What Are the Odds

by Marja McGraw

  Mother looked thoughtful. “Perhaps she did. I think I’ll just wander down there with you.”

  I smiled. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  “Where’s my wife?” Stanley asked.

  “She’s sitting at the table in the apartment kitchen making a list of things we talked about doing while you’re all here. I went outside to walk and stretch my legs a little.”

  He nodded and walked toward the stairs that led to the apartment. “I’ll see you in the basement in a few minutes.”

  We waved and headed for the door to the basement. Descending the stairs quickly, we began searching for a sign from the elusive woman.

  “Mom, now that Stan’s seen Blondie, you want in on the action, too, don’t you?” He’d been with me when we found the photo and he’d finally seen the woman. I knew that would drive her nuts. She wanted to be a part of it.

  “Well…” She was hesitant. I figured she didn’t want to admit how she felt.

  “Come on,” I wheedled. “You can be honest about it.”

  She stopped walking and looked me in the eye. “Okay. Yes, I want to be a part of all of this. Obviously something isn’t right. Since we’re going to be living here, I want to know what’s going on. What if, after you all leave, I begin seeing this woman around every corner? I could develop a bad case of nerves.”

  “You?” I laughed. “You’d probably find a way to scare her off. Hey! That’s not a bad idea. We keep trying to scare each other when maybe we should be trying to scare her.”

  “Sandra, how can we frighten her if we never know when she’ll show up?”

  “Good point.” I started walking again. “Come on. Let’s see if she left anything behind.”

  I still held the flashlight so I began shining it in the corners, hoping to find something. “When is the electrician coming back? We could sure use some lights down here.”

  “He’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, I know some of the lights are working.” She flipped a switch on the wall and a dim light came on in a ceiling light with fixtures for four lights. “Well, I guess that was a duh moment, wasn’t it? Why didn’t we just try the switch to begin with?”

  “I guess we weren’t expecting it to work. You’re right. We’ve had a few duh moments around here.”

  “I’ll find more light bulbs.” She looked around the basement. “I don’t see anything to stand on, so I’ll bring back a ladder, too.”

  “You get the bulbs and I’ll bring in a ladder from the garage.”

  “That’s where the bulbs are,” she said. “Follow me.”

  We traipsed up the short staircase and into the garage, which was only at a little higher level than the basement. It seemed like the whole house was made up of levels.

  My mother knew exactly where she’d left the bulbs and she found three sixty watt lights.

  I had to search for a ladder. They’d brought three, and one was in the house with the second set up in the barn. The third one rested behind some boxes.

  “Look at this,” I said. “It seems Frank moved some boxes in front of the hole in the wall. What are the odds he thought you’d forget about the hidden staircase?”

  She started to laugh. “Oh, that Frank! You’re probably right, but honestly, I didn’t forget about it. I’m still going to talk him into opening the wall so we can see where the stairs lead. Who knows? Maybe we can put them to use if they lead somewhere interesting.”

  “Uh huh. You’d make him tear out a wall? I’m sure they’re probably just something the builder used temporarily.”

  “Hmm. You’re most likely right. Maybe I’ll let it go. I’ll think about it.”

  We carted the bulbs and ladder down to the basement and I replaced the lights as she handed them to me.

  “I’ll take the ladder back upstairs and we can get busy searching this place. I simply can’t imagine why she’d have sneaked into the house and ended up in the basement.”

  I was almost to the stairs when I tripped and dropped the ladder. “Oh, for crying out loud.” Glancing down I realized I’d tripped on a long crack in the cement flooring. I reached down to get another grip on the ladder when something caught my eye. I stooped down and examined the crack. Something sparkled.

  “What are you doing?” My mother walked over to join me.

  “There’s something here. Look.”

  Although I could see the sparkle, whatever it was had dirt covering it. I must have disturbed it when I dropped the ladder.

  “What’s that?”

  I shoved the ladder aside. “I don’t know.” I tried to pull whatever it was out of the crack, but it was stuck. “I’m going to need something to pry it out.”

  My mother glanced around the basement, realizing we didn’t have any tools to work with nearby. “Give me a minute. I know where there’s a screwdriver in the garage. Maybe we can pry it up. Do you think it’s something important?”

  “Probably not, but the way things have been going, I think it’s worth a look.”

  “Be right back.” She scampered up the stairs and returned within a couple of minutes with a small screwdriver, handing it to me.

  “Thanks.” I sat on the floor and began working.

  “I brought a small one.”

  “I see that.”

  She sighed. “What I mean is, it will probably fit better than a big one would.”

  “Of course.”

  I shoved the screwdriver into the crack and began trying to pry the object out. It was stuck tight and I had to struggle. After a couple of grunts, and when I least expected it, the object flew out of the crack and across the room with the screwdriver not far behind.

  My mother ran after the object and found it quickly. After picking it up, she rubbed it, apparently trying to get rid of the dirt.

  “Well, will you look at this!”

  She looked from the object in her hand to me and back again.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  “What is it?” I stood and walked over to my mother. What could have possibly been hiding in the crack in the cement floor?

