What Are the Odds

by Marja McGraw

  Frank chuckled. “We’ve learned over the past few years that the desert winds are unpredictable. The calm disappears in a flash and the winds attack with gusto. Come on, we’ll go around and sit in the garage. I’ll get a lantern and some coffee for us.”

  I followed him to the garage and pulled a chair over to sit on while he disappeared into the motorhome. Bubba stood by the open garage door for a moment, and finally dropped to the floor, ready for a nap.

  “Dumb dog. You woke me up and now you’re going to sleep?”

  A soft snore was his only reply. It sure didn’t take him long to drop off.

  The wind picked up even more. While I waited for Frank, I decided to explore the garage a little. With flashlight in hand, I shined it around the walls. I saw a box had fallen off a pile, so helpful little stepdaughter that I am, I worked my way between pieces of furniture to replace it.

  I set the flashlight on top of a container and pushed the box back onto the pile. I knew it had to contain something heavy because it had knocked a hole in the wall. Curious, I picked up the light and shined it on the hole.

  “Uh oh.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The hole in the garage wall was at eye level, and when I lifted the flashlight I could see something behind the wall. I carefully studied the edges, making sure there weren’t any spiders or other bugs. Not seeing any black widows, I leaned forward and shined the flashlight through the hole.

  You could have knocked me over with a feather. I could see stairs, and they’d been walled off.

  “Sandi?”

  I jumped. “Frank, you’re as bad as my mother. You scared me.”

  He laughed. “Sorry. What’re you looking at?” He set down two coffee mugs and carried his lantern closer.

  “One of the boxes fell and knocked a hole in the wall. Come look at this. You’re not going to believe what I found.”

  He squeezed between the furniture and boxes and stood at my side. Bending, he was a lot taller than me, he peered through the hole. “Well, I’ll be a son-of-a-gun. Stairs.” He glanced upward, but our view was blocked. “I wonder where those lead to. And why did they close off the stairs?”

  “This house has surprises at every turn. You know my mother is going to figure there’s a body at the top of the stairs, don’t you?”

  “You’re probably right.” He sounded resigned. “I have a feeling part of the reason your mother wanted this house was because of its history. Thanks to you,” he said, looking directly into my eyes, “she sees mysteries everywhere.”

  I shrugged, uncomfortable about encouraging her. Well, in all fairness, I never truly encouraged her. However, she sometimes had an almost unnatural interest in my cases.

  “I think I may cover this over for now. I can stack boxes in front of it. If your mother sees it she’ll want me to knock out the wall so she can follow the stairs.”

  I shrugged again and smiled at him. “That might not be a bad idea.”

  “I’m glad she was still asleep when you found this.”

  “You’re glad who was asleep when you found what?” My mother’s voice carried across the garage, and she sounded sleepy, but very curious.

  I grinned. “Can’t keep anything from her,” I said softly.

  “I just can’t seem to get a break.” Frank waved at my mother.

  “Well? What did you find?” She was tenacious, I’d give her that.

  “Just a minute, Mom. There’s not much room back here. Let me squeeze out and you can take my place.”

  Frank poked my arm like I’d said too much and I laughed.

  Whatever you didn’t want my mother to overhear, she’d hear. Whatever you didn’t want her to see, she’d find. She was an enigma.

  She took another of Frank’s lanterns even though I held up my flashlight.

  I worked my way out of the corner and barely got out of her way before she was following the trail I’d made into the corner.

  The wind whistled through the garage. There were plenty of nooks and crannies that needed to be sealed. Wood shrinks, glass cracks, and they both leave open spaces for the wind to travel through.

  “Sandi! Did you see this?” She sounded excited, incredulous, and all sounds of sleepiness were gone.

  “Yes, Mom, I saw it.” Of course I’d seen it. I found it.

  “How much do you want to bet there’s a body at the top of the stairs?”

  Frank started to laugh and I joined him.

  Mother had a one-track mind.

  Frank worked his way past her and back to the front of the garage, sitting on a chair next to me. “Do I know my wife or what?”

  “You’re a quick study. After only a few years of marriage you know exactly how she’s going to react to any given situation.” I took a sip of my now cold coffee. “Ick. I’m going to go heat this in the microwave in the motorhome. Do you want me to heat yours, too?”

  “Please.” He held out his mug.

  “Back in a minute.”

  Bubba snorted in his sleep when I walked past him.

  The wind whipped my hair in my face, half blinding me, and I hung on to the mugs tightly. I was amazed at how quickly the wind was picking up.

  I brought back a cup of coffee for my mother, too. She was sitting in my vacated chair and reached for the mug.

  “Thank you, sweetie.” She’d set her lantern on top of some boxes.

  “What a way for the morning to start,” I said, handing Frank his mug and pulling up a third chair.

  “Yeah, this is the house that just keeps giving.” He didn’t actually sound too happy. “Your mother wants me to take out the wall.”

  I understood his lack of enthusiasm all too well.

  “Gosh, I’m surprised.” My sarcasm wasn’t lost on my mother.

  “Now, Sandra, you know there has to be a reason for those stairs to be there.”

  I hated it when she used my given name. In this case I knew it was because she didn’t like my smart aleck attitude.

