Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set

by James M Matheson

  “It was a...friend of mine,” Katie said. “He was trying to help me out.”

  Sam rubbed her chin. “Well, I suppose that molding was going to have to go anyway. You can see the dry rot.” She walked over to the far wall and ran her hand along the edge of the dark stain. “Why didn’t he tear this out? Gotta replace this. Maybe what’s in behind, too. Won’t know until we get in there.”

  “Uh, my friend didn’t have time to get to the wall. Before he had to leave.”

  “That so? Well. My guys can take care of it.” She rapped her knuckles against the wall. “Sounds solid, but there’s gotta be something wrong in there. Got any other places like this in the house?”

  “Yes, I do. Upstairs.”

  Sam made a sour face. “Ooh, that’s not good. Could be some kind of mold and if it’s widespread in the house this could end up costing you a lot more than you bargained for.”

  “Oh, Sam, don’t tell me that.” Katie tried to stay upbeat but her profit margin depended on putting as little into the renovations as she could. “Why don’t we do our walkthrough and you can give me an estimate of your costs, okay? Just a preliminary estimate. I’m not expecting to lock in a price today.”

  “Now, honey, I’m so good at this that I won’t step off your property today without a firm contract signed between us, price included.” She looked doubtfully at the spot on the wall again, though, and pursed her lips. “Tell you what. I’m going to get one of my guys in to take this wall apart while we look through the rest of the house. Okay? No charge, I just want to see what I’m dealing with here. That’ll help me do up your contract.”

  That sounded good to Katie. She could get a head start on the work, and Sam could see the rest of the house and decide what things would cost.

  After the basement, Katie showed Sam the big living area with the fireplace on the first floor, and the bathroom where there were only a few things that needed to be done. Instead of writing anything down Sam nodded to everything she saw, making a mental list. Katie had known contractors who could do that and as long as all the work got done on budget it was fine with her.

  She liked Sam. Sure, the buff woman was a little rough around the edges, and Katie did not like being called ‘honey’ but those were little things. Sam was obviously good people, as they say. She laughed and made jokes and impressed Katie with her knowledge of what needed to be fixed, and might just need a fresh coat of paint.

  “So here’s the kitchen,” Katie said as they made it to the last room on the ground floor. “I want to replace the appliances, of course, and you’ll need to check the plumbing and wiring. Standard stuff.”

  “Uh-huh, yeah I can see that. Ugly stove. Uglier refrigerator.” Sam nodded at each as she spoke. “Might have someone who would buy them off you. Reduce your overhead.”

  “Sounds good. Now. Let’s go upstairs. I can show you the other room with the stain and a few other issues--”

  “Hey, Sam?” They heard her employee calling from the living room. “You should come in here and see this!”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “That’s Jake. He’s always losing his head over something. Best go see what his problem is.”

  Katie winced and took a moment to settle herself. If Sam’s worker had found something serious in that wall then she might have paid good money for a house that wouldn’t be worth saving.

  In the living room, they found Jake standing, twisting a crowbar in his hands. His face looked pale. His eyes were wide. The wall had been torn apart, through a layer of drywall and the slat boards underneath, down to the support studs. It was a good sized space that had been opened up.

  “What is it?” Sam pushed Jake out of the way to get a better look. “What’d ya find...oh, my God.”

  “What?” Katie asked. Now she was behind Sam, and her girth was enough to block her view of what the other two were seeing. “Sam, what is it?”

  Sam stepped back, and then pointed at the hole in the wall.

  Inside, between two upright studs, was a bundle of something wrapped in ratty old blankets. There was cobwebs and dust and it looked like the blankets had been chewed on by mice. That was a common hazard in houses left abandoned like this one, out in the country.

  Katie took a step closer, and then recoiled.

  Peeking out from the top of the blankets, the dead girl’s face stared back at her. One arm was bent up, the desiccated fingers of the hand spread out as if she was waving. On one finger, a gold ring sparkled with tiny diamonds under a layer of grime.

  She’d been in that closed up space for a long time, waiting for the day that someone would find her. Today was that day.

  “Oh no,” Katie whispered. “Not again.”

  Chapter 5

  The universe was out to get her. That’s what it was.

  This wasn’t the first time that she had purchased an amazing house with the intention of flipping it for profit, only to find out there was a gruesome death somewhere in the home’s past. Not exactly something that helped property values.

  Bad things happened in houses where murders had taken place. In fact, the last time this had happened to her Katie had ended up selling just the land after the home itself burnt to the ground...almost on top of her head.

  Not that the fire was her fault. That had been the ghosts who did that.

  “Please God,” she whispered to herself, “don’t let there be ghosts this time!”

  She was at the library in town, the last stop she had planned for the day. There was nothing more she could do on the Knox Estate today since it had become an active crime scene. Police cars, a coroner’s van, and a State Police forensics unit had been parked outside for hours after the gruesome discovery had been made this morning. It was now four o’clock in the afternoon. Katie hadn’t eaten, her plans were way off schedule, and she was ready to chew nails.

