by Bobbi Holmes
When Marie returned to Marlow House, she found Danielle in the kitchen, finishing up dinner.
“Okay, you were right,” Marie told her.
“Right about what?” Danielle asked.
“Your guest, Owen Gardener. I don’t think he is a criminal.”
Danielle chuckled. “I am very relieved. What changed your mind?”
Marie then went on to tell Danielle what she had learned at Heather’s house.
“That poor guy,” Danielle muttered.
“I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. According to Heather, they are still face friends, so he must be good with it.”
“I assume you mean Facebook friends?”
Marie shrugged.
“From what he told us earlier, he and his wife are separated—not divorced. And I got the feeling he wasn’t thrilled about the divorce idea,” Danielle said.
“I do believe he should get used to it. After all, his wife is living with another man.”
Twenty
It felt like the old days of the B and B as guests gathered around the dining room table on Tuesday morning for breakfast. There were new acquaintances, like Colin and Owen, and friends who had once been guests at Marlow House B and B—when it was still in business—like Chris and his brother, Noah. Walt and Danielle sat at opposing ends of the table, chatting with their guests. Joanne brought an additional basket of warm muffins and cinnamon rolls to the table, and Chris helped refill coffee cups.
The current topic of conversation involved the careers of those sitting around the table. It began when someone asked Walt about his writing and shifted over to Chris’s work at the foundation—leaving out the detail that he was actually the man behind the foundation, not just an employee. Danielle talked briefly about her marketing career and then the now defunct bed and breakfast. Noah shared several stories about his years teaching, and Owen touched briefly on his position at a manufacturing company as a purchasing manager and how this was a must needed break from work.
When the conversation got around to Colin, they were all surprised when he explained he was a retired priest.
“I didn’t know priests retired,” Owen said.
Colin shrugged, took a sip of his coffee, and then said, “I suppose one is always a priest—unless his faith has faltered.”
“Has your faith faltered?” Danielle asked without thinking, instantly regretting her words.
Colin turned a smile in her direction and said, “No. I am happy to report my faith is probably stronger than ever. One reason I love Christmas, it can help renew faith that has been lost—or misplaced.”
“I’ve always loved Christmas. There is something magical about this time of year,” Danielle said with a sigh.
“I don’t know. As I get older, it just seems like another day,” Owen remarked as he picked up a slice of bacon from his plate.
“The Puritans who came to America—before this was a country—didn’t believe in celebrating Christmas,” Colin explained. “In fact, for a time celebrating Christmas was outlawed in Boston. It wasn’t officially recognized as a federal holiday until 1870.”
“Wow, that was the same year Frederickport was founded,” Danielle noted.
“And just a year before this house was built,” Walt added.
“While it wasn’t an official holiday yet, both the North and the South celebrated Christmas during the Civil War,” Colin continued.
They discussed Christmas traditions for another ten minutes when Owen said, “Christmas is for kids.”
“I guess that makes me a big kid.” Danielle glanced at her watch and then added, “I’m going to be leaving in about thirty minutes to go Christmas shopping with one of our neighbors.”
“Lily?” Chris asked.
“No, with Heather. Lily is one of the people I’m shopping for. So, what are all of you planning to do today?” Danielle asked.
Elizabeth Sparks slept in on Tuesday morning. Opening her eyes sleepily, she rolled over and looked at her alarm clock.
“It’s almost ten thirty!” Elizabeth gasped, bolting upright in her bed. She rubbed sleep from her eyes and took a second look at her clock—just to be sure. It was indeed almost ten thirty. When was the last time I slept so late? she asked herself. But she was on Christmas break, and her parents wouldn’t be arriving for a couple more days, so she told herself not to feel guilty. She deserved her rest.
She picked up her cellphone from the nightstand and checked her email. She then logged into Facebook and glanced through her friends’ recent posts. One was from her boyfriend—her ex-boyfriend. They had broken up right before the beginning of Christmas break. It had been a mutual decision, without tears or drama. That was probably why they had decided to part ways. He was a great guy, an artist like herself, but whatever romance they had once imagined was no longer there—if it ever had been.
With a sigh, Elizabeth tossed her phone back on the nightstand and climbed out of bed. She walked to the window and began pulling her shades open. When they were about halfway open, she stopped abruptly and ducked behind the curtains and peeked outside.
“It’s him,” Elizabeth whispered to herself. The man she had seen parked in front of her house before—the one she kept running into around town—the man whose reflection she saw in the store window watching her—he was here again, sitting right outside her house.
From this angle, it was impossible to read the car’s license plate. Calling the police sounds a little extreme, she thought. What do I say? There is a guy sitting in his car by my house. Hardly against the law.
The next moment the car drove away. Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief and went to get dressed. She had Christmas shopping to do.
Danielle and Heather walked down main street together, each holding a bag carrying their purchases, when they ran into Elizabeth Sparks walking out of a store. After greeting each other, it was soon discovered they were all heading in the same direction—to Lucy’s Diner to grab lunch. Danielle and Heather invited Elizabeth to join them, and she accepted their offer.
