by Nicole Ellis
“These are my children’s rooms. You can let people go into the entrance to each, but please don’t let them touch anything. The same goes for the master bedroom.”
We walked into a magnificent master bedroom with a wide-open vista of Puget Sound. A king-sized bed was pushed up against one wall and a set of arm chairs had been positioned in front of the windows. I caught a glimpse of a bathroom with marble and gold fixtures before Nancy closed the door.
I completely forgot where I was and walked to the window as if in a trance to take in the view. “This is amazing.” The blue-gray water glittered like a sheet of broken glass in front of us, so close that I felt as though I could touch it. Willowby Island soared above the water and, even from this distance, I could just make out houses along its shores.
“Please don’t touch the windows.” Nancy sniffed. “I don’t want fingerprints on the glass.”
I turned away from the window and Desi smirked at me from behind Nancy’s back. “I’m sorry. I was just admiring the view.”
Nancy spun around without a word and strode off, evidently expecting us to follow her. We continued down a back staircase, into a large kitchen with traditional black and white squares on the floor. She pushed open a door at the back of the kitchen.
“This is the butler’s pantry.”
“Is there a door behind there?” I pointed to an antique armoire that almost completely concealed a wooden door in the pantry.
She stared at it as though she’d forgotten it was there. “Yes. That goes to the basement.” She shivered. “We don’t have any reason to go downstairs, so we keep it closed up. I don’t want the kids playing down there.”
Nancy continued on down the first floor hallway toward the front door, reeling off the names of the rooms and briefly tapping on a closed door as she went by. “This is my office. Don’t open the door.”
The place was like a maze and I wasn’t sure how I was going to guide people through it. At the front door, Nancy shoved a map of the rooms and a small description of each at Desi and me. “I trust this will be enough. I have an appointment I need to go to. Remember, don’t let anyone touch anything.” She eyed us again. “I hate leaving you two alone in my house, but I don’t really have a choice.”
“We’ll be careful with everything,” Desi said sweetly. “Thank you for allowing your home to be on the tour.”
When she’d roared out of the driveway, we both breathed sighs of relief.
“How clear are you on where everything is in the house?” I asked.
“Not very.” She glanced toward the street, where a couple had just turned off of the main sidewalk and onto the walkway to the house. “We’d better get up to speed quickly though.”
I scanned the map, trying to commit things to memory before I looked like an idiot to everyone touring Nancy’s mansion.
“Hello,” Desi said, greeting the man and woman, who looked to be in their sixties. “Thanks for visiting the Dunlop house. I’m Desi and I’ll be your guide today.” She read the information about the house off of the piece of paper and the couple followed her inside, leaving me alone on the porch.
Too soon, a group of women appeared, all wearing red hats. They stopped outside of the house and attempted to take a group photo of themselves. After one of them almost dropped her phone, I stepped in.
“Do you want me to take one?”
They nodded enthusiastically.
“That would be wonderful, dear.” A woman with short, straight gray hair handed me her phone to take the picture. I snapped a shot and gave it back to them.
“I’m Jill, and I’ll be your guide today.” I smiled at them. “You’ll have to bear with me though. This is my first tour of the day.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sure you’ll be great at it,” another woman said. Her friends murmured words of encouragement.
I led them into the house and showed them around. They oohed and aahed over the view upstairs. By the time we headed down through the first floor pantry, I was feeling pretty good about things. At the front door, they thanked me for my time and went on their way.
Desi wasn’t in the entry hallway, so she must have already taken another group in. Judging by the line that had formed in the last ten minutes, we would be busy. We continued taking groups through the house for the next two hours.
I introduced myself to a group of people who were next in line, including a woman and her little girl, who wore an adorable blue dress and looked to be about four. I brought them inside the house and they admired the parlor and library, then toured the upstairs. I was finishing my final speech about the kitchen and pantry when the little girl tugged on her mother’s arm.
“Mommy,” she said in a loud voice. “I have to go potty.”
Her mother leaned down. “Can you wait until we get home?”
“No.” A panicked expression appeared on the little girl’s face. “I have to go now.”
The mother looked at me apologetically. “Do you think the owner of the house would mind if my daughter uses the bathroom? I’m afraid she’ll have an accident if she doesn’t go soon.”
A potty accident in Nancy’s house would be even worse than fingerprints. Plus, Nancy had a bunch of kids and worked at a preschool, so she wouldn’t mind, right? I glanced at the girl, who was now doing the potty dance. The rest of the group had exited the house, so I jutted my thumb toward the back hallway.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. Let’s see where it is.” I walked down the hallway behind the kitchen, but found no bathroom, only the broom closet and a sterile-looking guest bedroom. There were only two rooms left. One was Nancy’s office and I assumed the other was the bathroom. I crossed my fingers that I’d open the correct room.
I turned the doorknob and peeked in. Some light shone through the windows, illuminating a room filled with—cats. Cats?
“Mommy, I have to go NOW!”