  “A wedding ring, and I think it might match that engagement ring we found upstairs.” She turned the ring over in her hand and studied it.

  “Okay, this is weird. Why would there be an engagement ring upstairs under the molding, and a wedding ring down here in a crack?”

  “I think we have more mysteries than we could have anticipated.” Mother handed me the ring.

  “You’re right. We found an engagement ring upstairs, the wedding ring down here, and a gun in the bathroom. Somehow I think they’re all connected, but I can’t put it together. We’ve also got neighbors telling us stories about the people who lived here. Marion, from across the street, really didn’t like Harry.”

  My mother nodded. “I can see why, considering the way he treated her. Imagine how he treated his own family. It seems everyone around here noticed bruises on Francine’s and Barbara’s arms. It makes me wonder if there were bruises in places covered by their clothes.”

  “Yeah. Me, too. Something wasn’t right in this house and it involves more than just Clyde the Killer, as Marion likes to call him.”

  I had a feeling Zetta’s granddaughter knew more than she was telling. It was just a feeling with nothing concrete to base the thought on. “We need to start asking more questions.”

  “Whom do you think we should talk to?”

  “Marion, of course. She knows something. It’s only a gut feeling, but it’s a strong one. I think she’d like to tell us everything she knows, but something is holding her back. We need to, let’s say, encourage her to talk.”

  “What’re you going to do? Get out the rubber hose?”

  “Oh, Mom, sometimes you just crack me up. I left the rubber hose at home.”

  “Har de har har, Sandi. How are we going to get her to open up?”

  I looked at the floor and thought for a moment. “Maybe she wouldn’t tell everything because her grandparents were there. I’ve seen her tak
e walks down the road. If I happen to take a walk at the same time, she might talk to me. It’s worth a try. I’ll keep my eyes open for her.”

  “That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll go with you. Sometimes people will talk to a mother before they’ll talk to a private eye.”

  Looking into her eyes, I said, “You may be right. I could lag behind while the two of you talk.”

  “In the meantime, I think I hear the ATV. I guess the boys decided it was time to come home.” My mother headed through the kitchen and toward the Arizona room door.

  I followed. As it happens, as busy as we’d been, I still missed Pete. We sure weren’t acting like newlyweds. It was time to change a few things around the llama ranch. Instead of working with my mother and Felicity, I’d work beside Pete. Felicity could work with her husband for a while, doing his jobs. I’d mention my idea to the two men, and my mother.

  We headed for the ATV where Frank had parked it, next to the stable.

  “Mother, I think Pete and I should spend more time together, and – ”

  “Funny, but I was thinking the same thing. For two people who just got married, you’ve hardly seen each other at all. Do you want him to help you paint or do you want to work on the stable?”

  I started to laugh. “If I can talk him into painting, I’d be surprised. On the other hand, with his leg bothering him, maybe he’d rather do that for a while. I can’t picture Felicity and Stanley being much help with the stable though. Well, maybe Stanley, but Fel is so small and delicate.”

  “Tell you what. You and Pete paint and I’ll help outside. With Frank and the three of us we should be able to get a few things accomplished. Besides, we don’t have to work on the barn.”

  Before we could discuss it further, Pete climbed out of the ATV and walked toward us. He was grinning from ear to ear, although I did notice he was limping again. Maybe it had something to do with sitting for too long and the bumpy ride through the hills.

  He stopped in front of my mother. “That was an amazing ride. Frank is going to want to take more rides, Livvie, and he’ll want you to go with him. There’s so much to see.”

  “I’ve been out with him before, and you’re right. What was out there today? Snakes? Tarantulas? One-eyed mountain lions?”

  Pete chuckled. “We saw a snake, but the sound of the ATV made it slither away in a hurry. It was too far away to tell if it was a rattler. And we saw a couple of Big Horn sheep, along with a few wild burros. The vultures were circling something, but we didn’t bother to find out what it was. It was too far away. Oh, and we found an abandoned mine shaft.”

  “Did you go into the mine shaft?” I asked.

  “No. There’s no telling what condition it’s in. Frank’s going to ask Tyler if he knows anything about it.”

  “It sounds like you had a good time,” Livvie said.

  “We did. Bubba did, too. And don’t worry, Sandi, we kept an eye on him. There was plenty for him to sniff up in the hills. He really wanted to take out after the burros, but we kept him close to us.”

  I smiled, knowing he wouldn’t let my – our – mangy mutt get in trouble.

  “Mom and I have a plan, if you’re willing to go along with us.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Tomorrow why don’t you help me paint instead of working on the stable? We need to spend some time together, and so do Stanley and Felicity. Mom says she wants to work with Frank, too. What do you think?”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me. Are we going to do anything else today?”

  I glanced at my mother for an answer.

  “No,” she said. “We decided this would be a day off, and we’ll keep it that way.” She touched Pete’s arm before walking away from us to go talk to Frank.

  “It sounds like you really did have a good time.” In a way I was sorry I hadn’t gone with them. “Maybe before we go home you can take me for a ride?”

  “Sure, baby, we’ll do that. Did I miss anything around here?”

