1 The Ghost in the Basement

by SUE FINEMAN

  “Enough to pay for new plumbing?”

  “More than enough.”

  Donovan took Pop down to the basement to check out the plumbing. One look and Pop shook his head. “These pipes should have been replaced fifty years ago. The water heater looks good, though, and Sonny replaced all the wiring the year Charlie died.”

  Easing himself through the clutter in the basement, Donovan inspected the walls. The cluttered basement held broken chairs, a ladder with two rungs missing, moldy clothes, a broken doll carriage, and other useless items that belonged in the dump. He pointed. “This wall isn’t original.”

  Pop put his hand on the wall. “Nope, but it was built with the same bricks. Doesn’t look like a load-bearing wall. It can’t be an outside wall.”

  Donovan pushed an old chair over to stand on, pushed the window open, and peered out. “No, it’s not.” He closed and fastened the window and jumped off the chair. “This is under the pantry, and if my calculations are correct, it’s under that little room in the attic, too.”

  “There’s a space about five feet wide between Sonny’s room and the next one down. You don’t suppose—”

  “Yeah, I suppose. Whatever it is, it goes all the way up.”

  “Might be a good place to string in some new plumbing,” said Pop. “We can put a powder room off the dining room and another bathroom on the second floor.”

  Donovan pointed. “Grab that rake. You can put Billy to work raking the leaves in front while I check out that room in the attic.”

  Curiosity ate at Donovan as he walked up to the attic with Hannah and felt around the walls of the little room. He found a panel that looked like it might be a door, but he couldn’t figure out how to get it open. There was no handle or knob. He got down on his knees and found a loose piece of baseboard. When he pulled it back, he saw why it wasn’t nailed in on one side. There was a little lever behind it. He fiddled with it and heard a click. The panel creaked and swung out. Donovan let go of the baseboard and it snapped back into place. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the flashlight.

  There was no handle on the outside of the door, just a pull knob on the inside. The walls inside the little room were unfinished, and there was a big square hole in the floor. He pointed the flashlight down into the hole. “It’s steps. I don’t believe this.” He started down with the flashlight, stepping slowly, testing each step before he put his full weight on it. “Smells like it’s been closed up a while.”

  “You’re not going down there without me, Donovan Kane.”

  He stopped and looked up. “You wait right there.”

  “Don’t you get bossy with me. This is my house, not yours.”

  “I said stay there,” he said firmly. They’d dispute the ownership of the house another time. Even though she was about to burst with excitement, he didn’t want her on the steps until he was sure it was safe. Someone had walled this off on purpose.

  What else were they hiding?

  Chapter Four

  Brushing away dusty spider webs, Donovan walked slowly down one flight of the hidden stairs. The stairs went on down, but he stopped at the first landing. Playing his flashlight over the walls, he saw what looked like doors on both sides. The latches at the bottom weren’t hidden under the baseboard like the one in the attic. There wasn’t any baseboard in this staircase, and from the angle of the stairs, these two doors had to open off the bedrooms, not off the hallway.

  He called up the steps, “Hannah, go down to Sonny’s bedroom and pound on the wall by that missing space.”

  After he heard her pounding, he released the latch on the door on that side of the landing. Something ripped as the door swung open into the bedroom. Hannah stood before him, her eyes and mouth both open wide in astonishment.

  “I don’t believe this.” Hannah grabbed Donovan and kissed him on the lips, then jumped back, her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Donovan… I’m sorry.”

  “First time a woman ever apologized for kissing me.” His mind wasn’t on the staircase now. He tossed the flashlight on the bed and took a step closer. “Would you like to try that again?” She didn’t say no, so he leaned down to taste her lips again. God, she tasted good. Her lips were so soft and sweet he could kiss her all day.

  After the kiss ended, he said, “I ripped the wallpaper.” But Donovan didn’t look at the wallpaper. He couldn’t take his eyes off Hannah.

