by Bobbi Holmes
Polly reached for his side of the bed. It was empty. Turning her head to the right, she looked at the empty spot where Teddy should be.
Now holding her head, she forced herself to sit up in bed. She groaned again. The room began to spin. She was still a little drunk. Yep, I’m never going to hear the end of this from Teddy, she thought.
When she finally stumbled out of bed, she glanced at the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand. It was almost time to go downstairs for breakfast. The thought of food made her queasy again. She noticed the clothes Teddy had laid out for the day—something he did religiously before going to bed at night—were still folded on the chair. She didn’t see his robe hanging on the hook. He must be in the bathroom, she thought.
She also needed to go to the bathroom and splash some water on her face. Luckily for Jackie and Julius, they had gotten one of the two guest rooms with a bathroom. Birdie had gotten the other one. Polly had to use one of the two other bathrooms on the second floor.
Before leaving the bedroom, she glanced down and noticed she was still wearing the dress from the night before. “Wow, I really was drunk,” she muttered to herself.
Standing in the middle of the room, she stripped off her dress and then her underwear. She kicked them out of her way and then stumbled across the room nude, looking for her robe.
Exhausted by the search, she plopped down on the edge of the mattress. Now cold, she pulled the top blanket to her, wrapping it around her nude body. She looked over to a mirror hanging on the wall and caught a glimpse of herself. The way her short dark hair stuck up spiky in all directions, one might wonder if she had stuck her finger in a light socket.
Her head spinning again, she let out a loud burp and then looked back to the mirror. She thought about the dream again. She never remembered her dreams, at least not this clearly. She had pushed him down the stairs then shoved him in the tunnel opening. Such a vivid dream. It felt so real.
Twenty-Six
The rooms on the second floor were all empty—Polly was alone. Considering the time, she was fairly certain they had started breakfast without her, and she assumed the reason no one had come up to remind her was because Teddy probably told them she was still sleeping. Or dead drunk. Either way, she knew Teddy was going to be pissy with her when she finally got her crap together and went downstairs.
She hadn’t showered the night before, so she figured she’d better do it now. It would make her feel better. By the time she was showered, dressed and no longer feeling like a zombie, she decided to head downstairs. First she returned to her room to pick up her cellphone, but then she noticed the battery was almost dead. She had forgotten to charge it the night before. Polly walked over to the desk to plug her phone in when she noticed Teddy’s on the charger. It wasn’t like Teddy to leave his phone behind. She looked at the cellphone and noted it was fully charged. Unplugging it, she plugged her phone in and slipped his in her sweater pocket. He’d probably want it.
A few minutes later she headed out of the room, first giving herself one final look in the mirror. Her hair was no longer sticking up in all directions. She smiled at the reflection. “Human again,” she told herself.
As she reached the staircase, she heard voices coming from the first floor. She started down the stairs, one hand holding onto the oak rail. Once she reached the first-floor landing, she noticed Danielle with a police officer. When they heard her, they turned and looked her way.
“I was just coming up to get you,” Danielle said in a solemn voice.
“Sorry I missed breakfast. I overslept.” Polly smiled, walking toward Danielle.
“Is Teddy on his way down?” Danielle asked.
“Teddy?” Polly frowned. She stood about six feet from Danielle and the police officer.
“Is he still sleeping?” Danielle asked.
Polly shrugged. “Teddy’s not upstairs. He’s down here.”
“Polly, this is my friend Police Chief MacDonald,” Danielle introduced. “Chief, this is Polly Larimore. She’s married to the director.”
“Ms. Larimore, could you please wait with the others in the living room?” MacDonald asked.
Polly frowned. “What’s going on?”
Danielle looked uneasily from Polly to the chief. “There has been an accident. Bentley. It appears he drowned.”
“What?” Polly gasped.
“Please, we’ll be right in the living room to talk to you all,” the chief said.
A few minutes later Polly walked into the living room and found the rest of her party sitting in the room, along with Danielle’s neighbor Heather, whom she had met at the Glandon Foundation offices. The only person not in the room was her husband.
She looked around at the sad and confused faces.
“Where’s Teddy?” Jackie called out. Polly looked at the woman and noticed her red-rimmed eyes. She had obviously been crying.
“I assumed he was down here,” Polly said. “What happened?”
“He’s dead…Bentley is dead…” Jackie began to sob again. Julius, who sat by her side on the sofa, wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer.
“We found Bentley’s body when we were jogging,” Seraphina explained from where she stood by the fireplace, wringing her hands.
“I don’t understand,” Polly said. “Why would he be swimming in this weather?”
“He didn’t drown,” Heather scoffed.
“That’s what Danielle told me,” Polly said.
Heather rolled her eyes. “They don’t know what the cause of death is. They won’t know until they have an autopsy.”
“You need to get Teddy here,” Jackie demanded.
“Was he at breakfast?” Polly asked.
“We haven’t had breakfast,” Julius explained. “Seraphina and Heather found the body when they were jogging, and they called the police. Since then we’ve been in here, waiting.”
