The Ghostly Hideaway (8 page)

The middle of August, Ed and Chrissy went to
Fordsville for supplies. While they were there, Ed also arranged
for telephone service at the farmhouse. He hadn’t thought there
should be a problem since there had been service there before. He
went to the post office to check on getting mail service, too, and
was told they would bring his mail to the junction where his drive
left the main road if he would put up a mailbox. He now had a
telephone number and an address.

His next stop was at the Rural Electric Co-op where
he changed the electric bill into his name.

He used the public pay phone to notify the Social
Security Administration that Clifton Calhoun Coy had passed away in
order that his social security account could be closed. He had
picked up all the mail from the post office that had accumulated
since Uncle Cliff’s death and he got his social security number
from the bank statement.

While he was near the phone, he decided to try to
find out how things were going in North Carolina. He called the man
who had been his employee and friend in North Carolina and talked
to him for a few minutes. Ed was anxious to know if his ex-partner
had been found and prosecuted for the robbery Norman Jones had
framed him for. Bill Blass had informed him that the police had
received a tip that Jones had been spotted in Chicago, but when
they found where the suspect had been living, he had just left.
Nevertheless, they were still on his trail. Ed gave him the number
where he could be reached at home as soon as it was connected and
asked Bill to keep him updated on the situation.

Chrissy made one stop of her own while her Dad was
on the phone. She went into a little gift shop, bought a small
vase, and managed to zip it up inside her purse. She wanted
something pretty to put her magic flowers in when they mysteriously
appeared. They were so special to her that she wanted a vase for
them instead of the old, discolored mug.

When Chrissy and her dad got home that evening, they
found Johnny there with JoJo and the twins were having a wonderful
time playing with the beautiful dog. Johnny volunteered to help
unload the groceries and things they had brought back from town.
One of the things he helped unload was a mailbox and post.

“Hey, Mr. Wroe, are you going to start getting mail
service? Do you need help putting this up?" Johnny was anxious to
help. It gave him an excuse to see Chrissy more often.

“Yes, I am and I would sure appreciate your help,
Johnny.”

It rained the next day and it was Friday before they
could get the mailbox installed. While they were working on getting
it up, a neighbor Ed hadn’t met came by and Johnny introduced
them.

“Mr. Tinsley, I’d like you to meet Edward Wroe. Mr.
Wroe, this is Frank Tinsley. The Tinsley Family would be your
nearest neighbors on the west. Mr. Wroe is living in the old Coy
house.”

The two men shook hands and liked each other right
away. “Did you buy the old Coy place after Cliff died?" Mr. Tinsley
asked.

“No,” Ed explained. “Mr. Coy was my wife’s uncle.
After his heart attack, the place passed to her.”

“Mr. Wroe has been doing a lot of work to the old
house. You’d hardly know it was the same place. Right now, he’s
putting in new kitchen cabinets. He does beautiful work." Johnny
knew Ed was sort of looking for odd jobs to do and he had also
heard Frank say that he needed new kitchen cabinets.

“I’d love to see what you’re doing, Ed. I’ve been
wanting some new kitchen cabinets, but I don’t have the tools or
the knack for it." Mr. Tinsley took the bait just as Johnny figured
he would.

“Well, why don’t you and your family come over this
afternoon and see what I’m doing and stay for supper. We’d love to
get to know our neighbors. I think Uncle Cliff was almost a hermit;
but we would really enjoy company." He hoped Penny wouldn’t kill
him for inviting them without giving her much notice. “You may
come, too, Johnny. You won’t let me pay you for your help so the
least I should do is feed you." Of course, that suited Johnny just
fine. Maybe he and Chrissy could squeeze in some time in the front
porch swing.

Penny was quite pleased to have company and she
fixed a delicious meal. She fried some pork chops, made mashed
potatoes and gravy, put together a wonderful salad and Chrissy
baked a fabulous angel food cake for dessert.

