Haunted Fixer-Upper, The (11 page)

“Don’t you worry about a thing, sugar. We’re not going to interrupt your dinner.” She wiggled her fire-engine red-tipped finger at me.

I was almost afraid to ask this question
about where she intended to stay. The next thing I knew my mother would be sleeping between Reed and me in that tiny full-size bed at the cabin.

“
We got a couple of rooms over at the hotel on the edge of town,” Lacey offered.

Well, thank heavens for small favors.

“You can go back home now, Mama. I’m doing fine.”

Her face drooped and she sniffled. I knew I wasn’t going to win this battle.
Just when I thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, in had walked my mother. No one said a word. Everyone just watched her sniffle. Even the patrons surrounding us took notice of her blubbering.

I sighed.
“Fine. You can stay. Thank you for the help,” I mumbled.

The tears instantly dried. “Good. Now we’ll be out of your hair.
”

“How in the world did you know we were here?” I asked.

“Reed’s uncle told us. He’s a sweet man.”

I’d have to apologize to Lou later.

Mama grabbed a breadstick from the table and took a bite. She waved it at me and said, “We’ll go get a good night’s sleep and be ready in the morning to work.”

Before she walked away, I knew I had to tell her about the murder. She’d never forgive me if she read about it in the paper instead of hearing it from me first.

“There is one thing you should know, mama,” I said.

“What is it? What have you done?”

I bit my tongue. “The man who sold us the house was murdered.”

She swayed
and her eyes fluttered. Reed jumped and grabbed her. If the patrons in the restaurant hadn’t been watching us before, they sure as heck were now after my mother’s theatrics.

“Mama, are you all right? I asked as I fanned her with a menu.

Reed eased her onto a chair and handed her a glass of water.

She took a big gulp of water, then grabbed the menu from my hand and began waving in up in down in front of her face. “Please tell me you weren’t the one who found this person.”

I chuckled. “Of course not. Reed found him.”

She took another big gulp of water. I looked at Lacey and she just stood there with her mouth gaping open. A lot of help she’d turned out to be.

“Don’t worry, Mama, everything is fine,” I said.

After explaining exactly what had happened, my mother bounced up from the table, adjusted her flamboyant outfit,
then proceeded to act as if we hadn’t told her the shocking news. That was her way. If she ignored something, it would go away. It was my experience that the more you ignored something the bigger it got. Like the more I ignored not eating healthy foods, the bigger my thighs grew. It was the same rules with everything in life.

“Well, like I said. We’ll be ready in the morning to help with the house,” she said.

“I can’t wait.” I flashed the biggest smile I could muster.

“
Come on, Lacey.” My mother grabbed Lacey’s hand.

Lacey gave me a look that said
,
Help me
. Hey, she was all on her own. She was the one who brought her down here. My mother would have never driven by herself.

I waved and smiled widely. “Have a good evening.”

My mother grabbed Lacey and dragged her out of the restaurant.

“
I can’t believe they came here.”

Reed laughed.
“Are you serious? I’m not surprised in the least that she came. I’m just surprised that it took her this long.”

I c
ouldn’t hold back my laughter. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m not surprised. Did you see Lacey’s face?” I snorted.

“
Come on let’s get out of here before we get any more surprises,” Reed said.

We walked out o
f the restaurant into the still-warm summer air. I glanced around expecting to see my mother spying on us, but luckily she didn’t appear. As we headed toward the car, I spotted the historical society woman. She looked all business in her stiff, black dress suit.

I nudged Reed.
“Can we hide?”

He looked up.
“I think it’s too late. She’s looking straight at us.”

Evelyn Arlington
hurried her steps and blocked us on the sidewalk. With a scowl on her face and her beady little eyes narrowed, she looked like an angry chihuahua. This time the opposite eyebrow was drawn on lopsided. The venom in her eyes let me know she was ready for a fight. I, on the other hand, was not. The last thing I wanted was to cause trouble in Bay Point.

Evelyn
shoved a binder toward us. “Here are the rules for the home. I trust you’ll follow them to a tee.”

I took the file
from her outstretched hand. I was in no mood to argue with this woman tonight. I was too tired after working all day on the house. Oh, and that little thing about finding a corpse. Didn’t the woman have enough decorum to wait a few days before handing us rules?

I glanced down at the blue binder.
Gordon’s name had been marked through at the top of the binder. My name had been added below his. Had she tried to give this binder of rules to him? I imagined Gordon probably had told her where she could stick her rules. Then the thought hit me. Had she been the one who murdered Gordon?

I looked
at her again. Her fists were clenched at her sides and a scowl covered her face. She looked like an extremely angry grandmother. No way—this little old lady couldn’t do something as horrendous as that, although she was awfully hateful with her determination for historical accurateness. Still, Gordon was twice her size. Surely he could have fought her off, unless she’d attacked him from behind. How would I find out exactly how Gordon had been murdered? That was the kind of information the police wouldn’t tell just anyone… especially someone who had been so close to the murder scene.

“We’ll look over the guidelines, Ms. Arlington,” Reed said in his sweetest voice.

She wasn’t charmed though as she glared at him. “See that you do.”

Evelyn spun around like a whirlwind and stomped off, disappearing into the night.

“I can’t believe that woman,” I said.

“
She does seem obsessed. We’ll just follow the rules and maybe she’ll leave us alone,” Reed said as he opened the car door for me.

