Ghost House

by Carol Colbert

  “There are a few very nice furniture pieces in the basement. Are you going to be removing them, or is someone planning to come back for them?”

  “No, why?”

  “It’s just that they are very nice and I was thinking maybe we could utilize them for as long as we are here. We would leave them when we move back out, of course.”

  “You’re moving back out?” Joe barked.

  He must be hard of hearing. “We just moved in, Mr. Witters, I meant when we eventually do move, we will make sure we leave that furniture where it is.”

  “Oh. My grandfather built this house. He and my grandmother lived here until the day they died. My mother and father did too. You make sure you keep the walks shoveled in the winter time. Mother didn’t stand for no snow or ice on her sidewalks. Too dangerous she always said.”

  Sarah had become bored with this conversation, she had too much to do to waste any more time on it. Riley had already made three trips back and forth to the basement.

  “Mr. Witters, it was nice meeting you and we will remember about the snow removal.” Sarah said, standing. If Joe took the hint, he gave no indication of it. “Yep, we laid out mother right there in the living room, dad we had in this room.”

  Sarah was glad Riley was downstairs just then and that Suzanne had run back to her bedroom. Since the soft approach didn’t work, Sarah knew that she had to be more direct.

  “Thank you for stopping by, Mr. Witters. Suzanne? Riley? Come on, we have to get going to the store now!” She called out to her daughters. Joe Witters finally got up and said “I’ll be going now, you mind what I said about the snow.”

  “I understand, Mr. Witters, goodbye.” Sarah had to practically shove him out the door. She then went and again told Suzanne that they needed to get some stuff done so put her shoes on and let’s go. Suzanne took her time and Riley ran back downstairs to take one more load of her stuff, so it was a good fifteen minutes before the three of them waked out of the side door.

  “You planning on watering these flowers anytime soon?”

  Sarah jumped. “Mr. Witters, I thought you had already left.” “I am leaving, just as soon as I water these flowers.” He said. Sarah was angry now. “My husband will water the flowers when he gets home from work. No need for you to do it.” She said with an edge in her voice. But Joe Witters just ignored her, picked up the hose and started to water the flowers.

  Sarah and the girls got into the car and locked the door. Sarah drove as far as the next block and then stopped and took out her cell phone. She sent a text to her husband saying “Make SURE you buy those bolt locks today for both doors and make sure you install them today too!” She typed. Then she went to the store to purchase window coverings for all of the windows, even the one upstairs in the attic.

  Chapter 5

  Riley liked to bowl, so when they could find the time, they would go to the local bowling alley and bowl a game or two. Riley met a new friend there named Julia. Sarah was glad that Riley had met someone she could be friends with. There were not many children in their neighborhood. It wasn’t long before Julia was almost a third daughter at the Gaunter home and Riley had also spend a great deal of time at Julia’s house. Julia lived a couple of miles from them, so the girls would have to have their parents give them rides back and forth to each other’s houses. It was nice too that Julia’s mother, Victoria, and Sarah had also hit it off.

  Suzanne, however, didn’t like when Julia spent so much time over their house. It was not that she did not like Julia, but she wanted to either be included when they got together, or she wanted Riley all to herself. Jim and Sarah felt sorry for little Suzanne and promised that they would get her a puppy. Suzanne figured that a puppy was much better than a sister who ignored her. They had gone as a family and picked out a cute little Cockapoo dog from the dog pound and named him Cooper.

  Cooper was just a little puppy and had a very sweet temperament. He was black with white paws and white on his chest. Riley and Julia were in the backyard when the vet called Sarah and said that Cooper was ready to be picked up. The dog pound where they got Cooper had already given him the shots he needed to have at his age, but Sarah wanted to make sure he was healthy. He had a full checkup and had been microchipped in case he ever got lost, he could be identified as their dog.

  “Girls” Sarah called to Julia and Riley. “The vet called, they are closing in ten minutes and we need to go pick up Cooper.”

  “My mom is on her way to get me right now, Mrs. Gaunter.” Sarah could not wait until Victoria got there if she wanted to bring Cooper home that night and Suzanne was already pulling at her slacks telling her “let’s go mommy!”

  Sarah looked at her daughter Riley and her friend sitting on the picnic table in the backyard and thought maybe it would be O.K. to leave them for just a couple of minutes. The vet was only a half mile down the road. She told the girls where she was going and that she would be right back and suggested they go into the house until she got back. Both girls looked at her as if she had grown two heads.

  “Ma! We are not babies, you can leave us alone for five minutes!” Riley said. “It’ll be fine, Mrs. Gaunter, my mom runs to the store all the time and leaves me home.”

  “If you are sure, I will be right back.” Sarah said. “Go already!” the two teenagers laughed.

  Sarah and Suzanne picked up the newest member of their family and Suzanne held him on her lap as they drove home. She was glad to see Jim was already home from work as she pulled up.

  “Where were you?” Jim asked, sounding worried. “Look daddy! We picked up Cooper!” Susanne told her father. Jim opened the sliding door and took the puppy out of his daughter’s hands until she could get her seatbelt off. Cooper had a leash on already, so Jim told his daughter to take him into the backyard and let him get used to his new home. He then shut the sliding door and sat next to Sarah in the front seat.

