Chapter Eighteen

On the day before New Year’s Eve, Mavis put on her warmest parka, her thickest gloves, and her heaviest snow boots. She was used to living in the south of France, and dealing with a Maine winter was a novelty. The hat she wore was black faux fur, a pillbox style with a large gold hatpin on the left. Her scarf was six feet of black wool. She doubled it, wrapped it around her shoulders, and looped the loose ends through the folded end. Then she pulled it tight to her neck, the same way she’d always done it in Europe.

She’d been busy that week. Avenir had decided to throw a New Year’s Eve party at the last minute. He told her he wanted to invite a few people to see the renovations he’d made at Oceanview. And he was planning something different that he couldn’t mention aloud. It wasn’t a large guest list; just locals. He’d hired a caterer and a staff, but Mavis still had a lot of errands to run in a small amount of time.

When she pulled out of the driveway at Oceanview, she was glad the roads were clear. The sun was bright that day and it was already melting the thin layer of snow the snow plows had missed. Mavis could see some of the black pavement, wet and shiny, showing through. She took a deep breath at the end of the driveway and adjusted her body in the seat. The seat was high; she sat close to the wheel. The vintage Mercedes station wagon Avenir had purchased for her wasn’t very good on snow and ice. The diesel engine putted and knocked. It fishtailed up hills and skidded to the side on its way down the hills. She would have preferred a large SUV with four-wheel drive and big knobby tires. But she knew how much Avenir loved vintage cars, and he didn’t think that large SUVs were good for the environment.

Her first stop was the florist, to make sure all the arrangements Avenir had ordered were exact and set to be delivered for the party on time. When she asked about them, she placed both her hands flat on the counter and lowered her eyebrows. She looked the clerk in the eye and told him that she didn’t want any mistakes. Avenir loved white roses, and that’s what he’d ordered. It was impossible for him to see them growing in daylight, and when he ordered them in arrangements he wanted them to be perfect.

After that, she made a few more stops for the party. She was still new in town and didn’t know anyone. The people in the shops were so nice; everyone nodded and said hello to her on the street. She went to the bank to withdraw five thousand dollars in cash. This was the first time she’d withdrawn a large amount from the small bank in Glendale Harbor and she wasn’t sure if they would give her trouble. The teller lifted her eyebrows and gave her a sideways glance. Then she took the withdrawal slip and scampered to the back of the bank and murmured a few things to a man in a dark suit. He lowered his reading glasses and looked at Mavis, then he waved and said hello. She tipped her head and smiled, then she squared her shoulders and turned in the other direction. They couldn’t question her, because this was her private account. But they didn’t seem surprised in the least that she was withdrawing all that money in cash. Avenir had set up the account and he’d deposited a large sum just so she could make these withdrawals. Evidently, the people in the bank were just as friendly as the people in the shops.

When the cash was in her purse, she thanked the bank teller and loped out to the car. She had to mail a few business letters for Avenir, so the next stop was the local post office in Glendale Harbor. She walked through the door with her lips pressed together, expecting to deal with nasty postal workers and long lines. But the only other person there was an older woman who was mailing a few packages to her grandchildren in Atlanta. When the woman saw that Mavis only needed postage for two letters, she smiled, stepped aside, and told her to go ahead of her. The woman working behind the counter smiled so wide you could see her upper gums. She asked Mavis if she was having a good day, and Mavis pressed her hand to her chest and said, “Well, yes, thank you for asking.”

Then she drove to a small town about forty miles to the west of Glendale Harbor to run her last errand. It took almost an hour, because the roads were still icy and the car kept skidding to the side of the road. But she finally reached a long narrow driveway with dense forest on both sides. The driveway hadn’t been shoveled very well. She turned left and slipped and swerved for about a half mile.

At the end of the driveway, she parked in front of an old Victorian, with red and white paint and snow so deep you could only see the top of the porch railing. She got out of the car and walked up to the front door. She rang the bell once and an old man came to the door. He was one of the old warlocks in her network, a retired medical doctor who could supply her with blood for Avenir. He looked her up and down, with one eyebrow raised and his hands on his hips. She lifted her right hand high and waved it back and forth. When she did this, a set of wind chimes hanging on a rafter began to sway and jingle. She knew that he was waiting for her to prove that she was a witch. She could still perform small tasks like this with little effort.

The old man smiled and said, “I have your package.” Then he disappeared into the dark house.

When he returned, he was carrying a medium-sized beer cooler, with a white plastic top and a pale green bottom. Mavis smiled and pulled an envelope of money out of her purse. He took the money, then handed her the beer cooler. She smiled and said, “Thank you.”

He nodded and said, “You’re welcome.”

There was a code of honor between witches and warlocks. He didn’t have to count the money, and she didn’t have to look inside the cooler. She knew there would be a two-month supply of fresh human blood inside. And he knew the envelope contained five thousand dollars in cash.

