Finding the Way Back

by Jill Bisker

  “Damn it. It’s happened again.”

  “But who did it?” Connie asked. “That’s the question. Could it be Saundra again, or was it a ghost?”

  “If I had my guess, I’d say it was something in bright ugly lipstick and a short skirt. But how did she get in this time? No broken windows so far.”

  We fought our way back out of the bushes, getting scrapes and cuts along the way. Rounding the corner, I could see the back door open as well. “And there’s our answer. I never heard of a ghost having to kick his way in,” I said, pointing to the broken door jamb and large footprint in the middle of the door.

  “I’m calling the police,” Connie answered, searching through her purse for her phone.

  We walked back down to the sidewalk in front of the house to wait for the officer on duty. Ten minutes later, a squad car pulled up to the house.

  I smiled as I recognized the officer. “Well, if it isn’t Tina Swanson,” I said, walking to meet her at the car. In a small town it wasn’t unusual to run into people you once knew but to see old friends was a welcome diversion. Her partner, a short, sandy haired man, got out as well.

  Dark hair pulled back in a bun, tan and buff, she took off her sunglasses and smiled back at me. We had been in track together in school and she still looked like she ran five miles a day. It didn’t take much to picture her as a law enforcement officer. “Hi, Laney! I haven’t seen you in a while. I’d like you to meet my partner, Officer Jeff Burns.”

  He reached out to shake hands with me and Connie. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” His charming southern accent told me he wasn’t from the area. I was sure it would make him popular with the local ladies.

  “So you had a break-in? Was it a broken window or jimmied door? Do you know if anyone is still in the house?” Tina asked.

  “It’s been quiet since we got here but we really don’t know because we haven’t gone inside yet. They left the front door standing open, but the back door was kicked in.”

  “You two wait out here while we check the house,” Officer Burns told us. He and Tina placed a hand on their weapons, but left them holstered as they went into the house.

  I hoisted myself onto the back of my vehicle to wait, while Connie paced back and forth on the sidewalk. I dug through my purse trying to find my cell phone and found it buried on the bottom. I brought it out to make a call and realized it was dead again. How was that possible? Since I kept forgetting to get a new battery I contemplated asking my mom to pick one up on her way back to the house.

  “Connie, my phone is dead. Will you call my mom and tell her what’s happening? We don’t want her to hear it first from a neighbor.”

  Connie pulled out her phone and tossed it to me. “Here, use mine. I’m going to talk to Louise and see if she saw anyone.”

  Connie walked up to the house next door, while I made the call. Mom said she was coming over immediately with Aunt Shelly. I tried to tell them it wasn’t necessary but the call dropped. I looked down at Connie’s phone and it was dead too. Now why would both of our phones always be dead at the same time? I remembered my grandmother talking about accumulating energy and I wondered if she stole it from electronic devices. I’d have to ask Emmett about that.

  The officers returned from their search empty-handed. “No one is here now. Why don’t you come through and see if you notice anything missing.”

  I walked into the house with the officers and immediately felt something. I stopped between the living room and dining room and looked around, but I couldn’t see anything moved or missing. The hutch still looked jam packed so I didn’t think there was anything touched there. I already knew what I would find when I went into the study. Books were strewn everywhere. They weren’t gently put down but looked as if they had been thrown about by a whirling dervish. The boxes that had been sorted and stacked around the room hadn’t been moved or gone through but they did have books on top of them also. I started picking things up as I went further into the room then just stopped and looked. I was shaking—the destruction really bothered me. Someone had been in our house and did this. Would Saundra have the guts to actually break in? It was different when she had a key. We really needed to find what she was looking for before she did. If there was even anything to find. I didn’t know what to think.

  Tina came into the room behind me. “This is the only room that looks deliberately ransacked. Even though the other rooms have a lot of boxes and items, nothing else looks like it was torn through like this.”

  I leaned over and picked up a few more books from the middle of the room. “I can’t even tell if anything is gone. We hadn’t cataloged the books on the shelves. Connie and I just moved in to clean out my grandfather’s house and we’ve barely gotten started,” I began. I described our recent trouble with Saundra and explained why we thought it might have been her. Tina nodded and made a few notes on a pad of paper. I put the books I was holding on the desk and turned to leave. “I suppose we should look through the rest of the house.”

  As I headed upstairs with the officers, Connie returned from next door and joined us. The weird feeling I had when I walked in was lessening as I climbed the steps. I still felt rattled by the feeling of invasion that someone had forcibly entered the place I was calling home. If it wasn’t Saundra, who could it have been? Nothing appeared to be out of place upstairs, so we went down to the kitchen and Connie took the officers with her to the basement. They returned shortly—all was calm and everything seemed to be in place. Connie and I put away the groceries as Tina and Officer Burns wrote up their report. Tina snapped some pictures with a digital camera while her partner took notes.

  “What did Louise say?” I asked Connie, putting away the milk and cold items that had gotten slightly warm.

  “She didn’t see anyone but then she and Ruth were out all morning.”

