Halloween in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries Book 6) (8 page)

“Pancakes?” Ben asked when Tj came down the stairs for a cup of coffee. “Schools are closed due to the flooding.”

“I’d love some.” Tj walked across the room and gave her grandfather a big hug. “I saw the text from the school when I first woke up. It’ll be nice to have a day off. Let me get the girls and we can all eat together.”

“That’d be right nice. Your dad had to run over to the lodge, but he said he’d be back in twenty minutes.”

“Perfect. That will give me time to grab a quick shower.”

Tj let Echo out for his morning run, then headed upstairs to wake up her sisters. She was looking forward to having breakfast with her family. They’d all been so busy lately that it seemed like it had been a while since they’d sat down and shared the first meal of the day together. Tj had been raised by her dad and grandparents after her mom had left when she was three. If there was one thing Maggie had insisted on, it was that the family have the first and the last meals of the day together. Ben continued to try to keep the custom alive by taking care of most of the cooking, but with the busy lives they all led, it seemed that more often than not everyone was on a different schedule.

After Tj woke her sisters she headed to her bathroom for her shower. Tj, Mike, and Ben all had baths adjoining their bedrooms, while the girls shared a bathroom between them. When both of her sisters needed showers before bed Tj had one of them use her bathroom, which meant the room wasn’t as tidy as she liked to keep it. Making a mental note to give it a good scrubbing when she had the opportunity, she quickly showered and then dressed in warm but comfortable clothes.

There was a definite crispness to the air. Tj figured there would be snow on the ground by Thanksgiving. Most of the time the first snow of the season came in October, but this autumn had been warmer than usual to this point.

After making her bed and straightening her room, Tj headed down to the kitchen. She could hear the girls talking to Ben. When Tj first found out she was going to be responsible for two young girls she’d been concerned about how being an instant mother would affect her life. She’d been living in town in a small apartment and really wasn’t responsible to anyone but herself. But after the girls came to live with her, she’d decided to move back to the resort, where she’d have the support of her dad and grandpa. Looking at what she’d given up and what she now had, she knew she wouldn’t trade her cluttered life for anything.

“So what are you doing today, Grandpa?” Gracie asked after everyone else had shared their plans.

“I thought I’d decorate the house for Halloween.” Ben turned to look at Tj. “Do you know what happened to the Halloween decorations we put up in the house last year?”

“I think they’re in the attic. I’ll look for them after we eat. The girls can help me bring them down.”

“Can we put up the giant mummy we used for the Halloween party last year?” Ashley asked. “He was cool.”

“I thought we’d put him on the front porch,” Ben confirmed. “I checked the weather forecast and it looks like it’s going to rain again today but then be dry until after next weekend. Besides, the porch is covered, so there’s no problem even if we get a few sprinkles. I’m going to put orange lights around the door and windows as well.”

“We should string spiderwebs too,” Ashley added. “And we can put those big rubber spiders on them. It will look spooky. I’m going to make my pumpkin extra spooky this year. Can I help you decorate?”

“I’d be happy to have the help,” Ben answered.

“Can Pumpkin help too?” Gracie asked.

“The more the merrier. Still no word on an owner?” Ben asked Tj.

“Not so far.”

“Rosalie seems to think she’s a stray,” Mike confirmed. “She said she has the look of a pup that’s been on the street for a while.”

“I’m so glad we found her so she can have a forever home,” Gracie declared.

Tj glanced at her dad. They really hadn’t discussed keeping Pumpkin on a permanent basis, but he just smiled and winked at her.

“Can we get Pumpkin a costume for Halloween?” Gracie asked.

“I’m not sure she’ll want to wear a costume. She’ll probably just pull it off and chew it up. Maybe we can try a hat or a special collar,” Tj suggested instead. “I think there might be something up in the attic from when Echo was a puppy. I really wanted to dress him up as well, but he was having nothing to do with it. Every time I tried to put something on him he rolled around until he got it off. I finally gave up.”

“Pumpkin likes to dress up,” Gracie assured me. “I put one of my shirts on her and she liked it.”

“She does seem to have more patience than most puppies,” Tj admitted.

“If she likes wearing a costume can we get her one?”

“We’ll see,” Tj answered noncommittally.

Everyone finished their meal and Tj and the girls headed up to the attic to look for the decorations, as well as the old costumes Tj remembered saving. Attics were the best places, she decided as they began sorting through boxes filled with remnants from experiences she had all but forgotten.

“Look at all these old books,” Tj said as she pulled a pile of mysteries out of the carton in front of her. “These used to belong to Grandma Maggie, and then she gave them to me. I bet they’d be just about perfect for you,” Tj said to Ashley.

Ashley shrugged. “I like to read. I guess I can take a few down and try them.”

“Are there any books that would be perfect for me?” Gracie asked.

“I’m pretty sure I saved the set of Raggedy Ann books Papa found at a garage sale. They aren’t in this box, but we can keep looking.”

“Is this your cheerleading uniform?” Ashley asked after opening another box.

Tj nodded. “I was a cheerleader for all four years of high school, so there should be four uniforms in there. I’m not sure why we thought we needed a new uniform every year, but we did.”

“I want to be a cheerleader,” Ashley decided.

Tj was a little surprised to hear that. It didn’t seem like Ashley was in to typical girly stuff.

“The fact that you’re taking dance will help you,” Tj informed her sister. “In order to be on the cheer squad these days you have to be well versed in gymnastics. It’s fun, though. You make good friends and you get to go with the team to all the away games.”

“Was Dr. Hunter on the football team?” Gracie asked.

“He was,” Tj confirmed.

“Did you smooch on the backseat of the bus?” Ashley giggled.

