The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt Page 21

  Before Heather had a chance to comment, a man showed up at Mia’s booth.

  “I would have been here sooner, but I was talking to Chester and Cecil,” the man told Mia as he took a seat in her booth.

  “Austin,” Mia said as she turned around to face her husband, no longer sitting up on her knees, “this is one of our neighbors.” She looked back to Heather and said, “I just realized I didn’t get your name.”

  “I’m Heather. Heather Donovan.”

  “It’s been so nice meeting you, Heather. This is my husband, Austin.”

  Heather and Austin exchanged nods and brief smiles before they each picked up a menu and turned their attentions back to their own booths.

  “They say we need to get a room somewhere while they deal with the mold. Say it’s worse than they initially thought,” Austin grumbled, his voice drifting over to Heather, who was trying to read her menu but was unable to ignore her neighbors’ conversation.

  “Move? I have to work today, when am I going to have the time to move again?” Mia asked. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  Unable to resist, Heather set her menu down and looked over at her neighbors’ booth. “Excuse me, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help but hear, you have mold?”

  “Yes. I suppose that’s what we get for buying the property as is. It was a great price, but now I know why,” he grumbled.

  “You aren’t alone. My house had some serious mold a couple of years ago,” Heather told them.

  “Did you have to move out of your house when they were dealing with the mold?” Mia asked.

  “I did. I stayed at Marlow House. Back then, Marlow House was a bed and breakfast.”

  “It isn’t anymore?” Mia asked.

  Heather shook her head. “No. It closed down the first of the year.”

  “Now they just run a haunted house out of there?” Austin asked.

  Heather smiled. “It’s for a good cause. Walt and Danielle Marlow—that’s who own Marlow House—are active philanthropists. Occasionally they use Marlow House to help raise money for a charity.”

  The next moment Carla arrived to take Heather’s order, ending the conversation between the two booths. About that time Brian Henderson walked in, taking a seat at the counter. A few minutes later he was joined by Joe Morelli.

  “I understand your missing girl has been found,” Joe said when he took a seat next to Brian.

  Brian nodded and then asked, “How did you hear?”

  “Kelly talked to Lily last night. Said something about there being a misunderstanding about where she was staying. I guess she was just visiting family in Frederickport, and Danielle misunderstood.”

  “I thought Chris saw her with the Crawfords?” Brian asked. While he had heard the girl had been found, that question had not been answered.

  “Lily told Kelly the girl—I guess her name is Ginny—was watching the movers unload furniture, and Chris assumed she was with the new neighbors. I guess the Crawfords and movers were so busy they didn’t notice her.”

  “But I thought Chris saw her go inside the house with Mrs. Crawford?” Brian asked.

  Joe shrugged. “Chris was mistaken.”

  Brian turned his attention back to the menu. “I guess one mystery has been solved.”

  Chester Bellemore stood in the Crawford living room, watching his brother add a few extra screws to the copper paneling they had reaffixed to the brick wall before the Crawfords had returned from Portland the night before.

  Stepping back from the wall, Cecil inspected his work for a moment before saying, “This should keep them out of there in case they decide to poke around before we’re done. No way are they going to get that off without the right tool. And I don’t think Crawford even owns a screwdriver.”

  “Now what?” Chester asked.

  “How long did they say they’d be gone?”

  “He told me they were going into town after they have breakfast,” Chester said.

  “The last thing we need is for them to return while we’re in the middle of adding mold to the inside of their bedroom walls. But we’re going to have to do that if we want to convince them they have to move out for a few days. Did you bring the bottle of dye?”

  “Yeah. But do you really think it’s going to convince him?”

  “It has so far, hasn’t it?” Cecil asked.

  “But what if he decides to ask someone for a second opinion?”

  “I can’t think about that now,” Cecil said impatiently. “We need to find the treasure. I know it’s there. Everything else we were told has panned out.”

  “Unless someone else has gotten to it first,” Chester grumbled.

