Brian stood abruptly. He looked from Danielle to Heather. “Are you saying Olivia is dead?”
“Nooo, don’t say that!” Lily groaned.
Connor pounded on his highchair’s food tray and then pointed across the room. “Lady bye-bye!”
Chris looked at Lily. “Unfortunately, where there’s a ghost, there’s a dead body.”
“At least until it’s cremated or decomposes,” Heather quipped.
“Heather!” Lily gasped.
Heather shrugged. “Well, it’s true.”
“Her ghost was really here?” Ian glanced around the room as if he could see her if she suddenly reappeared.
Danielle let out a sigh and stood. She walked to where she had seen Olivia minutes earlier. “Yes. Unfortunately. She was standing right here when Walt dropped the chicken.”
“I wouldn’t have dropped the chicken if a woman appearing out of thin air hadn’t distracted me.”
“She could have at least stuck around and told us what happened to her,” Heather grumbled.
“She seemed startled at the floating platter of chicken hovering over the table,” Chris said. “Unlike Walt, I missed her arrival. At first, I didn’t realize she was a ghost. I thought, this is terrific; someone left the kitchen door open, and our new neighbor barged in without knocking. How are we going to explain a floating platter? And then I heard it fall on the table, and the next moment she vanished.”
“You thought all that in just the few seconds she was here?” Heather asked.
“What, you couldn’t?” Chris countered.
“We can’t have another murder on our street!” Lily moaned.
“We really don’t know if it’s murder,” Chris reminded. “There were no visible wounds on her body.”
“That means nothing,” Danielle said.
Heather looked at Brian. “Now what?”
“I need to go over there, but I have no idea what I might walk into. I can’t exactly call for backup. What do I say? A ghost dropped by, so we need to find the body?” Brian asked.
“You think someone might still be there?” Heather asked.
Ian stood. “This is serious. The second murder on our street in less than a week. And we don’t seem to be any closer to finding the killer.”
“Your mother is going to love this,” Lily muttered under her breath.
Walt stood. “I think Brian and I should go over there. I can be his backup, and the rest of you stay here and keep the doors locked.”
“Instead of barging over there, can’t we go upstairs first and look out the window and see what’s going on over at her house?” Danielle suggested.
Brian considered the question for a moment. “Okay. Maybe we’ll see something, and that’ll justify me calling for backup.”
“I’m going to check and make sure all the doors are locked. I’ll meet you upstairs,” Chris said as he stood and tossed the napkin from his lap onto the tablecloth.
“I have an idea,” Walt said before calling, “Max!” A moment later, Max, who had been lying in the hallway with Hunny and Sadie, came strolling into the dining room, panther like, while Hunny and Sadie, who now stood at the entry, leaning into the room, wanting to come too, but understood they were not allowed into the dining room until Walt gave the okay.
Walt leaned down and stared into Max’s eyes. Instead of verbally repeating what message he conveyed to the cat, he remained silent. Max let out a meow and then dashed to the open doorway leading to the kitchen door. A moment later, they could hear the pet door in the kitchen swing back and forth. Max had gone outside.
“What did you tell him?” Danielle asked.
“I sent him on a recognizance mission,” Walt said. “He’s going to check out next door and let us know what’s going on over there.”
Fifteen minutes later, the friends stood upstairs, looking toward Olivia’s house from the windows of one of the guest bedrooms. They did not turn the bedroom lights on but stood in the darkness. Ian held Connor in his arms. Chris had joined the group after checking all the doors, and Max had not yet returned. Hunny and Sadie had remained downstairs after Walt told the two to patrol the first floor and let him know if they heard anything suspicious.
The sun had set within the last hour, and next door at Olivia’s, all her blinds were closed and lights off, save for the bedroom window upstairs. While its blind was closed, the room light was on. Yet they saw no movement or silhouette in the window. They could see the shadow of Olivia’s car still parked in her driveway behind the house.
A meow broke their concentration. Walt turned to the open doorway leading to the hallway and spied Max’s silhouette, backlit by the hall light.
“What did you find, Max?” Walt asked. Everyone in the room grew silent, waiting for Walt and Max to finish their conversation. Like the last time, whatever additional questions Walt might have had, he did not voice them out loud, but instead remained quiet. Several minutes later, Walt turned to Brian and said, “According to Max, it’s quiet over there. No one was outside. And there are no strange cars parked in the back alley or on the street by the house. There is a stack of empty boxes on the back porch.”
“She’s been unpacking all day,” Heather said. “She was putting empty boxes outside when I was walking over here.”
“I suppose we’re lucky Max made it back to tell us what he did. He was rather intrigued by those boxes. Wanted to return and further investigate them. I told him no. If there is a crime scene over there, Max doesn’t need to compromise it,” Walt said.
