Chapter 4

“Are you sure that you want to live in that big house?” I asked as I helped Nora tape up the last of her boxes for moving.

“It’s a bit big,” she said, “but that’s part of the thrill.  I’ll be living in a mansion.  How many can say that?”

“It’s a centuries old house.  What about the noises?”  I asked.  “Won’t you get creeped out?”

She lifted the box and placed it on top of another one that awaited the moving men.  “What’s this all about?  Why are you suddenly asking me this?  Wouldn’t these have been better questions before I gave notice to the landlord?”

“You’re right,” I agreed.  “I’m sorry.  I just worry about you feeling comfortable there.  That’s all.”

“Because of ghosts?” she asked.  “I thought that you didn’t believe in them.”

“Didn’t we decide that the sounds of the house were due to an old structure shifting or residual time travel?” I asked; evading the topic of ghosts altogether.

I’d been to the house a few times without her in preparation for our moving in.  On several occasions, I’d seen a semi-opaque figure of a man moving about in my peripheral vision.  Most of the time he was just a quick flash of dark matter, but, on a few occasions he’d slowed down or stopped and I was able to see him.  It wasn’t anyone who I recognized from the past. 

Since he didn’t seem to notice or bother with me, I let it go.  Even so, I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that I was seeing the residual energy of a traveler and not a ghost.  I didn’t even believe in ghosts until I saw Agatha.   She’d appeared to me on that fateful night back in time when I’d discovered Vivian and Bart having sex in her bedroom just before Jason raped me.  She’d glowed so brightly that it almost hurt my eyes.  This man had no glow and had a grey hue to him.

I wrestled with telling Nora what I’d seen so often that it could almost be called an obsession.  I should have told her, but something kept holding me back.  Was it because I was afraid that she’d back out of moving into the house with me?  Now that I was committed to moving into it and had given up my apartment, I felt like I had to see it through.  Then, she’d given up her apartment as well.  They weren’t that easy to find in the price range that she could afford.  I knew that it was selfish and wrong of me to let her go ahead with things without telling her the truth of what I was seeing in the house.  Even so, every time I went to say something, a force inside of me prevented it.

I was certain that, at some point, she’d see the ghost herself.  I only hoped that she’d forgive me for not telling her about him before then.

Nora’s eyes glistened with enthusiasm.  “I’m so excited about moving into that place that, even if there were ghosts, I’d still move in there.  I mean… it’s a mansion.  Who wouldn’t want to move into a mansion?”

“Even a haunted one?” I asked.

Her face grew serious. “Don’t tease me.  It’s not funny.”

The doorbell announced the arrival of the movers and all conversation about haunted mansions came to an instant halt.

Accustomed to organizing and taking charge, Nora immediately took control of the situation.  Announcing to the movers that they needed to keep in mind the fact that they would have to go to my apartment a few blocks away and fit my belongings into the truck as well, she focused on making sure that they did a proper job of loading her boxes and the few pieces of furniture that she owned into the truck’s cube.   Where I’d been renting a six-hundred square foot, one bedroom apartment, Nora lived in a three-hundred square foot studio.  Thus, she had little to move in comparison to me.

I didn’t need to take anything but my clothes to the mansion, but I wasn’t quite ready to relinquish my life for a new one.  Of course, that wasn’t what was happening.  I still worked at the agency.  The only thing changing was my residency.  Even so, it felt like an enormous, life altering change.  Or, it could be, if I’d allowed it.

The moving men were fast and efficient.  Before  we knew it, we had both apartments packed and were headed to the mansion.

“This is the place where that woman was murdered a few weeks back.  Right?” asked the driver as he hopped out of the van.  “There was a party and she was murdered.”

“That’s right,” said his helper.  “I remember that.  I thought the owner of the house was under suspect for doing it.”  He turned to Nora and me. “Are you girls sure you want to live here?  The owner is reported to be dangerous.”

“My friend here is the owner and she’s anything but dangerous,” Nora snapped as she stomped to the door and jammed the key that I’d given her into the lock.  Ignoring the odd look that both men were giving me, she added, “Now, if you men will stick to business instead of gossip, we just might give you a decent tip.”

If there was one thing that I truly liked about Nora, it was her intolerance of gossip; especially when it was about people who she knew and liked.  She’d only met Lance that one time, but he was my husband and had done right by me in so many ways.  The mere hint of slanderous gossip on his behalf was enough to send her into a frenzy. 

“I thought the killer was a man,” one of them mumbled as he yanked the door of the van’s cargo area open to expose our belongings.

“I thought the owner of this place was a man,” the other muttered in a voice that sounded like it was intended for his ears only.

