The Ghost Who Dream Hopped

by Anna J. McIntyre

  Olivia sat at the desk in silence, staring at the image and wondering what it all meant. Instead of going through the other pictures she had downloaded, she logged onto her BeachFastPrint account and uploaded several of the images taken that day. It would take all the money she had on the gift card, but she didn’t care. She ordered eleven-by-fourteen-inch images and made it a rush order. Since they were a local company, they should arrive by Tuesday, but maybe Wednesday, considering it was a Sunday. Instead of sending them to her house, she used her sister’s address. The last thing she needed was her mother opening her mail and realizing she had been with Kevin that day.

  Twenty-Nine

  It started to rain after lunch on Sunday and the temperature dropped ten degrees. The two couples staying at Marlow House returned by two in the afternoon, and neither was anxious to go exploring in wet weather. It proved to be an opportunity for them to get to know each other, and by three p.m. the two couples were playing a board game in the living room while a fire raged in the nearby fireplace. The single woman had not returned, and Danielle assumed she was at her cousin’s house.

  In spite of their age differences, the two couples seemed to be getting along, considering the constant laughter and endless chatter drifting out from the living room. Danielle played hostess and brought them hot cider and cookies.

  Walt, who had only gone through two of the file drawers, was once again back in the parlor, sorting through the old documents, news clippings and photographs. On the floor by his feet was a box Danielle had given him to put the items in that would be going to the museum. The box was filling up, and he wondered why Beverly imagined Danielle would be interested in all this stuff. Most of it was about people she had never heard of, and they weren’t people he had considered friends.

  “Have you found anything interesting?” Danielle asked as she brought him some hot cider and cookies.

  He glanced up from the file drawer and smiled. “That is really sweet of you. But that doesn’t look like brandy.”

  “You want a glass of brandy, now?”

  He grinned. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble. I would get it myself, but I’m afraid it might upset your guests.”

  Danielle chuckled. “Yeah, may not be a good idea to levitate yourself a glass of brandy.”

  “And I’ve found hopping while carrying a drink never works out well.”

  “That’s okay. I would rather you not splash brandy all over the wood floors.”

  “Terrible waste of brandy.”

  “Not to mention what it does to the floors.” She started to turn, taking the tray with two glasses of cider and cookies with her.

  “Hey, wait a minute! Don’t take the cookies!” he called out.

  “I thought you wanted brandy?”

  “Doesn’t mean I don’t want the cookies.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes and walked to Walt and handed him the tray. “Should I leave you the cider too?”

  “No, thank you. I’ve never cared for cider and cookies.” Walt took a bite of a cookie.

  “But you like cookies and brandy?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry. They’ll be gone by the time you bring the brandy back.”

  Walt was correct. When she returned to the parlor with his drink the tray was empty, and he was back to sorting his papers. She didn’t bother telling him that some of those were supposed to be for her.

  “So have you found anything interesting?” she asked once again.

  Walt glanced up. “Didn’t you bring yourself some cookies?”

  She shrugged and said, “Nahh. I think I’m going to cut back on sweets a bit. Maybe get rid of these fifteen extra pounds I need to drop.”

  “Leave those fifteen pounds alone. They look perfect on you,” Walt told her.

  Danielle grinned and silently forgave him for eating her share.

  “There are an awful lot of articles on the Klan in here. It looks like they set up a local chapter after I died. The first article I found about the Frederickport Klan was from 1925, and the last from 1929, when it appears the local chapter closed. If I can believe the dates jotted on the articles.”

  “From the local paper?” she asked.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Those are the years the museum doesn’t have. Remember, when the newspaper office burned down and those back copies were lost.”

  “Then I suppose they’ll be happy to have these,” Walt said as he tossed another article into the box.

  “Maybe not,” Danielle mused.

  Walt looked up again, his gaze locked with Danielle’s. “Ahh, you’re thinking about what Marie told us.”

  She shrugged. “If the museum wants to focus on our more favorable past, I don’t think that would include the town’s foray into Klan activity.”

  “True. While I found their ideology distasteful, I wasn’t exactly a majority opinion back then. Although it is comforting to know they were eventually pushed out. At least, according to some of those later articles.”

  Danielle glanced down to the box filled with news clippings. “I wonder why Beverly thought I would be interested in all this? It should go to the museum, not me.”

  Walt tossed the remaining papers from the file cabinet into the box and opened the last drawer. He reached in and pulled out a handful of news clippings and started shuffling through them as Danielle watched. One caught his eye and he paused.

  “This one.” Walt pulled the clipping from the stack and read it.

  “What is it?” Danielle asked.

  “It’s the wedding announcement of Roger and Katherine.” Walt’s eyes remained on the article. She jumped from her seat and went to Walt to have a closer look. He handed her the newspaper clipping.

  “Oh my, they actually look happy,” Danielle murmured as she studied the article. “Brianna’s mother was quite lovely.”

  “According to that article, they were getting married in five days. One would never know by looking at that picture that they would both be dead in five days.” Walt picked up his glass of brandy off the top of the file cabinet and took a sip.

  “Katherine wasn’t dead five days later. Marie once told me she lingered for a few days before she died,” Danielle reminded him.

