The Long Way Home (23 page)

“I had a crew working on another house in town and they just finished up. I thought I’d drop off a scraper for you.”

“I didn’t really need one for the pantry floor,” she reminded him.

“The kitchen floor is a much larger expanse than the pantry floor. I’m willing to bet it was put down with some sort of adhesive and they would most likely have used a greater quantity of it. You’re going to need a tool to scrape it off the floor. I’ll show you how to use it so that you don’t gouge the wood underneath.”

“That would be great, thanks. I’d appreciate the use of the tool and I appreciate the advice.”

“How ’bout I drop it off on my way home later? Around four-thirty?”

“I’ll be here.”

“Great. See you then.”

“Nice of him to call and offer help,” she told Dune after she’d hung up, “but that sort of blows my plans for the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon since I was going to spend that time working in the kitchen.

“Oh, well,” she said as she picked up the journal, “guess I have no choice but to read a little more. After all, why start something now that I’ll only have to put aside later?”

She toed off her shoes, propped her feet on the coffee
table, put a pillow behind her back, and opened the book where she’d left off, at Lilly’s high school graduation. When Dune began to bark at some gulls that had landed on the lawn, Ellie shushed her.

“Hush, Dune. I’m just at the part where she’s trying to decide whether to go to college or marry Ted that summer.” She peered over the top of the journal and told the dog, “That’s a big decision for an eighteen-year-old to make.”

When Dune barked to announce that someone was at the front door, Ellie stood, looked out the window, then checked her watch for the time.

“I had no idea it was so late,” she told Cameron after letting him in.

“Is this a bad time? Are you in the middle of something?” He stepped inside, then leaned over to pet Dune.

“Yes, one of Lilly’s journals.” Ellie held up the leather-bound book. “I found a bunch of them in the bookcase.”

She closed the door behind them and led the way into the living room.

“I just got to the part where she’s talking about her wedding. She had decided to finish college before she and Ted were married, but then he signed up to fight in World War Two, so they had the wedding before he left. She continued to live at home and she’d finished college by the time he came back.” Ellie reached for Cam’s jacket when he finished unbuttoning it.

“Miss Lilly taught fourth grade in St. Dennis for years,” Cam told her. “She taught my dad and just about everyone else in his age group.”

“Really.” Ellie put the book back on the table. “That explains why everyone remembers her.”

Cam shook his head. “Everyone remembers her because she was such a good person. If anyone in town had a problem, Lilly Cavanaugh was the first person there to lend a hand. Mr. C., too. He was just as nice. People may have known her because of her teaching, but they remember her for the good things she did through the years.”

“That’s nice to hear. Nice to know that my … my
predecessor
here in the house was such a good person.” Ellie turned her back to hang up Cam’s jacket. She’d need to watch herself. She’d almost said her
relative
.

“She was the best. I never met anyone who …”

Ellie turned around to find Cam staring at the wall next to her.

“What happened to the painting?” He looked from one wall to the next, frowning. “What happened to all the paintings?”

“Carly had to leave and I let her take some of the paintings back with her. That’s why the Porsche is in the driveway but the sedan is gone. She needed to take the bigger car because the paintings wouldn’t fit in the sports car. It’s hers, anyway. The sedan, that is,” Ellie heard herself confess. “She loaned it to me because I don’t have one.”

“You don’t have a Mercedes?” Was he teasing her?

“I don’t have a car. Any car. I had the Mercedes because that’s what Carly had to loan me.”

“That was really nice of her. You know what that baby was worth?”

“Less than the 911,” she replied.

Cam nodded. “But maybe not by much.”

Ellie waited for him to say something, like “Why don’t you have a car of your own?” The answer to which was
Because the feds took it when they took my house and my jewelry, my investments, and everything else I owned
.

Instead, Cam said, “Carly did mention that she ran an art gallery. I guess she’s going to try to sell them for you.”

“Eventually, I suppose. I mean, when she has space in the gallery, I guess she’ll exhibit them.” It was a good time to change the subject. “So what’s that thing?”

Ellie pointed to the long-handled tool Cam had brought in with him.

