2 The Ghosts Upstairs

by SUE FINEMAN

  Kayla was still sound asleep, her hair spread over the pillow. She looked so sweet he wanted to make love to her again, but she needed her sleep.

  Leaving her in the warm bed, he dressed and let the dog out. He started the coffee and unlocked the front door for Trevor, who had just driven up.

  “Morning,” said Trevor.

  “Morning. Coffee’s on. We’ll have breakfast when Kayla wakes up.”

  “Okay. Which room are we working on today?”

  “Living room. It’s a big room, but there’s not a lot of wall space.”

  Trevor walked into the living room. “Beautiful crown molding, but it blends into the white wall.”

  Billy hadn’t even noticed the crown moldings or the window frames or the tall baseboards. The fireplace was pretty, too, but it faded into the wall. Putting color on the walls would show off all those details. He wasn’t sure about the color Kayla had picked, but he trusted her judgment better than his own.

  “Looks like the trim is in good shape.” Trevor motioned toward the blue furniture. “Who chose the Elvis furniture?”

  Billy chuckled. “Not me.”

  “Tell me we’re not painting this room blue.”

  “Light gray, except the fireplace wall. She wants that dark gray.”

  Trevor nodded slowly. “It’s a big room, with lots of light. Gray should be fine.”

  “I hope so,” Billy said mostly to himself.

  They moved the furniture to the center of the room and spread drop cloths around the edges to protect the hardwood floors from paint splatters. Trevor carried in the ladder, and Billy opened the first can of paint. With the two of them working together, the work went quickly. By the time Kayla was up and about, they had the window wall and half of the wall by the dining room done.

  Kayla felt guilty for sleeping so late when Billy and Trevor were already hard at work. She made them all a hearty breakfast and then went upstairs to clean the little girl’s rooms. She filled box after box with toys and piled the clothes on the bed. Like the baby clothes, they’d have to be washed before they could be donated to the homeless shelter.

  At one, she went downstairs to start another load of wash and fix lunch, but Billy had already made lunch. “How is the painting coming along?” she asked.

  “We’re finished with the light gray in the living room,” said Trevor. “We put a coat of the dark gray on the fireplace wall, but it’ll need another coat.”

  She went to see. The fireplace wall looked splotchy, but she’d expected that with the darker paint. Another coat should cover it. The other walls looked good. If they could afford it, she’d have covers made for the furniture, some in red and some in a print or stripe. But she didn’t want to ask Billy to spend any more money than necessary.

  Billy walked up behind her and put his arm around her shoulders. “What do you think?”

  “I think y’all did a beautiful job, and the color looks good in here.”

  “What do you want done in the dining room?”

  She pointed. “Dark gray on the back wall and light gray on the others. I hope we don’t have to paint the white wainscoting.”

  “It looks like it’s in good shape.”

  “I’ll see if I can find some colorful prints for the walls.” She twisted around to face him. “What was on the walls before?”

  He dropped his arm. “Pictures of Maggie. They covered every wall in this house.”

  “What did you do with them?”

  “Took them to the dump.” Without another word, he returned to the kitchen. In that moment she understood. There were no pictures of their little boy, only the pretty little girl Eleanor adored. There probably weren’t any pictures of Billy either. What was wrong with Eleanor that she couldn’t love the little boys in her family? Weren’t they pretty enough to suit her?

  Sounds of a woman crying came from upstairs, and Billy had shut down again, as he always did when he talked about his mother. Kayle knew Maggie wasn’t crying because of the cancer; she cried because Billy hated her. She’d rejected her only child, and she wouldn’t be at peace until he could find it in his heart to forgive her. Eleanor may not have had a conscience, or maybe she’d been mentally ill, but Maggie was different. She understood what she’d done to her son and regretted it.

  Walking back to the kitchen, Kayla heard Trevor say, “Does she do that often?”

  “Cry?” said Billy. “Not too often. Kayla tried to talk her into moving on, but Eleanor wouldn’t let her go.”

  “Creepy.”

