by Marja McGraw
I moved on to the second room and discovered that door was also open. Remembering when someone had thrown a pillow case over my head, I entered the room slowly and carefully. My attention was immediately drawn to the dresser. It was pulled slightly away from the wall. I looked around carefully, but didn’t see anyone. Nothing else seemed to be out of place, so I tiptoed over to the dresser. My instincts told me to be quiet.
Something about the wall didn’t look right. I leaned over to look behind the dresser, and I could just barely see a seam in the wall. Upon closer examination, I discovered what could be a door. At least it looked like the outline of a small door. I leaned on the dresser to get a better look and knocked over a vase. Glancing around guiltily, even though it was my house and a vacant room, I picked it up and carefully set it back in its place. I hoped no one had heard the noise.
I heard someone coming and again my instincts took over. Stepping away from the dresser and toward the door quickly, I hoped it would look like I’d just entered the room.
“Oh, Miss Sanders. I thought I heard someone in here.” Ted pushed the door open and tipped his head, looking at me intently. “I knew this room was vacant, so I thought I should investigate the noise in case something was wrong.”
“I knocked over a vase. Someone left the window open earlier, so I came up to close it.” I had this overwhelming need to explain myself. “Did you get off work early today?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Yes.”
“How nice for you. Well, I’ve got things to do, so I’ll see you at dinner,” I said, escorting him out of the room. I closed the door behind me.
“You forgot to close the window,” he reminded me.
“Of course I did. Thanks!”
I reentered the room and closed the window. After looking over my shoulder to be sure Ted had left, I pushed the dresser back into place. I didn’t want him to come back in to snoop and find what I’d found. I had a feeling the discovery was something that would unnerve him. There was no perfection to a piece of furniture being out of place, not to mention a door in the wall.
Walking back down the two flights of stairs, I pondered the seams in the wall. If Ted hadn’t come home early, I might have had a chance to examine them more closely, although there wasn’t really any doubt in my mind about what they were. The seams definitely took the shape of a door.
My brain was working double-time and I thought back to Mike’s and Sharon’s dressers. I made up my mind that when Sharon got home from work, I’d go to her room and we’d pull out the dresser to see if there were any seams in her wall. Three moving dressers were too much of a coincidence. After having made the decision to check further into the dresser situation, my thoughts turned in other directions.
The first thing I thought about was Ted. He’d been so quiet I hadn’t known he was in the house, but at least that explained why his door had been open. He struck me as being a little odd. He seldom dressed casually, preferring to wear suits. Amazingly, he didn’t sweat. The rest of us would be sweltering in the heat, wearing as little as possible to keep cool, and he’d have on one of his suits, still looking relaxed and comfortable. I guess “relaxed” would be the wrong word to describe him since he always appeared so perfect, but he didn’t look as if he was going to melt like the rest of us did.
One of the things which fascinated me about Ted was that I was sure he was only a few years older than me, but I always felt as I were talking to an older man when we spoke. Maybe he looked younger than he actually was. But overall, he was a nice person, always pleasant, while rather distant. At least he wasn’t a lech like one of my other boarders.
Which, of course, made me think about Richard. However, that thought didn’t last long too long, because he was a subject better left unexplored. He kind of made my skin crawl, figuratively speaking, and I wouldn’t miss him if he decided to move back into town. It seemed like so many of his comments were off color, and yet you couldn’t really pin him down. He was careful about how he said things. His comments had a double meaning so he left himself wiggle room to get out of sticky situations.
I got the impression Ruth Bell was taken with Ted. Maybe his aloofness actually made her feel more at ease, like he really didn’t care what she said or did. I’d seen them sitting together out on the patio a few times, neither saying a word, but I’d swear Ruth was sitting a bit straighter than usual, and she had an almost invisible smile on her face.
The telephone rang and broke my train of thought.
“Good afternoon, Holt House,” I answered.
“Kelly, this is Sharon.”
“Oh, hi. What’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know I won’t be there for dinner tonight. David is going to meet me in town for dinner.” I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Great! Have a good time.”
“Oh, I will.”
“Sharon, before you hang up, I want to tell you that I’ve discovered something concerning your dresser that I want to talk to you about tomorrow.”
“My dresser? Okay, but I’ve got to get back to work right now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow and you can tell me what’s up.”
“Bye.”
We hung up and I was disappointed. I didn’t want to go snooping through her room when she wasn’t home, but I could hardly contain myself. I couldn’t wait to see if there were seams in the walls of any of the other rooms. Maybe I could talk Mike into letting me see his room. Why didn’t I just pull out my own dresser and look behind it? I didn’t want to be alone when I looked, but I wasn’t certain why.
Josh and Marion came in the front door, laughing about something.
“Hi there.” I was glad to see them and tired of thinking about doors in the walls.
“Hi, Kelly,” they said in unison.
“You guys do a little shopping?” I asked, pointing at the bags in Josh’s hands.
“Yes, dear,” Marion said. “I had to buy some new jogging pants. I can’t stop exercising now or these old bones will wear out. I read an article that said besides taking extra calcium at my age, I also need to keep on exercising.” She never ceased to amaze me.
