he could forget it. She’d made plenty of food, but Hannah wasn’t about to ask that jerk to eat with them.

  “You’ll have to wait to search in here until after we eat dinner,” said Donovan.

  “We’ll finish now.” The man’s voice dripped ice. He was throwing his weight around because he could, and Hannah didn’t like it. She didn’t like him. Cordelli was no better than the bullies who picked on Billy at school.

  The man was so cocky, Hannah knew he’d do something in front of Donovan to provoke him. She ran dishwater in a big plastic bowl, ready for what she knew was coming.

  Seconds later, Cordelli walked up behind her and brushed her behind with his hand. Before Donovan could get across the room, Hannah turned quickly and threw soapy water in Cordelli’s face. He swore and leaned over the sink to rinse the soap out of his eyes.

  One of Cordelli’s men stuck his thumb up, and Hannah, tongue in cheek, said, “Oops.” Billy got the giggles and Pop grinned. Donovan’s face turned dark with anger.

  Perkins, one of Cordelli’s men, said, “I believe we’re finished for the day.” His voice was filled with barely controlled laughter.

  Although Cordelli was still standing in the kitchen, bent over the sink, Hannah said, “Tell that pervert boss of yours if he ever puts his hands on me again, he’ll get more than dishwater in his eyes.” If that creep thought she was like her mother, he’d better think again.

  <>

  Hannah started scraping wallpaper in Billy’s room the next morning. Pop helped. Donovan had taken Billy to talk to someone about those four bullies.

  Most of the old paper on the upper half of the walls steamed off easily, but the bottom half was a mess. Pop sat on the bed. “What would you think about putting bead board on the bottom, with a chair rail around the middle of the room? If we can get some of that junk cleared out of the basement, I can set my saw up down there.”

  Hannah nodded. “White bead board with light blue paint on the upper walls. It’ll be a nice backdrop for Billy’s baseball posters.”

  Pop measured and made some notes. Hannah sat on the floor and leaned back against the end of the bed. “This house doesn’t need three staircases. If that stock is worth anything, I want to put in new bathrooms. Two on this floor and a powder room off the dining room. We’ll replace your bathroom, too.”

  “Sounds good to me. The plumbing in this house is shot.” He motioned toward the bedroom on the left side of the hidden staircase. “I understand why Sonny put carpet on the first floor. There was no insulation in the basement ceiling, so the floors were cold. I wonder why he carpeted that room and not the others on this floor.”

  “The ceilings aren’t the same height, either. I noticed it when I measured for wallpaper.” She pointed to Grandpa’s room. “That one is lower.”

  Pop walked into the room and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s paneled like the wall by that staircase. You don’t suppose—”

  “I’ll check the baseboard.” Hannah got down on her knees and felt around the baseboard, looking for latches. “There’s nothing here except the one that opens the door to the hidden stairs.”

  “We won’t find a latch in the crown molding. Nobody could reach it up there.” He felt around the window frame. “Found it. Stand back, Hannah.”

  Something clicked, and the strangest sight she’d ever seen appeared before her. A panel in the ceiling opened and a ladder squeaked and groaned as it unfolded and descended into the room. “Oh, my God. I don’t believe this.”

  The phone rang and Hannah pushed the speaker button on the phone by the bed. Donovan said, “Hannah, Cordelli and his crew are on their way over there to resume their search.”

  “Oh, not now. Pop and I just found… Never mind. We’ll be ready.”

  Pop lifted the bottom of the ladder off the floor. When it reached shoulder height, the old mechanism took hold and it folded into the ceiling, out of sight. “Cordelli doesn’t need to know about this or the attic steps or anything else. We’ll check it out later.”

  Hannah agreed. She was afraid if Cordelli knew, he’d take a crowbar and rip the house apart.

  Five minutes later, someone pounded on the front door and demanded to be let in. Hannah walked slowly down the grand staircase. Cordelli stood on the other side of the door, and she wasn’t about to let him in if she didn’t have to. “You can get in and out of the basement through the backyard, Detective,” she told him through the locked door.

  “We’re here to search.”

  “You did that yesterday.”

  Two of the men standing behind him smirked, but Cordelli wasn’t laughing. His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. He was clearly angry, and she didn’t care. She didn’t want that creep in her house, but if she didn’t let him in, he’d probably come back with a court order.

  Pop put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll take care of this, Hannah.”

  She went upstairs and dug the pepper spray out of her purse. If that pervert touched her again, he’d be hurting. Why would they keep a man like that on the police force? Billy had more sense than he did, and Billy was only in the fourth grade.

