Hard Hat Man Read online

  Jan bit her cheek to keep from asking him how well he did know Louise.

  The waitress interrupted with their food and they turned their attention to eating.

  A few minutes later a slim, middle-aged man strode up to their table. Anger radiated from his sunburned face. Kyle frowned.

  “Is she the woman selling Horace’s farm to you?” the man demanded in a harsh tone, nodding at Laura.

  Kyle nodded. “Hello, Alex. Yes. This is Laura Johnson and her daughter, Janita Kerry. Ladies, Alex Porter, who lives on the farm next to Horace’s.”

  “Hello,” he acknowledged, barely softening his tone. “As Horace’s former neighbor and fellow Christian, I want to object to your selling Horace’s farm to Kyle, here.”

  Jan raised an eyebrow and gazed at her mother, who lifted a shoulder, as though to deny any knowledge of what he meant.

  “May I ask why you object?” Laura asked casually, glancing sideways at him. She raised her china cup and sipped her tea.

  Jan hid a smile, recognizing her mother’s stance as an act covering her anger. Laura didn’t like this man.

  “His project will cause water runoff that will do lots of damage to my property,” Alex said in a harsh tone.

  Kyle interrupted, “Alex, we’ve been over this a dozen times. So has the county engineer. He told us both he found no basis for your claims.”

  “Well, I say he’s wrong. And I want to ask you ladies not to sell to Kyle, here. You could sell to me or someone else who’ll keep it as farmland.”

  Laura set down her teacup and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Porter, but we’ve already struck a deal with Hart Construction. The land is worth much less as farmland, as I believe you said in your offer. You can hardly blame me for taking the highest offer.”

  “Humph. Well, I’ve got a new lawyer working on this. I’ll stop you, yet!” He sent them all a nasty look and strode off, his back ramrod stiff.

  Kyle stared after him, then turned back to Laura and Jan with a long sigh. “I’m sorry, ladies. I picked this restaurant because it’s new and I thought we’d have a little privacy here. Guess I was wrong.”

  Jan had barely lifted her fork again when a tall, willowy blonde stopped beside him, chiding, “Why, Kyle, you’re never wrong about anything, are you?”

  He jumped and turned to her, a frown once more creasing his brow. “Hello, Sylvia. I’m always wrong where you’re concerned, aren’t I?”

  She dropped a red-tipped hand on his shoulder in a very familiar gesture and smiled at Jan as though to warn her off. “Kyle and I are only kidding, of course. We play these little games all the time, don’t we, dear?”

  Kyle said dryly, “Oh, all the time. Jan, Laura, this is another member of Lakeview’s Chamber of Commerce, Sylvia Netters. She runs a decorating shop here.”

  “Pleased to meet you. And I’m always happy to give free estimates if you’re redoing anything.”

  “Hardly,” Jan said with a little smile. The woman’s possessive gesture irritated her. And why should it? Why should she care if Kyle and this woman were more than friendly? It was none of her business!

  “They’re only closing out the sale of Horace’s farm so I can get my project underway, Sylvia,” Kyle told her, irritation thick in his voice.

  “Oh.” Sylvia looked back at Laura and Jan. “Then you aren’t going to live there?”

  Laura laughed. “Hardly.”

  Jan raised an eyebrow. “Live there? Why would you think that?”

  Sylvia shrugged. “I guess I assumed...I mean, if it’s a family inheritance, people often do want to keep it. Memories and all that.”

  “No, we won’t be living there.”

  Sylvia turned back to Kyle. “Surely you aren’t going to tear it down?”

  “Why should you care what I do with it?”

  She flushed and shrugged. “I don’t. I only thought -- well, never mind. Will I see you at the Chamber luncheon meeting tomorrow?”

  “No. I won’t have time for that.”

  “Oh. Well, nice meeting you ladies.” With a flutter of fingers, she undulated back to her table.

  Jan watched her go, then returned to her meal, taking a strange satisfaction in Kyle’s less than polite treatment of the lady.

  Their waitress brought a fresh pot of tea and refilled their cups.

