FOUR

 

“Seriously, if a spook jumps out at me, then I’m personally running straight through you, Julie, and anyone else who’s stupid enough to get in my way.”

The speaker, my best friend from high school, was Harrison Watt. All his friends called him ‘Harry’. He also happened to be the town veterinarian, which still blows my mind. You see, back in school, Harry was the biggest goof-off on the face of the planet. He’d been suspended from school so many times that I honestly didn’t see how he managed to graduate. But, as it turns out, all he needed to turn his life around was a close brush with death – in Harry’s case, a nasty car accident – and before you know it, he had a new appreciation for life.

Harry’s wife, Julie, stood beside her husband and slowly looked around the small foyer. Visible straight ahead was a curved dual set of stairs leading up to the second floor. After a few moments, Jillian pushed by Harry and walked into the main reception area.

“I call this ‘Staircase Hall’,” Jillian said, as they spread out behind her. “The living room is to the left, through there. The dining room is north of it. Then, through that door behind you on the left, there’s a small room for which its intended purpose is lost on me.”

Julie poked her head into the room for a quick check.

“Maybe a sitting room?”

Jillian nodded, “I like it. Now, through that other doorway, on the right, is a den. Or a study, I’m not sure. Will Hannah and Colin be able to join us tonight?”

Julie shook her head, “I’m afraid not. She has another meeting with her attorney. She’s fairly certain that her divorce is going to be finalized soon.”

“I sure hope so,” I added. “The sooner she’s officially done with that loser, the better.”

“Hear, hear,” Tori echoed.

I pointed at the open doorway on the right, adjacent to the den.

“What’s through there?”

“I really don’t know,” Jillian admitted. “Perhaps it was a rec room of some sort? It’s certainly large enough. There’s a huge kitchen on the other side of the stairs and there’s plenty of storage everywhere.”

“The bedrooms are all upstairs?” Tori asked.

“Yes. There are six rooms, including the master bedroom, which I think can be split in half. That’d give us seven rooms total.”

“The interior isn’t too bad,” Julie decided. “I like the tiling on the floor. Do you see this? It’s some type of mosaic. I hope you plan on keeping this here, Jillian.”

“I certainly do,” Jillian confirmed. She ushered everyone into the living room. “Well, what do you guys think?”

“Ummm,” Harry slowly began, as his eyes took in the dust, decay, and overall shabbiness of Highland House’s living room. “You really bought this?”

“You can’t look at it the way it is now,” I told my friend. “You have to be able to either picture what it looked like, back in the 1920s and ‘30s, or else imagine what it’ll look like once Jillian is done with the place. I think it’s gonna look fantastic. I love the décor in here.”

“You do?” Jillian excitedly asked. “What parts?”

I started pointing at various objects. “That, for starters. What is it, some type of coffee table? Look at all the carvings on it. You don’t see that every day, do you?”

“There isn’t much to see in here,” Vance added, as he and Tori stepped further into the living room and looked around.

“The original furniture has been moved,” Jillian explained. “I didn’t want to risk any of the original décor becoming damaged once the renovations began.”

“Why didn’t you take this, then?” I asked, as I looked back at the small table.

Jillian shrugged, “Robert gave me a list of things that need to happen in this house. The order in which they’re getting fixed is by the total number of code violations the room presently has. If memory serves, there was less than ten in this room, so it’s about halfway down the list.”

“Then why cover the furniture in here?” Vance wanted to know. “I can only imagine you’ll be replacing everything, right?”

Jillian shook her head, “I’m going to have the furniture refinished, reupholstered, and so on.”

“You’re keeping it as original as possible,” I guessed.

Jillian smiled at me, “Precisely.”

“I’ve always loved antiques,” Tori said, as she gazed wistfully at some of the tarps covering various objects. “Would you mind if I take a look?”

Jillian held out a welcoming hand, “Please. Be my guest. Harry? Do you want to come all the way inside? Nothing will bite you, I promise.”

As one, both of my dogs craned their heads to look up at Jillian. What happened next couldn’t have been timed any better, even if I had tried. After staring at Jillian for a few moments, both corgis then turned to look back at Harry, who was standing just inside the open door, leading back to Staircase Hall. Then, they both did that adorable head tilt thing dogs do if they find something puzzling. The entire room burst into laughter. Harry, unsurprisingly, was the only one who didn’t find it funny.

“This house has a history, man,” PV’s resident veterinarian insisted. “Do you really think all those people just made up those stories for the hell of it? Think about it. There’s… I don’t know. There’s something…”

“…afoot at the Circle K,” both Vance and I interrupted, using deadpan voices at the exact same time.