  “What’s so interesting?” came Lily’s voice from the open doorway.

  Walt and Danielle looked up to see Lily and Ian entering the room, Sadie trailing behind them. The moment Sadie spied Walt, she went to his side, resting her chin on his knee as her tail wagged.

  “We’ve been going through the papers Beverly brought over,” Danielle explained. “Walt just found this wedding announcement for Aunt Brianna’s mother and Walt’s brother-in-law.”

  “Oh, I want to see what Roger looks like!” Lily rushed to Danielle and peeked at the photo. “Wow, a pretty boy!”

  Danielle laughed. “That’s what I said.”

  “Should I be jealous?” Ian drawled while plopping down on one of the chairs.

  “Don’t worry. He isn’t as pretty as you,” Lily assured him.

  Walt lifted his brandy glass at Ian and said, “I would offer you some brandy, but I’m afraid you will have to get it yourself. Danielle won’t let me levitate while guests are in the house.”

  Ian chuckled. “Thanks. Maybe later. We came over so I could look at those house plans you found.”

  “To heck with the house plans, I want to see the secret staircase!” Lily said.

  “Shh!” Danielle hushed. “Not so loud. I don’t want anyone outside this room to know about the staircase.”

  Lily let out a sigh and walked over to Ian. “I suppose you’re right. It really wouldn’t be a secret staircase if everyone knew.”

  Danielle handed the newspaper article back to Walt and then headed for the desk, where she had placed the floor plans earlier. She picked them up and then handed them to Ian.

  Ian stood up and walked to the sofa. Sitting down, he unrolled the floor plans on the coffee table. “If you want to keep the staircase secret
from the builders, you might want to do something with these floor plans.”

  “I thought about that.” Danielle wandered over to the sofa and looked over Ian’s shoulder.

  “Have you found a builder to work with?”

  “I haven’t really looked yet. I was going to talk to Adam. He should know of someone,” Danielle said.

  His attention still on the floor plans, Ian asked, “Lily said the stairs lead to a hidden entrance in the attic?”

  “Yes.” Danielle pointed to the attic section of the floor plans. “There’s a false wall in a portion of the partial wall up there with the cabinet.”

  Ian studied the plan a moment and then said, “I don’t think you’re going to have a problem getting plumbing up there. You could put the bathroom right over the two on the second floor and extend the partial wall where the cabinet and exit for the hidden stairs are.”

  “Can we go see it?” Lily asked.

  “Sure.” Danielle looked to Walt. “You want to come?”

  He shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I’ve seen it, and frankly, it’s too much trouble going up and down those stairs with this cast.”

  Danielle locked her bedroom door after she brought Ian and Lily into her room. She didn’t want one of her guests walking in while she showed her friends the hidden staircase.

  “This was much easier when Walt was here,” Danielle said after she started removing her clothes from her closet and setting them on the bed.

  “Are you going to have to do that every time you use the stairs?” Lily asked as she pitched in and helped move the clothes.

  “She shouldn’t have to,” Ian said as he inspected the back wall of the closet while his wife helped Danielle remove the hanging clothes. “I assume you intend to use this to visit Walt in the attic when you have guests?”

  Lily giggled.

  “It would just give us more privacy.”

  “No kidding.” Lily giggled again.

  Danielle swatted Lily with a hanger.

  “Ouch!” Lily frowned and rubbed her arm. She hadn’t been hit that hard, but it was the principle of the thing.

  “It’s just that Walt and I like to talk at night, and I don’t need guests gossiping if I want to go up to the attic to talk to him.”

  “From what I recall, he used to visit you in your bedroom,” Lily teased.

  “Well, no reason Walt can’t use the stairs to visit you. And I imagine it might be more fun than his last visits,” Ian said from the closet.

  “Ian!” Danielle blushed.

  Lily started laughing.

  “So how do you open this thing?” Ian asked.

  Danielle and Lily walked back to the closet, and Danielle showed Ian the panel that Walt had moved. In the next moment Ian slid it to the side.

  “I just hope a ghost doesn’t pop out this time,” Danielle muttered under her breath.

  Once the stairs were revealed, Danielle quickly retrieved the flashlight from her nightstand and handed it to Ian.

  “Wow, this is really cool in here!” Lily said as she looked all around, following the glow of the flashlight as Ian moved it over the interior of the hidden compartment. “I can’t believe this was here all the time.”

  “Walt had no idea?” Ian asked.

  “His grandfather had talked about a hidden staircase, but then said it had never been built. Something about his grandmother not liking it.”

  “I can’t believe Walt didn’t know,” Lily said.

  “I guess he never bothered walking through that wall when he was a ghost,” Danielle said with a shrug. “And it’s not like spirits have X-ray vision.”

  “They never used this?” Lily asked.

  “No,” Danielle said. “According to Walt, he wasn’t sure if his grandfather was going to build it—or built it but then boarded it up and never used it. I guess we know now. He built it but boarded it up and never used it.”

  “I don’t think so,” Ian called out from where he was crouched at the far side of the hidden cavern. Danielle and Lily heard a scratching sound like someone was pulling metal over wood. A moment later, Ian stood up with a bucket in his hand and handed it to Danielle.