“Thanks for that,” Brian said.
“So now what?” Lily asked. “It doesn’t sound like our neighbor’s body is outside in her yard.”
“I’m more concerned about a killer still lurking in the area,” Danielle said.
“It’s possible she wasn’t murdered. She might have fallen in the house while moving some of those boxes,” Chris suggested. “She could have fallen down the stairs, like Pearl.”
“Pearl didn’t just fall. She was pushed,” Heather reminded him.
Chris shrugged. “I’m just saying if she was alone over there, carrying boxes up and down those stairs, it’s possible she tripped, fell, and hit her head.”
“I hope you’re right,” Lily said. “While tragic dying from a careless accident, it’s much better than being murdered.”
“You mean much better for the neighborhood,” Chris said.
Lily shrugged.
Brian looked at Walt. “Before we go over there, I should call the chief and tell him what’s going on.”
Walt nodded. “I thought you would probably do that.”
Brian stepped out into the hallway alone and called the chief on his cellphone. He was there for a few minutes. When he returned to the room, Danielle asked, “What did the chief say?”
“He wants us to go over there and look around. He doesn’t want us to break in, but if the door is unlocked, he wants us to go inside and check it out.”
“And of course, when you find Olivia’s body, you’ll say the door was open, and you heard something suspicious, which is your reason for going inside in the first place,” Heather said.
“Something like that.” Brian turned to Danielle and added, “He said since meeting Danielle, he forgot how to play by the rules.”
Danielle shrugged. “You aren’t much better.”
“No argument there,” Brian agreed.
“You guys, please be careful,” Danielle urged. “I do not want to raise twins with a ghost.”
After reaching the first-floor landing, Walt and Brian headed to the kitchen and then went outside through the side door.
“I have the flashlight on my phone, but I’d rather not use it. If someone is out there, I don’t want them to see us. Can you see okay?” Brian whispered.
“Well enough,” Walt whispered back.
Holding his gun in one hand, Brian pointed toward the back gate. He wanted to enter Olivia’s property from the alleyway so they could check out her car first. Walt gave a nod, and together, the two men walked to the back of the yard. Careful not to make any noise, Walt unlatched the back gate, and the two men left Marlow House’s backyard.
When they reached Olivia’s driveway, they noticed nothing out of order. Brian walked around her vehicle and found all the doors locked. When they finished checking out the car and driveway, they entered Olivia’s backyard, both men looking for anything out of the ordinary.
The night was quiet, the only sound an occasional hooting of an owl in a nearby tree. Because of the darkness, they failed to notice the pile of cardboard boxes Max had told Walt about. Brian tripped over them, and he might have fallen to the ground had Walt not caught him with his telekinetic energy. Yet he didn’t catch the boxes now scattered on the ground along the side of the house.
“Thanks,” Brian told Walt. “Maybe I should use my flashlight.”
While Brian turned on his flashlight app, Walt checked the back door. When Brian joined him a moment later, Walt said, “The door is unlocked.”
“It is?”
“Well, it is now,” Walt said.
“You unlocked it?”
“How else are we going to get inside?”
“The chief said not to break in.”
“The chief also said to go in if the door was unlocked,” Walt reminded him. “It’s unlocked. Did you see me do anything to the door?”
“You moved the locking mechanism with your energy, didn’t you?”
“And if you told Joe what I did, would he believe you? If he looked at this door, I imagine he would say it doesn’t look like it was forced, so it must have been left unlocked. Of course, the chief will want us to say it was also open.”
Brian shook his head and sighed. “Before those crazy witch wannabes kidnapped us, I wouldn’t believe this either.”
“Should we go in?” Walt whispered.
Brian handed Walt his phone, its flashlight app on. Gun ready, he moved in front of Walt and turned the doorknob. It opened, and he slowly pushed the door into the dark house. He entered first, followed by Walt, who left the door wide open.
Brian’s cellphone in hand, Walt moved the beam of the flashlight app around the room to get familiar with their surroundings so they wouldn’t trip over something like Brian had done with the boxes outside. Unlike the last time Walt had been in the house, it now had living room furniture.
They didn’t find Olivia’s body in the living room, so they headed to the kitchen. She was not there. From the kitchen, they went back out through the living room and made their way toward the staircase.
When they were about five feet from the base of the stairs leading to the second floor, an overhead light turned on, illuminating the staircase and living room. Both men froze.
“Hold it right there!” a female voice shouted.
Walt and Brian looked up and found Olivia standing on the top of the staircase, pointing a rifle at them. Neither man moved an inch.
“Olivia?” Brian stammered, his gun now pointing at her.
“You can see her?” Walt asked.
“Yes, I can see her,” Brian snapped.