“I’ll give you a hand,” Kathy said, but I need to keep watching to see if Jerry shows up at the house.”
So they began a kind of bucket brigade of boxes. When they had cleared out about ten boxes, they paused so that they could start sorting. “We’ll do four piles,” Tori said. “Sell, trash, donate, and Kathy’s B and B.”
“You can’t just give me the stuff,” Kathy said. “It belongs to your grandfather.”
“As far as he’s concerned, we can throw away everything. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of him. And you don’t have to worry about paying us, either. I intend to work your butt off,” she said and smiled.
Kathy looked over her shoulder, trying to take in her rear end. “It could stand to lose a few inches.”
Soon the piles began to grow. They filled a big box with trash and Anissa hefted it out to the dumpster. The sell and donate piles were about equal, and Kathy’s pile was the largest.”
“I just hope I get the house so I have somewhere to use all this great stuff,” she said wistfully.
Anissa came back to stand in front of the unit’s open doorway. “Hey, Kath, I think your real estate agent just pulled up at the house.”
“Oh! Where did I put the binoculars?” Kathy cried, tossing a chenille bedspread into a box and hurrying outside.
“They’re on the bistro table.”
Kathy grabbed them and ran for the boathouse, with Tori and Anissa right behind her.
The three of them clambered up the ladder and rushed for the windows like something out of an old Keystone Cops movie. Tori and Anissa crowded around Kathy just as another car pulled into the parking lot. “Uh-oh,” she murmured.
“What’s wrong?” Tori asked, angling to get a better view.
Kathy shoved her head outside the window to get the best view possible. Tori moved to another one of the windows. An overgrown willow partially blocked her view of the house, but she could still see the back end of the second car parked in the yard.
“Oh, no!” Kathy wailed and seemed to tip forward. Thank goodness, Anissa was standing close by and grabbed her by the shirt before she could tumble out the window.
“Kathy!” Tori shouted.
“I’m ruined, I’m ruined!” Kathy wailed.
“You nearly got yourself killed!” Tori managed to say, her heart pounding.
“Look, look!” Kathy implored and handed Tori the binoculars.
Tori looked out the window and her stomach did another flip-flop. Standing beside Jerry, the real estate agent, was none other than Lucinda Bloomfield.
CHAPTER 12
“What is she doing at my house?” Kathy demanded.
“It’s not your house,” Anissa said reasonably. Kathy turned a murderous glare on her. “Yet!” Anissa quickly amended.
“I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation,” Tori said.
“Like what?” Kathy demanded.
Tori couldn’t immediately come up with an answer.
“That guy at the bait shop across the bridge said Lucinda didn’t like trade, and yet she extracts rent from a lot of people. Maybe she decided to make that house one of her crappy rentals,” Anissa reminded Tori.
“Do you think she knew I was planning to open a B and B?” Kathy asked.
“Jerry could have told her.”
“I don’t think so. Not the way he acted on Thursday. When he first showed me the house—he acted like he thought I was wasting his time. Why would he ever contact her about it?” She handed the binoculars back to Tori.
“To get a higher commission? If she owns so much property, she might well be his best customer.”
“I’m going over there to find out,” Kathy declared.
“Oh, no you’re not,” Tori said, handing the binoculars to Anissa. “Not when you’re so upset. I’ll go.”
“Tori’s right,” Anissa chimed in. “She’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“Oh, all right,” Kathy agreed.
“Will you look out for more yard sale customers?” Tori asked.
“Sure thing,” Anissa agreed.
“I’m staying up here with the binoculars,” Kathy said.
“I’ll keep her company until someone shows up to look at your stuff,” Anissa said.
Tori nodded and headed for the ladder. What on earth was she going to say to Lucinda? You can’t buy this house; Kathy wants it and she quit her job and staked her future to get it. That wasn’t liable to generate sympathy, either. And she couldn’t come across as angry or even annoyed. Curiosity. Yeah, that’s how she’d handle it.
