Walt looked up from his computer when Danielle walked into the room carrying a paper sack. He stopped typing and smiled in her direction.
“Lily and Ian are back,” she told him as she walked into the attic apartment.
“Glad they made it back safely, but I guess this means they’ve picked up Sadie?”
“Lily is downstairs, but Ian’s at their house taking a nap. Heather’s downstairs too. The three of us are going to walk over to Presley House. We’re taking Sadie with us.” Danielle set the sack on the desk. “Oh, and this is for you.”
“What is it?” Walt asked.
“Tacos. Heather brought them.”
Walt opened up the sack and looked inside. “That was nice of her.” He then paused a moment and looked back to Danielle. “Presley House? You do know it isn’t there anymore.”
Danielle flashed him a grin. “We’re kind of hoping we might run into Pearl’s cousin. His house is right next door.”
Walt turned in his desk chair to face her. “Why do you want to do that?”
“We told Lily about the bones—and we’re trying to figure out who they belong to. Heather and I think it could be Pearl’s grandfather. Maybe he really didn’t leave his wife all those years ago. Maybe she killed him and planted his body with the rosebushes.”
“You don’t think her great-grandson is going to know if she killed him or not, do you?” Walt frowned.
“Of course not. But just because Pearl’s grandparents divorced, it doesn’t mean he dropped out of his kids’ lives forever. I figure if Pearl’s cousin remembers stories about his grandfather after his grandparents broke up, then it probably isn’t his body in the backyard.”
“Assuming there is a body—or the rest of the skeleton over there,” Walt reminded her.
“Heather suggested the cousin might be the one who put the bones in the hole after taking the rosebush.”
“And you want to go talk to him?”
Danielle shrugged. “We don’t really think he put them there. But you know Heather…”
Walt started to stand up. “Maybe I should go with you.”
“No.” Danielle reached out and placed one hand on Walt’s shoulder, gently pushing him back in the chair. “You keep writing. We will be fine, and we have Sadie with us.” She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss.
“Sadie isn’t exactly a guard dog,” Walt reminded her.
“Maybe we should stop at Chris’s and borrow Hunny?” Danielle joked.
“Hunny looks ferocious, but that would be like taking an unloaded gun with you.”
“I don’t know about that. I have a feeling she would rise to the occasion if we were threatened. But I really don’t think we need her.” Danielle gave Walt another quick kiss.
“If those bones weren’t as old as Brian says, I might disagree. Enjoy your walk and stay out of trouble.”
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Heather asked while Lily hooked the leash on Sadie’s collar. They stood in the kitchen waiting for Danielle to return from the attic.
“Why wouldn’t I be up to it?” Lily asked. “And after sitting on my butt all morning, first in the airport, then the plane and then the car, I could use a walk. And when the sun is shining this time of year, it’s best to enjoy it before it disappears behind some rain cloud.”
Heather looked at Lily’s protruding belly and shrugged. “It just might be a little too much, considering your condition.”
“I’m pregnant, not disabled,” Lily snapped.
“You guys ready to go?” Danielle asked as she walked into the kitchen the next moment.
“Yes, but you’d better be prepared to carry me back,” Lily said as she opened the door, Sadie’s leash in hand. “You know how fragile I am.”
Heather rolled her eyes at Lily’s comment and followed her and Sadie out the back door, Danielle trailing behind them.
As they headed to Andy Delarosa’s neighborhood, Lily told Danielle and Heather about the baby shower, about the gifts she had received, and her trip to visit her family. Heather told Lily of the changes to the Glandon Foundation headquarters now that the contractor had started work. By the time they reached Delarosa’s neighborhood, Danielle was telling them about her week with the raffle winners.
Returning from church, Millie Samson started to turn into her driveway when she spied three young women walking down the sidewalk with a golden retriever. She recognized Danielle first. After parking her car, she went to say hello.
“Afternoon, Millie,” Danielle greeted her.
“What are you girls up to today? Enjoying this fine weather?” Millie asked. She stood at the sidewalk near the end of her driveway.
“Lily just got home from visiting her family for spring break, so we decided to take a little walk with Sadie,” Danielle explained. “We thought we would come see if they’ve done anything with the Presley House property.”
