Henderson House

by Kathi Daley

  Henderson House

  by

  Kathi Daley

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Katherine Daley

  Version 1.0

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  I want to thank the very talented Jessica Fischer for the cover art.

  I so appreciate Bruce Curran, who is always ready and willing to answer my cyber questions; Jayme Maness for helping out with the book clubs; and Peggy Hyndman for helping sleuth out those pesky typos.

  Special thanks to Joyce Aiken, Sharon Guagliardo, Patty Liu, and Vivian Shane for submitting recipes.

  And, of course, thanks to the readers and bloggers in my life, who make doing what I do possible.

  Thank you to Randy Ladenheim-Gil for the editing.

  And finally, I want to thank my husband Ken for allowing me time to write by taking care of everything else.

  Books by Kathi Daley

  Come for the murder, stay for the romance.

  Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery:

  Halloween Hijinks

  The Trouble With Turkeys

  Christmas Crazy

  Cupid’s Curse

  Big Bunny Bump-off

  Beach Blanket Barbie

  Maui Madness

  Derby Divas

  Haunted Hamlet

  Turkeys, Tuxes, and Tabbies

  Christmas Cozy

  Alaskan Alliance

  Matrimony Meltdown

  Soul Surrender

  Heavenly Honeymoon

  Hopscotch Homicide

  Ghostly Graveyard

  Santa Sleuth

  Shamrock Shenanigans

  Kitten Kaboodle

  Costume Catastrophe

  Candy Cane Caper

  Holiday Hangover

  Easter Escapade

  Camp Carter

  Trick or Treason

  Reindeer Roundup

  Hippity Hoppity Homicide

  Firework Fiasco

  Henderson House

  Holiday Heist – January 2019

  Zimmerman Academy The New Normal

  Ashton Falls Cozy Cookbook

  Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries by Henery Press:

  Pumpkins in Paradise

  Snowmen in Paradise

  Bikinis in Paradise

  Christmas in Paradise

  Puppies in Paradise

  Halloween in Paradise

  Treasure in Paradise

  Fireworks in Paradise

  Beaches in Paradise

  Whales and Tails Cozy Mystery:

  Romeow and Juliet

  The Mad Catter

  Grimm’s Furry Tail

  Much Ado About Felines

  Legend of Tabby Hollow

  Cat of Christmas Past

  A Tale of Two Tabbies

  The Great Catsby

  Count Catula

  The Cat of Christmas Present

  A Winter’s Tail

  The Taming of the Tabby

  Frankencat

  The Cat of Christmas Future

  Farewell to Felines

  A Whisker in Time – September 2018

  The Catsgiving Feast – November 2018

  Writers’ Retreat Southern Seashore Mystery:

  First Case

  Second Look

  Third Strike

  Fourth Victim

  Fifth Night

  Sixth Cabin

  Seventh Chapter

  Rescue Alaska Paranormal Mystery:

  Finding Justice

  Finding Answers

  Finding Courage - September 2018

  Finding Christmas – November 2018

  A Tess and Tilly Mystery:

  The Christmas Letter

  The Valentine Mystery

  The Mother’s Day Mishap

  The Halloween House

  The Thanksgiving Trip – October 2018

  Haunting by the Sea:

  Homecoming by the Sea

  Secrets by the Sea

  Missing by the Sea

  Christmas by the Sea – December 2018

  Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery:

  Murder at Dolphin Bay

  Murder at Sunrise Beach

  Murder at the Witching Hour

  Murder at Christmas

  Murder at Turtle Cove

  Murder at Water’s Edge

  Murder at Midnight

  Seacliff High Mystery:

  The Secret

  The Curse

  The Relic

  The Conspiracy

  The Grudge

  The Shadow

  The Haunting

  Road to Christmas Romance:

  Road to Christmas Past

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Up next from Kathi Daley Books

  Recipes

  Spinach Tortellini Soup

  Sauce Pot Meatballs

  Chuck Wagon Casserole

  Chicken Divan

  Books by Kathi Daley

  Chapter 1

  Monday, October 22

  The thing that hit me hardest as I stood in a dark, dank basement struggling to make sense of a death by vampire less than two weeks before Halloween, was that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to put this whole thing together. A stormy night, a creepy old house, a dog in peril, a body in the basement, and a legendary killer who couldn’t possibly be real.

  “Walk me through everything that happened from the beginning,” Sheriff Salinger, a nemesis turned friend, said to me after he’d covered the body with a white sheet while we waited for the coroner.

  I reached up to wipe a spiderweb from my hair before I began to speak. “I was at the Zoo.” I referred to Zoe’s Zoo, the wild and domestic animal rescue and rehabilitation shelter I owned. “I was about to close up when I got a call about a barking dog that was reportedly trapped inside an abandoned house. Jeremy usually closes up at five, but he was off today. He’d volunteered to chaperone his daughter Morgan’s preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. I remembered doing that when I was a kid. So fun.”

