by Bobbi Holmes
“Any idea how long ago that was?” Walt asked.
“From my calculations, a couple of weeks ago,” Marie said.
Danielle looked at Walt, who had just finished his last bite of tuna sandwich. With a sigh she said, “Marie is right, sounds like that’s a dead end. What do we do now?”
“I think there is only one thing we can do,” Walt said in a serious tone.
“What’s that?” Danielle asked.
“I think we should split that last piece of double fudge chocolate cake.”
Fourteen
Hunny stayed behind at Marlow House while Chris shopped for security cameras in Portland on Monday. She spent the morning inside with Marie while Walt and Danielle went off to run errands and stop at the museum. When they returned, the pit bull headed outside to enjoy the afternoon sunshine and romp in the backyard while Max napped on one branch that arched overhead some twelve feet above the ground.
Marie planned to visit Connor while Walt and Danielle ate their chocolate cake. After moving through the north-facing kitchen wall into the side yard, Marie paused when she didn’t see Hunny. Where was the dog? To get a better view, she moved upward, as if riding an invisible elevator in the middle of the yard.
The unusual sight caught Max’s attention, and he lazily lifted his head from where it had been resting on his front paws. He looked Marie in the eyes and meowed.
“Why am I up here?” Marie repeated Max’s question. “I’m looking for Hunny. Have you seen her? Did she go back in the house, and I missed her?”
The cat meowed again.
“What do you mean she’s next door? Next door where?”
Max looked toward Pearl’s yard.
Marie gasped, and the next moment she stood in Pearl Huckabee’s backyard, only a fence separating it from Marlow House property. To her astonishment she found Pearl sitting on a patio chair, the pit bull’s chin resting on her lap as the normally cranky woman affectionately rubbed the dog’s head and ears, whispering baby talk.
“Who is a good baby girl?” Pearl cooed. “Who loves her Hunny?”
Pearl then did something Marie never imagined the woman would do—she kissed the dog’s nose.
Hunny, whose back was to Marie, and whose eyes were closed, was unaware of the ghost watching them and seemed perfectly content receiving Pearl’s affection. Her wagging stump of a tail attested to that fact.
“I would never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself,” Marie said aloud.
Startled, Hunny opened her eyes, lifted her chin from Pearl’s lap, and looked behind her. Upon seeing Marie, she snuggled up closer to Pearl and looked embarrassed.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Pearl asked in a loving voice. “What scared you?”
“How long has this been going on?” Marie asked.
The dog looked at Marie a moment and then rested her chin on Pearl’s knee while keeping one eye on Marie.
“Yes, I can see you like her,” Marie said with a frown, still confused.
A meow distracted them, and they looked to the fence separating the two yards. Max stood on the fence, looking down at the three. Hunny’s butt again wagged with her tail, and the dog whimpered.
Marie looked back to Pearl and noticed a brief frown cross the woman’s face before disappearing.
With a sigh Pearl said, “Okay, Hunny. I still don’t like that cat, but he’s obviously your friend, so I’ll tolerate it.” She leaned down and gave the dog another pat and kissed her head. “You’d better go home now.” Pearl reached into her pocket and pulled out a dog treat. She fed it to Hunny. After finishing the treat, Hunny swiped a wet tongue across Pearl’s face and then trotted back home, squeezing through an opening under the fence.
Still perplexed at the sight, Marie stared at Pearl for a moment. The woman sat alone on the chair, silently watching where Hunny had just disappeared. She watched as Pearl got up from the chair and started to her house.
“Those treats…” Marie muttered, still watching Pearl as she headed to her side door. The next moment, the remaining dog treats floated up and out of Pearl’s pocket, making their way to Marie. Had Pearl looked back, the sight of floating dog treats might make her suspect that medical marijuana she had vowed to never again take hadn’t left her system. Marie snatched the treats from midair and examined them.
“Just to be safe, I think we should check these out,” Marie said.
Deciding her trip to visit Connor would have to wait, she entered the Marlows’ yard. Hunny had already gone into the house. She intended to tell Walt and Danielle what she had just witnessed and show them the treats, but her plans changed a moment later when she came face-to-face with the mystery ghost she had met in Connor’s nursery.
He looked as if he would flee again, so she shouted, “Please don’t leave. At least tell me your name.”
He stopped and looked at her. “My name is Wilbur Jenkins. Can I ask you a question?”
“What’s that?” Marie asked.
“If I’m dead, like you say, and I think you’re right, does this mean my sister won’t be able to see me if I find her?” he asked.
“If your sister is still alive and not a ghost, chances are she won’t see you. But there are some people—it’s not that common—who are mediums and can see and hear people like us.”
“We’re still people?” he asked.
Marie shrugged. “I use that term loosely.”
“I need to find my sister and explain everything.”
“Maybe I can help. I know a few mediums. If you tell me your sister’s name, where we can find her, then they can pass on your message.”
“Would they do that?”
“I’m sure they would,” Marie said, although she wasn’t sure that was accurate. It wasn’t like a medium could just walk up to his sister and tell her they had a message from beyond. But she wanted to get his name, and once he felt comfortable, he might help them find the people who wanted to hurt Walt and Danielle.
