“How beautiful, thank you, Suzanne.”
Chapter 6
Sarah and Jim were awaken by a loud crashing noise. Cooper then started barking and ran to the landing. The clock flashed the time of 1:11a.m. “Jim, what is it?” Sarah asked after her husband had time to reach the kitchen. “Jim? Should I call 911?”
“It’s O.K., the doors and windows appear to be secure.” Jim said, going into the basement. Cooper whined and hid under the dining room table. Sarah picked him up “What is it, Cooper? Are you O.K.?” It was then she noticed the vase that held the flowers Suzanne had picked for her earlier was laying sideways on the table, the water dripping onto the floor.
Jim came back upstairs and said “Nothing down there except the bulb in the lantern is shattered.”
“Did the light just get too hot and explode?” Sarah asked. “Impossible, it wasn’t turned on and the broken bulb isn’t even warm to the touch. What happened here?” Jim said, looking at the overturned vase.
“Cooper must have gotten scared and ran under the table. He probably bumped into the chair or something that jarred the vase. That wouldn’t have made that loud noise though.”
“Yeah, I heard Cooper whine.” Jim said, looking out the back door window.
“Maybe its Harry Potter like Suzanne said.” Sarah smiled trying to calm her nerves. “Do you think maybe that noise is coming from a neighbor’s house? I mean, we have heard it twice already.” “Anyone’s guess.” Jim said, walking back to the bedroom.
Jim, Sarah and the girls were sitting in the backyard at the picnic table when the three State Police officers pulled up. They had a camera and a bag with them, and were putting on gloves when they greeted the family.
“O.K. if we go in now?” One of the men asked Jim. “Yes, we will just stay out here.” Jim answered, picking Cooper up. Cooper did not bark at the men. The officers were in the house quite a long time before they finally came back out. Two of the men walked directly to their vehicle. The third man, who seemed to be in charged, walked over and thanked Jim and Sarah for their cooperation. “Did you find anything?” Sarah asked. “Like what, Mrs. Gaunter?” The detective asked. “Like anything you were looking for.” Sarah said, feeling silly that she even asked him in the first place, knowing they probably would not tell her if they had.
Cooper picked that moment to run and jump on the detective’s leg, wanting to play. “What a cute little dog.” He said, reaching down to pat Cooper’s head. “Have a nice day, and thank you again.” The detective said as he joined the other two men in the car.
“I hope they didn’t trash the place looking for whatever they were looking for.” Sarah said. Jim and Sarah went back into the house and were happy to see that nothing seemed out of place. The only indication that they had been in the house was a small hall rug which was caught under the hall closet door. “I wonder why they looked in the closet.”
“Maybe they were looking for a secret passageway.” Riley said. “To where? There is only the back wall of the kitchen on the other side of that closet wall. No, this house is too small to have anything like that.” Her father said, then added, “Well, everything seems to be in place, I guess I should get to the office.”
The girls were playing in the backyard with Cooper when Sarah heard Cooper barking and growling. Looking out the kitchen window she saw Joe Witters standing at the gate. Sarah went to the back door and told the girls to pick Cooper up and hold him, then she asked Mr. Witters what he wanted.
“Those fellows from the police already leave?” He asked. Sarah went outside and told the girls to go inside to play with Cooper, then she motioned Mr. Witters to sit at the picnic table. “Yes, they have already been here and left a while ago. Someone mentioned that someone might have been murdered in this house. Do you know anything about that, Mr. Witters?”
“Well, I did have this couple renting the house up until about six months or so ago. They had two daughters, older than teenagers. The parents were both killed in a car accident and I didn’t want to just throw the girls out after they had just lost their parents.” Mr. Witters explained. He then looked at the house and said “I don’t remember your husband telling me that you had a dog.”
“The parents were killed in an auto accident and the girls lived here how much longer?” Sarah prompted him to continue the story.
“I gave them two months. One girl moved her boyfriend in, I think he was on drugs. Looked like it. One of the girls died, don’t remember which one. Then I was going to tell the other one she had to leave, but she took off before I could.” He said.
