It wasn’t quite noon on Monday. Danielle stood with Walt by the front swing, watching the last guests from the weekend drive away. Inside Marlow House, Joanne was busy changing the linens on the beds.
Danielle leaned against Walt’s shoulder, staring ahead blankly, looking like someone had just taken her Christmas puppy.
Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, he gave her a reassuring squeeze. “We could drive to Astoria after the funeral.”
“I don’t want to get married the same day we go to a funeral,” she grumbled.
“Then I suppose we’ll just have to get married tomorrow.”
“I feel like a horrible person,” she confessed.
Walt pulled her closer to his side. “Why is that?”
“Poor Ben died, and all I’m thinking is how this was supposed to be our wedding day.”
He pulled her even tighter to his side, kissed the top of her head, and whispered, “Yes, love. You are a horrible person.”
Danielle chuckled in spite of herself and said, “I love you, Walt.”
“I love you too.” He glanced around. “I suppose we shouldn’t be standing out here like this. Joanne could come out any minute, and anyone could drive by.”
Danielle let out a sigh and stepped away from Walt, his arm dropping to his side. She looked up to him and asked, “Tell me again why we have to keep all this a secret for now.”
He smiled down at her and said, “I could remind you it was your idea, but the more I think about it, I believe you were right.”
She arched her brow. “I was right about something?”
“You normally are, but please don’t let it go to your head.”
“So you think it’s best we keep it a secret for a while?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. Marriages are hard enough without looking for problems. I’d say giving your friends—like Adam and Melony, for example—or even semi-friends, like Joe and Kelly—reasons to question our relationship and start worrying about my motives will just bring unnecessary stress into our lives. Let them get used to me a little longer—and used to seeing us becoming friends.”
“There’s one perk; according to Aaron, he’ll have the rings finished by tomorrow afternoon. So we won’t have to make two trips over there,” Danielle said.
“Unless you take Lily’s suggestion and have him add the emerald.”
“I don’t think that emerald would look right on a gold band. I’m not even sure he could add it to the ring without some serious redesigning.”
Walt nodded. “True.”
The Beach Drive bunch—Walt, Danielle, Ian, Lily, Chris and Heather—drove together to Ben Smith’s funeral later that afternoon, taking Danielle’s Ford Flex. Lily and Heather squeezed into the far back seat, while Ian and Chris sat in the middle seat. Danielle and Walt’s friends had no idea this was supposed to be their wedding day. After the funeral, they planned to go out to dinner together.
The service was being held at Pastor Chad’s church, which made it doubly odd for Danielle, considering all that had gone on. Just as she started to pull into a space in the church parking lot, everyone in her car—except for Ian and Lily—let out a scream.
“What is it?” Lily asked, frantically looking around.
What Lily and Ian didn’t see was the elderly woman standing in the middle of the hood of the car, looking in at them through the windshield.
“Marie,” Danielle grumbled, “did you have to do that?”
Marie stuck her head through the windshield and grinned. “Sorry, dear, did I scare you?”
“Is Marie here?” Lily asked.
“I hate when ghosts do that,” Heather grumbled from the back seat.
A moment later Marie stood outside the car and watched as the six people exited the vehicle.
“I’m sorry, dear,” Marie said. “Have you seen Ben yet?”
“No, have you?” Danielle asked, shutting the car door behind her.
“No. But I can’t imagine he’s moved on already. He was always such a nosy busybody,” Marie said. “I’m sure he wants to see who came to his funeral. Although, I can’t imagine why his wife decided to have it on Memorial Day.”
“I wondered the same thing,” Heather agreed.
Fifteen minutes later they were seated in the church, with Marie sitting at the end of the row and Danielle next to her. It was agreed that if anyone came to take Marie’s seat, Danielle would say it was already taken.
At the front of the church was the open casket. Disjointed bits of conversation blended with a background of organ music while family and friends of the deceased poured into the church, looking for a place to sit down, some going first to the casket at the front of the church to pay respect or to say a few words to Ben’s widow. Occasionally someone would pass by their row and say hello to one or more of them. At the front of the church Ben’s wife, Sylvia, sat with family and close friends.
Marie craned her neck to get a better look. “I was wondering if his daughter was going to make it. But I don’t see her.”
“He had a son too, didn’t he?” Danielle asked. “I heard he died a couple of years before I moved here.”
“Skiing accident. He was the apple of their eye,” Marie said. “One good thing, now Ben can see him.”
“Did he have children?” Danielle asked.
“You mean Ben’s son?” Marie asked.
“Yes.”
“Stepkids. He married an older woman who already had children.” Marie looked up to the front of the church again. “I don’t see the daughter-in-law here, although I heard she moved back East not long after the accident. If any of her kids are here, I don’t recognize them. But I doubt it. I don’t think they had a chance to get close to Ben or Sylvia considering their stepdad died not long after they married.”
“So what about the daughter?” Danielle asked.
“She was always trouble. Got heavily in drugs. I haven’t seen her in years, and Ben and Sylvia would never talk about her.”
“Who’s sitting up in front with Ben’s wife?” Danielle asked, looking to the front of the church.
“That’s her sister and brother-in-law. They live in Portland.”
“I think the service is about to start,” Danielle whispered as she nodded to the front of the church.
Pastor Chad walked to the podium. He stood there a few minutes, looking out to the mourners, waiting for them to stop talking so he could begin the service. The sound of voices stilled to a whisper, and then after a moment it was completely silent.
