by John Gray
Scooter’s unrelenting call led them to the library. Before even entering the room, both Gavin and Chase knew something was about to happen that would likely alter their evening plans.
Scooter heard them approach, but he didn’t look back to acknowledge them. He kept staring at the wall of windows, specifically the one in the center, a tiny pane of glass that was identical to the rest. The pup was lying down on the thick rug, his tail straight as a string, eyes fixed and unwavering. Chase looked at Gavin, and they both looked at the windows and saw nothing.
“Maybe a squirrel or something spooked him outside?” Gavin asked.
Chase looked at the height of the windows and said, “Even if that were true, how could a squirrel get high enough on the window to do that. I’ve never seen a squirrel with a ladder, have you?”
It was a rhetorical question meant to make Gavin smile, which he did before not answering. Just silence, as they both looked at the clear glass panes facing due west. It was late in the day, so the sun had almost set, and since the sky was clear, the big ball of red burned bright on the horizon. Chase called Scooter over, but he refused to move from his spot or even turn his head to her command. He did stop barking, though, while continuing to look at the windows in front of him.
Chase then moved closer to her dog and slid down onto the rug to sit right by his side on the floor. She put her arm around his neck, rubbed his scalp, and leaned her face against his. Her soft skin was flush against his warm fur, cheek to cheek, giving Chase the dog’s exact vantage point.
“What are you looking at, boy? What’s the matter?” she asked in a loving tone.
“Do you see anything down there?” Gavin asked, still standing a few feet away near a row of busy bookcases.
“No, just glass and the yard and the sunset,” Chase replied. She put her lips down on Scooter’s head to give him a kiss and shifted her eyes back toward the windows, seeing them now from Scooter’s exact angle. That’s when she said, “What the …”
Gavin looked at the glass, then back to Chase, “What? What do you see?”
Chase shifted her head left a few inches, then to the right, and then back where it was on top of Scooter’s head.
“It goes away unless you are looking exactly right,” she said, out loud.
“What goes away?” Gavin asked more insistently, moving now to join Chase on the floor.
Chase took Gavin by the chin and pushed his head down onto the dog’s, and said, “Look straight at that center pane of glass, the one we aren’t allowed to wash.”
Gavin did, not seeing anything at first and then exclaiming, “WOW, I see it! Is that a …”
Chase interrupted him. “It’s a heart, with what looks like little wings coming out of the sides.”
Gavin squinted his eyes and then confirmed it. “Yes, you’re right. It’s a heart with wings. Angel wings, I think.”
With that Scooter got up and walked to the other side of the room, spinning in a circle twice, before lying down, his body curled up like a warm crescent roll. He closed his eyes as if he were exhausted. Chase could only wonder how long he’d been in this room barking, waiting for them to get home.
Gavin stood up first and then lifted Chase by both hands. They were nose to nose now, and he was thinking of giving her a kiss when Chase turned toward the window and said, “Two questions. How did that get there, and why didn’t we see it until now?”
Gavin walked toward the window and rubbed his hair back and forth, a habit that told Chase he was thinking hard for a solution.
“How’s this?” he began. “When I was a kid, my dad had an old junk car he kept in a back barn. It was covered in dust, and one day I wrote my name in the dust on the windshield.”
Chase was listening, not certain where this was going, only saying, “Okay, so?”
“So,” he continued, “years later, after the dust was brushed away, you could still see the outline of the letters in my name if the sunlight hit it just right. It left a kind of invisible imprint on the glass.”
Chase got down on the floor again and tried to duplicate the exact angle to see the heart again. The sun was a tiny bit lower in the sky, and only part of the heart was visible now.
“It’s already going,” she said to Gavin. “You must only be able to see it at a certain time of the day or year when the sun hits it exactly right.”
She got back up and said, “So, dust can do that, you say?”
Gavin replied, “It did for me. As for how a heart got there on this window—you said Sebastian Winthrop was madly in love with his wife, right?”
Chase nodded, “Yes, very much so.”
Gavin continued, “Maybe he drew that heart for her, or better yet, could it be she drew it for him, and when they saw it stayed, they never wanted to wash it away.”
Chase pondered Gavin’s theory, then added, “Makes sense.”
She paced the floor of the library now, not saying a word, prompting Gavin to ask, “But that’s a guess, and you need to know, don’t you?”
Chase made a face as if she were wincing and replied, “I kinda do. I’m sorry, Gav, but you know me. I have to know for sure.”
Gavin walked over to Chase’s brown Louis Vuitton bag that was sitting on the desk and fished out her cell phone.
As he handed it to her, he said, “The last time we stumbled on a mystery at this house you got the answer from that Stonewall Jackson woman. Call her.”
Chase paused a moment, staring at the phone, and then said, “You think she’ll be mad?”
Gavin replied, “It’s not like we went looking for this. Blame it on Scooter—he’s the troublemaker around here.”