“I’ve talked Joshua into getting back into shape too,” she continued, “although I have to admit he doesn’t need too much work. We got him some jogging clothes.”
I laughed. “Good luck, Josh. She’s relentless. I’ve seen her in action.” Hadn’t he told me he had bad knees? Maybe he’d been joking.
They chuckled as they went off to their respective rooms to put their things away. Marion was the first to come back downstairs.
“Joshua has a big date next week and he wanted me to help him choose a new shirt to wear,” she confided in me.
Something clicked, and I asked, “Could this big date possibly be with anyone I know?”
“Could be,” she said slyly.
So that’s who Lucy was going out with. I wondered when she and Josh had gotten together. I was delighted, and thought they’d be good for each other. I knew that Marion and Josh were good friends, not a romantic duo, so this made sense.
For a small boarding house out in the country, we were doing okay in the romance department. The thought amused me.
Chapter Seventeen
Within half an hour the house began filling up with people. They disappeared upstairs, changed clothes, then came back down and began chatting with one another. As I watched them I thought that these people needed each other. They needed the companionship that the boarding house afforded them.
J.T. was a shoe salesman and kept everyone laughing with stories about the trials and tribulations of his job, like trying to fit customers’ size 8 feet into size 6 shoes. He said one woman actually got her foot stuck in a shoe and they had to cut it off – the shoe, that is. Then she had the nerve to ask for a free pair of shoes for her trouble.
“I’m getting fat and I know it,” J.T. said to Richard, stretching. “I need more exercise. Wanna play some tennis before dinner?”
“Sure, Porky.” Richard could be so rude, but it didn’t seem to bother J.T. “Come on and we’ll knock some of that weight off.” He could stand to lose a few pounds himself, yet he had the gall to call J.T. a name like Porky. They got their rackets and headed out the patio door toward the tennis court.
“I’m surprised those two get along,” Josh commented.
“It is truly amazing,” Marion said.
With her head lowered, Ruth nodded in agreement.
I stayed out of the conversation, keeping my thoughts to myself, and stood near the door observing them all. I had developed a fondness for the group in general as I stood and gazed at them.
The front door opened and Mike walked in.
“Hi,” I said, smiling.
He waved and smiled back before heading up the stairs. He stopped midway up and glanced back at me before continuing on his way. I raised my eyebrows, wondering about the look he’d given me.
Marion, who never missed a thing, looked at me and smiled. “This is turning out to be quite a fun place to live.”
My grin probably confirmed her suspicions.
I glanced at the clock and thought I’d better go help Lucy with dinner. It was getting late. When I walked through the kitchen door she looked up from her work and grinned. It struck me that there sure was a lot of smiling and grinning going on.
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Get the coffee going and fix the salad.”
“Okay.” I opened the cupboard and took out the coffee can.
She kept glancing at me, then looking away quickly.
“What’s the matter with you?” I asked.
“Nothing.” Her voice had a silly sing song tone to it.
“Hmmm. There’s something going on around here. Isn’t there?”
“No there’s not,” she replied. “Just get the coffee ready.”
“By the way,” I said, changing the subject. “I understand you and Josh are going out on the town next week.”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“A little birdie told me,” I said, echoing her earlier answer to my question.
“Good grief! Can’t a person have any privacy around this place?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, I guess I deserve that. I admit I’ve given you a bad time about Mike.” She was still grinning.
“Yes, you have, but I don’t really care. I do like him, Lucy. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”
“Uh, I shouldn’t say this, but why don’t you go to your room and change your clothes or something?”
“Change my clothes? Why?”
“Just do it.” She sighed. “You ask too many questions. Maybe the boarders would like to see you in something different for a change. Or something.”
I looked at her for a long moment before I left the kitchen, and found myself mumbling while I made my way to my room, wondering what she was up to this time. I opened the door and stepped in, my attention immediately drawn to the nightstand by my bed. I sucked in my breath. There was a beautiful arrangement of summer flowers sitting there. I saw an envelope lying next to the vase and hurried over to see what was in it.
I opened the envelope with a feeling of anticipation, but after reading what it said I felt nothing but confusion. The handwriting was unfamiliar. The envelope was the type used for a greeting card, but there was only a small piece of paper enclosed. It read:
You’d better enjoy these flowers. They could
be the last summer flowers you’ll ever see.
Now what on earth did that mean? It had the ring of a threat to it, but it didn’t make any sense. I took the note out to the kitchen with me.
“Lucy, what do you know about this?”
She was smiling when she heard my voice, but her smile disappeared when she looked at my face. “What’s wrong?”
“There were flowers in my room with this note. Do you know where they came from?”
“Of course. Mike left them for you. He wanted to surprise you.”
“He surprised me all right. He’s got a warped sense of humor, if you ask me.” I didn’t think it was funny, and I was really disappointed.
“Let me see that.” She wiped her hands on her apron before taking the note from me. After reading it she gave me a strange look. “This isn’t Mike’s handwriting, but I know he left the flowers for you. He said he was leaving a card, too. Not a note. I don’t understand. I’ll go find him and we’ll see what this is all about.”