We gave each other an appraising look before we bumped fists together.

“I don’t get it,” Tori complained. “What just happened here? Why did those two say the same nonsensical thing at the same time?”

Jillian was shaking her head.

“Boys.”

“It’s a line from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” Harry explained. “Righteous movie, man. And, while I’m at it, you both can kiss my ass.”

Vance and I developed a case of the chuckles.

An hour later, we were all sitting in the living room, polishing off the three large pizzas Jillian had ordered. A new pizza place had moved into town, Sarah’s Pizza Parlor, and we had decided to give them a try. For the record, I’m glad we did. We ended up ordering pepperoni and sausage, a thin crust Hawaiian pizza, and finally, Jillian was delighted to learn this new pizza joint would make her favorite pizza: salami and ham, with white sauce.

The food was outstanding. Fantastic crust, fresh toppings, garlic knots worth arm wrestling over (which we did – me vs. Vance. I won!), and they were punctual. You really couldn’t beat that in a pizza delivery restaurant.

“I think I found my new favorite pizza place,” Vance said, as he tossed his and Tori’s paper plates into the trash can. “That was really good. The last couple of pizzas I’ve had were almost dripping with grease.”

“What do you expect when you order it with triple pepperoni?” Tori dryly asked.

Vance shrugged.

“So,” Julie began, as she looked over at her friend, “we’re all here, Jillian. This is your show. How do you want us to proceed?”

“How are we going to proceed with what?” Harry querulously asked.

Jillian looked at Harry and smiled.

“Oh, come on, man,” Harry moaned. “What have you dragged us into?”

“I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as ghosts,” Jillian began.

Heads were nodding.

“I’m sure all of you have heard what’s happened here in the last couple of weeks?”

Everyone nodded. Everyone but Harry, that is.

“Wait, what? What happened in the last couple of weeks?” Harry wanted to know.

“Oh, come on,” Julie teased her husband. “You can’t possibly tell me you don’t know. I, for one, have talked with you about it. Are you saying you’ve been ignoring me?”

“Umm…”

“Two weeks ago,” Jillian hurriedly began, before Julie could respond, “one of the contractors I hired was electrocuted in here during the demo phase. While cutting through a wall that needed to come down, and after being told all power had been shut off, a contractor wielding a reciprocating saw was electrocuted when he hit a live power line.”

“A power line that should’ve been shut off,” Tori said, horrified. “Was he… did he…”

“He ended up being okay,” Jillian assured the group. “He was held in the hospital for a day or two just to be sure. In the meantime, everyone chalked it up as being exactly like it appeared: an accident. Then… then earlier this week, there was another accident, only this time…”

“…this time,” I said, picking up the story after Jillian trailed off, “there was a fatality.”

“What happened?” Harry wanted to know.

“Do you see the scaffolding outside?” I said, as I pointed at a window where we could see the shadows of the bars. “It collapsed at the back of the house while there was someone on it.”

The room fell silent. Sherlock whined, as if to say he was uncomfortable being in the room with so many somber people. I patted the sofa next to me and waited for the dogs to join me.

“How could scaffolding just collapse?” Harry wanted to know. “Aren’t there precautions you can take which would prevent just that?”

Jillian nodded, “Yes, there are. The safety inspector conducted a thorough inspection here just after the accident happened. He determined the gravity locking pins had been removed.”

“All of them?” Vance demanded, shocked.

“Not all,” Jillian quietly answered. “Unfortunately, just the pins that were holding the corners together. The scaffolding, quite literally, collapsed like a house of cards.”

“Why don’t I know anything about this?” Vance asked, as he stared hard at Jillian. “Wouldn’t this be classified as a homicide now?”

Jillian shrugged, “We don’t know if the contractors forgot to insert the pins once the scaffolding had been assembled…”

“Which is malarkey,” I grumbled.

“…or if the pins were deliberately removed.”

“Voluntary or involuntary manslaughter,” Vance said. “However you look at it, this will be reflected badly on the construction company.”

Jillian cleared her throat.

“I should probably tell you something. Robert, who is my foreman, by the way, insists that those pins were there at the start of the day.”

“Voluntary manslaughter it is,” Vance decided.

“Are we looking for those pins, is that it?” Tori asked.

“Partially,” Jillian admitted. “Right now, I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t really explored this house yet. I only have been given a very brief tour with my realtor.”