  “Again, sorry about the interruptions,” Kyle said. “Would you like some dessert?”

  “No thanks,” Laura said to the hovering waitress.

  Jan shook her head and the waitress hurried off.

  Kyle picked up the check and stopped at the cash register to pay it on the way out. He helped them into his car, once more putting Jan in front with him. But she was no more friendly now than she had been earlier.

  Back at their motel, he said, “I’ll call you when I get the closing set up. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” Jan replied and closed and locked the door after him.

  “Nice young man,” Laura said. She kicked off her high heeled pumps and turned on the TV.

  “Mother--” Jan warned. “Don’t start.”

  “Why not? It’s well past time for you to settle down.”

  “Signing a teaching contract and living in one place for years isn’t settled?”

  Laura tossed her a scathing look. “You know what I mean.”

  Jan sighed. “Yes. Well, if and when I decide to ‘settle down,’ as you put it, I’ll pick the man, Mom. Not you.”

  Laura’s lips tightened for a long moment. Then she said, “Someone like Bob, I suppose?”

  Jan cringed at the reminder of her disastrous former engagement. Yes, she’d broken up with him, but she still didn’t like her mother’s criticism. It wasn’t Bob’s fault that she didn’t love him. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “Nothing, if you like the quiet, studious type.”

  “I do. He has a good job and he’s very nice.”

  “And safe?” her mother asked sweetly.

  Jan cringed at the slur to her former fiance. “Yes.”

  “Nice and safe can be boring.”

  “It also doesn’t breed ulcers.”

  The phone rang and Laura picked it up.

  “Yes, Kyle,” she said sweetly. “Tomorrow afternoon at one will be fine. See you then.”

  Jan frowned as her mother hung up the phone. “The closing’s not until afternoon?”

  “His lawyer can’t make it earlier. Which is fine. We’ll have time to get a look at the old place in the morning.”

  “Sure,” Jan said. “We can start sorting stuff out.” She pushed away the premonition of disaster that clutched at her chest. What could go wrong?

  Chapter 2

  The next morning Jan and Laura dressed in jeans and tee shirts and ate a quick continental breakfast in their motel’s dining room. Then they drove out to Horace’s farm, which was on the edge of town.

  “I thought Uncle Horace lived out in the country. Or has this area changed?” Jan asked, looking at all the new houses along the blacktopped road.

  “Yes, it’s changed. Mr. Andrews said much of the land around here is being split up into five acre plots for new homes.”

  “What do they want five acres for?”

  “I don’t think it’s because they want that much land, but it’s the smallest division the county zoning regulations allow.”

  “Really? It seems a waste of good farmland to me. I thought I read somewhere that we were running out of farmland. What do the people do with their five acres?”

  Laura shrugged. “Have hobby farms, I guess.” She turned into a narrow, dirt drive and headed for a large shabby Victorian style house surrounded by tall grass and spreading pine trees. A shed, a dilapidated, faded red barn and a gray silo showed it had once been a working farm.

  “It looks like Horace didn’t spend much on upkeep, doesn’t it?” Jan commented, looking around skeptically. “Are you sure this is it?”

  Nodding, Laura consulted her notebook. “I followed t
he directions exactly. Besides, I remember the house, don’t you?”

  “Vaguely. But I thought it was grand-looking, not run-down.”

  Her mother smiled. “It was grander back then. And being a young child probably made it seem different, as well.”

  “No doubt.”

  They got out and walked up the steps, across the porch to the front door. “Did you bring the key?”

  “Of course.” Laura pulled open the screen door, unlocked the inner door and pushed it open. It creaked noisily, but swung inward. Sliding her hand along the wall, she reached to turn on a light. “I can’t find the switch.”

  “Will the power still be on?”

  “No, probably not,” Laura said, stepping gingerly inside. “But if we open the drapes we can see well enough.”

  “Oh, it’s stuffy in here. Leave the door open to let in some fresh air.”

  Stepping carefully into the gloomy, stale-smelling room, Jan pulled back the draperies and unlocked and slid the window open. A brisk breeze swept through the room and out the open door. Sunlight streamed in, reflecting on a lovely glass chandelier hanging over the wide stairway stretching above them.

