Haunting Danielle 28 The Ghost and the Birthday Boy

by Bobbi Holmes

  Lily nodded. “That’s what John said.”

  “What was it you lied to them about?” Danielle asked.

  Lily cringed. “About me being all happy about them moving here.”

  Walt smiled at Lily. “It might be nice to have Connor’s grandparents nearby.”

  Lily glared at Walt. “Now you’re making me feel horrible, like your wife does.”

  Walt chuckled.

  “Ian’s parents seem pretty nice,” Danielle said.

  “You know what I find interesting,” Lily said.

  “What?” Danielle asked.

  “I always assumed Kelly was super close to her mother. Heck, they are so much alike. But from what Kelly was saying, she doesn’t seem to be thrilled her parents are moving here. That sorta surprised me.”

  “Are you close to your mom?” Danielle asked.

  “You know I am. Of course, why?” Lily frowned.

  “Would you be thrilled if your parents moved to Frederickport?” Danielle asked.

  “Happier than Ian’s parents moving here.” Lily paused a moment and then frowned.

  “What?” Danielle asked.

  “This is going to drive my mom nuts. The other grandma living near Connor, seeing him all the time.” Lily groaned.

  “Does that mean you would want your parents to move to Frederickport or not?” Walt asked.

  Lily considered the question for a moment. Finally, she smiled softly, looking from Walt to Connor, back to Walt. “Honestly? I would probably love it. But the fact is, Mom and Dad would never move here. Laura and Cory both live near them. I have the only grandchild, but someday, I imagine Laura and Cory will give them grandkids. And I understand why June and John want to move here. I totally get it. In fact, I once mentioned to Ian that I bet his parents would be moving up here if Kelly married Joe. He insisted his parents would never move. He was pretty emphatic.”

  The sound of the front door opening, followed by dog paws racing over the wood floor, and then the sound of the front door closing, interrupted the conversation. They all looked to the open doorway and watched as Sadie raced into the room, followed by Ian a few moments later.

  “Figured Sadie would lead me to you,” Ian said with a chuckle as he entered the parlor.

  “Hi, Ian,” Walt and Danielle chorused.

  “I assume she told you what is going on,” Ian said.

  Danielle nodded. “She did.”

  Ian sat on the sofa next to his wife. Connor looked up at his father and smiled. Ian returned Connor’s smile. With a block in one hand, Connor crawled to Ian.

  “Where are your parents? Are they coming over here?” Lily asked.

  “No. Dad went to the store to pick up something, and I left Kelly with Mom. I can’t believe this is happening.” Ian reached down to Connor and accepted the block he offered.

  “You’re that against your parents moving here?” Danielle asked.

  “No. In fact, I think it’s a good idea for them. I never imagined they would consider moving. But the Marymoor property, that’s another thing. I wish Adam had told me before this deal closed.” Ian handed the block back to his son. Connor happily accepted it and crawled back to the rest of the blocks.

  They discussed Adam for a few minutes, including how reluctant he had been to sell the lot. After Danielle told them what Adam and Mel had experienced at the property, Ian groaned and looked at Lily. “I didn’t tell you what I saw over there.” Ian then told them how he had witnessed a boulder heading toward their car, only to react like a boomerang and return to where it had come from.

  “That’s not good,” Danielle muttered. “Yet, one thing to remember, no one was hurt. Perhaps Eva is right about spirits being unable to hurt us.”

  “But I still saw it. And I’m concerned about what this little guy might see over there.” Ian nodded to Connor.

  “We can’t have Connor exposed to such negative energy. Maybe the ghosts can’t physically hurt him, but do we really want our son exposed to the spirits of the criminally insane?” Lily asked.

  “It’s possible my parents will experience something like I did today, and that will prevent them from moving forward with their plans,” Ian suggested.

  “What if it doesn’t? What if your parents never see what’s going on? They will want us to come over to their house. They will want to babysit Connor or have him stay overnight. I can’t allow that.” Lily shook her head emphatically.

