The Old House (Haunted Series Book 16)
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2015 –Diane L. Fitch writing as Alexie Aaron
Cover by Kelly Noelle Fitch
ALSO BY ALEXIE AARON
HAUNTED SERIES
in order
The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow
Ghostly Attachments
Sand Trap
PEEPs Lite Eternal Maze 3.1
PEEPs Lite Homecoming 3.2
Darker than Dark
The Garden
Puzzle
Old Bones
Things that Go Bump in the Night
Something Old
PEEPs Lite Checking Out 9.1
PEEPs Lite Ice and Steel 9.2
The Middle House: Return to Cold Creek Hollow
Renovation
Mind Fray
The Siege
NOLA
Never Forget
The Old House
CIN FIN-LATHEN MYSTERIES
In order
Decomposing
Death by Saxophone
Discord
The Wages of Cin
Coming Soon: Unforgiveable Cin: An Opera in Three Acts
To my family, friends and readers. I have gone through quite a journey these last few years, and I could only do so because of your support and encouragement. Take a bow and bravo!
Table of Contents
Mark walked quickly past the old house. He held tight to his fishing equipment and averted his eyes. He directed his flashlight beam ahead on the footpath that had been worn into the field from countless foot travelers seeking out the fishing hole on the east side of Buckley Pond. It was a favorite spot for the weekend fishing crowd. The old house was just an old, empty ruin to them. In the predawn hours though, the house was hardly empty.
He could smell the pipe tobacco as it wafted over from the back porch. Mark could hear the footfalls on the old rotted wood. Upstairs, he sensed children playing with a ball and jacks, hearing the drop of a ball and the swipe of the metal knucklebones. The jingle of the jacks signaled to Mark that the player had worked up to almost clearing the floor. He resisted the urge to slow his steps to see if the player ever won the game.
Mark was spending his summer with his grandparents at Wolf’s Head Lake. His mother was attending a course in New York City, and his father was no longer able to care for his son. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his grandparents; he did. He found the couple to be entertaining and nurturing. The problem was that they lived in a cell phone and Wi-Fi black hole. If he wanted to use a computer, he had to ride an old rusty bike five miles to the library, and there, he was not allowed to play computer games. The librarian made that abundantly clear the first time he was there.
When he complained about not being able to play his beloved
WoW
, his grandfather handed him a fishing rod and reel. He encouraged the boy to learn how to dig out his own worms and fasten the wriggling
lumbricus terrestris
to the hook, making sure to pierce it several times so the worm could not ease itself off the hook into the water of the lake. They worked together at the end of the dock at first, Mark learning how to cast the wiggling mass far into the lake. Mark watched as the red and white bobber kept the hooked worm from settling on the lake bottom. Instead it floated, tempting bluegills, crappies and bass.
His grandfather promised that if Mark did his chores, he would spring for a bucket of minnows. They would then venture out in the boat and see if they could land a pike or two. Grandpa Sam had an easy manner with Mark. Grandma Edie was nurturing but firm when it came to Mark keeping his room clean. Mark figured out early that if he spent less time in his room and more time outside, he had little to do to keep his grandmother happy. This morning, he had tucked in the sheet at the bottom of the twin bed and flipped the blue and white quilt over it, making sure to smooth the wrinkles, before sliding his feet into his shoes and tiptoeing down the stairs and out the door.
Grandpa Sam had taken him to Buckley Pond a few times. It was only a ten minute walk from their Wolf’s Head lakeside cottage. He cautioned Mark to stay away from the old house. “That place will fall down one of these days. Make sure you’re not inside it when it does.”
Mark, now, turned and looked back at the house one more time before entering the silent woods. The roof had no sag to it, and even though the vicious north winds had peeled the tin back from the edges, Mark suspected that the roof had no leaks. The only weather that had entered the place came through the broken-out windows and sagging doors. The house had “good bones” as his father would have said, had he been able to speak to his son. His dad had tried to interest the boy in his job as a builder long before the explosion had claimed his voice, but at eight years old, Mark was already seduced by the call of video games and hanging out with his friends. Parents’ voices were deflected by the strategy planning for the next level of whatever game was new. Mark had regretted those four years of ignoring his dad. And now Mark’s father would never be able to speak to his son again.
Mark saw the intermittent red glow of the pipe as the smoker drew in the fragrant nicotine, but whomever was smoking stayed on the porch, as if waiting for something or someone. Mark turned around and entered the woods. Immediately his ears popped as if he had changed altitudes or water had drained from his ears. He moved on, used to the effect this part of the woods had on his ears. Soon he was hearing normally again, and ahead, his light caught the low hanging branches of the giant willow brushing the tops of the Queen Anne’s lace. Just the other side of the tree, he would find Buckley Pond.
The two boys bumped down the stairs on their behinds, their mother shushing them as Father was having a quiet time on the east porch. They moved through the kitchen and through the mudroom and out onto the porch, making sure to stay an arm’s reach away from their elder.
“Did the boy come again?” the younger of the two asked their father.
“Yes, son, he did. He seemed to be in a hurry today. I hope he will get lucky and land a few fish to take back with him.”