  “Why, it’s gorgeous,” Jan exclaimed, staring at the pebbled, leaded glass fixture above her head.

  “Yes, isn’t it? I always liked that one,” Laura said. She stepped past Jan into the room off to their right. “Most of the parlor furniture looks the same as it did twenty-five years ago, and it must have been antique, then.”

  “Do you suppose any of it is valuable?” Jan asked, peering over her shoulder. Old-fashioned, floral patterned wallpaper covered the walls and the wide pine board floors were painted gray. The dark wooden furniture in the room seemed equally out of the past.

  “I doubt it. More like early attic.” Laura reached out and tied back the heavy draperies, letting in the June sunshine. Although the room seemed brighter, it looked even shabbier.

  The yellowed wallpaper was stained along the upper side of one wall, evidence that the roof had leaked. An open family Bible lay on a square table in the center of the room, and several lamps on small tables against the wall seemed to be the only source of light for nighttime. Knickknacks and family pictures stood in small frames on elaborately carved whatnot shelves in two corners of the room.

  Jan picked up one that looked familiar. “Why, this was taken when we were here, Mom. It’s of you and me and Nancy and Esther.”

  Laura looked over her shoulder at the picture. “You’re right. Well, I guess Horace wasn’t as bitter as they all said he was. I understood he’d banished anything of Nancy’s from their house after she left.”

  “I guess not. And this photo appears to be Horace and Aunt Esther when they were first married.”

  “Yes, it is. I have a copy of that one in my album. Esther sent it to my mother years ago.”

  Jan brushed off the dust from her hands and moved into the music room where they found a dusty grand piano and more delicate Queen Anne style walnut chairs. More whatnot shelves held cups and saucers and dusty dried flowers. A floral wool rug, circa the 1940s, covered the floor, except for a foot or so around the edges where the gray painted pine boards could be seen.

  Sneezing, Jan moved on to open the door to the next room and stopped, mouth open. Floor to ceiling bookshelves lined every wall, packed full of books. “Yikes! Will you look at this?”

  Laura peered over her shoulder. “Yes, Horace always liked books. I think this was his private study. I know we were never allowed in this room.”

  “I thought you said I could do this in a couple of days?” A knot of tension tightened in Jan’s stomach. She could see her whole vacation eaten up with sorting through all this stuff. She opened a door in one corner, revealing a closet jammed full of boxes. Pulling one down from the stack, she opened it. It was full of snapshots and studio photographs, curled with age. Dust flew and she sneezed again.

  “Bless you!” Kyle’s deep voice said behind them.

  Jan started and turned to stare at the tall man standing in the doorway. “Kyle! What are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you two. I saw your car and guessed you’d be in here.” He stood looking around. “Wow, I guess Horace liked to read. A bit dusty in here, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Jan said, grimacing and brushing her hands together. “I suppose no one has been in here for the past six months since Uncle Horace died.”

  “Probably no one had authority to do anything with it. They were waiting for you, the heir, to decide its fate.”

  Jan watched him move about the room, reading the titles on the shelves curiously. He appeared surprised and she wondered why. “Didn’t the realtor show you through this house before you agreed to buy the property?”

  He glanced at her and shrugged. “No, he didn’t. I wasn’t interested in the house, only the land. He told me the house was in poor shape, and its contents aren’t part of our deal, anyway.”

  “Then you plan to tear it down?”

  “Yes.” He met her eyes. “Do you object to that?”

  Jan shrugged. “No, I don’t suppose I do. It’s obviously in pretty bad shape.”

  “Why were you looking for us?” Laura asked.

  “I thought you might like some lunch before we go to the realtor’s office for the closing.”

  Jan frowned. “You drove all the way out here to ask us to lunch?”

  Kyle grinned. “Actually, no. I’ve been here all morning. I was going over the land again with the surveyor. I wanted to double check his figures to refute Alex Porter’s charge we’ll cause water runoff onto his property.”

  “Oh. And will your work cause him damage?”