Then she drove back to Oceanview to make sure all the silver was laid out in the dining room so the hired help could polish it the next morning for the party. She parked in front of the house so she could get the blood into the kitchen through the front door. The beer cooler was heavy and the garages were a distance from the house.

When the doorbell rang, she’d just placed the last container of blood in the refrigerator. She closed the door and looked at her watch. It was almost one in the afternoon and she wasn’t expecting anyone. The doorbell rang again, and the kitchen window flew open and a gust of wind passed through the room. The curtains billowed and a cloud of snow landed on the black granite counter. Mavis pressed her palm to her chest and smiled. Then she looked up at the ceiling and said, “You’re back. You’ve been quiet for the past week.” She was talking to the ghost and she wasn’t smiling. Mavis had always been intrigued by ghosts, but she knew that when one was upset it could be dangerous. And this one seemed more upset than most she’d encountered.

Then the front doorbell rang a third time and the grandfather clock in the main hall began to chime, nonstop, one loud gong after another. Mavis quickly shut the kitchen window and ran out to see what the ghost was doing now. When she reached the hall, she lifted her hands to her mouth and stared at the clock. The doors on the clock were wide open. The first and second hands were spinning around in circles, the pendulum was swinging fast, and the chimes wouldn’t stop gonging.

She quickly stopped the pendulum and closed the clock’s doors. The chimes stopped and she crossed to the front doors. She opened them both at the same time and saw two people standing there, a man and a woman. The man smiled and said, “I’m Robert LaFramboise, and this is my wife, Karla. We stopped by to see if Avenir is home today.”

Mavis stepped back and invited them into the center hall. “He’s not in,” she said. “I’m Mavis, his personal assistant.” The clock had stopped chiming but she felt a cold breeze. She turned to the left and saw that the landing window on the staircase was wide open and the white silk draperies were flying. And it wasn’t a windy day. She looked Robert and Karla up and down and said, “And he won’t be in for the rest of the day.”

“Ah well,” Robert said. “I see.” He crossed to the middle of the hall and looked up at the open window. “It’s awfully cold out to leave the window open, isn’t it?” Then he laughed. His head moved back and forth and he stared at everything in the center hall, as if he were scamming the room and memorizing its contents. He touched the round table in the center of the room; he ran his fingertips across the wood lightly a few times.

“I left it open to get some fresh air in the house,” she said. “Mr. LaFram likes the place to smell fresh and clean all the time.”

Robert gave Karla a look. Karla shrugged her shoulders and said, “I guess LaFram is the name he uses now.”

“What can I do for you?” Mavis asked. She’d never met them, but she’d heard about them through Avenir. So she’d already formed an opinion, and she wasn’t smiling and greeting them with a warm welcome.

There was a loud slam that came from the top of the stairs. Robert and Karla jumped, and Karla pressed her palm to her throat. “What was that?” Robert asked.

Mavis frowned. “This is a drafty house in the winter. It was probably one of the upstairs doors slamming shut.” She knew it was the door to the west wing; she’d heard it before. But she couldn’t understand why the ghost was carrying on like this in front of Robert and Karla.

Then the door opened and slammed shut again. Karla stepped back toward the front door. She had a serious expression on her face, her arms were folded across her chest, and she kept staring at the staircase. “We only stopped by to see if Avenir wanted to join us for lunch. We just got back from Palm Beach and we haven’t seen him in a while. But we won’t keep you.” She smiled and took two more steps back. It looked as if she couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

The clock began to chime. Robert was standing beside it. His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped.

Mavis smiled and pointed to the clock. She said, “We’ve been having problems with it.”

“Robert,” Karla said, “Let’s go, dear.” Robert was staring at the chiming grandfather clock and Karla was already outside.

Robert blinked twice, and said, “If you could tell Avenir we stopped by we’d appreciate it.” Then he headed for the front door to join Karla.

“It was nice meeting you,” Mavis said, reaching for the doors. “I guess I’ll see you both tomorrow night.”

Robert said, “Yes, and thank you.”

Mavis watched them go back to their Bentley. Karla walked so fast she was almost trotting. And Robert stared down at the sidewalk with his lips pursed.

When they were gone, she closed the doors and leaned her back against them. She didn’t like people lurking around the property during the day when Avenir was sleeping. She’d been telling Avenir that the security camera wasn’t enough. He had to have a security gate installed, too.

She sighed and walked to the grandfather clock. She shook her head and frowned. It had been working so well lately. But when she looked up at the face of the clock it was perfectly timed. The constant chiming had stopped and the pendulum was swinging evenly. She turned and looked up the stairs. The landing window was closed and the draperies were still. The moment that Robert and Karla left everything went back to normal.

Mavis rubbed her hands together and smiled. She lifted her chin and said, “Thank you, whoever you are. I don’t really have time for this today.” Then she loped back to the kitchen shaking her head. She couldn’t wait for Avenir to wake up so she could tell him about all this.