The Ghost and the Baby

by Anna J. McIntyre

  “You know, when I was a young girl and lived next door, we thought the house was haunted too,” Faye said.

  “You lived next door?” Jonah asked.

  “I think it’s a pretty nice group,” Walt said as he sat on the edge of the mattress in the attic bedroom, removing his shoes.

  Danielle stood at the window looking out at the lightning streaking across the night’s sky. “I agree. A very eclectic group, but they all seemed to get along. I really enjoyed this evening.”

  “It’s too bad Faye isn’t our neighbor instead of Pearl. She told me this afternoon she had been trying to buy back the house next door for years, but they would never sell.”

  “Why did she want to buy it back?” Danielle turned from the window and faced Walt.

  “Faye told me she had second thoughts on selling the property and tried to cancel the sale, but Pearl’s grandmother refused. She wanted the house. And over the years, after the woman died, Faye approached the family and tried to buy it back.”

  “I wonder why she sold it in the first place.”

  “I imagine she put the house up for sale because she was planning to start a new life with her fiancé. They probably wanted to move into their own house, not her childhood home. But then he ran off with her sister, and Faye had already sold her house,” Walt suggested.

  “You’re probably right. With him gone, what was the point of moving? And it would be pretty painful to move into a house they had picked out together.”

  Walt pushed his shoes under the bed. “It really is a shame those cousins of Pearl’s didn’t give Faye a chance to bid on the house. I have a feeling Faye Bateman has far more money than Pearl Huckabee and could have easily given top dollar for it. So not only would we have a better neighbor, they would have made more money.”

  “Wouldn’t that have been nice?”

  “Plus, Faye doesn’t seem to have a problem with Sadie or Max,” Walt added.

  Sadie, who was sitting in the corner of the room when Walt said her name, looked up in his direction. The next minute thunder shook the house. The golden retriever catapulted from the corner, landing in the center of the bed, her body shaking.

  Walt looked down at the frightened dog. “I have a feeling Sadie is sleeping with us tonight.”

  The next moment Max appeared from where he had been hiding under the bed. He jumped up on the mattress, curling up next to Sadie.

  “Where are we supposed to sleep?” Danielle asked.

  Eighteen

  Pearl opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. All was quiet. It had finally stopped raining. The morning sun streamed through the bedroom windows. Rolling out of bed, Pearl grabbed her robe off the rocker and slipped it on. She tied the robe’s belt around her waist as she stumbled to the window and looked outside. The sky was clear blue with no sign of rain clouds. But when her gaze dropped downward to the ground, her heart sank. A river of mud flowed through her side yard, and fallen tree branches littered the area.

  She groaned and looked over to the Marlows’ side yard. It looked no different than it had before the storm. She didn’t see any downed limbs or mud on their side of the fence. Pearl started to put her slippers on but changed her mind. She wanted to assess the damage to her property, and she didn’t think walking around in her slippers outside after a major storm was a terrific idea. Instead, she quickly dressed for the day and put on her gardening shoes.

  Pearl was happy to find the front yard had suffered little damage from the storm. But in the side yard a river of mud flowed around the gardening shed. She headed to the backyard to see where the mud had originated. A few minutes later she found the problem and groaned again. Water poured from a broken pipe, telling her the rain was not the primary source of the mud river. A fallen limb from one of her dead trees in the backyard had caused the break.

  The gaping hole left behind from the stolen rosebush was now filled with water, and the soil in her backyard had shifted significantly, completely changing its appearance. Her first thought was the landscaper she had hired. He was supposed to start work in a few weeks, but now, would she need to get a new bid for the work?

  Glancing around the yard, she immediately knew this was going to cost her considerably more money than the bid Craig Simmons had originally given her. Limbs and branches littered the backyard, taken down by last night’s fierce storm. Craig had warned her several of her trees needed branches removed, but she had refused to believe him—just like with the rosebushes. Craig had his work cut out for him.

