Mysteries of Holt House - A Mystery (14 page)

The first thing I thought about was Ted.
He’d been so quiet I hadn’t known he was in the house, but at least that
explained why his door had been open. He struck me as being a little odd. He
seldom dressed casually, preferring to wear suits. Amazingly, he didn’t sweat.
The rest of us would be sweltering in the heat, wearing as little as possible
to keep cool, and he’d have on one of his suits, still looking relaxed and
comfortable. I guess “relaxed” would be the wrong word to describe him since he
always appeared so perfect, but he didn’t look as if he was going to melt like
the rest of us did.

One of the things which fascinated me
about Ted was that I was sure he was only a few years older than me, but I
always felt as I were talking to an older man when we spoke. Maybe he looked
younger than he actually was. But overall, he was a nice person, always
pleasant, while rather distant. At least he wasn’t a lech like one of my other
boarders.

Which, of course, made me think about
Richard. However, that thought didn’t last long too long, because he was a
subject better left unexplored. He kind of made my skin crawl, figuratively
speaking, and I wouldn’t miss him if he decided to move back into town. It
seemed like so many of his comments were off color, and yet you couldn’t really
pin him down. He was careful about how he said things. His comments had a
double meaning so he left himself wiggle room to get out of sticky situations.

I got the impression Ruth Bell was taken
with Ted. Maybe his aloofness actually made her feel more at ease, like he
really didn’t care what she said or did. I’d seen them sitting together out on
the patio a few times, neither saying a word, but I’d swear Ruth was sitting a
bit straighter than usual, and she had an almost invisible smile on her face.

The telephone rang and broke my train of
thought.

“Good afternoon, Holt House,” I answered.

“Kelly, this is Sharon.”

“Oh, hi. What’s up?”

“I wanted to let you know I won’t be there
for dinner tonight. David is going to meet me in town for dinner.” I could hear
the smile in her voice.

“Great! Have a good time.”

“Oh, I will.”

“Sharon, before you hang up, I want to tell
you that I’ve discovered something concerning your dresser that I want to talk
to you about tomorrow.”

“My dresser? Okay, but I’ve got to get
back to work right now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow and you can tell me what’s
up.”

“Bye.”

We hung up and I was disappointed. I
didn’t want to go snooping through her room when she wasn’t home, but I could
hardly contain myself. I couldn’t wait to see if there were seams in the walls
of any of the other rooms. Maybe I could talk Mike into letting me see his
room. Why didn’t I just pull out my
own
dresser and look behind it? I
didn’t want to be alone when I looked, but I wasn’t certain why.

Josh and Marion came in the front door,
laughing about something.

“Hi there.” I was glad to see them and
tired of thinking about doors in the walls.

“Hi, Kelly,” they said in unison.

“You guys do a little shopping?” I asked,
pointing at the bags in Josh’s hands.

“Yes, dear,” Marion said. “I had to buy
some new jogging pants. I can’t stop exercising now or these old bones will
wear out. I read an article that said besides taking extra calcium at my age, I
also need to keep on exercising.” She never ceased to amaze me.

“I’ve talked Joshua into getting back into
shape too,” she continued, “although I have to admit he doesn’t need too much
work. We got him some jogging clothes.”

I laughed. “Good luck, Josh. She’s
relentless. I’ve seen her in action.” Hadn’t he told me he had bad knees? Maybe
he’d been joking.

They chuckled as they went off to their
respective rooms to put their things away. Marion was the first to come back
downstairs.

“Joshua has a big date next week and he
wanted me to help him choose a new shirt to wear,” she confided in me.

Something clicked, and I asked, “Could
this big date possibly be with anyone I know?”

“Could be,” she said slyly.

So
that’s
who Lucy was going out
with. I wondered when she and Josh had gotten together. I was delighted, and
thought they’d be good for each other. I knew that Marion and Josh were good
friends, not a romantic duo, so this made sense.

For a small boarding house out in the
country, we were doing okay in the romance department. The thought amused me.

Chapter Seventeen

Within half an hour the house began
filling up with people. They disappeared upstairs, changed clothes, then came
back down and began chatting with one another. As I watched them I thought that
these people needed each other. They needed the companionship that the boarding
house afforded them.

J.T. was a shoe salesman and kept everyone
laughing with stories about the trials and tribulations of his job, like trying
to fit customers’ size 8 feet into size 6 shoes. He said one woman actually got
her foot stuck in a shoe and they had to cut it off – the shoe, that is. Then
she had the nerve to ask for a free pair of shoes for her trouble.

“I’m getting fat and I know it,” J.T. said
to Richard, stretching. “I need more exercise. Wanna play some tennis before
dinner?”

“Sure, Porky.” Richard could be so rude,
but it didn’t seem to bother J.T. “Come on and we’ll knock some of that weight
off.” He could stand to lose a few pounds himself, yet he had the gall to call
J.T. a name like Porky. They got their rackets and headed out the patio door
toward the tennis court.

“I’m surprised those two get along,” Josh
commented.

“It is truly amazing,” Marion said.

With her head lowered, Ruth nodded in
agreement.

I stayed out of the conversation, keeping
my thoughts to myself, and stood near the door observing them all. I had
developed a fondness for the group in general as I stood and gazed at them.

The front door opened and Mike walked in.

“Hi,” I said, smiling.

He waved and smiled back before heading up
the stairs. He stopped midway up and glanced back at me before continuing on
his way. I raised my eyebrows, wondering about the look he’d given me.