I left the room behind and hurriedly opened the last door, revealing a modern bathroom. The girl ran inside and sat down on the toilet before her mother could even close the door. I stepped back to give her privacy and went back to Nancy’s office to close the door.
Before I shut it, I couldn’t help but look in the room for longer. I’d already opened Pandora’s box, so why not see it fully?
There was a nice white desk along one wall, but the rest of Nancy’s office was filled with everything cat related. A cat clock hung from the wall, its tail swishing back and forth with each passing second. Pictures of cats of all colors and varieties hung from the walls and a rug in the shape of a big orange cat covered a quarter of the floor.
Something moved, startling me until I realized what it was. A real cat sat on a plush purple pillow on the windowsill. I was worried that she’d try to escape, but she only glanced at me with a lazy expression and then turned back to the window.
“Jill?” Desi called out. “Where are you?”
“Down the hall,” I answered. The door to the bathroom was still closed.
Desi came up behind me. “Hey, isn’t that Nancy’s office?”
“Yup.” I pushed the door open further. “Check it out.”
Desi’s eyes widened as she took in the catdom. “Whoa.”
“No kidding. No wonder she didn’t want us to see it. Nancy is the crazy cat lady.”
Desi smirked. “Well, we always knew about the crazy part, but this?” She poked her head in further and the fluffy white cat on the windowsill stretched out her paw at us. Before we knew it, she’d jumped down and was heading toward the open door.
“Shut it,” I yelled.
Desi slammed the door just in time. We both leaned back against the wall.
“That was close,” I said, my heart rate slowly returning to normal.
“Yeah. Too close,” Desi said. “Nancy would kill us if we let her cat out.” She looked at me. “What were you doing in there anyway?”
The bathroom door opened, and the woman and little girl came out. “Thanks so much for let
ting her use the bathroom.”
“No problem. Enjoy the rest of the tour.” I turned to Desi. “I was trying to find the bathroom, and I accidentally opened the wrong door.” I laughed. “But now I’m kind of glad I did. Who would have thought?”
“We can never mention this to anyone,” Desi said as she tried to keep a straight face.
I zipped my fingers across my lips. “I’m certainly not telling anyone. Hey, do we have more groups to lead through?”
“There wasn’t anyone when I came back down from my last tour.” She held up her watch to show me the time. “I think the homes tour is almost officially over.”
“Thank goodness.”
I heard a car in the driveway, and we moved out of the hallway, far away from the cat room.
Nancy entered the house, eyeing everything. As far as I knew, nothing was out of place. “I trust things went fine?”
“Yes. Perfectly.” Desi smiled at her. “People were very complimentary about your house.”
“Good.” She looked at us if as if wondering why we were still there.
I took the hint and grabbed Desi’s arm. “Thanks so much for having your house on the tour.”
Desi and I walked out of the house and made it to the sidewalk before we both broke out into a fit of giggles.
“Did you see that clock? And the rug?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’d never have guessed that prim and proper Nancy would have a room in her house devoted to cats.”
“Me neither. I’m so glad that the preschool isn’t in session until after the new year. I’m happy to have a break from Nancy, but also so that I won’t accidentally tell her that I know about her cat room.” I shook my head and smiled. “It’s such a juicy secret.” I looked up the hill toward the retirement home. “Do you still want to check on Delilah?”
“I think we should.”
“Me too.”
8
The mood at the Ericksville Heights Retirement Home was much more somber than when we’d been there a few days ago with the preschool class. Desi and I checked in at the front desk and they told us that we could find Delilah in the Great Room, which turned out to be a large space with a giant river rock fireplace. Delilah was sitting near the fire, with an afghan over her lap.
When we neared her, she glanced at us, but didn’t say anything, just turned back around to stare at the fire.
Desi put her hand on her shoulder. “Delilah, are you feeling ok?”
Delilah nodded. “I’m fine. Just a bit tired today.”
She looked as though she’d aged five years since we last saw her. Her skin was crepey and her eyes dull, as though she hadn’t been sleeping well.
We pulled up chairs near her.
“We thought we’d come and visit you because we were in the area for the historic homes tour,” Desi said.
Sadness crossed Delilah’s face. “Oh no, I missed the tour. I go every year, but I must not have written it down correctly on my calendar this year.” She sighed. “Dates and times are starting to get away from me.”
“That’s ok,” Desi said, trying to cheer her up. “It’s the same houses every year, right? You’ve probably been in all of them already.”
Delilah brightened. “You’re right, dear. But still, I would have liked to support the Historical Society.”
I thought a change of subject might be good. “How are things here? Did the police discover anything about Mila’s death?”
Delilah shook her head. “No, they don’t tell us anything.”
Desi looked at me, then said, “You know my brother Will, right?”
She smiled. “Of course I remember Will. Always such a cheery kid. Isn’t he a fancy doctor in Arizona now?”
“Normally, yes, he lives in Arizona. But he’s up here with his family for Christmas.”
“That’s wonderful.” She looked wistful. “Your mother must be so happy.”
“She is.” Desi paused. “But Will is a suspect in Mila’s murder.”