“Oh, there’s Adam!” Marie said, breaking the silence. Only the mediums sitting in her row could hear her. She looked at Danielle and said, “I’ll see you later, dear.” Marie vanished and then appeared a few seconds later, sitting on the other side of the church next to her grandson. He, of course, had no idea his grandmother was at his side.
Midway through the service Ben arrived. Danielle looked to Walt and then down the aisle to Chris and Heather, who looked her way and nodded.
“I wondered if he would show up,” Danielle said under her breath.
Ben, who was standing by his casket, looked out into the pews, taking in who was in attendance. When he spied Marie, he froze. A moment later, he was standing by her side and the two began talking. Danielle and her fellow mediums wondered what they were saying, but they were too far away to hear the conversation.
When the service was finally over and Danielle stood up with the others, she was startled when a man touched her arm and said, “Excuse me, are you Danielle Boatman?”
Standing in the row in front of the pew she had just occupied, preparing to step out into the aisle, Danielle looked at the man. She didn’t recognize him. Middle-aged and nondescript, he wore a black suit and tie.
“Yes, I am,” she said.
“Ben’s widow, Sylvia, wanted to know if you would be so kind as to come with me to the church library so she can talk to you privately for a moment.”
“She wants to talk to me?” Danielle frowned. She glanced behind her at her friends. They had all heard the man’s request and, by their expressions, were as curious as she was to know why Sylvia wanted to talk to her.
“Umm…sure…I guess,” Danielle stammered.
Danielle followed the man to the library. When she entered the room, she found Sylvia sitting in a chair next to a desk, a box of Kleenex on her lap, as she repeatedly dabbed the corners of her eyes with one damp tissue. Sylvia, who was in her eighties, made no attempt to stand, but she smiled up at Danielle.
“Thank you for agreeing to talk to me,” Sylvia said.
Danielle was surprised when the man who had brought her to the room did not leave, but entered with her and closed the door behind them.
“You’ve already met Irvin Brunskill, he’s our attorney,” Sylvia explained as she pointed to the man who had escorted Danielle to the room.
“We were not formally introduced.” Irvin extended his hand to Danielle. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Boatman.”
Confused, Danielle shook his hand. “Umm…nice to meet you. Exactly why am I here?”
Irvin motioned to an empty chair next to Sylvia. “I’ll explain shortly.”
Reluctantly Danielle sat down and watched as Irvin took a seat behind the desk. He opened a manila folder already sitting before him.
“Mrs. Smith wanted to take care of this before she returns to her house for the wake. While you, of course, are most welcome to attend, she just thought it would be best if we take care of this now. She would like to put it behind her.”
Danielle frowned. She looked curiously from the attorney to Mrs. Smith.
“I’ll cut to the chase, Ms. Boatman. Ben left you his Packard.”
Danielle abruptly sat up straight in her chair. “He what?”
The attorney started to say something, but Sylvia stopped him. She looked at Danielle and said, “I think I should explain.”
Danielle looked to the elderly woman, curious to hear what she had to say.
“I know what happened between you and some of the museum board members. Ben came home after the police questioned him, and he told me everything,” Sylvia explained. “He was so embarrassed—and ashamed.”
“I’m so sorry you have to do this, Sylvia,” Ben said when he appeared the next moment, standing at his wife’s side. Danielle glanced up to him. Ben smiled at Danielle and said, “Marie explained everything. I know you can see and hear me.”
“I always knew there was something not quite right with that Packard,” Sylvia explained. “I never understood why my father-in-law kept it locked away in his barn. And he would get so angry if Ben would show it to one of his friends.”
“I didn’t realize at that time what my father had done,” Ben explained.
“But even a car stored away for a lifetime and never used begins to age. I will say one good thing about the Packard, Ben and our son spent some wonderful hours working on the car—bringing it back to its former glory. This was, of course, after my father-in-law died.” Sylvia paused at the memory, silently reflecting before going on.
“I’ll confess, it was why I couldn’t bear just giving it to you while I was still alive,” Ben told Danielle. “I knew the car rightfully belonged to you, but it held so many memories—memories I shared with my son. I wasn’t ready to let that go. But now, now I will be able to see my son again, and I have to make things right before I go.”
“It was only after Ben started going through those old boxes of his father did he realize the car had been stolen from Walt Marlow. By that time, he and our son had finished refurbishing the Packard, and as far as he knew, there wasn’t anyone left from the Marlow family. While he understood Brianna was technically its owner, he conveniently made excuses why it was no longer relevant. But I suppose deep down he knew it was wrong. That’s probably why he didn’t take the car out much.”
“When did Ben decide to leave it to me?” Danielle asked.
“My client called me a couple of weeks ago,” the lawyer said. “He told me he wanted to make a change in his will. I’ll admit, I tried talking him out of it. He never explained why he wanted to leave it to you.”
“I was ashamed,” Ben said, yet only Danielle could hear.
Sylvia smiled at the attorney and then looked to Danielle. “After Ben died, I explained it all to Irvin.”
“But the Packard has to be worth a fortune. Are you sure you want to do this?” Danielle asked.
“It’s the right thing to do. And what am I going to do with a car like that? I don’t even drive anymore. And frankly, I would rather not have to worry about selling it. It’s not like I need the money. Plus, there is satisfaction in knowing things have come full circle. And it’s what Ben wanted.”