Cluttered Attic Secrets (2 page)

When Tina walked down the back stairs the next morning, she hesitated when she saw Leslie’s brother Brandon standing at the stove, flipping a pancake. He’d removed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves, and she couldn’t help staring at those strong arms that used to hold her, and the hands that used to caress her. He was one of those ruggedly handsome men, an ex-jock. Sometimes she still missed him as she’d miss a brother who moved away. They’d known each other as long as she could remember. Their mothers were friends, and they went to the same schools until each left for college.

“Brandon.”

“Hello, Tina. Have a good sleep?” He flipped another pancake, avoiding looking at her.

“Yes.” She sat next to Leslie at the kitchen table, glad to be off her suddenly unsteady legs.

“Hope you’re hungry.”

She nodded.

Leslie watched them both. Tina knew she understood why Tina broke up with her brother, but she would have loved to have Tina as a sister-in-law.

Brandon began to stack pancakes on plates. “Leslie told me why you spent the night. You didn’t see anything strange?” He looked at her then. Seemed to have trouble turning back to the stove.

“Didn’t see a thing. We heard some odd noises, but this is an old house.”

“Right.” Brandon faced the stove again and used a pair of tongs to place two strips of bacon on each plate. Then he brought them over to the table. Tina had forgotten what a good cook he was. Precise, careful. “From what Leslie told me, I suspect it was a play on light. Plus it was late, and she was probably tired. She works too hard.”

“I know.” Tina took a sip of orange juice and picked up her fork. “This looks delicious. Thanks. You cook breakfast for your sister very often now?”

“Most Saturdays, if neither of us is busy. I technically don’t work on Saturdays, but of course it’s usually her busiest day at the decorating shop after it opens at ten. How are you, Tina?”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled. She knew he knew she was seeing Hank. Hank was doing something in upper New York State that he wouldn’t talk about. He’d been gone for over two months, and she missed him. She forced herself not to call him every time something interesting happened. Although not much of note had happened since just before he left when her next door neighbor had been murdered. Hank called her every other day. She sighed. Then noticed that Leslie and Brandon were staring at her. She asked Leslie, “You sleep all right?”

Leslie nodded. “Better than I expected.”

Brendon sat down, put his napkin in his lap, and began to eat. “I assume,” he said between bites, “that you two are going to tackle the attic again.”

Tina looked at Leslie. “I think it would be a good idea to get it cleared out, don’t you?’

“Definitely. You available to start today? I’ll let Amelia run the shop. Since it’s not tourist season yet, it won’t be too busy. She can call me if it gets wild.”

“Sure, I can stay today. Breakfast is very good, Brandon.”

Brandon shrugged, finished his meal rapidly, and stood up. He grabbed their empty plates and put them in the dishwasher. “Got some things to catch up on at work,” he mumbled, and with a wave, left by the back door.

“Guess I scared him away.” Tina smiled ruefully at Leslie.

“Poor guy. He’s still hung up on you. Never talks about you, but I can tell. He dated Brenda a few times, but then just stopped. I don’t know why.”

Tina sighed. “He’s such a good guy. I feel sorry for him, but it wouldn’t have worked long-term. But you know that.” Tina stood up. “You ready to take on that attic now? Let me call home first, then we can get started.”

While Tina talked to her mother, just telling her Leslie wanted help with organizing some things, Leslie wiped down the counters and put away the milk and sugar bowl.

Then they climbed the back stairs and walked to the attic door. Both of them gasped when they saw the skeleton key on the floor. Tina tried the door. The knob turned in her hand, and she pulled the door open.

“Tina,” Leslie whispered.

Tina took a deep breath and bent down to pick up the key. “Okay. The key could have fallen out. Thinking about it, I don’t remember your trying the doorknob after turning the key last night. Maybe it wasn’t locked.”

Leslie shook her head. “You know it was locked. We both heard it click.”

“But maybe it didn’t engage all the way. Okay, let’s think about this a few minutes. Three possibilities. There’s a ghost. Unlikely. The old house has some unusual quirks that are causing noises and keys to fall out of keyholes and doors to unlock. Or there’s a real person doing all of this.”

Leslie stared at her wide-eyed. “How could there be a real person in the house without my knowing it?”

“I don’t know. They climb in the window like Hank does at my house? You have a trellis? I never noticed.”

“No. Tina, should we call the police?”

Tina didn’t like that idea. The police seemed overly skeptical, although oh-so-polite whenever she had to deal with them. They’d probably think she and Leslie were having the vapors or being hysterical females. As would Brandon. How she wished Hank was in town. He always took her seriously. What other males did she know who might believe them? Her Uncle Bob, but he was almost totally deaf. This didn’t seem to be a good situation to get him involved in. Her mother would probably scoff.