“We might have,” Tj admitted.

“Ewww,” Gracie said as she buried her head in her arms.

Tj laughed. “Just wait a few years. You won’t think it’s so ewww.”

Tj couldn’t help but notice that Ashley hadn’t parroted her younger sister’s sentiments. She was growing up so fast. It wouldn’t be long at all before she was sneaking kisses in the backseat of the team bus.

“Is this your yearbook?” Ashley held up the book from her senior year.

“Yes.”

“Is the girl who died in here?”

“Yes. There’s a special page dedicated to her in the middle of the book.”

Ashley opened the book as Pumpkin wrestled around with Echo on the floor and Midnight hissed at them from atop a trunk.

“She was really pretty,” Ashley said. “It’s so sad she died.”

“She
was
pretty. And nice as well. At least she was nice to me,” Tj added, remembering what Jessie had told her. Looking back objectively, Tj did remember Holly could be a bully at times. She enjoyed her status as one of the popular girls of the high school and wasn’t afraid to tear other people down if it meant building herself up. Until now Tj had forgotten how mean she could be if she felt threatened by those she considered to be on a lower social rung than she.

Tj thought about the things Chantal had told her, and Lexi and the bullying she had fallen victim to. Could the killer be one of the girls Holly had bullied? Several of the girls at the party that night had been Holly’s victim at one time or another. Maybe the bullying angle would be worth considering.

“Look at Pumpkin,” Gracie squealed.

Pumpkin was lying patiently on the floor with an orange and black witch hat on her head. Tj pulled her cell out of her pocket and snapped a photo. Pumpkin really was the perfect puppy for Gracie, calm and patient. Tj hoped her owner wouldn’t show up at the eleventh hour. Gracie would be crushed.

“I think these are the boxes Grandpa wants us to bring down,” Ashley announced after setting the yearbook aside.

“Yeah, it looks like it. But only carry boxes you can pick up comfortably. Leave the heavy ones for me.”

Each of the girls picked up a box and headed down the stairs. The house was going to look awesome.

“I never remember the
u
,” Gracie whined later that morning. Tj had been helping her to study for the spelling bee and the word had been glamour.

“The
u
is tricky,” Tj admitted. “It sounds like it should be
glam
followed by
or
. Don’t worry; we’ll keep practicing until you know it like the back of your hand.”

“What does that mean anyway?” Gracie asked. “The back of your hand. Why would I know the back of my hand?”

“Good question. It’s just a saying. To be honest, I have no idea where it came from.”

“Let’s Google it,” Gracie suggested.

“Good idea. What did we ever do before we had Google?”

“We just didn’t know stuff.” Gracie giggled as Pumpkin jumped up onto her bed and began licking her face. Pumpkin and Gracie were getting along like two peas in a pod. Gracie loved animals and they loved her. Tj had really thought Crissy would abandon her when Pumpkin made herself at home on Gracie’s bed, but the cat seemed unwilling to give up her spot, so she was tolerating the dog.

Tj typed the phrase into her laptop. “There are a bunch of answers. The most common is that when you know something well you know it like the back of your hand because you know your hand well.”

“That’s dumb,” Gracie commented.

“I have to agree. It’s not like I spend a lot of time looking at the back of my hand. Let’s move on to the next word:
proximity
. The dog was in the proximity of the doghouse.”

“P-r-o-x-i-m-i-t-y,” Gracie said. “Proximity.”

“Very good. You really do seem to know most of these words.”

“Grandpa has been helping me, but the really hard words are on the last page.”

Tj turned to the last page. “
Articulate
? Are you sure you have the second-grade list? These words seem really hard for second grade. Heck, they seem hard for any grade.”

“They’re supposed to be hard,” Gracie insisted. “If they weren’t, everyone could spell them and it wouldn’t be any big deal to be the spelling champion.”

“I guess that’s true.” Tj continued to study the list. There were several words she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to spell herself without the help of SpellCheck. There’d been a debate going on in the English department as to whether computers and smartphones weren’t actually making people dumber. With all the knowledge easily accessed on the Internet, Tj thought people were actually becoming smarter, but she could see that with each new generation skills such as spelling and handwriting might decline.

“Most of the time the words on the very last page aren’t used, but you need to know them just in case,” Gracie informed her. “There’s a girl in my class who told me that her parents make her study for three hours every day. They go through the dictionary and pick out random words. Any words. If she can spell them all she gets some time to hang out with her friends on the weekend; if she misses them she has to study on the weekend.”

Tj frowned. “That’s crazy. It’s just a spelling bee.”

“Trisha’s parents are very ambitious and tenacious.”

Tj laughed. “Tenacious? Where did you learn a word like that?”

“That’s how Trisha describes her parents. Trisha knows how to spell tenacious. I don’t think I have a chance of winning, but I thought it would be fun to try.”

“As long as you’re having fun I’m all for it, but I don’t want you to forget to be a kid.”

“I won’t. Can we do some more words?”

Tj looked out the window. It was still raining, so the girls wouldn’t be able to go out, making it a good day to study, but she had a long list of errands waiting for her to attend to.

“I think we’ve studied enough for today,” Tj announced. “We can work on your words some more tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“How about a snack?” Tj asked.

“Can Pumpkin have a snack?”

“Absolutely.”

Tj settled Gracie in the kitchen and went to find Ashley. The fact that Trisha’s parents were
so
driven really bothered her. Sure, academic achievement was important. Learning to be a good student made all the difference in the options you had as you approached adulthood. But kids needed to be kids as well. They needed to play outdoors and watch cartoons and do kidlike things while they were young enough to appreciate their simplicity.