“Died in this house?” Sarah asked him.
“Don’t know really, today they were looking for bullet holes or recently patched up remodeling work is what they said on the phone. None of that in my house. What happened to mother’s flowers?” Mr. Witters asked, standing up and walking over to the flower bed where Suzanne had picked the flowers. “That damn dog messed up mother’s flowers!” He said anger in his voice.
“Mr. Witters.” Sarah said sternly “I will take pictures of how the yard looks and after our lease is up, we will make sure that the yard is as it was when we got here. There is nothing in our lease saying that we could not have a pet. Besides that, we not only rent the house, but the yard and that garage are part of the deal as well. We were not given a key to the garage, storage shed, or whatever that is. Until we leave, we would appreciate if you limit your contact with us, isn’t that the management company’s job, anyway?”
“Just keep that dog away from mother’s flowers and make sure you keep the walks shoveled and the grass cut.” Mr. Witters said, walking to the back gate.
Sarah just stood there watching him leave. Annoying old goat. Before she could forget, she took her phone out and snapped several pictures of the yard and flowers. On a whim, she walked over to the tiny garage and tried the handle again, still locked. He never did answer me about the key to this thing.
“Want me to knock that lock off for you?”
Sarah jumped, she hadn’t noticed the young man walk up to her. He was an older teenager, had tattoos and long hair.
“No, that won’t be necessary. Thank you for offering though.” Sarah said.
“My name is Alex. Need anyone to cut your grass for you?” Sarah started to tell him no, but then thought better of it. “Maybe. Do you have a telephone number I can call you at later after I speak to my husband? It’s a big yard and he works so he might appreciate the help. I can’t promise you right now though for sure. Do you also shovel snow?”
Alex told her his phone number and Sarah put it into her cell phone. “Sure, I shovel snow, the old lady who used to live here used to shovel it herself, but since she died, I pick up a lot of shoveling days for this house.” Alex said.
“Oh, did you know Mrs. Witters?”
“No, my grandfather use to say there was an old lady who lived here when he was about my age. Mean ole thing, used to have him come back and shovel again if there was even a little bit of snow left on the walks. She had a son who also shoveled the snow. I was talking about the other old, um, older lady, the one who lived here last year. I shoveled it for them until the house was empty again. There are usually people living here who are busy or don’t have a son to shovel, so it helps me out and them. The house looks good with the new siding on it.”
“New siding? When was it changed, do you remember?” Sarah asked, not really sure why, except that the police were interested in recent renovations.
“A couple of years ago.” Alex said, the expression on his face changing into a smile.
“Mom, oh, hi, I’m Riley.” “Alex,” “Mom, Suzanne is being a brat. She is trying to give Cooper a bath in the bathtub and she is making a big mess.”
“Oh no! Nice to have met you, Alex, I will let you know about the grass.” Sarah said, then turning to Riley she said “Come help me, this might take the both of us.” More to get her away from Alex than to actually call on reinforcements for Suzanne. Alex s
eemed like a nice kid, but he was older than Riley and Sarah was not fond of tattoos. More to the point, boys with tattoos staring at her thirteen year old daughter.
Sarah and Riley had just walked into the dining room from the kitchen when Cooper ran past them. He was soaking wet and had Freddie in his teeth as he ran into the basement.
Suzanne came around the corner then, equally as wet as her puppy. “MOM! You should have caught him!” She yelled. Sarah reached out and caught her daughter instead. “Suzanne! What made you think it was a good idea to give Cooper a bath in the bathtub?” She demanded.
“Where else would you take a bath?” Suzanne looked at her mom in obvious confusion. Suzanne then realized that they had never had a pet before, so Suzanne would not automatically know that dogs were washed either outside or in the laundry tub in the basement.
“You are so stupid, Suzanne!” Riley said. “You are stupid!” Suzanne shot back. Sarah took Suzanne into the bathroom and told her to take off her wet clothes and told her to throw them down the chute. Both girls looked at their mother. “The coal chute?” Riley asked her.