She left the kitchen in search of Mike, returning by herself.
“He’ll be here in a second. Then we’ll find out what’s going on.”
We stood looking at each other, both impatient as the seconds ticked by. Lucy was beginning to tap her foot when Mike walked in.
“Hi, ladies, what’s up?” he asked, smiling.
I handed him the note. “Look at this. You tell us what’s up.”
He read the note, frowning. “Where’d this come from?”
“It was with the flowers that Lucy said you left for me.” I was pretty sure I sounded like I was accusing him of something, but I couldn’t help myself.
“I didn’t leave this note. I left you a card.”
After looking at Lucy he took my hand and led me to my room.
“I came in the back door and left the flowers before going around to the front and letting myself in. I left you a card saying how much I was looking forward to tomorrow night. Here’s the envelope,” he said, picking it up.
“Right envelope, but no card.”I stood with my arms crossed, studying his face.
“Something is wrong here,” he said, his eyes narrowing.
“You’ve got that right. I’d like to know who left the note and what it means. It sounds pretty cryptic to me.”
“I don’t know what this is about, and I don’t like it,” Mike said.
“Well, neither do I. I don’t like thinking someone’s been in my room, either. Besides you, I mean.”
“The flowers were meant to make you feel good, not to upset you.” He bent over and pulled a greeting card out of the waste basket.
“Here’s the card I left you,” he said, disgustedly.
I read the card and realized he only wanted to tell me he was thinking of me and looking forward to our date, just like he’d said.
“I love the flowers, Mike. They’re beautiful. I’ve got the card now, so let’s forget the note. It’s somebody’s sick idea of a practical joke.”
“Not funny.”
“Forget it. Let’s see if Lucy needs any more help.”
Mike was quiet at dinner that night. He kept glancing at each of the boarders, trying to figure out who ruined his surprise for me. As far as personalities went, Richard seemed like the most likely candidate to me, but when I thought about it, I couldn’t picture him sneaking into my room. I began to feel like both Mike and I were making too big of a deal out of the note, and I decided I wanted to really forget about it.
“How’d you like your flowers, Kelly?” Richard suddenly asked.
“How did you know I received flowers?” I knew I’d spoken too sharply.
“I saw Mike coming in with them,” he replied, looking surprised at my tone of voice. “I just assumed they were for you.”
“They were for her,” Mike grumbled menacingly.
I kicked him under the table.
“Is there something wrong?” Marion asked.
“It’s nothing. When are you and Josh going to begin exercising together?” I asked, changing the subject.
If I wasn’t careful, I’d start tasting the sand my head was sinking into.
Chapter Eighteen
After dinner I wandered out to the kitchen to help Lucy clean the dinner mess. Bottles of salad dressing went in the refrigerator, along with a few leftovers. I began loading the dishwasher with dirty plates and glasses.
“What do you think about the note someone left with the flowers?” I asked. I wasn’t ready to tell her abou
t the seams I’d found in the wall yet.
She sprayed the counter top with disinfectant and wiped it down. “I think we’d all better start paying more attention to what’s going on around here.”
“It is kind of creepy, although I think it must be some kind of warped practical joke. Don’t you agree?” I was trying my darnedest to convince myself, but it wasn’t working.
“Not really. Especially with the odd little things that have gone missing.”
She was voicing my own thought. “You’re probably right. I’ll keep a closer watch on the house.”
“And the people in it.” Lucy glanced at me over her shoulder.
Closing the dishwasher, I turned the knob to start it. The back door opened and I spun around. I guess our conversation had taken a toll on me.
“Lucy, are you... Oh, Kelly,” Josh said. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“Don’t mind me, Josh. We’re just finishing up here. Come on in.” Relief washed over me.
Lucy hung her dish towel over the edge of the sink to dry. “We’re going for a walk. See you later.” She threw a challenging look over her shoulder and breezed out the door with Josh, which made me chuckle to myself. As if I would have stopped her from going for her walk.
I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to have the boarders mingling with the help, me included as part of the help, but I wasn’t about to put a stop to it. It would break half the hearts in the house. Things had taken unexpected turns at Holt House and the budding romances warmed my heart, not to mention it helped me think of something other than a missing shoe and a mysterious note.
I was bending over getting the trash together to take out when I heard the door open behind me again. I kept working, expecting someone to say something, but after a second the door closed. Someone was just looking in, I thought. I turned and found no one there. Lots of people in the house, and any one of them could have been looking for one of the others. It was nothing to feel nervous about.
After taking the trash out, I washed my hands and decided to join whoever might be in living room. I started towards the door and when I passed the counter I saw a piece of paper sitting there. Assuming Lucy had left out a grocery list, I picked it up to put it in the drawer where we kept such things, but when I looked down I saw my name at the top of the page. It didn’t look like a grocery list. I stopped and took a closer look. It was another note. This one said, “I’d watch my back if I were you. Danger may be lurking around the corner – any corner.”