The Ghost of Marlow House (Haunting Danielle Book 1) (19 page)

“Do you remember what time it was?”

“No, why?”

“If I knew what time they charged out of
here, I could go talk to the neighbors up and down the street, and see if
anyone saw anything around that time.”

“I’m afraid I’m not very good with
time,” Walt confessed. “What about Ian? He’s just across the street, and I’ve
caught him looking over here often enough. Chances are he saw something.”

“Lily talked to him on the phone when we
were on the way back from Astoria. According to Ian he got home after the
gardener discovered the break in. In fact, he wasn’t aware of what had
happened.”

“Or so he says. We all know how truthful
he is.” Walt tossed the magazine he was holding to the floor.

“He didn’t really lie. He was once a
teacher. And he gave us his real name. He just chose not to tell us he was an
author. Plus, he has never threatened me. I can’t say the same about you.”

“You blackmailed me,” he reminded.

“But only because I don’t want more
people breaking into the house. Of course, I really shouldn’t worry about it,
since you’ll be terrorizing my potential customers by hurling furniture at them.”
Danielle didn’t wait for Walt to respond. She turned and left the room, leaving
him alone in the parlor.

Lily and Ian followed the hostess,
weaving their way through the busy dining room. They were led to a dimly lit
table overlooking the bay.

“Gorgeous view,” Lily murmured as she
removed the fringed shawl from her shoulders. The night air was too chilly to
wear her sleeveless summer dress without a wrap, but she didn’t need it in the
restaurant. Sitting across the table from Ian, Lily placed the shawl and her
purse on the empty chair next to her.

“Can I get you something to drink?” the
hostess asked as she handed them each a menu.

“Would you like some wine, Lily?” Ian
asked. “Or perhaps a cocktail?”

“A martini sounds good,” Lily said with
a grin.

“Martini? You don’t fool around,” Ian
teased.

Lily smiled and looked up at the
waitress and said, “I’d like a vodka martini, straight up and extra olives.
House vodka is fine. And light on the vermouth—tell the bartender to just wave
it over the glass.”

“Vodka tonic for me,” Ian said when the
waitress looked to him for his order.

“I’ll get those drinks in for you. Your
server will be right with you.”

“Sounds like you’ve ordered a martini
before,” Ian teased when the hostess left the table.

“I don’t drink a lot of hard alcohol,
but when I do, I do it right.”

“I like a gin martini once in a while.”

“Oh, I can’t drink gin.” Lily wrinkled
her nose. “In college I got sick on sloe gin—just the smell…” Lily cringed then
added, “You know what they say about martinis? That they’re like women’s
breasts.”

“I have to hear this!” Ian laughed.
“Why?”

“Because one isn’t enough and three’s
too many.”

Ian laughed again and said, “When the
server brings our drinks I’ll be sure to order your second one.” 

 “Just as long as I don’t have three,
then I’m cool,” Lily quipped.

Ian opened his menu and asked, “Do you
like lobster? I heard they have great steak and lobster here.”

“Lobster?” Lily glanced up at Ian. Truth
was, she loved lobster, but she would never order it when on a date—especially
one where her date was paying.

“You’ve had lobster before, haven’t
you?”

“Sure.” Lily looked over her menu. “I
love lobster. A couple years ago I went to Mazatlán with some friends and the
lobster was so darn affordable—but the butter—yuck. Was a major disappointment.
One of the best things about lobster is the butter.”

“I don’t think you‘ll have a problem
with the butter here.”

“I think I’ll have the sole,” Lily said
cheerfully, setting her closed menu on the tabletop.

“Do you like sole better than lobster?”
Ian asked.

“Better than? No, why?”

“Then why don’t you order lobster?”

“I’m sure the sole here is delicious.”

A moment later a server brought over
their drinks just as their waitress showed up to take their order.

“Would you like an appetizer tonight?”
the server asked.

“Yes, that sounds good.” Ian looked over
the menu. “Lily, is there a particular appetizer you’d like?”

“Whatever you want is fine,” Lily said
politely.

“Okay.” Ian closed his menu and looked
up at the server. “We’d like the combo appetizer plate. And for dinner we’ll
both have the steak and lobster. Lily, how would you like your steak prepared?”

“Steak?” Lily looked from Ian to the
server.

“Steak, I remember when we went out to
breakfast you mentioned you liked steak—so I know you eat red meat. How do you
like it prepared? Rare, medium, well?”

“Medium rare,” Lily said softly.

“Good choice,” Ian smiled and picked up
both menus, handing them to the server. “I’d like mine medium rare too.”

The server looked at Lily and asked,
“Would you like soup or salad?”

“Salad, please. With ranch.”

“Baked potato or rice?” the waitress
asked.

“Baked potato, please.”

“Same here,” Ian said cheerfully.

“Why did you order me steak and
lobster?” Lily asked when the server left the table.

“If you really had your heart set on the
sole, I’ll call the waitress back. But I heard their steak and lobster is
awesome.”

And
really
expensive.
Lily thought.

“Are you always this pushy?” Lily
teased.

“Only when I can get away with it.”

“Well…I suppose I’ll let you get away
with it
this time
. If I must, I’ll suffer through the steak and
lobster.”

“Good. I don’t think you’ll be sorry.”

The meal proved to be as good as Ian had
heard. Lily savored her dinner as she and Ian discussed her morning in Astoria.

“You really should do a story on that
woman, she is so sharp. You’d never know she was 106.” Lily speared a piece of
lobster and dunked it in melted butter.

“I still can’t get over the fact
Danielle is determined to prove Walt Marlow didn’t commit suicide.”