Both dogs whined this time. Sherlock reared up to place his front legs on the couch next to me. Questioningly, I looked over at Jillian, who nodded, giving the dogs permission to jump up on the furniture.

“It’s okay, boy. We just don’t want any more of those accidents. That’s why we’re here. More specifically, that’s why you two are here. If there’s anything suspicious going on in this house, then I’m counting on you two to find it.”

“That’s what you want us to do?” Harry incredulously asked. “You want us to search this place?”

Jillian nodded, “That’s exactly what I need. If I can prove to my closest friends that there aren’t any supernatural anomalies in this house, then I should be able to prove that normal, regular human beings did this. I want to put this supernatural nonsense to bed once and for all.”

“How do you want us to do this?” Julie asked.

“I was thinking that, perhaps, you and Harry could take…”

A loud thump sounded from nearby. It silenced the six of us instantly. I glanced down at the dogs. Both sets of ears were perked up as they curiously looked around the room, as if they were expecting to find another person present. Unfortunately, that was the last thing I wanted to find.

“Oh, holy hell,” Harry muttered. “I knew it!”

Then we all heard it: a low moaning. Sherlock immediately fired off a warning woof. The tri-colored corgi then jumped down to the floor and trotted towards the foyer. After a few moments, he was back, only he was carrying something in his mouth.

“What’s that?” Jillian nervously asked. “Sherlock, what are you holding?”

“It looks like a phone,” Tori observed. “In fact, it looks like…” She trailed off as she turned to stare incredulously at her husband.

“Umm, I can explain.”

All heads turned to Vance, who now bore a sheepish, shit-eating grin on his face.

“It was done in good fun, that’s all. Come on, Tor! It was just a harmless prank! I was just trying to lighten the situation.”

“Someone died in here,” Tori quietly began. “Someone lost their life, Vance. You, of all people, should know that.”

“Someone’s about to lose his,” Harry quipped.

As for me? I was curious. How did Vance get his phone to play that noise from across the room? And at the right time?

As if in answer to my question, Vance held up what had to be his newest toy: a smart watch. It was obviously linked to his phone.

Tori scowled, “I never should have got you that watch for your birthday.”

“In my defense, I do use it every single day,” Vance said, in as soothing of a tone I had ever heard come from him. “Granted, the timing was terrible, I see that now. But… I’ll just shut up now.”

“Wise choice, mister,” Tori said. Her tone had gone icy and it had become painfully obvious that Vance had some damage control to do before he was fully out of the dog house.

“As I was saying,” Jillian said, as she fought to keep a straight face, “I think we should split up into teams. There’s six of us, so that’ll give us three teams, one for each floor. Harry? Julie? You two take the second story. Tori? Vance? You two take the basement. Zachary and I will take the ground floor here.”

“What do you want us to look for?” Tori asked. The tall redhead was still shooting daggers at her husband.

“Anything out of the ordinary,” Jillian reported. “A bag full of scaffolding pins, or evidence of squatters, or evidence of animals that might have snuck in the house, or…”

“…evidence of ectoplasm,” I interjected, drawing a smile from Vance.

“That’s not even funny, man,” Harry complained.

“Just keep telling yourself that there’s no such thing as ghosts,” I suggested.

As if we were a football team, and had just broken a huddle, everyone moved off to their respective floors.

“Harry is the one we should pull a prank on,” I softly murmured.

My girlfriend turned to give me an unsettling look.

“Are you telling me that you’d like to end up like Vance? Did you see how Tori was looking at him?”

I passed Watson’s leash to Jillian and shook my head.

“I saw that look. And no, I would never want to be on the receiving end of that, that’s for sure. Now, where would you like to start?”

Jillian pointed back towards the foyer.

“Let’s start at the beginning. Watson? Would you care to lead the way?”

The small red and white corgi got to her feet, gave herself a vigorous shaking, and then – after glancing at Sherlock –trotted toward the front door. We inspected the front entrance, making certain to check for evidence of lock tampering. Ever since PV had been visited by a professional burglar armed with what was referred to as ‘bump keys’, which allowed an unauthorized person to gain entry to just about any residential house, I’ve paid particular attention to locks. This one, thank goodness, didn’t look as though it had been tampered with. Sure, it was old, and rusty, but it looked sturdy as hell. I’m sure with a bit of spit and polish, it’d clean up nicely.

“Has it been picked?” Jillian asked, after a few minutes of silence had passed.

I straightened.

“Nope. At least, it doesn’t look like it.”