  What she really needed was information. The police had been very careful about what they would tell her. Which was to say that in order to err on the side of caution they had decided to tell her almost nothing at all. They had simply taken her statement, and statements from Sam and her crew, and removed the body--after taking about a million snapshots with measurements to go with each.

  The only thing they had told her was that the body was female. Katie had known that just by looking at her. She wasn’t sure how, but she knew. Maybe it was the ring, she decided. So, thanks for nothing on that one, she had mumbled after the police had gone and left her in her new house with its hole in the wall and secrets that were only now coming to light.

  If she was going to find out anything, Katie knew she was going to have to do it herself.

  She had already made all the proper inquiries when she bought the place. The realtor hadn’t mentioned anything about a murder at the Knox Estate. That was something they were legally obligated to tell her but there were always those dishonest realtors who left out details that might negatively impact a sale. Now she was going to have to do things the hard way and search the internet and newspaper records here at the Port Cable Central Library.

  That is, if they even had WiFi capability here. Looking at the place from the outside she didn’t hold out a lot of hope. It was a one story building with vinyl siding the color of moss. A letter board out front advertised “Free Book Giveaway – Tuesday.” It was the picture of a small town America library that was there just because every town should have one.

  The inside smelled of books and dust. Floor to ceiling metal shelves were crammed with paperback and hardcover books lined up in their different sections. Behind a counter to one side stood a tall woman in glasses. She smiled at Katie. “Why, hello there. I was afraid I wouldn’t have anyone come in today at all. I was just about to close up.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t,” Katie told her. “This has been a really bad day for me.”

  “Oh, dear me. What can I do to make it better?”

  Service with a smile, Katie thought to herself. One of the reasons why she loved small towns.
“If you have any articles about the Knox Estate, that would really help.”

  The librarian stared at her for a moment over the edges of her glasses. “I heard about the trouble up there today. Are you the new owner, then? I didn’t think I’d seen you in town before.”

  “That’s me, the new owner.” Even if she was beginning to regret it. “So. Newspaper articles? About the house?”

  “I don’t think so. Nothing ever happened in that house that I can think of. I’ve lived in Port Cable all my life. My mother, too, and I don’t recall her telling any stories of the place. The Knox’s were such a nice family. They had a daughter, I believe, but she moved away to college and I don’t believe she ever came back after she graduated. Emily was her name. Yes. That’s right. She moved away before her mother and father split up. Haven’t heard from her since.”

  “Wait, her parents divorced?”

  “Oh, sure. It was a big scandal for the longest time. Back then people just didn’t do that. Is that the sort of story you were looking for?”

  “Not exactly.”

  That must be why the house had been rented out to tenants for years. The Knox family wasn’t in residence any longer. A split home, with the mother and father going their different ways, and abandoning the house they’d built together. Didn’t that usually mean there was trouble of some kind?

  Katie looked past the counter and saw a table set up with three desktop computers. “Could I use one of those for a while? I’d like to do an internet search.”

  “Oh yes, please. Feel free.” She came around the countertop with a smile. “I’m Bethany, by the way. Just ask me for anything. The computer takes a minute to boot up so you’ll have to be patient. I’ll give you the password. It’s only active for an hour but I doubt you’ll need more than that.”

  She didn’t even need half that time. Every search she did came up empty. She tried searches for the Knox Estate in Port Cable, and then added the word murder, and then several variations as well. Nothing. Perhaps, she thought, it was because the Knox’s had gone their separate ways long before the age of the internet, before the police and newspapers and every Joe Schmoe with a laptop began posting copies of newspaper reports and police records for the world to see.

  There was only one bit of information that she was able to find. An obituary for W. Frank Knox, of Port Cable, Oregon. The previous owner of the Knox estate.

  It was a scanned copy of a very old newspaper that someone had put up on their personal blog--she checked the name of the blogger just for fun but it wasn’t Joe Schmoe. The quality of the scan wasn’t that good but Katie read it with interest. Died, June the 7th, of unknown causes. Body to be returned to Port Cable for burial. Survived by his wife, Justina, and his daughter, Emily.

  That was all.

  Unknown causes, Katie thought to herself. That could be any number of things. Still, if he died out of town, what could that have to do with the dead girl in her walls? Who was she?

  There was no way for her to know.

  Defeated and feeling more tired than she had before coming here, Katie thanked the librarian and went back to her car. Where to now? Could she even stand to spend another night in that house? There were a couple of motels here in Port Cable, including the one she had been staying in before buying the Knox Estate. No doubt she could find a room there again.

  Her stomach growled at her and she nearly laughed. After everything that had happened today, her body still needed food.

  “Okay then, belly.” She patted a hand around her flat tummy, trying to calm the beast inside. “Let’s get you some food. Maybe the answer will come to me after a nice cheeseburger with a side of fries.”

  This was not a nice cheeseburger.

  It was mediocre at best. The fries were nice and crisp though. All in all it was an okay meal that she had at the Meadowlark Café. She sat in a corner booth by herself, which gave her lots of privacy to think. She kept coming back to the same question--how much money would she be willing to sink into the Knox Estate before it became unprofitable?

