“Aside from the tree—it has to be one of the easiest deliveries on record,” Lily said. “Ian gets me to the hospital, they get me right into a room, and before they can call the doctor, out comes the baby. I didn’t even get a chance to yell at Ian when he said something lame while trying to coach me. It all happened so fast.” Lily laughed and grinned up to her husband. He returned the smile and kissed her forehead. Walt and Danielle, who stood in the room with them, exchanged a smile before looking back down at the new arrival.
“Can we come in?” came an anxious voice from the open doorway. It was Chris, and standing next to him was Heather.
“We were so worried when we heard about the tree,” Heather said, rushing into the room, not waiting for a response. “Oh, the baby is beautiful!” she said excitedly.
Ian stood up to greet the new arrivals.
“Congratulations, old man,” Chris said, shaking Ian’s hand vigorously. He then leaned down and kissed Lily’s cheek while saying, “You look beautiful, Mama.”
“You heard about the tree?” Lily asked. “How?”
“I called them as we were driving to the hospital,” Danielle explained.
“And I’m glad she did,” Heather told them. “Not long after she called, a police car showed up—it was Joe and Brian. I went out to see what was all the commotion, and you should have heard Pearl rambling on about how the wind picked the tree up into the sky and you guys just kept on driving, and then the tree came down on the sidewalk as the second car drove away. Joe kept looking at Pearl like she had lost her mind, and Brian asked me where you guys were going.”
“Forget about our crazy neighbor, I want to hear about this little angel. Have you decided on a name?” Chris asked.
With Ian sitting back on the bed again next to Lily and the baby, the four friends hovered around the hospital bed, looking down at the sleeping infant.
“Yes,” Lily said with a grin. “I’d like you all to meet Connor Daniel Bartley.”
Later that night, long after their friends had gone home, Ian finally fell asleep. Lily had been dozing off and on since their friends had said goodbye. The baby had been sleeping for the last hour in the crib next to Lily’s hospital bed. Unbeknownst to the sleeping parents, two visitors came to meet Connor Daniel Bartley. Yet, even if Ian and Lily had been awake, they would not have been aware of the visitors.
“He’s absolutely beautiful,” Marie said wistfully. “There is just something about babies…” She let out a sigh and continued to look down at the sleeping infant.
Standing beside Marie, Eva gazed down at the child and reached out, running a finger over the tiny nose. He wouldn’t feel the touch—and sadly, neither could she.
“You really never wanted children?” Marie asked softly, her eyes still on the baby.
“I suppose I might have—if I thought I would be around to watch the child grow up. But I always knew I would die young,” Eva whispered. “But I did get great pleasure watching you grow up when you were a baby. Although it was bittersweet when you could no longer see me.”
Marie looked over to Eva—a picture of youth and beauty, thinking how peculiar it was now, almost as if their roles had reversed—Marie the older woman, Eva forever young.
“Do you think he’ll be able to see us? Hear us?” Marie asked.
Still studying the child, Eva shrugged. “There is a good chance, but we won’t really know until he can see more clearly, about a month or so. If he wakes up and smiles at us now, it’s probably just gas.”
Forty
The winds of late September had calmed by the first week in October. The days of October moved swifter than those in September had for Lily. Already her baby was four weeks old, and Halloween was just a week away. Although sleep deprived, Lily felt blessed that she had not experienced any postpartum depression. She was also grateful Sadie had adapted so well to the new family member, even insisting on napping by his crib during the day, standing guard. Lily wondered what Walt might have told the golden retriever.
She was also immensely proud of Ian, who didn’t make excuses when it was time for a diaper change and even offered to help during feeding time. Of course, she was breastfeeding, so she assumed that offer was just Ian being naughty. She grinned at the thought and felt blessed all over again.
Even Heather, who she had once thought prickly and had gotten on her nerves countless times, had turned into a good friend who seemed quite enamored of little Connor Daniel Bartley, as did Chris, who insisted he wanted to be called Uncle Chris.
Walt and Danielle, they were family, always there when she needed them, even performing impossible tasks, like practically picking up a tree so she could get safely to the hospital. Since the baby’s birth, Walt and Danielle had also been busy with a new fundraising project—turning Marlow House into a haunted house for Halloween. After all, they knew a few ghosts who could provide some ambiance.
It was a sunny afternoon and a beautiful setting—even if it was a cemetery. None of the residents of Beach Drive attending the funeral knew the deceased, but it only seemed right they attend the funeral for Maisy Fay Morton and Kenneth Bakken. After all, they were practically neighbors. A noticeable missing resident from Beach Drive was Pearl Huckabee, who never considered attending a funeral for someone who had died years before her birth, even though their remains had been found in her backyard.
The caskets were the finest Morton Funeral Home could provide—not that a fancy box for remains that were barely there could make up for what Daisy had done those many years ago.
Danielle, Lily and Heather stood under a large shade tree with the baby sleeping in the stroller. They watched the mourners—if they could actually be called that, since most of them had never met the deceased—slowly disperse, with some lingering to chat with neighbors and friends. Toynette from the nursery was there, to pay her final respects to an uncle she had never met. She stopped by the three friends under the tree to thank them for coming and to take a quick look at the newest resident of Frederickport.
“This is what it is all about,” Toynette murmured, looking down at the sleeping baby.
Not long after Toynette stopped to say hello and then moved on, Millie Samson came by.
“I had to come today, for my late husband, for Lewis,” Millie said. “I heard that awful woman tried to blame Lewis for those dreadful murders. I’m just glad the truth finally came out. Bruce was right all along. Lewis didn’t kill himself.” She stayed a few more minutes to look at the baby and then went on her way.