“Good. Okay, we’ve seen the living room. Let’s go check on the dining room.”

“Where’s that again?” I asked, as we headed back into the living room. I hesitated only long enough to snag another piece of pizza. Jillian was moving toward a doorway to the north. “Is that it?”

The large double doors were pulled open.

“Why are the doors so damn big?” I asked, confused. “I mean, look at those suckers. It has to be at least ten feet tall and each of those babies must weigh a ton.”

“Piano nobile,” Jillian reminded me. “This villa has a larger than normal first floor. That’s why the windows and doors are so tall.”

“Got it. Well, what do we have here? Not much to see in here. This must be one of the rooms that had a lot of problems. There’s no furniture in here.”

Jillian nodded. She gestured at the eastern wall, which had been stripped down to the framing.

“This room had more electrical problems than any of the others. I wish I knew what went on in here that caused so many problems.”

“Fried the wiring, huh? Makes me wonder, too.”

“I think you’ll like the kitchen,” Jillian told me, as we headed through the open doorway on the same wall.

“I can see most of it already,” I chuckled, as I looked through the bare wall into the room next door. “Doesn’t look very big, though.”

“That’s because what you’re looking at isn’t the kitchen. I think it’s the pantry.”

“The pantry is located off the dining room? Why wouldn’t it be off the kitchen?”

“It is located off the kitchen. It’s a pass-through pantry.”

“Weird,” I decided.

Jillian shook her head, “Not if you think about it. This place was large. There would have been servants. They walked through the pantry to deliver food there, in the dining room. Otherwise, they’d have to go back out, through Staircase Hall, through the living room, and then into the dining room.”

“Hey, if it works, it works.”

“Since this is going to be a bed and breakfast, I think I’ll leave that as it is.”

As we walked through the extensive kitchen, Jillian began detailing her plans on what she was going to do.

“Brand new appliances,” she was saying. “Sub-zero fridge, six-burner stove, and a double wall oven. They’ll go along this wall, here. Oh, and right here? I’m going to have a large island installed, complete with sink, and maybe a couple of wine coolers.”

I nodded, “Nice touch. I’d even make the island include a breakfast bar. It’d be a nice, informal place to grab a bite to eat.”

Jillian nodded, opened the notebook she was still holding, and jotted my idea down.

“Did you see that this keeps going through here?” I asked, as I stepped through a doorway on the eastern side of the kitchen. “Now, what would you call this area? Ordinarily, I’d call it a pantry, but good grief. There’s a window in here. This place doesn’t have a second pantry, does it?”

Jillian thought for a moment and then shook her head, sending her long, curly brown hair tumbling about.

“Do you know what I think it is? I’ll bet it’s a ‘servants only’ area. There’s enough room here for a normal dining table, with space for six chairs, I’d say.”

“Like a break room for the servants,” I decided.

“Exactly.”

“This place is something else,” I observed, with a smile.

“Do you like it?” Jillian hopefully asked.

“I do. I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with it.”

We explored the rest of the ground floor, but didn’t find anything that looked as though it didn’t belong. No missing locking pins for the scaffolding, no signs of wild animals, and certainly no signs of squatters. Then again, if squatters were hiding in this house, evidence would more than likely be found in one of the many rooms upstairs.

And, as long as we’re talking about looking for evidence, no, I didn’t find anything that suggested ghosts. I was kind of expecting to find maybe some hidden trip wires, or maybe a concealed speaker or two. However, the only thing I found was dust. Lots and lots of dust.

“Let me ask you something,” I said, after a few minutes of silence had passed. “What did you do with all the existing furniture? I take it you moved it all out of the way?”

“Yes. It’s all in storage. I rented the largest unit they could give me. I’ve also told them to let me know when any other large units become available. Something tells me that I’ll be needing at least one or two more of the units before this is all over.”

I looked down at Sherlock. He was currently sitting on his butt and looking extremely content. A quick glance at Watson showed that she, too, seemed to be okay with this place. Neither of the dogs were showing any types of anxiety.

Jillian saw me looking at the dogs and squatted down next to Watson. She began caressing her silky red and white fur, which earned her several soft licks from its owner.

“I wonder if the others have found anything,” Jillian said, as her hand moved to Watson’s belly. The timid little corgi immediately rolled onto her back for better access. “How much longer should we give them?”

I shrugged, “Good question. I don’t hear anything up there. For that matter, I don’t hear anything below us, either. They certainly built these houses to last back then, didn’t they?”