Tori looked both ways before crossing the road and walked along the shoulder to the house. At the foot of the driveway, she turned. She couldn’t see Kathy in the boathouse window, but she did see a flash of sunlight reflect off the binocular lenses.
Jerry and Lucinda were nowhere to be seen, but the front door to the ramshackle house was wide open. Tori climbed the steps. “Hello! Anybody here?”
“In the kitchen,” Jerry called. Tori traveled down the hall, but when Jerry saw her, his smile faded. “Oh, it’s you.”
Lucinda stood in the center of the room, her arms pinned to her side, clutching her purse as though expecting to be mugged at any moment. Standing nearby was a tall lanky man wearing a Lotus Bay Yacht Club ball cap. Could he be Lucinda’s property manager, Avery Simon? Lucinda looked in Tori’s direction. “Hello.”
“Hi,” Tori said.
The four of them looked at each other for long awkward seconds. Tori took in the litter on the counter and floor that Lucinda had carefully avoided. Finally, Jerry spoke. “What do you want?”
“I saw your car in the driveway and decided to come over to see the house again.”
“You weren’t planning on making an offer, were you?” Jerry asked.
“Well, no, but—”
“Then I’d appreciate it if you’d leave. Ms. Bloomfield has an appointment. You can call my office to make one, too.”
“I don’t have a problem with her being here,” Lucinda said.
“Thank you,” Tori said politely, but her mind was racing. Now what was she supposed to say?
Jerry turned his back on Tori. “What did you have in mind for the property?” he asked Lucinda.
“I wanted to see what condition it was in.” She looked at the holes in the plaster and the general destruction all around her.
“It would take a huge investment just to make it habitable,” Simon said.
“It’s a prime location. Since there’s already commercial property next door and across the street, I’m sure there’d be no problem with the zoning board should you want to develop it commercially. It’s currently zoned as residential if you’d like to go in that direction, too.”
“I haven’t decided,” Lucinda said coolly.
“I’m surprised you’d be interested in it at all,” Tori said.
“And why’s that?” Lucinda asked rather bluntly.
“You’ve got the best house in the entire county.”
“But no water access as you well know,” Lucinda countered.
“It’s pretty much a swamp out back. Probably protected. And you’d never get a boat in here. About all you can do is paddle a canoe under the bay bridge.”
“There’s a rumor that Cannon’s might be for sale in the near future,” Lucinda said.
Tori felt her stomach tighten. “Who says?”
Lucinda shrugged. “I hear things.”
Had her Gramps already been talking to customers about it? Lucinda could buy the compound with the spare change in her purse, knock down the house, boathouse and Lotus Lodge in a day and build another mansion with more than one hundred feet of prime waterfront. But could she stand living across the street from The Bay Bar, and across the way from Bayside Live Bait & Marina and the transients that came to fish on a daily basis during three seasons of the year?
Tori decided to push her. “Like what?”
“That someone is thinking of opening an u
pscale bed and breakfast in this location.”
Tori swallowed. How could she possibly know that? Then again, she, Kathy and Anissa had spoken about it in the bar. Could someone there have told Lucinda about it? The Bay Bar claimed mostly bikers as clientele, and Lucinda certainly didn’t fit that demographic. Had Simon been in the bar and they hadn’t noticed?
“Would you object to that?” she asked.
“On the contrary, I’d welcome it.”
“So, you’re not here to put a bid on the property?”
“Not at this time.”
“Oh,” Jerry said, his voice falling.
“But I also heard that something belonging to the late Mr. Jackson was found on the premises,” Lucinda said.
“What’s that got to do with why you wanted to see the house?” Jerry asked curtly. By the immediate change in his expression, he seemed to realize he might have just annoyed the richest woman in the county. “I mean, why trouble yourself with such information?”