Fifteen minutes later they were seated at a table in Lucy’s Diner. The server had already taken their order and brought their beverages. Picking up her glass of iced tea, Danielle paused a moment and looked over at Elizabeth and said, “Carla over at Pier Café told me about your stalker.”
“You have a stalker?” Heather gasped.
“She told you about that?” Elizabeth asked. “Although, I am not surprised. I don’t know, maybe that’s why I told Carla.”
“What do you mean?” Danielle asked.
Elizabeth shrugged. “I feel funny going to the police about this.”
“What’s going on?” Heather demanded.
Elizabeth recapped her encounters with the mysterious stranger.
“Did you think Carla would blab it to the cops, and then they would come ask you about it?” Heather asked after listening to what Elizabeth had to say. “Is that why you told her, because you felt funny going to the police yourself?”
“I didn’t think that exactly…but maybe that was at the back of my mind…I don’t know. And I was almost convinced it was my imagination, but then I saw him again. Parked in front of my house this morning.”
“Do you have any idea who he is?” Danielle asked.
Elizabeth shook her head. “I have no idea. And I don’t recognize his car other than it’s a black sedan—sort of nondescript. I’m not a car person.”
“Two door or four door?” Danielle asked.
Elizabeth cringed. “I don’t know. I was looking at him.”
“What does your boyfriend say?” Heather asked. “This lady I know, when she lived alone, this guy came up to her apartment door and knocked. The creep had his pants down. She yelled fire, and he ran away. They never caught him, but after that, her boyfriend stayed at her apartment every night until she moved.”
“Fortunately whoever it is has kept his pants up. As for the boyfriend, we are no longer together,” Elizabe
th told them.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Danielle said.
Elizabeth shrugged. “Don’t be. He’s a nice guy, and we’re still friends.”
“When are your parents going to be here?” Danielle asked.
“They’re coming Thursday.”
“I imagine you’ll feel better having them stay with you,” Heather said. “Nice you get to spend Christmas with your parents. Danielle and I are orphans.”
“Heather!” Danielle chastised. “That sounds so…so…”
“It’s true.” Heather looked at Elizabeth and smiled. “Chris is an orphan too. But he has a brother. Danielle and I don’t have any siblings. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“I have an older brother,” Elizabeth told her.
“Is he coming for Christmas? I’d think an older brother would be perfect for taking care of a stalker—especially one that police can’t do anything about since technically he hasn’t broken the law,” Heather said.
“No. Mark is not coming for Christmas. In fact, it’s been years since we spent Christmas together.”
“You aren’t close?” Heather asked.
Elizabeth shrugged. “We used to be. When we were kids. Back then, we had so much fun at this time of year.”
“He helped you decorate the Christmas shoe, didn’t he?” Danielle asked.
Heather looked at Danielle and frowned. “What is a Christmas shoe?”
Danielle cringed. “Dang. I should not have mentioned that. Forget I said anything about a shoe. You might get it in the white elephant exchange.”
“One shoe?” Heather shrugged and said, “I guess that would make the perfect white elephant gift, a single shoe. Kinda useless.”
Elizabeth flashed Danielle a smile. “Yes, he helped decorate it. But that was when we were both kids. He was a lot of fun back then and really got into Christmas. But when he got older, I almost think he resented the fact that Christmas had changed since we were kids. There was no longer a mountain of presents under the tree. My mother used to go a little crazy at Christmas.”
“We never had a mountain of gifts under our tree,” Heather muttered.
“One Christmas, when Mark was older, he got the Christmas shoe,” Elizabeth began. “Actually, it was his wife who got it.”
“I still don’t know what that is,” Heather said.
Elizabeth looked at Heather and explained. “It was a gag gift passed around in our family. Not the same shoe Danielle has.”
While she didn’t completely understand, Heather let Elizabeth continue without interrupting again.
“Mark had just gotten married, and it was the first Christmas his wife was spending with our family. Actually, it turned out to be the last Christmas too.”
“Why?” Danielle asked.
“It was Mom’s turn to pass on the shoe, and she decided it should go to her new daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, my sister-in-law did not think it was very funny.”
Danielle cringed. “What happened?”
“The following Thanksgiving, I reminded my sister-in-law it was her turn to pass on the shoe. I figured she had gotten over her snit over getting the shoe and that she might have some fun passing it on. Heck, I thought it would be hilarious if she gave it to my brother.”
“Did she do it?” Danielle asked.
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. She told me she didn’t have the shoe anymore. That Mark had gotten rid of it when they had cleaned out their garage. I thought she was kidding at first, and then I realized she wasn’t. When I got upset, she told me it really was none of my business what she did with the shoe, considering it had been given to her.”
“Wow,” Danielle said.
“When I asked my brother about it later, he told me the whole shoe thing was lame anyway, and he admitted getting rid of it.”
“So that’s what happened to the shoe,” Danielle said.
“Yes. My brother and his wife never spent Christmas with me or my parents ever again.”
“Because of the shoe?” Heather asked.
