Out of the Shadows (Bellingwood Book 12) (23 page)

Polly reached out to take the phone from Stephanie and he bolted for the front door.

"Who did you dial?" Polly asked.

Stephanie laughed. "Just random numbers. I don't actually know the police station's phone number by heart."

"That's hilarious," Polly said. "Let's hope we can get rid of the rest of these people as easily."

"You know they're asking questions around town, don't you?"

Polly shook her head and then dropped it in frustration. "Of course they are. We try to be gracious hosts and they create chaos because they think they have a right to be all up in our business."

The conference room door opened again and the rest of the group came out into the main office.

One of the women started toward Polly, who backed away. She reached out to try to touch Polly. "We're sorry for putting you on the spot, Miss Giller. I hope you understand that we have a great many questions."

Polly backed up again and pointed to the front door. "Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a nice visit in Bellingwood."

"Could we at least speak to you about Muriel Springer?" one of the others asked.

"Thank you for coming," Polly said again and turned into her office. She shut the door and stood behind it, hoping that they wouldn't take long to finally leave.

In a few moments, a soft knock came at her door and Stephanie said, "It's safe to come out, Polly. They're gone."

Polly opened the door and pulled Stephanie into a hug. "Thank you. I'm sorry I made you sit there alone, but I couldn't be polite any longer."

Stephanie hugged her back. "You were wonderful. You're kind of my hero, you know. I wish I could be as smart as you when you're in the middle of a confrontation. I always scream and lose my cool."

"I've had to get better since coming to Bellingwood," Polly said. "And still - sometimes I can be just mean, but I didn't want to give those weirdos any more fodder for their blogs and websites."

"Have you ever done a web search on yourself?" Stephanie asked.

Polly's entire body shuddered. "I don't want to. Especially after today's encounter. I'm much happier living in my cocoon of ignorance about what people say about me. If I've become infamous, that scares the hell out of me."

"Was that man right?" Stephanie asked, her face reflecting concern. "Are more people going to come to Bellingwood to investigate you?"

Polly pursed her lips and then said, "I hope not. But we'll deal with them as it happens."

Stephanie chuckled. "Maybe we need to hire a good looking bodyguard for you. He could hang out here in the office all day if you like."

"Except when I need to be guarded?" Polly asked with a smile.

"Okay. I'd let him out of my sight for that," Stephanie said. "But just for a short period of time. Deal?"

"Deal." Polly headed for the front door. She turned back. "If any more psychos come..."

"And they will," Stephanie said.

Polly grinned. "If anymore show up, tell them that I moved to Oregon or something. But I'm not available. And when Jeff comes back, tell him that he's in big trouble."

Stephanie waved her away. "I can't wait."

No one in Bellingwood had said anything to Polly about being questioned regarding her talent for finding bodies, but they probably wouldn't. Her friends would try to protect her, but innocent questions wouldn't make them wary. For the most part she trusted people, but in one short conversation, it hit her that she had to be more careful. That wasn't the way she wanted to live her life.

"Watch it, Polly!"

A hand reached out to grab her and she looked up to see Len Specek standing there, ready to stop her from falling over the stack of two-by-fours on the floor.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I wasn't paying attention."

Lydia rushed over. "That was obvious. Did it have something to do with those people in your office? What did they want?"

Polly felt her face flush and gulped back tears that suddenly hit her. Lydia could always do this to her. She gulped again and felt tears fill her eyes.

"Oh, dear Polly, what happened?"

"I'm okay," Polly said. "I really am."

Lydia took Polly's arm and led her away from the construction and into the quiet auditorium. "What in the world happened?"

"They scared me, Lydia," Polly said, feeling her emotions take over.

As she started to cry, Lydia pulled her into an embrace and held her.

"They scared me to death. All they wanted to do was talk about how I find dead bodies. One man came to Bellingwood to investigate how I do it. He said that he wouldn't be the last." She snorted back tears. "And I know they're all over town asking questions about me. They wanted to know if I sensed Muriel's body. So now I've been associated with that, too. I don't want to be scared of people in my home."

Polly sniffed again and rubbed tears away from her eyes, then backed up. "I'm sorry. I thought it was no big deal. But you do this to me every time."

Lydia smiled at her. "What do I do?"

"You always make me feel safe and that's when I can fall apart. Even when I don't know that I need to."

"I'm not going to apologize for that," Lydia said, gathering Polly back in and holding her tight. "I'll never apologize for that," she whispered into Polly's ear.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

"Everybody’s home. Where are you, Brutus?" Rebecca called out when she came in the front door of the apartment.

Polly walked into the living room from the kitchen. Dinner had been such a wonderful time with everyone the other night, she wanted to see if they could pull it off again tonight, so she’d been cooking.

"Hi kids," she said to Andrew, Kayla, and Rebecca.

"Where's Brutus?" Rebecca asked. "I love that little rug rat."

Polly chuckled. "Brutus is gone."

