The Diva Haunts the House (28 page)

I checked the time. Jen’s mother, the micromanager who’d had trouble leaving her daughter on her birthday, had provided instructions for the entire day. In fifteen minutes Jen’s parents would be calling. I hustled to the closet where I’d hidden her birthday gifts and brought them into the kitchen singing “Happy Birthday.”

Jen had just ripped open a fancy box when the phone rang. “It’s the watch I wanted!”

I handed her the telephone so she could talk to her parents.

After breakfast, the girls changed clothes, and Mrs. Ferguson, the mother of Jen’s other best friend, Lilly, arrived to take the girls on a day of shopping, mani-pedis, and lunch at Tysons Corner—all prearranged by Jen’s mom and dad.

Humphrey and Bernie left, and Nina, with a sly grin that I didn’t like one bit, went home to shower and change, leaving me with Mars.

We tidied the kitchen, and although there wasn’t a reason in the world for me to be uncomfortable, I was. Not to mention that I had a little snooping in mind and wanted to get away from Mars for a while to sleuth. When a tap came at the kitchen door and Bernie returned, I flew to open the door and kissed him on the cheek.

“Mars, would you be a sweetheart and take Daisy out for a walk?” I handed him her leash.

For one horrible second, I thought he might kiss me when he took the leash from my hand. I ducked and kissed the top of Daisy’s head to avoid him.

As soon as he left, I grabbed Bernie by the forearms. “I’m begging you, please tell Mars that you’ll walk me to town. You don’t have to stay with me.”

“But what about the killer?”

“It’s broad daylight! What’s he going to do? Jump me in front of a gazillion people on King Street?”

Bernie pulled me into a hug. “Promise you’ll stay out of danger.”

I high-fived him. “Thank you!” I hurried upstairs to shower and change into black jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with three delicate sequin pumpkins on the front. I wanted to be ready to fly out the door.

Mars accepted Bernie’s proposal, not surprising since I suspected Mars was itching to go home and change out of his jammies. For safety’s sake, and for fun, I took Daisy with me on my little excursion. True to his word, Bernie turned off at his restaurant, The Laughing Hound, leaving me blissfully alone for the first time in days. Daisy pranced among costumed people on the sidewalk, apparently undisturbed by their odd attire and masks.

We headed in the direction of the haunted house because I wanted to have a word with Ray. If Leon could be believed, Ray knew quite a bit about Patrick. I didn’t imagine that the looney old guy could be the killer, though. Somehow, he just didn’t seem the type to bite someone’s neck.

The bell at the door of Le Parisien Antiques clanked softly when we entered. I hoped Ray wouldn’t mind a dog in his shop. After all, Daisy couldn’t exactly make a bigger mess of the place. We wound our way to the middle of the store where the cash register sat on a counter. “Ray?” I looked around but didn’t see anyone.

In the dim light, it appeared that the door leading upstairs to his living quarters stood ajar. Maybe he’d gone up for a minute. I wandered through strange collections of old yard statues, weather-beaten fence gates, and the occasional piece of vintage furniture—to the door. I knocked on it. “Ray?”

A second later I heard giggling. “Oh, Ray!” A woman’s voice. It seemed vaguely familiar. Feeling enormously guilty, I waited for her to say something else so I could identify her.

When no more words burbled forth in the next few seconds, shame overcame me. What did I think I was doing? I came to talk to Ray, not to uncover the identity of his lady friend. That was none of my business!

I steered Daisy away from the door, wondering what kind of woman would find crusty old Ray attractive. All I wanted to do was leave, get out of there before Ray and his friend discovered us. I could feel my face flushing at the thought of it.

Daisy had other ideas. She plunged through a graveyard of old sinks and stuck her nose under a drop cloth that looked like it might have been a tent once. Just what I needed. I tugged at her, but she had hold of something. “Drop! Drop, Daisy!” She knew the command but didn’t comply. Imagining how filthy it might be, I lifted the cloth. Daisy had discovered a set of deer antlers.

“For heaven’s sake, Daisy—let go already,” I hissed.

If dogs could sigh, I think she did. I turned in a rush to leave the store, but in a flicker of ominous recognition, I shifted back around. Ray had mounted another set of antlers on the wall, and there, neatly draped on a clothes hanger, a vampire cape, complete with stand-up collar, dangled in the air.

Blake thought Ray killed Patrick, but I hadn’t taken him seriously. The expansive space loomed around me, dark and sinister. A corpse could disappear in there far too easily. “C’mon, Daisy!” We jumped over sinks and boxes of old paperbacks in our eagerness to reach the door. I flung it open and we raced outside into the cool, crisp air of fall, where everything seemed heavenly mundane. Daisy looked up at me, wagging her tail as if she wanted to run that obstacle course again.