“It might have been because of something I said,” Elizabeth confessed. “When Mark admitted he had gotten rid of the shoe, I just lit into him. We had a huge fight. And I said things I shouldn’t have said about his wife. We never talked after that. And then they moved away.”
“He hasn’t kept in touch with your parents?” Danielle asked.
“No. It has broken my mother’s heart, but she is convinced he will eventually reach out to us. He and Mom used to be so close. He was close to Dad too, but not like he was to Mom. I’m surprised he has kept away this long, but I think his wife was always jealous of our mother. And she never liked me.”
“I know it is none of my business—but maybe you should try reaching out to him,” Danielle suggested. “I say that as someone who, as Heather pointed out, has no parents—no siblings. I lost my cousin a few years ago. She was the last person in my family. While Cheryl and I had our issues, I would give anything to have her back in my life again. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after she died.”
Twenty-One
“I hope one of the neighbors doesn’t notice our car,” Forrest said as he drove down Beach Drive, Marcella in the passenger seat. “We keep cruising by here every few hours; someone is going to notice.”
They spied two men walking down Marlow House’s front walkway, the pit bull trailing behind them. When the men reached the sidewalk, one of them leaned down and snapped a leash on the dog.
“It looks like two of them are going, and they’re taking the dog with them!” Marcella said excitedly.
“But I also saw someone in the living room,” Forrest said as they neared the pier.
“This is going to be impossible getting in that house with all those people staying there,” Marcella groaned.
When they reached the turnoff for the pier parking lot, Forrest kept driving.
“I thought we were going to get something to eat? We didn’t have breakfast,” Marcella complained.
“I don’t want to eat at Pier Café again. The food is alright, but I want to go somewhere different.”
“We could try one of those places Sam suggested. There is Beach Taco—” Marcella began.
“I don’t feel like Mexican food.”
“He said that place on the main street has the best burgers in town,” she suggested.
“You mean Lucy’s Diner?” he asked.
“Yes. I think that’s the one.”
Danielle, Heather and Elizabeth had just finished their lunch and ordered dessert when Marcella and Forrest entered Lucy’s Diner. Heather and Danielle didn’t notice the couple walking into the restaurant, but Elizabeth did.
“Wow, I’m surprised to see them in Frederickport,” Elizabeth said in a low voice as she watched Marcella and Forrest walk to a table across the room and sit down.
Danielle and Heather glanced briefly in the couple’s direction and then looked back to Elizabeth.
“Who’s that?” Heather asked.
Leaning forward slightly across the table, her voice low so as not to carry across the room, Elizabeth said, “That’s Forrest and Marcella Hooper.” She looked at Danielle and added, “They’re the couple who worked for Eloise Winterborne.”
“Who is Eloise Winterborne?” Heather asked.
“She lived in Astoria—passed away about six months ago,” Danielle explained. “Walt and I picked up some things from her estate at a curio shop the other day. I mentioned it to Elizabeth when I saw her at the museum. She was telling me a little about the woman.”
“So who was she? Someone famous?” Heather asked.
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. Just a sweet little old lady with her share of quirks—a bit eccentric. The couple who just walked in, they worked for Eloise for about twenty years. After she passed away, they were pretty upset that she didn’t even mention them in the will. Frankly, I can’t say I blame them. But they did get pretty nasty with me at her funeral.”
&
nbsp; “Why would they get nasty with you?” Danielle asked.
“You know how I told you Eloise often took my craft classes?”
Danielle nodded.
“When she died, she left her money to a variety of charities—including the one I started for the local arts. They accused me of taking advantage of her—manipulating her to leave the charity money. But it wasn’t like I will see any of it. I don’t even get paid for any of those classes.”
“Why are you surprised to see them here? Astoria is not far from Frederickport,” Heather asked.
Elizabeth glanced briefly over to the Hoopers’ table again and then looked back to Heather. “After Eloise died, I heard the executor of the will asked them to stay on to help with the upcoming estate auction and to take care of the place. At the time, they assumed they were in the will. But they soon found out they hadn’t even been mentioned.”
“So they left?” Heather asked.
Elizabeth shook her head. “They really had nowhere to go. I don’t think they’re old enough to collect Social Security. They had no choice but to stay on or find another job. Staying to work for the estate gave them a roof over their head and a paycheck. But I heard they were recently told their services were no longer needed. I just assumed they would leave the area because Marcella Hooper made a scene after they were let go, said something about how she couldn’t leave Oregon fast enough.”
“It’s hardly Oregon’s fault,” Heather said.
“I just think they were upset they’d devoted so many years to taking care of Eloise, and ended up with nothing. It left a bitter taste in their mouth, and they just wanted to leave—or so I thought.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure how good they were at their job. Have you seen the Winterborne house? It looks as if it is ready to fall down,” Danielle said.
“Not sure you can blame that on the Hoopers,” Elizabeth told her. “I liked Eloise, but she was an odd little thing. She hated spending money. One reason she took my craft classes, they were the ones offered by the foundation; they didn’t cost her anything. Just from what I overheard over the years, I don’t think she would let them spend much on repairs. If Mr. Hooper couldn’t fix it himself—without spending much money—it did not get fixed.”