“How do we do this?” he asked.
“First, tell me your full name, and about your sister.”
“My full name is Wilbur James Jenkins. I live in Portland. My sister is Kimberly Kate Jenkins. She lives in Portland too and runs a little bookstore there called Kimberly Kate Books. Do you really think your friends would give her my message?”
Before Marie could answer, Walt and Danielle walked out to the side yard with Hunny. Hunny spied the new ghost and came running toward him, eager to meet someone new.
Startled by the quickly approaching dog, Wilbur vanished.
“Stop! Come back!” Marie yelled.
Walt and Danielle, who had not noticed Marie or Wilbur when they had first stepped outside, rushed to Marie’s side when they realized they had scared away a ghost.
“Was that him?” Danielle asked when they reached Marie. Honey circled the yard, looking for the disappearing spirit.
“Yes. I really wish you hadn’t scared him off,” Marie groaned.
“I’m sorry,” Danielle said.
“At least I got his name. Not that it will help us find the people threatening you, but at least Wilbur isn’t a complete mystery,” Marie said.
“Who’s Wilbur?” Walt asked.
“The ghost you scared away.” Marie handed Danielle the dog treats she had been holding.
“What’s this?” Danielle asked, taking the treats from Marie.
“You might check them out. Make sure they won’t make Hunny sick.” Marie then told Walt and Danielle what she had witnessed at their neighbor’s house.
When Chris returned from Portland late Monday afternoon with the cameras, he had Heather with him.
“I ended up going,” Heather said when she plopped down on the living room sofa and watched as Chris set the full shopping bags on the floor. “We had some other errands to run for work, and Chris gets lost in Portland.”
“I do not,” Chris argued as he sat down on a chair facing the sofa.
“Actually, you d
o,” Danielle said as she looked through the bags he had set on the floor. “How much do we owe you?”
“The receipt is in the bag. I might have offered to pay for them, but then you made that crack about me getting lost,” Chris said.
“I didn’t say it,” Danielle reminded him, pulling one of the small boxes from the bag. “Heather did. I was just agreeing.”
“Chris likes to explore original routes, and sometimes he forgets how to get back,” Walt suggested.
Hunny, who had been outside, ran into the living room, her stump of a tail wagging. She greeted her human.
Danielle looked up from the bag to Walt. “You need to tell Chris about Hunny.”
“What about her?” Chris asked.
They told Chris and Heather what Marie had witnessed next door.
“Did you check the treats?” Heather asked.
“There was nothing wrong with the treats,” Danielle said.
“How do you know?” Heather asked.
“I had a long talk with Hunny,” Walt said. “Apparently this has been going on for some time. As best as I can tell, since Pearl had that mishap with the ladder over Christmas. For the last six months Hunny sneaks over there; Pearl lavishes affection on her and gives her treats. Hunny didn’t tell me because I had expressly told her to stay away from Pearl, and it seems Hunny is fond of the woman.”
“That is so unlike Hunny,” Chris said. “She’s always obedient, and she knew we didn’t want her near that house.”
“Technically, she’s a teenager,” Danielle reminded him. “In dog years. And you know how teenagers are.”
“I thought dogs were good at judging people,” Heather said.
“I had noticed Pearl petting Hunny through the fence. Even overheard some of that baby talk,” Chris said.
“Yeah, and I told you she was probably plotting against poor Hunny,” Heather said.
“Pearl is not my favorite person. I remember how rude she was when we visited her at the hospital to give her flowers and offered to check on her house. You would have thought we were plotting to break in and steal all her worldly possessions,” Danielle said.
“Exactly,” Heather agreed.
“But the fact is, some people don’t like people—but they love dogs,” Danielle said.
“She didn’t love dogs when she threw such a fit over Hunny being off a leash after Chris’s house burned down,” Heather reminded them.
“True. But obviously Hunny has won her over,” Danielle said. “I think Pearl’s initial response to Hunny stemmed from fear.”
“I suspect the change has something to do with Hunny saving her life,” Walt said. “From what we know, Pearl was on that cold ground for a couple of hours before Hunny found her.”
“Aside from Pearl no longer making it her mission to ban pit bulls from the neighborhood,” Danielle began, “from what Marie overheard, Pearl promised Hunny she would learn to tolerate Max, since they were friends. Which makes me feel better, considering she tried trapping Max at least one time that we’re aware of.”
“Since when are Max and Hunny friends?” Heather asked.
“Since Max realized Hunny had gotten to a dangerous size and could easily bring him down if she wanted,” Walt said.
“Hunny wouldn’t hurt Max,” Heather scoffed.
“Perhaps not, but Max also realizes that there’s an advantage to having a pit bull ally; one never knows what new dog will move into the neighborhood. And Max learned long ago how to survive,” Walt said. “And you know Hunny, she just wants to be everyone’s friend.”
“Terrific,” Heather said dryly. “With Bella’s snotty attitude, if Pearl realizes how she torments Hunny, she may decide to rid the neighborhood of her.”
“In other news, we discovered the name of the mystery ghost. Unfortunately, he took off again before we could get him to find our wannabe arsonists,” Danielle said.