But she couldn’t leave Leslie to deal with it on her own. Slowly, Tina closed the door and put the key back into the lock. Turned it. They heard the click. Tina grasped the doorknob and turned that. The door opened.

“Oh,” they both said at once.

“The lock doesn’t engage all the way,” Tina said. “And the key just fell out by itself when we were moving around on these old floorboards.”

“Maybe.” Leslie didn’t sound convinced about the last part.

“Okay, let me get my gun, then we’ll go up there and see what’s what.”

Leslie looked even more alarmed. “You think that’s necessary?”

“Yes. For your sake. You have your cell?”

“In my pocket.”

“Okay, both of us with phones, my gun. We can handle it.”

Leslie look dubious, but she followed Tina to the guest bedroom. Tina took the gun out of her purse. She used to keep it in her nightstand, but now carried it with her everywhere. She went to target practice each month, and could clean it with ease. When Hank had given it to her, she didn’t even want to try it out. But he persuaded her to take classes, and she finally did. Now she was glad she had. She became an excellent shot.

They walked back to the attic door and stood there a moment. Tina figured she’d better be the one to open it, and she did so with a flourish, and flipped the light switch. Weapon at the ready, she climbed the stairs. When she arrived at the top, nothing looked disturbed, but how could she really tell?

“Let’s check out all the corners. I always forget how big the attics are in these old houses.”

“Yeah. Let’s go to the one where I saw whatever it was first.”

“Good idea. Maybe we’ll find a clue.” The corner was empty, though. “Okay. I suggest we start here and clear out things in a wide sweep from this area.”

“That makes sense. We’re going to get fabulous calf muscles carrying most of this stuff downstairs.”

“You ever look in any of these trunks? How about that armoire?” Tina pointed to it. “Or the cedar chests? How many are there, anyway?” She counted three trunks, five cedar chests and saw another armoire half-hidden behind some chairs that had boxes piled on top of them.

“No. Really, I’ve been avoiding this. It’s pretty overwhelming.”

“Well, at least it’s clean, although dusty. But no signs of critters.”
Probably as yet unseen spiders
, but she wasn’t going to mention that to Leslie. “One step at a time. We should clear the junk out first—anything you want to discard, take to the dump. What strikes you as absolutely of no use to you?

Leslie looked around. “That old dress dummy. The baby buggy with the broken wheel and torn top. The broken crib. Why did she have baby stuff?”

“Maybe left over from the other family members who lived here before her.”

“I never thought of that. I wonder why she didn’t clear it out, then.”

“Probably didn’t want to bother.”

“Now it’s on us. You know, we haven’t heard a sound since we got up here. I think you can put your gun away. If you’ll wrestle the buggy, I’ll lug the dress dummy downstairs.”

“Okay, let’s do it.” Tina stuck her gun into her pocket, and walked toward the carriage. She stumbled when her phone rang.

Tina smiled when she saw that Hank was calling. She said hello and looked around for a place to sit down.

“Hi, doll, how’re you doing?”

His voice warmed her. “I’m fine.”

“I’ll be on my way back to Newport later today. Want to go out to dinner with me?”

Leslie gave her a questioning look, and Tina mouthed, “Hank.” She cleared off a chair, tested it for steadiness, and sat down. Leslie smiled at her, went to the other end of the attic, and began rummaging in an old wardrobe trunk.

“I don’t know,” Tina said in a teasing voice to Hank. “Where’d you want to take me?”

“Anywhere you want to go, doll. I’m easy.”

Not that easy
. Every time she thought they’d end up in bed at last, something happened to stop them. “You pick this time. You always want me to choose. Where would you like to go?”

“I’m kind of fond of Anthony’s. You’ve never suggested we go there, though, so I don’t know if you like it or not.”

“That’s pretty amazing. We’ve known each other since forever, and you don’t know if I like Anthony’s? Of course, I do. And Flo’s Crab Shack, too. I don’t know why I’ve never suggested either of them.”

“Because you don’t like the casual places for a date? Because you like to see me spend my money? Or maybe even because you thought I wouldn’t like them very much.”

“That’s it. I love to have men spend lots of money on me. You just figuring this out? I saw a beautiful bracelet the other day in Breakell’s window. Should we go see it before you take me to Anthony’s? Since you won’t be spending as much as usual on dinner?”

Hank laughed. “Solid gold or sterling silver?”