“Mr. Jackson was my next-door neighbor. I don’t like the idea that there’s a murderer anywhere near my home.”
“It was a wallet,” Tori volunteered. “There was a picture of his children in it. His daughter identified it for the police.”
“So I understand,” Lucinda said. She turned to Jerry. “I think I’ve seen enough. Thank you for your time, Mr. Peterson. Avery and I can see ourselves out.” She gave Tori a nod and hurried out of the house, with Simon following.
“What did you have to show up for?” Jerry accused.
“She said she wasn’t interested in buying the place. Why do you think she really came to see the house?”
“I don’t care, but my clients sure do.”
“Did you present Kathy’s offer?”
“I spoke to them on the phone. When they heard Lucinda Bloomfield wanted to see it, they said they wanted to wait and see if she would put in a better offer. They’re going to be very disappointed.”
“When the police were here the other day, did they find anything else concerning Mr. Jackson’s death?”
“If they did, they didn’t tell me.”
“Did they just take anything they wanted without giving you a receipt?”
“I didn’t think the owners would care. They just want to sell. Now, come on. I want to lock up and get out of here.” He held out a hand, pointing to the door.
Tori turned and slowly walked through the trash-filled home. As she passed the parlor, she wrinkled her nose at an unpleasant odor, but it wasn’t something she’d noticed when in the house two days before.”
“Come on, hurry up,” Jerry said. Impatiently.
“Are you the only agent showing the house?” she asked Jerry.
“It’s a multiple listing, but so far nobody else has asked to show it. It’s getting on to my dinner time,” he said, becoming more and more annoyed.
“Oh, all right.” Tori hurried out the door.
Jerry locked the house and went to his car. Without saying another word, he got inside, started the engine, and backed out into the highway, nearly clipping a motorcycle that was heading east. The driver threw him a one-finger salute, and slowed even more, before pulling into The Bay Bar’s parking lot. Jerry’s wheels spun and he took off across the bay bridge.
Tori watched his car until it crossed the bridge and disappeared up the bend on the hill, then she crossed the highway, heading back to the Cannon compound.
Kathy and Anissa were waiting for her.
“Well?” Kathy demanded.
“Lucinda’s not interested in buying the house, at least right now. Her property manager said it would be a huge investment, but she didn’t seem to have a good reason for being there, either.”
“I don’t like that woman,” Anissa said. “For all I know it was her who had my daddy killed so she could get his property.”
“But she hasn’t asked you again if you want to sell. You haven’t had any trouble, have you?”
Anissa shook her head. “I don’t think she’ll be so blatant to come after me so soon after daddy’s death.”
“She said having a murderer in the neighborhood had her worried, but it was odd. She had to be there for a reason. I think my showing up may have scared her off.”
“Good,” Kathy said.
“But something funny is going on at the house. I asked Jerry if he’d shown it to anyone other than us and Lucinda, and he said no. But I swear there were empty cans and fast-food papers in the kitchen that hadn’t been there the other day. And worse, the front parlor smelled like pee. There was a fresh stain on the wall, too.”
“Do you think someone’s squatting in the house?” Kathy asked.
“If they are, they must only be there at night.”
Anissa looked thoughtful. “My daddy said he’d seen lights out on the bay.”
“But what do the two things have in common?” Kathy asked.
“I don’t know,” Tori said. “But maybe we should try to find out.”
“How would we do that?” Kathy asked.
“Hold a stake-out.”
“Oh, sure. Who do you think we are? Nancy Drew and Company?” Kathy asked flippantly.
“Hey,” Tori continued, “you were the one who told me I should keep an eye out for suspicious stuff. And it worked for us when we caught the person stealing my panties from the laundry room.”
“Say what?” Anissa asked.
Kathy sighed. “Yes, I guess I did. But where are we going to hide so that whoever is getting into the house doesn’t see us?”
Tori looked in the direction of the boathouse. “We’ve got the perfect vantage point. Now all we need to do is find a few more pairs of binoculars.”