Millie shook her head in disgust. “It’s still a vacant lot. I heard it’s gone through a couple of owners since it burned down.” She looked at Heather and said, “I always thought you might buy the property back.”
“Me?” Heather frowned. “Why would you think that?”
Millie shrugged. “I know you used to own it. And I heard about the unfortunate business over the property tax. I just assumed now that you are working for the Glandon Foundation, you might be buying it back.”
Heather glanced down the street at where the house in question had once stood, and then looked back to Millie. “Maybe the foundation has money, but I don’t. Anyway, I figure the property is probably cursed.”
“Oh, don’t say that!” Millie scolded. “I really want to see someone rebuild on the lot. It will be good for the neighborhood.”
“Maybe. But it won’t be me.” Heather shrugged.
Millie looked to Danielle and said, “I ran into Elizabeth Sparks at church this morning, and she told me the raffle was a success. Congratulations. Are you planning any future fundraisers?”
“We’re working on a few ideas,” Danielle told her.
“I also heard Faye Bateman was one of the winners,” Millie said.
“It was actually her son who had the winning ticket, but he gave it to his mother. She had never been inside the house before in spite of growing up next to it all those years. She’s a very nice lady,” Danielle said.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Faye since Leo died,” Millie murmured.
“Leo?” Danielle frowned.
“Her husband. He was the funeral director before he passed and his son, Norman, took over. They used to go to our church. But after Leo died, Faye stopped going.”
“Leo is the one who took over the funeral home after Faye’s father died?” Danielle asked.
Milly nodded. “Yes. From what I understand, he had worked for the Morton Funeral Home before he got another job in Portland. When Mr. Morton died unexpectedly, Faye eventually offered him the job after the man who was working for them didn’t work out.”
“That’s not a family business I would want to take over,” Heather grumbled.
“Maybe not, but it seems to be a very lucrative business,” Millie pointed out.
“I guess someone has to do it,” Lily said.
“So how was Faye?” Millie asked. “How did you handle her smoking? I understand you don’t allow smoking in Marlow House.”
“Smoking?” Danielle frowned. “She didn’t smoke when she was with us. And I never smelled any tobacco on her.”
“Well, good for Faye!” Millie said. “She finally stopped smoking. Faye was a notorious chain smoker. That woman always had a cigarette in her hand. The minister at church had to remind her to put it out. But it’s how she dealt with stress. She always wanted to quit. I’m glad she finally did.”
“Stress?” Lily asked.
“Yes. She told me once at church, she started smoking after her father died, and then her sister took off, and she was alone trying to oversee a business she had no business running. And of course, once she started that nasty habit, she just couldn’t kick it.”
“Maybe Faye Bateman should be a poster child for the tobacco company,” Heather suggested after they left Millie’s and headed toward the property she once owned.
“No kidding. Didn’t you say she was ninety-five?” Lily asked. “Gosh, my favorite uncle died in his early sixties from smoking.”
“There is always the exception. But it doesn’t surprise me that she was once a smoker,” Danielle said.
“Why do you say that?” Lily asked.
“It’s not a nice thing to say,” Danielle began, “but her face. Smoking really ages a person—and she looks every bit a hundred, if not older.”
“She is pretty wrinkled—and leathery—but you have to give the old gal credit,” Heather said. “She carries herself like she’s on the way to the Oscars. Really nice clothes, jewelry, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without perfect hair and her nails done.”
“She’s also pretty sharp,” Danielle added. “I have to say, if I lived as long as Faye Bateman and was given the choice of a youthful face or having all my mental faculties, I certainly wouldn’t choose a pretty face.”
“Not me,” Heather grumbled. “If I someday look in the mirror and see an old woman looking back at me who looks like Faye Bateman, I’d rather not know that woman is me. If I had all my wits about me, I’d know it was.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Lily teased. “You don’t have all your wits about you now.”
“Oh, shut up. But you have a point.” Heather chuckled.
They stood at the center of the vacant lot, looking around while Sadie, now off the leash, sniffed curiously, exploring new and familiar smells. Since the fire, everything had been removed—even the concrete foundation and traces of the basement where Danielle and Lily had been held captive by a misguided teenage ghost.