  I tried to smooth things over. “It could be as simple as the builders needing temporary stairs while they worked on other things, or maybe they started something there and then the owners changed their minds. I’m sure there’s no body at the top of the stairs.”

  “Weeellll… You never know about these things. Maybe there’s a skeleton.” I could almost hear the wheels spinning in her head. She sounded too hopeful and looked too serious.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but thankfully I was interrupted before I could say a word.

  “Here’s where you are.” Pete stepped into the garage, looking groggy and rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. “I woke up and you were gone. I waited for you to come back, but you never did.”

  I handed him my coffee. “Have some of this. It might wake you up. Bubba had to go out and while we were in front, Frank showed up. I knew I’d never get back to sleep so we came to the garage.”

  “And wait until you see what we found.” Mother looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. She was so proud of our discovery. “This really is a mystery house.”

  I glanced at my watch when I realized the horizon wasn’t as dark as it had been. Had I really been up for two hours? It was going on six o’clock.

  “What’d you find?” Pete took a big swig of coffee and made a face. “It’s cold.”

  “Must be the wind cooling things off,” I said. “I’ll get you some fresh.”

  Mother pointed toward the back of the garage and handed Pete my flashlight, which I’d set on the boxes next to the lanterns. I saw him heading that way before I left to get him something to drink.

  “Wait for me.” My mother followed in my tracks. “I’ll put on a fresh pot of coffee. It won’t be long until Stanley and Felicity are up, too.”

  I glanced up at the sky. “Now that the sun is coming up, I can see a storm is moving in. Look how black those clouds are.”

  Mother glanced up and nodded. “We may be working inside all day today, from the looks of it.”
/>
  “You don’t really believe there’s a body at the top of the stairs, right?” Whether or not she really believed there were hidden bodies around the house was becoming a common question.

  “No, dear, but I would like to know where the stairs go. Really, don’t you think it’s kind of odd that there are stairs hidden behind the wall?”

  “There could be any number of reasons for them. Although, I have to admit, I’m curious, too. I don’t think we should make Frank tear down the wall though.”

  “Well, how else will we find answers?”

  “Answers to what?” I asked.

  “Answers to what’s up there, of course.”

  “Oh. Do we have to find out? We need to work on this house. Don’t forget, we’ll be leaving in a few days.”

  “You’d leave your mother in the midst of chaos? With questions that need to be answered?”

  “In a heartbeat.” Guilt trips didn’t always work on me. “Besides, what are the odds that we’ll find anything of interest up there?”

  Returning to the garage, we found Pete and Frank standing in the back of the garage talking and pointing at the hole in the wall.

  “And she actually said she wonders if there’s a body up there?” Pete sounded dubious.

  Frank nodded.

  I cleared my throat.

  My mother did the same.

  And Pete looked sheepish.

  Chapter Eighteen

  We finally sat with cups of hot coffee, relaxing and talking about our plans for the day. Pete frequently glanced at my mother to see if she might be miffed at him, but she was fine.

  Felicity and Stanley joined us before too long. While we told them about our morning, my mother brought out more hot coffee.

  “I want to see the stairs. This is turning out to be the most interesting house I’ve ever seen.” Felicity’s eyes searched the garage, looking for any other anomalies.

  “Now, my little button nose, why don’t we drink our coffee first.” Stanley tapped Felicity’s mug.

  Pete couldn’t take it anymore. “If you two don’t stop with the cutesy names, I’m going to… I don’t know what, but I’ll do something. You’re driving me nuts.”

  Stanley and Felicity looked at each other and started to laugh.

  Stanley spoke first. “That was the idea, to drive everyone crazy.” He grinned. “And it seems to be working.”

  “Why would you do that?” Pete asked.

  Stanley’s grin widened. “Just a lark. Will you ever forget Mr. and Mrs. Hawks’ wedding day? Well, I guess it’s turning into a wedding week, isn’t it?”

  Pete gave Stanley a look I couldn’t read. “How could I ever forget our wedding day? The minister dropped dead after pronouncing us man and wife, and man and wife.”

  “So we’re just adding a little color to an already colorful day.”

  I watched Pete and Stanley for a moment. “Personally, I think it’s kind of cute, as long as it doesn’t last for the rest of your marriage.”

  “Me, too,” my mother said.

  Felicity glanced at Stanley. “What do you think, lovey, should we stop?”

  Stanley, still grinning, shook his head. “No, Mrs. Hawks, let’s keep it going for a while. I’m having fun.”

  That effectively ended the conversation.

  “Now show me the staircase,” Felicity said.

  I picked up the lantern and motioned for her to follow me. A lantern would make the stairs and the hole in the wall just a bit more mysterious than my flashlight.

  “It’s amazing to think you even found these stairs.” She took the lantern from me and gazed into the hole in the wall, seemingly studying what she saw.

  “What do you think?” Stanley called from the front of the garage.

  “I don’t know what to think.” Felicity’s voice echoed through the garage. “They’re not regular stairs like the ones inside the house. They’re more like planks nailed to a frame. Very rustic. Either the builder used them for something or someone put them together in a hurry to use for who knows what? I think we should see where they lead.”