  Somewhat dazed and overwhelmed at the carnage, she glanced back over to the broken pipe and realized it was still pouring more water into her yard. Jolted into action, she rushed to the outside valves and turned off the water to her irrigation system. A few minutes later, only a trickle spilled out from the broken pipe before it stopped altogether.

  Taking one final look at the yard, she shook her head in disgust and headed back to her house. She needed coffee. Or maybe a stiff drink would be better. So what if it wasn’t even nine o’clock in the morning yet.

  After breakfast on Sunday morning, Walt and Danielle went outside to straighten up the patio after the previous night’s storm while Joanne stayed inside to clean the kitchen. Delighted the storm had left behind a clear blue sky, Danielle cheerfully wiped down the patio furniture with a terry-cloth rag while Walt picked up debris that had blown into the yard. Overhead, the sun shone brightly, yet it was still chilly, and both Walt and Danielle wore jackets.

  “It looks like Pearl has a mess on her hands,” Walt said as he plucked a soaked newspaper flyer from a bush. It had blown into their yard during the storm. He shoved it into the trash bag.

  “Where do you think all that mud came from?” Danielle glanced toward Pearl’s house. Before coming downstairs, she had looked into her neighbor’s yard from an upstairs window. After seeing the mess, she had expected her yard to have suffered similar damage and was relieved when she found only minor cleanup was required on her side of the fence.

  “I don’t know.” Walt glanced around, looking for any more debris.

  “I wonder if she’s going to have Craig take some of those trees down. There are at least two dead ones back there. I think she’s lucky the storm didn’t take one of them down instead of just some branches. It could have landed on her house and caused serious damage.”

  Walt picked up the last piece of stray debris and shoved it in the plastic bag. He glanced toward Pearl’s backyard and said, “I wonder if she’s going to change her mind on taking out those rosebushes. When I walked back to check on the garage, I looked over into her yard. It actually looks as if a few of them have moved several feet.”

  “How does that happen?” Danielle frowned.

  “I assume all that water. I’m just glad none of it came over here.”

  Danielle shrugged. “Well, luckily for us, there’s that dip in her yard. Glad the rain stopped or our yard might look like Pearl’s.”

  “We haven’t had a storm like that in a long time. But it looks as if we’re going to have a sunny Easter.”

  Danielle paused a moment, the damp rag in her hand. “If Pearl was not such a difficult woman, I would have invited her to join us for Easter dinner. She’s all alone. I can’t imagine she has plans today.” Danielle shrugged and added, “But maybe I’m wrong and she has all kinds of friends.”

  “I’m afraid even if you did invite her, she wouldn’t take the invitation in the spirit in which it was given, and she would assume you were simply trying to rub salt in her wounds over the fact her efforts to shut down Marlow House didn’t go entirely as she intended.”

  With a cheeky grin she said, “Well, I certainly wouldn’t invite her to Easter dinner just to rub it in—but it would be a perk.”

  Walt crooked a disapproving brow at his wife.

  She looked back at him and batted her eyes innocently. “I was teasing. Really.” Unable to keep a straight face, she giggled.

  It has been written cats typical
ly sleep sixteen to twenty hours a day. Max, being an older cat, slept in the upper range, leaving just four hours a day to attend to non-sleep-related cat duties. His more wakeful times came in the evening, when he liked to roam, yet the previous night’s storm had kept him inside.

  Spending the night inside proved boring with all the guest room doors shut and no spirits around to converse with. Even Walt slept all night these days. Bored and with nowhere to go with a storm raging, Max had gone back to sleep. He woke again for breakfast and then went back to the parlor for another long nap.

  Sunday’s afternoon sun was high in the sky when Max finally woke up again and decided to venture outside. The people staying at Marlow House had gathered in the living room around the fireplace, making all sorts of noise with their human way of conversing.