“They’ve filled everything in. You wouldn’t even know a house had been here,” Lily said.
“What are you doing over there?” a male voice shouted.
The three women looked toward the sound of a voice—it came from a young man standing on the adjacent property.
“That has to be Andy Delarosa,” Heather said under her breath for just her friends to hear. “He has the same nasty attitude as his cousin Pearl.”
“Hello,” Danielle called out cheerfully to the man, giving him a wave.
Lily hastily reattached the leash to Sadie’s collar and watched as the man stomped toward them.
“Unless you’re buying this lot, I don’t think the owners would appreciate you hanging around,” the man said as he approached them.
“I used to own this property,” Heather told him unapologetically. “It was in my family for years.”
“Are you Heather Donovan?” he asked, suddenly sounding far more friendly than before.
“You know who I am?” she asked with a frown.
“Sure. I know you used to own Presley House. I heard what happened. That really sucks about losing it for taxes. You also own that house over on Beach Drive.”
“Umm…how do you know that?” Heather asked.
“I used to own the house next door to you.” He reached out and offered her a hand in greeting. “My name is Andy Delarosa.”
She accepted his hand and then said, “You used to be neighbors with my friends too. This is Danielle Marlow and Lily Bartley.”
By Andy’s grin, it was obvious he was familiar with their names. “Nice to meet you! Wow. I’m a huge fan of your husband’s. I think I’ve watched all of his specials,” Andy told Lily. He then looked at Danielle and said, “Yours too. I’m normally not much of a reader, but someone told me about Moon Runners and how it took place in this area, and wow, it was great. I hope they really do make a movie out of it.”
“So how come we have never met you before?” Danielle asked after they all exchanged additional pleasantries.
Andy shrugged. “Well, to be honest, I owned the house with my cousins. And let’s just say that was a major pain in the butt. So I never really went over there.”
“Your cousin Pearl owns it now,” Danielle said.
“Yeah, well, sorry about that,” he said with a snort.
“You don’t like Pearl?” Lily asked innocently.
“What is it they say, you can’t pick your relatives?” he said.
“Umm…now Pearl’s grandparents originally owned the house, is that correct?” Danielle asked sweetly.
“Yeah. Pearl’s grandmother—I guess she would be my great-grandmother—left it to her two daughters. Pearl always carried on about how it was so unfair her parents couldn’t afford to keep her share and was forced to sell to my grandmother. Which was total BS.”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
“According to my parents, they could afford it, but Pearl’s mom had some major issues with her mother and, after she died, was happy to sell her share of the house to my grandmother,” Andy explained.
“I’m curious,” Danielle said. “I’ve always heard about Pearl’s grandmother. What happened to her grandfather?”
“You mean the bigamist?” Andy said with a snort.
“Bigamist?” Heather asked.
Andy nodded. “Yeah, my family is all kinds of messed up. Nuts on all branches of our family tree. I guess my great-grandmother found out the old man had another family. He was a traveling salesman. Apparently he didn’t like to be alone when he was on the road.” Andy laughed.
“Did he end up with this other family?” Lily asked.
“Nah. From what I understand, he ditched them both. Took off, never paid any child support. He’s the infamous scoundrel in our family tree.”
“Never had anything to do with any of his kids? Grandkids?” Danielle asked.
“Nope. One of the cousins who’s into genealogy found the other family, but no one knows where he ended up. But I imagine with everyone taking DNA tests these days, we’ll probably find he landed with another family, which means there are more nutty cousins out there.”
“You seem to find it all rather—amusing,” Heather observed.
Andy shrugged. “They’re really nothing to me. To be honest, as much as I would’ve liked to have kept the Beach Drive house and moved into it—great location—I was happy to sell just so I wouldn’t have to deal with any of the cousins again. Like I said, a bunch of nuts.”
Thirty minutes later Danielle, Heather, Lily and Sadie started on their way back home. When they were out of earshot from Andy, Heather said, “Well, that was too easy.”
“No kidding,” Lily agreed.
“It is looking more and more like those bones might belong to old gramps,” Heather said.