  While they discussed the negative impact the spirits of Marymoor might have on an innocent child, Sadie walked over to Walt and rested her chin on his knee. Walt looked down at Sadie. Sadie looked up at Walt. Their eyes locked. After a moment Walt broke into the conversation by saying, “Um, we have a more pressing issue than the Marymoor spirits.”

  “What could be more pressing than that?” Lily asked.

  “The ghost currently hanging out at your house and playing with Connor,” Walt said.

  “What ghost?” Lily squeaked.

  “I don’t know,” Walt said. “But according to Sadie, he wanted to get scissors and remove Winnie the Pooh’s stuffing. Connor was not amused.”

  Eighteen

  “A ghost is haunting our child?” Lily gasped.

  “Sadie didn’t say he was a ghost, but considering she understood what he was thinking, and no one else seemed to see him, that’s my guess,” Walt said.

  “Who is this guy? It is a guy? You said it is a he?” Lily asked.

  “Sadie was fairly certain of that,” Walt said.

  “Who is he?” Ian demanded. “Or more accurately, who was he?”

  “No one Sadie recognized,” Walt said.

  “What does he look like?” Lily asked.

  “Unfortunately, dogs aren’t very good at giving descriptions,” Walt said. “She’s fairly certain it is a he, judging by the people she knows. But dogs often rely on smells more—and a ghost does not have a smell.”

  “That’s not entirely accurate,” Danielle reminded them.

  They all turned to her. Walt asked, “What do you mean?”

  Danielle arched a brow at Walt. “When you were a ghost, even the non-mediums picked up the cigar smell.”

  Walt frowned. “The smell did not come from me. I didn’t smell like cigars. And when I wasn’t smoking and in a room, no one smelled anything.”

  Danielle shrugged. “I’m just saying a ghost can be associated with a smell.”

  “Well, this ghost isn’t,” Walt said.

  “How old is he?” Lily asked. “Is some creepy old man hanging out with our son?”

  “Even if it is the ghost of an older man, it wouldn’t necessarily mean he’s creepy. It could be some kindly old guy who misses his grandchildren,” Danielle suggested.

  “Really? One who wants to take the stuffing out of Winnie? Sounds like a serial killer to me,” Lily snapped.

  “I’m just saying—” Danielle began, only to be cut off by Lily.

  “Oh no!” Lily looked at Ian. “Did one of those insane ghosts follow your parents to our house? To our son?”

  “You haven’t seen any objects flying around your house, have you?” Danielle asked.

  Lily frowned at Danielle. “What kind of question is that? Obviously if things were flying around, I would have said something.”

  “I’m just saying, whatever spirit or spirits are causing havoc at the Marymoor site, they obviously have levitation powers, considering what Ian, Adam, and Mel saw over there,” Danielle said.

  “Perhaps Sadie can give us a clue where he came from,” Walt suggested.

  They all turned to Walt and silently watched as he and Sadie stared into each other’s eyes. After a few minutes, Walt said, “According to Sadie, the ghost arrived at your house around the same time as Ian’s parents. She can’t remember if he showed up before your parents arrived—or after.”

  “Why didn’t Sadie let us know when she first noticed him?” Lily demanded.

  Walt flashed Lily a smile. “And you would have unders
tood her?”

  “She could have barked, something. We would have brought her over to talk to you.”

  “In fairness to Sadie,” Ian interrupted, “she did try to tell us. Remember, she was barking at something—and now we know what that something was.”

  “From what Sadie saw, he and Connor were getting along. Until they had a disagreement about what to do with Connor’s stuffed animal,” Walt said.

  Lily groaned. “Oh no… I saw Connor playing with the ghost.”

  “What do you mean?” Danielle asked.

  “The way Connor was playing, it was like someone was there. At first, I assumed it was Marie. I figured she changed her mind about staying away. I asked her to give me a sign—like lift something. Nothing. I just figured Connor was entertaining himself.”

  “It definitely was not Marie,” Walt said. “And Connor wasn’t entertaining himself.”