  “It seems like someone must have been watching the house. Otherwise how could they have known we weren’t home? It just gives me the creeps. Do you think it was Saundra again?”

  “I don’t know, but if there is something she’s looking for in the house, I want to get to it first,” Connie answered.

  “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  As Tina and her partner were leaving, she said they would file the report and then see if they could find Saundra to ask her a few questions. She assured us they would have patrols drive by periodically to watch the house.

  “You know it could have been neighborhood teenagers,” Tina said. “Saundra isn’t the only one who may have heard stories about your grandfather hoarding money in the house. They could have been looking for an easy buck. You probably want to get that back door fixed before you leave the house unattended again,” Tina said as she left.

  We thanked her for coming and went to look at the back door again. “It really reminds you that you’re only keeping out the honest people,” Connie said.

  “I guess we should have installed dead bolts, although then they might have just smashed a window. We’ll need new door jambs as well. I wish I knew how to do it all myself. I’ll go call a handyman to take care of it. You get a hold of that person you said you knew at the security place. I want this place locked down tight,” I said.

  I heard the front door open and close, and then Mom and Aunt Shelly appeared in the kitchen. They saw us looking at the back door and joined us.

  “What happened? I can’t believe how lively it is around here. You girls attract all sorts of drama,” my aunt said teasingly as she took off her coat and put it on the back of the chair.

  I was grateful they were staying so calm and taking it lightly. They probably didn’t really feel that way any more than Connie and I, but it was nice that they were trying to downplay any concern.

  “If I get my hands on that Saundra,” my mom started as she and Aunt Shelly moved to the backdoor to check out the damage.

  “I can have a handyman I know come over and take a look at this mess,” my aunt said, reaching for her cell phone. />
  Cheered that the task was taken out of my hands, I made a cup of tea to help me make it through cleaning up the study. I returned to the scene of the crime and found Connie sitting at the desk with her computer, typing diligently.

  “Hey, whatcha doin’?”

  “Working on the Excel file of our items for eBay. What are you doing?”

  “I thought I would pick up all these wonderful books.”

  “Great idea. You read them off and I will look them up right now. We’ll see if they are worth anything. Plus, it’ll give us something else to think about,” Connie said.

  I started picking up books one at a time and reading off the title and author, then placed them back on the shelves. Connie entered them into her spreadsheet then searched a few websites to see if they showed up as valuable or collectible. It was fun for about the first twenty books, and there were some that were worth some money, but mostly it was quite dull. We tried making it into a game. We would both guess the value then the person who won got to look up the next book. But that took longer, and Connie was winning way more than me so I got bored with that also.

  “I wonder what made Saundra think the treasure was in this room?” I asked, making air quotes with my fingers as I said the word ‘treasure’. I picked up a few books and put them on the desk next to Connie. “Do you suppose Grandfather said something or gave her any clues?”

  “You know how it is—beautiful women can get any information out of a man,” Connie replied cynically.

  “And you think Saundra was beautiful?” I asked. “I think I threw up in my mouth a little.”

  Connie laughed. “Come on, Laney, she’s attractive in that over-groomed, fake breasts, tight skirt kind of way.” And then we both laughed.

  “Of course, we’re both a little jealous of those boobs,” I answered, half serious.

  “Unfortunately, you’re right. If we could just wear them out occasionally without being forever saddled with them, I wouldn’t mind that,” Connie added.

  “If he did hide something in this room, where could it possibly be?”

  I started to look around the room. There were wooden bookshelves on every wall. There were two window seats, one on the wall opposite the door and one along the outer wall on the left. I walked around the perimeter, scrutinizing the shelving. There were still too many books on the shelves to see the wall.

  “Maybe there’s a safe somewhere behind the shelves. That could be why she came in here and threw random books around. Trying to expose a safe or hiding spot,” I said.

  Connie continued to look up books while I explored behind some of the groups of books, knocking and pushing on the backing.

  “Seriously, Laney, do you even know what you would hear by knocking on that wood?” Connie asked, picking up a new book and examining it.

  “No, but I assume it would sound different than the other knocks, so either it’s all hollow behind the wall or there isn’t an opening.” I checked as much as I could before finally sitting down on the left window seat.

  “She could have started in here because it was cleaned out. She may not have any more information than us.”

  I was annoyed because she was right. We could be totally wasting our time. I brought my feet up and sat cross legged on the seat, picking off the polish from my fingernails. Eventually, I noticed Connie had stopped typing and when I looked up at her she was staring at me.

  “Laney, are you helping with the books or not? If you’re not going to help me, please go find something constructive to do.”

  “Fine, I’m going to see what our moms are up to,” I said as I walked out of the room and made my escape.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I found Mom and Aunt Shelly standing in front of the hutch in the dining room, discussing its contents. “I’ll take the pink Depression Glass,” my aunt was saying, taking it out of the hutch and placing it on the dining room table.