  Yes, it was creepy, thought Kayla. Creepy and incredibly sad. She wanted to hug Billy, but he wouldn’t let her near him when he was hurting like this. “I’ll go upstairs and talk to her.”

  “Don’t bother. I’m going back to work.” Billy walked out of the room.

  Kayla exchanged a long look with Trevor. She wondered if he understood how much Maggie’s selfishness had hurt Billy. “He has so much hurt inside him.”

  Trevor sipped his coffee. “Maggie may have given birth to him, but in every way that matters, Hannah is his mother.”

  Kayla walked upstairs and looked for Maggie. She didn’t show herself, but Kayla felt her presence. “He’ll come around, Maggie. He’s still hurting, but he’ll come around. Give him time.”

  Billy walked into the room. “Don’t speak for me. I’m not hurting, and I’m not going to ‘come around.’ I wrote Maggie off years ago. She was a selfish bitch.”

  The crying started again, and Kayla felt like smacking Billy. “Now look what you’ve done.”

  “Get out, Maggie,” he yelled. “Get the hell out of my house. Move on to wherever it is you’re supposed to go.”

  “Nooo,” came Eleanor’s shrieking voice. “Mine.”

  “What’s yours, Eleanor?” Kayla asked.

  “Maggie,” said Billy. “She didn’t want Maggie to have a baby. She didn’t want Maggie to love anyone but her. Isn’t that right, Eleanor? You wanted Maggie to be all yours. Your perfect daughter. You couldn’t love your son and you couldn’t love your grandson. You probably didn’t love your husband either. You only loved Maggie, and you wouldn’t let her love anyone else.”

  “Mine,” said Eleanor.

  “Yeah, she’s yours. Take her and get the hell out of my house.”

  A cold wind swirled around the room, chilling Kayla to the bone. “Damn it, Billy. Why did you have to do that?”

  He stormed off downstairs, leaving her alone in the room with Maggie and Eleanor. Billy was angry with her, the ghosts were so stirred up she wasn’t sure she could work up here, and she was so frustrated she wanted to scream. The Billy who made love to her last night was gone, replaced with someone she didn’t know. Someone she didn’t want to know.

  If she hadn’t made a commitment to help get this house ready to sell, she’d pack her bags, take her dog, and go back to Memphis.

  <>

  Benton finished his lunch and closed his eyes. The doctor said he’d be released in the morning, which meant he’d be arraigned on the new charges and probably spend the next few months or years in a jail or prison cell.

  “Benton?”

  He opened his eyes. When he saw his mother standing beside his hospital bed, he began to hope for a way out of this mess. “Mother, you didn’t have to come.”

  “Of course I did.”

  She looked a lifetime older since he’d last seen her. She’d stopped coloring her hair and it was now a soft silvery gray. The tall man standing beside her, Benton’s latest stepfather, Carlton Banks, didn’t look happy to be here.

  “Carlton, thank you for bringing Mother to see me.”

  Mother put her hand over his. “Benton, how are you feeling? Are you in pain?”

  “No pain since the heart attack, but I’m tired all the time. Maybe I’ll get enough rest in prison.”

  She squeezed his hand. “We’ll talk to the judge. Maybe he can release you to us, and—”

  Benton shook his head and let a single tear rol
l down his face. “I went into my cousin’s house without an invitation, and the man who owns it now wants me to go to prison.”

  “I’ll speak with him, dear. You just rest. What’s his name?”

  “Billy Kane. He lives on Mansion Drive. The sign in front says Goodman.”

  “Come along, Carlton. We’re going to pay a visit on Billy Kane.”

  Carlton glared at Benton, but he went along with his wife. Everyone went along with Cornelia Ainsworth Billings Sorba Banks. She may look like a sweet little old lady, but she always got her way.

  <>

  The last suite must have been Eleanor’s guest suite, because the closet and dressers were empty. Kayla had the bathroom cleaned when Hannah came in. “Kayla? Need some help?”

  “No… Actually, yes. I need your opinion about something. What would you think about replacing those blue sofas and chairs in the living room with the furniture from this room,” she pointed to the white furniture in the sitting room of the guest suite, “and the furniture from the master suite?”