“That they did. Come on, Zachary. Let’s go upstairs.”

Both dogs were on their feet in a flash. I was practically yanked up the stairs as Sherlock raced up the curved wooden staircase. Jillian, holding Watson’s leash, calmly took the stairs as though they were savoring each step. It was actually a good thing. I had managed to reclaim most of my breath by the time the two of them joined us on the second floor.

“Did you enjoy that sprint up the stairs?” Jillian wryly asked.

I shot a dark look at Sherlock before turning to my girlfriend.

“Not really. I think I pulled something by the seventh or eighth step.”

“You silly man,” Jillian teased. “Hmm, which way should we go?”

We were standing in a second Staircase Hall. Hallways and doors were everywhere, in all directions. My natural instincts told me I should go right, which is why I flat-out ignored them. Anyone who knows me will know I have the worst sense of direction.

“Do you hear anything?” I asked.

Jillian shook her head, but before she could say anything, both corgis turned left and pulled us through open double doors.

“I think this is the master bedroom,” Jillian told me, as we stepped inside the large chamber. She pointed at the door directly ahead of us. “I absolutely love the terraces that these villas have. It’s like this room has its own little patio. Isn’t it gorgeous?”

Victorian Italianate villas, which is what this house happened to be, were known for having a nice, long list of things I’ve never heard of. Allow me to name just a few, to prove my point. There were corbels, which were mentioned earlier. They are, by definition, a structural piece of stone, wood, or metal which juts from a wall to carry a ‘superincumbent weight’. For the record, this house has a number of them.

Next, we have pedimented windows with architraves and archivolts. What that means is, you’ll find a beam resting on the tops of columns. As for archivolts? Well, if you look at the top portion of this house, you’ll find a decorative molding or band following the curves on the underside of every single arch, of which there are many.

And last, but certainly not least, there are something called ‘quoins’. While Jillian was explaining this one to me, I had to quietly look it up on my phone. I had no idea she knew so much about architecture. Quoins are those masonry blocks you see at the corner of a wall. Some provide structural support, and others are just there for aesthetic purposes. And yes, before you ask, or can wonder about it, this house had those, too.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

“I can see why you want to keep everything original,” I told Jillian, as I strode over to a large, angled bay window. I opened the door and stepped out onto the small terrace. “This place has a great view. Look, you’ve got mountains on the left, forest straight ahead, and I think I can see part of Rascal River on the right.”

“You’re right,” Jillian confirmed, as she joined me outside.

I heard a collar rattle and I immediately looked down at the leashes we were still holding. Both dogs were waiting for us inside the room, and both, I might add, were focused on something else entirely. Curious to see what had captured their attention, I headed back inside.

In the middle of the room was an antique four poster bed. Sure, it had seen better days, but if I knew my girlfriend, she had every intention on restoring it. On either side of the giant bed were two small end tables. Sherlock was sniffing around the one on the right.

“Is there something in there, pal?” I asked him.

Sherlock snorted and waited while I rifled through the contents of the two drawers. Nope. Nothing there. Well, there were little bits of junk and trash, but nothing significant. Sherlock, however, was still staring at the small piece of furniture, so I dropped to all fours and peered under it. Still nothing.

“I don’t know what you smell, but there isn’t anything here,” I told the inquisitive corgi.

Both of the dogs looked east. My eyebrows shot up with surprise. Encompassing the entire eastern wall was what looked like a large, wooden carving. Stretching from floor to ceiling, it contained a wide variety of different pictures. I saw a castle, trees, and so on.

“That must’ve taken a long time to carve,” I decided.

“It’s a bas-relief!” Jillian exclaimed. She looked at my vacant expression and smiled. “It’s a relief sculpture. It means the figures and objects are slightly higher than the background. Look at the size of it! I may not split this room in two after all. If I did, then that carving would have to go. It’d just be too dark. But, left alone, there’s plenty of light. That alone is worth keeping this room as it is.”

Both dogs wandered over to the giant carving, sniffed it a few times, and then looked up at me. I gave the leashes a gentle tug, indicating we had more to explore. The corgis snorted, resisted, and when it became clear we weren’t staying at the carving to further study it, headed toward the opposite end of the room. Sherlock and Watson then looked north, at one of two doors facing us. Giving the corgi some extra slack, Sherlock pulled me over to the door on the right. I looked in and saw that it was a closet. At first glance, it looked deceptively small. That is, until you noticed the closet made a hard left turn and continued on. I don’t think I had ever been in a closet in the shape of an ‘L’ before.

