Having been an only child, Danielle had never experienced what it was like to grow up in a big family. The same could be said to be true of Walt. Of course, there had been her cousins, Cheryl and Sean, who had always been around when she was growing up. But they were gone, as were her parents. But here she was now, a family of sorts, with three infants and a toddler. One child per adult. But even that could seem overwhelming. Danielle told herself that she would one day refer to this moment in time as cozy chaos.
The Marlow household had gotten up a little earlier than normal that morning. It started with Connor having a bad dream. After he found his parents, he inadvertently woke his baby sister, who proved to have a healthy set of lungs.
Sadie, who had been sleeping in the hallway, woke from the crying. But since Connor had shut the bedroom door when entering his parents’ room, Sadie could not investigate the problem. The golden retriever, believing it was her duty to wake Walt so he could save the infant from whatever had befallen her, started barking. The barking worked to wake Walt, along with everyone else in the house, including the twins.
It was now 7:00 a.m., and the household was just settling down. Crying infants had been fed, and a cranky toddler sat in his highchair, angrily throwing dry cereal onto the floor in protest. Loyal Sadie sat by the highchair, ready to handle toddler cleanup.
The young mothers sat together at the kitchen table, finally getting to enjoy their morning coffee. Ian held a fussy Emily Ann in his arms as he circled the kitchen floor while gently patting the infant’s back. Walt had successfully strapped the twins into their swings, and he turned his attention to Connor, trying to distract him by using his telekinetic abilities to animate the silverware and cereal box. His efforts appeared to work. The toddler started giggling, and instead of throwing cereal onto the floor, he ate it.
While chatting with the other adults in the room, Danielle sipped her coffee and absently fiddled with her phone, checking her emails and messages. One message caught her eye, and she set her mug on the table and looked closer at the phone. After a moment, she said, “Adam sent me a message last night. He asked me if I wanted to see that house he might be listing.”
Ian, still circling the room, paused a moment and looked at Danielle. “Is that the house Rylee’s aunt owned?”
“I still don’t believe Rylee abused her aunt,” Lily chimed. “She was so nice to me.”
“Yeah, it’s the same house.” Danielle set her phone back on the table. “Adam’s going over there to take some pictures. He told me he’s going early this morning, before he goes into the office, and if I’m up, I can meet him over there.”
“Does he really think you’re interested in the house?” Lily asked.
“I might have led him to believe Madeline might be interested.” Danielle flashed Lily a guilty grin.
“Poor Adam. He has no idea what’s going on around him.” Lily snickered before taking another sip of coffee.
“You going?” Walt asked.
Danielle looked at Walt. “If I go, it means I have to leave in about fifteen minutes. You okay with that?”
“If Adam is getting ready to list the property, maybe he knows more about Wesley’s widow,” Walt suggested. “She could have mentioned a pending wedding or something about what’s going on in her current life.”
“You’ll be okay here with the babies?” Danielle asked.
Walt flashed Danielle a grin. “What do you think?”
“Then I guess I’ll go. I’ll text him and tell him I’ll meet him over there.” Danielle looked back at her phone and sent Adam a text.
As Danielle gathered up her purse and shoes before leaving, she felt a twinge of guilt for leaving Walt and the others with all the little ones. Yet before she left, Lily, who wanted to go back to sleep, talked Connor into lying in bed with her and watching a Disney movie while she napped. That left Walt and Ian in charge of the three infants. She no longer felt guilty.
Danielle had just pulled out of her garage and was heading down the alley when she spied Heather standing in her driveway, talking to someone. Danielle assumed Heather was on her way to work, but just as she was about to drive by Heather’s house, she recognized who Heather was talking to: Clay Bowman. Without thought, she made an abrupt right and turned into the driveway, parking behind Heather’s car. Both Heather and Clay looked at Danielle in surprise.
Danielle got out of her car and walked toward the pair. “Everything alright, Heather?”
“I suppose I should be grateful he didn’t mess up my morning run,” Heather said as Danielle got closer.
Clay turned to Danielle. “I understand I’m probably the last soul you and Heather want to see.”
Heather glanced at the time on her cellphone and then looked back to Danielle. “I need to pick up Chris. It’s my day to drive. But Clay stopped by and wanted to tell me the dream hop seemed to work. At least, his sons no longer believe it was just a dream.”
“I need one of the mediums to talk to Chief MacDonald,” Clay said.
Ten minutes later, Danielle was back in her car on her way to meet Adam at the house. With her phone already synced to her car, she placed a hands-free call to MacDonald as she drove.
“You’re up early,” the chief said when answering the phone.
“It’s been a crazy morning. You at work yet?”
“No. I’m leaving in about ten minutes. What’s up?”
Danielle told the chief about seeing Clay that morning and about the dream hops with his sons.
“And he trusts me to help with his sons?” He sounded lightly amused at the idea.
“Apparently, one’s vision can become clearer when they move to the other side. Although, that hasn’t been my experience with every spirit I’ve encountered.”