Sarah showed the girls the little square door at the end of the hallway in the wall. She opened it and told them that was a laundry chute. She explained that you put your clothes in it and they fall into a basket in the basement. That made it easier on wash day, because you didn’t have to carry the dirty clothes down the stairs.
“Wow!” Riley said. “They keep coming up with new stuff all the time!” “Actually,” their mother said, “I doubt they make those chutes anymore, the houses mostly had them a long time ago. I haven’t seen one in a very long time. Our house in Tennessee didn’t have one.”
Riley said that she did not remember seeing a basket in the basement that the clothes would fall into. “You are correct, Riley, thanks for reminding me!” “Another thing for the list!” Suzanne said.
Sarah cleaned up her daughter and the bathroom and took the wet throw rug and towels and went down the stairs to do a load of laundry. Cooper was down there sitting on Riley’s bed, Freddie at his feet. He ran and jumped up against Sarah’s leg. Sarah noticed how Cooper smelled. Oh no, Suzanne used my expensive hair conditioner on him.
Sarah was just putting the liquid washing detergent into the washer when she heard loud music coming from upstairs and the sound of several shoes against the hard wood floor, like people dancing. I see now why apartments always have carpeting. I never realized how loud shoes sound walking on hard wood floors from a lower level. She heard laughing and talking.
“Riley, turn down the TV.” Sarah called up the stairs, but the noise continued. Sarah washed her hands in the laundry tub and went back upstairs. As soon as she got to the top of the stairs, the noise stopped altogether.
“You didn’t have to turn the TV all the way off, Riley, just down.” Sarah said walking into the living room. There was no one there, the television was not on. She went into her and Jim’s bedroom, the only other place there was a TV, but their room was also unoccupied.
Sarah was looking in Suzanne’s bedroom when she heard the back screen door slam. She walked into the kitchen and saw Riley and Suzanne taking cookies out of the cookie jar. Suzanne started to hand one to Cooper.
“No, Suzanne, those have chocolate in them. Chocolate can make dogs very sick. Give Cooper one of his treats.” “O.K. mom” “Were you girls outside for a while?” Sarah asked them. “Riley was looking for some boy over the fence.” Suzanne tattle tailed. “I was not!” Riley said.
Sarah walked over to the front door and opened it. No one there. Strange. “Did you girls have the TV on before you went outside?” “No, nothing on TV during the day but soap operas.” Riley said.
That night at dinner, Jim told his family that the next day was bring your daughter to work day.
“What is that, daddy?” Suzanne asked. “It is a day that I can bring you girls and show you where daddy works and what I do for a living.” Their dad said. “What you do to live?” Suzanne asked.
“Daddy means what he does that his company pays him for so he can take care of us and buy food to eat.” Sarah said. “Are they going to pay me too?” Suzanne asked. “No, dummy!” Riley said. “We just go and watch daddy work.” “Oh.” Suzanne said, all the enthusiasm out of her voice now. “Can Cooper go too?” “No honey just you and Riley. It will be fun and we can go out to lunch and I even get to leave earlier than usual.” Jim explained. “Can mommy go too?” Suzanne asked. “Thank you, Suzanne, but mommy and Cooper will stay here. We still have a lot to do around here.” Sarah told her. “Can I bring Mr. Pickles and Freddie to work, daddy?” “They would be bored.” Her father said. “O.K., Freddie can stay with mommy and Mr. Pickles can come with us.” Suzanne decided.
Sarah did all of her grocery shopping the next day and got several other errands out of the way that were easier to do without the girls. When she pulled up to the curb and turned off the van she noticed smoke coming out of the back basement window. She had to think for a moment if she had left the dryer on and the smoke like mist was from that, or was there an actual fire in her basement?
Sarah ran to the back door and opened it with her key and then ran down the stairs into the basement. Nothing. No smoke, nothing out of place. That is so odd. Sarah made several trips in from the car and once she had all of her groceries and other packages from her shopping trip on the table she again thought of the white smoke she had seen and how she then saw nothing in the basement that would have caused that.