  Thirty-Three

  Fitting the fleece cap on Connor’s bald head, Lily gently wiggled it in place, carefully adjusting the bear ears attached to the headgear. Made from the same brown and gold fleece fabric as the pajamas, it helped transform her son into a cuddly teddy bear for Halloween. Satisfied with his outfit, Lily stepped back from the crib and picked up her cellphone and then used it to snap picture after picture of the baby bear.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come over to Marlow House with me and bring Connor?” Ian asked when he walked into the nursery a moment later. “You could hang out in the library with Walt.”

  Lowering her phone, she glanced over her shoulder at Ian.

  “I hate you spending Halloween alone,” he added.

  “I won’t be alone. I’ll have Connor, Sadie and Hunny. Anyway, I really don’t want Connor exposed to all those people coming through the haunted house. Too many germs.”

  Now standing over the crib, Ian looked down at his son. Connor’s face broke into a wide smile the moment he noticed his father. Exuberantly he wiggled his feet and waved his tiny hands.

  Glancing from his son to Lily, Ian said, “You’re probably right. No reason to expose him to all that. Not worth the risk.”

  “Anyway, I have to hand out candy,” Lily reminded him.

  “Let’s go eat dinner,” Ian said. “I have everything on the table, and I moved the baby swing. It doesn’t look like he’s ready to go to sleep, and if we want to enjoy dinner, I think the swing by the table might be a good idea.”

  Leaning over the crib, Lily picked up her son and said, “You’re a good husband.” She then pulled the cap off Connor’s head and tossed it on the dresser before following Ian out of the nursery to the dining room.

  Carla refilled Joe’s and Brian’s coffee cups. The two officers sat at the lunch counter at Pier Café.

  “You ready for all the ghosts and goblins?” Carla asked.

  “Halloween doesn’t seem to be the headache it used to be,” Brian said. “Ever since Presley House burned down.”

  “I think Marlow House’s haunted house has been good for Frederickport,” Carla said as she set the coffee pot on the counter. “It gives the teenagers something to do without burning anything down.”

  Joe glanced at his watch and then looked at Carla. “Are our burgers about up? We need to get back to work.”

  “Just a few minutes.” Standing on the other side of the counter, she propped her elbows on the countertop and looked down at the two officers. “I heard they didn’t have the hidden staircase open last night. Why do you think that was? They must have spent a fortune on that wax dummy. I mean seriously, if I didn’t know it wasn’t real, I would have thought the guy was really dead. You’d think they’d want that open every night.”

  “Why are you so sure it was a dummy?” Brian teased.

  “If it wasn’t a wax dummy, it was a real dead body. The eyes, they just stared. Didn’t blink. And no one can sit like that without moving. I know he wasn’t breathing. No, either a wax body or a real dead body.”

  “Knowing Marlow House, I wouldn’t be surprised to find it was a real dead body,” Brian said with a snort.

  Halloween candy half-filled the black plastic witch’s cauldron. Mia had set it on the entry table next to the front do
or before grabbing a handful of the candy and going to the living room. There she found Austin sitting on the sofa, his stockinged feet propped up on the coffee table while he watched television, a can of beer in hand.

  “I wonder if we’ll have a lot of trick-or-treaters?” Mia asked as she sat on the sofa next to Austin and handed him several pieces of the candy.

  He accepted the offering without looking away from the television. “I have a feeling we might get swamped with that haunted house going on.”

  “What if we run out of candy?” she asked.

  “Then we turn off the lights and don’t answer the door,” he told her.

  With a sigh, she picked up the wineglass she had left on the coffee table earlier. Leaning back on the sofa, she took a sip and then said, “So what are we going to do? Are we going to find someplace to stay while they get rid of the mold?”

  “I really should have paid for a more thorough inspection before we bought this house,” Austin grumbled.

  “It’s too late to worry about that now. We have to figure out what to do. As it is, I’m not thrilled about sleeping in our bedroom tonight, not since they removed that piece of drywall and exposed all that mold. It’s not healthy.”

