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

the other. But Maddie’s parents had money, and they died in a boating accident, along with her three siblings, leaving her to inherit a sizable estate. She felt vulnerable, scared. That’s when they married.”

“Teddy married her for money?” Walt asked.

“Yes. And Maddie married out of grief and fear.”

“And then she got sick?” Walt said.

“Yes. You remember that?” Bud asked.

“I remember my mother always going over there to take care of her, and how my grandmother resented the time my mother spent over there. Once I heard my grandmother saying Teddy should hire more people to help with Maddie and not rely so much on my mother.”

“He couldn’t. He could barely afford to pay their bills,” Bud said.

Walt frowned. “I don’t understand. You said Maddie inherited a fortune from her parents’ estate?”

“Yes. Which Teddy went through, one get-rich scheme after another. Or should I say, get richer. Because they were wealthy with Maddie’s inheritance until Teddy went through it. He liked to say I was always chasing foolish dreams, but at least I didn’t do it with my sick wife’s money. And then he got a girlfriend. I imagine she was taking any extra money he had.”

“Girlfriend? Are you talking about Josephine?” Walt asked.

Bud cocked his brow. “So you know about her? When I found out, I went to your father. I assumed he agreed with me about what we should do. But I guess I was wrong.”

“Agreed with you about what?” Walt asked.

Bud stood up. “I’ll tell you the rest after. Do you remember where you saw me in the mountains?”

“Yes.” Walt stood.

“Can you find it again?”

“I believe I can.”

“When you’re ready to hear the rest of the story—and learn how your father is responsible for my death, I’ll be there. But come prepared to bring me down off the mountain.” He disappeared.

Twenty-Nine

“What was I thinking?” Walt said on Friday morning. He sat at the kitchen table with Danielle, each with a cup of coffee and a section of the morning newspaper.

Danielle looked up from the article she was reading to Walt. His attention was not on the newspaper in his hand. “What is it?” she asked.

“I realized I might not be able to find the spot where we saw him. We got lost a few times. Wandered around in loops. And what if I can’t find it?”

“What if you get lost again?” Danielle asked. She folded her newspaper and set it on the table.

“If I don’t find him, he might tire of waiting for me and move on. I’ll never learn the truth.”

“And if you get lost, I may never find you again,” Danielle said.

Walt frowned at Danielle. “Are you listening to me?”

“Yes. But you keep talking about going up there alone, and that is foolish. You don’t need to wander around in the mountains. At least now you admit you could get lost up there. If you go, don’t go alone. Get Heather and Brian to come with us.”

“Us?”

“Yes. I’m going with you. And Brian and Heather have been up there. I’m sure the three of you can figure out where this place is.”

“If they remember,” Walt said.

“Call Heather. Ask her.”

Walt glanced at the clock. “I imagine she’s at work already.”

“Chris won’t care if you call her at work.”

A few minutes later Walt had Heather on the phone. He told her about his visitor last night and what he wanted to do.

“Well, what did she say?” Danielle asked when Walt got off the phone.

“She’s pretty sure she can find it again. But she agrees Brian should go too.”

“That’s what I said,” Danielle reminded him.

“She’s going to call Brian,” Walt said.

“He won fair and square, Carla,” Earl Sweeney told the waitress as he flipped the ham steak on the flattop at Pier Café. He chewed on a toothpick, wishing it were a cigarette. Carla stood on the other side of the pass-through window with the busboy.

“Aw, come on, Earl; we probably shouldn’t be placing bets at work anyway,” Carla whined.

“I paid up to Earl when I lost yesterday’s bet,” the busboy reminded her.

“Then Earl can clean off the gum,” Carla grumbled.

“I didn’t make the bet,” Earl reminded her. He glanced at his watch and said, “Your shift ends in ten minutes, Carla. Make sure you do it before you leave.”

“Fine,” Carla huffed. “But that is the last time I make one of those stupid bets.” She turned abruptly and stomped from the window.

“Is she serious?” the busboy asked Earl.

“Nah. She’s just a poor loser. But Carla’s not a quitter.”

Carla cashed out her last customer for the day and begrudgingly returned to the kitchen to grab some food handler’s gloves. If she was going to spend the next hour peeling gum off the bottom of table six, she was going to do it wearing gloves.

Why did she make that stupid bet? Silly kitchen bets were common at Pier Café; it was one way to break up the mundane and routine. Last week, when one of the other servers had bet she could get Pearl Huckabee to change her normal pie order, Carla took the challenge. Carla won the bet, which meant she didn’t have to refill the salt and pepper shakers that week.

Unfortunately, the stupid bet she made with the busboy over who was going to walk in the door next she lost, which meant she had to clean the gum off the bottom of table six. Every teenager in Frederickport wanted to deposit their used gum under table six. Only table six. They found it funny. She had too, when it was the busboy’s job to clean it off.

Wearing food handler’s gloves, Carla placed a clean plastic trash bag under table six to sit on. Grumbling, she disappeared under the table, putty knife and cup in hands. The putty knife to scrape off the gum, the paper cup to hold the gum.

Brian Henderson walked into Pier Café and glanced around, looking for somewhere to sit. The breakfast rush