Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set

by James M Matheson

  She pushed open the door and looked at the vast, empty space. The windows were dark, dusty and grimy but still let in enough light to see clearly. The attic had at one time been a room. Cleaned up it would be glorious again. This would make a great granny suite, Katie thought.

  Unfortunately, the floor was completely covered with dust, dirt and rodent crap. Katie took out the 12 traps, loaded each one with a little bit of fresh bread and placed them all around the edges of the room. The room was in bad need of an airing out; it had a dusty steel smell to it. Probably from the poop.

  Katie was in bed by 10:00 PM. She was exhausted and was pleased to discover that she drifted off to sleep almost instantly. She woke up just after 2:00 AM to go for a pee. She paused and listened. The house was dead silent. Outside of the squeaking of the floorboards there was not a peep. Back to bed she went.

  Scratch scratch. Scratch scratch scratch.

  Katie's eyes popped open. "Too good to be true. I'll bide my time and I will get you, you little buggers," she said. She pulled the pillow over her head and rolled onto her right side, facing the window. It was a beautiful moonlit night. The men would be arriving early. She picked up her phone to check how much time she had left asleep. Just over two hours. It was 4:45 AM.

  Katie was once again startled awake by what sounded like a freight train coming towards her. She sat bolt upright in bed. Diesel engines. Several. She reached over and grabbed her phone to look at the time. It was 6:55 AM.

  "Oh my God. I forgot to set my alarm. They're here early. Crap!"

  She scrambled out of bed, pulled on her jeans and sweater and tied her hair in a ponytail. She scrambled downstairs as four trucks pulled up outside of her house. By the time she got to the front door the men were unloading ladders, buckets and a variety of equipment.

  "Good morning, miss!" shouted one of the gentlemen. He started walking towards her while barking out instructions to the guys. He walked up to Katie and extended his hand. "Hello, my name is Rick and I'm the foreman for today. We'll be doing some prep on your house. Are you familiar with what prep is--"

  "Yes. I've been doing this for long time," Katie said. She laughed, as this wasn't her first time meeting a chauvinist. At least he was polite about it. "My name is Katie, and I'm the owner. If you need anything just give me a shout. Have fun!"

  The men went to work unloading their equipment and setting up at the back of the house. The back of the house seemed to need the most work, so Katie was pleased they were starting there.

  Katie decided that today would be the day she tackled the leaking toilet in the main bathroom. It wouldn't be the first time she'd replaced the seal on a toilet. It was a dirty job, but an easy one.

  Before she headed up she decided to make a jug of iced green tea, her favorite thirst quencher. As she wandered into the kitchen it immediately felt darker. She glanced up at the light and it was working fine. She looked out the spacious windows and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. In fact it was a beautiful sunny day. And yet the kitchen seemed dark and heavy.

  With the tea made and in her portable plastic jug she headed upstairs. Her toolbox was big and heavy. She was never afraid to spend money to get a job done, but liked to cut corners by doing as much as she could herself. Toilets were a specialty. Especially this one, as it was at least 50 years old and in great condition.

  Time flew by and Katie heard the boys leaving, presumably for lunch. Her knees were sore from kneeling down on the tiled bathroom floor. What a feeling of accomplishment, though, as she had not only replaced the seal on the toilet but had also fixed the leaky faucets in the sink and the bathtub. As she stood up her stomach let out a loud growl. If the boys were going for lunch, she was gonna make herself lunch as well.

  Katie headed down the creaky stairs and turned left into the kitchen. The kitchen smelled as though something had died in it. And it seemed even darker and gloomier than in the morning. She opened up the back door to let some fresh air in and immediately started investigating for a dead animal--rat, mouse, or whatever. She systematically went cupboard by cupboard but found nothing. Not even droppings.

  She shrugged it off and made herself a fresh roast beef sandwich complete with fresh bread and a lovely helping of Dijon mustard. She almost inhaled the sandwich, she was so hungry. She debated about having another sandwich but decided otherwise as she was trying to keep her waistline from growing.