  “Good, I would like the Roseville pottery if you don’t mind. It would look perfect with my more modern home,” my mother added. Putting a vase and a bowl on the other side of the table, she then turned to look at me as I walked in the room. “Laney, is there anything you would like? Go get Connie, she should look also.”

  I walked back to the study and stuck my head in. “Hey, they want you out here to see if there is anything you’d like out of the hutch.”

  “Okay, just a second,” Connie said as she finished typing something on her computer. “Let me save this.” She got up from the desk and followed me to the dining room.

  “We’re looking at the items in this hutch and wondered if you girls wanted anything,” Aunt Shelly said.

  The four of us stood in front of the hutch, the shelves filled with old pieces from another time. There was an assortment of crystal wine glasses and bowls, china tea cups, figurines, a small collection of salt and pepper shakers and other miscellaneous items someone had loved once upon a time. It felt overwhelming to look through it all. Right now I didn’t even have a home, how did I know what I wanted to have for the future?

  “I would love to have the teacups and saucers if no one else minds,” Connie said.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I always chose things that spoke to me to have in my home. They had to feel right. It didn’t matter what their monetary value might be, it just had to have a positive energy. I opened my eyes and immediately found a tiny oval shaped bowl with a castle and sailboat painted on it. I searched the shelves for other items I may have overlooked. More items jumped out at me suddenly—an ivory colored pair of salt and pepper shakers in the shape of sea horses, a green depression glass sugar and creamer set, and a tall, plain, china coffee pot. Happy with my choices, I put them on the dining room table.

  “It’s funny how we were all drawn to different things isn’t it?” Connie asked.

  “Well, things aren’t worth fighting over are they?” my mom said then laughed. “Shelly, remember when we fought over who was going to have Thanksgiving dinner that one year?”

  “Yes, I do. I can’t believe I didn’t just let you have it. You can have it every year if you want to now.”

  My mother and aunt laughed then opened the cupboard doors in the lower portion of the hutch. There was a lovely china set with pretty pink flowers, more depression glass, mostly bowls, silver serving trays and bowls, and other items to make an elegant table. In between the two cupboard areas were three stacked drawers. I opened the top drawer and found a beautiful set of silver in a case lined with deep red velvet. The other two drawers held candles, serving silver, a hoard of matchboxes and a small wooden game of cribbage.

  As we were looking through the items we heard a knock at the front door. I went to answer it and was a bit flustered to see Emmett standing on the front porch. I hadn’t yet worked out what I was going to say or how I was going to act. The conversation I imagined in my mind alternated between me either acting cool and uncaring, or trying my ‘come hither’ look that Connie said I needed to work on. Instead, I just froze.

  “Hi,” was all I could say, and then I looked at my feet.

  “Hey, Laney,” Emmett answered warmly. I looked up and he was smiling at me. “I heard about your break-in and I wanted to check to see that you were okay and if there was anything I could do to help.” Something about the way that he looked at me told me it was going to be okay. He wasn’t someone who held grudges.

  “Thank you. That’s so sweet. Please come in. I wanted to talk to you,” I said, ushering him into the living room. Three heads turned towards us from the dining room and they greeted Emmett warmly. I realized I couldn’t talk freely in the present company, so I steered him to the kitchen instead.

  “Laney, I wanted to apologize,” he began as soon as we were in the kitchen alone.

  “You don’t have anything to apologize to me for. I’m the one that should apologize,” I answered, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

  “No, no, I was here uninvited and interrupted you. Then I o
verreacted. I’m sorry about that. I didn’t realize when I kissed you that you and Simon were getting back together.”

  “No, no, no, please, you misunderstood,” I interrupted quickly. “Yes, Simon kissed me and I’m sure it looked like I was kissing him too but it was so unexpected and sudden I didn’t react quick enough to stop him. Believe me, I left him, fully understanding our relationship is over, and that his overture was unwanted.” The words came out so fast that I couldn’t stop once I started until I finally had to take a breath.

  Emmett just stared at me for a moment. “Okay,” he said slowly, trying to process what I just said. “How about if we just forget it ever happened? Deal?” He smiled and stuck out his hand.

  I smiled back and took his hand in mine. I felt a tingling start at my fingertips and go up my arm making me warm all over. “That would be great. Thanks.” I reluctantly let go of his hand after a lingering moment.

  “So, what’s the damage on the break in? Anything taken?” Emmett asked, looking around.

  “They kicked in the back door,” I answered, walking toward it to show him. “My aunt called a handyman to fix it so hopefully that will be taken care of quickly. We think it was Saundra again but don’t have any evidence this time. I just wish we knew what she was looking for. It doesn’t look like anything is gone unless she took something we don’t know about.”

  “How about the hauntings? Any new occurrences?” Emmett asked while opening and shutting the door. He felt around the jam to see how extensive the damage was.

  “It’s been shockingly quiet. I did have an experience last night but it was pretty weird so I am not sure you’re going to believe me.”

  “This house has been by far the most active place I’ve ever investigated so try me,” he challenged me, directing me to the folding chairs on the deck. We both settled into the chairs.