“You’ve got some storage space in here,” I observed. “This must be what you were referring to when you suggested you could split the master bedroom up into two smaller bedrooms, right?”

Jillian nodded, “Right. I just don’t think it’ll happen now.”

“Wow. Check out the duds. Think any of these can be saved?”

We were looking at a rack of long, ornate gowns. Then, on the rack next to it was another assortment of dresses, only they were clearly from another time. These were shorter, low-waisted dresses that looked as though they’d be revealing a lot of skin.

We were looking at Dame Highland’s personal wardrobe.

As I flipped through the skimpy attire, I started to imagine what life must have been like back in the Roaring Twenties. Women exhibited their independence by listening to jazz music. They wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, and flaunted their disdain of anything that was considered socially acceptable.

“I cannot wait to go through these,” Jillian said, as she smiled at me.

Just then, we heard a noise coming from back outside the room. Pulling the dogs away from the closet, we headed to the second Staircase Hall. Harry and Julie were just coming out of a door on the far southeastern corner of the hall.

“Hi, guys!” Julie cheerfully said, as she caught sight of us. “Find anything on the ground floor?”

“Nothing too remarkable,” I reported. “How about you? What was in there?”

“It’s just another room, man,” Harry told us. “This house is huge. Personally, I don’t see how people are going to get any sleep in here. This house creaks and groans all the damn time. It’d keep me awake at night, that’s for sure.”

“This house is old,” I reminded Harry. “A little creaking and groaning is to be expected.”

“Whatever, man. No offense, Jillian, but you won’t catch me staying here. Ever.”

“That’s okay, Harry,” Jillian said, keeping her face remarkably smile-free. “Staying at a B&B isn’t for everyone. Have you checked all the doors yet?”

“Every time we go through a door, we find another room,” Julie explained.

“How many have you checked so far?” Jillian wanted to know.

“This one makes five,” Julie answered.

Jillian nodded, “Then that means there should be only one more. We were just in that one over there.”

“The master bedroom,” Julie said, nodding. “I liked that room. I loved the clothes in the closet. Have you seen it yet? I know you’ll love it. And speaking about love, I love that little patio in there.”

“Isn’t it cute?” Jillian gushed.

While the two women compared notes, Harry sidled closer to me.

“Tell me your honest opinion,” Harry said. “What’s your take on this place, man? Do you like it?”

I sighed and looked around the second story. I could very easily see this place bustling with paying customers. Jillian was sitting on a veritable gold mine.

“I think Jillian is one savvy businesswoman,” I answered. “This place is gonna do amazingly well.”

“No, not that. The ghost, man. Have you seen anything from her yet?”

I shook my head, “Are you serious? No. I mean, do you expect to see something?”

Harry was shaking his head.

“What do you think, man?” he whispered to me. “We’re in her house, poking through her stuff. Don’t you think you’d be teed off if someone did that to you in your own house?”

“You’re really freaked out by this, aren’t you?” I observed.

“What? Me? Of course not.”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts, pal.”

“Says you. Mark my words. This place will make a believer out of you.”

“Mm-hmm. Have you finished looking around up here?”

“There’s one more room over here,” Julie called, overhearing my question.

“Get to it, amigo,” I said. “Jillian and I will be downstairs, okay? Oh, and if you see anything, scream like a little girl. I’ll send Sherlock up to protect you.”

“Bite me, man.”

“What was that all about?” Jillian asked, as we headed back down the stairs.

“Julie and Harry are going to check the last room. I told Harry to scream like a little girl should he encounter a ghost. If I haven’t died laughing, then I’ll send Sherlock up.”

“You’re mean,” Jillian observed.

I should point out here that she did smile at me.

A few minutes later, we both heard just that: a blood-curdling scream, but it didn’t come from upstairs. This time, it came from somewhere behind us. Had Vance pulled another prank? Surely, my friend, the detective, wasn’t stupid enough to prank his wife two times on the same day, was he?

The door on the immediate right of the staircase opened, and Tori appeared. She hadn’t taken more than a few steps toward us when Vance appeared a split second later. I studied both of their faces, to see if I could determine what had happened. Tori appeared out of breath, while Vance had a wild-eyed expression on his face. And, oddly enough, he was seen tucking his shirt back into place, as though it had been forcefully yanked up. What that could possibly mean, I didn’t know. I could only figure Vance had just booked himself a month-long stay at Doghouse Central.

“That…” Vance stammered. “That sooo wasn’t cool, Tori.”

