Kelly blushed. “Oh, I’m sorry—I mean, thank you, Brian. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” Kelly looked back down at her bowl and absently stirred her chili with a spoon.
“Is everything okay, Kelly?” Joe asked. “You’ve been so quiet all evening.”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Kelly set her spoon on the table and looked from Joe to Brian. “Okay, but you both have to promise not to say anything. Do you promise?”
“Say anything about what?” Joe asked.
“I think I know why Danielle is getting married so quick—so suddenly.”
“She’s pregnant?” Brian joked.
Kelly looked to Brian, her eyes wide. “You knew?”
Brian frowned. “I knew what?”
“Danielle. She’s pregnant. Well, not for sure, but she thinks she might be.”
“What are you talking about?” Joe asked.
“Well, it explains everything. Why Danielle announced her engagement after dating Walt for just a few weeks,” Kelly said.
Brian laughed. “Kelly, I was joking. Danielle isn’t pregnant.”
“She obviously doesn’t know for sure, or she wouldn’t have bought that pregnancy test.”
“What pregnancy test?” Joe asked.
“When I was at the pharmacy earlier, I ran into Danielle, and she was buying a pregnancy test.”
“What did she say?” Brian asked.
Kelly wrinkled her nose at Brian. “She didn’t know I saw her. And when we ran into each other at the pharmacy later, she held onto that sack with the test in it like her life depended on it. But I knew what was in the bag. I saw her take it off the shelf. I saw her take it to the checkout counter.”
“Pregnant?” Joe frowned. “I can’t believe that.”
“It explains a lot. Like a sudden marriage to a man she barely knows,” Kelly said.
“If she is pregnant, I don’t think you can say he barely knows her,” Brian reminded her.
“Brian!” Kelly gasped.
Brian rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on, think about it. If this was a shotgun wedding, why put it off a month? And if she is buying a test, she obviously didn’t know she was pregnant when they announced the engagement.”
“Or she was afraid she might be,” Joe suggested.
SEVEN
Walt’s gray wool slacks, freshly polished leather dress shoes, and long-sleeved blue shirt suited his personality better than the denim and flannel he had worn the previous day. An added bonus, the shirt’s color complimented his eyes. He sat with Danielle in the living room, discussing their upcoming wedding.
Her dress was less formal, flannel pajama bottoms and a fleece shirt. It was almost noon, and without guests in the house, she hadn’t gotten around to dressing for the day.
They sat side by side on the sofa, Danielle’s stockinged feet propped on the coffee table, Walt’s right arm draped around her shoulders, as his right hand absently fiddled with the tendrils falling around one of her ears.
“I guess you and Lily won’t be shopping for wedding dresses this afternoon like you planned?” Walt asked as Danielle thumbed through the bridal magazine.
“Not today. Hopefully she’ll feel better tomorrow.” Danielle glanced up at Walt. “You don’t think we’re silly going through with this wedding?”
Walt grinned at Danielle. “What, you don’t want to marry me anymore?”
She gave him a gentle nudge with her elbow. “We are practically an old married couple.”
Walt chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t think we’re silly. I’d like to have our friends here when we go public with our marriage.”
Danielle closed the magazine and leaned back against Walt. “I’m glad you feel that way. I will confess, I’m really looking forward to this.”
“Me too.” Walt kissed the top of her head again.
Motion from the front window caught their attention. It was Ian and Lily. The pair waved and then continued to the front door.
“We were going to the kitchen door, but Lily saw you sitting in here,” Ian said when he walked into the room with his wife. They hadn’t bothered ringing the bell, but had come in through the unlocked front door and made their way straight to the living room.
“I don’t know about having neighbors who spy on you and know where you are in the house,” Danielle teased.
Holding a stack of envelopes in one hand, Lily tossed them to Danielle before taking a seat. “We also poked through your mail. I didn’t see anything interesting, so I decided to give it all to you. And you really should lock your front door.”