Rebecca's face fell. "Gone? Did you have to put him to sleep or something?"

"Oh no, honey," Polly said. "He's living with Grey over at the inn now. Those two fell in love with each other and since Grey didn't have a pet, it seemed like the perfect match."

"I knew it was too good to be true," Rebecca whined, flopping down on the couch, a sulk about to happen. "I never get anything that's my own."

Polly walked back into the kitchen. She wasn't going to feed into that. Andrew followed her.

"Rebecca talked about him all day. She thought it was so cool that he belonged to Mr. Bridger and had probably seen the ghost."

A flashback of running through the Springer House yard with that little dog threw Polly for a split second. This had been a rough day and suddenly she remembered that she'd promised to take Rebecca shopping for a Halloween costume.

"Damn it," Polly said under her breath.

Andrew rushed ahead. "I told her that the dog wouldn't know whether it was seeing ghosts or not and that she had a lot of animals here to love. You didn't promise to keep him. It's going to be okay, I know it will."

Polly put her hand on his arm to stop the flow of words. "I'm sorry. I forgot that I promised Rebecca we'd look for costume ideas tonight and I've already started supper."

" Yeah," he said. "She talked about that today."

"I guess it's her day for disappointment," Polly said with a deep breath. "It's a good thing we all live through these horrible, awful days."

Andrew looked at her like she had lost her mind.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "I'm weird. Live with it."

"I'm used to it." He went over to the refrigerator. "Do you care if I get something to drink?"

"That's fine." Polly waved at the fridge. "Whatever you can find. There are chocolate chip cookies in the freezer if you want any of those."

"I didn't know how much I liked frozen cookies until I met you," Andrew replied.

Polly went back into the living room and found the two girls sitting on the sofa with Obiwan between them, his head in Rebecca's lap. "Did you find a good substitute?" she asked.

"He's not a little lapdog like Brutus," Rebecca said.

"Honey, you knew we weren't keeping him. I told you that."

"Well, I hoped."

Polly sat down in a chair next to Rebecca. "I totally forgot about taking you girls to look for costumes tonight. Can we do it tomorrow?"

"We're kind of running out of time," Rebecca said, more than a little snotty.

Even as it came out of her mouth, she must have heard herself, because her eyes looked as shocked as Polly felt.

"Do you want to try that again?" Polly asked.

"Well, we are," Rebecca said, not relenting.

"Okay," Polly said. She pursed her lips and stood up to go back into the kitchen. "We'll talk about this later."

As she turned the corner, she heard Rebecca say under her breath. "We're always talking about these things later. That means I'm in trouble."

She bit her tongue. Whatever was up with Rebecca was not going to splatter all over her right now, especially with the day she'd already had. Some of this had shown itself the last few months as Rebecca was feeling her way through adolescence. But Polly refused to lower herself to base emotions in front of the kids. If Rebecca wanted a fight, they'd do it in the privacy of her room.

Andrew was at the dining room table with a book, eating a cookie.

"Why are you in here reading and not out there?" Polly asked.

He rolled his eyes. "She's in a bad mood. This is easier."

Polly wanted to laugh out loud, but she nodded and made it into the kitchen, turning her back on him before letting her face split into a grin. "Do you have much homework for tomorrow?"

"Some. We're supposed to come up with strengths and weaknesses of the North and South during the Civil War." He looked up from his book. "Got anything for me?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, the North was fighting in Southern territory. They didn't know the land."

"Yeah. I got that one," he said. "Oh well. It won’t take too long."

"Good," she replied. "Anything else?"

"There’s that big paper due in two weeks."

Polly spun around. "Big paper?"

"Got'cha," he said with a laugh.

She tossed a dish towel at him, but it floated over the peninsula and landed limply on the floor.

"You aren't any better now than you were before," he said.

"Whatever." She pointed at the living room. "Do you want to take the dogs out before you start your homework or after?"

"I'll take 'em now. The girls don't have to go. It's easier without them. They'll just complain about me deciding for them when we're going outside."

"Girls," Polly called. "Andrew is taking the dogs out. You can go with him or start your homework. Your choice." She winked at him. "You just have to know how to say it."

When she didn't hear any response, Andrew looked up at her and shrugged.

"Girls?" she called again, walking toward the living room.

Kayla was looking at her, trying to decide what to do, but Rebecca hadn't moved.

"Either go out with Andrew and the dogs or get your backpacks and start on your homework in the dining room," Polly said. "You have two choices, make one now." When no movement occurred, she said. "I'm not kidding. Now."

"Fine," Rebecca snapped. "Homework."

"Let's go then. I have chocolate chip cookies on the table already," Polly said.

Kayla jumped up and Obiwan followed her into the dining room. When Rebecca didn't move, Polly walked over behind her on the sofa and bent over. "I don't know what’s gotten into you, but get rid of it right now. You will paste a smile on your face, quit sulking and act like a decent person. Do you understand me?"