Walt, Ian and Chris, who had been chatting with some other residents from Beach Drive, returned to the shade tree when Joe and Kelly came walking up.
“Is he sleeping?” Kelly asked, peeking in the stroller. “How is my adorable nephew?”
“Still adorable,” Lily said with a grin.
“Your neighbor still insists that tree flew up in the air and stayed there while you drove under it,” Joe told her.
Lily shrugged. “I was a little preoccupied at the time. I wasn’t really paying much attention to what was going on outside.”
Joe looked at Danielle, obviously expecting a comment from her.
“Pearl is just confused.” Danielle smiled sweetly. “It all happened so quickly. I imagine she was pretty shook up watching that tree break and then land on the sidewalk. She probably thought it was going to land on one of our cars.”
“It was a dramatic entrance for your little guy.” Joe grinned and looked down at the baby.
Chief MacDonald joined them a minute later.
“Is it true Morton Funeral Home paid for everything today?” Ian asked the chief.
MacDonald nodded. “That’s what I understand.”
“And Faye confessed to everything?” Heather asked.
As Heather asked the question, Officer Brian Henderson joined the group.
“Yes, but she claimed it was an accident,” MacDonald said.
“What exactly was an accident, Kenneth’s bash over the h
ead or Maisy being shot?” Danielle asked.
“She blamed her husband, claims he accidentally shot Maisy, that he never intended to hurt her when the gun went off, and then Kenneth tried to rush to Maisy’s side, and he fell because he was using crutches and hit his head,” the chief explained.
“Yeah, right,” Danielle scoffed.
“She claimed it had been her husband’s idea to bury the bodies. He intended to move them, but the house was sold, so they couldn’t. And now, her lawyer is claiming mental incapacity, and considering her advanced age, I’m not sure justice is going to be served in this case.”
“What about Norman? It’s nice that he paid for the funerals, but can he even do that if they decide none of it is his?” Heather asked.
“That’s already been determined to some degree. But it has to finish going through probate.” Brian spoke up. “Maisy had made a will when she turned eighteen, several years before her father passed away—before she was engaged to Kenneth. In the will she left all her worldly possessions to her children. If she had no children, they were to go to her sister, Daisy, and if Daisy had preceded her, then it was to go to Daisy’s children, which would be Norman.”
“Funny she would even mention children, considering neither one was even married at the time,” Heather said.
“What might be in Norman’s favor, the verbiage in the will refers to future children in either case. I’m assuming she had them include it that way so she wouldn’t be in a rush to have a new will drawn up when she eventually had children. Yet I suspect that once she was married to Kenneth, she would have rewritten her will to include him,” the chief suggested. “But who knows what is in a young girl’s mind when she writes up her first will.”
“Does this mean everything goes to Norman?” Danielle asked.
“Like Brian said, it has to finish going through probate. Unless someone contests the will, I suspect it will be decided Norman was always the rightful heir of Maisy’s estate. Even though Daisy was mentioned in the will, she wouldn’t be allowed to inherit because of her part in her sister’s murder.”
A sliver of moonlight fell through the nursery window, casting a faint glow over the infant sleeping in the crib. Sadie the golden retriever slept nearby, placing her curled-up body between the doorway and baby. The sound of the baby making a cooing noise followed by a woman’s voice saying, “Hello, handsome,” caused the dog’s ears to perk up. Jumping to attention while emitting a low growl, Sadie faced the crib.
“Calm down, Sadie,” Marie whispered. “It’s only me.”
Sadie looked at the spirit—the image of an elderly woman wearing a floral-patterned dress, with gray hair, and tonight no hat—as she stood over the crib looking down at the baby. Satisfied her charge was safe, Sadie let out a grunt and settled back down.
Connor opened his eyes and stared up into Marie’s smiling face. He gurgled and then grinned, wiggling his little hands in excitement.
“You can see me, can’t you?” Marie beamed.
The baby cooed as he continued to look up at Marie; their eyes met. He made a noise that to Marie sounded like a giggle.
“Oh, you sweet child, you can see me. You know what this means, don’t you? It means Grandma Marie needs to stick around and keep you safe. Oh, yes, she does.”
Return to Marlow Houses in
The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt
Haunting Danielle, Book 22
Coming August 2019
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The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt
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Haunting Danielle Series
by Bobbi Holmes
The Ghost of Marlow House, Book 1
The Ghost Who Loved Diamonds, Book 2
The Ghost Who Wasn’t, Book 3
The Ghost Who Wanted Revenge, Book 4
The Ghost of Halloween Past, Book 5
The Ghost Who Came for Christmas, Book 6
The Ghost of Valentine Past, Book 7
The Ghost from the Sea, Book 8
The Ghost and the Mystery Writer, Book 9
The Ghost and the Muse, Book 10
The Ghost Who Stayed Home, Book 11
The Ghost and the Leprechaun, Book 12
The Ghost Who Lied, Book 13
The Ghost and the Bride, Book 14
The Ghost and Little Marie, Book 15
The Ghost and the Doppelganger, Book 16
The Ghost of Second Chances, Book 17
The Ghost Who Dream Hopped, Book 18
The Ghost of Christmas Secrets, Book 19
The Ghost Who Was Says I Do, Book 20
The Ghost and the Baby, Book 21
The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt, Book 22
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Sundered Hearts
After Sundown
While Snowbound
Sugar Rush
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The Coulson Series
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Coulson’s Wife
Coulson’s Crucible
Coulson’s Lessons
Coulson’s Secret
Coulson’s Reckoning
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Havasu Palms, A Hostile Takeover
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The Ghost and the Baby Page 26