  “You’ll have to talk to Frank about that,” I said. “He may not want to tear into the wall. I doubt if I would.”

  “But you’re a P.I. It seems to me you should be dying to see what’s up there.”

  “Oh, come now. You’re not thinking there’s a body up there, too, are you?”

  “Who else thinks that?”

  “My mother. Who else?”

  Felicity turned and glanced at my mother, who was busily trying to look as innocent as a newborn baby. “Of course. Why did I even ask?”

  I took the lantern from Fel and suggested we move back to the group. “I don’t want you to encourage my mother and her fantasies.”

  She nodded and we moved away from the hole in the wall.

  Although I hadn’t heard the vehicle, I saw lights as a truck turned in and parked just outside the garage. It was the electrician, and the plumber pulled in right behind him. They exited the trucks and approached the garage when they saw us sitting and talking.

  “Mornin’.” The electrician ran his fingers through his windblown hair. “I’m going to take care of the initial hookups, and then I’m outta here. Big storm coming this way. You won’t get rain out here very often, but when you do it’ll be a gully washer. Since all the roads around here are dirt, it’s gonna be a mess. I’ll be back tomorrow though. Yep, it’s gonna be one big ass mess.”

  The plumber joined us.

  “Do the roads really get that bad?” My mother stood and approached the electrician.

  Before he could reply, lightning split the sky and thunder boomed.

  Bubba’s head jerked up, but he didn’t bother to move from his spot.

  The electrician glanced up at the sky and tipped his head, smiling. “Yes, ma’am. You’re gonna wanna keep the food well-stocked when storms move in. Well, you’ve got those big walk-in pantries anyway. I have a feeling you’re gonna get a taste of a big storm today. You’ll probably wanna work inside all day.”

  The plumber followed suit and glanced skyward. “I’ll get some running water for you, but you won’t have it in the whole house yet. I can get things working in the little apartment, but that’ll have to do for now. And I’ll be back tomorrow to finish up the job. Like John said, you’re roads are going to be like a running river.” He chuckled and returned to his truck, shaking his head.

  What had my mother and Frank gotten into, living so far out of town with nothing but dirt roads? Oh, well, other people lived out here and dealt with the weather.

  “Works for me,” my mother said. “I can use today to work inside, and maybe I’ll do a little exploring, too.”

  “At least we won’t have to worry about snakes.” Stanley smiled, looking relieved.

  “Maybe we can work inside the stable,” Pete suggested.

  “Good idea.” Frank looked thoughtful.

  My mother turned to him. “Honey, maybe Sandi and Felicity and I could pull down the wall – ”

  He put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a very serious look. “No pulling down the wall today. No breaking of the cement slab in the backyard. And no knocking out the block wall in the basement. Today we work on the house. Understand?"

  My mother had a look of surprise on her face and nodded, not saying a word.

  Frank motioned to Pete and Stanley to follow him. “Come on. Let’s take a look at the stable and see how bad it is.” He turned to my mother with a pointed look on his face. “With any luck the women will fix breakfast while we’re gone.”

  “Yes, dear.” My mother spoke softly.

  The three men walked out with the electrician, leaving us standing in the garage.

  Mom smiled, watching them walk away. “He’s not forceful very often, but once in a while it’s kind of nice. Let’s start breakfast.” She glanced at the sky. “I think we’d better cook inside the motorhome this morning.”

  Right on cue there was
another boom of thunder, and on its heels came a downpour. The electrician and plumber ran for the house while our husbands – how I love calling Pete my husband – took off for the stable.

  My mother picked up a sheet of plastic from some furniture it covered and pulled it over her head, motioning Fel and me to join her. We did, and we ran like the wind to the motorhome.

  An hour later we’d eaten breakfast and cleaned up the dishes. While we were eating, the electrician and the plumber had done their magic and there was hot water in the little apartment. I cleaned the shower as much as I could under the circumstances, let the water run for a few minutes in case there was any rust, and we each took very quick showers so we could get to work. It seemed to leave everyone feeling refreshed. Of course, my mother and Frank had used the shower in the motorhome.

  The workers left and our husbands returned to the stable. We three women finished sweeping and washing the floors in the two remaining bedrooms, hoping to be able to start painting.

  “You know, this house is kind of creepy right now,” Felicity said.

  “You’re right.” I couldn’t help but agree with her.

  “It’s just the wind blowing through the place,” my mother explained. She held up her hand indicating we should be quiet. “Listen. You can hear the wind whistling through the cracks and crevices. I mean, it’s actually whistling.”

  “Like in a haunted house,” Felicity said. She whistled a scary theme song from a scary old television show. I recognized the tune, but I couldn’t remember what show it was from.

  “All we need now is a creaking door.” My mother turned and leaped in our direction. “Booooo!”

  Felicity jumped and rubbed her arms.

  I didn’t react. I was beginning to expect the unexpected from my mother.

  She looked disappointed, and somehow I knew she’d try harder to scare me in the future. She just cracked me up sometimes. I’d have to scare her before she could scare me. We were turning it into a game, which I guess is kind of nuts, but to each his own.

  Chapter Nineteen