Frank and DeDe (her name was Cordelia but she
insisted on the shorter version) were delightful guests. Penny
remembered seeing them at the graveside service for Uncle Cliff but
they hadn’t stayed around after the service was over. Their son,
Devon, was eight and while somewhat boisterous, was still nice.
Two-year-old Maria was absolutely a joy. Her sweet personality made
everyone fall in love with her.

Frank fell in love with Ed’s cabinetry, too, as did
DeDe.

“Ed, do you think we could get you to give us a bid
on fixing some cabinets for us?" The Tinsley’s seemed extremely
excited about the possibility.

“I’d be glad to,” Ed told them. He was excited, too.
He had made a good-sized dent in the funds from selling their house
in North Carolina and he needed to make some money.

“What type of wood do you want your cabinets made
from?" Ed knew that would have to be part of the bid estimate.

“How about if I furnish the materials and you
provide the labor and expertise? I work as a logger. I could get
some lumber sawed and planed for the project and you have the tools
to do the rest. It would likely be oak or walnut. We’re working
virgin woodland, right now, so it could probably be my choice.”

“That would be perfect.”

“Hey, you know what? I could get some lumber for you
pretty cheap, too, at least compared to lumberyard prices. Would
that be something you’d be interested in?”

“Of course. There are still several projects around
here that need to be done. I could use some good lumber.”

While the men talked business and drank coffee in
the dining room, the women went into the family room and Johnny and
Chrissy wandered out to the front porch swing.

“I enjoy listening to the way you talk, Johnny. Is
that an Irish brogue?”

“My father was Irish. He met my mother, Janet
Thorne, when he came through here with a crew working on electric
lines. They stayed in this area a little over six months and when
it was time to move on, he found he couldn’t leave my mom. He asked
her to marry him and when her folks said, ‘no’ they eloped. They
came back a couple of years later to see Grandmother when
Great-grandpapa died but she had become terribly bitter at Mom. So
they left again and went back to Ireland. I was born there and
that's where I grew up. A couple of years ago, I decided I would
come back and see if I could mend some fences with Grandmother. She
tolerates me but she still can’t forgive my mother. When things got
too unpleasant up there at Grandmama’s, I’d come down and visit
with Mr. and Mrs. Coy. I’m still trying, though. Maybe one day
before it’s too late she’ll ask them to come for a visit.”

“Oh. I don’t know what to say, Johnny. That’s too
sad and sweet at the same time.”

“You’re sweet, too." He had already stretched his
arm across the back of the swing behind her and while he was
talking he let it drop across her shoulders. Now he pulled her
around to face him and brushed his lips tentatively across hers.
She hadn’t objected so he deepened the kiss until he felt her hand
come up to tangle softly in his hair. The tickling sensation in her
stomach startled her and made her draw away slightly; but then she
was kissing him back and wishing the moment would never end.

“Oh, here you are!" It was Devon. “I wondered where
you’d gone. I thought maybe you’d want to play a game with me. The
babies don’t know how to play anything,” he said disgustedly.

Chrissy and Johnny looked into each other’s eyes and
sighed but went on into the living room and Chrissy got out a game
called “Aggravation” which she thought Johnny would recognize as
her way of saying Devon was an aggravation and they could continue
their experiments later on. They hadn’t played long when Mr. and
Mrs. Tinsley decided it was time to go. Maria was already asleep
and Devon had school the next day. It had been a nice evening,
though, especially for Chrissy. She had stayed awake looking at the
ceiling and daydreaming far into the night still feeling the thrill
of Johnny’s lips on hers. As she was finally dropping off to sleep,
she thought she heard something on the third floor, but she still
drifted off into deep sleep. Ghosts didn’t scare her much anyway
these days.

The following week, Ed and Penny took the
documentation Penny had found in the old roll top desk and gave it
to a lawyer. After Attorney Horace Lee had looked at all the
paperwork, he asked the Wroes how he could help them.