  They walked down to look at the furniture in Eleanor’s sitting room. “It looks like the same furniture,” said Hannah.

  Kayla nodded. “Did you look at the living room on your way upstairs?”

  “Yes, the walls look great. That’s a good color for that room. And yes, the furniture in here would look a lot better down there than those awful blue sofas.” Hannah raised her eyebrows. “Donovan and the twins are out back. Do you want them to move furniture?”

  “I hate to ask Billy. He and Trevor have been painting all day.”

  An hour later, they had the furniture moved out of the living room and the furniture from upstairs moved in. Kayla would have to play with it to figure out the best arrangement, and she’d need accessories, but it looked better already. More elegant.

  Donovan and the twins moved two sofas and four chairs upstairs and then loaded the rest on the back of Billy’s pickup, along with the boxes of toys and Eleanor’s clothes. The truck was filled to capacity.

  Kayla started another load of laundry and then she and Hannah figured out how to arrange the living room furniture.

  “These rugs don’t look right in here,” said Hannah.

  “No, they don’t. I thought we’d use red and gray throw pillows, fluffy red rugs, and maybe a red throw or two, something to give it some punch.”

  “And a mirror over the fireplace?”

  Billy put down his paint brush, went into the study, and returned with a fistful of money. He handed it to Kayla. “Get receipts.”

  “Okay.” He still looked sad, but he no longer seemed angry.

  While Hannah and Kayla made plans to shop tomorrow, Billy went back to the dining room to help Trevor finish the first coat of dark gray on the back wall. The light gray was finished, and they had over a bucket of paint left. “I wonder if this is enough to cover the foyer.”

  Trevor shook his head. “It might be enough, but you’ll have to find a painter to do it. That ceiling has to be twenty feet up there, and we don’t have a ladder that tall. And I don’t like heights. Ask me to paint the kitchen or something, but not the entry. What are you going to do with those tapestries on the walls?”

  “Take them to an antique consignment shop. All that blood gives me nightmares.” The tapestries were of bloody hunting scenes.

  “Can’t imagine why,” Trevor muttered.

  They were still talking and painting when Billy heard the doorbell ring. Hannah called, “Billy, someone is here to see you.”

  “I’ll finish up in here,” said Trevor. “Go on, you’re done for the day.”

  Billy picked up a damp towel and wiped his hands on the way to the door. A little old lady stood there with a tall man who looked even older. They were dressed like they belonged in this neighborhood, while he looked more like the hired hand. “I’m Billy Kane. Did you want to see me?”

  The woman gave him a warm smile. “I’m Cornelia Banks, and this is my husband, Carlton. My first husband was an Ainsworth. May we speak with you for a few minutes?”

  Billy opened the door wide and invited them in. Since the living room was a mess, he took them into the family room. “Would you like a glass of sweet iced tea? Kayla made it not an hour ago.”

  “Oh, that sounds divine,” said Cornelia.

  Billy handed a glass of tea to her and another to her husband. He drank deeply of his own glass before saying, “You’ll have to forgive the mess. We’re trying to paint and get the house ready to put on the market.”

  “You don’t want to live here?”

  “This is too much house for a single school teacher. How are you related to Eleanor?”

  “She was my husband’s first cousin.”

  “So you’re one of the heirs?”

  “Oh, no. My son is, though. His name is Benton Ainsworth.”

  The smile slid off Billy’s face. “Why are you here?”

  “To ask for your forgiveness. Benton suffered a rather serious heart attack, and—”

  “And he doesn’t want to go to jail?”

  “Would you?”

  Billy leaned back in his chair and examined his visitors. They dressed like wealthy people, so why was her son breaking into this house? Why didn’t he just ask them for money?

  “Can you forgive him, Mr. Kane?”

  “For which time? For the time he showed up on my doorstep demanding I have my staff carry in his bags? Or for stealing the gate code and key off the kitchen counter? Or the time he broke into the house and demanded Kayla show him where the safe was. Or the last time he broke in, when he scared himself into having a heart attack?”