  Perhaps it was the thought of a dead animal in her kitchen, but she cleaned the counters extra diligently just in case. "Cleanliness is close to godliness," she said to herself, thinking of her mother. She was falling in love with this kitchen. She loved the brightness, she loved the colors and she loved the space. Maybe I should keep this house for myself?

  The back door slammed shut. Katie grabbed the counter and dropped her cloth. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. It scared the crap out of her. She was certain it was the wind, but she darted her eyes all around the kitchen just to make sure nobody--or no thing--had gotten in. Damn wind scared the hell out of me. She bent down, picked up the cloth and tossed it in the sink.

  Katie was washing her hands when there was a knock at the front door. She grabbed the towel and headed for the door. It was Big John. Her heart was still racing when she got to the door.

  "Hey John, how the heck are you?"

  "I'm doing great, ma'am. Thanks for asking. I've got your full quote all worked out. Wanted to show it to you," John said.

  Katie noticed he was standing there kind of awkwardly and realized she should invite him in. A polite man. "That's awesome, come on in."

  They headed into the kitchen where they had sat before and he opened up his binder. Katie asked him if he wanted anything and all he asked for was a glass of water. She poured the glass and sat down with him.

  "Hey, guess what? I set enough mousetraps up in the attic to take out an army."

  "Oh? Mousetraps? Those things aren't mice, it's a ghost! That's where one of the folks died--"

  "What?"

  "I'm just kiddin' ya. They are just--"

  "Somebody died up there? What the hell?"

  "Well..."

  "Talk to me, Big John. Is that true?"

  "Well... I'm surprised you didn't know that. An old woman died up there fifty...maybe sixty years ago..."

  "Oh my God. Really? Are you kidding me or telling the truth?"

  "Oh. It's the truth, ma'am. Wouldn't joke about that. Place has sat empty for almost all of these years. Well, furnished and all, but empty as in nobody ever stays here long--"

  "What happened?"

  Big John let out a sigh and sat back in his chair. "Well, there are a few stories. But the one most agree on is that old John Blackstone lost his job and lost his mind. He murdered his wife and kids as well as his disabled Ma who lived in the apartment upstairs..."

  "Good Lord."

  "Weirdest part is that he completely vanished after--"

  "Come on, John. You're just telling a ghost story."

  "No, ma'am. He disappeared. Of course, it was easier to do that fifty years ago than today. He tried to burn the place down but that failed - that’s the damage you see out the back - and we’ll fix that for ya.

  “Yep. Boy just flat out vanished. Not a trace of him was found. They didn't discover the bodies for weeks. Everyone thought that they had taken a trip to see family. Pretty gruesome to say the least."

  "Horrible--"

  "But what you got upstairs ain't ghosts. They're roof rats. Pretty intelligent too. You gotta put the traps up there for a few days so they can mark them with their pee. Then you bait them. That's how you catch those guys. Ain't no other way--"

  "They pee on them? That's interesting. So the traps are no good?"

  "Total waste."

  "Well, I guess I'll toss the traps and get some new ones."

  John and Katie went over the proposal. It was broken into three parts: the exterior, interior and landscaping. Katie was extremely pleased, as he saw things that she had compl
etely missed and his pricing was extremely fair. Big John lived up to his reputation of being honest to a fault. The only part that Katie declined was a section of the landscaping that she deemed unneeded. Didn't matter, it only shaved off a few dollars, but it made for a quicker turnaround.

  With the exception of the landscapers--who were booked solid anyway--John guaranteed everything would be complete in less than five weeks, more likely four. This made Katie even happier.

  Both agreed that almost everything was cosmetic, except a major rewiring job upstairs. Someone, at some time, had taken the trouble to rewire the downstairs but not the upstairs. Strange? Yes, but Katie had seen stranger.

  Katie gave him a substantial deposit. More than she normally would, but she had an intuition that John would need it and it would help get things moving for both him and her.

  Big John got up from the table and caught Katie off guard by giving her a sideways one-arm hug. "I'm gonna take care of you, little lady. You remind me of my daughter..." he said, his voice drifting off. It was comforting having such a large teddy bear of a man watching over her.

