The Beach Drive mediums and friends gathered around the dining room table at Marlow House that evening, discussing what had unfolded at the funeral home. Walt sat at the head of the table with Danielle to his left. Across from Danielle and to Walt’s right, Chris sat. He had provided the dinner, bringing several boxes of pizza, chicken wings, and pasta salad from the local pizzeria. Lily sat to Chris’s right, and on the other side of her was Heather. Ian was still in California. Across the table on Danielle’s side was Eva and Marie, who were visible to everyone but Lily. While Lily couldn’t see or hear the two spirits, she knew they were there.
As food was passed around the table—enjoyed by everyone but the two ghosts—Marie said, “Danielle, please tell Lily I left a gift for the baby over in the nursery. She can see it in the morning.”
Danielle conveyed the message.
“A gift? Oh, Marie, how sweet. Where did you get a gift?” Lily asked.
“Tell Lily she’ll just have to wait and see.”
“She says you’ll have to wait and see. That’s sweet, Marie. Now I’m curious too,” Danielle said.
“A baby gift?” Eva muttered under her breath. “What shall I get the baby?”
“I’m not only sweet, I know what I’m talking about. Didn’t I tell you all that stuff Margaret was saying about Maisy was nonsense?”
“Yes, you did, Marie,” Danielle conceded as she grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza and set it on her paper plate.
“Marie did what?” Lily asked.
“She told us Margaret didn’t know what she was talking about.”
Lily frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Remember at the July Fourth party, Margaret said Maisy wasn’t as nice as everyone claimed. Basically said Daisy was the nice one—the misunderstood one—and Kenneth fell for her after he saw how poorly Maisy treated her,” Danielle reminded. “Back then Marie told us Margaret didn’t know what she was talking about. And she was right.”
“Yes, I was,” Marie said with a nod.
“It’s obvious what Daisy was doing back then,” Danielle said. “She used Margaret’s sister to make people believe she had run away with Kenneth by that letter she had her mail. That worked so well, she got other people to send more Daisy letters back to Frederickport so everyone would assume she was Maisy, and Daisy was off traveling the world.”
“It’s a good thing I was wrong about Norman,” Heather said as she pulled a chicken wing apart.
“Wrong how?” Lily asked.
“He looks so much like Norman Bates in Psycho, and the way he seemed to be such a mama’s boy. The Norman I imagined he was would have had Danielle crispy in the crematory about now.”
“Not a pleasant thought.” Danielle cringed. “But I did have one ace up my sleeve. Not sure it would have worked, but I was going to use it.”
“And what was that?” Walt asked.
“There was at least one ghost hanging out at that place. I was going to plead with him to contact one of you and send in the cavalry.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t have to rely on that. As we all know, there’s a chance the spirit you met is confined to the funeral home,” Walt reminded her. “And he wouldn’t have been able to contact any of us.”
“Ahh, I have a pretty good idea who you’re talking about.” Eva spoke up. “Did he by chance tell you he fell off the pier after having too much to drink?”
“Yes.” Danielle nodded.
“He’s been hanging around that place for as long as I can remember,” Eva said.
“I have a question, Eva,” Heather asked.
“Yes?”
“You seem to know many of the spirits who hang around Frederickport before moving on. Why is it you never encountered Maisy’s spirit? If Walt’s dream is accurate, it sounds like she might have ventured down to the local cemetery.”
Eva looked over at Walt and smiled. She then looked back to Heather. “As you know, for a number of years I avoided Marlow House. At the time, I thought it best for Walt if he didn’t see me. And I also avoided the local cemetery, as that’s where Angela was confined. In my hauntings, I never had an opportunity to come in contact with Maisy, and I hadn’t heard anything in the spirit realm about her—or the murders. Ghosts aren’t all-seeing.”
Danielle continued playing interpreter for Lily, keeping her apprised of what Marie and Eva were saying.
Heather considered Eva’s answer a moment and then gave it a nod before taking another bite of food.
“Learning Faye was actually Daisy and not Maisy all these years does make a great deal of sense,” Marie said. “I’m surprised I didn’t figure it out earlier.”