  “Kayla?”

  “Kayla Ainsworth Blanton, another heir. She’s helping me get the house ready to sell. He grabbed her and twisted her arm. When she cried out in pain, her dog bit his leg.”

  The old lady’s face lost all its color. “Are you all right, Mrs. Banks?”

  “I-I can’t believe Benton did all that.”

  “I can,” said her husband. “That son of yours is always up to no good.”

  “But I’ve never known him to hurt anyone, Carlton.”

  “I’m sorry he had a heart attack, but I didn’t cause it,” said Billy. “I don’t care if he is an heir, he had no business breaking into this house and hurting people and stealing things that don’t belong to him. I don’t want him here again, and I don’t want him hurting Kayla.” Billy stood. “Tell him he can go to prison here or in Atlanta, I don’t care where, as long as I don’t have to see his ugly face again.”

  “Now, see here, Mr. Kane. That’s not a nice thing to say.” The old lady had recovered and she wasn’t happy about what she was hearing. “Surely you wouldn’t send a sick man to prison.”

  “I don’t trust him, Mrs. Banks, and I’m not sending him anywhere. The judge will do that.”

  Carlton took his wife’s arm and pulled her toward the front door. “Come on, Cornelia. It’s time to go home. Sick or not, Benton will have to pay for what he did.”

  Billy was afraid it wouldn’t play out that way, but he didn’t have any control over what the judge decided to do with Benton Ainsworth. Breaking and entering wasn’t a serious crime, so he could get a suspended sentence. But Billy wouldn’t help Benton’s mother get him released.

  He followed Carlton and Cornelia Banks to the foyer, where Kayla was walking down the stairs with her arms full of clothes.

  “You must be Kayla,” said Cornelia. “I’m Benton’s mother. He’s so sorry about breaking in and scaring you, dear.”

  “Is he? Or is he just sorry he got caught?”

  Cornelia Banks cried, right there in the foyer. She pulled a hanky out of her purse and dabbed at her eyes. “I don’t want my only child to die in a prison cell.”

  Kayla dropped the clothes on the step and put her arms around the woman, and Billy shook his head in wonder. He exchanged a long look with Carlton Banks. “I don’t want Benton free to break in again. And he will.”

&n
bsp; “Oh, he wouldn’t do that,” said Cornelia. “We’ll take him home to Tampa.”

  “No, we won’t,” said her husband. “I don’t want him there any more than these people want him here.”

  As Carlton Banks drove his wife away, she was still crying.

  “What in the hell did she expect?” Billy asked.

  “Forgiveness, something you wouldn’t understand. Kayla gathered the clothes off the stairs and disappeared into the back of the house.

  Billy felt like hitting something.

  Chapter Eleven

  After his family left, Billy turned the water on to fill the pool, then went inside to put the second coat of dark gray paint on the back dining room wall. Trevor said he’d be back the following weekend to paint the kitchen, but Billy wasn’t sure what to do in that room. He hated the stainless countertops, and the upper cabinets didn’t have doors. He should gut the kitchen and start over. Anyone interested in buying a house this size would expect an up-to-date kitchen.

  Kayla stood by the butler’s pantry, watching him paint. “Billy, what would you think about red in the kitchen?”

  “Red what?”

  “Walls.”

  “What about those white cabinets?”

  “They’ll be fine if we have doors put on the upper cabinets. I was thinking about frosted glass.”

  Interesting. “What about the countertops?”

  “Can we afford granite? These stainless countertops were probably nice at one time, but they’re all beat up now.”

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you get some estimates?” He needed to check on that insurance policy. They could spend a lot of money updating this house. Maybe Mr. Clapp could force the life insurance company to pay off.

  He finished painting the wall and cleaned up the mess. The living room and dining room walls were done. He wasn’t sure where Kayla had gotten the white living room furniture, but it looked good in there. A splash of color and new drapes, and these two rooms were finished.

  Without Kayla’s help, he’d never get this place in shape. She was angry about the way he’d spoken to Maggie today. It was almost as if she considered Maggie a friend, but Maggie didn’t have friends.