After a few minutes of riding in silence, enjoying the beauty of the summer night,
I asked, “Did you tell your uncle about the murder?”

Reed shook his head. “I didn’
t have to. Remember this is a pretty small town—word spreads fast.”

“What did he say?”

Reed shrugged. “Not much. What could he say?”

I had to use this opportunity to ask about the tension between them.

“Maybe it’s none of my business, but is something going on between you and your uncle? You all haven’t really talked since we’ve been back.”

His jaw tightened. “No, what makes you ask?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because every time I mention him your jaw tightens up.” I pointed at his face.

He glanced over at me. “My jaw is not tightened. There are no problems.”

I couldn’t exactly accuse him of lying. That wasn’t good dating etiquette. Nine times out of ten, it would probably cause nothing but a fight. I had to believe him. Having said that, maybe I should have avoided the topic I was about to bring up, but I never really learned my lesson and I was always doing something I shouldn’t.

“
Did you date Amanda? I mean, it’s no big deal. Obviously we have dated other people in the past.”

Okay
, the more I tried not to sound like the jealous girlfriend type, the more I sounded like the jealous girlfriend type.

He paused for a moment and then said
, “We dated a few times.”

I couldn’t lie and say I didn’t feel a twinge of jealousy. But the odd feeling I got from her was probably all in my head. Since we’d just turned into the driveway, I decided to drop the subject. Besides, we’d probably never see her again.

When we pulled up to the cabin, I looked over to Lou’s place. There were no lights on in the house, but there was a single light glowing near the water in the woods next to the house.

“Do you see that light over there?” I pointed.

It really was kind of eerie, that lone light in the darkness. Please dear Lord, don’t let it be that crazy man who lived in the woods.

“It’
s probably my uncle. He likes to sit down there sometimes at night and think.”

Okay that was incredibly sad.

“Don’t you want to talk to him?”

“I’
d love to, but he doesn’t want to talk. He wants to be left alone. Trust me.”

I had to trust Reed a lot lately.

Chapter Fourteen

That night I awoke to loud pounding at the door. Reed roused and in a groggy state grabbed his pants. The clock read two a.m.

“
Who the hell is that?” he asked as he stumbled toward the door.

I jumped up and slid into my robe
, not bothering to stuff my feet into my bunny slippers. “I don’t know.”

My heart rate spiked. Something had to be wrong. Visitors didn’t show up at two in the morning.

Once I stepped into the living room, Reed was already standing by the front door.

He
looked at me and whispered, “It’s the police.”

My stomach sank.
“What do they want?”

He just
stared at me blankly for a second, then opened the door.

The police stepped in
without being invited. “Reed O’Hara, we need you to come with us.”

“Why?” I asked in a panic.

The officer looked at me crossly. “We need to ask him questions about Gordon Millerton’s murder.”

“So,
he’s not under arrest?”

He paused for a moment,
then answered, “No. He’s not under arrest, but I’d advise he answered our questions. It’ll look suspicious if he doesn’t, you know.”

“
But at two in the morning? This doesn’t make sense. Why can’t this wait until the morning. We’ll come to the station around ten,” I said.

Reed touched my arm to calm me down. “
It’s okay, Bama. I’ll go with them. I don’t have anything to hide.” 

It felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach.
“What the hell is going on? You can’t do this.” I stepped between Reed and the officer.

“
Ma’am, please stay back.” He gave me his official step-back-or-I’ll-arrest-you glare.

“
It’s okay, Bama. Just meet me at the station because I’ll need a ride home, okay?”

I nodded, as I pushed back tears. It felt as if I was outside of my body watching some bizarre scene unfold.

“I’ll be right behind you,” I said.

This was the craziest
thing I’d ever heard. What reason could they possibly have for questioning Reed? Was it really necessary to take him to the police station?

I
hurried down the path to Lou’s house. Quarter-sized drops fell around me, soaking my clothes and hair. The droplets felt good though on my warm skin. The ground was uneven and it had started to rain a couple hours earlier. Mud puddles dotted the path. Before I reached the door, I stumbled and fell face first into the mud. After letting out a loud groan, I scrambled up and continued my trek toward the house. This was the night from hell.

When I reached the front porch,
I pounded on the door. After a few seconds, Reed’s uncle opened the door. His hair was disheveled and his pajamas were wrinkled as if he’d been tossing and turning. I hated being the one to deliver the bad news.

“
What’s wrong?” The color drained from his face. “Is Reed okay?”

I guess
ed my appearance didn’t help his anxiety since I was now covered in mud.

“
The police took him to the station,” I said breathlessly.

“
What in God’s name for?” he asked with wide eyes.

“
They want to ask him questions about Gordon Millerton’s murder.” I searched his face for a reaction.

“
What a bunch of idiots. I can’t believe this. Let me make a quick phone call and then I’ll take us to the police station.”

“I’ll go change,”
I said as I hurried out the door and back toward the cottage.

I prayed that Reed’s uncle
was calling a lawyer. They couldn’t question Reed like that without a lawyer. What did they think they had on him anyway? He’d told them everything he knew right after the murder.

After
quickly washing off the mud, I jumped into a pair of jeans and threw a T-shirt over my head, then slipped into my sneakers. Thank goodness I had Reed’s uncle to help me. What would I do without him?