I rubbed under her chin. “How about a nice, boring ride to the grocery store?”

After I unloaded groceries, I made myself a turkey sandwich with mayo and a touch of raspberry jam, wistfully looking forward to Thanksgiving and cranberry sauce. Daisy and Mochie shared my turkey lunch. While we ate, I boiled potatoes for Ghost Potatoes to serve at the Halloween potluck that night, glad I could mash them in advance.

With the potatoes stashed in the refrigerator, I collected the bags of candy I’d bought to replenish our diminished stash at the haunted house. The unexpected response to the haunted house had resulted in a depletion of our caramel apples. Visitors would have to make do with little totes of candy.

Daisy and I walked back to the haunted house to meet Bernie and Humphrey, with Detective Kenner following us at a distance. I waited for him at the front door of the haunted house. He crossed the street and pretended he didn’t see me. “Hey, Kenner! Want to come in?”

He couldn’t have looked more surprised if I’d confessed undying love. He gave me a little wave and disappeared into a shop. I hoped I’d embarrassed him enough to make him stop tailing me.

Humphrey set up orange and black bags on the table in the lair like little soldiers, while Bernie and I ripped open sacks of candy and chocolate bars and started filling the bags.

“Do you hear that?” Humphrey gazed upward.

“It’s a haunted house, silly.” I dropped miniature chocolate bars into the bags. “There are supposed to be eerie noises.”

“Everyone stop speaking. I hear it, too. So does Daisy.” Bernie held up his palm to quiet us.

A faint scrabbling came from the second floor. Wordlessly, we followed Bernie up the stairs.

“Did we leave this door closed?” He pointed to Viktor Luca’s room.

“One of the kids might have.” I mentally kicked myself for not touring the entire house every night before we left.

Bernie’s eyes met mine. He wasted no time opening the door.

Cool air and a breeze hit us immediately. “The window is open again. How does that happen every night?” I walked over and pushed the curtains aside to examine it. “Just an old double-hung window.”

The scrabbling noise came again, and a squirrel jumped from the roof to a tree in the backyard.

“One mystery solved,” Humphrey quipped.

“We’re lucky it didn’t come in through the open window.” Bernie’s eyes met mine, and I suspected we were thinking the same thing.

Bernie laughed. “I bet that little scamp has been getting inside the house. He’s probably the one making the noises that scared Frank and the kids. I hope he doesn’t have a nest or a family inside the house.” Bernie opened the closet door.

Fortunately, it was empty—no sign of a squirrel home. He started to close it when I thought I saw a tiny glimmer. “Wait a sec.” I walked into the closet, just wide and deep enough for one person. Bending down, I peered at the old wood floor and almost missed the little glint. I couldn’t get a good hold on it. It seemed to be stuck under the wall. “I need something very thin to pry with.”

Bernie immediately produced a Swiss Army knife. He leaned over me. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s probably an old gum wrapper wedged in a crevice.” I worked the knife next to the object and wiggled it gently. A tiny bit slid forward. “It looks like a chain. Like jewelry.”

Bernie tried so hard to see it that he nearly tumbled on top of me. And suddenly, soundlessly, the back wall of the closet opened like a door.

TWENTY-FIVE

“What’s going on?” Humphrey asked.

Bernie and I shushed him.

I stood up, and for one long minute, Bernie and I stared into a chaotic storeroom. A rolltop desk and leather office chair in a corner appeared to serve as a home office. We crept out, and I tiptoed to the window. A perfect view of the graveyard in the back of the haunted house!

Humphrey whispered, “Where are we? I feel like I went through a time-warp portal.”

“This has to be the apartment over top of Le Parisien Antiques.” I crossed the room and peeked out the door into a hallway.

“Has to be,” said Bernie. “Plus it reeks of smoke.”

I motioned to them. “Get a load of this!” I tiptoed into the hallway. At the top of the stairs was a built-in bookcase with an arched top. Nearly identical to the one in the haunted house.

We clustered before it and Bernie stifled a laugh. “That explains the bouncing red ball! I’ve heard about these things. Most of them have been closed up by now, but they hark back to Prohibition. When the authorities came, they would pass the liquor over to their neighbor to hide. I bet this has a hidden door that opens. In some towns, you could walk an entire block through hidden doors of houses with shared walls.”

“We’re going to get caught!” I detected a tinge of panic in Humphrey’s tone.

We skittered back to the closet. “So Ray is behind all this,” I said. “He must have been the masked man Natasha saw in the casket. What a rascal! He’s had a grand time scaring everyone. Instead of confronting him, we should use the door to play a trick on him!”

Bernie chuckled. “The old guy has been opening the window every night to rid the room of the smell of smoke after he comes through.”