  The boys were back at work as John headed out the front door. "Get to work, you lazy buggers!" he shouted, playfully, at the guys, to which they gave him 'yeah-yeah' nods and comments. Big John had a good crew assembled.

  Katie rushed upstairs to get the sheets on the guest bed in anticipation of Mel coming. The bed, like hers, was brand spanking new in an original Queen Anne bedframe. The room looked beautiful. She was squealing with delight at the chance to spend time together.

  Katie silently wished for an eventful weekend with Mel.

  Chapter 3

  Katie didn't hear the car pull up, but she did hear the toot-toot of the car alarm and rushed downstairs. She could see Mel's black Mercedes parked out front. She got to the door just as the doorbell rang. She was excited.

  "Hey, stranger!" Mel said. Mel had a loud voice that carried, and she was also excited to see her friend. They hugged in the doorway.

  "Since this isn't your house, I got you a not-a-housewarming gift--"

  "Come on, you didn't have to do that--"

  "I brought six bottles of wine and a boatload of dark chocolates."

  "We are going to be hung over this weekend, I can tell! I just picked up exactly six myself," Katie said.

  "Well, the weekend is ticking away, let's get digging into a bottle!"

  Katie grabbed Mel's bag and led her into the great room, which she called the library. It was a massive room with bookshelves all around with many books still there, some dating back to the 1920s. The main feature was a massive stone fireplace with a beautiful mantle and a giant painting of John Blackstone, the original owner of the house. Katie had removed all of the sheets from the furniture, and although quite old, much of it was still nice and functional. It was like stepping back in time. The giant windows gave a view out of the front of the house to the beautiful trees of the forest down the hill.

  Katie asked Mel to have a seat and get comfortable, but Mel was excited to see her and followed her into the kitchen. Katie placed the box with the six wine bottles on the counter and grabbed two wine glasses.

  "I popped a bottle of Cabernet, so let's start with one of mine," said Katie.

  "How are the guys working out for you?"

  "Well, I'm using Big John, and his crew is doing fantastic. Fast workers. I'm happy."

  "I envy you, Katie. I'd love to do what you do--the amazing transformations you do--but I'd probably kill all of the workers my patience is so short!"

  Katie laughed. "You probably would. You do so well at real estate sales, I'm not sure why you'd want to get into this--"

  "Money, baby. Money. This girl needs cash flow. How else can I afford cheap wine?"

  "Hey, speaking of killing, why on earth didn't you tell me there was a murder here?"

  "Never thought of it. Stories are all over the place with that, anyway. And it was a long time ago. Besides, I've never been in a haunted house before, and so I figured if you got it, I'd have my chance!"

  "Sorry to disappoint, no ghosts here." Katie decided to leave out the information about the rats in the attic, then panicked, realizing that Mel would probably see them when she took her for a tour.

  Katie chuckled to herself as her best friend chugged back the wine. "Tough day?"

  "We had a legal problem with a house closing. Took hours to get resolved and was a royal pain. Need to drown it out with the wine tonight." Mel gave a fake laugh.

  "Grab another glass, get settled into your room and I'll have supper ready shortly."

  Katie took her upstairs to her room and Mel got settled in. Mel showered and changed into her 'comfies' consisting of an old grey pair of track pants, a t-shirt and a sweater. Katie made up a simple but delicious salad and roast chicken breast dinner. Wine flowed easily. After the meal, they retired back to the library.

  "Let's start a fire," Mel said.

  "Big John kind of discouraged me from setting fires."

  "Why?"

  "He said the chimney was in bad need of cleaning. He said if I started a fire not to let it go overnight."

  "Come on. Let's just start a small one. I will make sure it's out before I go to bed."

  Katie was nervous, but Mel knew a lot about houses and she trusted her. Besides, there was a damp chill in the library and a fire would probably get rid of that.

  The women settled in with their wine and chocolates. There was a lot of laughter and fun in catching up.

