Watch for the Dead (Relatively Dead Book 4) (16 page)

“She didn’t have my mother until 1901—so she’d been married about fifteen years,” Rebecca said pensively. “That was unusual.”

“She could have lost one or more before that—there wouldn’t be a record of that.” Abby glanced nervously at Ellie, who appeared to be ignoring the conversation. How much would she understand?

“That’s true.” Suddenly Rebecca’s eyes went blank, and then she turned quickly to Abby. “Wait a minute—I do remember something. I remember my grandmother Ruth saying that when her mother—that would be Olivia—was finally pregnant after all those years—of course, she wouldn’t have put it that way—she went to tell
her
mother, who must have been living in Waltham then. And what Ruth told me was, her mother took one look at Olivia as she was walking up to the house and said, ‘You’re pregnant.’ Before Olivia even had a chance to open her mouth. Like she knew. What do you think of that?” Rebecca sat back in her chair, beaming.

“That’s amazing, and it could fit. I wish I remembered your grandmother better, but I’ve got only some kind of brief memories of her. I was, what, maybe eight when she died?”

“About that. And we’d kind of kept you away from her for a while before that, when she was so sick. I’d hoped you would have happier memories of her.”

“She used to read me stories, didn’t she? When I was little? And she smelled nice.”

“She always liked lavender. Do you know, there’s something else I just thought of. She once told me that her mother—Olivia again—liked one particular kind of expensive perfume. That must have been when she was a rich widow. I think they still make it—what the heck was it called?” Rebecca’s brow furrowed, then her expression brightened. “Black Narcissus, that was it. My mother kept an old bottle of it around, to remind herself of her grandmother, and I used to sniff it now and then. Wow, it gets confusing trying to keep all these generations straight, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” Abby agreed. “I’ll have to look for the perfume. So, Olivia and her husband owned a house in Westfield, and they’re in the censuses. But the house was in her name, right? Did they have any other properties?”

“No, I don’t think so. If Ruth inherited from Olivia, she would have sold them off pretty quickly. I guess you’d have to look at New Jersey records for those? Anyway, most of what Olivia and her husband had owned was gone by the time Ruth’s husband, Samuel, ran off, so Olivia couldn’t help much. Not that my grandmother Ruth ever asked for help. She was determined that she would never depend on anybody again. She managed pretty well, all things considered.”

“You know, I did look up Olivia’s will a while ago, but it was one of those frustrating ones that said something like, ‘I leave all my worldly possessions to my beloved daughter.’ No inventory or valuation or anything useful like that.”

“Well, wouldn’t there be records of when Ruth inherited the Westfield house? And sold it?”

“You’re right, Mom, there should be. I haven’t had time to look. Even without any details from the will, there should be property transfer records.”

Rebecca smiled. “Hey, I think I’m getting the hang of this! And I’m beginning to see why it’s fun for you.”

Well,
Abby thought,
that’s progress
. Maybe her mother could help her out with disentangling some of the branches of the family tree—and figuring out which ones had the psychic gene—if things ever went that far.

“What about looking at Cape Cod property records?” Rebecca said.

“I was going to, Mom,” Abby replied, “but I haven’t had the time. Ned says they’re online, or at least the bare details. But we only found Olivia here a couple of days ago, and what with other things going on, I didn’t have time to think about what that meant.”

“Well, there you go. Just look up Olivia Ellinwood and see if she owned property around here.”

“Of course I will,” Abby said, verging on exasperation. She would have thought of that, if only she had had the time. Try as she might, she couldn’t picture a staid dowager like Olivia sitting on the porch here crying her eyes out if she’d been a guest in the home. Therefore she must have owned this place, before Ned’s friend’s relatives did. Easy to find out, especially since she now had Daniel’s surname. Although maybe not the “why.” Why would Olivia have decided she wanted a house by the sea? And when had she decided?

But more important, why would she have been crying? It could depend on when she spent time here. The death of one of her parents? Her husband? Her daughter’s lost child and disastrous marriage? So many occasions for tears, but Abby felt strongly that Olivia would have cried in private, not sitting on the porch in a hurricane.