  “We need to find this ghost and make him leave my son alone!” Lily looked around as if expecting to find the ghost hiding in a corner.

  “I don’t think this ghost followed you guys over here,” Danielle said. “I haven’t seen anything. He either stayed back at your house or has left already.”

  “Then you guys need to come back to our house with us, now, and make him leave!” Lily insisted.

  “You are forgetting, my mother and sister are over there,” Ian said. “And Dad won’t be gone that long. Walt and Danielle can’t deal with this spirit while my parents are around.”

  “Then I guess we stay here.” Lily stubbornly crossed her arms across her chest and leaned back. “I will not take my son home, where he’s exposed to some pervy ghost!”

  “We don’t know if he’s pervy,” Danielle reminded her.

  “This is why you can’t let your parents build on that property,” Lily told Ian. “It’s bad enough we have stray ghosts wandering through our house from time to time. But Connor visiting a home where the residents of an insane asylum haunt? No way!”

  “Let’s take care of the ghost currently haunting our son,” Ian suggested. “And then we can deal with my parents.”

  “I wish Marie were here. If Marie were here, she could handle him even if your parents were in the house,” Lily said.

  “For whatever reason, Marie has decided to make herself scarce while your family is here. But Walt and I can walk over there with you. And even if we can’t talk to him while June and Kelly are there, we might see him. That will at least tell us something,” Danielle suggested.

  “I suppose Ian and Lily heard about the property by now,” Marie said with a sigh. She and Eva sat atop one of the older standing headstones at the Frederickport cemetery.

  “You haven’t looked in?” Eva asked.

  “Not since I went over there to see Connor before his grandparents arrived yesterday. I was hoping we might fix this thing. But those Marymoor spirits refuse to listen.”

  “I’ve been giving that serious consideration. They obviously don’t intend to tell us anything about themselves or why they continue to haunt the site. I understand one or two confused spirits lingering, but I get the impression there are more over there. It makes me wonder, why? Finding out who they are and why they haunt Marymoor should help us find a way to encourage them to finally move on. And when they do, there will be no reason Ian’s parents can’t build on the property.”

  “How do we do that?” Marie asked.

  “We start at the museum. See if they have anything on the Marymoor Sanatorium,” Eva suggested.

  When Marie and Eva arrived at the museum, they found Millie Samson in the museum gift shop, talking to several visitors.

  “Good, Millie’s up front,” Marie said. “Hopefully, no one’s in the office.” The next moment, Marie and Eva moved to the office in the back of the museum.

  “Where should we begin?” Eva asked.

  “The files. Let’s see what they have.” Marie opened one of the file drawers. She began pulling one drawer out after another, quickly flipping through the files while Eva peered over her shoulder.

  “It would be much faster if you could move things,” Marie grumbled as she opened another file drawer.

  “We all have our special gifts.” A flurry of glitter puffed up around Eva and then disappeared.

  Marie paused a moment, catching sight of the appearing and disappearing glitter. Marie rolled her eyes and continued searching through the files.

  The morning docent could not come into the museum that day because of a family emergency. Fortunately, Millie was already at the museum, catching up on paperwork in the office.

  “You’re here early,” Millie said when the afternoon docent arrived.

  “I heard your morning person wasn’t coming in, and you had to cover for her. I wasn’t doing anything, thought I’d come in early,” the docent explained. “Let you get back to your own work.”

  “Thank you. I do have some paperwork I need to finish,” Millie said.

  “Have we been very busy?”

  “Steady. A couple just left a few minutes ago,” Millie explained.

  They exchanged a few more words before Millie left the docent alone in the museum store. When Millie reached the office, she opened the door and walked in. To her surprise, she found a file drawer wide open.

  Millie frowned. “I wasn’t in those files. Who’s been in here?” She walked to the drawer and slammed it shut.

  “Hey! I wasn’t finished looking through that!” Marie snapped.

  Millie turned from the file drawers and grumbled, “Do I need to start locking the office?”