“I can understand. How would you feel if
everyone thought you killed yourself, and the person who murdered you went
free?”

“I imagine I’d be dead at that point,
and really wouldn’t care what people thought.”

“I don’t believe that.” Lily shook her
head.

“What, that I wouldn’t care after I was
dead?”

“No, that you wouldn’t care now. Come
on, be honest with yourself. If you knew that when you died everyone would
think something really horrible about you—something that wasn’t true and was
embarrassing, wouldn’t you hate that?”

“I suppose so, but once I’m dead it
would become sort of a moot point. But, it is a good mystery. And I do love
mysteries.”

“Speaking of mysteries, I think Danielle
is wrong. I don’t think kids broke into the house this morning.”

“Then how did the window get broken? I
can understand the open front door; it may not have been closed all the way
when you left this morning.”

“No. Someone was in the house. I have no
doubt about that. But I don’t think it was kids just goofing around, like
Danielle thinks. I have a feeling whoever it was, was looking for something.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Cupboards and drawers that were shut
when we left were ajar, as if someone had opened them and didn’t shut them all
the way. I could tell someone went in my closet, my suitcase was moved. But
nothing was taken. Why would someone search through the house but not take anything?
My iPad was sitting on the dresser in clear sight, and they didn’t touch it. I
think that is bizarre.”

“And you haven’t mentioned this to
Danielle yet?” Ian picked up his glass of water and took a sip.

“No. But I think I should. She’s
supposed to call the police officer that was over at the house today. I think I
should tell her before she talks to him.”

“Lily, while you and Danielle have been
playing detective…”

“It is mostly Danielle playing
detective,” Lily corrected.

“Okay…Danielle then…has she come across
anything that might suggest there is something of value hidden in the house?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Lily
frowned.

“If whoever broke into Marlow House was
looking for something—what do you think they were looking for? Do you have any
idea?”

“Gosh, I don’t know. You were with me
when I did the inventory. Can you think of anything that someone might be
willing to break in to get?”

“You have the list. Is anything
missing?”

“I wanted to go through the inventory,
but Danielle thought it was a waste of time. She seemed pretty convinced that
nothing was missing.”

 “You want me to help you go through it,
just in case?” Ian offered.

“Maybe…I don’t know. I’ll talk to
Danielle about it in the morning.” They were silent for several minutes, each
focusing on the meal and their private thoughts

“So your story has nothing to do with
how Marlow died?” Lily asked after she ate her last bite of steak.

“No. I never really doubted Marlow
killed himself. I think he had his own demons.” Ian took a sip of his water.

“So you are researching Walt Marlow?”

“You know, now that I bought you a steak
and lobster dinner, you owe me.”

“I owe you? Technically you haven’t
bought it yet, so maybe I better find out what you expect. I may decide I’m
unwilling to ante up. Although, it was rather sneaky of you to trick me into
buying such an expensive meal.”

Ian grinned. “I’m a sneaky guy; what can
I say?”

“Okay, so what do you expect?”

“If I tell you anything about my project
you can’t mention it to anyone, outside of Danielle. And you can only mention
it to Danielle if she agrees to keep it between us.”

“Well gee; you didn’t have to buy me an
expensive dinner for that. All you have to do is say,
Lily, don’t tell
anyone
, and I won’t.”

“Really? You mean I wasted all this
money?” Ian teased. “How about I change what you owe me?”

“Does it involve taking my clothes off?”
Lily chuckled.

“Yes, but not all at once.”

“Ha ha…funny.” Lily flashed him a smile.

“Hey, I’m old school. Buy a pretty lady
dinner and expect illicit sex.”

“Yes, you are an old fashioned guy!”

“I try.”

“Now, back to the story you’re working
on,” Lily said.

“I thought the other conversation was
more interesting.” He grinned.

Lily smacked Ian across his arm with her
cloth napkin.

“Okay, okay. You don’t have to get
violent. I’m working on an article about one of Walt Marlow’s
close
acquaintances.”

“Who?”

The waitress showed up at the table and
silently took their dishes. Ian ordered them both dessert and coffee, and then
resumed the conversation when the server was gone.

“When Walt Marlow was a young man, he
was very close to Eva Thorndike.”

“Am I supposed to know that name?”

“Only if you’re into silent movies. Her
star burned brightly for a couple years, but she died in her early twenties.
She came from a very wealthy family.”

“And she was an actress? I thought that
was a taboo profession for women back then, especially if she came from money.”

“It was common knowledge that her
parents indulged her. From what I’ve discovered, doctors at the time didn’t
think she’d make it past her teens. Not sure how different her life might have
been if she hadn’t had a congenital medical condition. Maybe then they would
have been more prone to pull in the reins, but I guess we’ll never know about
that.”

“How does Walt Marlow fit into the
picture?”

“Every summer her family would vacation
in Frederickport. Eva was about a year older than Walt, and they became very
close. From what I’ve learned he fell madly in love with her. Apparently she
didn’t return his affection, because she ran off and eloped with another actor.
When her health worsened and she was bedridden, her husband abandoned her. It
was Walt Marlow who held her hand at the end, not her husband.”

“How sad. So is your story about
unrequited love?”

“Not exactly. Although that’s one reason
I bought the suicide scenario—his relationship with Eva, and his later
relationship with his wife.”

“Danielle seems to think his wife and
brother-in-law conspired to kill him.”

“Which supports what I’ve uncovered
about Angela and Walt’s relationship, in that she married him for his money—not
for love.”

“So what’s your angle?”

Before Ian could answer the question the
server returned to the table with the coffee and dessert. Ian adeptly changed
the subject and managed to avoid answering Lily’s question.