  “It needs to be replaced anyway. I should go empty the pantry now,” she said, but Hannah didn’t move.

  Donovan didn’t move either, except to stroke her soft cheek with the back of his finger. This complicated everything, and at that moment, he didn’t care. “I want to kiss you again.”

  Her mouth played with a smile. “So kiss me then.”

  He lightly brushed her lips with his, teasing and tasting, and then kissed her gently. It felt so good, it just made him want more. He pulled her closer and kissed her slowly and thoroughly, the way she was meant to be kissed, and she kissed him back. He wanted to lock the door and kiss her all over, but he knew this was not a good idea. They had to live together, and an affair could be awkward with Billy here. Knowing that didn’t stop him from wanting her, but he stepped back, putting distance between them before he made a complete fool of himself.

  He nodded toward the hidden staircase. “If that stairway goes all the way down to the basement, it wouldn’t be hard to run the pipes up to this floor for another bathroom and on up to the attic for another one.”

  “Do I need a bathroom in the attic?”

  He shrugged. “The attic is big enough to add more rooms later on.”

  “So after you and Pop and Billy move out, I could turn the house into a bed and breakfast?” She cocked her head. “Or do you intend to move out?”

  He met her gaze and held it. “No, I don’t intend to move out. Do you?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You can get that idea out of your head right now, Donovan Kane. I don’t care how well you can kiss, I’m not giving you my house.”

  Damn! Donovan felt like kicking himself. He should have kept his big mouth closed. No more kisses now.

  Pop came upstairs to look around while Billy helped Hannah empty the pantry, and then it was Donovan’s turn. He found the latch and the panel in the back of the pantry swung open. The stairs went on down to the basement, just as he thought.

  “Wait for me,” called Hannah. “I’m going with you.”

  “Me, too,” said Billy.

  “You’re staying with me,” said Pop, and Billy groaned.

  Hannah grabbed the big flashlight from the kitchen drawer and followed Donovan down the stairs from the pantry. These steps were steep, almost like a ladder, and the bottom of the steps rested on a dirt floor. With each step down, the air grew thicker, stale and airless. Hannah held her hand over her mouth and nose as she played her flashlight on the inside of the brick wall. It looked ragged, as if the cement holding the bricks together had been forced through from the other side and then left to harden like that. Why would someone wall this off?

  Her foot hit something. Intense cold came up from the dirt floor and wrapped around her, chilling her to the bone. And then it moved away. Shivering, she pointed her flashlight down and gasped. “Is that… ?”

  “Aw, shit! Sonny was right. Don’t move, Hannah.”

  As if she could. She was too stunned to move. Those weren’t chicken bones she stepped on, and the cold she released wasn’t of this world. Grandpa said a murder had been committed in the house, but he didn’t say the body was still here.

  “Okay, step back, straight back.”

  She grabbed the stairs to steady herself as Donovan played his flashlight on the ground, then bent over for a closer look. “Looks like bones from a hand. Well, now we know why this was walled in.”

  Hannah had never fainted before, but between the dark, the stale air, and the shock of finding those bones, her legs threatened to give way. Donovan grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Don’t go out
on me now, Hannah. Stay with me.”

  She leaned into him and he held her tightly against him. “I’ll be all right in a minute.”

  “Sure you will.” Still holding her, he called up the stairs. “Pop?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Call the station. Tell Peterson to send some men over to dig down here.”

  “Dig for what?”

  “Human remains.” His voice softened. “Come on, Hannah, let’s go upstairs.”

  Shivering from the cold and the shock, Hannah stumbled up the stairs, with Donovan right behind her, his hand on her back to steady her.

  As soon as she stepped from the pantry, he said, “Take deep breaths.”

  Pop tried to hand the phone to Donovan.

  “Hold on a minute, Pop.” Donovan pulled out a chair at the table and gently pushed Hannah into it. “Are you all right?”

  “Just stunned.” That was a huge understatement. She’d walked on someone’s grave.