"You just don't understand," Rebecca said dramatically, throwing her arms up in the air. She got to her feet and then slid them across the floor as she slowly walked into the dining room.

"Maybe you can help me understand later," Polly said in low tones, walking beside her. "But for now, you're going to fake it until you make it. Do you understand what I mean? Lose the pout and find a smile to plaster on your face. Straighten out your attitude immediately."

~~~

While Polly was proud of the dinner she made, the entire evening fell apart when Henry called to tell her that he wasn't going to be home until after eight o'clock and he'd pick something up in Boone so she shouldn't wait. Then Heath called to tell her he'd be late and Rebecca went to her room and slammed the door.

Polly put the artichoke chicken dinner she'd made into a couple of containers, put everything back into the refrigerator, toasted a slice of Sylvie's bread and slathered peanut butter on it. She opened the refrigerator to see if there was anything interesting to drink and tried to convince herself that the day had been awful enough she could afford to drink an entire bottle of wine, but instead, filled a glass with water and ice, walked into the media room and turned on the television. She didn't care what she watched, it just had to be mindless.

"Polly?"

She turned to see Rebecca standing in the doorway. "Yes, honey?"

"Can we talk now?"

Polly sat up, turned off the television and patted the sofa. "Sure. Are you hungry?"

"Maybe later. Your dinner smelled good. I'm sorry we screwed it up."

"It's fine. Sit down."

Rebecca sat down at the other end of the sofa, then crossed her arms and turned to Polly. "I was mad at you for giving Brutus away."

"You knew we weren't keeping him."

"Yeah, but I thought I could talk you into it. Why didn't you tell me before it happened?"

Polly cocked her head and looked at Rebecca quizzically. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I had a right to know."

"Honey, I love you so much," Polly said. "But you already knew that he was only here until I could find another home for him. And I'm sorry, but I won't be consulting you on every decision I make."

"Even when they affect me?"

This wasn't the conversation Polly had planned to have with Rebecca. Especially not at this age. She remembered her father having it twice with her. Once when she was in eighth grade and had gotten too big for her britches and then again the summer after her senior year in high school.

"I'm sorry you felt as if you have been slighted in the decision-making process about Brutus, but there are going to be a lot of decisions that I make and that Henry and I make together over the next few years regarding what happens in your life. You will not always be consulted."

Rebecca harrumphed. "But that's not fair. Mom and I always made every decision together."

"Oh, I doubt it," Polly said with a smile. "That's not how parents work. See, it's our job to make tough decisions, not yours. You aren't always going to like the choices we make, but we do it because we feel that it's the right thing to do for everyone."

"Why was this the right decision?" Rebecca's tone had gotten snotty again and Polly put up her hand.

"Lose the tone, Rebecca. You have no right to talk to me that way. And let me assure you that with this attitude you're giving me, you are proving that I made the right decision. Now, I don't know why in the world you've started getting mouthy and snotty with me, but it has to stop and it has to stop now. This is completely unacceptable."

The girl wilted in her seat. "I'm sorry. I just don't understand why he's gone."

"Honey, I don't understand why it's that big of a deal. He wasn't here that long."

"Because." Rebecca turned toward the outside of the couch, away from Polly.

"Because why, honey? Why is this thing making you so angry?"

Rebecca flung herself back to face Polly. "Because he was Mr. Bridger's dog and I know that he saw that ghost too so he was just like me. Nobody believes that I saw her, even though I was able to draw a picture of her. You don't believe me, Henry doesn't believe me; Andrew and Kayla don't believe me. But Mr. Bridger believed. I just wanted someone here who didn't think I was crazy."

"I don't think you're crazy at all, sweetie," Polly said. She took a deep breath and patted the sofa beside her again. "Come here and let me tell you what happened to me today. And maybe I should tell you what happened when I found Brutus yesterday."

Polly spent the next few minutes telling Rebecca the truth of the photograph she'd taken from Jim Bridger's house as well as the mad dash through Muriel Springer's front yard. The girl never blinked and at one point, Polly reached over to lift her lower jaw closed.

"I want you to understand, though," Polly said after re-telling the story. "I'm not comfortable with the idea that there's a ghost in that house, though I can't give you any other explanation right now."

"But you saw her," Rebecca said, breathily. "You really saw her."

"I saw something," Polly agreed. "And yes, so did Brutus. He was upset about whatever was in the backyard of that house. I was nervous enough that I didn't investigate it and by the time I heard the screams, I knew it was time to just get out of there. I was already trespassing and between not wanting to get caught and being scared out of my head, all I could do was run away.

"But if my drawing and that picture are the same person, then it has to be her ghost," Rebecca said again. "I'm not crazy."

"No, you aren't crazy," Polly agreed. Then she turned to Rebecca, "But you’re out of your mind if you think throwing out bad behavior because you didn't get your way will cut it with me. I don't understand why you weren't embarrassed to act that way in front of your friends. I was embarrassed for you."