Haunting Danielle 27 The Ghost and the Mountain Man Bobbi Holmes (best pdf ebook reader for android .TXT) 📖

at Ginny’s house. Quirky guy. Ginny says he’s been helpful, but Kelly finds him a little creepy. Personally, I don’t think he means any harm. He’s just obsessed with local history.”

“Obsessed? How?” Heather asked.

Ian shrugged. “I suppose I expect that type of interest from people like Millie, someone older who is active in the local historical society, or someone like Walt, who writes about it. And in his case, lived it.” Ian chuckled and then continued. “But Cory’s in his twenties, doesn’t have a job. I think he lives on an inheritance from his mother. From what I understand, he dropped out of high school, and he doesn’t seem to have any friends. According to Ginny, he goes nowhere, never has anyone over. He’s been helping her clean out the house she inherited, but he pores over everything they’ve removed. Ginny said since she isn’t paying him much, she indulges him. But he makes Kelly uncomfortable.”

Fifteen

“What are you doing?” Walt asked Danielle on Monday morning as he set one of the two cups of coffee he carried on the desk next to her. She sat at the computer in the library, her cellphone in hand.

“Sending those pictures I took yesterday to the computer,” Danielle explained. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“Doesn’t it do that automatically?” Walt stood over Danielle, watching while sipping his coffee.

“It’s supposed to. I think I have some settings wrong. Either that, or my computer hates me.”

Walt chuckled and took another sip while watching Danielle bring up one photograph she had just downloaded to the computer. It filled the monitor. She enlarged the picture, bringing the faces in closer.

Danielle leaned toward the monitor and said, “I can’t get over how much you look like your father.”

“I suppose it should be no surprise, considering how much I look like Clint.”

“True,” Danielle agreed.

“It’s amazing your phone could take such an excellent picture. At one time I never imagined such things.” Walt watched as Danielle continued to enlarge the photograph, the men’s faces filling the monitor.

“Holy crap!” Danielle yelped.

“What?”

“Don’t you see it?” Danielle asked.

“See what?” Walt asked, taking a closer look at the monitor.

In response, Danielle enlarged the picture again, but this time zooming in on one face.

“Look. It’s our mountain man,” Danielle said.

Walt shook his head. “No. That’s Uncle Bud.”

“Look at the eyes, Walt. The beard hides most of the mountain man’s face. But look at the eyes, the nose. That’s our ghost.”

Walt set his coffee mug on the desk and then leaned closer to the computer. He studied the image on the screen.

After a prolonged silence, Danielle asked, “Well, what do you think?”

“I think you may be right. But it makes little sense.”

“It gives me another reason to take Ginny up on her offer and go to her house today. But instead of just looking through her photographs, I wonder what she knows about your uncle Bud,” Danielle said.

“It didn’t sound like she knew much aside from the fact he disappeared. Which is news to me.”

Danielle turned from the computer and looked up at Walt. “What exactly do you remember about Bud? I know you said he didn’t go to your parents’ funeral because he’d moved from Frederickport a few months before your parents’ death.”

“Back then, no one said anything about him disappearing. I’m not sure when it was, but I remember asking my grandmother why Uncle Bud hadn’t been at the funeral, and she said something about him moving a few months earlier.”

The Packard driving down the street was younger than most of the houses in the neighborhood, one of the older residential areas in Frederickport. Danielle paid attention to the addresses, and when she saw Ginny’s, she pointed to it, and a few moments later Walt parked in front of the house. Danielle glanced at her watch, and as Walt turned off the ignition, she said, “Wow, we timed this perfectly. We told Ginny we’d be here at noon, and it’s 11:59.”

“Does that mean you want to wait in the car for a minute?” Walt teased.

“Funny.” Danielle opened her car door.

A few minutes later, the pair stood on the front porch. They soon discovered someone had taped a small piece of paper over the doorbell’s button. On the paper someone had written ‘out of order.’ After reading the makeshift sign, Danielle knocked on the door. When she did, it opened several inches. Not only was it unlocked, but it hadn’t been closed all the way.

Startled at the unexpected door opening, Danielle called out, “Hello?” Hesitant to just walk in, she called out again, “Hello? Ginny? It’s Danielle Marlow.” She knocked on the door again, and when she did, it pushed open wider. Still no answer.

“Maybe she left the door open on purpose, for us to come in?” Danielle suggested.

Walt glanced at his watch. “She was expecting us at noon. It’s now several minutes past.”

“I hope everything is okay,” Danielle said nervously. “Ginny, hello! It’s Walt and Danielle Marlow!”

Still no answer.

Danielle hesitantly stepped into the house and looked around. “She might have fallen and hurt herself.”

Walt followed Danielle into the unlit entry hall. It led first to a living room area. By the looks of the vintage and worn furniture, Danielle assumed it had belonged to Ginny’s cousin. They continued down the hallway and found what looked like a study, if one judged by the oak desk covered in boxes and two bookshelves pushed against one wall, and a card table in the center of the room.

Stepping back into the hallway, Danielle called out, “Ginny? It’s Danielle Marlow.”

Still no response.

“I should check the house, and you stay here,” Walt suggested.

“Why?” Danielle asked.

“Just stay here, Danielle, please. You know I can take care of myself, and I would rather not worry about you.”

“You think something is wrong, don’t you?” Danielle whispered.

“Not necessarily. But the house is open, and she was expecting us. Just let me check the rest of the house and see if I can find Ginny. Like you said, maybe she