  “Can I go look?” asked Billy.

  “No.” All three adults spoke at once.

  As the shock wore off and questions swam in the pool of her mind, one thought kept popping to the surface. Until now, no one but her family had ever lived in this house. That guy down there was either a member of her family. Or someone in her family had put him there.

  Hannah sat at the kitchen table with Pop and Billy for several minutes watching men troop through her kitchen and down the basement stairs. How could they deal with this kind of thing all the time? She couldn’t stop shaking. First Grandma’s ghost and now this.

  Donovan was downstairs, coordinating the activities in the basement. Hammers tapped, men and women called to each other, and the kitchen overflowed with people. Digging up a murder victim was serious business, and she knew whoever was buried down there had been murdered. Why else would he have been buried down there? Or was it a he?

  Listening to the chipping and banging made Hannah jumpy, so she walked outside and sat on the front porch swing. She drew her left knee up and hugged it, leaving her right foot on the porch to keep the swing moving. If she held still, the world would come crashing in on her. There wasn’t just a body down there. She felt the cold and sensed the presence.

  Don’t be afraid.

  Of what, Grandpa? What had they released?

  Donovan was in the kitchen when Pop called to him. “We’d better get Hannah off the porch before that guy with the camera gets any closer.”

  “I’ll handle the reporter. You get Hannah inside.” He didn’t want anyone taking pictures of her now, when she was so upset. To Billy, this was an exciting event, something to talk about at school, but it wasn’t their family who’d lived here over the years. Donovan sailed off the porch to intercept the reporter while Pop took Hannah inside.

  A minute later, leaning on Donovan’s shoulder, Hannah said, “I don’t usually fall apart like this.” She swiped the tears from her face. “It’s just such a shock, and not just the bones, but the cold.”

  Donovan threaded his fingers through her soft hair and held her against his shoulder to comfort her. “Shh, it’s all right. That’s what friends are for.”

  That wall she’d built around herself had crumbled. It didn’t matter whether the kiss by the hidden staircase or the shock of finding the bones had broken through. It was gone. Hannah needed a friend, someone to lean on and help her through this mess, and he intended to be that friend.

  He knew what he had to do. Sonny wanted him to investigate, and he would, but not through the department. It was a conflict of interest, since he was living in the house and expected to have ownership next year. The captain had already assigned the case to Cordelli, but the department didn’t have the manpower to do a thorough investigation on a case this old. The killer was either dead or too old to prosecute, and he was no longer a threat to anyone.

  Donovan had worked his tail off since Maggie died, working around the clock some days. At his level, he didn’t earn overtime pay, and he was long overdue for some down time. They’d wrapped up several cases recently, and it was a good time to take off. His men could easily handle the open cases without him, and he’d be available if they needed him.

  Hannah reached out and Donovan looked over to see Billy standing there, hesitant and unsure. Billy walked over and Hannah put her arm around him. “I’m okay, Billy. It’s a girl thing. Guys yell when they get upset and girls cry.”

  Donovan rubbed Hannah’s back. “I need to get back to work, but I won’t be long.”

  She stepped back. “How long has… I mean… ”

  “The victim has been down there since long before either one of us was born. We won’t be able to pin it down until the work is done down there and the lab does some tests. I’d guess it happened close to the time the house was built.”

  She took a deep breath. “If Grandpa found information about the murder in a diary, it wasn’t the one I found. It’s dated 1912, and the house wasn’t built until 1918. Whoever that is in the basement wasn’t buried before the house was built.”

  “No, he wasn’t. Sonny said, some diaries, so I assume there are more around here somewhere. We’ll find them, Hannah. Stay here with Pop while I take care of business, and then we’ll dig around some more.” He turned to Billy. “I want you to stay off those hidden stairs. You can look, but don’t walk on them. We don’t want to tamper with evidence. Stay inside and out of the basement.”

  “But I didn’t finish raking the leaves.”

