Haunted Guest House Mystery 03-Old Haunts Read Online Free PDF

plenty of towels, I guess,” Lucy responded, seeing that The Swine wanted her to like the place. She’d accommodate if necessary. “But it’s spooky. Sometimes I think I hear things.”
    Don Petrone gave me a look. He knew, as did all the Senior Plus guests, that the spirits in the house were not to be discussed with “civilians.” The seniors seemed to enjoy the exclusivity of the knowledge. I nodded just a tiny bit at Don.
    I couldn’t see Steven’s eyes from behind the couch, but I could picture his expression. I hadn’t mentioned any ghosts to him, but I knew they were more or less the talk of the town in Harbor Haven. He might have heard something before he’d arrived.
    Anyway, he didn’t react. And I didn’t give him time to finish his enthralling tale. “I’m sorry to drag him away,” I told the assemblage, “but my ex-husband and I have a lot to discuss.” I sort of grabbed The Swine by the arm and pulled him to his feet.
    “Are you sure?” Lucy asked with great breathiness. “I wanted to hear the end of the story.” Or any other story he was selling, no doubt.
    “Maybe later,” I said, but that didn’t seem to console her much.
    I finally managed to extricate Steven from the room and into the kitchen, which the guests rarely entered because I don’t actually serve food. I barely cooked for Liss and me as it was.
    “Okay, Melissa’s gone,” I told The Swine. “So will you finally tell me what’s going on? Why are you here?”
    “I told you, Amee and I are taking a break, and I wanted to see you and Lissie.” The Swine even managed to look sincere while saying that. “Is there a problem with that?”
    “There’s only one problem—I don’t believe you. Come on, Steven. You walked out of our lives almost two years ago, and we’ve barely heard from you since then. Now that your pre-midlife-crisis blonde has turned you out, all of a sudden you feel the need to fly three thousand miles and come visit unannounced? Or don’t they have working cell phones in California?”
    Steven leaned back on the counter and did his best to look thoughtful. “I understand why you feel that way, Ally,” he said.
    “Don’t call me ‘Ally.’” I can be petty when I have the opportunity. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.
    He held up his hands, palms out. “Absolutely, Alison .”
    “And don’t patronize me. You understand why I feel this way? That’s big of you. You’re the reason I feel this way. I don’t trust you, I’m never going to trust you again, and I’m going to ask you one last time: Why are you here?”
    The Swine bit his lower lip. “I missed Melissa. Okay? I’m a father, and I wanted to see my little girl. Is that really so far out of your experience with me that you can’t believe it?”
    “Why didn’t you call ahead?” I figured I could poke a hole in his explanation.
    “Because I thought you’d tell me not to come.”
    Damn. He was right.
    “Okay, so I would have told you not to come. Can you blame me? Did you see how you’ve disrupted her life? Can you see how she has that gleam in her eye now, that hope that Mom and Dad will get back together? How can you do that to her?”
    Steven closed his eyes a moment, then took a deep breath. He looked at me. “Because maybe I have that gleam, too,” he said.

Four

     
    “That’s what he said?” My best friend Jeannie Rogers, seven months pregnant and great at being astonished, was outdoing herself at the moment. “He wants to get back together with you?”
    We were walking from our favorite bakery café, Stud Muffin, and heading toward the neighborhood greengrocer, Veg Out. I needed a few things for a salad I probably wasn’t going to make tonight, and Jeannie wanted to get in her walking for the day, determined as she was to gain only baby weight and no Jeannie weight. Having given birth ten years earlier, I was perhaps a bit skeptical about her chances of that, but I was grateful for the company, since I