  Hannah returned to work on Billy
’s room and tried to ignore the presence of a small army of men snooping through the house, invading their privacy. She liked Perkins and the others, but Cordelli was the biggest pervert she’d ever met, and thanks to Monique, she’d met a lot of perverts.

  She heard men talking downstairs, searching the library and dining room. Did Donovan tell them about the diaries Grandpa mentioned in the letters? The one from 1912 was in the desk drawer in the library. She didn’t want to lose it, and if Cordelli took it, she might never see it again. She didn’t trust him.

  While standing on the ladder, scraping off wallpaper near the ceiling, Hannah felt someone’s hand on her behind. A second later, another hand clamped over her left breast.

  She reached in her pocket for her pepper spray and yelled, “Somebody get this pervert away from me.”

  Cold swirled around her and she knew something or someone had come into the room. The baseball tucked inside the glove flew off the dresser and beaned Cordelli on the back of the head. He whipped around, ready to fight, and no one was there.

  Footsteps pounded up the back stairs from the kitchen and more came up the front stairs. She had the little canister pointed and ready to use when three men burst into the room.

  Cordelli held up his hands. “I didn’t touch her.”

  “The hell you didn’t,” she muttered.

  Donovan spun Cordelli around and planted a fist in his face.

  When did he get home? “Don’t hit him in here. You’ll get blood on Billy’s new comforter.”

  Donovan jerked Cordelli off the bed and pulled him out of the room. Cordelli broke free and took a swing, but Donovan hit him in the stomach and then in the face. Cordelli flew backward and slid down several steps of the front staircase before he came to a stop, moaning.

  Hannah picked up the baseball and put it back in the glove on the dresser. “Whoever you are, thank you.” It wasn’t Grandma this time. She’d never been able to hit anything with a baseball. Grandpa could, though. So could Dad.

  Was her whole family here?

  Perkins handed Donovan his cell phone. “Captain Rogers is on the line.”

  Donovan nodded his thanks and took care of business. “I want Cordelli out of this house for good or you’ll see me on the six o’clock news. Fucking pervert can’t keep his hands off Hannah Taylor.” He knew Cordelli would still be involved in the investigation, since his team was the one working on it, but the man didn’t have to come here again.

  “Aw, shit! Not again.”

  “Perkins can handle things here, with Jalinski and Joseph.”

  “Yes, all right. Let me talk to Perkins.”

  Donovan handed the phone to Perkins. “Talk to the captain and then get that piece of shit out of my house.”

  Jalinski and Joseph, both body builders, grabbed Cordelli’s arms and pulled him down the stairs and out the front door. They dropped him on the lawn and walked away. Too bad there weren’t any reporters out there now. That was a picture he wouldn’t mind seeing on the front page of the River Valley News.

  Hannah’s anger was like a black funnel cloud; she was the calm eye of the storm, but the air around her swirled and churned. Even Billy stayed back.

  She pulled the gel pack from the freezer and handed it to Donovan. “For your hand,” she said, and walked away.

  “Are you pissed at me?”

  She whipped around to face him. “All I wanted someone to do was get the creep away from me. You didn’t have to beat him half to death. Now we’re both on his shit list.”

  He wrapped the gel pack around his swollen hand. “I’ve always been on his shit list, and you’re Charlie Taylor’s daughter. You’re on it by default. The only person Cordelli hated more than me was Charlie.”

  “If those guys are done searching, Hannah and I have something to show you,” said Pop.

  “You found another diary?”

  “No, but come look at this.”

  Donovan followed Pop and Hannah to Sonny’s bedroom, where Pop fiddled with something under the windowsill. Seconds later, a ladder descended from the ceiling. After finding those stairs, he shouldn’t be surprised, but he was. How many more surprises would they find in this old house?

  Hannah handed him a flashlight. “Pop found it, but we didn’t have a chance to look up there yet.”

  “Cool,” said Billy. “Can I go look?”

  Donovan looked down at his son’s excited face. The bruises were all but gone, and he’d go back to school next week. “Who’s the detective in this family, you or me?”

  “Pop. He’s the one who found it.”

  Holding back a laugh, Donovan thought, Why not? “Okay. Go slow until you know the steps are solid, and go just far enough to shine the light in and look inside. I’ll hold the ladder.”

  Grinning broadly, Billy climbed up the ladder and Donovan handed him the flashlight. “There’s a little book and a shopping bag or something. I can’t reach the bag.” He handed the book to Donovan, who gave it to Hannah.