Danielle guessed the old Craftsman home she had come to look at was about ninety years old. She pulled up in front of the property and parked. It was obvious the house had been vacant for some time, considering the condition of the yard. Along the northern border of the property, a row of arborvitaes served as a privacy fence separating this house from its neighbor. Several of the plants had died and needed to be removed, while the height of the overall row needed trimming a few feet. An overgrown hydrangea blocked a portion of the sidewalk, while the front lawn was a patchwork of green and brown.
She didn’t bother getting out of her car since Adam hadn’t arrived yet. He said he wanted to take some pictures today, but after seeing the front yard, she doubted he meant listing pictures. He probably wanted to assess the condition of the property and make suggestions on what needed to be done before putting the house on the market.
Danielle picked up her phone and was just texting Walt, telling him she had arrived at the house and Adam wasn’t there yet, when Adam pulled up behind her. She quickly rewrote her text, sent it to Walt, and then got out of her vehicle.
“Looks like the yard needs a little TLC,” Danielle said as she slammed her driver’s door shut and walked to Adam.
“Yeah, I noticed that when I drove by the other day. I haven’t been inside yet.” Adam held a yellow legal pad of paper and pen in one hand and a ring of keys in the other.
They both turned to the house. “Was it this neglected when Cordelia was living in it?” Danielle asked. She stood with Adam on the sidewalk, looking up at the house. “If her niece wasn’t taking proper care of her aunt, I can understand the property getting neglected.”
“No. It was actually in pretty good shape.” With his hand holding the keys, Adam pointed to a house down the street. “I sold that house about a month before she passed away. I remember my buyer commenting on this house. He liked the use of the arborvitaes as a privacy fence. At the time, this front yard was well tended. I seem to remember there were some rose bushes over there.” Adam pointed to a dirt area in the front yard. “But it looks like someone took them out.”
“You mentioned what this property was probably going for. I understand prices have gone up, but I don’t see how this is worth that much.”
“It’s the lot.” Adam pointed to the vacant land on the side without the arborvitaes. “That’s part of this property. It’s a little over an acre.”
Danielle arched her brows. “Really?”
“Come on, let’s go look inside.”
“Why do you think the owner has neglected this place?” Danielle followed Adam to the front door. Together, they walked around the intruding hydrangea bush.
“She never lived in it. And then after the lawsuit with her cousin, she had to wait for it to go through probate.”
“Lily knows the cousin. She’s a nurse in the maternity ward. According to Lily, she was really sweet to her.”
Now at the front door, Adam tucked the pad of paper under his one arm while he shuffled the keys to find the right one. “How is Lily?”
“When I left the house, she was taking a nap with Connor. Or should I say, she was napping while he was watching Lady and the Tramp. But she’s doing good.”
“Got it!” Adam announced before pushing the door open. They stepped inside the house, and Adam tried the light switch. Nothing happened. “Damn, I told her the utilities needed to be on.”
Danielle walked over to the front window and pulled open the blind. Sunlight spilled into the living room.
“First thing on the list, turn on the utilities,” Adam grumbled while jotting a note on his pad of paper.
“The living room looks much better than the outside. Just a little dust, but not bad.”
Adam surveyed the room. “Looks like a little old lady lived here.”
Danielle laughed. “A little old lady did live here.”
“You think your mother-in-law might like it?”
“You mean former mother-in-law? But maybe.”
They walked into the kitchen, and Adam noticeably sniffed. He looked around. “This place needs to be aired out.” He wrote another note on the legal pad.
They continued walking through the first floor and came to a doorway. When Adam opened the door and looked in the room, he said, “This must be what Bonnie called the parlor.”
Danielle followed Adam into the room but stopped abruptly when she saw an elderly woman with white hair sitting on one of the two wingback chairs in the room. She stared at Adam and Danielle but said nothing. Danielle looked from Adam to the elderly woman and back to Adam.
“This is not something you see every day in Frederickport,” Adam said.
For a moment Danielle thought Adam saw the woman. He stood facing the wingback chair, but then she realized he wasn’t looking at the woman in the chair, but the bars on the window behind the chair. “She needs to remove those bars.”
Adam turned from the window and said, “Look at this.”
Danielle looked over to where Adam now stood by the desk and pointed to a collection of knives hanging on the wall. They looked like something ancient warriors carried into war. There was also one knife sitting on a display stand on the desk.
“I have a feeling this knife collection belonged to the aunt’s husband,” Adam said. “She’ll need to move these before we list the house. They’re probably valuable, and that one on the desk looks dangerous. I can just see some prospective buyer looking at the house and their kid picks up that knife and cuts their damn arm off.” Adam jotted down another note.
Danielle looked from the knives to the portrait hanging over the desk above them. She then looked over at the elderly woman. The woman in the portrait looked like a much younger version of the one sitting in the wingback chair. Danielle looked back to the portrait and asked, “Hey, Adam, any idea who this is?”
Adam glanced up at the portrait. “That must be Bonnie’s aunt. She mentioned there was a portrait of her in here.”
Danielle looked back to the woman in the corner. “You can see me, can’t you?” the woman asked.