Danielle laughed. “Thanks, Lily. But why bother? Half the neighborhood has the key.” She set her unopened mail on the coffee table without looking at it.
“How are you feeling today?” Walt asked Lily.
“Better.” Lily looked at Danielle and said, “I think I’ll feel up to looking at wedding dresses with you tomorrow. We could leave early in the morning, drive into Portland.”
“If you feel up to it, that would be great.”
Lily stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the little girl’s room.” She exchanged a quick glance with Danielle and headed out of the living room to the downstairs bathroom. Earlier she had phoned Danielle, who told her where she would find the pregnancy test.
Once in the bathroom, Lily opened the cabinet door under the sink. In the back of the cabinet she spied a paper sack with the local pharmacy’s logo. Removing it from the cabinet, she sat on the toilet seat, using it like a chair, and removed the package from the bag. A moment later, after opening the box, she began reading the directions for the pregnancy test.
“HAVE you decided who will officiate the wedding?” Ian asked. “Did you ask the chief about walking you down the aisle yet?”
“No and yes,” Danielle told him. “I mean, Walt and I have talked about who we would like to officiate—but we haven’t finalized it yet. And I did ask the chief, and he said he would walk me down the aisle. Evan is going to be a ring bearer.”
“And we’d like Sadie to be the flower girl,” Walt told him.
“Sadie?” Ian laughed. “You aren’t serious?”
“Yes,” Walt insisted. “I’ve already had a long talk with her.”
“Of course you have,” Ian said under his breath, trying not to laugh some more.
“We thought Sadie could walk down the stairs ahead of us, carrying a basket of flowers,” Danielle told him.
“What about Max? Is he going to be in the wedding too?” Ian asked.
“Don’t be silly, Ian. Max is a cat,” Danielle said with a snort.
Ian frowned. “Why would that be silly? Walt communicates with Max in the same way he does with Sadie. If he can get Sadie to come down the stairs with a basket of flowers, why not Max?”
Walt chuckled. “Like Danielle said, Max is a cat. Just because I can communicate with him doesn’t mean he’ll cooperate with us during the ceremony. One never knows what the little demon might decide to do.”
“Hey, he is not a demon,” Danielle argued.
“They got Bella to distract Chris’s uncles,” Ian reminded them.
“True,” Walt said. “But that was different.”
“Different how?” Ian asked.
“Trust me, from a cat’s perspective, playing hero is far more enticing than carrying someone’s flowers,” Walt said.
Lily returned from the bathroom. She stood in the doorway a moment and looked as if she had something to say.
“What’s wrong?” Ian asked.
“Nothing,” Lily said quickly and looked to the sofa. “I just wanted to talk to Dani—in private—umm…it’s about the wedding.”
“Wedding secrets?” Walt asked.
Lily shrugged. “Well, there have to be some secrets.”
Danielle got up from the sofa and walked with Lily to the parlor. As soon as they walked in the room, Danielle closed the door. “Well, are you pregnant?”
“I don’t kno
w. I didn’t take the test.”
“You didn’t take it? Why not?”
“Because it said it’s best if you take the test first thing in the morning. I don’t want to risk a false reading and do this all over again. So I’ll have to wait until morning.”
“Are you going to take it home with you?”
Lily glanced to the closed door. “Not right now. I’ll have to get it later, when Ian isn’t with me, and sneak it in the house and hide it in the bathroom. Or I could run over here in the morning and take it.”
“Or you could just tell Ian what’s going on and stop trying to sneak around,” Danielle suggested.
Lily shook her head. “No. I don’t want to worry him. This morning he was talking about all the places he wanted to take me—what he wanted to show me. He was so excited.”
“It’s possible you aren’t pregnant.”
“Or that I am. I’m two days late now. I’m never late.”
“Stress can do that too,” Danielle suggested.
WHEN DANIELLE and Lily returned to the living room, Walt said, “We have our officiant.”