  “Not that we can see. I don’t understand his attitude. He’s been bitterly opposed since he found out I was planning this.”

  Laura shrugged. “Some people are hard to figure out. Maybe he dislikes change in his neighborhood. Come along, I want a look upstairs before we go.” She headed back to the wide staircase.

  Jan looked at Kyle and shrugged. “We might as well see how big this job will be.” From the landing, she could see doors on both sides of the hall.

  Boxes and old furniture filled the first room. “Looks like this was the catch-all room,” Laura said. “Ugh. This is going to be dirty work.”

  Jan jumped as she walked into a spider web, and reached out to wipe it away. “Ick. I hate spiders. With a shudder, she backed out of the room.

  Kyle laughed. “You’ll be lucky if that’s all you find in an old, empty house.”

  Jan gave him a sideways frown and opened the next door. It opened onto a dingy bathroom with a large claw-footed tub and free standing sink. A faded blue plastic curtain hung on the window and another surrounded the shower stall in the corner.

  Grimacing, Jan closed the door and moved on to the next room. Nancy’s room. She remembered the dainty white-painted furniture Nancy had loved. A pink floral bedspread neatly covered the bed. Dolls and books filled a bookcase beside the bed and a teddy bear sat in a high chair. A large doll sat in a rocking chair as though waiting for its owner to return and hold her. An elaborate dollhouse full of miniature furniture sat on a table under the window.

  A sick feeling of dread washed over Jan as her gaze swept the room. It looked much the same as Jan remembered it from years ago. But not as it had looked when Nancy was a sixteen year old, more like when Nancy had been a child. The furniture was the same, but all the high-school pennants and books were gone and the things Nancy had loved as a young girl brought back in their place. Why? That was so weird! Had Aunt Esther done that? And she must have kept it closed up from the time Nancy had disappeared.

  As Jan gazed at the room, trying to make sense of it all, she saw Aunt Esther sitting in the rocking chair where the doll had been a minute ago. Tears rolled down Esther’s face. She wore the favorite blue dress she’d worn at their last family Christmas get-together. She stared at the opposite wall and cried, the rocker slowly moving forward and back. He
r grief was all the more poignant for its silent expression.

  Laura gasped beside Jan. “Why, it looks like Nancy just left it this morning. Except for dust, of course.”

  “Don’t you see her?” Jan asked, turning to her mother.

  “See who?” Laura raised a curious eyebrow.

  “Aunt Esther…in the rocker.”

  “What are you talking about?” Laura said, frowning and looking around the room.

  Jan swung back to point at Aunt Esther, but now the rocker sat, unmoving, holding only the dust-covered doll. No crying aunt sat in the chair.

  Jan swallowed and spun away again, blinded by sudden tears. She met a solid chest, and Kyle put out his arms to steady her.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “N-nothing,” she whispered into his chest. She couldn’t have seen what she thought she saw. Aunt Esther was dead. There was no such thing as a ghost. She caught her breath and put up her hands to push him away. “I-I used to play with Nancy, that’s all. When we were here—before she left. Nancy was five years older than I. But there were no other kids nearby, so we had only each other for company.”

  “This was Nancy’s room?” Kyle asked.

  “Yes.” Laura waved a hand at the bedroom. “This was her room. She left home suddenly when she was only sixteen. Esther said she was dating one of the transient men who were building the new silo for Horace, even though her parents strenuously objected. Then Nancy apparently eloped with him. The man disappeared the same night. We never heard from her again. Aunt Esther died that same summer, supposedly of a heart attack. But many in our family thought she really died from a broken heart.”

  “How awful. I think I heard about that, years ago. She was your cousin?”

  Jan nodded. “The year before she left, Dad was deployed overseas so Mom rented a house near here to be close to her family. Since Mom and I lived nearby, I came over a lot. Nancy and I spent most of the summer together, here in this house.”

  “Jan, you look awfully pale. Are you okay?” her mother asked anxiously.

  Jan shook her head. Was she just seeing things? If neither her mother nor Kyle had seen Esther there in the rocker, maybe she’d just imagined it? “I...I don’t feel well. I think I need some air.”