  “I don’t think I need quite that much detail,” Salinger said.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. The point is, not only was Jeremy off today but it also happens to be Monday. Aspen’s started working Saturdays so we can offer adoption services six days a week. Because she works Saturdays, Aspen has begun to take Mondays off.” I could see Salinger was becoming impatient with the details of the lives of my employees, Jeremy Fisher and Aspen Wood, but this part was important. “So not only were Jeremy and Aspen not available to take the call, but my third in command, Tiffany Middleton, who recently married Scott Walden, the veterinarian, has decided she only wants to work half days. She gets off at two.” I paused, giving Salinger time to catch up. “I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.”

  “I have no idea where you’re going with this,” Salinger countered.

  I paused as a clap of thunder shook the old wooden structure. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would admire the artistry of it all. I wondered if the storm was just a coincidence,
or if whoever put this thing together intentionally waited for one to roll in. I cringed as a second clap of thunder followed the first, then returned my attention to the sheriff. “On almost any other day, there would have been someone else at the Zoo to respond to a routine barking dog call. Someone other than me. The fact that this place,” I swept my hand around the room, “is arranged exactly the way it is tells me that whoever killed this man wanted me, and only me, to find the body.”

  Salinger still looked confused, although I thought I was being quite clear. “Don’t you see?” I continued. “A creepy old house, a dog in peril, and a body in the basement. Doesn’t it seem just a tiny bit familiar?”

  Salinger rubbed his chin with his right hand, as if trying to work through the details with which he’d been presented. After a moment he spoke. “The scene does seem familiar.”

  “The setup is the same as the scene I found when I stumbled upon the body of Coach Griswold five years ago. The way this body is posed is even the same, although the method of death is most decidedly different.”

  Salinger bent down for a closer look. He gently lifted the sheet, took a closer look at the victim, and then looked back at me. “So we have a copycat.”

  “Perhaps. But if I recall correctly, you and I are the only two people to have witnessed the scene of the first crime. I know I didn’t set this up so…” I raised a brow at Salinger.

  “Of course I didn’t do it,” Salinger huffed. “The details of Coach Griswold’s death are in the file. Photos and such. I suppose they could have been leaked at some point. It happens. But my real question is, if someone wanted to get your attention, why did they duplicate that murder? You’ve been involved in dozens of murder investigations over the years, so why this particular murder out of all the possibilities?”

  “I don’t know. I hate the idea that a man is dead and it could very well be my fault indirectly, but I really do feel it’s possible all this has been arranged for my benefit.”

  “You think this man was murdered as a prop for whatever sick game someone is playing with you?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe. I hope not, but everything about the scene of this murder seems too perfect not to have been intentional. The call about the dog was made anonymously. The person I spoke to said they didn’t want to leave a name, but they felt they should call because they were afraid the dog was trapped inside the house. I was the one to respond because I was the only one at the Zoo. When I got here there was a dog in the house, tied up in the basement. I guess whoever set this up wanted to be sure I’d check the basement.”

  Salinger stood up and took out a notepad. “Where is this dog now?”

  “In my car, with Charlie. I didn’t want the dogs to have to wait down here with the body.” I glanced at the sheet on the floor. “Who do you think it is?”

  Salinger shook his head. “I don’t know. The victim doesn’t have identification on him. I’ll run his prints after we get him to the morgue.” Salinger used his flashlight to look around the room. The storm had totally blotted out any light that would have been provided by the late afternoon sun, and the only window was a small area of glass high on the wall, at ground level from the outside. “So, if this little murder scene was set up for your benefit do you have any idea who might have done it? Any idea at all?”

  “Well, my first thought, given the fact that the man seems to have died from a bite to the neck, is Dracula, although I suppose it could have been another vampire altogether.”

  “Dracula didn’t kill this man. A vampire didn’t kill this man.”

  “How do you know?” I asked with a slight lilt to my voice.

  Salinger glanced at me. “Dracula isn’t real. Vampires aren’t real.”

  I raised a brow. “Then how do you explain the two little puncture wounds in the man’s neck? I’ve watched my share of vampire movies. I know what I’m looking at. Maybe someone I helped send to jail was turned and has come back to enact his revenge.”

  Salinger chuckled. “Enact his revenge. That’s precious. While I love your childlike belief in possibilities, I can assure you, a living person killed this man, not an undead creature of the night.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Okay, then, if not a vampire, who?”

  “I don’t know. Yet,” Salinger said.

  I could hear more thunder rolling in from the distance. Charlie wasn’t normally the sort to cower when we had lightning storms, but he’d been left in the car with a strange dog after witnessing me have a bit of a freak out when I found the body. I should wrap this up and go check on him.

  “You said it seemed the stage had been set for your benefit,” Salinger said. “Say that’s true. Does anyone come to mind who might be motivated to do all this? Anyone human?”