  “I just want one more peek,” Marie said, carefully sliding the file drawer open. Yet she wasn’t careful enough. It made a squeaking sound. Just as Marie reached a hand all the way into the drawer, Millie turned around abruptly and let out a gasp. The next moment, Millie slammed the drawer shut—with Marie’s hand still inside.

  Marie looked down at her hand. It hung in front of the now closed file drawer. She looked at Millie and frowned. “You could have chopped off my hand!”

  Eva chuckled. “I seriously doubt that.”

  “Well, if I were alive, she could have.”

  “If you were alive, she would have seen you standing there with your hand in the file cabinet, and then she would not have slammed the drawer shut,” Eva reminded her.

  “You don’t know Millie,” Marie said with a huff. “I bet she would have still slammed it shut on me.”

  “And if it had been possible to injure your hand as you are in this state, it would have been your own fault since you really don’t need your hand to move those files. It’s all show,” Eva reminded her.

  Like your glitter? Marie thought to herself.

  Marie remained standing next to the file cabinet while she talked to Eva, her hand still where it had been when Millie slammed the drawer shut. Hesitantly, Millie walked back to the file drawer and pulled it open. While open, Marie looked back inside at the files. Millie closed the drawer again. She then reopened it. Once again, Marie looked back inside. This continued for several minutes; each time Marie snuck a peek at its contents. Finally, Millie shook her head, shut the file drawer, and walked to the desk and sat down.

  “There was nothing useful in that drawer,” Marie said.

  Eva let out a sigh. “What now? We’ve gone through all the files.”

  Marie considered the question a moment and then blurted, “Of course, why didn’t I remember? What was I thinking?”

  “What are you talking about?” Eva frowned.

  “After they closed the sanatorium, the city stored some of their files. A couple of years ago they moved those files here. I heard Danielle and Lily looked through them when they were trying to learn more about Sean Sullivan. He was the friend of Danielle’s great-aunt’s mother. He had been committed to Marymoor.”

  “Yes, I remember now!” Eva said. “They’re in the storage room. I doubt they’ve moved them.”

  Eva and Marie disappeared from the office, leaving
Millie alone and unaware of the ghosts.

  When the pair entered the storage room, Marie flipped on the overhead light.

  Eva glanced up at the fixture. “I hope no one notices the light.”

  Marie shrugged and started looking around. “Since neither of us can see in the dark, we don’t really have a choice. I suppose if Millie comes in and turns off the light, we can come back tonight.”

  They looked around for a few minutes, each reading box labels. Finally, Eva called out, “Here are some boxes marked Marymoor!”

  Marie focused on the box and willed its lid to lift. The two ghosts spent the next fifteen minutes sorting and reading through files—with Marie doing all the sorting.

  “I remember her,” Eva said with a sigh.

  “Who?” Marie asked.

  “Viola Hawkes.” Eva pointed to a photograph on the table. “I’m sure it’s her. She was a patron of the theater. Very wealthy. But why is her photograph in that box? She was from Portland, I believe.”

  “Her picture was with these.” Marie picked up an envelope she had set on the table a minute ago. Viola’s photograph had slipped out. The envelope held seven other pictures, all of women. Marie showed Eva the envelope’s contents without removing the remaining photographs.

  Marie set the envelope back on the table and looked at Viola’s picture. “I don’t recognize her face, but I do the name. My father told me about her. She was from a very wealthy family. But she had a breakdown. Her husband had her committed to Marymoor.”

  Nineteen

  June sat with Kelly on the sofa in Lily and Ian’s living room. She held her daughter’s left hand in hers, inspecting the engagement ring. It was the first time she had an opportunity to get a close look at it.

  “It’s ugly, isn’t it?” Kelly whispered.

  June cringed. “Well, it has a nice diamond. It’s quite large.”

  “But the setting. It’s horrid!” Kelly whined, looking down at the ring.

  June sighed and released Kelly’s hand. “That picture you texted me did not do it justice.”