  Donovan glanced out the window at two news vans. “It’ll have to wait. Hannah, is there an outside entrance to the basement?”

  “Yes, in the back. It’s probably got a padlock on it, but I don’t know where to find the key.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ll cut the lock off.”

  “That basement is so full of junk—”

  He gently brushed the hair off her face. “Hannah, it’s all right. We can handle it. Stay here with Pop. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “I don’t need a baby-sitter, Donovan. I’m a big girl.”

  He leaned in close and whispered, “I noticed.” He promised himself he’d keep his distance, but she wasn’t making it easy.

  Pop stretched out in Sonny’s recliner in the living room. He’d always felt comfortable in Sonny’s house, and Hannah had made them feel at home here. It was the first time he’d felt at home since he sold his house.

  When the kids were small, Charlie used to joke about Hannah and Donovan. He said if those two married, they’d make beautiful grandkids. He and Charlie laughed about it back then, but seeing their two kids together now, he saw what Charlie meant. Hannah had grown into a real stunner, although she didn’t seem to be aware of how pretty she was. She had Charlie’s black hair and gray eyes and her mother’s pretty features. Too bad Charlie couldn’t see her now. He’d be proud of the woman she’d become.

  Hannah needed Donovan right now, and he needed her even more. He’d been through a nightmare not just with Maggie’s death, but with his marriage. Maggie had sucked the life out of him and then blamed him for the cancer that killed her. He’d done everything humanly possible to save her, and every month when those bills came, he relived those nightmares. It had to stop before it ate him alive.

  The chief wouldn’t have fired Donovan for filing for bankruptcy, but any hopes for promotion would have been gone. Donovan’s job was the only thing his son had left to hang onto, except Billy.

  With Connie gone, the house didn’t feel like home anyway, so he sold it and used the equity to bail Donovan out of trouble. It didn’t cover all the bills, but it pulled him out of a downward spiral. Sonny knew about their financial problems, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons he put those conditions in his will. He wanted to help Donovan without bruising his pride, and he didn’t want Hannah to be here alone when this business with the old murder came down.

  Hannah was cleaning again, probably to keep her hands busy. “Pop, there’s another rotten windowsill in the back
of the alcove.”

  “Do you see any bugs?” He hoped it wasn’t termites.

  “No, it looks like the window leaked.”

  “We’ll take care of them all, Hannah.” They should replace the windows and all the sills. When the wind blew outside, it came in around the windows. These old houses didn’t have much insulation. Double pane windows with insulation tucked around them would help keep the cold out in the winter.

  “What’s this room in here?” called Billy.

  “That’s the library.” Hannah walked over and scanned the dusty bookcases, big desk, and deep leather chairs. “Grandpa used to hang out in here. When I was a little girl he smoked a pipe. Grandma wouldn’t let him smoke it in the rest of the house, just in this room or in the basement. He stopped smoking before my father died.”

  Billy’s smile disappeared. “My mother died, too.”

  “I know. It’s a good thing you have Pop.”

  “Yeah, but he gets kind of grumpy sometimes.”

  She rolled her eyes. “So does your father.”

  The kid laughed. Grumpy dad or not, this boy knew he was loved. She wanted to talk to Billy about his mother, because no one would talk to her about her father after he died, but Donovan had made it clear that Maggie was none of her business.

  She cocked her head. “Are you going to be a cop when you grow up?”

  “I want to be a professional baseball player.”

  “Baseball?” She gasped. “I love baseball.”

  Billy grinned. “You do?”

  “I’d come to all your games. I can see it now. Billy Kane, number… uh… ”

  “Twelve.”

  She made a megaphone with her hands and announced, “Nummm-ber twelllve, Billll-leeee Kaaane.”

  Billy was still laughing when Donovan appeared in the doorway. “What are you two doing in here?”

  “Talking about baseball,” said Billy.

  Hannah asked, “What’s happening downstairs?”