I gave Nora a quick look that expressed my appreciation for her defense of Lance, but also asking her to back down.  These men were in charge of moving things that had a good deal of sentimental value to me into the house.  I had no desire to upset them and have the risk of something being dropped and accidentally broken increased.  She understood my look and nodded.  With pursed lips, she asked the driver to follow her into the house so that she could explain what rooms to put our things into.

A few hours later, we were sitting at the kitchen counter enjoying a much deserved glass of wine from the impressively well stocked wine cellar.

“This house doesn’t seem like it’s been empty long at all,” Nora mused as she brought her Waterford Crystal wine glass to her lips. “I mean.  That wine cellar, for instance.  It’s completely packed with rare and old wines.  I can understand the cupboards being stocked since Lance was staying here, but the wine cellar?”

“It is strange to think that they’d move out and leave such a valuable collection behind,” I said.  “I think we should do a bit of research on when the house was last occupied.  It was a Northrup. We know that much.  But, who and when?”   I got a teasing glint in my eye as I took a sip of my pinot noir and added, “Don’t say Lance.”

She chuckled.  “I was just about to.  You know me too well.”

I smiled and toasted the air with my glass.

A somber look replaced Nora’s smile.  “Lance was afraid that they’d blame him for Melanie Gaines’  death.”

“Don’t ask me why, but I forgot about that,” I said.  “In truth, I thought that she’d just been knocked out and taken to the hospital.  I didn’t realize that she’d died.”

Nora slowly shook her head. “The whole thing was crazy strange.  First she disappeared before my very eyes, only to reappear unconscious.  Then, just hours later, she was pronounced dead at the hospital.”

Her comment brought the investigator in me out full force.  “Do you think  the murderer followed her to the hospital and finished what he started?”

“Or, she,” Nora said.

“Or she,” I repeated as my mind whirled over the events of an evening that was only a few weeks past but seemed like years ago.  “I was with Lance, so we know that he’s completely innocent.”

“Would there be a doubt if you weren’t with him?” she asked with a hint of suspicion.

I thought for a moment.  “Perhaps before I got to know him, but not now.  I’ve spent enough time with him to know his character.  He’s incapable of killing anyone or anything.  The man won’t even hunt in a time when there are no supermarkets to run to the store to buy a steak for dinner from.”

“Is he a vegetarian?” she asked.

“No, but he could probably become one quite easily,” I said.  “Who was with you when she disappeared before your eyes?”

“Everyone,” she replied. “Everyone but you and Lance.”

“They all saw her disappear?” I asked, incredulously.

“That’s the crazy part,” she said as she refilled her glass.  “I seem to be the only one who witnessed that.  Everyone else claimed that she was laughing one minute and on the ground the next.  No one agrees with me that she disappeared and reappeared.”

“Yet, they can’t explain how she ended up on the ground with a huge gash on her head?” I said with disgust.

Nora shook her head. “Am I crazy?  I mean.  I saw her disappear and reappear as clear as I’m seeing you.  How come no one else did?”

“Had you asked me that before we met Lance, I wouldn’t have been able to answer.  Now, I can say that I believe that you, somehow, witnessed a time warp.  I think that someone or something grabbed her and took her into an alternate timeline to kill her before returning her in that state.  When they realized that she wasn’t dead, they popped into the hospital and finished the job.”

She let out a long breath.  “That’s so sci-fi.”

“Have you a better explanation?” I asked.

“After witnessing you and Lance step, hand in hand, into that tiny mirror and then seeing that sexy Scotsman step out of that same tiny mirror with you in his arms, your theory is very believable.”

“To us,” I said, “but what about to the authorities.”

“Do you think that one of the guests was involved in it too?” she asked.  “It would make it a lot easier to clear Lance if they were.”

“It sure would,” I agreed.

“Can you manage investigating this along with work?” she asked with concern.

“You meant we.  Right?” I asked.

“I did,” she said with a smile.

I heaved a sigh. “I sure hope so.  If not, Lance takes priority over work for me.  Anyway, it can’t be any harder than finding that damnable box.”

“Do you want to spend a little time looking for that today?” she asked.  “Maybe we’ll get lucky as new residents and find it.”

“No,” I replied.  “It’s been a tedious day.”

“True, but it’s still early,” she said. “I don’t mind taking a few hours to look.”

“I thank you for that,” I said with a grateful smile.  “It’s early, but we still have unpacking and settling in to do.  Let’s bring the house to order before we search again.  Shall we?”

“You really do dislike disorder,” she said with a chuckle.

I nodded.  “That, I do.”