“He’s a sad boy,” their mother said from the doorway. “I’ve watched him. He seems so lost.”
“I’ve seen him with an old man, perhaps his grandfather,” the man observed. “He must be visiting him over at Wolf’s Head. The old man was keen in warning him away from our house, but I think he hasn’t completely convinced the boy to stay away.”
“So there’s still hope for us?” his wife asked.
“Marilee, there’s always hope,” the man said.
“There’s always hope,” the boys echoed their father’s words.
The oar hit the water, sending a drenching pint of water into the boat. Mia shrieked as the cold spray hit her sun-warmed skin. Brian laughed as his mother jumped up and was only saved from toppling in the water by his father’s quick grasp.
“Mia, sit down. You’re rocking the boat,” he said, barely able to contain his laughter. “I thought you said Murphy taught you how to row?”
“He did. I don’t know what went wrong,” Mia said, sitting back down and mentally going through the hard-learned lesson in her head. “Oh, I know,” Mia said as she corrected herself. “I’m supposed to wait until the oar is in the water before pulling back. See,” she said, demonstrating.
The small boat began to glide through the still water. Ted adjusted Brian’s life preserver before easing back and enjoying their ride around Big Bear Lake. They waved at Burt as they passed by the peninsula. He was sitting on the back deck drinking a beer with John Ryan. Mia had borrowed the boat from the sheriff on the promise: if she sunk it, she would replace it. John didn’t have as much confidence in Mia’s ability as she did.
“I expect he’s keeping an eye on us,” Mia said.
“No, on his boat,” Ted said. “Evidently, he doesn’t believe a mechanical genius, a sensitive, and a bouncing baby boy can row a boat around this lake, even on a placid day.”
“We’ll show him.”
“Not if you keep jumping up, Minnie Mermaid,” Ted cautioned.
“Should we tell them how far their voices carry on the water?” Burt asked John.
“Nah, we might hear something interesting,” John said.
“They seem to be getting along better,” Burt said.
“I heard they were going through a rough patch,” John admitted. “Small town gossip is hard to avoid.”
“It’s hard to explain what happened exactly, but the entity that provided the stimulating factor in breaking them apart has been stopped. Although, I worry that the human element will never rest until she has destroyed Mia.”
“I take it, you’re talking about the previous researcher, Beth Bouvier?”
“Yes. I’m surprised you picked up on it.”
“Well, she went after Whitney and nearly ruined the guy’s career in the process. Fortunately, I was able to pull some strings and get him out of harm’s way.”
“John, since we’re talking about Beth, maybe you can help me to figure all of this out.”
“I’m no expert on women. My wife can attest to that.”
“I don’t think anyone is,” Burt admitted. “Beth seemed to me to be a team player. She may have had a bit of a problem with Mike’s girlfriends, but on the whole, she was one of the guys.”
“Go on,” John encouraged before taking another long draw of the icy cold beer.
“She started to fixate on Ted. He was nice to her. He’s nice to everybody, but he probably had a soft spot for a fellow techie. When Mia arrived, Ted was smitten immediately. He kept his distance when she and I were together, but I couldn’t help but see that when Whitney managed to win the fair sensitive, Ted didn’t back off. He put himself more and more in Mia’s way and was there to pick up the pieces when Beth made an end run around Mia and slept with her boyfriend.”
“To be fair to Whitney, he was drunk and feeling jealous of all the attention Mia was getting. Whitney always needs to be the star, top dog,
numero uno
in any relationship,” John stated. “But enough of Whitney, tell me more about Beth.”
“She really is a sweet person. Kind of mothered us before…”
“Mia,” John filled in.
“I mean, when she started all the jealous stuff, I was going through some bad crap that, I hope, was brought on by the flitch. All I saw was Mia through Beth’s eyes. But even in my altered state, I couldn’t accept her trying to get Mia committed. Thank God, Mia’s parents were never much into parenting.”
“Do you think Beth’s suffering from something paranormal?”
“Mia was able to get her hands on the girl and didn’t sense anything, but Mia herself admits, right now, she’s hardly impartial.”
“Burt, I hate to say this, but I think we may have to lay a little blame on Ted. He should have nipped Beth’s attraction in the bud. He let her fawn over him.”
“As all of us males would,” Burt pointed out.
“But when the signs were there that she considered him her boyfriend, he should have set her straight.”
“That would have been cruel. Ted’s not cruel.”
“Brutal truths are hard to take, but they help us to move on,” John stated. “Did Mia go after Ted knowing of Beth’s attraction?”
“Not sure. Remember, I was in a fug during that time. Beth approached me a number of times insinuating this and that about Mia. I believed her. At that time, Beth, in my eyes, was the injured party, but I was wrong.”
“For the record, Mia didn’t belong with Whit. He would have hurt her worse than sleeping with Beth did,” John said. “Now, he was like a son to me, but the boy was spoiled. He was keen on Mia helping him out of the fix he was in but quick to turn away from Crazy Cooper when all was said and done.”
“I picked up on that.”
“You and she were quite the item at the time,” John said.
“Yes, we had a good couple of months.”
“That flitch destroy that?”