“They were getting ready to send one of us upstairs to get you and Teddy. I went up earlier, but you were in the shower. I, um…assumed you were both in the shower, since he wasn’t in his room or down here,” Julius explained.
“If he’s not with you, then where is he?” Jackie asked.
Polly shrugged. “I have no idea.” A wave of panic hit Polly. She remembered the dream again. No, she told herself, it was just a dream.
Annoyed, Jackie snatched her cellphone off the coffee table and called Teddy. A phone in Polly’s pocket began to ring. Polly removed the phone and looked at it. Jackie hung up the call. The phone stopped ringing.
“Why do you have Teddy’s phone?” Jackie asked.
“He left it on his charger,” Polly explained. “I brought it downstairs for him.”
“He probably went out for a walk,” Birdie suggested.
“Without his phone?” Jackie asked.
Birdie frowned to Jackie. “I don’t imagine he thought anyone would call him this early. You certainly don’t think Teddy had anything to do with Bentley’s death, do you?”
“Mrs. Larimore, do you know where your husband is?” Police Chief MacDonald asked from the open doorway.
Walt stood quietly by the back wall of the living room, observing his guests. Eva and Marie had just materialized by his side. He listened as the others in the room questioned Teddy’s whereabouts, and when—and why—Bentley had left the house the night before—assuming it had been last night and not early this morning.
“We looked everywhere,” Marie told Walt. “Perhaps his spirit has moved on.”
Walt gave Marie a silent nod and continued to watch and listen to the roomful of people.
“At least they found his body,” Eva said. “So Marie might be right. He could have moved on. No reason to stick around now that his body has been recovered.”
“What was he doing swimming at that time of night?” Marie asked. “And in his underwear?”
“Perhaps he didn’t have a pair of swim trunks with him,” Eva suggested.
“But it is freezin
g out there,” Marie said.
“Maybe that’s why they found him wrapped in a blanket,” Eva suggested, knowing full well that wasn’t the case.
“Oh pshaw, I heard Joe say that blanket looked like it had been bouncing around in the ocean for days, not one night. His body just happened to get wrapped up in it,” Marie said.
“Oh, I know, I was just teasing,” Eva said.
“Not a good time to tease. A poor man is dead!” Marie scolded.
“So? We’re dead.”
“True. But we’re old.”
“Speak for yourself,” Eva snapped. “I was younger than that man they found today when I died.”
“Goodness, Eva, that was a hundred years ago. You really need to get over it, dear.”
Walt cleared his throat, wanting to get the ghosts to stop chatting nonsensically so he could hear what was being said. Getting the message, Eva and Marie went silent.
“I wonder where Teddy went,” Walt said aloud. To the others in the room—those who were alive—they would assume he was talking to himself. To Eva and Marie, they understood exactly.
“We’ll see if we can find him,” Eva said.
“You don’t think that young man’s death is foul play, do you?” Marie gasped.
“If it was just one dead body, perhaps. But two?” Eva said.
Walt cleared his throat again.
“Walt, you don’t have to nag us,” Eva said before disappearing. The next moment, Marie vanished.
Polly sat in the parlor on the sofa. Her hands fidgeted nervously on her lap as she looked across to the police chief, who had just sat down in the chair facing her, a notepad in his hand. She was the first one to be questioned.
“Where is your husband?” the chief asked.
“I really don’t know,” Polly told him. The moment the words left her mouth her stomach churned. The dream. It flashed in her head. Her pushing Teddy down the stairs. Dragging him toward the tunnel. Using her feet to shove him into the dark opening. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Get those thoughts out of your head, she told herself. Nothing happened. It was just a dream.
“Mrs. Larimore? Are you alright?”
Polly’s eyes flew open, and she looked into the chief’s inquiring gaze. She shook her head nervously. “I…well, to be honest, I had too much to drink last night. That’s why I overslept this morning. And…well…I don’t really remember much about last night. At least, the last half of the evening. When I woke up this morning, Teddy was already gone.”
“Do you remember going to bed with him last night?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Sorry. I don’t even remember going to bed myself. I did something really stupid last night. I had some gin, after several glasses of wine. I really shouldn’t drink gin. Especially after wine. But even on its own, well, like Teddy says, gin makes me stupid. Fact is, I tend to forget things after I drink gin.”
“What’s the last thing you remember about last night?” he asked.
She frowned. “I thought Danielle said Bentley drowned. I’m not sure what any of that has to do with Teddy.”
“We just want to interview everyone staying here.”
“Teddy probably walked down to the pier this morning to get a cup of coffee at that diner,” she suggested. “I bet if you go down there, you’ll find him.”
“They’ve already checked the pier and diner,” the chief explained. “Your husband wasn’t there, and no one remembered seeing him.”
“You don’t really think Teddy has anything to do with Bentley drowning? I don’t know why he would. Heck, Teddy doesn’t even like swimming in the ocean.”
“Mrs. Larimore, we are simply trying to figure out what happened to Mr. Mason. And we need to start by questioning everyone staying at Marlow House. We can’t do that if we can’t find your husband.”