“You asked him?” Danielle asked.
“What officiant?” Lily asked.
“I’m going to be marrying Danielle and Walt,” Ian said proudly.
Lily grinned. “Really?”
“They said I didn’t have to get my online license to do it, since they’re already legally married, but I’m going to anyway,” Ian explained.
Danielle took her place on the sofa next to Walt and picked up the mail Lily had brought in, while Lily took a seat next to Ian. Danielle absently thumbed through the envelopes while listening to Lily question Ian about what he was going to wear for the wedding.
“Clint got a letter,” Danielle said aloud, interrupting the wedding discussion. All eyes turned to her. She looked to Lily and said, “You really didn’t look through our mail when you got it out of the mailbox.”
Lily frowned. “Of course not. But how did you know?”
“Because I think if you had, you’d wonder who from Huntington Beach had written Clint a letter.” Danielle handed the envelope to Walt.
Now holding the envelope, Walt looked at it. “Technically speaking, it’s not really for me.” He handed it back to Danielle.
“I don’t want it.” She handed it back to Walt. “You need to read it. It is for Clint.”
“Well, someone read it!” Lily burst. “I am dying to know what it says. Sheesh, the next time I rummage through your mail, I am actually going to look at it!”
Rolling his eyes, Walt shook his head and then ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter. He began to silently read. Danielle, Ian and Lily sat quietly.
“Who’s it from?” Lily asked as Walt continued to read.
Danielle shrugged. “There isn’t a return address, but the postmark is Huntington beach. And the address is handwritten.”
“This isn’t good,” Walt murmured.
“What’s wrong?” Danielle started to look over Walt’s shoulder. Now finished reading the letter, Walt handed it to her to read.
“What is it?” Lily asked.
“Don’t tell me, someone Clint owes money to?” Ian asked.
“I wish it was that easy,” Walt said.
Danielle finished reading the letter and set it on her lap. She looked at Walt and said, “I think we should show this to the chief.”
“I’m not sure what the chief could do. There’s nothing to work on.”
About to explode from curiosity, Lily hopped up from the chair and snatched the letter from Danielle’s lap. She began to read it.
“They’re threatening you!” Lily gasped. She quickly finished the letter and then handed it to Ian to read. “Whoever it is didn’t sign it, which is not surprising.”
“What should we do?” Danielle asked.
“I don’t know what we can do,” Walt said. “We’re just going to have to wait until they contact me again, like they said they’re going to do.”
After finishing the letter, Ian said, “It might have been better if we all didn’t touch this. There might be some fingerprints on it. If you at least knew who sent this—”
“Maybe we do!” Lily said.
“We do?” Danielle asked.
“Didn’t you tell me you have two guests arriving Friday, from Huntington Beach? That’s where the postmark is from. Maybe it’s one of them…or both,” Lily suggested.
Danielle frowned and picked up the envelope and looked at it again. “Whoever wrote the letter did say they would be in contact with Clint.”
“I wonder what Clint did,” Ian asked.
“I don’t know, but whoever wrote that letter is definitely pissed,” Danielle said.
Ian stood up and walked toward Danielle and Walt. He tossed the letter on the coffee table. “I think Danielle is right. You should take this letter to the chief. He needs to know someone has threatened you.”
Walt let out a sigh and closed his eyes. He leaned back in the sofa and muttered, “What did Clint do?”
“But it’s also possible this is all a hoax,” Ian suggested.
Walt opened his eyes and looked at Ian. “Hoax? Why do you say that?”
“With all the recent publicity for Moon Runners, you have a lot of eyes on you. Anyone following your story knows you are doing well financially, knows you are about to marry a wealthy woman, and that you have amnesia. I always thought that was a foolish thing to put out there—which I mentioned to you and to our agent, but the publisher disagreed and felt that added to your persona. While it does, it also opens you up to scam artists.”
“Why do you say that?” Danielle asked.