“Well, I guess you know most of their jewelry comes in either. It’s the sand dollar one. Maybe you’ve seen it. There’s another one called ‘Perfect Wave.’”
Why were they talking about jewelry and where to eat? What had he been doing all this time?

“I’ll check them out.”

“Oh, no. I wasn’t hinting. Really. Hank, don’t you dare buy me a bracelet from Breakell’s.”

He laughed again. “I know you weren’t fishing for one. But you did give me an idea for a nice present for you. You’ve been very patient when I called. No questions after the first couple of times about what I was doing, or even exactly where I was. I’ll tell you something about it, but not at Anthony’s—too public.”

“All right.” She was glad she’d sat down. As so often happened, he took her breath away and made her slightly dizzy. “What time?”

“Five-thirty okay?”

“Sure.”

“See you then, red. In the meantime, try to behave yourself.”

“I’ll try, but you know how hard that is.” She looked around the attic. Would he think she was behaving if he knew she thought there was something wrong in Leslie’s house, but she was going to stay and help her friend anyway?

His laugh rumbled in her ear again. “See you tonight.”

“Yes.” They ended the call, and Tina sat a moment to collect herself. Leslie was still looking through the stuff in a huge, old-fashioned upright wardrobe trunk. Leslie pulled out a dress on a hanger and held it up to the light coming in through the window. Pale blue, probably silk, full-length, and slinky.

Leslie turned and looked at Tina. “This would be great for a costume party. It looks to be in good shape.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t throw away that manikin. Put that on her and pose her in your shop window.”

“What a fabulous idea. Come over and see what else is in here.”

Tina walked to the trunk. “Wow, look at this. It has an ironing board.” She pulled it down from underneath some hangers.

Leslie nodded. “Amazing.”

“I’m surprised how good everything looks.” Tina closed up the ironing board. “You could drape some of the clothes on a sofa or chair, too. Make a bedroom display.”

“That’s another good idea. The trunk is almost airtight, or maybe completely airtight. It kind of stuck when I tried to open it. Oh, look, some baby clothes.” Leslie pulled the drawer she’d opened farther out and held up a tiny white dress.

“Looks like a christening gown.” Tina smoothed down the front.

“You know, some mothers are hanging baby clothes on the wall. I can use a folding screen and do that with a few of these. Maybe even sell some. I’ll have to research prices.”

Tina was glad to see Leslie distracted and happy. “Sounds great. So let’s sort through this trunk and see what you want to keep. We need an empty box.”

They both looked around. “They’re all full.” Leslie stepped over to the nearest cardboard carton and opened it. “More clothes, but these are in bad shape.” She pulled out a moth-eaten knitted shawl and put it on top of another box.

“We need some trash bags, too. I imagine you have some downstairs.”

“Yeah. I’ll go get some.”

“Take something with you. Don’t waste the trip.”

“Oh, right.” Leslie grabbed the manikin and pushed it on its rickety wheels to the top of the stairs. Tina held her breath, hoping Leslie wouldn’t fall while she lugged it down.

She turned back to the trunk and opened another drawer. Lacy silk underwear was neatly stacked inside. She wondered if anyone would buy it. She took some out and placed them on top of the christening gown. At the bottom of the drawer she found a several velvet-covered jewelry boxes.

Tina stared at them a moment, but decided to wait for Leslie to check them out. She opened another drawer, but didn’t see anything interesting. Then she heard Leslie climbing the groaning stairs and waited.

Leslie grinned at her. “Got her all the way to the dining room. Parked her there.” Leslie placed a box of black garbage bags on top of the trunk.

Tina was happy to see her friend less anxious. “Good job. I found something.” She pointed at the drawer. “I love this, you know.” Tina patted the trunk. “The way it’s made and organized.”

Leslie laughed. “You would. You could probably put all your belongings in here in perfect order and live out of it for the rest of your life.”

Tina looked at it dubiously. It was true, it was almost as big as a telephone booth, and she wondered how it had been moved from house to train or ship and back to house. “Maybe if I had two. You know much about these?”

“No, but for sure I’m going to research them. You had a great idea about taking some of these things to the shop, to use in the window displays and even to sell. I might use one of the smaller wardrobe trunks there. But I’m going to keep this one for myself. It’s incredible. Now what did you find?”

Tina pointed at the drawer with the jewelry boxes. Leslie pulled out a blue one and opened it. Both of them gasped when they saw a diamond necklace.

“Is that real?” Tina asked. “How many diamonds are in that, anyway?”

“Looks real to me.” Leslie handed her the box. “You count them. I’m going to open the rest of these boxes.”