  With a yawn, Max sauntered panther-like down the hallway and into the kitchen, heading toward the pet door. Several minutes later he slipped outside, sending the metal door swinging back and forth as he continued on his way. As he walked by the side patio, he heard birds chirping and looked up, wondering where the sound came from. He enjoyed watching birds. There was a time he would have gladly hunted one for Danielle and brought it to her as a gift to show his admiration, yet Walt had told him not to bring her dead birds or rodents. Humans were peculiar creatures, Max thought.

  Max spied his favorite tree along the fence next to the unfriendly neighbor. It provided an excellent view of the surrounding area. With little effort he made his way to the tree and climbed high into its branches, finding his favorite perch. Once there, he nestled down and surveyed the grounds. Motion caught his eye from the rear of the neighbor’s yard. Crouching on the branch, he watched.

  Had Max come out earlier, he would have seen a river of mud and the gaping hole from the missing rosebush filled with water. But the water had all receded, and the once soggy dirt was now damp with no signs of water or mud puddles. The cat watched in fascination as a large black bird swooped down from another tree, landing by the hole left behind by the stolen rosebush. Something in the hole intrigued the bird. It persistently pecked at its prize, attempting to pick it up before dropping it back into the hole.

  Mesmerized by the bird, Max watched, trying to determine what it was trying to pick up. Once again the bird managed to grab hold of the object, only to lose it again. But this time Max caught a glimpse of the prize—it looked something like a spider. A large spider, maybe as large as a human hand.

  The sound of the kitchen door opening and closing, followed by human voices caught Max’s attention. He looked away from the bird toward Marlow House. The two girls staying there had just stepped outside. They each carried what appeared to be a plate of food.

  Tammy led the way to the patio table, her sister close behind her. They each carried a slice of Danielle’s double fudge chocolate cake on a small plate.

  “I think I could get used to this,” Tammy said as she sat down at one of the patio tables. She chose not to sit at the table under the overhang, wanting instead to enjoy the afternoon sun. Her sister joined her at the table.

  “That breakfast this morning was amazing,” Brenda said. “I think Danielle should open a restaurant.”

  Tammy took a bite of the cake and closed her eyes as she let out a little moan. “Or a bakery,” she said as she opened her eyes and prepared to take another bite.

  Max looked back to the bird just in time to see it take off in flight, and in its mouth was the spiderlike object it had finally managed to latch onto. The bird flew over the fence with the prize in its beak, making its way over Marlow House’s side yard and directly over the two girls sitting at the table.

  Neither sister was aware of the black cat with white-tipped ears sitting in the branches of the nearby tree at the edge of the yard, watching them and the bird about to fly over their heads. Nor were they aware of the bird—or the strange spiderlike object that was about to slip out of the bird’s beak.

  Brenda had just taken a bite of her cake when something dropped from the sky and landed in the center of her plate. She let out a startled cry just before hearing a bird shriek. Tammy looked up and watched as a large black bird flew off. She looked down and immediately realized what had happened. The bird had been flying over with what appeared to be some twigs—probably to make a nest—and had dropped it.

  “I can’t believe that just happened.” Tammy laughed.

  “This is so gross. Did that stupid bird have to drop it in my chocolate cake?” Brenda wrinkled her nose and started to pick up what appeared to be a tangle of twigs. Just as she gently lifted the object from the gooey chocolate fudge frosting, the sisters realized what she was holding. They both let out a scream, and Brenda dropped it back into her cake.

  The bird had not been carrying twigs for a nest. It had been carrying the skeletal remains of a human hand—one now covered in chocolate frosting.

  Nineteen

  “This is definitely a first,” Officer Brian Henderson said as he stood by the patio table and carefully examined what appeared to be the skeletal remains of a human hand. Wearing gloves, he gingerly lifted it up from the slice of chocolate cake. Standing next to him were Joe Morelli and Danielle, and across the table from him were the Owen sisters, anxiously watching and listening to what he had to say. Sitting at the patio table under the overhang, listening in at a discreet distance so as not to get in the way, were Walt and the rest of the raffle guests.