  I let out a little half laugh. “I’ll admit that as I was driving out here with the rain pouring down all around my car, I thought it might have been Zak who’d sent me on this fateful mission,” I said, referring to my husband, Zak Zimmerman.

  Salinger dropped his jaw. “Why on earth would Zak kill a man and then stage this scene for you?”

  “Oh, he wouldn’t,” I quickly answered. “It was just that after I got the barking dog call and realized the dog that was overheard seemed to be trapped in the Henderson House, I remembered I’d received the same call five years ago. As I made my way out here in the middle of a rainstorm, it occurred to me that my very caring and inventive husband might have set up a surprise to try to lure me out of my funk. Not that he would lure me with a dead body, mind you. I didn’t know we were dealing with an actual murder until after I got here. But as I made the trip out, it occurred to me that maybe Zak had arranged for me to respond to the same call I did years ago to bring some Halloween fun into my life.”

  “You suspected Zak would send you to a house where you previously found a dead body as a prank?”

  “Not a prank exactly. More like a gift. I suspected that when I arrived I’d find a bunch of decorations. Maybe a mannequin mimicking a murder victim.”

  “I have to say, the two of you are the oddest couple.”

  “Not odd really,” I countered. “Zak knows I usually love Halloween and appreciate a genuine scare. Normally, it wouldn’t occur to me that he would go to such lengths, but I’m afraid I’ve been complaining to anyone who will listen that I’m having a hard time finding the magic of the holiday this year. It seemed like a Zak thing to do to scare the Halloween back into me. He’s sweet that way.”

  Salinger chuckled again before taking out his camera. “I wouldn’t be too worried about not feeling the usual magic this year,” he said as he began snapping photos. “You do have a lot on your plate, and I suppose at your age the level of excitement you feel over holidays—or anything actually—fades somewhat.”

  I leaned a hip against the wall. “But that’s just it. I don’t want the fantasy to fade. Yes, I know I have a baby who requires a lot of my attention, and I’m raising two teenagers as well as seeing to Zak’s adopted grandmother. I do understand that a certain level of fatigue comes with all that. But I don’t want to settle into old ladyhood quite yet. I want to feel happy anticipation. I want to go crazy at the Halloween store picking out decorations, and I want to look forward to the Zoe Donovan Halloween Spooktacular rather than dreading all the extra work it’s going to generate. I hate that I find myself wondering if we shouldn’t have just skipped the party this year.”

  Salinger stopped snapping photos. He reached out and put a hand on my arm. “I understand how you feel. I feel the same way sometimes. But you have a long way to go before anyone is going to consider you old. Fatigue might be dimming your enthusiasm right now, but Catherine is getting older, and soon she won’t require as much care, and Nona seems to be settling into her new situation.”

  I let out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess. Zak says I should try to focus on the things in my life that fit the way things are now, like finding a cute costume for Catherine rather than worrying about the fact that I don’t
have time to organize the zombie run this year. I know he’s right. But I’ve never been good with change, and there have been a lot of changes in my life lately.”

  “I can agree that your life has undergone a lot of change in a short period of time,” Salinger said. “But no matter what life throws at you, you’re the most capable person I know. Give yourself a break and try to enjoy what you have instead of fretting over what you’ve had to give up.”

  I smiled. ‘Thanks. That helps. Zak, Levi, and Ellie have all been saying the exact same thing, but somehow it’s a bit more convincing coming from you.”

  Salinger took out a plastic bag and, using a gloved hand, bagged a discarded bottle cap as well as a partially smoked cigarette. “Glad I can help.”

  I glanced at the door leading out to the hallway. “I can hear a car in the drive.”

  “It must be the medical examiner. I’ll need to chat with him for a while. Why don’t you go on home to that family of yours? I think it would be best if you stayed close to home until we get this figured out.”

  I nodded. “Will you call me when you know whose body this is?”

  “I will. I’m hoping we know by evening, but if not, maybe tomorrow morning. Of course, if the man’s prints aren’t in the system, our job is going to be a whole lot harder. He doesn’t look at all familiar to me, so I don’t think he’s a local. He could just be someone passing through. If I don’t get a hit from the fingerprints and he doesn’t match any missing persons reports, I’ll start looking at the lodging properties in the area.”

  “If I can help let me know.”

  “You can’t. You’re retired from the sleuthing game. Remember?”

  I nodded. “I remember. That’s just another change I’m trying to get my head around. If I don’t hear from you this evening I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  I left the house through the rear; the back of the house was the closest to the basement, and suddenly, I felt claustrophobic. It was still raining, but getting wet seemed preferable to spending even one more minute in the stale air that had been trapped inside. I stepped from the small porch into the yard behind the house, turned, and looked back. I knew from previous visits that the structure was two stories, plus the attic and basement. It sat toward the back of a large, overgrown lot surrounded by an iron fence and an impenetrable gate that opened onto a dirt drive leading to a walkway comprised of four rotted steps and an equally rotted porch. The house, once owned by Hezekiah Henderson, certainly had seen more than its share of death.