  “What’s that?” Lily asked, peeking into it.

  Danielle put her hand into the bucket and pulled out the stub of a candle. There was a dozen more in the bottom, along with a number of unused candles and stick matches. “Candles?”

  “Someone obviously came in here at one time.” Ian pointed the beam of the flashlight to the wall, illuminating what appeared to be a sconce attached to the paneling. “I’d say Walt’s grandfather used the stairs, and he used those candles in that sconce to provide light when he did. And look at this.” Ian ran the beam of light over the stairs leading up to the attic. “Those steps have some wear on them. They weren’t just built and abandoned. Someone used them.”

  Thirty

  Danielle stood at the parlor door silently watching Walt. His beard made him look somewhat mysterious, a man of intrigue. If people only knew! she thought. No longer just a five o’clock shadow, Lily described it as a medium stubble or neatly trimmed beard. Lily thought he wore it well, and while Danielle had to agree, the fact was, she missed his face.

  Minutes earlier Danielle had seen Lily, Ian and Sadie out, and her bed-and-breakfast guests had just finished up their board game, and it sounded as if they had turned on the living room television.

  Whatever Walt was reading, it had his entire attention. It wasn’t a newspaper clipping or another ledger or album. In his hand he held a stack of papers that he kept flipping through—looking at one, then another, then returning to the previous one.

  “What are you reading?” Danielle asked as she stepped into the parlor.

  “Shut the door, please,” Walt quietly requested.

  Danielle complied and then said, “It sounds serious.” She walked to Walt.

  “I know now what happened to my property the Seahorse Motel occupies.” He looked up to Danielle.

  “What?” She sat on the arm of the sofa, facing him.

  “It was sold for one dollar.”

  “One dollar? I know prices have gone up a lot in the last ninety years, but I can’t imagine beachfront property would go for one dollar, even back then.”

  Walt handed Danielle the top page. “No, it wouldn’t. Notice the attorney who prepared the bill of sale.”

  Danielle stood up a moment and grabbed the document and then sat back down again, quickly reading the contract. “Benjamin Smith? This is the seller’s copy. Why did Steve have it?”

  “It gets worse.” Walt offered the remaining documents for Danielle to look at.

  Standing up again, she took the papers and shuffled through them. “I don’t get it. What are these?”

  “They are all contracts for undisclosed services rendered to my estate. Generous payments, all the same amount, to Hal Tucker, William Forest, and Theodore Shafer. And as you can see, my brother-in-law signed off on all of them.”

  Danielle looked up from the papers and shook her head. “I don’t get it. What right did Roger have to be making payments to them from your estate?”

  “If you’ll look at the dates, they were all signed and executed on the day of Roger and Katherine’s wedding. I assume after the vows and before Katherine shot him.”

  Danielle looked down at the papers and shook her head. “Wow.”

  “Another thing, I’m fairly certain that property the motel is located on was probably worth the same amount as one of those payments.”

  Danielle looked up again. “You think this was some sort of payoff for something? And instead of money, they took the land for the motel instead?”

  Walt nodded. “That would be my guess.”

  Danielle took a seat on the sofa and shuffled through the papers again, briefly glancing over each one. “I see Ben’s father was the witness on all these payment contracts.” She looked up to Walt. “What do you think they were really for?”

  “I hav
e a good idea. And I imagine you do too.” Walt stood up from the chair and hop-walked to the sofa.

  Dropping the papers on her lap, she watched Walt as he sat down next to her. “According to Katherine’s ledger, these men had all harassed her. You think they were harassing her so Roger could be the knight in shining armor and she would marry him for protection?”

  “We’ll never know for sure. But I think that’s what happened.” Walt reached over and took the papers from Danielle. He gave them one final look and then tossed them on the coffee table.

  “Did you find anything for Luiy?” Danielle asked. “Because according to Katherine, he seemed to be the primary instigator.”

  Walt shook his head. “No. Other than Katherine’s ledger, I haven’t seen him mentioned anywhere.”

  “Why do you think Steve had these papers? They all seem to be the estate’s copies,” Danielle asked.

  “Smith was Brianna’s attorney for a number of years. Maybe these documents were found in his things after he died.”

  “That would mean Ben would have to know what kind of man his father really was!” Danielle said. “And just because Roger was her husband, would he really have the authority to give away that much of her estate without her permission?”

  Walt shrugged. “I’m not a lawyer. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another document out there with Katherine’s signature on it, giving Roger the right to administer the estate.”

  “Poor Brianna, she really got stuck with some crappy attorneys. First Smith and then Renton. They both must have skipped their class on fiduciary duty in law school,” Danielle snarked.

  With a sigh, Walt slumped back on the sofa and stared ahead blankly.

  Danielle looked to him, noting his serious expression. “Those men each made a small fortune from your death.”

  “It galls me to think those useless palookas got a dime from my estate,” Walt grumbled.

  “In retrospect, it would probably have been better had you left your estate to that cousin in England instead of Katherine. Roger would never have been able to get his hands on it, and poor Brianna wouldn’t have been left an orphan.”