After that initial surge of enthusiasm, Rebecca’s discoveries tapered off. “I wish I could remember more, Abby,” her mother told her, “but I haven’t thought about these things for a very long time. ‘Live in the now,’ I always say. I sent you all of the documents I had from my side of the family, last year, but I know there wasn’t a lot there. Before you get mad at me, I think Ruth probably pitched a lot of stuff, if there was any. She had no patience with the past. I’ll poke around and see if there’s anything else, but don’t get your hopes up.”

“I understand, Mom. Don’t beat yourself up—I threw a whole lot at you all at once. Go home and digest it. These people have been gone a long time, and I think they can wait a little longer. Mostly it’s to satisfy my curiosity: I want to know what Olivia was doing here and why she was crying. Maybe we’ll never know, but I haven’t run out of resources yet.”

When Rebecca went upstairs to repack what little they had unpacked, Abby turned to Ellie. “You’ve been quiet. You have any ideas?”

Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know all that stuff you were talking about, but I think Olivia was sad about something in particular. I don’t know what. I can’t see what she thinks.”

“I can’t either, sweetie, and that may be impossible anyway. Look, the guys are back!”

Before her parents left, for a few brief minutes Abby found herself alone with her father. “You haven’t said much, Dad. Everything all right?”

“Sure is. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m usually quiet. Your mother does enough talking for two people.”

“That she does. I guess I take after you.”

“Maybe. Interesting stuff you brought up this trip. Nothing I would have expected.”

“Tell me about it! I just stumbled into it. It’s been kind of fascinating, but it eats up a lot of my life. I want at least some answers before I get on with things.”

“You okay for money? Because I can help . . .”

“No need, Dad. Ned’s got plenty, and he’s happy to support me—he doesn’t spend much of anything on himself. But I’ll get back to work eventually, once I get this other stuff sorted out.”

“I’m sure you will. Your Ned is a good man, and he looks out for you. I don’t mean just financially.”

“I know. I’m very lucky.”

“Ellie going to be a problem for you two?”

“I hope not! She’s a sweet kid, and I want to help her figure out what this thing is. I know she could just stifle it, but I think it’s gone too far for that, and if we told her to just forget it, she’d resent it in the long run. But she’s smart—probably smarter than most of her class—and that makes fitting in more difficult for her, even without seeing dead people. So I want to be there to help, and certainly Ned does. He didn’t know about any of this either, until this past year.”

“What about the mother? Is she a problem?”

“She was upset when I first tried to explain all this to her, but she’s been coming around. Slowly. I think she finally realizes that she can’t just wish it away or ignore it. She’s smart too, so she’ll figure it out. And neither Ned nor I wants to come between them. It was really only a fluke that Ellie happens to be here with us now, for this time.”
And saw Olivia
. Leslie probably wouldn’t be happy about that.

Rebecca came bustling down the stairs again. “The suitcases are ready, Marvin, so you can bring them down.” Marvin winked at Abby, then turned to go up the stairs. Rebecca gave Abby a hug. “Thank you so much for inviting us! I know it wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it’s been good. And don’t you dare wait that long again! Or I’ll just show up on your doorstep one day and refuse to budge. If you’ll tell me where that is,” she ended dubiously.

“Lexington, right near the center of town—and there’s an old cemetery behind the house. Don’t worry, I’ll keep in touch. Let me know if you remember anything else interesting, and I’ll try to put together an outline of what I know and send it to you. Okay? And maybe on another trip I can show you the other places our ancestors seem to hang out.”

“Great. There you are, Ellie! I hope I’ll be seeing you again, and I really enjoyed talking to you. Take good care of your kitten.”

“I will. Nice to meet you too.”

Ned, Abby and Ellie gathered on the back steps to wave Marvin and Rebecca off on their return journey. “That was exhausting,” Abby commented, waving as the car pulled away.

“Why? You got what you wanted, didn’t you?” Ned asked.

“Well, yes, but I thought I’d be able to work up to it gradually. This was kind of a massive infodump, or maybe like ripping the bandage off all at once.”

“I thought your mother handled it all remarkably well.”