“Who is he?” Chris asked.
“He told Marie his name is Wilbur James Jenkins. He lived in Portland and has a sister who lives there too, named Kimberly Kate Jenkins. He told Marie his sister runs a bookstore called Kimberly Kate Books, so I have to assume she owns the bookstore since it has her name. Unless it is some wild coincidence.”
“I’ve been there,” Heather said. “In fact, it’s right down the street from where we were today. It’s kinda retro. But I seriously doubt they named it after his sister.”
“Why do you say that?” Danielle asked.
“According to the sign in the store, it’s been there for over a hundred years. They have some cool photos on one wall, showing what it used to look like. Unless someone photoshopped those old pictures, it was called Kimberly Kate Books when it was first established.”
“Or perhaps we have been incorrectly assuming Wilbur is a spirit of a recently departed person?” Chris suggested.
Fifteen
After Heather and Chris left late Monday afternoon, Walt and Danielle went to the basement to take down the boxes of Fourth of July decorations. While they were heavy and stored on a top shelf, Walt didn’t need a ladder or Chris’s help to get them down. He only needed Danielle, and that was to remind him which boxes she wanted. Storage shelving lined one wall of the basement. Walt and Danielle stood side by side, looking up at its top shelf, and watched as the boxes Danielle pointed to floated down to the floor.
“I thought we should do this today and not wait until the morning,” Danielle said after the first box landed on the concrete floor, followed by a second one, and a third. “Joanne said she’ll be here first thing in the morning, and it would be a pain to get these down with her here.”
“I would need to get up on a ladder,” Walt said as he brought the last of the boxes down, touching none of them.
“Can you take them upstairs and put them in the hallway?” Danielle asked.
“Of course.” Walt looked down at the six boxes. They rose from the basement floor and formed a line and began slowly making their way toward the stairs.
“I was wondering,” Danielle began, but stopped talking when all six boxes fell to the floor.
“Damn,” Walt muttered.
“What happened?”
Walt looked at Danielle and asked, “Have you ever tried to pick up more packages than you can comfortably carry and then drop them?”
“Um…yes…does this mean you can’t take all six boxes upstairs at once?”
“No. It just means I can’t do it while you’re talking to me. I need to concentrate.”
“Oh…sorry.” Danielle cringed.
“That’s okay. This many boxes at once requires more focus.” Walt turned back to the six boxes. Once again, they floated up into the air. Danielle remained silent as Walt willed the boxes up the stairwell to the first floor.
Later that afternoon, Danielle walked alone down the beach, heading to Pier Café. She kicked the cool sand with her bare feet and held her flip-flops in one hand. Walt had stayed home to work on his new book and keep an eye on the house, should one of the would-be arsonists break in again before the fourth. After Walt had stacked the six boxes neatly in the hallway, she had volunteered to walk to the pier and pick up hamburgers for dinner. If they had any fresh pie, she’d bring some pie home too.
Before reaching the pier, she spied him. He stood watching her. Danielle recognized him immediately. Earlier she had gotten a good look at him right before he had disappeared. If she wasn’t mistaken, he assumed she could not see him.
She thought he looked a few years older than herself, which was far too young to die. If Chris was correct, he could have died years ago, and by his clothing, she thought that might be true. He wore oddly shaped dark slacks and a rumpled white button-up shirt. She noticed several of its top buttons were missing.
Not wanting him to leave, Danielle said, “Wilbur Jenkins, please don’t disappear. Talk to me.”
Startled, he stared a moment before asking, “Are you dead or one of those mediums I heard about?”
&nbs
p; “I’m a medium. My name is Danielle Marlow. And I need your help.”
“You want to know who plans to kill you.”
“It would be nice. I’m not ready to move over to your side,” she said.
“I wasn’t ready.”
“How did you die?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. But I think Beau murdered me.”
Danielle frowned. Beau, it was a name she rarely heard. But how many times had she heard it in the last couple of days? There was Adam’s client, Beau. Two Beaus whom Walt based characters on, now a Beau who might have killed Wilbur. “Beau who?”
“Does it really matter? It won’t bring me back.”
“If you don’t want to discuss your death, can you at least help prevent mine?” she asked.
“How can I do that?”
“One way, you could come home with me, stay a couple of days. We’re having a party, and according to what you told Marie, the person you overheard will be there. You could point out who it is.”
He studied her for a moment. Finally, he said, “If you help me first.”
“Help you how?” Danielle asked.
“I lost something the other day, when I first got here. I put it right over there.” He pointed to a pile of rocks along the ocean.
“What did you lose?”
“It was a large gunnysack,” he explained.
“A…a gunnysack?” Danielle squeaked.
“Yes. Did you see it?”
“Those were your bones?” she blurted. He vanished.
“No, come back!” Danielle looked around. He was nowhere in sight. “Why did I have to say that?”
She stood on the beach for over five minutes, waiting for him to return. When he didn’t, she continued on to Pier Café.
When Danielle stepped into Pier Café, she wasn’t surprised to find all the tables and booths taken. The town was full up for the Fourth. Fortunately, there were several empty seats at the counter. She quickly claimed one.