Tori took one look at Jillian and burst out laughing. Comprehension dawned. Vance hadn’t pulled a prank on Tori, but the other way around. From the sounds of things, Tori had just settled the score with her joke-loving husband.

“What’s the matter there, buddy? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Jillian and Tori both giggled, while Vance shot me as dark of a look as he could muster.

“I had better not find out this was your idea,” he began. “If it was, then… then…”

“Then what?” I asked, after the girls had stopped laughing. “But, for the record, I had nothing to do with whatever happened down there. And, I will admit, I’m curious as hell. What did happen?”

“Would you like to tell him, or should I?” Tori wheezed out, between laughs.

Vance grumbled something unintelligible and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Me it is. So, Captain Courageous here is poking through a few boxes we found down in the basement, and just so you know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a basement that big. It’s like a third story. Anyway, my dear old husband has his back to me, and just then, I see a bug running along the ground.”

Jillian clapped a hand over her mouth.

“You didn’t.”

“I most certainly did,” Tori said, as a wicked smile formed on her face. “I snatched that nasty little sucker up and dropped it down the back of Vance’s shirt. You would have thought that he had just sat on an ant hill. Oh, I only wish I had recorded that. It would have been the second video on YouTube that would’ve gone viral.”

We all heard footsteps on the staircase and looked up. Harry and Julie must have finished their inspection of the second floor. Or else they heard the commotion and were curious. Probably both.

“What happened down here?” Harry wanted to know. “We could hear the screams all the way up there. Tori, are you okay? Vance, not cool, bro. I can’t believe you’d try to punk your wife again.”

Vance pointed a finger at me and Jillian.

“How do you know it wasn’t one of those two?”

“Please,” Harry scoffed. “Zack would never pull something like that. He never did in high school, and I can’t imagine him starting now.”

“True story,” I admitted, with a shrug.

“I wasn’t the one screaming,” Tori said, which drew another scowl from Vance.

Harry stared incredulously at Vance.

“Dude, that was you? Man, you sounded like a 12 year old girl!”

“Kiss my ass,” Vance growled.

“What happened?” Julie wanted to know.

“Tori dropped a live bug down Vance’s shirt,” Jillian said, between giggles. “I can only figure he thought it was a spider. What was it, anyway?”

Tori shrugged, “It wasn’t a spider. Maybe some type of beetle? Now that I think about it, it could’ve been a cockroach.”

“Call an exterminator,” Jillian quietly noted to herself, as she set a reminder on her phone.

“You’re afraid of bugs?” Harry continued.

“Absolutely not,” Vance argued. “I’m just not expecting to find any inside my shirt, thank you very much.”

“Behave yourself and perhaps there won’t be another time,” Tori admonished.

“Did you find anything down there?” I wanted to know. I was anxious to change the subject because I could see the look that had appeared on Vance’s face. He was embarrassed and very close to having a full-fledged argument with Tori. Personally, I didn’t want to be a witness to that. “And no, I’m not talking about ghost stuff. Find anything cool?”

Vance turned to look at me. His face finally softened and he smiled. He nodded.

“As a matter of fact, we did. We found a pool table hiding under a tarp. It’s in really good condition. I might try to buy that off of you, Jillian, only I’ll need to buy new balls.”

The entire room fell silent.

Vance’s face flamed up, “Now wait a minute. That’s not what I meant. Those balls were pink and I don’t want to play with pink balls.”

No one moved a muscle, nor uttered a peep.

“Billiard balls, for crying out loud. Would you guys get your minds out of the gutter?”

The girls shared a look together at the exact same time both Harry and I snorted with amusement.

“And where would you put a pool table?” Tori asked, bewildered. “We’re short on room as it is.”

“Vance, I’d like to see this table,” Jillian said. “Will you show it to me?”

We followed Vance and Tori as they retraced their steps to the basement. Tori was right. The basement was huge! Judging from the looks of it, it had just as much square footage as the other two floors. Talk about having your own private storage facility!

“You can find it right over there,” Vance said, pointing at a large, flat object covered by a yellowing tarp.

I pulled the musty tarp back to reveal a somewhat dusty walnut table with a surprisingly blemish-free playing field made of an olive green felt. I then noticed the table had eight legs, and each leg was hexagonal by design. Noticing something that was ‘off’, I studied the table for a few moments before I realized what it was. The size.

This table was closer to the ground than any pool table I had ever seen. I would have guessed that it was less than three feet tall. It also looked larger. I looked over at Jillian and saw that she had her phone in her hand and was busy tapping something on the screen. After a few moments, her face lit up with a smile and she showed me her phone.