“It’s a scraper. We’ll use it to get the residue of adhesive off the floor after the linoleum is removed.” He tossed her the bag he’d held under his arm. “Here’s a little present.”

“Thanks. You didn’t have …” She peered into the bag, then laughed. “Rubber gloves?”

“You’re going to need them if you plan on pulling up that floor and scraping the walls.” He took one of her hands in his and held it up. “Unless you don’t care if this gets beaten up in the process.”

“Thanks. I should have bought a pair. My hands already look as if they’ve been beaten.” She pulled the gloves out of the box and tried them on. “Just fit.” She held up both gloved hands to show them off.

“Good.” Cam gestured toward the kitchen. “Want to get started?”

“I do, and I certainly don’t want to take all of the rest of your day.” She pushed the swinging door that
stood between the living room and the kitchen and held it open for Cameron. “I know you’re probably tired from working all day today and playing pirate yesterday.”

Cameron grinned. “It was fun. Not something you get to do every day, and let’s face it, at some time in his life, every little boy dreams of being a pirate when he grows up.”

“It’s nice when our childhood fantasies come true, isn’t it?” Ellie laughed again and reached for the scraper.

“Uh-uh.” Cameron shook his head. “I think I’ll do this part until we see what we’re dealing with here.”

“I don’t expect you to pull up my floor for me,” she told him. “I thought you were just going to show me what to do.”

“It’s easy to damage the wood if you don’t know what you’re doing. And you’ll still be pulling up the floor. I’ll be removing the old glue.”

He scanned the floor, then selected his starting point at the entrance to the back hall. After leaning down to see where the linoleum appeared to be most loose, he donned a pair of gloves and peeled back the flooring to reveal the wood. “Beautiful pine, but a little soft.” He pulled back more of the flooring. “Got something to put the old flooring in?”

“I have a couple of paper bags,” she replied.

“We need something stronger and bigger.”

Ellie made a face. What else was there in the house that she could use?

“I have a couple of buckets in the back of my truck.” Cam stood the long-handled scraper up against the wall. “I’ll be right back.…”

She heard the front door open and close, then reached for the scraper. It was heavier than it looked, and the blade didn’t appear all that sharp, a fact she noted when Cameron returned with a white bucket in each hand.

“It doesn’t have to be sharp,” he told her. “If it were too sharp, it would do a real number on the wood. Most of the time, old adhesive is dry and brittle. It only takes a little pressure to pop it off the floor. Much of the time, it’s stuck to the back of the linoleum anyway when the floor is pulled up.”

He broke off a piece of linoleum and showed her where the glue coated the back.

“This stuff is really old,” he observed. “I’m betting this floor has been down for at least fifty years.”

“Well, someone got their money’s worth.” She looked around at the entire floor. “It all stayed down until I started pulling it up.”

Cam tossed the piece into one of the buckets.

“How ’bout we pull up some more of the flooring, then you can break it up and put it in the buckets while I work on getting up the adhesive?”

“I didn’t mean for you to do all this.” Ellie stood in the middle of the floor, a piece of linoleum in her hands. “I really can’t afford to pay you.”

“You’re paying me in duck decoys, remember? I figure this job is worth …” He seemed to calculate how long it would take him to finish the entire floor. “Maybe half a duck.”

“Half a duck,” she repeated.

“Right.” He looked up at the ceiling, which clearly needed painting. “Maybe the ceiling in here and one other room might be the other half.”

“Or I could sell you the duck and you could have a little downtime. Don’t you do this all day long?”

“I have a crew,” he said simply. “Besides, the more I do now, the less I’ll have to do later.”

He looked up from the scraper, which had loosened a clump of black glue, and he smiled. “I still intend on being the highest bidder for the house when you’re ready to sell it.”

“You know, when it comes to buying a house, the last thing the buyer should do is let the seller know how much he wants the property.”

Cam shrugged. “That cat was already out of the bag. I told you that the first time I met you. I figure at this point it’s only a matter of when and how much.”

Ellie knelt on the floor and peeled back a long strip of linoleum that she broke into smaller pieces.

