The Ghost of Marlow House (Haunting Danielle Book 1) (4 page)

“So who was George Hemming?”

“My neighbor.”

“Then what happened?”

“I don’t recall. I remember walking him
to the doorway, saying goodbye. I closed the door….started walking up the
stairs….and….then…”

“Yes?”

“Everything after that—until you arrived
today—is somewhat hazy. I think I’ve a better understanding as to how you came
to inherit this property, however it’s not clear to me why Angela would have
left the house to Kathrine. Perhaps she finally realized what kind of man her
brother was and had a new will drawn up—one that would leave the estate to
Kathrine.”

“That’s only if she died after you inherited
the property. Obviously she died before you.”

“No, that is impossible.”

“Wasn’t it a little risky to leave your
estate to someone you barely knew?”

“You mean, because it would give her a
motive to kill me? Kathrine O’Malley didn’t know she was in my will. I
certainly never told her, and I can’t imagine Angela would. As for you—what are
your plans?”

“You mean for Marlow House?”

“Since those are the only plans that
directly concern me—yes.”

“I was hoping to turn Marlow House into
a B and B.”

“B and B?” Walt frowned.

“A bed and breakfast—you know, an inn.”

“Are you telling me you intend to have
strangers traipsing in and out of my home?” Walt shouted.

“Technically speaking it is no longer
your house.”

“And just how do you intend to evict
me?”

“I was sort of hoping you would do that
yourself, now that you understand how things are.” Danielle nervously smiled up
into Walt’s face.

“What are you talking about?”

Follow the light
,
Danielle wanted to say. Instead she said, “It’s time for you to move on to the
next level. I imagine you’ll find Angela waiting there for you. For some reason
you’ve been trapped in this house, but now you need to move on.”

“Who says I want to move on?”

“Certainly you don’t want to be stuck in
this house for eternity?”

“Don’t presume to tell me what I want.”

“You said yourself you’ve been in a
fog—confused since your passing. Maybe that’s why I’m here today, to help you
see clearer and move on.”

Walt studied Danielle for a moment. “So
tell me, how does one go onto the—the next level you say?”

“Well…I’ve heard some people say to
follow the light…do you see a light?”

Walt frowned at Danielle. She smiled
back at him, looking somewhat sheepish while at the same time encouraging. She
wanted him to give her suggestion a try.

“So, are you telling me I’ll probably
see Angela on the next level?”

“I think you’ll be reunited with your
loved ones—family and friends who’ve passed.”

Walt closed his eyes, standing quietly
before Danielle.

“Relax, Mr. Marlow,” Danielle encouraged.
“Follow the light—don’t be afraid—move toward the warm glow of love…”

Her gaze fixed on Walt, Danielle
continued to utter words of encouragement, urging him to pass to the other
side.  Gradually Walt’s form begin to fade, going from solid to transparent, until
at last, she could no longer see him. The room was silent, devoid of his
presence.

“Walt? Mr. Marlow?” Danielle called out?
“Hello? Are you here?” All was silent.

Thirty minutes later, and with still no
response from Walt Marlow, Danielle left the parlor and went to gather up her
purse from the kitchen. Opening the front door, she paused a moment and called
out to him one more time. There was no answer.

“Well,” Danielle said aloud. “That was a
most unusual exorcism.” Without another word, she left the house and headed
back to the Seahorse Motel.

Danielle glanced at the digital alarm
clock on the nightstand between her bed and Lily’s. It was almost 6 a.m. Lily
was asleep, buried under the blanket and bedspread, her back to Danielle.
Yawning, Danielle rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, replaying in her
mind yesterday’s events.

She was relieved to have the matter of Walt
Marlow resolved before she and Lily returned to the house. Smiling, she felt a
sense of accomplishment knowing she had in some way helped him come to terms
with his death, to acknowledge it, thus allowing him to move onto the next
plain. She was fairly confident he was in a better—happier—place.

“What time is it?” Lily grumbled from
the next bed as she rolled over and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“It’s about six. How did you sleep?”
Danielle asked.

“Had a bunch of crazy dreams.”

“Lily, what would you think about
checking out this morning? Moving into Marlow house today?”

“Really? I thought you wanted to look at
the entire house before making that decision.”

“The downstairs was in great shape. If
we find out it’s a mess upstairs, we can camp out in the parlor or library
while we work things out.”

“Parlor?”

“The first room we checked out.”

“So that’s a parlor? Hmmm…sure, I’m
game.”

“I do feel a little guilty,” Danielle
confessed.

“What about?”

“You spending your summer vacation
helping me get the house ready.”

“Don’t be silly. It sounds like fun to
me.” Lily jumped from the bed and headed to the bathroom while shouting, “Dibs
on the bathroom first!”