“We’d like to be able to have the property in our
name so that we would be responsible for the taxes, the insurance,
and all that. The only problem is I haven’t discovered a way to
actually prove I am Uncle Cliff’s niece. The will says ‘Penelope
Langley.’ Parsons was the last name of my Aunt Genevieve who raised
me after my parents died. They adopted me in order for me to have
insurance coverage under Uncle Jack’s work insurance. I don’t have
anything to show that ‘Langley’ was ever my last name. I go by
‘Penny’ now rather than Penelope, too, and that makes it even more
difficult. If that gets to be too much of a problem, of course, we
can simply let things remain as they are, pay the taxes and other
obligations, and leave it in Uncle Cliff’s name. We’re hoping you
can advise us the best way to handle this.”

“What I would advise is to go ahead to probate with
the will. If someone else should appear and register a claim for
the property, we’ll start worrying about proof at that point. If
they don’t, the records will show that you inherited the property
from your uncle.”

“That sounds wonderful Attorney Lee. Can you give us
an idea how long this will take?”

“Anywhere between ninety and one hundred eighty
days. With no complications, you should have a deed in your name
within the next three months.”

Things had been going fairly well, he thought. He
had received enough money from the stuff he had stolen from Joe
Mills to buy a half interest in a remodeling business. Moreover,
who on earth would ever think of looking for Norman Jones in
Kentucky? Particularly a small out-of-the-way place like Dundee.
Bill Weedman hadn’t asked any questions at all when he showed up
with the money to invest in the business. They had put the
partnership agreement in the name of Victor N. Jones which was his
full name. He was known as Norman everywhere else but now the
‘Victor’ worked to help hide his identity.

After the incident at the bar in North Carolina, he
had had no choice but to get the hell out of Dodge. Sally Denham
hadn’t had any right to come on to him as she had, get him all
worked up and then try to say ‘no’ at the last minute. He honestly
had not had any idea she was only fifteen years old or that she had
been a virgin before that night. Of course, he had had too much to
drink, too, but that wouldn’t have been considered an excuse for
rape. He couldn’t even have tried to claim the sex had been
consensual; with her that young, it would still have been statutory
rape.

He felt really bad sometimes for framing Ed Wroe,
his life-long friend, for the robbery, too. However, he had had to
give himself time to fence the stolen property and get enough of a
stake to relocate where nobody would find him. Besides, he was sure
Ed could talk his way out of it or at least convince the jury there
was reasonable doubt of his guilt. The cousin in Chicago had enough
“connections” to be able to help him fence the stolen stuff.
However, he couldn’t get a job, because it would be too easy to
locate him if he used his social security number.

He and Bill had a good job coming up that should
last through most of the winter. Bill had asked him to come to
Fordsville and see if he could find the particular drawer and door
handles their customer wanted for the cabinets they were installing
in the apartment building that was being built. If he couldn’t find
what he needed in Fordsville, he’d have to go on to Owensboro and
try Lowe’s Lumber or Home Depot there. Yeah, things were going
pretty good. He didn’t even have to pay his ex-wife the
ridiculously high spousal support her lawyer had talked the judge
into the last time she took him to court.

Oh, there’s the lumberyard and supply store and a
parking place right up front. Whoa! Wait a minute. There’s an SUV
that looks exactly like the one Ed drove. It even has that silly
diamond-shaped sign that said “
Twins on Board”
that Norman
had given him when they found out they were expecting two babies
instead of one. Oh, shit! It has North Carolina plates, too. That
couldn’t possibly be Ed’s vehicle. Could it?
Norman drove on
past but parked almost out of sight nearby. He sat hunched down in
the seat and watched the front door carefully to see who came out
to drive away in the car.
There come two men out the front door
and it looks as if they’re heading for the SUV with the North
Carolina plates. No that one isn’t him; too muscular and too short.
But, damn, the other one IS Ed. How can that possibly be? Surely
I’m imagining it’s him. Maybe it’s just my guilty conscience. No,
it is definitely Ed. Now what on earth am I going to do? I wonder
where he’s living. He could be here in Fordsville or in Hartford or
in any one of a dozen other little towns. Or even in Owensboro.
How would he be able to avoid running into him if he didn’t know
where he lived? He sure didn’t want Ed to see him. After having
framed him as he had, he couldn’t blame Ed for turning him in and
he sure couldn’t afford to let that happen. And he had just been
congratulating himself on how well everything was going.