  “I told them not to move anything,” Danielle explained. “When they came in the house and told me what had happened, and I came out here to see, we left everything exactly as it was.”

  Joe looked across the table at the teenage girls. “And you say a bird dropped it?”

  Tammy nodded. “Yes. It all happened so fast. I saw something fall from the sky, I looked up, and this big black bird was flying away.”

  “Is it real?” Brenda asked. “Is it what we think it is?”

  “It looks real. But it is rather hard to say with all this chocolate frosting on it,” Brian said, carefully slipping what appeared to be the skeletal remains of a human hand into an evidence bag. “But we will need to take this back to the lab and see what they say.”

  “If it’s real, where is the rest of the body?” Brenda asked, looking around nervously.

  “And where did it come from?” Tammy asked.

  “Good questions,” Brian said. “But if you say a bird dropped it, I have no idea how far a bird might fly carrying something like this. Did it pick it up in this neighborhood, a mile away? Or maybe it’s something that washed up on the beach and isn’t even from this area. But I’m sure the lab will be able to answer some of those questions.”

  As Brian and Joe prepared to leave a few minutes later, Tammy and Brenda walked to the rest of the guests, who were eagerly waiting to talk to them. Walt left the group and joined Danielle and the two officers.

  “What happens now?” Danielle asked.

  “Like I said, the lab needs to examine this,” Brian told her. “It looks real, but it could be a piece of a broken Halloween skeleton the bird picked up in some trash.”

  “Doesn’t look like plastic to me,” Danielle said.

  Brian glanced at the evidence bag and cringed. “No…it doesn’t. But I can always hope.”

  “I’m really sorry you two had to come over. I’m surprised you’re working on Easter Sunday,” Danielle said.

  “I just worked this morning and was getting ready to go home and pick up Kelly. We’re having Easter dinner with my sister and Craig,” Joe explained. “But when a call came in that a hand fell from the sky at Marlow House, I had to come along. I swear, Danielle, the strangest things happen here.”

  “I hope Kelly or your sister doesn’t get mad at me for making you late,” Danielle said.

  Joe glanced at his watch. “No. I have plenty of time.”

  Danielle looked at Brian and asked, “What are you doing for Easter dinner? You have to work all day?”

  Brian shrugged. �
��I get off in about an hour. But it’s just another day. Probably have some leftover pizza.”

  “You could join us for Easter dinner,” Danielle offered.

  Brian shook his head. “No, you have enough on your hands.” He glanced over to the group huddled by the other patio table.

  “You should come,” Walt told him. “We have plenty of food. And since we’re having dinner in the dining room, you don’t have to worry about any hands falling in your food.”

  Next door, Pearl stood in the corner windows of her bedroom, using binoculars to peer into her neighbors’ yard. Standing behind the curtains and peeking around them so as not to be seen, she watched as two police officers appeared to be questioning Walt and Danielle. She recognized one of the men, Brian Henderson. He had been the investigating officer on her stolen rosebush. He was also the one who had given her his business card when she had caught Lily Bartley breaking into Marlow House. Of course, they had all insisted Lily hadn’t broken in. But Pearl knew what she had seen and found the entire incident peculiar. There were a lot of peculiar things about this neighborhood now that all these outsiders had moved in.

  She turned her attention to the group of people now huddled at the table on the patio, away from the police officers and the Marlows. Something had obviously gone on next door that had required them to call the police. A few minutes earlier she had watched Officer Henderson interrogating two teenagers, and then he put something in a plastic bag that he was now taking with him.

  What is going on over there? Who called the police? What did he put in that plastic bag? I bet it is drugs. Yes, that has to be it. They are doing drugs next door! I knew something like this would happen.

  “So you’re taking Danielle up on her offer to come over for Easter dinner?” Joe asked as the pair walked from Marlow House to the police car parked out front.