  “We can sleep in this room tonight,” Austin suggested. “On the sofa bed. At least there’s no mold in here anymore, and they’ve nailed up new drywall. Tomorrow I’ll give one of the rental offices a call and see what we can find.”

  Mia glanced briefly at her watch. “That scary movie is going to start in about five minutes.”

  “I thought you didn’t want to watch it?” he asked with a chuckle. “You said those things give you nightmares.”

  She scooted closer to him. “Oh, it’s Halloween. Let’s watch it.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to go trick-or-treating with your brother? Danielle said it was okay if you came later to the haunted house,” Chief MacDonald asked Evan as he helped him into his ghost costume. The two were in the downstairs bathroom at Sissy and Bruce’s house, where they had just had dinner. In the living room Eddy played video games with his uncle Bruce while Sissy cleaned the kitchen after dinner.

  “No. I told Ginny I was going to be there. I have to be there.”

  “I suppose hanging out with a real ghost on Halloween is cooler than hanging out with your brother,” the chief said dryly.

  “She has to go back to the cemetery when Halloween is over,” Evan explained. “That’s how it works.”

  “Why doesn’t she move on? Did she tell you?” the chief asked.

  “There’s no one she wants to see. I feel sorry for her. She never had a dad like you. He used to hit her real bad.”

  With a sigh, MacDonald nodded. “Yes, you told me.”

  “And her mom just let him. Ginny told me I was lucky. And you know what?” Evan asked.

  “What?” MacDonald asked as he crouched before Evan, adjusting the ghost costume.

  “I never thought I was lucky before, because Mom had to die, and all my friends have moms. But Ginny told me I was real lucky to have a mom who loved me and took care of me, even if it was only for a short time. And I still have you. Ginny never had anyone. She’s right, Dad.” Evan threw his arms around his father, giving him a tight hug. “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” MacDonald whispered, unshed tears dampening his eyes.

  Beyond the house blocking Pearl’s ocean view, the sun had begun dissolving into the sea. Soon costumed trick-or-treaters would be descending like locusts. Pearl suspected the haunted house would attract more than Beach Drive’s fair share of the little beggars. Before they started to arrive, she slipped a padlock on her front gate. The locked gate would prevent the children and teenagers from even stepping on her property, much less reaching her front door.

  She scurried up her walkway and then into her house, locking the door behind her. Once inside, she went from room to room on the first floor, closing the blinds and turning off the lights. Before going upstairs, she put a bowl of chili in the microwave oven. A few minutes later she set the now boiling hot chili on a serving tray with crackers, a glass of milk, a napkin, and a soup spoon. She spent the next few minutes slowly making her way up the stairs carrying the tray, careful not to fall or spill anything.

  Once in her bedroom she set the tray on her bed and then spent the next few minutes visiting all the rooms on the second floor, closing blinds and turning off lights. After she returned to her bedroom, she turned off that light. Someone driving by her house would assume no one was home.

  Instead of closing her front bedroom blind, she left it wide open. Pulling a chair to the window, she positioned it so that she would be able to look outside, down on the street and the evening’s activity. She then moved a small table next to the chair.

  Confident her chili was now cool enough to eat, Pearl picked up the tray off the bed and set it on the table she had just moved. She then sat down on the chair in the darkened room, picked up her bowl of chili and the spoon, and began to eat while looking out at the night.

  Adam had agreed to help at the haunted house on Halloween night, handing out candy. He would share the table with Melony on the front porch. Several hours before sunset Chris had added a rope barrier he had borrowed from the museum. It divided the walkway, sending haunted house visitors to the right of the rope, while trick-or-treaters would be directed to the left for their candy. Those leaving the haunted house would walk behind the table and past Adam, giving them an opportunity to help themselves to some Halloween candy.

  Believing they would have increased foot traffic on the final night of the haunted house, Danielle had asked Joanne if she would help monitor those going through the first floor and basement, while she kept an eye on the second floor.

  Chris ordered pizza for the haunted house volunteers who hadn’t had a chance to have dinner. Since Ian had already eaten, he covered for Adam, handing out candy before the haunted house opened, while Adam joined the other volunteers in the dining room to eat pizza.