“How so?” Danielle asked after telling Lily what Marie had said.
“I always heard how Maisy changed after her sister ran off with Kenneth—how she stopped seeing her friends.”
“That’s because they were never her friends,” Heather said.
“Exactly.” Marie nodded. “Or why she started going by Faye. I remember once one of her friends from high school thought it so odd she suddenly hated her first name. She told me that when they were younger and talked about names for the children they wanted to have some day, Maisy had told her she liked her first name, but didn’t care for her middle name at all.”
“I imagine Daisy felt more comfortable being called Faye. It was a way she held onto part of her identity, even if it was a middle name she had shared with her twin,” Chris suggested. “It’s bad enough murdering your sister—I can’t imagine living with that guilt. But then to have everyone call you by her name.” Chris shook his head at the idea.
“For some reason, I don’t think guilt played a part in her choice of names,” Walt said.
“Also the smoking,” Danielle added. “More than one person mentioned how in their youth Maisy didn’t smoke, but Daisy did. I knew Faye had been a smoker, but I just assumed it was something she had taken up when she was older.”
“That same friend who thought it odd Maisy started going by her middle name once ran into her not long after her sister supposedly eloped with Kenneth. She was surprised to find Maisy smoking and commented on it. Maisy—or more accurately Daisy—told her with all that had happened, being so distraught, she had taken it up. The friend actually found that more understandable than her suddenly going by Faye,” Marie said.
“When I asked Faye if she liked chocolate, because of that essay Maisy had written as a child, I probably didn’t need to ask the question” Danielle confessed.
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
“When Walt and I were talking to Norman about his mother and aunt, he said something about how his aunt was a bookworm and played the piano.”
“According to that essay, Maisy was the bookworm, played the piano—and liked chocolate,” Lily said.
Danielle nodded. “Norman was right about his aunt being the one who liked those things. He just didn’t know his aunt was Maisy.”
“As much as I hate the fact Danielle could have been killed by asking that question instead of just leaving, the truth is, if she hadn’t, Daisy could have gotten away with murder if Danielle had left and simply gone to the chief,” Walt said.
“Why do you say that?” Heather asked. “Once they got a warrant for Faye’s DNA, everyone would know it was her sister.”
“While they were arresting her, she came up with a plausible defense—she accused Lewis Samson of being the jilted lover who killed them in a fit of jealousy and then killed himself from guilt. I suspect had Faye thought of that earlier, it could have been her ticket to freedom. I’m not sure how they could prove she was really Daisy,” Walt explained. “Not unless they had her fingerprints on file somewhere, which I doubt.”
“See, I did a good thing,” Danielle chirped.
Walt glared at Danielle. “Just don’t do something foolish like that again.”
“So what do you think is going to happen now, with Norman?” Heather asked. “Morton’s estate went to Maisy, not to Daisy. So everything he has basically came to him illegally.”
“I suspect it will depend on Maisy’s will—if she had one,” Chris said. “And there is a good chance Norman will actually be Maisy’s rightful heir anyway. It’s not like he had anything to do with the murders—and he didn’t help his mother cover up the crime.”
“Not to mention, when they ran the DNA on those remains, the only hits that came for Maisy were distant cousins, where the results were rated fair, which could mean they may not even be related,” Danielle said. “So perhaps there are no close relatives out there aside from Norman and Faye to inherit the estate.”
“I hope Norman gets to keep it all,” Lily said. “It’s not his fault his mother is evil. And when he was put to the test, he did the right thing.”
“I have to admit, I didn’t see this coming,” Heather said.
“I don’t think any of us did,” Walt added.
“I never thought the Batemans had anything to do with those remains,” Heather said as she wiped her hands off on a napkin.
“But he reminded you of the guy from Psycho,” Danielle teased.
“True. But I seriously thought Pearl’s family was responsible. I figured it had to have something to do with those roses, especially since someone stole that plant from her yard and then the remains showed up.”
Chris glanced over to her and said, “Sometimes, Heather, a rose is just a rose.”