“I’m not sure why you won’t sell it to me right now, but I guess you have your reasons.” He moved the scraper along the floor, then leaned over to pick up another glob of glue. He tossed it into the bucket. “It just seems to me it would save you a lot of time and wear and tear on your nails.”

Ellie’s eyebrows arched. “I’m not afraid to get my nails chipped.”

“Well, that was clearly the wrong thing to say,” he muttered. “What I meant was, it’s a lot of work, renovating a house this size, one that hasn’t been touched in …” He stood and tilted his head to one side. “I’m guessing since even before Lynley inherited it from Lilly. She got sick right about then, and about all she had time to do was buy some new appliances.”

“How would you know that?” She stopped what she was doing and turned to stare at him.

“I remember when they were delivered.” He shrugged. “They were top-of-the-line when they were new, but not so much anymore. I imagine they still function well enough, though. You probably wouldn’t want to replace them.”

“I never thought about replacing them. I couldn’t afford to do that.”

“You could sell that sweet little automobile out there in the driveway.”

“You know that’s not mine”—she laughed—“but I bet it would bring a pretty penny.”

“Maybe Carly wouldn’t notice.”

“Yeah, good idea. When she comes back and asks, ‘Where’s my Porsche?,’ I’ll say, ‘What Porsche?’ ”

“Yeah, that’ll work.” He leaned the scraper against the wall and helped her with a wide piece of flooring that was lifting but not releasing. They struggled with it for a moment before it broke free. “So tell me what you learned from Lilly Cavanaugh’s journals that you didn’t know.”

“Well, I learned that Lilly’s mother suffered from depression.” Ellie straightened up and tried to work the kinks out of her back. “I guess it’s that artistic temperament you hear people talk about.”

“Those paintings that Carly took …” Cam sat back on his heels. “Those were all painted by Lilly’s mother. You knew that, right?”

Ellie nodded. “Carolina Ellis. How do you know about her?”

“St. Dennis born and bred,” Cam reminded her. “Had Carly heard of her?”

“She had. She said that Carolina was just being recognized
as an important woman artist of the early twentieth century.”

“So I guess she was surprised to find the paintings here.”

“Was she ever. I have to admit, I was surprised, too. I didn’t know that …” She was about to say,
That my great-great-grandmother was an accomplished artist
. “That there was that connection to the house when I bought it.”

“I guess the lawyers knew, though, right?”

“What?” She frowned.

“Wouldn’t you think that the lawyers for Lynley Sebastian would have known who Lynley’s grandmother was, and that there were valuable paintings in the house?”

Caught off guard by the question, Ellie took a few seconds to recover. When she did, she said, “Maybe Lynley didn’t tell them. Maybe at the time she arranged for them to handle her estate, Carolina’s work hadn’t been ‘discovered’ yet, so it wasn’t considered particularly valuable. Maybe it wasn’t an issue.” She took a breath. “Don’t you think the paintings would have been removed by the lawyers if they’d known they were valuable and in a house that was relatively unsecured?”

“Good point.” Cam nodded and returned his attention to the floor, but Ellie wasn’t sure that there wasn’t just a hint of a smile on his lips. “So what other tidbits of information did you find in Lilly’s journals?”

“Lilly talked a lot about a friend named Rose who married a man named Curtis Enright.” She started breaking up the piece of flooring. “I’m thinking maybe someone related to Jesse?”

“His grandparents. Rose died years ago but old Mr. Enright is still living. He practiced law forever here in town, and just turned the practice over to Jesse last year. He has that mansion over on the other side of town. It takes up the whole last block of Old St. Mary’s Church Road. It isn’t the oldest house in town, but I think it might be the biggest.” Cam handed Ellie another piece of broken flooring. “I think I need to dump those buckets in the back of the truck. You’ve filled them both.”

Cam grabbed a bucket with each hand and headed for the front door, Ellie watching his smooth stride eat up the hallway.

He was back in minutes with the empty buckets. He set them on the floor and said, “Help me move the table and chairs into the hallway so we can do the other half of the room.”

“Cam, it’s almost seven o’clock.” She pointed to the wall clock.

“Your point?” He paused, a chair in each hand.

“Aren’t you getting hungry?”

“I’m always hungry.” He looked as if he was still waiting for her to make her point.