  It wouldn’t be the first house that she had to give up on, and then sell at a loss. Those things happened sometimes. It was the cost of doing business. Usually she was very good at only buying into properties that could turn a hefty profit. You didn’t make money in this business by spending it. Sometimes you had to know when to cut and run.

  But the house and the property it sat on were just so beautiful! She knew that if she could restore the home to its former glory and do just a little bit of landscaping to the back lawn, it could easily be a million dollar home. Maybe even a million and a half. Minus her overhead, and what she paid for it initially herself, that could mean enough of a payday for her to spend the rest of the year relaxing with her feet up.

  Unless no one wanted to buy it because a girl had been murdered there and then stuffed behind a wall. There was no money in that!

  Maybe the girl was a drifter who had been squatting at the house while it was empty all these years. Katie thought that threw as she chewed. A drifter, killed by other squatters. Things like that happened. Katie thought that made sense, but then how did she get behind the wall? The stain was obviously from the process of her body decomposing--as gross as that thought was. The girl had been in the walls for a long, long time.

  Plus there was that ring on her finger. Katie doubted that any drifter could be able to afford a ring like that.

  She took another bite of her cheeseburger, then grimaced and set the sandwich down on the plate. Lifting the top bun she added more ketchup. It was way overdone. If she was going to be in town for a while, she was going to have to find a place that could make a good cheeseburger.

  “Come on, Katie. Forget the cheeseburger. Make a decision. Stay and work on the house, cut your losses and leave town. What’s it going to be?”

  “Are you speaking to me?” an elderly woman said. Katie hadn’t heard the woman approaching over the soft din from the other diners in the café. Now the woman smiled and took another shuffling step closer, holding a huge flowered purse up in front of her like a shield. “I’m sorry. Am I disturbing you?”

  “Er, no.” Katie smiled at the woman. It was always best to make nice with the people who lived in town. They would be the ones to give Katie a good word when it came time to sell a house that had been in their neighborhood for years.

  She must be about ninety years old, or so, with fine wrinkles etched in her skin from a life of laughter and frowns. Her hair was thinning and completely white. She seemed like a nice woman.

  Katie didn’t think this woman was a local, though. Beside her stood a suitcase with a long handle. Just a little thing of black leather and zippers but most people who lived in a town didn’t carry their luggage around with them.

  “Would you mind...” she said to Katie, motioning to the empty booth seat opposite her. “May I sit with you?”

  Katie was burning with curiosity. “Yes. Please, sit. I’m Katie Pearson. Who might you be?”

  “I know who you are.” The woman smiled at her again. “You’re the woman who bought the Knox Estate. Such a nice house. At least, it used to be, back when I lived there. My name is Justina Knox.”

  The room seemed to go quiet around them, or maybe that was just the sound of blood rushing in Katie’s ears. “You’re Mrs. Knox! You used to own that house? You and your husband Frank?”

  As she settled herself into the booth, Justina’s eyes were sad. “Yes. My poor husband Frank. He never got over Emily’s leaving us. It weighed on him, you see. And maybe if I’d stayed with him... Well. That’s a path I’ll never know, I suppose. I always thought that my daughter had good reason for leaving, but sill. Something like that tears a man apart.”

  “A reason to leave?” Katie couldn’t believe her good luck. Here she’d been looking for the history of the Knox Estate and completely striking out, and now the woman who had lived that history herself was right in front of her. “What do you mean, it tore him apart?”
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br />   Justina had tears in her eyes as she fiddled with the paper napkin on her side of the table. “My husband was a hard man, Miss Pearson. He did things his own way. Sometimes his hand was heavy, as they say. Oh, never when we didn’t deserve it, mind you.”

  For a moment Katie couldn’t understand what Justina was talking about. Then she got it. Justina was saying that her husband used to hit her, and hit their daughter, too. She was shocked to hear anyone say that could ever be okay.

  “That was a different time,” Justina said quickly. “A time when the husband was the undisputed head of the household. He did it for us, you see. For the best interests of his family. Emily...she never understood that. She took things so hard, always crying and running away like she did. She never understood.”

  Neither did Katie. She didn’t want to say anything that would make Justina leave but abusive relationships were never right. Ever.

  She pushed her plate of half-eaten burger aside.

  “The town librarian told me that your daughter went off to college before you and your husband broke up. That seems to be the story going around town.”

  Justina nodded. “That was what we told everyone. We couldn’t bear to have anyone know what had really happened. It would have been so embarrassing. So we just told everyone she was at college. It weighed on us, though. It tore us apart. The next thing I knew we were divorcing, and moving away, and then poor Frank...he took his own life. I tried renting the house out to other people for a few years, but no one wanted to stay for very long. So I gave up and let the bank have it. I think the house is just sad, is what I think.”

  “So you never found out where your daughter went? I’d love to talk to her.”

  Now the tears rolled out of the corners of Justina’s eyes. “I came as soon as I got the call from the police. I only live four hours away, you see, and I’m still friends with the chief here in Port Cable and he was doing me a favor by calling... I needed to see you, Miss Pearson. I needed to know.”