  “You bet your sweet patootie. There was another Blondie sighting, and this time Stanley saw her. Oh, and we checked out the upstairs bedroom because I thought I saw her up there when we came home last night. Whoever she is, she left an old photo of a woman with long blonde hair under the window. I think she was hoping we’d find it.”

  “You – ”

  “There’s more. Stanley and I went over to Tyler’s house. He borrowed some photo albums from his mother, and there was a picture of the same woman in the album. She was Barbara’s mother.”

  “And you think this is the same woman you’ve been seeing around here? I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”

  “I don’t. And I have no idea if it’s the same woman or not. I’ve never seen the face of my blonde. One other thing, Pete. I said Stanley saw her. She was sneaking into the house. We followed her inside and I saw the basement door was open, so I followed her. I was sure that’s where she’d gone. Anyway, she left by the door that leads to the garage before I could catch her.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes.”

  He looked surprised.

  “Mom and I decided to search the basement to see if she’d left anything behind, like another photo. To make a long story short, we found a wedding ring stuck in a crack in the cement. I think it matches the engagement ring we found in the living room.”

  “What engagement ring?” He crossed his arms across his chest, showing more interest.

  “We found the ring when we were cleaning the floors in the living room. It had been stuck behind the molding. I realize you probably think I overreact to things, but in this case I honestly believe we’ve stumbled on to a mystery. There’s something strange about this house, and its former occupants.”

  “I’m starting to believe you.”

  “You didn’t before?”

  “Not really. I figured your imagination was working overtime.”

  “It figures.”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed, making a quiet statement.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Pete and I wandered over to my mother and Frank to talk about switching jobs. She’d already told him, and he was fine with the plan.

  Felicity and Stanley soon joined us and we explained it to them.

  “Works for me,” Felicity said. “How about you, puddin’ pop?” She looked up into Stanley’s eyes and grinned.

  “I have no issue with this, snookums, except maybe it would be too difficult for you. You’re quite small, you know.”

  “Believe me, punkin’, I know my size and I’m a lot stronger than I look.” Her grin disappeared and she sounded tense.

  Stanley backpedaled before she could say more. “Now, you little munchkin, I know you can do it. I thought maybe – ”

  “End of story, sugar lump.”

  Bubba glanced back and forth, from one to the other, almost like he was at a tennis match. It must have been their tone of voice.

  Pete looked Stanley in the eyes. “Good. I don’t know how much more I could have taken with the cutesy names.”

  “Oh, you know you really like the way we talk, hunkie man,” Fel said.

  “Okay, I can live with that one.” It was my husband’s turn to grin.

  “Hunkie man? I’ll have to file that one away in my memory bank for when I need a favor.” I poked Pete’s arm.

  “Uh huh.”

  Frank glanced at his watch. “It’s later than I realized. Maybe we should start thinking about dinner. Today has flown by.”

  Mother patted his arm. “Yes, dear, we’ll start putting something together right now. Come along, girls.” She waved at Felicity and me, motioning us to follow her.

  We fell in step with her and strolled to the house.

  “I think they should fix dinner once in a while, but what do I know?” I asked.

  Mom looked over her shoulder and smiled at me. “We’ll have them barbeque something soon.”

  She’d bought some thinly sliced roast beef from the gro
cery store deli when we were in town the night before along with macaroni salad and hamburger buns. She had barbeque sauce in the refrigerator so she tore the beef into pieces placed it in a pot and added the sauce.

  While she did that I set up the little outdoor cook stove, making it ready to heat the meat.

  Felicity put butter on the hamburger buns and toasted them in the tiny little oven.

  Mother put the pot on top of the stove and I opened some pork and beans and started those heating, too.

  Felicity sat down at the table. “Come sit down, Livvie. This is turning out to be an easy peasy dinner.”

  “I know. I didn’t really need the two of you to help me get dinner ready, but I thought Sandi and I should fill you in on what we’ve found.”

  Fel sat up straighter, looking expectant. “What’s going on?”

  We told her about our afternoon and the wedding ring. She leaned her elbows on the table, looking interested in hearing more.

  “My, my. You’ve had a busy day for what we decided would be a day off. Stan told me about the picture you found and going over to Tyler’s house. So you think your blonde is the woman in the picture?”

  “Not unless she’s risen from the dead. No, there’s something else going on here,” I said. “Whatever it is eludes me and I need everyone’s help to figure this out. Pete seems more interested now that I’ve told him about our day. If we’re all on alert, I think we’ll catch her.”

  “Yeah, Sandi’s bringing the rubber hose to talk to Marion from across the street. Maybe she’ll use it on the blonde, too.”

  “You’re a riot, Mother.”

  Felicity snickered.

  “Look. I want to catch this woman and find out what she’s up to. It’s obvious, at least to me, that she wants something from me. She’s been so careful not to let anyone else see her. She might have gotten away with it if she’d realized Stan and I were sitting out by the motorhome, but I don’t think she saw us.”

  “She’s a sneaky little thing.” My mother stood and walked to the cook stove to stir the meat and beans.