Delilah recoiled. “Excuse me?”
“He had drinks with her the night she died and is one of the last people to see her alive.” Desi sighed loudly.
“I thought he was married?” Delilah asked.
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“Of course he didn’t do it,” Delilah said indignantly. “He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Thanks for saying that,” Desi said. “But until the real murderer is found, he’s a suspect.
“Your poor mother. This must be devastating to her.”
Desi squirmed a little. “She doesn’t know yet. Will doesn’t want to worry her.”
She nodded approvingly. “Good for him.”
I tried to steer the conversation back to Mila’s death. “Have the police been around here after the day Mila was found?”
“No. Not that I know of.” She gazed out the window toward the backyard. “And unfortunately, now that Mila isn’t here, they’ve cancelled our Christmas party. We were all looking forward to it so much.”
“I’m so sorry,” Desi said. “Maybe that would have made things a little cheerier around here.”
“I’m sorry too.” I frowned. “Can’t someone else take over organizing the Christmas party? Maybe Mila’s assistant?”
“No, until they hire someone new, her assistant has too much on her plate with the regular events around here.” She tilted her head up to me. “You’re an event coordinator, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “I am.” I had a feeling I knew where this was going and I already felt bad.
“Do you think that you could manage the party? I bet they could pay you for your time.” Hope was written across her face.
“I’m so sorry, but my time is completely booked until after Christmas.”
Her face crumbled and I felt as though I’d slapped an old lady in the face.
“I wish there was something I could do to help. It sounds like Mila had a wonderful party planned for all of the residents.”
“She always did make everything nice for us,” she said sadly. “Ever since Mila passed, things haven’t been the same. She was such a delightful woman.”
“Does anyone have any theories about what happened to her?” I asked. I figured that in the close confines of the retirement home, gossip would run rampant and with all of those ideas converging, the residents might stumble upon the truth.
She looked around nervously. “I’ve heard some talk that it might be related to some of the other suspicious deaths around here.”
I looked around the room at the half dozen senior citizens who were relaxing in the Great Room and leaned in closer to her. “Have there been some deaths that seemed out of the ordinary?”
Her chin bobbed up and down. “I think so. Lenny Landers was in good health and then they found him lying dead in his room one morning. The official response was that it was a heart attack, but you can’t help but wonder because I’ve heard rumors that he’d fallen for some scam right before he died. The same thing happened to Albert Wendil. He was here one day, and gone the next.” A tear slipped down her wrinkled cheek. “It’s probably silly of me to say such things.”
“I don’t know. If you think something isn’t right, it’s probably not,” Desi said. “Did anyone talk to the police about it?”
Delilah uttered a harsh laugh. “Sure, they came to take the report, but nobody’s heard from them since. We told Mila there was something really wrong and she said she’d look into it.” She looked at her lap.
“So what do you and the others think happened to those men?” I asked.
“I think that—” She stared at something in the back of the room for a moment and her eyes became unfocused. “I’m sorry, I’m very tired. I should go rest in my room.”
I turned my attention to the back of the room where she’d been looking, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. What had Delilah seen?
“Of course,” Desi said sympathetically. “You’ve had a rough week. Jill and I complet
ely understand.”
I nodded. “We’ll come see you another day, ok?” I’d developed a soft spot for the elderly woman as my own grandparents had died many years before.
Delilah nodded and slowly rose to her feet with the help of her walker. “Have a nice afternoon, girls.” She walked off, pushing the walker in front of her. The colorful pink tennis balls attached to the walker’s back legs swished along the hardwood floors as she walked down the hall toward her room.
“I feel so bad for her,” Desi said. “Mom said Delilah doesn’t have much family around here and that Mila’s death has probably hit her hard.”
“Yeah.” I glanced at the back of the Great Room. “Did you notice that she was about to tell us something about the mysterious deaths and then she just stopped talking?”
“I did, but I assumed she was just tired.” Desi cocked her head to the side. “Do you think something scared her away from telling us?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She looked at something in the back of the room right before she stopped talking. By the time I turned to look, I didn’t see anyone back there.”
“Hmm.” Desi scanned the room. “I don’t see anything weird in here either, but it could have been someone that was only here briefly.”
“But long enough to frighten Delilah.” A sense of dread swirled around the pit of my stomach. I’d become fond of the kind old woman and the thought that anyone would intentionally frighten her made me ill.
“My spidey senses are telling me something isn’t right here.” Desi stood. “I’m going to call Tomàs to come and pick us up, but if it’s ok with you, I’d like for us to visit Delilah together again. Maybe next time she will feel comfortable enough to finish what she was saying.”
“I definitely agree. Let’s try to come back early next week, ok?”
Desi nodded. “And I’ll talk to my mom about this.” The corners of her mouth turned down. “I don’t know if Will has told her yet about being a suspect though. I’ll have to tread carefully until I know. But maybe she’ll have an idea of what is bothering Delilah. They see each other every week at the Historical Society meetings, so maybe she can get something out of her that we couldn’t.”