Danielle chuckled and climbed out of
bed. She heard Lily slam the bathroom door shut.
Hope you don’t wake the
neighbors
, Danielle thought as she walked to the window and opened the
blinds to look outside. Dark clouds filled the morning sky yet according to
yesterday’s weather report they weren’t expecting rain. Turning from the window
after a few minutes, Danielle walked to the bathroom and told Lily to hurry it
up.

Danielle and Lily dressed, packed and
were checking out by 8 am. Their first stop was the nearby café for some
breakfast, and the second was the local market.

“I don’t want to get too much cold
stuff, because we’ll need to keep it in the cooler for now.” Danielle placed a
carton of milk into her shopping cart.

“Surely that house has a refrigerator.”

“Remember, the house has been vacant
since 1925. I don’t think we’ll find a modern refrigerator in the kitchen.”
Actually,
I know we won’t.

“You have a point. From what I recall,
electric refrigerators were fairly new back then. If there’s one in the house,
I’d be surprised if it was still in working order.”

“I need to get a new one anyway. If I’m
turning the home into a B and B, I’ll need modern appliances.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you
something,” Lily asked as they made their way through the bakery section of the
market.

“Sure, what?”

“That lady yesterday, the one from the
attorney’s office, who brought the keys…”

“Yeah?”

“She mentioned something about the
house…can’t recall her words exactly but you said later it was just superstition,
what did you mean? What was she talking about?”

“Mr. Renton…” Danielle began.

“The attorney?” Lily interrupted.

“Yes. Mr. Renton assumed I would sell
the house, not come live in it.”

“You mentioned that. But I don’t
understand why he’d make that assumption.”

“I guess because my aunt felt the house
was cursed. So he figured I’d feel the same way and want to unload it.”
Danielle picked up a loaf of freshly baked bread and set it in the cart.

“Cursed? How?” Lily reached for a
plastic container filled with chocolate chip cookies and set them in the cart
next to the milk.

“Cookies, Lily?” Danielle teased.

“We can’t very well buy milk without
cookies. And considering your chocolate addiction you have no room to talk. So
tell me about the curse.”

“Actually, I don’t know much about it.
First time I ever heard about a curse was when Renton mentioned it. Of course,
I never discussed Marlow House with my aunt. I didn’t even know she owned
property in Oregon.”

“But she knew about this curse?”

“According to Mr. Renton, she’s the one
who told him.”

“Your aunt left you a cursed house? I
thought you were her favorite.”

“Personally, I think Mr. Renton was
making too much of it. Sounded like silly superstition.”
Now, had they said
the house was haunted—that would make sense to me
.

“Did some local witch place a curse on
the property? What?”

Danielle laughed at Lily’s suggestion.
“No, nothing like that—at least Renton didn’t mention a witch. It was more
along the lines of past owners of the property having bad luck. But considering
my aunt lived an interesting and long life, seemed very happy and content, I
don’t think she was plagued with back luck.”

“Yes, but didn’t you say she never lived
in the house?”

“I’m not entirely certain she never
lived in the house. She may have when she was younger. I really don’t know.”
Although
if her mother inherited the house, and she was a small child at the time it
would stand to reason she moved into Marlow House. According to Walt Marlow,
Kathrine O’Malley was a single, unmarried mother with limited funds. I’d imagine
she would move into the house, or sell it for the money.

“What did the attorney tell you?”

“Not much, really. I probably should’ve
asked more questions, but at the time I was more focused on the property’s
current condition. Its history didn’t seem that important at the time.”

They arrived at Marlow House before
noon.  The sky was not as gloomy as it had been earlier that morning. Patches
of blue had pushed aside the gray clouds. Lily got out of the car and unlocked
the side gate so Danielle could pull the car up the drive and park by the side
door.

“How did you know this door led to the
kitchen?” Lily asked as she and Danielle carried sacks of groceries into the
house from the car.

“A lucky guess,” Danielle lied. She’d
noticed the door when she had been in the kitchen with Walt Marlow the previous
day. “I knew it would be more practical to pull up to the house instead of
hauling everything up the front walk. Just figured there had to be a side door
off the drive. Lucky for us there’s one that goes directly into the kitchen.”

“This is an amazing kitchen. The
appliances look brand new. Like we stepped back in time.” Lily dumped the sacks
she had been carrying, setting them on the counter, and then went to inspect
the vintage electric refrigerator. “I’ve only seen old refrigerators like this
in museums or historical homes. Do you think it works?”

Danielle pointed to the cord. “It’s
unplugged. I really don’t want to try it. Last thing I need to do is plug in
some faulty electrical appliance and burn the house down. Maybe I’ll make a
storage cabinet out of it.”

“You’re probably right. But it’s really
awesome.” Lily lingered a moment by the refrigerator, looking inside and then
at the motor atop the unit before going back outside to retrieve the rest of
the groceries.