Marion, who never missed a thing, looked
at me and smiled. “This is turning out to be quite a fun place to live.”

My grin probably confirmed her suspicions.

I glanced at the clock and thought I’d
better go help Lucy with dinner. It was getting late. When I walked through the
kitchen door she looked up from her work and grinned. It struck me that there
sure was a lot of smiling and grinning going on.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Get the coffee going and fix the salad.”

“Okay.” I opened the cupboard and took out
the coffee can.

She kept glancing at me, then looking away
quickly.

“What’s the matter with you?” I asked.

“Nothing.” Her voice had a silly sing song
tone to it.

“Hmmm. There’s something going on around
here. Isn’t there?”

“No there’s not,” she replied. “Just get
the coffee ready.”

“By the way,” I said, changing the
subject. “I understand you and Josh are going out on the town next week.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“A little birdie told me,” I said, echoing
her earlier answer to my question.

“Good grief! Can’t a person have
any
privacy around this place?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, I guess I deserve that. I admit
I’ve given you a bad time about Mike.” She was still grinning.

“Yes, you have, but I don’t really care. I
do like him, Lucy. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”

“Uh, I shouldn’t say this, but why don’t
you go to your room and change your clothes or something?”

“Change my clothes? Why?”

“Just do it.” She sighed. “You ask too
many questions. Maybe the boarders would like to see you in something different
for a change. Or something.”

I looked at her for a long moment before I
left the kitchen, and found myself mumbling while I made my way to my room,
wondering what she was up to this time. I opened the door and stepped in, my
attention immediately drawn to the nightstand by my bed. I sucked in my breath.
There was a beautiful arrangement of summer flowers sitting there. I saw an
envelope lying next to the vase and hurried over to see what was in it.

I opened the envelope with a feeling of
anticipation, but after reading what it said I felt nothing but confusion. The
handwriting was unfamiliar. The envelope was the type used for a greeting card,
but there was only a small piece of paper enclosed. It read:

You’d better enjoy these flowers. They could

be the last summer flowers you’ll ever see.

Now what on earth did
that
mean? It
had the ring of a threat to it, but it didn’t make any sense. I took the note
out to the kitchen with me.

“Lucy, what do you know about this?”

She was smiling when she heard my voice,
but her smile disappeared when she looked at my face. “What’s wrong?”

“There were flowers in my room with this
note. Do you know where they came from?”

“Of course. Mike left them for you. He wanted
to surprise you.”

“He surprised me all right. He’s got a
warped sense of humor, if you ask me.” I didn’t think it was funny, and I was
really disappointed.

“Let me see that.” She wiped her hands on
her apron before taking the note from me. After reading it she gave me a
strange look. “This isn’t Mike’s handwriting, but I know he left the flowers
for you. He said he was leaving a card, too. Not a note. I don’t understand.
I’ll go find him and we’ll see what this is all about.”

She left the kitchen in search of Mike,
returning by herself.

“He’ll be here in a second. Then we’ll
find out what’s going on.”

We stood looking at each other, both
impatient as the seconds ticked by. Lucy was beginning to tap her foot when
Mike walked in.

“Hi, ladies, what’s up?” he asked,
smiling.

I handed him the note. “Look at this. You
tell
us
what’s up.”

He read the note, frowning. “Where’d this
come from?”

“It was with the flowers that Lucy said
you left for me.” I was pretty sure I sounded like I was accusing him of
something, but I couldn’t help myself.

“I didn’t leave this note. I left you a
card.”

After looking at Lucy he took my hand and
led me to my room.

“I came in the back door and left the
flowers before going around to the front and letting myself in. I left you a
card saying how much I was looking forward to tomorrow night. Here’s the
envelope,” he said, picking it up.

“Right envelope, but no card.”I stood with
my arms crossed, studying his face.

“Something is wrong here,” he said, his
eyes narrowing.

“You’ve got that right. I’d like to know
who left the note and what it means. It sounds pretty cryptic to me.”

“I don’t know what this is about, and I
don’t like it,” Mike said.

“Well, neither do I. I don’t like thinking
someone’s been in my room, either. Besides you, I mean.”

“The flowers were meant to make you feel
good, not to upset you.” He bent over and pulled a greeting card out of the
waste basket.

“Here’s the card I left you,” he said,
disgustedly.

I read the card and realized he only wanted
to tell me he was thinking of me and looking forward to our date, just like
he’d said.

“I
love
the flowers, Mike. They’re
beautiful. I’ve got the card now, so let’s forget the note. It’s somebody’s
sick idea of a practical joke.”

“Not funny.”

“Forget it. Let’s see if Lucy needs any
more help.”

Mike was quiet at dinner that night. He
kept glancing at each of the boarders, trying to figure out who ruined his
surprise for me. As far as personalities went, Richard seemed like the most
likely candidate to me, but when I thought about it, I couldn’t picture him
sneaking into my room. I began to feel like both Mike and I were making too big
of a deal out of the note, and I decided I wanted to really forget about it.

“How’d you like your flowers, Kelly?”
Richard suddenly asked.

“How did
you
know I received
flowers?” I knew I’d spoken too sharply.

“I saw Mike coming in with them,” he
replied, looking surprised at my tone of voice. “I just assumed they were for
you.”

“They
were
for her,” Mike grumbled
menacingly.

I kicked him under the table.

“Is there something wrong?” Marion asked.