Kathy shook her head. “It’ll be too dark. We might see movement, but moonbeams won’t give enough light to actually see anything in that yard or close to the house.”
“How do you know?”
“I peeked at night.”
“Well, where do you suggest we hide? The shrubs are out of control next to The Bay Bar, and the other side of the house is all marsh. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be hanging around outside in the cold and damp while being eaten alive by mosquitoes.”
“Me, either,” Anissa said.
“It’s okay,” Kathy said. “This is my project and I’ll figure out how to do this.”
“Why can’t we just sit in a car like cops do?” Anissa asked.
“We can’t park on the highway,” Tori said.
“No, but you’ve got big patch of grass under that big old willow. Why can’t you park there?”
“The branches,” Kathy said.
“You ever hear of clippers?” Anissa offered.
“The tree does look rather unkempt,” Kathy agreed.
“Have you forgotten we’re in the middle of the sorting project?” Tori asked.
“We can finish that tomorrow,” Kathy said. “Meanwhile, we might be able to figure out who’s squatting in my house and why.”
“Okay, okay,” Tori agreed.
“Come on,” Kathy said. Let’s get the clippers and the loppers out. We can toss everything into the Dumpster.” She looked over at Anissa. “Are you game?”
She shrugged. “I may as well be. But there’s nothing to eat in my house, so someone is going to have to feed me. Just one request: no more egg salad, please.”
#
The tree pruning was a great success. They cut the branches at about a six foot level, which would make it a lot easier to cut the grass, and it gave them plenty of room to park Kathy’s and Tori’s cars. They decided parking one would look suspicious, parking two only slightly less so.
Afterward, Tori and Kathy headed into the village to get some groceries. Anissa went home saying she’d return in time for supper and their stake-out duty.
“What are you going to tell your Gramps?” Kathy asked as she pushed the shopping cart beside the market’s meat counter.
“Gee, I hadn’t thought of that. Slumber
party?”
“Did you mention to him that I’m staying for a few days?”
“It may have slipped my mind. But don’t worry. He’s an easy-going kind of guy.”
Kathy picked up a package of chicken breasts and placed it in the cart. “I’ll sleep in the boathouse if I have to, but I need to be around my house.”
“It’s not yours yet.”
“But it will be. I have faith.”
Lucky you, Tori thought. Her future appeared to be a black hole where hope was in short supply.
Kathy selected a package of pork chops and some burgers. They moved on to the produce department, where they grabbed a couple of bags of salad, a cucumber, radishes, and tomatoes. “If we can get a couple of plants in this week, we should have decent-tasting ones by Labor Day.”
“Where are you going to plant them?”
“By the side of the Lotus Lodge, and in my side yard.”
Tori was tired of mentioning that Kathy didn’t yet own the property.
“Are we done?” Tori asked.
“No. I need to get some flour, brown sugar, eggs, and a few spices. I need to bake, and I don’t think your Gramps will mind if I share the bounty. I’ll pay for the groceries.”
“You will not. You’re unemployed,” Tori pointed out.
“So are you. And I’ll have money coming in when my birthday arrives. We’re not so sure about you.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Tori said flatly. “Okay, you pay for the stuff; I’ll go buy Gramps a couple of lottery tickets. Maybe he’ll win the Mega Millions, give me the compound, and move to Florida.”
“I’ll cross my fingers for him,” Kathy said with sarcasm. They gathered up the last of the groceries and Kathy headed for the checkout while Tori went to the service counter where she was fourth in line. By the time she got to the desk, there were three more people behind her. Apparently, Tom’s Market was the go-to place to buy lottery tickets. By the time she finished her transaction, Kathy was waiting. They walked to the car.
“What if we have to pull an all-nighter?” Tori asked.
“We did it in college all the time.”
“That was eight years ago. These days, I get crabby if I don’t get my full eight hours of sleep.”
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