Chase pulled up her number and put it on speaker so Gavin could hear. It didn’t finish half a ring when …
“Yes, Miss Harrington?” she answered without saying hello, reminding Chase how direct this woman could be.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Ms. Jackson, but I was staring at the sunset in the library of the house in Briarcliff and noticed what looks like a heart with wings, drawn on one of the panes. I know the letter Sebastian left said not to wash that window, and we haven’t. We’ve respected his wishes. But we saw the heart by accident, so I’m hoping you can shed some light on it, no pun intended.”
There was silence for a good ten seconds, before the stern voice responded, “And I suppose if I tell you to drop it, you’ll just end up tearing every book off the shelf looking for an answer?”
Chase looked at Gavin, then back at the phone, and replied, “You know me well, ma’am. I probably would.”
More silence, and then, “There’s nothing in the books to help you this time, but there is something.”
Another pause, then she asked, “Are you in the library right now?”
Chase responded eagerly, “We are.”
“Look toward the east wall, opposite the windows and the rows of books,” she instructed.
Chase turned and did as she was told. “Okay, I’m looking that way.”
Ms. Jackson again, “On the lower right side you’ll see a white wooden cabinet with a silver latch—do you see it?”
They both crossed the room as Chase yelled back, “Yes, should I open it?”
“Yes,” the voice continued. “In that cabinet are music CDs and some movies on DVD. You’ll find one that looks different from the others. It’s marked TELETHON, in big letters. Let me know when you have it.”
Gavin scooped out a dozen discs and shuffled through them, and suddenly Chase said, “There! We have it, Ms. Jackson.”
After another beat of silence, and the voice said, “The reason for the hidden heart is on that video. That’s all the help I can give. Good day.”
With that the phone went dead, causing Chase to look at Gavin and say, “Why is everything so dramatic with her?”
Gavin shrugged his shoulders and said, “I saw a DVD player in the living room next to the TV,” causing both to dash out of the room and down the hall.
Af
ter popping the disc in the machine, Gavin joined Chase on the couch and pushed “play,” causing the screen to suddenly come to life. As advertised, it was a telethon of some sorts, being hosted by a local news station in New York City.
A handsome man in a tux began, “Hello everyone, I’m Dave Rush. Welcome to our annual telethon to benefit the children’s hospital at St. Mary’s in the Bronx.”
The woman, in a beautiful gown, followed, “And I’m Katie Ranno. As we come on the air, we want to send it out to our reporter who is at the hospital with a special presentation.”
Chase and Gavin watched as a reporter in the field talked about the children’s hospital and then turned to interview someone they both recognized.
Reporter: “Joining me now is philanthropist Sebastian Winthrop and his wife, Vida, here to cut the ribbon on a very special place.”
The camera turned to Sebastian, looking a good dozen years younger than Chase imagined him, as he said, “Thank you. Today we are opening the Heart Center. Over the years we’ve given money to the hospital for equipment and treatment, but it took a frank conversation with a child to make this place happen.”
The reporter then asked, “What do you mean, sir?”
Sebastian stepped aside so the camera could better see the room behind them, then explained, “A special little girl told Vida and myself that what this place needed was a playroom just for kids, no adults allowed. And if you look around, that’s precisely what the Heart Room is. Video games, coloring books, every Disney movie a child could want.”
The reporter just nodded along, so Sebastian continued. “There’s just one rule in this room: have fun. No shots, no medical machines making you scared. Just play for these children who have already been through so much.”
The reporter started to wrap things up, saying, “Well, it’s fabulous. Thank you for allowing us to take a look inside today.”
Sebastian interrupted, saying, “WAIT. Let me show you one last thing. That back wall has pictures of several of the children we met who inspired us to create the Heart Room. Can you get a shot of them, please?”
The camera zoomed in, revealing a small stone wall with photographs of five children. From left to right was a little boy with glasses, smiling brightly. Next to him, a teenaged girl in a wheelchair. In the middle, a beautiful little girl in a bright yellow dress with blonde, curly hair. To her right another boy in some kid of a special walker. And the last photo was a boy about ten, dressed like Superman.
“These children are the reason we are here today,” Sebastian said, adding, “They are forever in our hearts.” Gavin suddenly shouted, “LOOK! THERE!”
He was pointing at the TV, to a small red wooden heart with white wings, etched into the wall above the children’s photographs. It was identical to the heart Gavin and Chase had just seen on the window in the library. It was the Heart Room’s emblem.
The reporter tossed it back to the studio for the rest of the telethon, but the video turned to static, revealing there was nothing left to see.
Chase thought a moment, and then said to Gavin, “So, let’s talk this out.”
Gavin took her hand in his and said, “Go.”
Chase replied, “We knew Sebastian and his wife helped lots of charities. They help this hospital and meet some kids and decide to do this special room we just saw.”
Gavin interrupted, “The Heart Room.”
Chase continued, “Exactly, the Heart Room. The two of them sit in the library one day talking about what they want to build and one of them draws the heart in the glass, like you said earlier about your dad’s truck, and they decide it’s so pretty they don’t want to erase it. They end up using it for the logo at the hospital.”
Gavin was the one pausing now, and then said, “Makes sense. I mean Stonewall Jackson told you on the phone that the answer to the heart in the window was on the DVD, and that’s what it showed us. So that has to be it.”