  "I love what you're doing with the bathroom upstairs, it looks great. My bedroom looks awesome, needs a little work but will be fantastic when done. I don't know what happened to the ceiling upstairs. Looks like a bomb hit it--"

  "Yeah, the ceiling's been falling down. I've had to knock a few loose chunks off. But we'll get that fixed up as soon as the boys get around to fixing the inside of the house."

  "I love the fresh smell of lavender in the bathroom."

  "Wait... You smelled the lavender too?" Katie was perplexed. "There were a couple days where the scent was overwhelmingly fresh, like a bouquet had been placed in the bathroom, but I can't figure out where it's coming from."

  Mel paused. She wasn't sure if her friend was having fun and trying to spook her. "You don't have a can of air freshener or one of those scented stick thing-a-me-bobbers?"

  "No." Katie was looking back at Mel and realized she was a bit skeptical. "Seriously. I've been working on that bathroom, cleaning the tiles, and I thought the same thing. I thought it was an air freshener. I checked everywhere. There's no way the scent would be that strong if it was just stuck to the wallpaper, do you think?"

  "Well. The scent can certainly linger..." Mel realized her friend wasn't lying and wondered about it. "I'm going back up to see if the smell is still there."

  Mel's sudden decision spooked Katie. The hairs stood up on her arms. Both women headed up the stairs to the second level. All the lights were on. If Mel is trying to scare me, I'm gonna kill her, Katie thought to herself.

  Mel tilted her head back slightly and started sniffing. The sight made Katie giggle. But Mel was on a mission. She knew she didn't imagine it and was determined to find the source. The two wandered the upstairs, into the bathroom and even into the bedrooms. Nothing. If anything, the air was slightly stale.

  After a few moments Mel made a pronouncement. "Beats me. I need more wine."

  Katie opened her eyes. For a few moments she was unsure of where she was. Her neck was sore--she had a bad kink in it--and she rolled to her right side. She realized a number of things at once: she was in the great room, the fire was dying out, and she was lying on the couch with a pounding hangover headache.

  Mel was gone. The nightlight in the kitchen was on, so she made her way upstairs. The other nightlight in the hallway was on too. She quietly tiptoed back to her room. Mel's door was wide open and she was lying face down on her bed, illuminated only by the moonlight. Katie could tell she had just taken her pants off
, left her top on and dropped face down on the bed. As painful as her head was, she let out a little giggle and headed to bed herself.

  Chapter 4

  "Wow, my head hurts," Katie said to herself. She lifted her head from the pillow and looked down to see that she was fully clothed with the exception of bare feet.

  Holy crap, what a hangover this is. She rolled over to her side, facing the window. Her head was pounding rhythmically but the silence brought her some peace. That is, the silence plus Mel's snoring next door. Otherwise, silence. Silence, pounding headache, and snoring. Great.

  Katie's eyes started to close when she heard a weird noise outside. It was a dull thudding sound. Like someone was kicking a large bag of leaves across the backyard. It broke the silence because it was not rhythmic.

  Katie got up and went to the window. The moon was bright and lit up the yard quite nicely. She couldn't see a thing.

  Thud. Thud. Thud.

  Well, I'm awake anyway. Let's see what this is.

  Katie headed downstairs carrying one of her favorite secret weapons: a long metal police flashlight. The joke was that with the D batteries in the flashlight and the D cup boobs, she wasn't to be messed with!

  Cautiously, Katie approached the front door, listening. There was a long pause, and she was about to head back upstairs when she heard another thud. She clicked the flashlight on and changed the setting to wide. She opened up the door slowly, shining light onto the front porch. It was all clear. Scanning the flashlight from the far left to the far right ever so slowly, she looked for any anomaly. There was none to be seen.

  The thud happened again. Straight out in front of the house was a giant willow tree. It seemed that the thud was coming from there. A little nervous and yet brave at the same time, she slowly stepped out onto the porch. It was cold and damp to her bare feet.

  She twisted the flashlight, changing the beam from wide to pinpoint. This was the setting her father had taught her to use when answering the door: the pinpoint would blind a troublemaker--and if necessary she could knock him out by smashing him over the head with the long handle.