  Sarah knew her husband well. “Jim, what is it? Did something happen? Are Riley and Julia O.K.?”

  “I haven’t seen Julia. Her mom must have picked her up before I got home. How long have you been gone, Sarah?”

  Sarah looked at her watch. “Just about twenty-two minutes exactly, the vet closed at five and Suzanne and I made it in the door with only six minutes to spare. Why? Jim, what is going on?”

  Jim handed his wife a business card with the name and phone number of a State Police Officer on it. “When I got home, Riley handed me this card. She said that a car, not a police car, just a regular one, stopped at the curb and asked if she lived here and if her parents were home.”

  Sarah’s heart started to beat faster. “Jim, tell me, is Riley in the house? Is she O.K.?”

  “Riley is fine.” Jim said. “I wish you would have led off with that!” Sarah said, sounding sharper that she meant to.

  “They wanted to come in the house and said they needed to speak with the owner and also anyone who might have done any renovations or repair work here. They asked Riley how old she was and that is when they told her that they would appreciate her mother or father calling them to set up an appointment with them. They stuck this card in the gate.”

  “Why stick it in the gate?”

  “Probably did not want to freak Riley out, her being so young. I for one would not have liked her walking up to the fence to take a card from some strange man’s hand.”

  “Good point.” So now what? Sarah asked as she looked over to see Riley and Suzanne playing with Cooper in the yard.

  “I first called the State Police, not the number on the card, but their main number, just to make sure that this guy does work for them. It’s legit alright. Then I called and gave the information to the management company. I told them to let us know what day they were coming out and that we would make the house available to them.”

  “What are they searching for, Jim? Do you know?” “They never said.”

  Suzanne and Riley were having fun with Cooper. He was running all over the backyard and seemed to love
his new home as much as the girls loved him already.

  They were standing by the back door watching their new puppy play when they heard a very loud crash. Jim immediately ran into the house and did a quick look into each room and then went into the basement. He then came back outside.

  “What was that? What fell?” Sarah asked. “Nothing, nothing fell, nothing looks out of place. Don’t know what that was.”

  “This State Police business card has me spooked, Jim. Girls, come in now.” Sarah and Suzanne had already purchased a bed for Cooper after they picked him out at the shelter. Suzanne put it at the foot of her bed and then laid on the floor talking to her new pet, telling him all about their move from Tennessee.

  “Who did you talk to at the management company, Jim?” Sarah asked her husband. “I forget her name, why?”

  “I need to talk to someone over there about Mr. Witters. I am so sick of looking outside and seeing him in the bushes or watering the flowers. He is here almost every single day!”

  “That is not right, we need to complain about him.”

  “Oh I will, but let’s let it slide for a little bit. At least until we find out what this business about the police searching the house is all about. Mr. Witters will have to be there then and I would rather not get into a confrontation then.”

  “Sarah, if he makes you that uncomfortable, I’ll make sure I talk to him personally.”

  “It’s just that he is such a pest. He is always here. I’ve seen him going into that garage. I know we don’t use it, it’s so small it had to have been more for a motorcycle than a car. But I don’t think he has a legal right to get into that garage as long as we are renting the house from him, does he?”

  “No, not without asking us first, or at least giving notice that he wants to go in there. Come to think of it, were we ever given a garage door opener for it? “Sarah thought about it for a moment. “No, you are right, we weren’t.” “Another thing for your list.” Jim said.

  The sound of Cooper barking woke Jim and Sarah up just past one a.m. Jim jumped out of bed to check the house and Sarah went to Suzanne’s bedroom, which was directly across the hall from hers and Jim’s. Suzanne turned over and clutched Mr. Pickles to her, but she did not wake up.

  Cooper continued to bark. Not the type of sound that a dog might make when he is hungry or wants to be let out. This was a ferrous sound, as if he were protecting the household from imminent danger.

  “Come here, boy, Cooper, come on.” Jim said. Cooper stopped barking and walked over to Jim, turning his head once to look behind him. Jim walked down the basement stairs to make sure that Riley was in no danger. She appeared to be sound asleep. Jim picked up their newest family member and carried him back upstairs.

  “What was it, Jim? Did you see anything?” Sarah asked.

  “No. Cooper was barking at the wall.” Jim answered. “The wall? Do you think he heard a cat or some other animal?” Sarah asked her husband, giving Suzanne a quick kiss on the forehead and walking into the hallway.

  “That’s the thing, it wasn’t an outside wall that he was barking at. It was the wall between the living room and the kitchen.” Jim said, petting Cooper’s head.

  “I wonder what caused him to do that.” Sarah said, taking Cooper and putting him back into his doggy bed.

  “New home, new family, maybe he saw a spider or something, who knows. Let’s get some sleep, it’s after midnight.”

  Jim called the number on the card for the Michigan State Police and asked for the person’s name who was on the card. They arranged for an inspection of the house the following day. “Is there anything you can tell me about why you need to get into the house?” Jim asked.