“I imagine Teddy will be back soon enough. You can question him then.” Her stomach churned again. Would he really be back? Why is the dream even more vivid now than when I woke up this morning? she asked herself.
“I suppose we’ll have to wait to question your husband when he gets back. So I will go ahead with your questions.”
“My questions? I don’t know anything about Bentley’s accident.”
“Tell me, what is the last thing you remember from last night?” he asked.
Polly considered the question a moment and then took a deep breath before answering, “I was sitting on the sofa, talking to Bentley. Drinking wine. And…ummm…well, he went to get another drink, asked me if I wanted anything. That’s when I switched to gin. He brought me the gin, sat down with me; we talked a while. Then I remember I got up to use the bathroom—that’s about all. I don’t really remember anything after that.”
“Do you remember what you were talking about?” he asked.
Polly remembered her conversation with Bentley. She also remembered thinking about killing her husband. And then…she shook her head and said, “No. Everything is a blank.”
Twenty-Seven
Their guests had all gone into the dining room to have breakfast. However, by now, it was time for lunch. Joanne was in there with them while Walt and Danielle stood on Marlow House’s front porch, talking to Chief MacDonald, who was preparing to leave.
“According to the coroner, it looks like a drowning,” the chief told him. “But we’ll know more after we get the blood tests back. I suspect we’ll find he’d had too much to drink and then got the crazy idea for a late night swim.”
“He didn’t seem drunk when we went to bed,” Danielle told him.
“Did Mrs. Larimore seem drunk last night?” the chief asked.
Danielle frowned. “Polly?”
“Why do you ask that?” Walt asked.
“According to Mrs. Larimore, she had too much to drink last night and can’t remember the latter part of the evening, such as going up to bed.”
“Really? Wow, she does a good job of hiding it,” Danielle said.
“Are you sure it wasn’t foul play?” Walt asked.
“I never said that. I just said the coroner felt it was a drowning.”
“No suspicious body wounds? No one hit him over the head, shot him or stabbed him. Nothing obvious like that?” Danielle asked.
The chief shook his head. “No.”
“Except for the fact he’s our second dead body this week,” Walt said.
“Correction, your second ghost,” the chief reminded him. “We’re still looking for that other body.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” a voice declared. The chief didn’t hear the words, but Walt and Danielle did. They turned abruptly and found themselves looking at the two ghosts they had seen earlier—the one who had warned them about the possible murders and the one Danielle had seen looking into the kitchen window.
“He was murdered?” Danielle asked the ghosts.
“Are Eva and Marie here?” MacDonald asked.
Danielle shook her head and continued to stare at the ghosts, waiting for one to answer.
“Bentley was murdered,” the second ghost announced. He looked to his companion and said, “You could have saved them a lot of trouble and maybe Bentley’s life if you had told them everything up front.”
“You know why I can’t do that,” the first ghost argued.
Frustrated, Danielle blurted, “Who murdered Bentley?”
Startled by her outburst, the two ghosts looked to Danielle and vanished.
“You scared them away,” Walt said.
“Bentley was murdered?” the chief asked.
“According to the ghosts,” Walt said.
“Ghosts? More than one?” MacDonald asked.
“Yes…” Danielle rubbed her forehead with the back of her right hand. Her head was beginning to throb.
“Who killed him? How? Why?” the chief asked.
“We don’t know. The ghosts were here one minute and just vanished. But they did say Bentley was murdered,” Walt explained.
“Exactl
y what ghost or ghosts?” MacDonald demanded. “Mason’s? Phoebe’s?”
“No. I don’t know whose ghosts they are. I just know there are far too many of them hanging around Marlow House,” Danielle said.
After saying goodbye to the chief fifteen minutes later, Walt and Danielle went back inside and shut the front door. They could hear voices drifting out from the dining room.
“You want to get something to eat?” Walt asked.
Danielle shook her head. “I’m not hungry. Two people staying with us have died—we have no idea why, and we can’t even find one of them.”
Their conversation was interrupted when Teddy came walking in the foyer from the direction of the kitchen.
“Teddy, where have you been?” Danielle asked.
Teddy came to an abrupt stop and looked from Danielle to Walt. “I…I went for a walk, I guess. Got lost. Kinda freaked me out, if you want to know the truth. Where’s Polly?”
“She’s in the dining room with the rest,” Danielle said. “Umm…I don’t guess you know what happened?”
Teddy looked at Danielle and shrugged. “What do you mean?”
“There has been an accident. It’s Bentley,” Walt told him.
“Something happened to Bentley?” Teddy asked.
“He’s dead,” Danielle told him, not wanting to draw out the bad news.
Teddy frowned. “Dead? How?”
“It looks like he drowned,” Walt said. “They found his body washed up on the beach this morning.”
“Drowned? How did that happen?”
“We don’t know. Seraphina and our neighbor Heather went jogging this morning, and they found his body. But they’ll be running some blood tests, so hopefully we’ll find out what happened,” Danielle explained.