“That she did. Maybe she has hidden depths. You know, maybe we should think about getting a beach house of our own. There’s something about all the sun and wind and water noises that’s kind of liberating. Or something.”

“Can we finish fixing up the Lexington house first?” Ned asked plaintively.

“I guess. Ellie? Where’d you disappear to?”

“Out on the porch,” Ellie called back. Abby followed the sound of her voice and dropped into the chair next to hers. Kitten was curled up into a ball in Ellie’s lap, asleep again.

“I’m sorry that took up so much time, since this is your vacation too. We can do something you want tomorrow.”

“They’re your family, right? You should spend time with them. I like them.”

“I do too, thank goodness. But we got into a lot of stuff that I hadn’t planned to talk about.”

“Why didn’t you talk to your mom about all this before now?”

“I don’t really know, sweetie. For a long time I didn’t know I had this thing, and then I was trying to figure it out. I guess I thought she wouldn’t understand.”

“But she did,” Ellie said reasonably.

“Yes, you’re right—she did. I shouldn’t have assumed. I think she was as surprised as I was to find out she could ‘see’ people. Although I think she could use some practice.”

“I think once you know you can, you start seeing a lot more of them.”

“I think you’re probably right. So, how about a walk on the beach? We’ve been sitting a lot today.”

“Okay. Which one?”

“You don’t want to go to Old Silver Beach?” Abby asked her.

“It’s gonna be busy today, isn’t it? What about that one?” Ellie pointed across the small harbor, which Abby knew was only a part of a larger harbor. “You said there was a beach there.”

“You’re right, I did. But I think we’ll have to find a road. Ned, you want to come?”

“Sure. I’ll drive.”

It didn’t take them long to find a small access road to the spit of land across the harbor. As Ned had told her, there was a portion set off with large signs that said “Private.” And then there was a security guard—a very polite one who strolled over to their car and said, “This is private property, you know. You can’t park here.”

Abby responded before Ned could say anything. She got out of the car and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to intrude. But I just found out that my great-great-grandmother once owned a house right over there”—she pointed across the harbor—“and in fact we’re staying in it, and I wanted to see what it looked like from this side. We’ll only be a minute.”

The guard looked them over and apparently decided they looked harmless. “All right, but don’t be long.” He walked back to the sign in the road, but turned to watch them.

“All right, then,” Abby said, relieved. “Ellie, why don’t you take some pictures?”

“Okay.” Ellie bounced out of the car and pulled out her camera and started shooting across the water. “Can I take your picture, in front of the water?”

“Sure, why not?” Abby and Ned moved closer together, and Ned put his arm around her shoulders. Ellie smiled at them and started snapping pictures.

Chapter 17

Since they couldn’t walk on the beach under the watchful eye of the security guard, they decided to try Old Silver Beach again. They drove back to the main road, where traffic was already picking up heading north—people going back to work. Next weekend, Labor Day, would no doubt be a nightmare, and Abby was glad they had had this slightly less manic time together.

At the beach Abby and Ned hung back, watching Ellie play in the sand and water. “She’s quite a kid, isn’t she?” Abby said.

“That she is,” Ned replied. “Not that I can take any credit for it.”

“Well, she does have your genes.” When Ned started to protest, Abby held up one hand. “I don’t want to get into a discussion of nature versus nurture at this point. Let’s just say that we have reason to believe there is a genetic component to this thing we’ve got. No, that makes it sound like the plague or something. How about, ‘why we see’? But the reality is, we have this . . . something, and yet we still have to go on leading ordinary lives. You and I can handle it—we’re grown-ups. But how do we help Ellie? Will Leslie let us?”

“Abby, I can’t answer that. This is kind of day to day. But your mother seemed to have accepted it easily enough.”

“I must say I was happily surprised. I’ve always seen my mother as a pragmatist. In this case she was offered proof—through no effort of her own—so she picked herself up and said, what do we do now? I think she’s kind of intrigued.”

“Did you tell her not to go trumpeting it to her bridge club?” Ned asked with a smile.

“She doesn’t play bridge. And I think she got the point. We’re walking a fine line here, all of us, trying to learn more about whatever it is without giving away too much or scaring people. And the rules keep changing.”