  “We need to check a few things out. Have you done any renovations to the house in the last couple of years?” The office asked.

  “We only moved in a couple of weeks ago, we are renting the property.” Jim gave him the name of the management company that they had gone through and also Joe Witters name.

  “Do you have any heavy boxes in the closet or anything else that we would have to move to do a complete inspection?”

  “No, just the furniture. Are my wife and daughters expected to leave the house when you get here?”

  “No, they can stay on the porch, it won’t take us long. We will be there about 10am tomorrow morning.”

  Sarah wasn’t happy when her husband called to tell her about the conversation. “So we know nothing?” “No, but maybe I can find something out. I have an old friend who used to be on the Police Force downriver somewhere. Let me give Bob a call and see if he can find anything about this for us.”

  The Gaunter family spent a quiet evening. Jim was reading, Riley was on the computer, Sarah and Suzanne were making Freddie a new pair of pants. Suzanne reached down to pat Cooper’s head. “It’s O.K. Cooper, you didn’t mean to rip Freddie’s pants.”

  Riley looked over at the new clothes her mother was making for the doll. “Stripes? I didn’t know Freddie was a clown.” She laughed. Suzanne yelled “You’re a clown, Riley!”

  “Come on girls, no fighting. This is all the material I could find around here. It’s a good thing Cooper didn’t carry off Mr. Pickles, we wouldn’t have enough material to make him new clothes.”

  “Do you think I should take time off work tomorrow when they come look at the house?” Jim asked his wife.

  “Not really necessary, I thought you said that they wanted us to stay outside then anyway. I will make sure that they have a search warrant.”

  “I would normally ask for one, but since we just moved in and do not own the house. I thought it wasn’t really necessary.”

  “What is a search warrant?” Suzanne asked.

  “It’s a paper saying that a judge has O.K.’d the police officers to come in and search someone’s house, store, land, whatever they might own, because they are looking for something or someone who is connected with a crime.” Jim told his daughter.

  Sarah explained further, “It’s for both their protection and yours. If they come in and find something and do not have a search warrant, then they cannot use it against you in court. If you give them permission then they do not have to go through the process of getting the warrant. But the main thing is that they have to list exactly what they are looking for and are supposed to only look for places that item could be.”

  “Huh?” This from Riley.

  “Say the police are looking for a person. Then they open the drawers in your bedroom dresser and find something illegal. Anything, drugs, guns, whatever. By law they cannot use that against you or arrest you for having it.” Sarah continued. “Because there is no way a person could have been hiding in a dresser drawer, so under the rights of that search warrant, they had no business looking into the drawer in the first place. Of course, if you have something illegal just sitting around in plain sight, then it is fair game. A lot of people ask the police if they have a search warrant, but I don’t believe many people actually read it as to what it allows them to search, but they should.”

  “I guess they won’t have one then.” Jim said to his wife. “Because I already gave them permission to search and they haven’t even told us what they are looking for.”

  “I wonder if they would have to have our permission as renters, or just the owner’s permission. I guess it does not matter now.”

  Throughout her parent’s explanation Suzanne had been sitting there deep in thought. “Freddie is a person and he can fit in a drawer.” Then another thought came to her. “Wait, you mean a bad man is hiding somewhere in our house?” Suzanne asked, her eyes wide.

  “Oh no, honey, no.” Her mother assured her.

  “I heard the lady next door say that that Potter guy was in this house.”

  “Potter guy? What are you talking about, when did you hear someone say that?”

  “I heard her when I was playing with Freddie by my window. Is Harry Potter really somewhere in our house? I bet that is who the police are going to look for!�
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  “You are so dumb, Suzanne. Maybe the clown police are coming to take Freddie away for impersonating a clown!” Riley said.

  “Freddie is not a clown! Mommy, make Riley shut up!”

  Jim gave his older daughter a stern look. “That is enough now. Go let Cooper out, he’s been good so far, but you girls have to remember to let him outside to run around and do his business more often than you have been.”

  Riley and Suzanne both jumped up and ran out the back door with Cooper happily following.

  “Jim, I didn’t want to ask in front of the girls, but were you able to get a hold of your friend Bob? Could he tell you anything about this business?”

  “Oh, yeah, I did. Bob said that he spoke with someone and apparently they think that someone was killed in this house, or killed somewhere else and was in this house for a while after the murder.”

  “And you didn’t think that was necessary to tell me?” Sarah said, picking up her sewing and cleaning off the table.

  “Well, not like someone’s body is still here.”

  “Oh right, because THAT would be weird. I don’t like this, Jim. I don’t like this one bit! That Joe Witters guy always coming around and now this!”

  “He still bothering you?”

  “He does not knock on the door, he will just appear in the backyard or in the front. Looking at something or watering or weeding out something.”

  “I’ll put a stop to it.” Jim promised. “I am assuming he will be here tomorrow when the police do their search.”

  “I didn’t think of that, but you are probably right. Maybe you better take the day off work tomorrow, Jim, or at least the morning.”

  Riley, Suzanne and Cooper came in the back door. Suzanne ran up to her mommy with four flowers in her hand and handed them to her mother.