  While Evan had eaten dinner at his aunt’s house, he didn’t turn down a slice of pizza. He ate quietly while the adults talked. He glanced around, disappointed Ginny hadn’t yet showed up. But he said nothing, considering Adam, Melony and Joanne were sitting at the table.

  Danielle glanced at her watch. “Twenty minutes until showtime.”

  “It’s been fun,” Heather said, “but I confess, I’m kinda glad it’s the last night.”

  “You think you’ll do it again next year?” Adam asked, helping himself to another slice of pizza.

  “Not sure yet,” Danielle said.

  “If you do, please don’t sell popcorn again,” Joanne said.

  “Why not?” Heather asked. “Everyone loves popcorn.”

  “Not everyone likes cleaning it up off the floor,” Joanne grumbled.

  “You haven’t been through the haunted house yet,” Chris told Adam. “I bet Melony can handle the table for a few minutes alone while you do.”

  “Maybe later, right before it closes,” Adam said. “Unless you close up after my bedtime. I need to get up bright and early tomorrow morning for my eleven o’clock meeting with Angeline Michaels.”

  “Eleven o’clock? I think you could stay up until after midnight and still get up bright and early for an eleven o’clock meeting. You’re just afraid to go through,” Melony teased.

  Adam shrugged. “Why would I be afraid? I’ve been in Marlow House lots of times.”

  “But not on Halloween when the spirits are restless,” Melony said in a low and menacing voice.

  Adam rolled his eyes at her comment while Danielle chuckled and stood up, picking up her now empty paper plate and napkin as she did.

  “I’m going to run up to our room and change,” Danielle announced.

  “I have to go up too,” Walt said, standing up.

  “I’ll take that for you,” Joanne told Danielle, nodding to the trash in her hand. “Just leave it.”

  “Thanks, Joanne.” Da
nielle set her trash back on the table. “See you guys in a little bit.”

  Together Walt and Danielle left the room. Yet they wouldn’t be back when it was time for the haunted house to open. In fact, they wouldn’t be back for the rest of the evening.

  Walt and Danielle Marlow vanished on Halloween night, and none of their friends knew what had happened to them. Ian and then Adam and Melony had been by the front door and never saw them leave. Joanne and then Heather had been in the kitchen, and they hadn’t seen the couple leave through the back door.

  On Halloween night, the last time any of the friends saw Walt and Danielle was when they finished their pizza and went upstairs.

  Thirty-Four

  Walt was already dressed in his vintage suit matching the portrait when they went upstairs to their bedroom. While he didn’t need to change his clothes, he wanted to brush his teeth, use the bathroom, and wash up before taking his place in the library. Walt headed to their bathroom, and Danielle went to double-check the doorway leading from the secret staircase to her old bedroom closet.

  “Unfortunately, a locked door is not going to keep a mischievous ghost out,” Walt reminded her after she told him where she was going.

  “I know. But still. I’d feel better double-checking.”

  Walt walked into the bathroom while Danielle stepped into the hidden staircase and turned on the overhead light. She glanced up at the fixture. One of the bulbs had gone out. Not long after discovering the staircase, Ian had helped Walt install the modern light fixture. Using candles and the old sconces as Frederick Marlow had done hadn’t seemed safe. While reaching the fixtures to change light bulbs was difficult for her, Walt’s gift made the task relatively easy.

  “I need to remind Walt to change that bulb,” she muttered to herself before heading down the staircase.

  When she reached the landing by the back of the closet on the second floor, she inspected the lock. Like the overhead light fixture, it was something they had added after discovering the staircase. It had actually been added right before their honeymoon. At the time they thought they would be returning to run Marlow House as a bed and breakfast. Since they were officially married, there was no reason to continue with the charade, letting people believe she used the second-floor master suite while Walt used the attic. She thought her old bedroom would be a valuable addition to the bed and breakfast as another guest room, but she didn’t want a guest using that room to stumble on the hidden staircase and end up in their bedroom.