“It’s a snooker table! Do you see the smaller pockets? And that there are only six of them?”

“I’ll be damned,” Vance muttered. “I didn’t even pick up on that.”

“Snooker?” I quizzically repeated. “What’s that?”

“It’s played on a larger table than pool,” Jillian explained, as she read from her phone. “You use 15 pink numberless balls, six numbered object balls, and the cue balls.”

“I told you they were pink,” Vance haughtily informed us.

The room fell silent again. Harry snorted, and received a thump in the gut from Julie.

“I didn’t know anyone played snooker anymore,” Tori said.

“I don’t think they do,” I added.

“I’m sorry, Vance,” Jillian said, as she gazed fondly down at the table, “but I’m afraid the snooker table isn’t for sale. This is just the sort of thing I want upstairs, in the house. Think of it as another way to bring back a little piece of the past.”

“Look at all the boxes in here,” I said, as I looked around the vast area. “Did you go through any of them?”

“Just a few,” Tori admitted. “I didn’t want to get too nosey. These things all belong to Jillian now.”

“I really don’t mind,” Jillian assured her friend. “So, what did you find?”

“That one over there had some old drinking glasses. And that one? The one closest to you, Zack. It had a couple of photo albums in it.”

Jillian perked up.

“Photo albums? In that one? Zachary, would you pass them to me, please?”

“Sure.”

I opened the fragile, crumbling box and saw the albums in question. After handing them to Jillian, I pointed upstairs.

“Let’s head back up. I think we’ve kicked up too much dust down here.”

Right on cue, I heard Sherlock snort. I looked down just as both dogs looked up. Each corgi was sporting a fine film of dust on their shiny coats. And, Sherlock had several smudges on his face, as though he found something interesting on the ground and shoved his entire snout in it, as he was wont to do.

“Come on, you two. I think we could all use some fresh air.”

As we relaxed up in the living room, comparing notes about what we had found, I couldn’t help but notice that not one person said anything about the existence of ghosts. Aside from Vance’s prank with the spooky sound effects and Tori’s retaliatory insect attack, it had been a spook-free night. A small part of me was disappointed, in that I was hoping some type of supernatural presence would have made their presence known, even though I’m sure it would have scared the bejeesus out of me.

I was about ready to park my butt on the closest flat surface, being anxious to give my tiring feet a break, when Sherlock tugged on his leash. Curious, I looked down at him, but he only had eyes for Jillian. Right about then, I noticed Jillian wasn’t talking, but staring, open-mouthed, at one of the photo albums we had brought back from the basement. I also noticed her phone was in her other hand.

“What is it?” I asked.

Jillian didn’t respond.

“Hey, are you okay over there?” I asked, raising my voice a little so that I knew she’d be able to hear me.

My girlfriend finally looked my way. Her astonished eyes met mine and she then held up the photo album.

“I… I think I know why Dame Highland was murdered.”

“Why?” I asked, as I rose to my feet. I promptly leaned over Jillian’s shoulder to look at the picture that had caught her attention. “Is this her? Dame Highland?”

Jillian nodded, “Yes.”

“Looks like she’s wearing one of those outfits we saw in the closet,” I observed. “One of the, uh, racier ones.”

“Look at her,” Vance argued. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it. She’s got the body for it. She was definitely a looker, that’s for… but you know what? No one cares about what she looked like. I sure as hell don’t.”

“Nice save, genius,” Tori quipped, as she gave her husband a scowl.

Everyone crowded around the picture. There, sitting in a shiny old-fashioned roadster, waving enthusiastically at the photographer, was a young woman who must have been in her twenties. She was slim, had short dark hair, and was wearing a slinky, off the shoulder dress with a dark cloche hat.

“Do you see it yet?” Jillian anxiously asked. “Have you spotted it?”

I was about ready to tell my girlfriend that I hadn’t a clue what she was talking about when I noticed Vance’s eyes widen with surprise. He leaned closer, presumably for a better look. Then his shocked eyes found Jillian’s.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“We can’t be certain its authentic,” Jillian excitedly began, “but I’m pretty sure we’ll find out that it is.”

“What am I looking at?” I asked again, growing frustrated.

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t spotted whatever Jillian was trying to show us. Harry and Julie looked just as puzzled as I felt, and Tori? She… nope, there she goes. I could tell she had just spotted the same thing Vance had.

“Oh, this changes everything,” Tori told her friend.