Together they brought in the cooler,
each taking one end. At the store they’d filled it with ice along with perishable
items, so it was too heavy for just one of them to carry. After setting it on
the floor near the refrigerator, they went outside to bring in their suitcases
and the rest of their things.

Danielle suggested they stack their
suitcases in the entry hall by the staircase landing. Until they checked out
the rest of the house, they wouldn’t know where they’d be sleeping. After setting
the last suitcase down, Danielle stood silently for a moment, noting how quiet
it was in the house. Lily broke the silence as she made her way up the
staircase. Danielle followed her up, her hand holding onto the oak handrail as
she walked up the wood steps.

“Kind of noisy,” Lily said, glancing
back at Danielle. The sound of footsteps echoed up the staircase.

“Maybe I should see about carpeting the
steps, or adding some sort of runner.”

“At least you’ll hear if someone’s
coming upstairs. Consider it a security system.”

“I’d rather have a security system that
stops the bad guys
before
they get into the house.”

“Ahhh, in a perfect world!” Lily laughed.

Together they explored the rooms on the
second floor before going to the attic.

“It’s even dust free up here,” Lily
noted. “I’d keep that same housekeeper.”

“I wonder what this house would look
like if it had been simply closed up all these years—almost 90 years.” Danielle
walked over to the spotting scope and peered through it. Adjusting the scope
she could see waves breaking on the beach, beyond the rooftops of the houses
across the street.

“Remember Joe Peters?” Lily asked.

“That Realtor you used to date?”
Danielle peered through the spotting scope.

“Yeah. I remember once I went with him
to check out a house he was listing. It happened to be the home of the lady who
used to give me piano lessons when I was a kid. She’d died and the house went
to her nephew. I guess he had money, because he wasn’t in a rush to sell it,
and it didn’t have a mortgage. Anyway, it sat empty, boarded up for about five
years. I couldn’t believe how it looked.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was already starting to deteriorate.
I remembered how it had looked when she was alive, it was in good condition.
But five years later, it was pretty much falling apart. I said something to Joe
about it. Initially I assumed a vacant house would look better five years later
than an occupied house – you know, the wear and tear of people living in it.
But that wasn’t the case.”

“What did Joe say?”

“He reminded me that the utilities had
been turned off, so there wasn’t any temperature control. Extreme hot and cold
can cause damage. And then there is the dust and critters. Dust accumulates,
and things begin to rot. If something like a pipe happens to break, it might be
days before someone catches it. Looking at this house, compared to my piano
teacher’s, and considering this is probably 70 years older than hers—well,
let’s just say your aunt was smart to keep this place maintained in her
absence.”

“It couldn’t have been cheap.
Maintaining a house you never use…never visit.”

“I wonder why she didn’t sell the
property.” Lily stood by Danielle and looked out the window.

“I don’t know.  Want to look?” Danielle
stepped away from the spotting scope, offering Lily a turn. Lily accepted the
offer and stepped up to the scope, adjusting the lens to suit her.

“I think I’ve found my favorite spot.” Lily
turned the scope slightly and readjusted the focus. “You can get a close up of
who’s at the front gate, or peek in the neighbor’s windows…” Lily turned the
scope to face the house directly across the street. “Wow, I think I like your
neighborhood.” Lily peered through the scope, looking through the house’s front
window. A shirtless man stood inside looking out the window. She estimated he
was in his early thirties and by his impressive abs he was obviously physically
fit.

“Lily!” Danielle jerked the spotting
scope to one side. “You can’t be spying on the neighbors.”

“Why not?” Lily stood up straight, no
longer looking through the scope. “You didn’t see him. What a hottie. We really
need to get to know your neighbors!”

“Lily, I don’t think elementary school
teachers are supposed to be constantly checking out guys.” Danielle laughed.

“Why not? I’m single and healthy.”

“Your friend does seem to have an eye
for the men,” came a male voice by the attic doorway. Lily didn’t hear it, but
Danielle did. She turned around abruptly and faced Walt Marlow. He smiled and
gave her a little nod in greeting. Danielle said nothing, but glanced frantically
from Lily to Walt, and back to Lily. Lily didn’t seem to notice her friend’s
abrupt change in demeanor.  Instead, she started chattering on about the
handsome neighbor’s physical attributes.

Danielle gave Walt a questioning frown,
ignoring what her friend was saying.

“You seem surprised to see me,” Walt said.
“Let me rephrase that—you don’t seem happy to see me.”

Unaware of the new arrival, Lily peered
back through the spotting scope. Danielle looked at Walt and lifted her
shoulders slightly and turned her palms up, silently questioning Walt.
Why
are you still here?
She seemed to ask.

“We need to have a little chat,
Danielle. If you want me to leave, there is something you first have to do for
me.”