Both were quiet now, mulling over Chase’s theory, and neither could find fault with it.
Still, Chase said, “Don’t be mad at me, but I have to know for sure.”
“How can you do that?” Gavin wondered.
Chase picked up the phone and hit redial. After two rings a harsh voice answered, “I thought we were done, Miss Harrington.”
Chase, in a less than apologetic tone, said, “I know, I know, I’m annoying, but how about this, Ms. Jackson. I watched the telethon video and I have a theory. So, here’s my plan. I tell you what I think is up with that window in the library, and if I’m right you don’t even need to speak. You just hang up.”
Another pause, and then the voice from the phone’s speaker replied, “I’d love nothing more than to hang up on you. All right, hurry up.”
Chase started: “Sebastian and his wife meet some great kids at this hospital, and a little girl tells them they need a playroom. They build it and decide to name it after the heart that one of them drew on the window here at the house. Because those kids are special to them, they never erase the heart or wash the glass. It’s a silent, beautiful reminder of the good they did. Knowing they can’t live forever, they leave a letter for the next owner, telling them not to touch that window, so the heart stays. How’s that?”
Silence over the phone and then, “Very good, Chase. And now we’re done.”
With that the phone went dead again, and Chase looked at Gavin with a satisfied smile. “I should write mysteries—I’m really good at this stuff.”
Gavin glanced at his watch and said, “It’s late. You wanna split a bowl of ice cream before I head out? You know, to celebrate your brilliance.”
“Only if it’s chocolate chip cookie dough,” Chase replied, before giving Gavin a hug.
A few moments later both were sitting at the kitchen island, with Scooter watching every spoonful of ice cream leaving the dish, hoping the next one would come in his direction.
“I promise to save you the last bite,” Gavin said, prompting the dog to wag his tail.
Chase was sitting only inches from Gavin, but he could sense she was miles away. “Where are you?” he asked.
“I was just thinking about the letter we were given when we moved in here,” she replied.
“What about it?” Gavin asked.
“Well, there were three mysteries in there. Don’t dig under the tree, don’t wash the window, and place the rose on the rock wall behind the house every night.”
Gavin, following along, agreed. “Right, what about them?”
Chase took on a mischievous look, which told Gavin she was about to propose something adventurous.
“What now?” Gavin asked, as he gave the last scoop of ice cream to Scooter, as promised.
“Well, we’ve solved two of the three mysteries, but the biggest one, these roses on the wall that vanish, that one …” She stopped talking, keeping whatever was next in her head.
Gavin loved and knew Chase better than anyone on the planet, so after a moment of silence he finished her thought. “So, you want to solve that one as well. You want to know who is taking the roses, where they are going, and why?”
Chase smiled and said, “Is that so bad?”
Gavin replied, “No, I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but you are deliberately going against the old man’s wishes, the one who gave you the house. We solved the first two by accident. This would be different.”
Chase thought a moment, giving serious consideration to what Gavin just said.
Finally, she responded, “You’re right. We’d be breaking his wishes. Forget I even mentioned it.”
Gavin, sorry to see her disappointed, added, “You know, if we think about it, we can probably guess what’s happening with the roses anyway.”
Chase turned to Gavin now and said enthusiastically, “You’ve thought about it too? Tell me your theory and let’s see if it’s the same as mine.”
Gavin placed the empty dish on the floor for Scooter and started. “Sebastian adored his wife and probably gave her roses eve
ry day. When she died, he likely took roses to her grave and did it for years. When he was starting to get sick, and knew he wouldn’t be around forever, he decided to have roses delivered to the house and ask the new owner to place one on the rock wall each night. Then someone he paid in advance comes along and takes them to make sure his Vida still has her rose. That’s my theory. You?”
Chase’s eyes went as wide as they could go, and she giggled and covered her mouth. “That’s EXACTLY what I think is happening. Has to be right? Right? I mean, what else makes sense?”
Gavin put the empty ice cream dish in the sink, gave Chase a hug goodnight and started toward the door.
Just as he was about to leave, Chase added, “Unless we’re wrong.”
Gavin silently spun around, returned to the sink, and turned on the cold water.
“What are you doing?” Chase asked.
“Making fresh coffee,” Gavin replied. “If we’re staying up all night to follow the rose, we’ll both need caffeine. Lots of it.”
Chase met his eyes and said, “I’m sorry. Do you hate me? I have to know where that rose goes, I have to.”
Gavin took her firmly in his strong arms and said, “I love you, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
Before the sun would rise again in the tiny village of Briarcliff Manor, New York, Chase Harrington would solve this last mystery of her mansion. She’d also learn, much to her surprise, that their theory on the vanishing roses was completely wrong.
CHAPTER 32
Follow the Rose
In the few months that Chase had lived in the mansion, Gavin had walked the property dozens of times with Scooter on his leash. He noticed in the back, beyond the stone wall where they left the yellow rose each night, was twenty feet of grass, then a row of tightly grown arborvitae trees. From left to right they stretched a hundred yards and acted like a fence, giving the property privacy.