“Partly, and partly me,” Burt said. “I’m a little bit like Whitney. I need to be number one, and in our line of work, Mia’s the best there is,” he admitted. “Plus, there’s Murphy…”
“Ah, the rogue horse.”
“He’s never going to let go of Mia, and from what I see, Mia doesn’t want him to. You have to be a very confident man to take all that on.”
“So, back to Beth,” John said. “I think the young woman likes competition, but she doesn’t like losing. She picks out her mate. I bet she knew from the get-go that Ted, with the right prodding, would become a millionaire. She would be in on ground zero when he hit it big. She would guide him away from ghost hunting and into the wonderful world of making money. But then she starts seeing that his eyes and heart are heading in another direction. I think she thought that Mia Cooper, resident crazy of Big Bear Lake, shouldn’t be too hard to sideline. Except, Ted sees Mia Cooper as Wonder Woman, and that’s pretty much that. So Beth became obsessed with destroying their marriage. She planned to be right there to pick up the pieces, sealing Ted in a mercenary marriage.”
“A very dangerous person,” Burt said sagely, “in the guise of a sweet, helpful young woman.”
“If you want my advice, if she’s walking down your side of the street, cross it. I’d take her out of the rolodex of your life. She may try again to get at the Martins through their trusted friends.”
Burt nodded, taking John’s advice to heart.
Mia rowed the boat in, near the public beach on the other side of the lake. Ted hopped out and pulled the boat up onto the shore. Mia handed him Brian and the beach bag before jumping out of the boat. The two hugged a moment.
“Should we kiss the ground?” Mia asked.
“I knew we would make it,” Ted lied. “It was Brian who was hanging on for dear life.”
“Pblsst!” Brian spouted.
Mia nuzzled her son’s tummy. Brian broke out in giggles. Ted put his arm around his wife, and the three walked over to the beach.
The summer visitors saw the young couple and smiled. Here was a handsome family. The residents, however, saw something completely different. They prayed that the Martins wouldn’t put down their blanket next to theirs. Mia’s hard-won respect didn’t permeate the population that had no use, yet, for her abilities. They still saw her as Crazy Cooper and her husband as a foreigner. Mia had to go out of state to find a man who would marry her.
Sensing the mood of a few of the beachgoers, Mia directed Ted to put their blanket over nearer to the vacationers. Here, she could enjoy the afternoon without feeling like she was under the microscope.
Ted helped Mia get Brian ready for the water. He also spread a liberal layer of sunscreen on Mia’s back. He liked the feel of her strong back under his hands. He must have lingered a bit too long because Mia stopped moving.
“Is everything alright?” she asked. “You haven’t found, you know…”
“What?” he asked, continuing to rub in the lotion.
“Feathers,” she whispered.
“Oh no. I was just admiring your new rowing muscles. Maybe we should have dropped our blanket over there.” He nodded to the youths that were busy showing their bodies off to the local girls.
“Big Bear Lake’s equivalent of Muscle Beach?” Mia asked, surprised. “Ah, no way. I like being here with all the families, thank you.”
“Me too. Come on, I’m hot,” Ted said, getting up.
“Not before I put lotion on your back, Kansas boy. Let’s see if we can get rid of that farmer’s tan.”
Ted sat back down so Mia could reach his back and neck.
“Excuse me,” a woman asked them from the next beach blanket over. “Aren’t you the Ice Queen?”
“I beg your pardon?” Mia asked, surprised.
“My son has a picture of what I think is you on his bedroom wall,” she explained.
“I’m flattered, but I’m no ice queen,” Mia said. “If I were, this heat would have melted me,” she said, finishing with Ted’s back.
“Sorry to bother you,” the woman said disappointedly.
“I do appreciate the compliment,” Mia said. “But that woman and I are worlds apart. I’m just Mrs. Ted Martin, and this is our son Brian.”
Brian took over talking while Mia and Ted prepared to escape to the cool lake water.
“He sure is a talker,” the woman said and smiled as the young couple excused themselves and walked towards the shallows.
“Just Mrs. Ted Martin? Just? Come on, Mia, you’re married to Batman,” Ted said, feigning hurt feelings.
“But we can’t let them know that. If the beach public knew that the Ice Queen and Batman were here, we’d be mobbed,” Mia teased.
“You’re right. We have to keep our secret identities safe.”
“Yes we do,” Mia agreed, wading into the water with Brian.
Ted watched as his beautiful wife sat down in the water. Brian gasped as the water hit his feet but soon smiled as Mia moved him around in the water. The flotation devices Ted had made for Brian kept the child floating with his head out of the water. Mia moved a little deeper so her breasts would be covered by the water, much to Ted’s disappointment.
“I love you, Mia.”
Mia looked up at him, her face expressing what those words meant to her. “I love you too, Ted,” she said. “As I do Brian, who may just get the job of Aquaman.”
“Can the Martin family handle another superhero?” Ted asked in an announcer’s voice. “Stay tuned for the further adventures of Batman and the Ice Queen, as they fight paranormal injustice with the aid of Aquaman.”
“Did you hear that?” Mia asked Brian.
“Pblsst.”