“I understand what Ian is saying,” Walt said. “And I agreed with him when he initially brought it up. But at the time, it was too late to go back. For one thing, anyone searching for information on me would come across the news articles after Clint’s accident.”
“I still don’t understand why that would open you up to scam artists,” Danielle said.
“Because, while Clint Marlow with amnesia may not remember his past deeds—or misdeeds—it does not mean he won’t still be held legally accountable for them. Which would mean someone could fabricate a crime, believing the now wealthy Clint will pay to keep it hidden,” Ian explained.
“And there is always the other option,” Walt said quietly. “That Clint did something I will regret.”
EIGHT
After Ian and Lily headed back across the street, Danielle went upstairs and got dressed. While she wasn’t opposed to lounging around the house in her pajama bottoms and T-shirt, she figured she’d better get dressed if she wanted to go with Walt down to the police station to show the chief the letter from the anonymous author.
Wearing skinny jeans, a red pullover sweater and knee-high boots, Danielle made her way to the first floor. Midway down the staircase, she heard the doorbell ring. Picking up her step, she hurried down the stairs.
When she threw open the front door several moments later, she found an unsmiling middle-aged woman standing on her front porch, her arms folded angrily across her chest.
“Hello, may I help you?” Danielle tentatively asked, eyeing the thin woman up and down. The stranger stood several inches taller than Danielle. She wore a blue overcoat over a long dress, with a matching blue cloche hat over her gray hair. She peered at Danielle with humorless gray eyes.
“Are you Danielle Boatman?” the woman demanded.
“Umm…yes.”
“I’m your new neighbor.”
Danielle’s face broke into a smile, and she opened the door a little wider. “Welcome to the neighborhood!” Danielle began, but her smile quickly faded as the woman refused to soften.
“Is that black cat yours?” the woman snapped.
“Umm, you mean Max? Black cat with white-tipped ears?”
“I don’t know if it has white ears or not. I didn’t get that close a look at it. It was in my backyard, and when I yelle
d at it, he ran over in your yard. I need to know if it’s yours or not.”
Danielle frowned. “Is there a problem?”
“Yes, there’s a problem! I do not appreciate your cat making my flower garden into a litter box. I’m going to be living here full-time, and I will not put up with negligent pet owners. Do you understand me?” the woman practically yelled.
“Is there a problem here?” Walt asked, stepping to Danielle’s side. He placed his arm protectively around Danielle’s waist.
Scowling, the new neighbor looked Walt up and down. “And who are you?”
“I’m Walt Marlow, and you?” Walt asked.
“I’ve heard about you. You’re just a boarder here. My business is with the owner of the property, and you can just butt out.”
“The owner happens to be my fiancée,” Walt snapped back. “And her business is my business. Now what is going on here?”
“Oh, lovely,” the woman said with a snort. “Another reason you shouldn’t be allowed to run an illegal commercial enterprise in a residential neighborhood. It’s just an excuse for all sorts of immoral conduct to take place under your roof! Just keep your cat out of my yard. If I see it again, you won’t.”
Danielle glared at the woman. “Have you just threatened to hurt Max?”
“I’m simply expressing my intention to use whatever legal means are open to me to exterminate any pests on my property.”
“I think you need to leave,” Walt told her.
“Just keep the cat in your house.” The woman turned and started to walk away but then paused and turned back to the door and said, “And you might want to consider a new business. One that is not run in a residential neighborhood.”
When the woman turned her back to Walt and Danielle again, her cloche hat flew off her head, which was an amazing feat, considering there was no wind blowing. An imaginary gust of wind sent the hat spiraling toward the street, just out of the woman’s reach as she raced to catch it, chasing the stubbornly elusive hat all the way down to the sidewalk, down the street, and back to her house.
Together Walt and Danielle stood on the front porch and watched their new neighbor chase her hat.
Haunting Danielle 20-The Ghost Who Was Says I Do Page 5