Sarah realized with a start that there was something else that she hadn’t noticed until just this second. Where was Cooper? She had neither seen, nor heard him since she came home.
“Cooper! Cooper!” Sarah went through every room and finally she heard him whimpering behind the closed door to the upstairs bedroom that they had never explored yet because of the extreme heat. Sarah threw open the door and there was little Cooper looking up at her with his big eyes and he looked tired and was panting heavily.
Sarah picked him up and then grabbed a cold bottle of water out of the refrigerator and an empty bowl and her keys. She ran outside with Cooper in her arms. She got into the van and turned on the air conditioner at almost full blast and sat Cooper on the seat next to her and poured out some of the water into the bowl. Cooper lapped it up so quickly that she was afraid it would make him sick if she gave him too much more cold water in his hot tummy. She did get some paper towels out of the back seat and wet them and placed them on Coopers head. Little Cooper looked up at her with love in his eyes and the two of them sat there in the van with the air conditioning on until Cooper seemed back to normal. “You scared me, little sweetheart.”
Cooper jumped out of the van when Sarah opened the door and he ran into the backyard and took one lap around it before stopping to relieve himself. Sarah waited until he was through and they went back into the house together. The house was cool because Sarah had left the air conditioning units on while she had been shopping, but there was no air conditioning upstairs and with that door shut and no way to get to his water dish, Cooper could have been in serious trouble if he had stayed there much longer, or if he had been an older dog.
Cooper stayed by Sarah’s side as she put the groceries away, the ice cream had been well on its way to melting. She made spaghetti and meat balls and set the table for dinner so Jim and the girls wouldn’t have to wait on their dinner. Sarah had enjoyed her day to herself, days like that were rare. Suzanne would start school in September and then she would have more time, but it was nice to get things done today without having the kids with her. She felt guilty now though, poor little puppy. She wondered how Cooper got stuck on the stairs behind that door. It was not a door they ever had reason to open. They had not even stored anything up there like she originally thought they might do.
Sarah finished her dinner preparations and then sat in the living room with Cooper on her lap, both taking a well-deserved break.
“We’re Home!” Sarah heard Jim’s vo
ice coming in the back door. The girls had t-shirts with the JAMICO logo on it and both girls were smiling and full of stories to tell their mom. Sarah laughed when she saw that even Mr. Pickles had on the company t-shirt.
“We have missed you!” Sarah said and meant it. “Come sit down, I made spaghetti!” Sarah said, turning on the oven to heat the garlic bread and asking Jim to get the salad out of the refrigerator.
“Yea!” Suzanne squealed.
Chapter 7
Saturday morning everyone slept in except Cooper. He went into Sarah and Jim’s bedroom and rubbed his head against her outstretched foot. Sarah let him out into the backyard and then made herself some coffee, went into the living room and turned on the T.V. She rarely had time to watch television since they moved to Michigan. She was amused at a news story about a little dog, a cockapoo like Cooper. When the dog’s owner would tell the dog to ‘say momma’, the little dog would say it and it actually sounded perfectly clear.
She heard Cooper jump up against the back screen door so she let him in and poured herself another cup of coffee. Cooper jumped on her lap as soon as she sat back down. Sarah looked at Cooper and said “Say Momma, Cooper.” Cooper turned his little head looking at her and said nothing. Sarah wasn’t going to give up that easily. She looked at him and over and over again she said “Momma”.
“Try and see if he will say Daddy.” Jim laughed at her from the doorway. He walked into the kitchen and got himself a cup of coffee and sat down next to his wife. “There was a story on the news and it showed a little dog just like Cooper and he would say momma every time his owner asked him to.” Sarah explained. “Cooper is smart, but I bet even if he could talk, it would be a long time training him to. Not that he would know what he was saying.” Her husband said.
“I want to run some things past you before the girls get up, Jim.” “More to-do things for the list?” He asked.
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