  A minute later, Donovan retrieved the old valise. There was nothing else up there but spider webs. Pop raised the ladder off the floor and it folded back into the ceiling.

  Donovan shook his head. “Amazing.”

  Hannah opened the little book. “It’s dated 1918, the year the house was built.”

  Donovan wondered if they’d found the book with the answers.

  She followed him to the kitchen and out to the back porch, where they brushed the dust and spider webs off the valise. After finding those things under the attic steps, she wondered if there was more than clothes in there. Why else would it have been hidden?

  Hannah clutched the little book and shared a look with Donovan as he brought the valise to the kitchen table.

  “Do you want to open it, Hannah?”

  “No, Pop found it. He can open it.”

  Pop’s eyes sparkled. He seemed almost as excited as Billy. He unhooked the top and opened the mouth of the valise in a big yawn. “Looks like a dress.” He pulled out a worn calico dress and petticoat and handed them to Hannah. There were clothes for a little boy in the bottom. The wrinkled shirt and short pants looked like they’d fit a three-or four-year-old boy.

  “These must have been Sonny’s,” said Pop. “He was born in 1914.”

  Donovan examined the empty valise and pulled out the false bottom. Hannah reached inside. The bottom was filled with little hard lumps wrapped in a woman’s stockings and handkerchiefs and bloomers. They pulled them all out and piled them on the table.

  Billy poked at one. “What’s that?”

  Hannah said, “Go ahead and open them, Billy.”

  Billy carefully unwrapped each bundle of gold coins and counted. “Twenty-four.”

  “At least ten thousand dollars worth,” said Pop, “and probably a whole lot more. Feels like jewelry sewn into the seams of the petticoat. I have a feeling this is just the beginning, Hannah. The guy who built this house was a genius.”

  “I hope that’s not him in the basement,” Hannah said mostly to herself.

  The valise with the clothes and hidden coins and jewelry looked like someone was planning to run away from home. Did the man who built the house love her great-grandmother? Why else would he build the false ceiling and the hidden staircase, unless he was having an affair with Charity? And who put the stock and coins under the attic steps? The stock was dated two years after the house was built, yet those hiding places were built in. Strange.

  That presence, that intense cold that came up from the bones in the basement was still here, and it wasn’t the only one in the house. The ghosts weren’t threatening, but it spooked her to know they could see her and she couldn’t see them. For the first time in her life, she wished she had psychic powers, so she could find out who was buried down there and why the stock and jewelry and gold coins were hidden in the house. Maybe she’d find the answers in that diary they’d found in the false ceiling, or maybe she could find a way to communicate with them. Or maybe she was alre
ady communicating with them. When she felt a cold presence in the room and rubbed her arms, it always went away, and when she called for help with Cordelli, someone came.

  Now, if she could figure out a way for them to speak with her.

  Donovan stood on the other side of the table, examining the diary. “It looks like she wrote this thing in code. I can’t make out any of the words.”

  “I couldn’t either,” said Pop.

  “She didn’t want her husband to read it,” said Hannah. “Charity wouldn’t have poured her heart out in those books if she thought Cal would read them.” If he’d known what she said about him, he would have destroyed the books.

  Donovan watched her clip the threads in the seams of the petticoat and pull out beautiful gem-studded necklaces. The metal was tarnished, but those diamonds and rubies and emeralds must be worth a small fortune.

  “Better put those in a safe deposit box,” said Pop. “The coins, too.”

  She stared straight at Donovan. “If I give you half, will you let me keep the house, or do you want it all?”

  Pop glared at Donovan and then took Billy into the other room.

  “I don’t need your handouts.” All the personal property belonged to Hannah. The only thing he wanted was the house.

  Hannah’s lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t giving you a handout, I was trying to compensate you for allowing me to keep my grandfather’s home.”

  “I don’t want your money. I want a place for my family to live.” He plowed his hand through his hair. “I don’t know why we’re fighting about this. You won’t be around long enough to claim the house anyway.”

  She snatched the diary out of his hand. “This belongs to me.”

  “No wonder your husband left you.” Donovan immediately regretted his words.

  Hannah yelled, “My husband was a deadbeat who never paid a single bill in the three years we were married. He ran up all my credit cards and bought himself a new car, and I got stuck with the bills. I lived in one room and drove an old wreck for two more years before I got those bills paid off.” She lowered her voice. “I left him, not the other way around. Not that it’s any of your damn business. And you can’t have my house.”